Hello there!  Spring is just around the corner, the cold snowing winter is about to pass. I know Spring fairy is working hard to bring color to the garden. This is how I picture my garden will be again... full of the vivid color..... all thanks to the Spring fairy, not me. lol

So happy to be chosen as a guest designer on Crafting by design for the March 1st anything goes  challenge. Today I am sharing one of my favorite stamp and die: Hello Lovely clear stamp set and heartstrings dies. Enjoy~

I choose happy birthday sentiment not only to celebrate the start of the Spring season but also to give a shout-out to all the friends and "me" who were born in the month of March. ^^ Happy Birthday~~

<Here are some of the behind the scene photo>

I choose to use Faber Castell Gelatos for it's texture and easy to blend with water. I draw some line on the leaf and use water brush to blend the color, also purposely to leave some texture and bleed outside of line.

While waiting for the watercolor paper to dry, I die cut few of the heartstrings die from Concord & 9th, these blank die cut will be add it to the card later.

The same heartstrings die again places on the main flower to cut the shape out. Then flip the card over to take out just the outer heart. You can see I put the washi tape on the die to make sure the distance between outer and inner die stay the same through out entire card making process....

Because of that when I add the blank heart die cut, it will fit exactly into the same space. Once the first blank heart die cut is in place, I seal entire heart with double adhesive sheet to secure every pieces. So when I flip over if any piece fell out(hoping not all of them) I can easily put it back. Luckily when I flip it over , just two pieces are needed to place it back. ^^ With all the pieces in place, the rest of the blank heart die cut is applied with glue and stacked on one by one. The last die cut shape will be placed on the top is the die cut from the original drawing. Lastly adding some embellishment and Happy Birthday sentiment, the card is completed.

Thank you for visiting my blog~ Happy crafting!

Supplies:
Concord & 9th Hello Lovely clear stamp set
Concord & 9th Heartstrings dies
Faber Castell Gelatos
Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday die

I find myself wanted to do a simple card to help me relax after a long week of work, work and work.... and it works. Ah..... feeling good.

<Behind the scene photo>

I used Riley Flower from IOstamps and distress oxide for coloring. After inking the stamp then spritz some water on the stamp before stamped it on the black card.

Distress oxide creates this chalky effect on the black card. I also use the same color choice to come up this colorful sheet. Then using ElizabethCraftDesign die to cut out the design to decorate the card. Add the sentiment "Find joy in the ordinary" to complete the card. Enjoy~

Supplies:

Thank you for visiting my blog and see you soon~

I always wanted to live in a tree house when I was little. Now my kids want to live in a tree house too. When my son saw the card and started to shout " that is the house I want". Lol so cute~^^

< Here are some of the behind the scene photo>

I used versafine black ink to stamp the image on white neenah cardstock. The fun part is to color the tree house any color I desired using distress ink and zig clear brush. Then I cut off some area on the upper right hand corner where I plan to add a colorful sky and sentiment there.

I created this background using Tim Holtz's new distress oxide ink. I probably layered it three or four time in total. The first layer is very light and transparent , but the more layers I add the more opaque it becomes. It is the color that I am looking for, subtle but rich in color and yet not overpowering. What a yummy color!

This critter is from Neat and Tangled My favorite nut stamp set. It is perfect for this tree house scene.

After I finished the coloring, assembled all the pieces and lastly added the sentiment to complete the card. Enjoy!

Supplies:
Neat and Tangled My Favorite Nut clear stamp
Stampendous Gnome Home cling stamp
Rubbernecker stamps- Freehand Border Phrase Stamp Set

Thank you for visiting my blog~ See you soon!

This is a CAS valentine card. Quite simple and easy to make with coloring and minor cutting. The little critters from Neat and Tangled are so adorable, hard to pass it for valentine's day.

I used combination of Zig Kuretake clean color real brush and Tim Holtz distress marker to color them with waterbrush.

I wanted to add a heart die cut behind the critters and realized the top part of nutshell was blocking the heart. This was a simple fix, all I did was to take down the top and rested it on the side. Now I could see the heart. ^^

Finally I added the entire background with watercolor effect and stamped the sentiment 'you are my favorite' from the same stamp set to complete the card.

Thank you for visiting my blog! See you soon~

I have joined a group of talented crafter in Taiwan to come up more than 160 sets of Chinese new year card. All these handmade cards will be distributed to elderly during the new year eve dinner time. It is an honer to be able to contribute something like this. Here are the five cards that I have created for them. Since it is mainly for older generation so I decided to stick to the traditional red color scene for my cards. I wish them and everyone good health, great luck and prosperity .

1. Having all the good blessing in your house card~

2. Every year have more than you need card~

3. The joy of New Year be with you throughout the year card~

4. May the coming New Year bring you joy, love and peace card~

5. Lots of luck for this Rooster year card~

Thank you for visiting my blog and see you soon~

I decided to blend distress ink mermaid lagoon, blueprint sketch and seedless preserves combo for the night sky effect. Choosing only the sky and stars and switch them to another white cardstock that has the same diecut. The other part(house and trees) can be used for a different card, I will save it for later.

I love this die that I can create many combination. For this ornament, I will only use the outer part and save the smaller rings later. I hand cut a circle and cut out the detail just like the die then use it as a base. I start to place the center pieces on top and then glue the outer ring one at a time.

Supplies:
Stampendous clear stamp- Christmas vision
Simon Says Stamp- Believe in the season
Tim Holtz Distress ink- mermaid lagoon, blueprint sketch and seedless preserves
Magnolia DooHickey box collection Christmas village scene die
Elizabeth Craft Designs Fitted Frames Die Lace Circles
Neenah white card stock

Enter my card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Christmas Gift
Crafting by Design Anything Goes December Challenge
Love to Scrap Challenge blog-Winter Wonderland!
Love to Craft Challenge blog-December anything goes

Thank you for visiting my blog! Hope to see you soon~

After daylight saving ended on Nov. 6, we are officially in the Winter and I miss the Fall already. Since I miss the color of the Fall, this thinking of you card is full of brown, red, orange and yellow tone.  

Supplies:
Concord & 9th Happy Card Frame die
Concord & 9th Lace Leaf Stamp
Tim Holtz Distress ink-Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Carved Pumpkin, Fossilized Amber
Hero Arts April Monthly Hero Kits Thinking of You Stamp

Enter my card into the following challenges:
Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge #3:Sparkle and Shine
Crafting by Design Fall Colour Challenge
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #303
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Shine Bright like a Diamond
Crafting with Friends Challenge #31
Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge November!
Addicted to Stamps Challenge #219 CAS 

Thank you for visiting my blog~ See you soon!

I find myself constantly making birthday card, don't get me wrong, I love creating birthday card. I guess it is the most popular card that we give away to friends and family. So I always try to make few birthday cards in advance,  and add a gift or flowers then it is ready~

I used a happy card frame die from Concord & 9th for Bday card, and was going to add a color splatter page right behind the frame. It turned out to be too busy that I can't even see the word "happy". So I had to come up a plan B which is adding a velum in between to tune down the color and it works great!

The splatter paper was salvaged from previous project for a journal page. It is perfect to use for this card. The happy card frame die cuts very well and can be used for many occasion such as "happy" holiday; "happy" for you; "happy" to see you or "happy" birthday. I love the outcome of this birthday card. Yeah!

Supplies:
Concord & 9th Happy card frame die
Concord & 9th Happy words stamp
Lindy's stamp gang starburst sprays- lucky shamrock green, sweet violet purple teal, hydrangea blue

Thank you for visiting my blog~

This year I decided to make a more traditional card. It is classic using witch stamp as main character. You can see some of the steps below on how I finish this Halloween card.

Supplies:
Stampendous Halloween cling stamp- CRR176 Mirror Mirror
Tim Holtz Cling Stamp- CMS100 Odds and Ends
Tim Holtz distress ink- Squeezed Lemonade , Fossilized Amber , Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, vintage photo

Thank you for visiting my blog~

I am very fortune to join a group of great racers. In this group Amazing Rae Art Journaling Challenge, racers will create an art journal base on the country. First stop is China. It takes me awhile to decide what I want to do with China. But once I decided, it didn't take much time~ I might add more stuff later but as it for now less is better, from an old Chinese saying.

This is a replica of an old Chinese painting that was owned by my father. It happened to have some discoloring and was about to toss into the recycling bin. Hate to see it goes waste, so I save it and hoping I can use it someday.  The first stop of the challenge is China which is perfect to upcycle the piece. I brush some water around the edge to help tearing the paper with a more torn look.

Using gel medium adhesive to the journal and add more gel medium on the top, then brush gesso on entire surface. Then I use baby wipe to wipe away gesso on some characters that I like. So those characters are darker compare to the one cover with gesso. Can you tell which one?

Now work on the edge, I used Tim Holtz distress crayon on the torn area to create an old paper, a burned paper look. I used both vintage photo all around and stain walnut in some area.  Just draw a thin line and start rubbing it like crazy.

With old looking edge, the entire page now looks too clean, so I use antique linen to again draw some line next to the characters and blend it out quickly. Distress crayons is hard to rub or blend once it is dry. So if you let it set for too long, it won't blend nicely and the line will stay as is unless to reactive it with water.

I choose floral as center piece and I want it to look like a Chinese floral painting, so I cut a piece of pink card stock adhesive behind the flower purposely leaving the bottom more pink cardstock than the top. So in a way it is a Chinese painting without scroll. lol
The flowers are embossed with white embossing powder then paint it with distress ink.

The Final Piece

Thank you for visiting my blog~
Stay tune for the next stop for this Amazing Race Art Journaling Chanllenge.

Today I have tried something different. Actually something new and something old. I have used an old technique-resist technique with new product distress crayon. I have owned the stamp image and sentiment for awhile, acquired them at different time. Never thought they can go together this well and that is something new.

I wish there are more pictures for the details. I did take quite a few of pictures but when I transfer them from my phone to my computer, 50% of the image were gone. I guess my dog(computer) ate it. lol

The distress crayon is really creamy and smooth. Very easy to apply on the cardstock. I use picket fence distress crayon with white cardstock. So it is hard to see but you can kind of see the edge of the circle.

I didn't use other color of crayon to blend. After I tested some technique on a scrap paper, I decided to use distress ink pad to blend the color instead of using distress crayon. After adding the color, I could see the circle more clearly and wish I have used more picket fence to form a more clear texture. But I guess it is ok, this has different feel to it.

Supplies:
Distress Crayon- Picket fence
Distress ink pad-Crackle Pistachio, Peacock feathers, Tumbled glass, Blueprint sketch, Ground espresso, Black soot
Tim Holtz mini stencil set 9
Whimsy Stamps- Fall Love
Inkadinkado clear stamp- Friendly Advise
Archival ink black

Enter this card into the following challenges:
Craft Your Passion Challenges #306 Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Try to Resist
Scrapping4funChallenges #62 Anything goes
Crafting from the Heart Challenges #106 Anything goes
Crafting with Friends Challenges #18 Anything goes

Thank you for visiting my blog~

This is going to be a short post. Just want to show you the comparison of Ranger white embossing powder and superfine detail embossing powder as well as the lifting technique in different color. I have used the technique in the previous post. You can see the lifting technique in detail here.

<Details>

Ranger white embossing powder is used on the blue card and the Ranger superfine detail embossing powder is used on the green card. The detail on the green card is more defined while the line on the blue card is thicker. In this case, superfine detail embossing powder seems work better than white embossing powder because of stamp choice. Not saying I favor superfine detail embossing powder over white embossing. If I need to add other type of media such as glitters or fragment with embossing powder, superfine detail powder might not be able to hold the fragments as much as white embossing powder.

Some of the details on flowers and leaves~ It is the same color choice from the green card. And the post can be seen here, if you are interested.

Thank you for visiting my blog~

I have been thinking about a spring like card for awhile. I guess I can't wait for Spring to come. Think of this as a universal card that whoever receive this will also get a feel of Spring~
這次選擇綠色當背景，可以感受到春天一整片綠油油的草地，不時可以看到一叢一叢的小花努力的綻放著。現在想想最後一次躺在草地上是N年前了，下次有機會一定去享受一下大地之愛~

~~The Detail~~

I used Tim Holtz Botanical Sketch stamp, VersaMark watermark stamp pad and white embossing powder to create the background. I use Ranger white super fine detail embossing powder which is needed for such detailed fine line stamps. I will explain more in a different post. You will be able to see the comparison.
簡單又效果極佳的方法~草皮章，浮水印台加燙凸粉。燙凸粉用的是Ranger極細凸粉，它的細度較適合用在細節多的印章上，在下一篇我會做個燙凸粉普通和極細的比較~

Then using distress ink mowed lawn and blending tool to blend hack out of it. At some point I use the ink pad to simply smear the entire cardstock. :)
用復古印台mowed lawn非常漂亮的綠色，塗満整張紙，真的是死命的塗，顏色越深越好。這樣才可以進入下一個步驟 lifting technique。

When it is done, I use, lifting technique, just few drops of water to take out some of the color out. I forgot to take a close shot but you can see the fern at the left bottom corner that the color is lighter after few drops of water and before I add different color on it.
用水彩筆沾水滴在花瓣上，綠色就漸漸的變淺，水越多顏色越淺，左邊綠色的葉子是變淺之後未上其他色之前。

Here I use distress ink picked raspberry ( it turns to lavender color. Nice!)and blueprint sketch for the look.
紫色是用復古印台 pickled raspberry , 藍色是blueprint sketch。上越多顔色越深~

Here again using distress ink blueprint sketch but decided to use lifting technique again to lighten up the blue.

Well green leaves are going to blend into the background so I decide to use some bling bling sunflower sparkle perfect pearls with couple drops of water. 葉子的部分最後決定用Sunflower sparkle 金質粉。讓卡片也有亮亮的感覺~

I only want to have few color showing on the card since it is quite busy already. It turns out looking great!

Time to work on the sentiment~ I choose Unity Stamp Loads of love for this card. In addition, I gently brush around the edge using distress ink tea dye then spritz some perfect pearls water to get that shimmer look.

I got this twine from a second hand store was going to use for book binding but color is perfect for it. I had learned a trick from YouTube to coat it with mod podge or multi medium first, it is actually must earlier to form the circle that I wanted.
有時候線或麻繩很不受控制，可以先整條塗上一些mod podge或其他種類的膠，再塑形比較容易。

The sentiment is a bit small when I lay it on the card and I don't want to add a second layer because it will block out more background so a few loops of wire or twine will help with the illusion.

Here is the finishing piece! Hope you enjoy and thank you for visiting my blog~

Supplies:
Tim Holtz Cling Stamp Botanical Sketch CMS216
Distress ink pad mowed lawn, picked raspberry and blueprint sketch
VersaMark watermark stamp pad
Versafine onyx black
Ranger super fine detail embossing powder in clear and white
Ranger perfect pearls- sunflower sparkle
Unity stamp- Loads of love

Enter this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything goes
Crafting from the heart challenge #100
Penny's paper crafty challenge #266 Anything goes
Craft your passion challenges #300 Anything goes
Crafting With Friends Challenge #15 Anything goes

We all have a moment of needing something quick, a quick get away, a quick coffee break, a quick nap, a quick meal. This time I need a quick card. A quick card doesn't mean not putting too much thought into it. A quick card simply means a quick made card. Lol~ I had this design in my head for weeks already, just didn't find the time to execute it. Why did I say I need a quick card? It actually has a purpose. Just like a quick get away, a quick coffee break, a quick nap or a quick meal, a quick card can make me rejuvenate again or shall I say it is a boost in a way. I am sure everyone has its own way of getting a boost. What is yours? 

<Details>

Supplies:
Distress paint- fossilized amber, fired brick, festive berries, evergreen bough
Merry Christmas deer die
Hero Arts Ombre pool to navy
Stampabilities- IR1038 Bright with promise-Merry Christmas Saying
Imagine Crafts Pssst Sheer Shimmer Spritz
White cardstock
shimmer navy glitter card stock

Enter this tag into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Winter Wonderland
More Habdmade Challenge MHC 魔力手作挑戰 #12 -- 耶誕節
Crafting By Design: Here Come The Holidays 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make it Sparkle
CAS(E) this Sketch! #153