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 ♥

5-minute craft: iphone case(s)

As usual I'm supposed to be doing a million other things (like studying for the 8 upcoming exams) instead of crafting. But this is a really easy-peasy DIY that can be done in a few minutes! Changeable iphone covers. Came up with the idea one day while looking at my DIY-ed pens and thought that it could be done with iphone covers as well. Yes I love inserting patterned paper into everything. But I'm not the only one; I chanced upon someone else on Pinterest who thought of this iphone case idea too. Being the fickle person that I am, this is the perfect budget-friendly idea to never getting tired of your iphone cover. And I dare say it can be done with clear macbook covers as well. 

Materials needed: patterned paper, clear iphone case, scissors, penknife, pencil

Trace the outline of your phone onto the patterned paper (note that it has to be traced onto the flip side). Then placing the clear iphone case onto the traced shape, trace the camera hole onto the patterned paper. Cut the paper according to the shape traced and carefully cut out the camera hole using the penknife. And it's done! Cut out as many pieces as you want on different patterned paper and you can change your iphone design according to your mood / the occasion.

Note: I recommend using thin patterned paper instead of thick cardstock, so that your case fits well onto the phone. Depending on the type of clear case you have, the case might not be able to fit as well if thick cardstock is used. I'm using the clear hard case that clips onto the phone. An alternative would be the clear soft / rubber case, which would probably be able to fit thicker paper better.

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: mustache party favors

These cute mustaches were also adapted from Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho! The idea was originally for drink toppers, but I decided to stick them to satay sticks instead and they made for interesting props for photos at the party (:

The templates for the mustaches can be found here

An assortment of shapes and sizes

Tea party: flowers

Also adapted from Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho, these flowers were adapted from a template meant for making flower clip-ons for shoes. The template can be found here.

I traced out the template onto tracing paper, and cut dozens of pieces out from stock paper. And stuck them practically everywhere...like on my guestbook (above).

And made flower chains with them.

Basically, after cutting out 4 different sizes of the template, use a pencil and curl the petals of the flowers by rolling the pencil into the paper. Then glue the 4 different pieces together and voila, a flower is formed! Simple craft. The cutting of the pieces can be pretty tedious though.

Tea party: paper flower balls

Easy-to-make tissue paper flower balls! Adapted from the book Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho

Materials: tissue paper, wire, thread, scissors
You can experiment with the type of paper used actually. In this case I mixed patterned paper with plain colored ones. You could try crepe paper as well.

For the bigger flower ball, stack 8 sheets of 21cm x 30.5cm tissue paper together and fold in 3cm accordion folds. Trim the edges (either pointy or rounded). Tie the center with wire. Loop thread with wire and leave it long enough to hang from the ceiling. Carefully separate each tissue layer, pulling each layer away from the center until they form ball-like shapes.

For the smaller flower balls, the tissue paper should be cut into rectangles 13cm x 15cm. The book says each ball requires 4 rectangles of tissue paper stacked together, but after experimenting I find the flower balls look prettier with 5 sheets, like the one above.

This one is made with 5 sheets of tissue paper too.

This one's made with 4 sheets.

Budget-friendly and pretty-looking decorations for a party (;

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.