Sunday 29 December 2013

More Updates on the Christmas Layout "Reaching for the blinks"

Today, I manage to take more photos on the layout with another camera.  With these photos, the details are clearer especially the sparkles from the "diamonds" and crystals.  I also took a night shot of the layout with the lights on.


Close-up shots.



Night View


Thanks for stopping by2 : )

Saturday 28 December 2013

More than just die cutting .....

This week I would like to share a mixed media project which I have entered in the Cheery Lynn Designs blog challenge #112 Anything Goes.   I made a shadow box to house a Christmas photo.



On top of using my beautiful dies to cut the intricate designs, I decided to create a stencil from it.   Using one of the beautiful snowflake die and I created a mask for my mixed media application.

I applied texture paste to the back and side of the box using the negative cut-out.  Below is the completed box.
Another close-up shot of the snowflakes.


Following are the dies I used for this project:

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful New Year.


Saturday 16 November 2013

Thank you to LOTV October Challenge for selecting the Sweet Shop entry as the first prize winner for the October challenge

Thank you very much to the LOTV team for selecting my entry as the first prize for LOTV October 2013 challenge.   Also thank you very much to all those who has been taking part in the challenges as all the entries have been amazing and inspiring. 

Thursday 31 October 2013

Sweet Shop ...

Have been working on a big project - a miniature "Sweet" Shop.  For this project, I used the pattern paper from Websters Pages New Beginnings collection.  Love the soft colour of this collection.

I also incorporated the following adorable girlies from the Lili of the Valley stamp collection.


These cuties are sitting at the counter enjoying some sweet treats.  Behind them is the wall stacked with jars of assorted flavoured candies. The stool tops are covered with felt flowers cut from Cheery Lynn Design roses dies. 

I covered the gap between the roof and light fixture with some rose ribbon and die cut leaves.  

Next to the candies counter is a wall decorated with some roses and birds.

The cake counter space is separated from the rest of the floor space with a "doily" carpet.


Following are the Cheery Lynn Design Dies I used for this project:
And finally, a glance at the sweet counter in the evening...

I am entering this project in the following challenges:

XOXO 
Mee Foon

Friday 27 September 2013

How to make a miniature Garden Bench

Today I would like to share how I built a wooden garden bench for my current "Magical Garden" project.



I wanted to use thick chipboard to build the bench.  After searching through my Sizzix Bigz dies, I found Tim Holtz Vintage Valise die.  I cut the following pieces (as highlighted in red):

Following are the steps I went through to build the bench.

Step 1:  Trim off bottom parts of the handles.

Step 2:  Glue the trimmed handle with the corner pieces to form the legs of the benches.
I use Glossy Accents glue but you can use other strong glue/tape.  Wait till dry before next step.  

Step 3: Put some glue on the top of the bench legs.


Step 4: Place the strips onto the bench legs and leave it to dry properly before moving it.

Step 5: Gesso the chipboard.
Tip:  It is fine to leave the brush lines as they will show up as wood grains.

Step 6: Finally, I distress the bench slightly with Tim Holtz Pumice Stone distress ink to add some woody greyish tint for the wood grains.

Hope you find the tutorial useful.  Please feel free to comment especially on how I can make future tutorial better.

Thanks for stopping by.

XOXO
Mee Foon

Friday 6 September 2013

Mixed Media Photo Frame

This is my entry to this week Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #96 Hearts a Glow.   It is a mixed media project combined with Graphic 45 Secret Garden collection.   I have to admit this is one of those "On Going" project that has undergone tons of changes with the help of Gesso.  Finally, I settled for a more shabby chic shade.

The Cheery Lynn Designs dies I used for this project were
- Heartland America Large DL110
Two of Hearts DL128
- Small Exotic Bbutterflies DL112AB.

The alphabets were cut from foam using Cottage Cutz Sugar & Cream alphabet die.


Another look at the project without any photo.  I wanted to make it into a photo frame where the photo could be changed.  I cut two Heartland America hearts.   I trimmed one of them to only retain the border to cover the PVC sheet on top of the bottom heart.  A close-up look at the hearts.


The original paper collection has a blue ribbon with a key.  As I was going towards the lavender color theme, I colored my satin ribbon with Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad Dusty Concord.  I also added more colors to the fuzzy cut flowers with the Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Markers (Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord).

Tip: A new trick I discovered to enhanced my fuzzy cutting.  As I cannot remove the small background areas between the flowers and leaves, I use "Bundled Sage" Distress marker to go over the yellow background.   This hides the background and creates an illusion of more leaves.

Thank you for stopping by.

XOXO
Mee Foon

Saturday 31 August 2013

A Château Garden

I just loved this week Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #95 Frame It challenge.  My inspiration came from the resemblance of the frame die to the beautiful iron wrought works.   For this challenge, I "landscaped" a garden in a château and using Graphic 45 French Country paper collection.

I have been waiting for the occasion to use this beautiful die, FRM 125 Arabian Night Rectangle Frame, for sometime.  I cut the die cut into two pieces to form the door panels.   On both side of the door are two garden pots housing two beautiful tropical plants (cut using B119 Tropical Leaves ).


Upon "opening" the door, one can see the two rows of water lilies framing both sides of the courtyard.   The wavy water canals are made from Border Carnivale DL129 lace.

Close shot of the water lilies and fountains.







The center of the courtyard is a tag cut from the French Collection.  Instead of glueing down the tag, I cut four corners from Lace Corner Deco B (b162) (tip: using strong cardstock) to hold the tag.

Upon flipping the tag over, another court yard will be revealed.





On top of this panel, I added some vines from Fanciful Flourish (B117).
I also fuzzy cut some sunflowers from the paper collection and stacked them behind the bench in different layers.   This tag is also removable as it is held by the sunflowers.



I use the lace cut from Francesca border (B159) to cover the joint between the two panels.  Also, to create the grass effect below the bench and as the "clips" for another tag on the floor, I cut half of the Swedish Spring Oval Frame (DL135).
Above is a shot of the bench when the tag is removed from the lace.  I also use the same  Lace Corner Deco B (B162)  on the back of the doors (red panels).   I managed to slide some photos between the corner and Carnival lace.   Since I have a few tags and areas to hold photos, I decided not to add any sentiments to this card and potentially converting it to a mini album later.

Thank you for stopping by.

XOXO
Mee Foon

Monday 26 August 2013

Updated version of my cards on Best of Both Worlds (Die Cutting and Quilling)

I decided to enhance my card further by adding some shading to the different parts of the card.  This groups the objects into the key focus areas.

The overall view of the card.

Close-up shot of the couple.

Close-up shot of the LOVE letter.


Hope you like the new version.   Thank you for stopping by.

Saturday 17 August 2013

Best of both worlds (Die cutting and Quilling)

While shopping for my Cheery Lynn Design dies, I came across some wonderful dies for quilling.  It has always been difficult to get the right color precut quilling paper and these dies are able to cut the paper effortlessly (no more uneven paper).  Anyway, this gives me an idea to combine die cut and quilling in my card for this week Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #93 Fun with Letters and Simon Says Stamp Blog Monday Challenge - Make the Cut

For this card, I used quilling to enhance the die cuts and create other elements such as the sun ray and the background heart shapes.   
I used Wedding Vows  die to cut the couple.  I added some textures to create the clothing.  As both the paper and my couple die cut were white, I cut a pink heart from the Two of hearts die set and layered it behind the heads.
To emphasize the word LOVE (die cut from Garden of love die), I used different shapes of red/pinks to filled up the die cut.   Similarly, I added other quilled elements to the flowers.  The butterflies are cut from Small Exotic Butterflies and Mini Dimensional Butterflies sets.
The flowers on to of the poetry are added with quilled flower stamens.   
I cut three layered of different sizes inverted scalloped circles to form the core of the sun while the rays are quilled paper.

This has been another fun project and I was able to complete it on a shorter timeframe by using the die cuts. Thank you for stopping by.  

XOXO 
Mee Foon

Saturday 10 August 2013

Garden Ornament

My inspiration for this week Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #92 Anything Goes came from decorating a pot of plant using the remaining die cuts from my necklace design two weeks ago.  For this challenge, I created the following garden ornament.
I made the main flower by layering three pieces of die cuts from the Italian Flourish Doily.   On top of the flower is the butterfly from one of the dies in the Small Exotic Butterflies 2 set.  I also cut some leaves from Pair of Ferns and Tropical Leaves sets. 
Behind the main rose are two small flowers, smallest flower on the left is cut from Manons Wedding Garland  while the flower on the right is cut using Stacker Flower #2 (the center piece is a trimmed using Scalloped Window Stackers XMC-5).

The top butterfly is from the Exotic Butterfly medium #2.

It is my hope that I can share some ideas on using the beautiful Cheery Lynn Designs dies beyond scrapbooking and cardmaking.  Below is a photo of the decorated plants that inspired this entry.  It was amazing how a few butterflies on this pot could spark series of conversations while it travelled to its new owner. 

Thank you for stopping by.  

XOXO 
Mee Foon

Saturday 3 August 2013

Fun Summer Card

For this weekCheery Lynn Designs Challenge #91 Hot Time in the Summer, I decided to make an accordion card.  I created a backyard scene where the dogs were having fun playing with water while the cat sitting at the pouch pondering why water could be a toy and wishing the master is back.


For the grass, I used the Grass Border and cut them into smaller patches.  The iron plant hangers were cut from one of the corner from the Lace Corner Deco A.   The leaves of the hanging plants are cut using parts of the Mini Flourish One.  
The green plant on the left is cut from the Tropical Leaves set.   I also cut a Princess Tree  behind the water splashes.

This is the first time I played with the texture plate and I really love the result.  To create the brick fence, I embossed my paper with Old Bricks texture plate and tear the top of the fence using the edge of the plate as suggested in the Cheery Lynn tutorial.  

At the corner of the card, I used the daisies that came with the Manons Wedding Garland doily.  I also created a rose using the Medium Rose die.  I love how the die is created where I get six flower petals with just one roll through the Big Shot machine.  As usual, I need to add a mini butterflies from my favorite Mini Dimensional Butterflies die.  The heart on the upper left hand is cut using Two of Hearts die set (another favorite of mine).
 

I enjoyed making this card.  Hope you like it too.  Thank you for stopping by.