Tag Archives: crafting

Brewing Something New

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The post title sure is a nice way of saying, I’m doing a major blog dress-up overhaul, lobotomy or simply implementing changes. Lol. What brought this about? Nope, not some collision estimation, but more like I’ve been planning to do this for awhile but it just keeps getting pushed to the background.

First things first, I’m sure the first thing you’ll notice is the site’s new look. For awhile, this blog site has been wearing Elegant Themes My Cuisine Premium Theme. I love that theme to bits, but I really wanted to have a bigger header with the site name displayed more prominently. After searching awhile I settled on Brightpage a free wordpress theme. I customized the background for a bit of vintage-grunge feel and I also added some of my favorite arts and crafts quotes. I also did some tweaking under the hood to get the cursive font ‘Satisfy’ for my site title.

Second, I’ve got a lot of new badges. Yay! I had some downtime yesterday and I made a new blog badge {you can add it to your websites and I’ll be open to adding your badge too on my sidebar}, I also made a badge to link to my Artscow templates page.

And lastly, I’ll be trimming down my blog categories. I know I initially wanted this blog to showcase my all crafting whatnots, but I realized that I simply don’t have the time now to do everything. I manage multiple blogs so I tend to always be running out of time. So I decided to pick just one crafting interest and build on that. I love to crochet and make jewelries but I rarely get the time to do that. So I chose my graphic design and digiscrapping craft interest to be the only highlight of this blog. At least I can focus now on that. And another reason for choosing this is that I know I still have a lot more to learn in this area and blogging about it motivates me more to learn.

So I’ll be condensing my categories and if I blurb about other crafts it’ll all be just under ‘Other Crafting Interests’ instead of it having each separate category.

Also, I’ll be regularly featuring now Discount Codes, Sales Events mainly at Artscow and also some events digi scrappers might be interested in.

A Few Days Off..

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Yup! I took a few days off. We had a week-long holiday here in Phnom Penh and we thought its high time we get out of the city. We haven’t gone anywhere for a month or so, and I was getting antsy. The best thing about living here in Phnom Penh is that, its easy to go to some of the greatest Asian cities and destinations. Everyone wanted someplace that is near and where we didn’t have to take a plane and with some great sights, great food and some shopping. We all then settled on… Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

A few hours bus ride from Phnom Penh and we were there. Spent a whole day touring some of the city sights and a night and a day doing some shopping. Of course, Vietnamese food is just soo delicious, and a bit familiar since I’ve been used to Cambodian cuisine already. There was no danger for me to watch out for food allergies austin, so it was a food fest for us too.

My favorite place to visit in Ho Chi Minh? The General Post Office! I feel like I went on time travel whenever I visit this place…

Ho Chi Minh - General Post Office

...lovely French Colonial architecture..Ho Chi Minh City General Post Office

After all these, I’m all rested and revved up. And inspired too, to get working on some crafting freebies soon :) )

On the Drawing Board..

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My!  The freebie for this week is coming in late. I did try to get it in time for Tuesday but I was not feeling well the past few days. I wish I could say its just a simple side effect of apidexin but its not. I was nauseous the whole time, hubby thinks I might be having a little one. Were crossing our fingers, but I’m not really putting up too much hope coz this has happened in the past and we ended up being disappointed..Anyway, it’ll come when it comes. I do hope to be blessed with a little boy soon.

Back to the crafting stuff, what’s on my drawing board? Patterned alphabet stickers for scrapbookers! I have several sets currently being made and I’ll giving that out as freebies. Watch out for it, soon!

Awed by Nature

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I must admit I haven’t been as productive creatively this time. Mostly because I’m having a really rough time. I guess anybody who has a loved one on a sick bed and terminally ill would experience some sort of depression. I’m in a stupor most of the time, functioning on automation. Lately though, I’m finding a lot of solace in nature and its natural beauty. Everyday, I wake up real early and spend some time just walking around my mother’s garden. Looking at all the beauty around me makes me appreciate life more and how fortunate we are.

I’m quite lucky this is the view I wake up to.. Our front yard view from the verandah..

I’m hoping once this is all over I could get back my crafting mojo. I feel a little bereft when I’m in this mood. I keep wishing there is something I could do but time heals they say. And I just console myself and hope soon nature would help us heal…

Inspired By Colors

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You know what easily inspires me to create? Colors! I just see a combination of hues and I almost always think of some scenes with those colors. Although I know creative processes for different people are different, but for newbies like me, you might find it really helpful to jumpstart an idea with color schemes.

Since this technique is effective for me, whether I’m planning to make an digi scrap kit, a crochet project , a beaded jewelry, a template,or  any graphic design, I then make full use of online resources and some softwares to generate some color schemes I could work with.

One of my current favorites is Color Schemer. I spend hours tinkering with this software, making color combinations and saving them for future projects. It’s a breeze to use and offers a lot of ways you can generate a color schema. Another plus is its ability to generate ‘web safe’ html color codes and drag and drop colors to quick preview!

I took some screen shots of the main features of the Color Schemer.

color-schemer_color-wheel

the color wheel.. makes picking colors a lot easier…

 

color-schemer_gallery-browser

go online and browse user submitted color schemes

 

color-schemer_live-schemes

pick a color and the ‘live schemes’ will mix and match for you..

 

color-schemer_mixer

not sure about the right tone? use the color mixer..

 

color-schemer_photo-schemer

have a photo with colors you love? upload the photo and the software will pick the colors for you!

 

color-schemer_quick-preview-for-web-designs

sometimes I tinker with HTML/CSS designs and templates and this is the perfect tool to preview if I got the look I want..

 

color-schemer_variations

i find this a very good tool for easier visualization..


There are also a lot of fabulous color scheme generators available online. Some are free, some require a fee. Picking one is really up to you and your needs. I would recommend checking out this post – 25 Popular Color Scheme and Palette Generators.