Twins again

I've been caught up with lots of things to settle before the week ends. There's a cousin's wedding to attend on the whole of Saturday, and my flight will take off on Sunday night. (And to think there are still few more World Cup games to catch up...)....So I have some very limited time with me right now, and am seriously hoping that I could settle everything and take off with a light head. Who wants to worry on their summer hols?

Here are some bookmarks to please the eyes. I made them for Hamimah, whom by now should have finished with her practical training. She wanted a little something for her colleagues and friends, and had already decided on the design.

As you can see, I've made the designs before, but I've re-arranged the theme and switched the colour around (just a bit).

Enjoy while I finish up my things-to-do list, and prepare for multiple pre-posted entries later ok!

Pre-order Quilling & Craft Tools

I wish I have few more pairs of hands. These weeks have been chaotic and I've been trying to settle everything before June ends. Why? Because I won't be around in the first part of July, and will only be available after 20th. (Don't worry, I'll pre-scheduled my entries :P, and am still available via email)

More updates on pre-order quilling/ craft tools.

We've finally reached a decision (yeay!) and I can start taking pre-order now. I thought of listing down the quotation and everything on a separate page, but I simply don't have time to do that, so for now I put everything in a Words document, so for those interested, you can check for the full quotation in the link at the bottom of this post.

These are the list of pre-order items that you can order:

Quilling board
Quilling tools
Quilling papers
Floral quilling papers
Embossing tools
Eyelets & eyelet punch
Round cutter
Border punch

Hopefully more items could be included later, in my next pre-order.

Just to pique your interest, here are some snapshots (u see, I am too lazy to crop them!):

You can check the quotations below for more details:

(By clicking/ downloading this link you're fully aware that this document is bounded by copyrights by Miyyah@Kertas (and the respective dealer) and no parts of the document can be used/ reproduced in any way without the owner's consent (and I'm dead serious about this).

Email me for details. This first pre-order will end on 30th of June, and payment needs to be made before/by 2nd of July and the ready stocks are expected to arrive InsyaAllah by end of July/ early August (will confirm on the date later).

p/s: For the time being, I can only accept pre-orders from Malaysia. International buyers will have to wait a little, until I've sorted things out. Will update more on this later, ya!

PPS: I'm no longer taking orders, nor selling tools. Please check the FAQ section for list of quilling tool sellers. Thanks.

Hot in Pink

Told you it's going to be a wedding week at Miyyah@Kertas! :P

This is another one from  the wedding cake series that I made. This was actually done very early in the morning (7.30 to be exact), and it was very impromptu. No previous research done, no sketching, no nothing. Perhaps it's because I've done the yellow cake on the previous day that the crafting of this became easier.

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The most difficult part of making this cake was making the flowers and gluing them on the paper. Please mind the not so nice roses. :P And oh, the tiny leaves in between the roses almost drove me crazy. I forgot where I put my tweezers so I had to use my two unstable hands (unstable as in having potential thyroidic hormones - always have the symptoms but never confirm it professionally). I later found the tweezers in the ribbon box, tangling with some ribbons. *need to reorganise again (and again).*

On another story, I'm in the midst of discussion with a quilling tool dealer, who maybe able to provide me with quilling tools (it is said to come in different sizes and prices, but I'm yet to confirm that). Nothing's confirmed yet, but if I'm selling, would you be buying?

Of weddings and rejections

The wedding season's back!

It's school holidays, and as in every school holidays in Malaysia, weddings happen.

There are some things that always fascinate me during weddings. I always thought Malay weddings are very vibrant and cheerful and happening, since it's always full of colours, came with plentiful of food, and a must-have hand-made touch for the hantaran (wedding exchange gifts) between the bride and the groom. And don't let me start on the wedding favours, because it would take one whole entry dedicated to that, alone :P. (I'm a true believer of practical favours!)

This card was actually a rejected card (poor the cake!). It was requested by a customer, who in the end decided the card wasn't to her liking. There's always a first in everything. *This is why being a bit specific (design/ colour choice/ recipient background etc) in what you want would really help , instead of asking me to do whatever I want on a card (with the assumption that everything I did suit your taste)*. Oh well, there are many more weddings to attend, so no outright harm done apart from losing Time. There will surely be a couple who'd love this card as much as I do, right? :)

Regardless of the rejection (sob!), I still am in love with this card, that I actually expanded the design on 2 more cards - one in pink, another in purple. So it'll have friends. :) Will post the pair later, okay!

Defend your shore!

This is the angrier version of fence motives. Yes. I'm currently angry. And stress. And fed up. And upset. And frustrated. Don't ask. I thought of blabbering everything here, but currently resisting the temptation.

I'm loving this kind of structural motives right now. Part of it reminded me of the traditional wood-carving motives that can easily be found in Malaysian traditional houses. Only mine is the angrier modern version of the (burned) wood (?) haha. I'm planning to extend this kind of motives into something more than a card-making. I can already imagined repetition of such designs on a bigger scale artwork. Can't wait to start!

Yet again, cards are my passion, and they are the best, and easiest way to experiment with any kind of design. One of the reasons why my cards are very simplistic and its focal point is on the quilling instead of other things is because I've always imagined them in some frames, instead of drawers. Maybe, I said maybe some good souls out there who receive my cards would appreciate them that much. Just maybe.

Oh well. We can dream, right?

Child's Art (Part 3 of 3)

This is the last of the three-part tribute to Child's Art.

Fiqa is the first born in our family. She's the first daughter, the first granddaughter, and the first niece we ever had. She's now 9, and strangely enough, I think she skewed more towards the left brain (must inherited that from the parents, not the aunt, heh!), and she herself claimed of not having the hands of an artist :P  And yet, she surprised me with her designs most. I'm loving the cute little figurines that she made, as they fit the qualifications of being the citizens of my Wonderland perfectly (here goes the Land blabbering again!). For example, she first made this:

.. and I was totally in love with it! Yup, that's me and my little obsession with aliens, freaks and weirdos. This little 'thing' looks like a mutated being, and I just love its two giant rabbit-like ears. Can you see those little sensors inside the rabbit-like ears. And it feels like this mutant could even fly, with the two wings. I could even picture this little thing buzzing around the lake, admiring the Narcissus flowers.I think I should call it MT (a short form for mutated thing hahaha)

I think MT is feeling very lonely, being the weird mutant with shocking green ears. It must have felt so left out. But again, each of us is a weird mutant in our own way anyhow. Don't we always claim how we're so different from others, and how our minds are so complicated no everyone can understand us? I know I did, and I'm sure most of you too. :) So MT and us didn't make that much of a difference, right?

Hence, since MT looks so alone, of course it needs a partner. So Fiqa designed MT's partner, which we should call...... MT v2. Hahaha. (I should really be more creative in naming things!)

... and I could just feel the mood being lifted and fluffy feelings fill the air! v2 has that vibe of making everyone else around her feels good. :). I especially love v2's hair. It's soooo 70s! LOL! She must've put lots and lots of gel to make it stay put. :P

And last but not least, Fiqa made use of my quilling box and designed my favourite mutated mermaid ever! :

Yep, it must be another mutated being - of mermaids and medusa. Should we call it Med then? She's the lake's guardian, watching from inside the lake. No, she can't sing, and she didn't turn anyone into a stone even if you gazed at her for hours. She's a fierce being, but not a real evil. Cheeky at times, and very accident-prone. And she's very proud of her flaming red hair! :P

This Narcissus lake has a very greek-ish theme to it, with Narcissus flowers by the side, and Med gawking from the inside. Should we create more happy gorgonians to complete the set? :P

p/s MT and v2 are made into bookmarks. I'm yet to glue Med down. Oooohh.. she's slippery eyh!

Child's Art (part 2 of 3)

Afiq will be 6 this coming August (he's a Merdeka baby!), and he goes to the same kindy with his little brother. He's way more eccentric that his younger brother, and just loves to ask questions that will make your head scratch on it's own. Highly inquisitive, this kid. He recently told his teacher and his whole classmates that his father's favourite pastime is singing, and made it sound like the parents owned a karaoke machine at home. During the teacher-parent meeting, the teacher even asked them whether it's really true LOL. When the dad asked him of why he'd said that (instead of saying his father loves badminton - which was much more fitting), he grinned and answered, "the teacher asked us to draw what our father loves to do, and to draw you playing badminton was very hard! So I draw you singing instead." (tr.)

Afiq is very artistic, and had shown the most interests in quilling more than the other two. He has a very neat and beautiful handwriting, and is very imaginative. Here's his quilling design that he made using items from my quilling box, which I then glued on the card:

It's a clown, he said. What makes this even more amazing to me is that each of the items that he used for the design was actually meant for something else in my mind. For example, the clown's head, was actually meant to be an owl's body. The green hands, were previously meant to be leaves. The orange-ish yellow pants were actually meant to be flower petals. The brown wood was actually meant to be a butterfly's tiny body. And the balloon - I planned to use it as one of the butterfly wings, but just don't have time to shape it accordingly.

And never in my mind had I thought all of these would ended up on a clown's body. Creative, isn't it? And the tiny dot on the clown's chest - Afiq said it was the clown's popping heart. Awww. Too cute!

Now then, wouldn't this freaky clown with a round heart a perfect candidate for my Wonderland guardian? He could guard the Land of The Broken Hearts, and would be awesome in tending care and cheering up those poor souls.

Child's Art (part 1 of 3)

When you're having crafter's block, the best thing to do is to ask someone else to design for you. LOL. Oh wait - except when you're simply too fussy and don't trust anyone. :P

My niece and nephews have always been my favourite comfort food, as they are always in awe with every quilled items I shoved on them. Even when they're half done, or half-cooked. :P. They asked me to teach them how to quill, and I did. We quilled some robots once, and they were very excited over it, even though it  tested their patience in quilling the thin paper strips. I thought of taking pictures of the robots and posted them here, because I was so proud of them. But the kids were way faster than me, and took the robots to school instead, and lost them. :( Okay, one didn't got lost, but it got squeezed somehow and couldn't be saved. R.I.P little robot!

So the next time they asked me to do the art stuff, it got me to think twice. I don't want them to lose any of their hard work anymore, and since I have a box full of pre-made quills ready to be assembled, I let them play around with the box.

That's when I realised how imaginative kids can be, as some creative artworks started to form right in front of my eyes. Since I don't want them to go into waste, I cut some cards, and glued exactly their same designs on the cards. I told the kids we could sell the cards, and they got even more excited over the idea, and start making more designs! Yeay! I just found myself new creative designers :P! I plan to put the designers' cards on sale, so they could have their own hard-earned money. So this is going to be the first of the 3 parts tribute to them- and I'll start with my youngest nephew first.


Afif just turned 4 last March, and he's the brightest kid in his class (he just came out on top in his kindy half-year assessment, with a proud 100% on most of the subjects). He reads very well, spells complicated words like karbon dioksida and penyalahgunaan very well, talks like an adult, styles his own hair, picks his own clothes, loves carrots so much, and is an expert with laptop (kids these days!). He even memorises his father's laptop and facebook password, so that he could hack the laptop and crack the page to play games whenever he's online. Oh he's online most of the time. This is the proof - Afif in his usual self image (taken last year, he was 3):

And this is the design that he made:

The flowers were actually the leftover quills that I can't even remember what I'd used them for. He saw the toothpicks that I used to glue down my quilling items, and use them in his design (I changed the toothpicks with some new ones for the card). The leaves were meant for one of my new projects, but he liked them so much so I just let him used them first. I can always do more later. :)

I promised him that I would post the card on my blog and sell it if anybody's interested. He got excited over the idea, and already has a long list plan of buying the whole Ultraman Brothers toy set from selling the card. LOL. In fact, he put so much thought into it, and had already digged through my quilling box couple of times to make more designs. Will definitely put them up later as well!

Fiery Plants of the Wild

I'm guessing this Wonderland idea that I had at the back side (on the right corner) of my mind is starting to get a strong hold of me. Not in the sense that it had intertwined between the imagination and the reality (oh well, sometimes it did LOL), but in the sense that it has provided a great escapism  from the usual things. Diversions, at certain times, are always welcome.

 
I have a lot of these plants in the Land, nestled wildly deep in the heart of the Nefari labyrinth. They're the fierce type, and twisting the two little branches for this card was tough - I went all scratchy and bloody and even burned my fingers in the process haha (okay, that was too much :P). The plant is gorgeous, so it's only normal that you'd want to keep a part of them with you.

In reality, they're quite shy and sensitive, and would immediately pops small sparkling fireworks when touched or shaken, and the sparkling fireworks would eat up all the remaining leaves. In other words, every time they're touched or shaken, they burned themselves (more like committing small suicide!). It was a horrifying scene, but it was always a pleasure to see them growing similar leaves again, once the fire has subdued. :)

And yes, the Fiery Plants reminded me so much of Phoenix. Am yet to do a research on the plant's historical journey to the Land, so perhaps they are related to the Phoenix. What do you think? :P

Life is not a Fairy Tale

Life is not a fairy tale. If it is, I would have changed everything according to my tale - no more wars, no more selfish people in the world, and that everybody should live in peace.

I'm a proud Muslim and I believe in peace in the world. I hate wars, I hate selfish people and I hate heartless humans who behave much worse than animals. If we can show sympathies over harmless animals, even took them into our care, and loved them as one of our own, why can't we show the same to other human beings?

Unlike animals, God rewards us with good brains, so we could think of the rights and the wrongs. Everybody is given choices in their lives, and whether you're making good choices, or bad choices, is totally up to you. If you choose to make your life a living hell, be my guest. And if you're choosing a life of bubbling happiness, I would like to be part of it.

Just stop making other people's life miserable, just because yours is.