Gong Hey Fat Choy!!! And Farewell to Y&FH.

Gong Hey Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year!!

We don't really celebrate although I am a sixteenth or even 1/32nd Chinese .. but we have adopted acknowledging this special day in January and recognizing the Chinese Zodiac characters! This year is the Year of the Horse!! My sister-in-law is also Vietnamese (who celebrates it as well) and I have a couple of best friends who are Chinese so I wanted to make a special post about it!



I've got a card featuring lots of Asian components. That beautiful background paper is from Japan, and I bought it at the Rubber Stamp Convention last year. I love the fan, bird, bamboo, dragonfly stickers made by David Walker. And this gorgeous stamp is from Yumi and Fumi Handmade - Fumi with Gift.



Now Fumi is actually Japanese, but Y&FH always encouraged cultural diversity so I thought of them first when making my Chinese New Year card.

I am not quite sure if you've heard or seen the post on their blog or their Facebook page here. The company will be on hiatus, and so will the DT and challenges. :(

I am quite sad about it. But it is what's best for the company and its owners, Renate and Leanne.

It's been such a blast designing for this company. They have been supportive and laid back, and are always understanding and welcoming. They treated the DT with the utmost respect and they cherished our creations. They loved their customers and of course, their stamps. I sincerely hope the company will be back. But if not, I will always treasure my Y&FH stamps and being part of the Yumi and Fumi Handmade Ohana.

These lovely banners were made by Renate! So amazing, don't you think? Renate always made the best winner badges! And speaking of, the last challenge (#30) ends tonight at 9 pm PST. It would mean so much if you could join us one last time! See more details here and here.

Love,




P.S. I'm featured on this post at Y&FH! Please check it out.

Oh, Romeo, Romeo....where fore art thou, Romeo?

Hello all!!

It's time for another Milk Coffee Challenge, and this week, it's all about Love and Valentine's Day.

I used Romeo and Juliet for this one, of course! I tried to go for that romantic, vintage feel. It was very interesting trying to color in what I wanted to look like velvet fabric, LOL!

You've got two week to play! Remember that you do not have to use Milk Coffee images to play, but be sure to check their etsy store out. They've got such adorable stamps, and I love how they have a variety of different styles.. from quirky to sophisticated images! Please also visit the blog for the rules and inspiration from the other DT members.



Hope I did these beautiful stamps some justice! And I also hope you get to play along!

Till next time! Have a great evening!

T4TD's First Love.

Good evening, peeps!!

I had already made my hubby a Valentine's card but when I saw Time for Tea Design's First Love, I knew I'd probably change it.

She is just so cute, and her hair is fabulous! I decided to do ombre since I've always loved that style. But I've also been too chicken to do it to my own hair. I also wanted to try out these graphic designs on her 'jeggings.' I can't pull it off in real life, but I think it looks awesome on her. I drew the triangular and dotted shapes with a Copic multi-liner.



And I just LOVE Amy Tangerine's new Plus One line... the sentiment is from that. Isn't it gorgeous? I love that it looks hand-written! I also re-purposed the envelope tissue paper from Kikki K's packaging and did some fringing. The textures add some dimensions.

See you all in about an hour (my card for Milk Coffee is up next :)),



P.S. My husband doesn't really look at my craft blog. Hope he doesn't start now :).

A Berry Sweet 3-D Valentine and Project Life.

Hello, everyone!

It's time for another project featuring The Greeting Farm's new lines of Berry Sweet Daily Life and Print & Cut. The kits are so very cheap, especially for what you can do with them!

This week, our challenge was to make a 3-D Valentine Project and another Project Life Lay-out.

First, let me say that I'm so very sorry about the quality of light in these photos. I took them too late in the day, and the sun was setting. As for the project, I took an empty fruit snacks box (my kids' favorite) and turned it into a V-day gift box. The Berry Sweet kits are so perfect for Lub-a-dub Day (get it? Heartbeat!). See all the hearts, the "I like you" and "Love Story" quotes, and the cupcakes?! Yup!! It's truly 'berry' sweet!! :)



I added in a few non-TGF stamps (from Kelly Purkey) and hand-wrote "Happy Valentine's" and VOILA!



The box is to enclose my dear friend's birthday gift. The kits are so easy to use. You can use them with your Silhoutte or just print and cut like I did! I actually gave the gift last night and it was a big hit among my friends!!

Next is my Project Life lay-out for this week:



What I love about Project Life is its ability to document daily life yet allows you to see that moment in its entirety. This week, for example, we had celebrated my mom's birthday, a niece's birthday, a patient's mother's positive outlook, and life at the preschool... all in one page. The Berry Sweet Daily Life kit also contains journaling cards so that you could write the details that are not shown in the picture. It's such a neat way of scrapbooking!

I am really enjoying Guest-Designing with TGF, especially when it's about creating PL. I get to catch up on last year's album! I'm up to Week 28, btw. Haha! That's July 2013. Boy, do I have a long way to go. I may just forget 2013 and move on with 2014! :)

Don't forget to visit the other Guest Designer's blogs for more views and inspiration:


Jerodelle Trinidad


Claudette San Pedro

See you all soon!!! And thanks so much for visiting!!

Winter Hoodie.

Happy Friday, everyone!!

Wish I could say TGIF, but I am working this weekend so bleh! He he he!

I've got a card showcasing this lovely Winter Hoodie digi stamp from Time for Tea Designs.

She kinda reminded me of someone who works out and so I made this card for my new penpal who has been going through a weight loss journey. She has served as a great inspiration for me on Instagram!! By the way, I'm going through one of my own... I may save that for a future post!

I tried to make her look like my friend, and even attempted on some ombre hair (which I kinda failed on, LOL). The inspirational buttons and card are from one of Kelly Purkey's old kits.



Check out T4TD's new February releases here! They're all so gorgeous!!! Can't wait to play with them soon! Stay tuned.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Yumi and Fumi Handmade with Project Life.

Hello all!!   Today I will be showing you how easy it is to incorporate Yumi and Fumi Handmade into Project Life.
If you're not familiar with Project Life, basically, it's scrapbooking by sticking pics and journal cards into little clear plastics. You can either decorate them or just put the pictures in the pockets by themselves.
And I don't know about you, but I love mixing my love of stamps with my desire to document my family's life! This post will show you three ways of doing it!
On this first page, I made a little scene featuring Summer Yumi walking alongside a pier. The page was about the beach so I found a Y&FH stamp that matched and made the scene pretty simple (just like the pics).




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       . On On the second page, I basically just decorated a title card randomly - still matching with the Summertheme, of course. 


And last but not least, I take pictures of my cards and put them in as well. One, they can be used for decorating. And two, it's nice to preserve that card somehow. You can even look back and see how your style of cardmaking has evolved!  


There you have it, folks!  Easy-peasy, right?  I love that you could pretty much use the Y&FH stamps in all of your crafty adventures!! Toot-a-loo!! 

 

P.S.  See below for more detailed views:

 

 

 

Guest Designing for TGF's new Daily Life Kit!!

Good Morning, everyone! And Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day if you are from the U.S.A.

I've got some great news!! I have been squealing on the inside (and at home) since I found out -- I made it as a Guest Designer for The Greeting Farm's new venture on a different, but very familiar type of crafting. That is, scrapbooking!!!! The new items could be used for Project Life, but also for so many other things!

If you have not heard of Project Life, it is basically a type of documenting where you insert photos or cards/embellishments into page protectors. It is meant to be easy and fast. The concept was created by Becky Higgins, and you can learn more about it from her video:



Now, I tried PL last year. There are so many kits available. But I love that TGF came out with their own digital kit! It shows that they understand that there are so many people like me out there. That is, I not only stamp and make cards. But I also scrapbook! And let me tell you, this kit(s) is so versatile! And I simply am so enthusiastic about being a part of TGF's new scrapbooking line because TGF was the first stamp company I used and fell in love with!! :)

Anyway, sorry about all the blabbing. Please read more info below. Here's the verbage on the TGF blog:


'I am super excited to debut the follow up to the Berry Sweet Cut and Print Kit with the Berry Sweet Daily Life Kit! This kit features more daily life type files, like journal cards, cut tags and labels that still features our beloved sweet and cute TGF style! The set consists of 12 - 3x4 cards, 4 - 6x4 cards, 2 cut tags, 11 labels and 16 ephemera's. This kit is not exclusive to scrappers alone. When this line was created, it was created for card makers, scrappers, daily documenters, basically an all around versatile kit! Pair it with the Berry Sweet Cut and file kit and there is not limit to how you can use it!


To give this "Berry Sweet" kit the proper welcome that it deserves, and to celebrate that we are branching out into something NEW, The Greeting Farm is PROUD to introduce an amazing new team of Guest Designers, please welcome:


Corinne Mercado <-- You're here!


Jerodelle Trinidad


Claudette San Pedro


Please stop by the blogs of these talented ladies to welcome them to the Farm and also be sure to stop by the TGF Blog today to view their other projects and a chance to WIN the "Berry Sweet Daily Document" kit!!!


Here are a couple of my projects:

Some Project Life pages using the Daily Life kit:





In fact, the first one is my title page for my 2014 album (I also used Anya Strolls and Picture Perfect) . You can do your documenting in so many different ways... by week, by month, by event, etc. The second page was from a week during last Summer. You can also make your pages as simple or as elaborate as you want!

A traditional scrapbook lay-out featuring the Berry Sweet Daily Life kit, with some Berry Sweet Cut and Print kit, and stamps from Miss Anya Night Out.





As you can see, you can do so many different things with these kits! (Note: I also used additional products such as the alpha stickers (American Craft's Amy Tangerine) and the gold quoted card (Skipping 5).

And, finally, I've got a card featuring mostly the Berry Sweet Cut and Print kit:



Don't they look like lovely paper dolls to you? I love that these digital files and kits can be sized as you wish! And that they can be printed on varying papers! Also, please note that the flowers on the bottom are stickers that I've added.

Thanks so much for visiting and reading my (loooooooong) post! :)

Please visit the TGF blog and other DT's posts for more info and inspo!!

Tata!!

Sketch Challenge at Y&FH!

Good Sunday morning, everyone!!

Yumi and Fumi Handmade has a new challenge today, and it's Sketch # 5! I hope you can play along with us. The sketch is pretty easy, but it looks awfully cute too! I used a more artistic approach, with lots of elements from Leanne's RAK to me.



Hope you can play along. The sketch is on the Y&FH blog, and there's also lots of DT inspiration. Remember that you have two weeks to enter the challenge. Team Fumi will show you new projects next week!

In the meantime, thanks for visiting my crafty blog!

XOXO,

Milk Coffee's Monochromatic.

Good evening, peeps!

Or if you are on the other side of the world from me, good morning! :)

It's time for another Milk Coffee Challenge. This time it's all about Monochromatic!

I chose differing shades of brown, but you can see that there are tones of gray and black as well. Let's just say the brown part is still there, hee hee!!

I loved playing with all the burlap components here too. The textures they consist of are eye-catching, don't ya think? For the image, I used up a birthday freebie from a while back. Sorry, I tried finding the link of her but I couldn't locate it. Don't you just love how Milk Coffee gives out freebies?! They're terrific!!

I hope you all play along for the next two weeks. Remember that you can use any stamped image. But only enter up to three times! Please the MC Blog for the other DT's creations!!



Toot-a-loo!!

Hats and Sherbet.

Hi all! And good evening!

I've made this pretty colorful card featuring Time for Tea Designs' Super Cute Hat digi. She is super cute and flirty! I love her clothes and her stance.

We are very lucky to live in Cali, but I'm getting sort of tired of the dreary surroundings. I was inspired by the upcoming Spring and sherbet and so decided to make this a colorful card!!

And, of course, what better way to finish off this card than by using a whimsical sentiment. Suzy Plantamura's stamps are a new fave! This one is from Celebrate Life.

Jo from T4TD just showed the DT the new releases and trust me, they're going to make you swooooooon~!



See you later, alligators!!!

FFF's Bling.

Good Friday morning, everyone!!

Today, I'm playing along with this week's The Greeting Farm's Farm Fresh Friday. It's all about Bling!

It's quite hard to "bling it on" when you're going for a mostly masculine card, so I went for the more subtle embellishments that are not quite as shiny. I still added in the sparkly stars DP and reflective stickers to enter the challenge though.

This card was made for my son's Taek Won Do masters! I'm quite embarrassed at how I messed up coloring in the faces of Karate Anya and Karate Ian. But I am a full-time working mama of two, and I don't like wasting colored images, LOL!

Have a great weekend, folks! I will be working so I hope it goes by fast :).

Challenge 29 at Yumi and Fumi Handmade!

Good Sunday morning to ya!!

The Holidays are over and it's time to get back to "real life." Which doesn't necessarily mean bad things. In fact, it's back to our DT work over at Yumi and Fumi Handmade, and boy, we've got lots of inspiration for you!! Y&FH want all of us to "ease" in into 2014 so how about an Anything Goes Challenge for Challenge 29?? Don't you just love that Aloha spirit/ laid back vibe? Tee hee!!

For my Anything Challenge, I've colored up Winter Yumi. She is so cute in her little puffy jacket, leggings, and hat! I colored her up a while back, and when I was looking for paper, I came across these lovelies that dear Renate has sent me. (For those of you who don't know, she's "Yumi" of Yumi and Fumi Handmade, and she sent each of the DT members a Holiday Gift pack filled with lots of goodies!! Thank you, Ren!). It just so happens that they are Valentine-themed but this was an accident because V-day is the farthest thing on my mind! I still have our Christmas tree up, hehe!!

The sentiment stamp is again from the talented Suzy Plantamura, and her Sunny Day Doodles stamp set is sold by MFT. I think her stamps are perfect for Y&FH...they are both so adorable!




I added some washi, some rose pins, and vintage circular/ flat beads I bought at the Rubber Stamp fair a month ago in Newark, California. And voila!

Please visit the Y&FH blog for more inspiration and rules. Renate makes the best graphic icons for the winners.. be sure to play along!!

Love ya!

Celebrate!

Happy 2014 to you all!!!

For the Milk Coffee Celebration Challenge, you can make a creation using a New Year's theme, a birthday theme, a card for a new baby.... basically any celebration counts!

I decided to use the freebie shown here. They are Javanese Dancers from Indonesia, and what better way to show a celebration than to dance and wear festive clothing?! I also enjoy working with ethnic images so this was perfect!



To decide on colors, I googled Indonesian dancers and found bright outfits. I also added gold by using this special Sharpie marker -- that crown on her is drawn! :)



Now y'all know that I am super bad at using sentiments on my cards. But I really love Suzy Plantamura's Sunny Day Doodles stamp from MFT. Her designs are so whimsical and fun, and the fact that I can color them in with Copics??? Ah...YES, PLEASE!!!

I used her stamp "Celebrate Life" up there, which is part of the set. I colored it in with the same colors as the dancers' costumes to tie in with the card's theme.

The background vellum paper is once again from Tina Azmus Holiday pack. Love it!!

Now, go on over to Milk Coffee to learn more about the challenge and see more inspo from the other DT!

Hope you all have wonderful celebrations!!