My Christmas Cards for Charity

It has been a really long time since I last posted anything on my blog. I have been busy these few months making cards for sale. All proceeds will be donated to this childcare centre called Child at Street 11. It is an organization that relies on donation to provide early childhood education to children from dysfunctional and low-income families who cannot afford to send their children for pre-school education. I am attaching a photo of the flyer I made to publicise my sale and hope to gather more sales via my blog. If you are reading this entry and would like to purchase my cards and contribute towards this worthy cause, please drop me a comment here with your email address. I can arrange to meet up and pass you the cards if you are in Singapore. Overseas purchase welcome - I will post the cards to you. Payment can be arranged via Paypal.

If you are keen to learn more about the childcare centre, please use the link below:

http://www.street11.org.sg/

I am selling my cards in 4 different categories as shown in the flyer below. As you are likely not able to select the cards in person, you may state your colour preference, image preference etc. I will be putting together assortment packs for you.

Yarn destash update -19 balls and counting

Just a little update on my yarn destashing progress. I have just finished another bag and have used up a total of 19 balls of yarn since I started my destashing project. Here's a quick look at my newest bag. I modified my original design from one that includes round handles to something I can hang off my shoulders. I decided to add a hint of another colour on the textured design and completed several rounds of contours of the patterns. What do all of you think?

Destashing in Progress

I am in the process of destashing so as to make room for more stuff. =p
I have been hard at work and have set a target: for every 3 balls of yarn I use up, I am allowed to buy 1 new ball.  I am not sure if I will consider the weight of the balls for now, since I have my eye on some gorgeous silk yarn from Japan. 


To date, since my destashing goals have been made, I have used up 6 balls of Bella for 2 sets of baby stuff. I am in the process of completing another staggered blocks bag. That pattern should use up another 4 to 6 balls of yarn. 


I am determined to finish up the baby stuff by sewing in the ends this week. I hate the sewing. Silly me decided to trim a set with a different coloured yarn to as to see something 'different' in the baby set. For each row of trim, I created another 2 ends to sew. arghhhh..... sewing is a painful task I rather not have to do. Any angels out there who LOVE to do sewing? 

I am now on Ravelry!!!!

If you have been reading my blog or listening to my babbling on about my recent crochet designs, you would have heard about me listing my crochet designs on Etsy. Recently, I have been looking at listing my patterns on Ravelry as well and have decided to take the plunge. I am now listed as a designer on Ravelry with a store that allows you to download the pattern after payment is made via Paypal. 


To recap, here are the 3 patterns currently available for sale on both Etsy and Ravelry:


Lacy Bag with Handles

You can purchase this pattern now if you click on this link:



Lacy Shopping Bag

You can purchase this pattern now if you click on this link:

Shell Booties with Flower Buttons

You can purchase this pattern now if you click on this link: 

I have been trying really hard to destash my yarn supplies and am working really hard to use up the yarn I have collected over the years. Like many crafters, I tend to buy a teeny bit more than I actually get to use. I always say I buy faster than I crochet and so in an effort to clear up some space (so that I may buy more yarn =p), I am on a crochet blaze since the last month. 

To date, I have completed about 30 pairs of booties, several sweaters and dresses for babies. i am also attempting to write my own pattern for a set of items for babies: top and bottoms, booties, mittens and beanie sets. I will be posting photos soon. =)

New Booties

It has been more than 2 months since my last post. I just finished my surgery and have been resting at home. Though I am more mobile this time compared to my last surgery a year ago, it has been quite a slow recovery for me.

I have been trying hard to use up my yarn supplies as I have simply put: too much stuff. I came up with this new design some time ago but did not test or write it down properly. I have tested the pattern myself, coming up with 3 different sizes of booties. I asked several kind souls to help me test the pattern on Crochetville. After tidying up the pattern, I will be posting it on Etsy for sale.

I have another two patterns that are already on sale on Etsy. This may become a new hobby for me - creating and writing patterns down. Though I have been doing crochet for more than 20 years and creating my own designs most of the time, I hardly record my patterns down and often have to do 're-creating' for some patterns.

It has been quite a while since I did any stamping or paper crafts. With my table in a mess, it has been a great deterrent for me stepping into the room for crafting for a few weeks. I will be tidying up my table very soon and hope to complete a few pieces of paper crafting before I return to work.

My new bag design - Lacy Shopping Bag

I just wanted to post this up here to share my new design for a lacy shopping bag. The basic pattern I have used is the same as the previous bag I designed. It is a textured pineapple pattern. For this bag, I came up with a strap that is just one scallop smaller than the main pattern on the bag and continues with the textured pineapple pattern. 

For my next sample, I will be making a tapered triangle from the body and see how that works. I plan to sell this pattern and have found a few helpful testers from Crochetville to help me test my written instructions before I post the design on my Etsy store.


I am quite excited at creating something from scratch with my crochet designs. This is quite different from my stamping and I am so happy that I am able to enjoy all my crafts =)

My first Watercolouring Video!!

I did the filming with the help of Zhen and June two weeks ago. It was fun doing the video. Think we used our third attempt for the final editing. I never knew my usual method of colouring using my new Derwent pencils would be too pale for the video. We had to switch to Faber Castell pencils so that the colours would show up on the video. That said, I think we would need to adjust the angle of the videos slightly. It was rather strange to be almost hugging the tripod as I was doing the colouring. I wonder how others on YouTube do the filming. I have seen a set up where the camera is filming upside down and then it gets flipped upright in the editing process. Guess we will have to test and figure it out another time. 


The whole clip was actually about 8 minutes and it was edited by doubling the speed or more to about 3 minutes. I am looking for suggestions to improve my filming skills as well as suggestions on what would make the tutorial a better one. I was told already that the text should be in a different colour with an outline so that the viewers can read the captions more easily. Do drop me a line to let me know what you think of it. =)

Playing with Tombows

This is one of my first few attempts using my Tombow markers. I am quite disappointed with the results of my first few pieces. This is the last piece I just coloured and it looks passable if I ignore all the smudges I created by mistake. I am still not getting the hang of blending the markers directly on paper. This image was coloured by picking up colours I scribbled on an acrylic block.

If there are any fellow crafters out there using the Tombow markers, please help!! I would like to be able to colour with the markers and not struggle so much. I am using both heavyweight watercolour papers as well as medium weight cartridge papers. Strangely, the heavyweight watercolour paper was blotchy and looked horrible after colouring. The picture above is of medium weight cartridge paper. I have a friend who uses coated printing paper but she usually uses the colourless blender to blend her colours. I have yet to try that and will try to find time to do so in the following week.

More Stampavie images and watercolouring

Here are more coloured Stampavie images. I love this monkey image with the balloons and present. The first two images were coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils. The first one was done on index card and the second one on medium weight cartridge paper.

As you can probably see from the picture, the blending was not very smooth as I did not want to cause the paper to pill. Index cards are not really made for watercolouring and a light hand is needed. I used a wet brush to pick up colours directly from the pencils and applied to the paper. For the last layer I ran the pencils across the images a few times and tried to blend that and it did not really work out. I can still see pencil lines, especially on the balloons.

This one done on cartridge paper worked much better. It was also cause I did not use the pencils on the paper while it was wet. I coloured in the image while the paper was dry and used a wet brush to blend everything out.

This one was done on cartridge paper as well, using the Derwent watercolour pencils. I think the monkeys look a little pale here. I still prefer the darker browns on them. I am having trouble with the monkey that is seated. The pink area i coloured in looks like its mouth is open, but I am not too sure. What do you think?

New Colouring Tools with Stampavie images

I bought several sets of colouring pencils made by Derwent last Aug. I have yet to find time to play with my new toys till last weekend. I took out my new sets of pencils and decided to do a whole series of colouring tutorials with my new toys. I had friends help with videoing. Will be posting the videos up once they are ready. =)

I will be doing a few each week and will be posting them here to share with other crafters out there. Comments are most welcomed. I am still learning how to use my new pencils. They seem to blend differently from my Swiss Colours ones I was using previously. 

The image is from Stampavie: Bear with Flowers. This first one is done using Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I was under the impression that these are the softest creamiest pencils available. Well, I guess the reviews got half of it right. They are indeed soft, but not really waxy from my first use. I find them rather chalky or powdery. They do blend quite well, being very soft but I was hoping for a more waxy feel to the pencils. Any suggestions for smoother, waxier pencils?

The second one is coloured using an older set of Faber Castell Watercolour pencils I had for quite some time. The colours are fairly intense but I usually need to colour with medium pressure to get the more intense colours to blend well.

The last image was coloured using my new Derwent Watercolour pencils. I like how I can colour on the paper with the lightest pressure and have the colours pop when I add water to blend the colours. 

What do you think of the coloured images? I could do with some suggestions on improving my colouring skills. I have trouble imaging the light source for some images and items. I will be uploading more of my coloured images soon as I have stamped a whole stack of images to colour with. =)

I am finally blogging again!!! First post in 2010

I cannot believe it has been more than 3 months since my last post. I really must put in more effort to update my blog. I started this blog with the intention of sharing my crafting ideas and to keep track of my creations in a way. I shall have to do better.


Anyway, here's the latest projects I completed. These are the cards I will be teaching in a class I am holding on14 Mar. It has been more than 3 months since my last workshop as well. Hopefully, this class would be a successful and enjoyable one. I really enjoyed my last cardmaking workshop where I taught mostly cardmaking techniques and not so much of rubber stamping techniques. 


The first cardmaking class projects were shaker cards, spinner cards, waterfall cards and tri-shutter cards. For the second round of cardmaking, I will be teaching spiral cards, easel cards, recessed window cards as well as the double slider cards. I did not make another sample for the recessed window card as I have got one sample from my Christmas cards collection. 


What do you think of this collection?