The Crafter's Block.

I've recently practised on how to schedule my blog entries, which I'm planning on using if things are getting even more haywire on my side. Most of the time I've posted 2 -3 entries per week (sometimes up to 4 - 5 as well). By actually scheduling my blog update, I could easily arrange my update, and could tell you beforehand too :P

Today's entry is actually a continuation of previous entry. These bookmarks were also requested by Shera, and she specifically wanted bookmarks with owls and flowers on them. Here's a pic of the ones with the flowers:

Haven't I told you how much I love green. And nature always inspire me. :P

The truth is, I've been making cards non-stop lately, and by the time I've completed Shera's requests of mini album and the bookmarks, I was totally exhausted. And drained. And thought I couldn't squeeze any of the creative juices anymore. And it took me almost 3 days to finally being able to start on a fresh card. Has it ever happened to you? Crafter's block?

When things are getting exhausted, and I can't think properly, the best thing to do is to just let go of everything, and take a break. Which I did. I stopped myself from getting close to my quilling box for a while.

And here's the bookmark with quilled owls on it.


When people asked me on how long do I take to design a card, I would say at least 2 weeks' notice would be  needed. I would definitely prefer a longer notice, so it won't be done in a rush. The truth is, it's not easy to squeeze your creative juices out of your head, and I usually start sketching from the moment the order was received. That itself would take ages (because I'm indecisive and kept on changing my mind up to the very last minute), and even if the sketching design is final, it didn't even guarantee that the final outcome will be the same. Again, me and my indecisiveness. And surprisingly for me, to quill strips of papers isn't the most difficult part - it was arranging the little quills and transform them into an actual something is. This has always been the part where I almost nearly wreck my brain.

My schedule will be tighter in upcoming weeks (unrelated to craft-making), so I need to organise everything nicely. So pre-schedule blog entries would give me a much-needed boost.

The Home-Made Scrapbook Album (sounds like Muffin, isn't it? :P)

I've talked a bit about Shera in my previous entry.  So here's the mini scrapbook album that I made for her. Truthfully, after few failures of making good scrapbook pages, I was a bit worried that I couldn't do the album according to her requested details (which is like a page long hehe!). Aaannnnd I was a bit worried that I couldn't make the album 'young' enough, since both Shera and her friend were like... half my age! (okay, a bit less than half :P).

She wanted kanzashi flowers, and I made three of them using sugar paper, and I really like the result! I designed the pattern paper (yes, from scratch), and used Words to decide on the colours. Since I tried to avoid huge patterns, I decided to tone down the prints, and use repetition of stripes, boxes, squares, frizz etc as the patterns. And they worked! There are 16 pages altogether (including the front and the back). I made the tags using chipboards and printed words, and decorate the pages with ribbons and flowers.

These were all the pages that I've made, but minus the flowers for the inside pages (since I've added them at the very last minute and  wrapped everything up before realising I didn't take the final pic!

I'm very proud to say that all the items used in the making of the scrapbook were bought from normal stationery shop, and I printed the papers, notes and tags, and none were bought from any craft stores (including the ribbons!).

Sincerely hope Ryhana would love the album. :)

Scrapbook of '94

The first time I tried my hands on proper scrapbooking, I thought it was ugly, that I scrapped it off after few days. Then I concentrated on making digital scrapbooking, mainly because I'm much better dealing with digital papers and embellishments rather than the real ones. I can do cards at any times, but scrapbooking need so much more - wider spaces, deeper thoughts, selection of pictures, selection of wordings etc.. which I'm totally scared of. And didn't I tell you that I tried to avoid pattern papers as much as possible? :P

And then, Shera happened. Shera is 14, and wanted me to design a special birthday present in a form of mini scrapbook album for her good friend (which will be in later entry). That itself immediately reminded me of when I was in high school (sometime in early 94), and did my first ever scrapbook to my best friend. It was nothing fancy, but I still wanted to share, as momentos always made me go all gooey and jelly hehe. It was made from a normal exercise book, and wrapped in a extra wrapping paper that I used to wrap my school desk with. At the front page I wrote: Just 4U2C: Miss Iza. (4U2C was also a name of a famous Malaysian boy band (back then), who claimed to be some rappers, and wore CD on their necks. Hahahaha!

Yes, it was meant for her, but I borrowed the book few years back to snap some pics, then totally forgot to give it back to her hahaha. Sorry Iza! Everything inside the book was written in a mix of Malay (in a wee bit Terengganu dialect) and a bit of English. There were almost 80 pages and I wrote on ALL the pages! - Things you do for your best friend :P.

As for what's inside... welll... you know.. hormones boiled at 16, and of course we went crazy over some hunks and artists and secret admirers in school. So one of the pages was dedicated to.. HAHAHAA. Sorry. Couldn't stop laughing. :P

This was the year when Azhar Sulaiman was famous (he still is!), and he was 23. He's now 39, but trust me, he didn't even age a bit. Here's the proof:

(I googled and found his facebook profile picture haha). I purposely blurred the writing because I was too embarrassed of what I wrote :P).

Since the dear friend went crazy over some international stars as well, one of the pages was this:

(Ugly handwriting alert!)

You see, my main source was the old magazines that my sister bought, and the only printed papers that I had were some scraps of wrapping papers found around the house. I made use of an old schoolbook, by tearing down the used pages. My daily school allowance was RM1.00 per day, so I don't have enough to even buy my own stuff without my parents' help :P

Here's another page - it was the secret crush page of 93 (oh well, we had our crushes changed every year anyhow... :P)

.. And this scrapbook wouldn't be completed without few pages mumbling about our classmates haha! (They're going to freak out if they know we did this, and still have the scrapbook to prove it! Sorry guys! :P)

And I'm saving this for last. It's a loooong story of how this guy came into being, and made my life a laughing stock (93 till now) HAHAHA. Let's just summarize that at 15, I smacked myself on the floor and somehow the brain got twisted so bad that I went crazy/ obsessed/ hysterical over this one particular famous person, and the ending of the stupid crush involved losing a bet and a broken heart hahaha. (And a long 2-page rambling in the scrapbook.) Erm, I torn my used-to be favourite pic of him to pieces - to symbolize how my heart was shattered in pieces too. LOL!

As this was also part of my past, and although I'm a hugely embarrased of what I did before (everytime I retold the story, everyone had tears in their eyes - from LAUGHING!), the absurdity of the whole thing always made me smile, and laughed.

Hope you've enjoyed the journey to my past. :) We'll go back to 2010 in the next entry, okay!

Those Little Gifts

I couldn't take full credits over these, since they were made by almost everybody in the house. My nephews are having Teacher's Day celebration at their kindy today, so they wanted something to give to their teachers. My sister bought some books and some wrappers and everyone sat down yesterday evening and wrapped everything up.

I provided the brown recycle paper for the outer wrap, together with those little quilled flowers (some of my pre-made flowers already in the collection).

Afiq, my nephew, got so excited over the gift and he wrote down every teacher's name on the brown paper. Which I think is totally adorable, given that he has a very neat handwriting for a 6 year old and he had meticulously arranged all the writings to be just below the flowers. Cute!

He even made sure that he underlined all their names, to show how important they are. And every time he finished writing a name, he would bring the gift to my dad, who acted like a proofreader LOL! And the brother, Afif, couldn't keep his hands off the gifts, and kept on rearranging them, with huge grin plastered on his face.

Hope the teachers are having a blast today!

Scrap thy heart

Making this card felt like shredding own heart to confetti-like pieces, and trying hard to scrap it back into the heart shape. The only problem is that when you shred your own heart, regardless of efforts to glue the pieces back together, the end result would always be completely different. Piecing together a shredded heart usually ended up it being a battered looking heart shape, with scars and marks all over its body, no matter how many times the owner tried to erase them.

Shredding one's heart is always a difficult thing to do, but I believe if you're crafty enough, you can always turn the shredded pieces into something more valuable, and beautiful. So when I combined my shredded heart pieces together, I was half-expecting it to have scars and marks, but the new heart surprises me. Yes, it does leave some mess during the gluing process  (and it did smudge a bit), but the end result was beyond my own expectation. The confetti-like shredded pieces now rolled into some fine (and some not so) quills, and they stick to each other very strongly. The best part of them all? - it has to be the way it glows, with such splashes of colours, for all the world to see.

You see, shredding your own heart is not the end of the world. It's something no one likes to do, but scrapping it back can turn it into something great as well (and stronger, of course!). And knowing that you've scrapped it back using your own two hands, gives even more satisfaction. Just don't be afraid to experiment, as you'll never know what kind of rainbow-coloured heart you will get next. :)

Teacher's Day

Happy Belated Teacher's Day everyone!

16th of May actually marked my 5th year of becoming an official teacher. There were some gaps in between those days where I was more of a student than a teacher (and I'm still on 'leave' right now -read: jobless :P), but the fact remains, I stepped into the teaching business exactly on 16th May, 2005. So I am a teacher, right! I was born in a family of teachers, both my parents were teachers, I was brought up in a neighbourhood where teachers ruled (whenever I mentioned my housing area, people would start asking,"So, which teacher's daughter are you?") and even most of my friends are teachers - okay, that's a given, since we are majoring in teaching anyway hahaha.

This year I got a chance to prepare some gifts for Teacher's Day celebration, as requested by Miera, a lovely girl from Johor. Though there were some miscommunications involved, I'm glad that the gifts had safely arrived and I sincerely hoped that everything went well for the celebration.

The gift comes in 3 forms: the boxes, the glasses, and the cards. Here are the cards:

The close up of the cards:

Here're the glasses:

By the time the pictures were taken, the red glass were yet to be buttonized (is that a word? :P). The close up of the glasses:

And here're the two types of boxes made - I've always wanted to do milk-carton boxes, and here's my chance of doing that. The white box actually complimented the white-based cards with red/ dark blue/ light blue/ pink theme, and the matching cards.

I added up the altered cloth peg and a tag (it was last-minute addition - but totally loved them!)

And this yellow box is actually meant for 12 special sets that she requested. By the time the pictures were taken, I've done all 12 boxes, but the glasses and the cards were still in progress. And I totally forgot to take the aftermath pictures.

And here's an example of the end product:

I made 94 sets of these, and this would be my last bulk order for a while. I decided to take a break, and won't be taking orders anymore, until August arrives. I need to finish up the remaining requests (should be done by June), and seriously need to start experimenting again. I love entertaining others' requests, but once in a while, I need time to do my own favourite things as well. And I've already listed few new quilling projects that I need to start gearing up to!:)

It's in EVERLAND!

This message really made my day, and I think it deserves a mention here. I'm so excited to share this!

miyah, this tree reminds me of one of ur cards in your blog - the one with one small vase and tonnes of gorgeous, pastel quills. 

And she tagged me this photo:

She was, of course referring to this card:

You have no idea how excited I was! I basically gasped and shrieked with glee. The tree does exist! THE TREE IS REAL! And it does come in many different colours! OMG this made my heart skipped a beat. Or two.

On the downside, the tree wasn't really a grown tree with natural coloured leaves - they actually tied artificial flowers on the tree to made them that way. But isn't that crafty? And at least mine produced bubble gums, lollipops and icy lemonade  hehehe. Guess where she found the tree? In a theme park called Everland in Korea. Yes, EVERLAND - that's close enough to my Wonderland lalalalalala. Dreams do come true, ay? How awesome is that? :)

This dear friend is called Su, and she happened to visit Korea last month, and decided to snap this pic and tagged me on Facebook. Su, have I told you how much I love you for this? I seriously owe you one (will magnets be okay in exchange for making my day brighter?! - I know you'd love them hehehehe)

Three little owl brothers

This is a slightly different card from the first owl Anniversary card. I love the fact that the owls can fit so many occasions! And yes, I know, the owls were such a hit even I couldn't get enough of them hehehehe...

At first I wanted to make some singing owls, but finding it very difficult to cut out the tiny music notes, thus, I gave up. :P Next time, then. I then tried keeping it simple by making them talking owls instead hehe.

The three little brothers were so close to each other, and you can guess who the eldest is, right? Yes, the one who instruct everyone else to do the talking, so he won't have to do any. As always, the youngest is the one who gets bullied at all times, and the middle brother gets away with anything ha!

To mums, all around the world.

I've actually written this entry for my personal collection before, but in celebrating Mother's Day, I think this ought to be shared, again.

On one sunny morning in May 2004, I became the first caller to get through a radio station, and bravely dedicated a self-made poem to my mum in celebration of Mother's Day. The mention of her name on a famous radio station did create a wee bit chaos among our family members (aunties and cousins included), who happened to be some very morning persons, and they teased  me about my poem all month long. Whenever mum was asked about it, she just smiled, but didn't say anything. But when I asked her, all she said was, "You spoke too fast." She had her own way of giving praises. And that's definitely one of them. :)

And on one cold morning of Mother's Day in May 2007, she was lying on a hospital bed in CCU, IJN (National Heart Institute) with wires all over her tiny body, relying heavily on oxygen mask, and struggling with a heart that beat so weak. Whenever I was outside in the hospital lobby, and saw passersby bringing in flowers and gifts for their mums, my heart cries. We can't even put flowers beside her hospital bed, for fear of infections. Later that night I remembered going for dinner with my dad, my brother and my sis in law, and the place was packed with families celebrating that one special person in their lives. And ironically, we were there, secretly and desperately praying that we won't have to lose ours.

 That was the last time I celebrated Mother's Day with mum. She passed away 15 days after.

And this poem, was the one I dedicated to her years back.

(Untuk bonda Hjh Wan Jariah Hj Wan Yaacob)

Tunggukan aku di sini
Bersama harum kasih kasturi
Meresap dari sepi malam
Hingga hujung dinihari
Tunggukan aku di hentian itu
Bersama debar degup jantungmu
Bergetar dari pinggir subuh
Hingga merah senja
Tunggukan aku di teduh angin
Bersama bayu murni cinta
Menyapa dari terik suria
Hingga redup purnama
Tunggukan aku ibu
Kerana rindu ini mahu datang
Padamu.

April 2004.

The slightly different (and may-be-badly-translated-since-I-don't-even-bother-to-recheck) English version:

Wait for me here,
With the fragrance of sweet love
Misting in the silence of the night
Till the end of dawn
Wait for me there
With the nervous beat of thy heart,
Rhyming from the early rise
Till the dim twilight
Wait for me as the wind blows
With the soft breeze of love
That thou greets from the blazing sun,
Till the silver of the full moon
Wait for me, mum,
For. I. have. missed. thee.

Al-fatihah.

Sarah, this is how much emotions involved in making this card for you. May it warm your mum's heart too.

Birds-eye view

Again, this is way long-overdue cards. It was a last-minute request, so I basically had less than a week to prepare two cards. But since I'm the last minute type as well, and I've just finished settling other orders at that time, it didn't turn to be a problem. It's more like a challenge, because usually it's not really easy for me to design cards according to themes. Hehe. But I'm glad I took up the challenge, and I simply couldn't ignore Sabrina's request for cards for her husband. Love always wins, and who am I to deny that? :P

She requested for two cards, one for her husband's birthday, and another one for her upcoming anniversary. She wanted the anniversary card to be in pastel colour, which happened to be what I had in mind as well (I was so into pastel too hehe).

The branches of the tree were actually inspired from the previous bookmark entry. I love the branches so much I know I had to make more of them!

And the wise owls who can talk are simply too cute to resist. Perhaps that's what anniversary should means right - being together through thick and thin (ness of the branches haha!), and staying cute and adorable throughout the years together. Aww.

The birthday card was requested in brown, and I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble designing them. I had actually scrapped a card before finally decided on this one.

I don't want it to look to flowery or too girlish since it's meant for a man, who likes brown hehe. I'm quite satisfied with the result (though I know I could do better next time :P), and I simply love the windy plants (it's not flowers, right? :P

 I can say that that is one manly bird hahaha!

Thank you Sabrina, for the opportunity!