Valentine's ♡

Decided to bake some jam sandwich cookies as a last minute sorta thing, 'cause I don't really think V'day is such a big thing anymore, if it ever was. My firm belief is that everyday should be v'day if you love a person and you don't need to show your love only on a special day. Still, baking is always fun; don't really need an occasion for it.

Pre-baking - I think my dough rolling skills need much improvement

Out from the oven - added strawberry and apricot jam as filling

The cookies turned out quite well, although we didn't really eat them in the end, 'cause we were so stuffed from our lovely dinner. I gobbled them down the next day, oops.

A really pretty handmade card from the boyfriend ♥

And J made me a really pretty card; I must say he is getting better and better at scrapbooking/making cards. He always makes the cards he gives me 'cause he knows I love handmade stuff and I really appreciate the effort :') And he bought me the ♥-shaped Starbucks card~ ('cause I told him he had to), and gave me a lovely frame with pictures of us for me to bring along on my travels, such a darling.

And after that we went home and snuggled down to watch Sherlock. My kind of Friday night date ♥

Valentine's Day

happy valentine's day! it's been quite a while. i've been crafting, just not blogging about it 'cause i've been so lazy. so i shall simply fast forward to what i've done for v'day this year~ 

So I haven't done anything for V'day since my girls' school days, when V'day was very much hyped. And I figured this year would be the last year when I'd have the leisure to make something for V'day, what with uni graduation and all. 

Simple handmade cards! With my favourite lace doilies that decorate anything so well. I used them previously for my 21st birthday party invitations. The heart-shaped ones were bought in the US by a dear friend who knows me very well (: So I made a card for the boyfriend and notecards for the girls.

And I baked a tray of brownie. I really wanted to try to make these brownies they are soo cute, but my supermarket failed me; it didn't sell black/white/red icing (whyy?!) (T__T) and it was too late to head to a baking shop to get icing, sigh. 

So in the end I had to resort to making cookie cutter (literally) brownie bites. I used this recipe, but took the advice from other bakers who commented and used butter instead of vegetable oil and cut sugar to 3/4 cup. It was pretty easy to make and it tastes yummy, so I foresee myself making more, just as a snack or something.

Small brownie packages for friends in school, wrapped in baking paper and tied with scraps of ribbon (:

Christmas-themed thank-you cards

It's been a while. These were thank-you cards I made for my mentors and buddies and a few other lawyers at the firm where I interned at. I enjoyed myself and learnt a lot, hence I felt the need to express my gratitude for their warm welcomes. As you can probably tell from the designs of the cards, it was around christmas time last year.

Key material for a simple and quick way to make nice-looking cards: fancy stock paper. These were all the materials I used for the cards: stock paper, foil chipboard alphabet stickers and a bit of brown paper (not pictured). For the stock paper it'd be good if you use ones which are patterned on both sides, so the inside of the card looks nice as well.

Cut half a piece of stock paper and fold it into half, free-hand cut a rectangle of brown paper and stick it on with glue, paste the alphabet stickers and voila! Nice-looking card is done. Great for when you need to make many at once. It's still handmade and heartfelt (:

I loved the funky christmas trees pattern. I'm all for cute (:

This was cute too, but it had a slightly vintage feel to it

Mistletoe (:

Tea party: invitation cards

So I decided to make some invitation cards for my 21st birthday tea party

Materials: paper doilies, patterned brown paper, tracing paper, patterned fabric tape (or washi tape), marker

Easy DIY - The cards were really easy to make. I cut the brown paper into 14 cm squares, stuck the paper doily onto the card and it's done! And it looks pretty 'cause of the paper doily pattern. 

I'm in love with paper doilies; I think they make everything look nicer. Like when you use it as bases for cakes and tarts. It took me a long while to hunt down the paper doilies though, I couldn't seem to find them anywhere?! I found some at Daiso, but they only came in one size (for cakes), which was too big for my purposes. Finally found these in a small neighbourhood shop selling utensils and crockery.

The envelopes were a little tricky though. I wanted the cards to fit them exactly, so it took a little while to figure out how much margin to leave, and how to fold and cut them. Initially I also wanted the names of my friends to be printed on the tracing paper, in typewriter font; I think that would have been cute. But I didn't have a laser printer, and my printer isn't tracing paper-friendly, so I ended up having to write their names on the envelopes with a marker.

And the fabric tape is for sealing the envelope (:

Handmade christmas cards

This post is way overdue. But I was so busy with making various things during the holidays that I didn't have time to do a proper post of everything I made. I'll post the other stuff soon. But for now, x'mas cards I made for friends~

The x'mas cards on sale this christmas were not to my taste, so I decided to make some myself. I made a total of only 9 cards in 2 days, from the limited scrap materials and cut-outs at hand...so not everyone on my usual x'mas card list received handmade cards. I'll do better next year.

Happy snowman (:

Santa love ♥

Gingerbread men!

Love under the mistletoe ♥ - I know the leaves don't look really like mistletoe...but this was the best I could find S: I'm quite proud of the red mistletoe-like beads though haha

Christmas present - I tried to copy the font of the wrapper of a present featured in a christmas catalogue.

Nutcracker ♥

Loved ones - attempted to create a snowy effect with silver beads and white sequins

Christmas bells

Frosty the snowman

Materials:

The cute pictures/graphics were cut out from magazines and Christmas promotions brochures handed out on the street. I love recycling stuff like that. The cards were made from stock paper, and other materials like sequins, beads, foam/sticker alphabets are from my own collection of craft materials.

INSPIRATION ♥

hanky notes by amy of eatdrinkchic! i feel tempted to just print them out and hang them for deco.

INSPIRATION ♥

floral thank-you notes on oncewed by amy! yes i am amassing these fantastic card ideas for future use.

INSPIRATION ♥

card/note idea! from eatdrinkchic. i'm definitely going to make this some time.