Buttons .. Buttons .. oh Glorious Buttons :)

'A picture is worth a thousand words ...'

So I need not write anything for this post ... :P

(What can I say? It already got 2000 words on it! Lol!)

Flower Romance - SL-Birds & Flowers Collection

Faux Vintage Porcelaine in Glass

now available in BBC

Song of The Flower

I am a kind word uttered and repeated

By the voice of Nature;

I am a star fallen from the

Blue tent upon the green carpet.


I am the daughter of the elements

With whom Winter conceived;

To whom Spring gave birth; I was

Reared in the lap of Summer and I

Slept in the bed of Autumn.

At dawn I unite with the breeze
To announce the coming of light;
At eventide I join the birds
In bidding the light farewell.


plains are decorated with
My beautiful colors, and the air
Is scented with my fragrance.


As I embrace Slumber the eyes of
Night watch over me, and as I
Awaken I stare at the sun, which is
The only eye of the day.


I drink dew for wine, and hearken to
The voices of the birds, and dance
To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.


I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.


But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn.

by 

Khalil Gibran

DIY - Glass Pendants Tutorial

Every Friday we share crafting tutorials in the Indonesian Crafters group on Facebook, and today I'm going to share mine.

You have probably seen my store updates on the latest Sister Love Collection glass pendants, and this is how I made those darlings:

awesome, this had just arrived yesterday!

my favorite supplier always give a top notch service. i totally {heart} this

i forgot to include the cotton bud, but it's readily available in you household [i hope!]

if you're using a purchased collage sheet, make sure it's okay for commercial use, always check the seller's TOU!  NEVER use something that's not yours to sell.

sorry for the blurry pic, I was half asleep when I took this :P

leave it until the glue is completely cured ... for smaller tiles it's okay to leave them sunny side up:)

[i always glue at night and let them out to rest]

i used a different glass tile just to illustrate

i'm sure you could trim better than this, lol!


note: the sealant would make your image looks a bit darker, but if you're going for that vintage / old feel then just go for it, if you don't want a darker shade, just use modpodge

yay, you're almost there!

just add another coat of modpodge lightly onto the back and place it firmly on the frame setting/bezel, and have another coffee/tea/jog around the yard

when you return, check if the glue has dried off and no stain appears on the image [when it did, just wash everything in the water, peel the sheet off and do it all over again :P]

... and VOILA!  there you have it! ^^

if you had purchased one or a couple of my glass pendants, and had accidentally took them for a swim/bathe, just peel everything OFF and place your favorite photo/picture as replacement. 
it will go on and on like this and you will have so many memories that you could share with others through a simple glass pendant.


oh I almost forgot, as the nature of glass is prone to chipping/cracking, these pendants are not suitable for children. you could replace the glass with a resin sticker instead ^^

happy crafting, y'all!

Sister Love Collection V - A Store Update

I uploaded these darlings onto BBC's album last Sunday, March 11, 2012:

Pearl of the Orient - Geisha Series

Butterfly Dreams - Old World Series

Vintage Fairies

and just couldn't believe at the response they had been getting! My goodness!

Unfortunately, there is only one of me - and a couple of hundreds of these beauties, all to be assembled by hands with TLC. 

Hence, I couldn't help but shut down the Sister Love albums starting yesterday (after airing 2 days) so I could take care of the orders received .. sniff ... a girl had to do what a girl has to do - it must be done - I need time to finish everything the way I wanted it to be.

Perfect.

So thank you God, Reni, and all BBC's wonderful friends and customers out there ^^ XOXOXO

Sister Love Collection - Newest Member

Yep, it had finally arrived ... 

the elusive 18mm adjustable antique bronze rings {heart}!

These are the perfect match for SL - Set A, B, C, D

Currently available at a very affordable price at my store

(but maybe not for long, they usually disappear very fast ;))

s.o.  c.o.m.e.  a.n.d.  g.e.t.  i.t.

FELT LABEL - Just for the Fun of it!

An easy tutorial for the weekend ;)

Materials:

1. Hard (used) paper for pattern;

2. Felt (duh, of course!)

3. Pen

4. Hole Puncher

5. Embroidery + sewing threads [if you like]

6. Embroidery + regular sewing needles

Step 1 & 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 & 6

Step 7

Add more embellishment such as buttons, rick racks, lace, ribbons, use different stitch patterns and just HAVE FUN with it!

My Sue Sunbonnet creation for the Indonesian Crafter Monthly Challenge :D

Take a peek here to see the lovely handiworks of other IC-MC participants {heart}


Happy Crafting y'all! ^^

Someone please pinch me! (part II) :P

Mad Crafter

The Madcrafter is being featured at 

Tobucil Handmade's creative blog!

{thank you Mas Nunuw ^_^}

Read all about it HERE.

My Digital Playground - A Celebration of Life

Today is Feb. the 15th.  It is a very special day for my family as it was supposed to be Reny's birthday.  To celebrate this, a couple of days ago I made my very first vintage collage sheet!  Hurrah!


It is called 'Sister Love - Fun Classic' - actually a mishmash of different themes in one: circus, oriental, story book, black and white picts, medieval, bird, advert, classical dolls, vintage card and finally, my own 'madcrafter' profile.


Here they are:

  

It was supposed to be a limited edition thingy, but wow, people kept ordering although I mentioned earlier that only 3 pcs were available for each picture -I'm now fresh out of metal frames and vintage keyrings.  Talk about the keyrings, sigh .. they're vintage-licious! (if there was even a word like that)!


Following my Sister Love - Fun Classic debut, a friend gave me an open challenge - she wanted a custom vintage inspired glass pendant w/ her favorite John Wayne quotation written on it.  It says:


"Life is hard. 
It's harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne


Hmm. Sure brought some old memories to when I watched the 1968 film 'The Green Beret' featuring John Wayne himself, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray.  He looked good in an army uniform, but then, he also starred in many cowboy movies and my ... he definitely looked more charismatic wearing a cowboy hat  riding a horse! Soooo ... I googled around for his pic and found this absolutely gorgeous pic,

*sigh ....

Combined with an old parchment letter and used 'impact' font style, a little vignette around the border, and ...  VOILA!

I did contemplate about using some western font for the quotes, but then, I decided not to overkill and go easy on this one .. and she liked it!!  Double yay!!  

Now I just need to make its oval 4x3cm version - can't wait ... :)  

Happy Crafting!

End of 2011: A Rollercoaster of Emotions - A New Passion was Born

I knowww, I know ... guilty as charged ...  it's been quite awhile since my last post - so many end of year happenings happened last 2011 - some good and some bad sad. Very sad.

Maybe some of you knew that last November my dear sister Reny passed away - the hurt from losing someone so dear to my heart was so great, it stopped me from writing for almost 3 months ...

but it didn't stop me from crafting.

It was from this life experience that my 'Sister Love' collection came to be (a dear friend later told me that it was a beautiful way of remembering my Reny).  Instead of using my usual media of felt or cotton fabric, I used glass and digital images ...

Here are some of them:

My inspiration came from here, a tutorial from F Yeah Lolita blog, later on I learned more techniques from the tutorial videos found on YouTube (yay for YouTube!).

One thing though, as I prefer using transparent glass dome instead of epoxy resin, and glass by nature, is a fragile material prone to chipping or cracking, so my pretties here are NOT suitable for children :P

Up to this time, I used ready made collage sheets that I purchased online, but being the madcrafter, I wanted to create MY own digital images, madcrafter style! hehehe ... so here they are - some from my own design and some using altered cliparts from other artists, hopefully they're not too bad for a newbie ^_^

It's actually easy, you could do it too ... [so here's to you Reny, love you always Sis!]

Initials - 'M'

Matryoshka Doll - Green

Happy Crafting ^_^

And the Winner is ....

Crafter's Nest!!

Many congratulations! 

(I had a little help in drawing the lucky winner from Nafisa, lol!)

Thank you for all the nice comments and more importantly the suggestions on how to make improvements for MCAW, therefore MCAW has decided to give each and everyone of the participant in this giveaway a special mystery gift! Woohoo!!!

To collect your prize(s), kindly message MCAW at Blessedly Blissful CraftStore's FB account re. your complete address & phone number.

See you in our next post! :)

MCAW's 1st Giveaway!

5 months old and still learning the baby steps ...

Caranya gampang:

Write down your ideas/suggestions at the comment section below this post:

Tuliskan ide2 atau masukan pada kolom komentar dibawah posting ini:

1. what kind of topics do you want to be featured at MCAW? (min.2 please ^^)

topik-topik apa sajakah yang teman2 inginkan untuk dimuat di MCAW? (minimal 2)

2. what are the areas of improvement that you think MCAW needs?

perbaikan apa saja yang kira2 dibutuhkan oleh MCAW?

3. if a guest blogger was to be featured, who do you think should we invite?

jika ada blogger tamu yang diundang, siapa ya kira-kira yang paling tepat? 

 4. we love our readers, do be so kind to be MCAW's follower, tq ^^

suka banget sama pembaca MCAW, join yuk jadi follower? makasih ^^

5. write a comment below our FB announcement (by BBC) that you've finished step no. 1 - 4

tuliskan komentar kalau teman2 sdh mengerjakan tahap 1 - 4 di bawah pemberitahuan di FB

here's the link:

ini linknya:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=171089406315111&set=a.101206113303441.2118.100002421570752&type=1&theater

Drawing day:  November 15th, 2011

Pengundian: Nopember 15, 2011

Goodluck!

DIY - From Trash to Treasure ep. 2

Last Sept. 19, I posted this picture of my 'On the Go' Mini Pincushion on BBC's status, entitled 'Recycle - from trash to treasure'

Quote:

'Dari rol karton bekas gulungan benang smok, sisa kain katun print dan flanel, satu kancing kayu uk. kecil dan kertas karton, hotmelt glue, sedikit dakron dan jahitan, jadilah kreasi seperti ini .. :)'

And from my last post, I promised you some quick trash to treasure tutorial, so here goes:  

Mini Pincushion Tutorial

1. Collect the materials that you have on hand: scrap cotton fabric, used cardboard tube, 2 pieces of felt scraps, leftover lace for decoration, wooden button (if available), and some polyfill (dacron) and a length of thread;
2. Measure one of the felt to fit the bottom of the core - trim it nicely;
3. Cut the bigger felt scrap into a rough circle, doesn't have to be perfect as you will sew up the bottom  anyway (see step 4);
4. Sew the felt (see pic. 4) and pull the string - filling the felt with the polyfill as you go ... make sure to make it nice and round;
5. Place the core on the wrong side of the fabric to measure up the length needed for wrapping;
6. (I used zigzag fabric scissor on one side of the fabric, to prevent fraying) - place a double tape on one side (yep, I used double tape - or you can use hotmelt glue instead) and roll the core to a perfect wrap;
7. (picture of a wrapped core - don't worry about the excess fabric on the sides)
8. Line the inside of the core with hotmelt glue and tuck in the excess fabric, be careful when using your fingers to do this as the glue is very hot (duh, that's why they call it 'hotmelt glue'!), I prefer to use a stick to press down the fabrics instead.  When done, add some more hot glue on top of the tucked fabric and pop in the round felt 'ball'. Push it in and check if the glue had secured the 'ball'  perfectly - then finish up the other end just like the first;
9. Lastly, add some hotmelt glue to the end part of the core and place the felt from step 2 (see pic. 9).

There, all you need to do now is add some embellishment as you like (I used a stretchy lace that I bought from Irmawati Sewcraft, an FB onlineshop!) plus a green wooden button to add more charm and ... VOILA!!

Not bad, eh? You can do this in a jiffy :)

And check out what our friend Mba Ichii from Goodthinks had created, for her version of the mini pincushion:

Total cuteness!!

Hope you like this post as much as I do, and don't forget ...

REUSE and RECYCLE! :)

Happy crafting y'all!