A transformation!

Wow… I really disappeared from the craft scene a fair bit there didn’t I? I currently live in Australia with my cat named Mausy in the city of Melbourne. Love it to bits here.

So I am back and ready to rock, but this time with new content that may or may not be related to craft or art. I hope to be able to turn this is into a Stephinka blog of winning here and winning there, win, win, everywhere!

In the past year, I have managed to accumulate for myself even more diseases- I was officially diagnosed with coeliac (or celiac for you US peeps) disease. This means I get an autoimmune response to gluten and it kills my intestinal cells. 

I’m also working on my Graduate Diploma at university in Psychology and hope to wrangle my way into a Masters programme. Without further ado… I’ll get started!

Papertrey Princess Challenge!

This may have to be the perfect time for me to get my hands back into the cardmaking thaaaang. If you remember my last post which was all the way back from April, I had been making cards for cancer survivors — well that was all done with the help of dearest Euna, who helped me a fair bit with the number of cards sent to the Cancer Society. She’s currently on medical elective out somewhere on an island in the Pacific- Cook Islands! I have never even heard of the place before she mentioned it; girl’s got guts and a big heart and is sharing her adventures on her travel blog right here. Go and smother her with tropical humidity some comment love!

Anyway… I have just returned home yesterday from a vacation to Australia and had no idea I was next on the challenge hosting until the day before…. So here’s what I’m issuing to all the lovely Papertrey Princesses who may want to take part:

Make Your Own 3D Elements and/or No Sentiment card!!!

I know, you guys must be thinking “she’s crazy” but on account of the fact that I currently am on holiday from a holiday and down with a cold, pretty please bear with my empty cranium and indulge (or ignore) me 😀 Oh and a warning… I got really lazy so I just whipped out my phone and took a picture. Yes, I’ve gone that far…

This is super inspired by a very talented cardmaker whose blog and name escapes me at the moment because I can be a huge dummy like that. She makes lots of flowers and wreaths, landscape-y cards with a stylus tool and this particular design of a card I pretty much CASE-d from her. I would love to give her credit for it so if anyone knows who I am talking about please give me a shout!

I don’t own a stylus but I used the end of a make up brush as one to shape the foliage and flowers on my ‘stamping mat’ AKA craft foam. Don’t do this unless you are ready to wreck the foam, just a warning! Use your mousepad (if it is inexpensive :P)… Anyway the challenge ahem is to use your own 3D elements! Use a rolled rose die, crunch up some crepe paper or even just make a die cut pop with some foam tape! Oooorrr.. if you hate that idea just make a blank card with no sentiments that can be for any occasion! If you are feeling mighty adventurous, do both the 3D and the sentiment-less card… Who knows when you will need a card for something that crops up suddenly when you don’t feel like making anything: just stamp whatever sentiment and VOILA!

You don’t need to be a Papertrey Princess to join this challenge but if you play along or read this, do link up so I can visit you too!

xx Steph

I am BACK!!!

Whoa…. After more than a month of not making any cards and simply having ZERO inspiration… I made 15 cards over the course of 2 days! I’ve been spending time ‘finding me’ again, and it has been a pretty rewarding little break there.

I am currently involved in a project where I will make 60 cards for young cancer survivors and their caregivers! I decided to start making the kids’ cards first because goodness knows I am going to suck at making things that may appeal to children.

And these are the fruits of my labour…. Some of them have doubles because as you all know, when you cut 8.5×11 size paper you get two A2 cards out of them.. So instead of cracking my brains over how to make ALLLLLL the cards look completely different, I did some cheating 😀

Some other news:

Health-wise I am better than ever. I’m getting healthier and fitter, I’m losing weight without really trying. The best part is that I have less pain from the fibromyalgia, and my depression has improved too. Life is pretty good at the moment I have to say! Thank you all for your concern while I had to go on my hiatus. ❤ In the meantime, I have also started a personal blog of sorts with silly comics over here. Content may be offensive.. I really do cuss like a sailor but I try to keep that to a minimum here; over there though, you have been warned! 😛

Shout outs:
Cara– I got your card, thank you so much hun!
EUNA!!! *HUGS* So glad to have ‘met’ you 🙂 Thanks for being such a wonderful friend, you are a true treasure.

A Hello!

Hello my dear friends, thank you to all who left such sweet notes for me in my previous post! Hugs to all of you for your kindness while I am away physically sick, and broken down mentally and emotionally.

I’m not in the best place still and there are some things I need to let time heal for me, I’m sure many of you reading this may understand and empathise with mending a broken heart, or if not, the trials of recovering from physical illness. Other than that I’ve also been very down and papercrafting has taken a huge backseat amidst all the drama that has blown though the Stephinka town (population: 1 lol)… I can’t tell you when I’ll be making and creating again and be back on the cardmaking bandwagon, but I did finally take photos of some orders I made earlier that have arrived at my home. Also trying to play with the lightbox but I need stronger light sources….

Buttons! A lovely pack of turquoise ones from a lovely lady on Etsy, with whom I’ve shopped with many times. She has gorgeous hand-dyed buttons and trims so check her out!

Memory Box!! There’s more but first I’ll have to find where I put them…. LOL

Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After! UNICORNS. ‘Nuff said. I forsee many unicorn cards that I may make from this set.

My Cute Stamps were on 50% off! Are they still? Well, isn’t this cute? 😀

There’s more items, like lots of circle punches (I’m building a collection), stamps and even MORE buttons that I hope to be using soon. Just waiting for the day I am ready to craft again… Wish me luck, and until then, xx Stephinka.

Hi everyone, quick update!

So apparently someone posted my link to the PTI forums in a nice dedicated post, and I could sense a lot of direct negativity directed to me from their cheerleaders. I posted my link to PTI Smack III as I knew many on there would have shared the same sentiments but knew better to post on PTI-owned forums out of respect for my friends there who may still love the company. Now that such targeted shade was thrown at me, I felt my time there was up, so I will no longer post except participate in their selling threads. Everyone knows you can still get great deals with honest sellers which you can’t find in many places 🙂

I have an account on splitcoast which I may be revisiting now so if you see me there feel free to drop me a pm and say hi!!

On a last note I have been hospitalised for possible blood sepsis and pelvic infection, in addition to withdrawal from a very strong painkiller I was given (but did not work for me) and if that was not much to deal with already, my boyfriend with whom I have been in a long distance relationship for over two years (we were together for one before I had to leave his country)  also broke up with me very suddenly, so I may take some time to reply to your comments and get back with posting my cards again…  Please be gentle with me 😉 By the way, my dearest dad built me a little lightbox! My next photos might be better than the ones I take in my balcony LOL!

See you all soon and lots of love xxStephinka

Stephinka’s Reviews: Stamp Company Papertrey Ink Review

As you can see on my blog, I’m a huge Papertrey Ink stamp user and it makes up the most stamps in my stash. Unfortunately, I believe that is about to change. It’s utterly disappointing to have a company you like for their products, whether it is stamps, or dishwashing liquid, or anti-wrinkle cream.. and then you find out they apparently appreciate money so much they don’t even bother about customer service; there is no customer, only money, and there is no service, end of.

Before anyone wants to cry “smack!”, I’m telling you this is just my personal review of this company and I will cover the good points, however few they are. I am a member of their company’s forum and have made many good friends there; some I even met up for a meal or a drink with when they visit Singapore for vacations. If you want to read this personal review of my experiences shopping with PTI…

un ‘merci’ carte – a ‘thank you’ card :)

I learned a little French as an elective topic back when I was in a polytechnic, training to be a biotechnologist (look where I am now, LOL)… I’ve always had a soft spot for this language, although Russian is my favourite, and I’d love to have some Russian greeting stamps. One day, I’ll have some custom made for myself 🙂

For now, I have a ‘merci’ sentiment from Papertrey Ink which I used for my card here today:

I made this card with all the challenges I wanted to do already in mind… I picked a sketch from Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog.

Using the Postage die from Papertrey Ink, I cut those 10 pieces and using an MFT scallop die, put my card together… Thought I could enter a paper piecing challenge by Craft Your Days Away Challenge Blog (Challenge 39).

And as for the colours I picked, they are for The Play Date Cafe (Challenge #119 for B&W + Hot Pink) I used Raspberry Fizz ink from PTI and a Raspberry Fizz button for all the hot pink I got in my card!

Also the colours I used were also inspired by Our Creative Corner, which wanted B&W and a splash of colour… Undoubtedly, it was hot pink!

I wanted to push myself even more and picked one more challenge to base my card on, and it was Crazy4Challenges – C4C124 – which was to use polka dots and stripes! These were stamped with PTI’s Polka Dot Basics II for the varying polka dot sizes, and Lawn Fawn’s Schoolhouse Backdrops for the stripes 🙂

So, 5 challenges in total and I think I did pretty okay! What do you think? 🙂

Before I go, just wanted to share with everyone a wonderful piece of news that I was featured on The Kraft Journal blog’s Feature Me Friday for a card I made just a short while ago; original post is here. This is the first time that I have been handpicked and featured in a blog entry like this and I’m beyond thrilled! I do hope to continue improving in my stamping and cardmaking skills 🙂

Thanks for visiting, I hope everyone has a lovely day 🙂 xxStephinka

Stephinka’s Adventures with Copics Part 2…

Just a short post to show you something that I have coloured for the TTC11 Touch Twin Marker Challenge. My first card for the challenge can be viewed here.

On a similar card base I coloured the same cat stamp from the same Market Street Stamps Cool Cats set.

Please excuse the poor colouring, I’m still very very new to using my Copics!

And that’s all for my post… I’m falling asleep at the keyboard LOL. If you have any tips/tricks about colouring with Copics please comment and share! Goodnight! xxStephinka

Stephinka’s Adventures with Copics…. Part 1

I’ve recently nosedived into the world of Copics and boy, is it expensive to start out on?!

I haven’t had much luck colouring on regular cardstock at all, even with the Memento ink; the Copic inks just tend to bleed out of the lines! Anyway, while I was at the art store buying my first Copics, I also picked up a specially-for-Copics drawing paper. It is very lightweight but it stays true to its claim that it does not bleed.

The challenge I have coloured something for is the TTC11 Touch Twin Marker Challenge:

These Touch Twin markers look like Copics but are more inexpensive. Since most people don’t own any (yet) and I would like to win this and try some for myself, I made myself do some some colouring in order to enter something into the challenge. I coloured a Market Street Cool Cats cat stamp as a ginger cat! Never mind I’m not fab enough yet to colour in some stripes LOL, and please excuse me, this is pretty much around the 7-8th thing that I’ve coloured with Copics:

Not much depth… I am going to need more of those YRs,,, LOL

Thanks for checking out my blog and if you have any tutorials or tips to share, and if you know how to colour on normal cardstock, please tell me in the comments! xx Stephinka

Flashback Friday Challenge

I chanced upon this blog called the Flashback Friday Challenge, and the current challenge is to post the first black & white card you have ever made… That’s easy- I’ve only ever made one only B&W card and this is it:

I had originally made it for the Runway Inspired Challenge Blog just back in January this year, and my original post is here… And I have already given this card away to my psychiatrist who has proudly displayed it in his office 😀 Soon after that, he asked to see what other cards I have made that are Valentine’s/Love related, and he bought two to give to his wife. Thought that was a cute story to share 🙂

In other news, I’ve been re-organising my crafty stuff like there’s no tomorrow.. I’ve got new storage drawers, new folders for my stamps, new die storage system and I’ve been getting my Evernote set up to list my inventory and cards for inspirations under pages I made for specific stamps. It’s definitely slightly crazy around here! But I might show you all some photos of how I store my stuff when I am done. If I ever get done. LOL.

Have a wonderful day! xx Stephinka