Nothing better than a good feedback :)

Early this morning, I was pleasantly surprised by my good friend Cindy's post.
I am so flattered and happy that the flowers she ordered for her daughter were well received and that her daughter excited to use these flowers I made, for her headbands and barettes, alhamdulillah!
Can't wait to see her creations!
Thanks so much Cindy, you're the best!

By the way, Cindy sells great stuffs too and she's a super nice seller...check out her site, coolshirts2cheap.

Yaay, gifts...alhamdulillah!

This post is actually over due, but I only got a chance to write it down today.
A couple of weeks ago, I received two packages, one was from my lovely aunt Jia of Fauzia's art & craft and the other was from my very dear of mine, mbak Dita of Handmade Nest. Alhamdulillah!

Jia sent me a beautiful, intricate necklace with pendant which also can be wore as a brooch (double functions...my kind of things!). She sent it for an exchange of the pochette I sent her for her birthday, though I really don't expect anything from her. It's made of wire works and stone, I suspected it was quite time consuming to make. Beautiful! Love it so much, thanks Jia, muach2!

Happy New Year 1 Muharam 1432H

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Photos*]

I won the giveaway!

Double-triple yaaay!

Thanks to sis Ning of Babalisme, I received the gift two days ago, but just have a chance to post it today because of my packing-for-relocating business ;)

My son and I enjoyed it so much, we looove it...especially me, I have never received giveaway from Blogger before and this one is so cool!

Loove the personal "stamp"...so cute!

The content...goody-goody!

The back of the package...loove the circus theme!

"Craft For Humanity" Auctions Recap & Donation report

Alhamdulillah, "Craft for Humanity" Auction part 2 has just ended, thanks to all who have participated, thanks to Anchy and mbak Poppy for donating your creations for this auction, may Allah bless us all, amiin.

Herewith, I'd like to give an update of auction part 1 as well:
the total amount of fund raised (from the auction and donation from sis Rebecca) was IDR 1.277.000, and it's all donated to Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) account. Please find the report of the transfer I posted below.

Relocating...relocating...

Sigh...nothing I hate more than relocating...
It's not about adapting to the new place and so on, what I hate is packing and unpacking!
We're such a hoarder, so many things to packed, threw away or sell...
my son's a bit reluctant because he's a young man now, he feels quite attach to his friends here.

So, yes, we are relocating. Hubby got a job abroad while I might be still in Bandar Lampung for a few months, until my son finish his primary school, but we definitely won't be staying at the hotel anymore as the end of this month. My apology to my customers, I'd probably won't make any new creations during that time, except just a couple of orders I had agreed earlier.

Mind you, the picture below is not mine, but I think that's what mine will looked like, lol

"Craft For Humanity" Auction Part 2

Alhamdulillah, after my own "Craft For Humanity" auction has closed (still waiting to receive a few transfers though), some of my fellow crafters interested to do the same thing and I am happy to help hosting the auction, all for the good cause and our good friendship :)

The items auctioned were all handmade by my good friends:
Mbak Poppy: http://cestmagnifique.multiply.com
Anchy: http://onigirishop.multiply.com

These are two of the whole collection auctioned

To participate in the auction, please click here.

Enjoy the auction, may The Almighty return all of your kind intentions and attentions, amiin.

Auction for "Craft For Humanity"

Indonesia has been through tough tests lately...disaster in Wasior, flood in Jakarta, volcano eruption at Merapi Mountain in Java...but the one nearest to the place I live was the earth quake (7,2 Richter's scale) and tsunami at Mentawai Islands, small islands near Sumatera, best known as surfer's paradise because of its sea waves.

It touched me so and my friend, mbak Tarlen, who I respect and adore so dearly, came up with the idea of "Craft For Humanity" . But I don't think it will be enough time for me to make some craft specially for them, they need it now and they need it fast, so I guess I just would like to put some of my ready-stock on auction, to raise fund for the humanity project mentioned above (though I should admit, it's not much).

So, for those who interested to participate on the auction, please click here.

One of my creation on the auction

Let's bid for a good cause...hope it will help the needy, even if it's just a bit, insha Allah...

Primula's Last Order

For those who don't know, I actually have 2 lines of product; Primula is my first, targeted at adult and Calyx is my second, which is more for the young and young at hearts people.

I haven't made anything for Primula for quite a while, simply because Primula productions are more time consuming and I had a "whimsical and childish mood" which suitable for Calyx, lingered longer than I thought it would be, lol.

However, I did make one recently (and it's sold already, alhamdulillah).
A customer would like to have a tote and insisted it to be Primula's (thanks mbak Nani, for your encouragement and your patience).
Another one is still in process, for a good returning customer .

I'd like to share the picture here and hope you'll enjoy it
Hope I can make some more Primula products soon, insha Allah...

Primula's tote; made of faux leather and velvet, embellished with various kind of beads, ribbon embroidery, etc

That's what friends are for...(and it's not a song :P)

Maybe you've seen "Koncoku Handmade" mentioned every now and then in my blogs and calendar, but if you think it's another brand of mine, well, it's incorrect.

"Koncoku Handmade", initially found by me and mbak Puri of Ideku Handmade, it's the name for our (planned to be launch, Insha Allah) Etsy shop. But we both often share booth in bazaars and I feel it's not fair to name our booth just by my or her brand name. So we use "Koncoku Handmade" as our bazaar booth's name . The name "Koncoku" itself was a Javanese language, means "My Friend(s)".

Sweet dream...

Gigi, the little tooth, likes the Sweets.
But she knew that she can't meet them as often as she wanted to, because though they are nice looking and taste good, they can turned to be quite malicious, in time they will strip Gigi's email layers, make her prone to be damaged, especially if Gigi's owner forgot to clean her in the evening.
So, she can only dream of them, dream of playing happily with them and that they won't do her any harm

See Gigi on Calyx Multifunction backpack here

Meet Hans, the adventurous hedgehog!

Hans is a special hedgehog.
He's so active, couldn't sit still.
He's adventurous too, likes to try new things to do.
The other hedgehogs mostly don't understand (or maybe misunderstand) Hans.
But his mother do, so she channels Hans huge energy by signing him to various activities.
One day, she signed Hans up for parachuting lesson and he got hooked!
He loves it and do it regularly since then

See Hans on Calyx Multifunction backpack here .
He's one of my favorite, can't wait to show Hans' other adventures soon

What's GC?

Before I answer the above question, let me just tell you something...

I have followed quite many talented blogger crafters, many of them are experts in making cute greeting cards, like Dragonllew's Spot, LOTV's Ideas to Inspire and many more. Though I don't have time to try to make one, I admire their works. They inspire me a lot.
So, I have an idea of embellishing my bag with things that looked like a greeting card.

I used quilt blocks fabric, put a bit of embroidery or ribbon embroidery here and there, compliment them with laces, buttons, beads, sequins or whatever usually found in a greeting card.

So the bags I made that inspired by greeting cards, I named them "GC" bags, a short from "Greeting Cards" bags, lol...

To see my whole creation of GC bags, please click here



Thanks Fathia, for being my model :)

Too passionate about the job :P

Pfeewh, it's been like decades I haven't been updating my sites ...

It's because I've been busy doing orders and stocks, I'd been through human resources crisis here... Can you believe it, I've changed assistant(s) 3 times within this last couple of months! With some bazaar events approaching, there's no way I'm doing them all by my self, I still have house chores, a husband and a son to tend to...

It's quite hard to find someone that can share the same passion of the craft. But now I found the one that I think pretty acceptable, alhamdulillah, though there's one funny incident that I'm gonna tell you here.

I was explaining to the assistant about the red backpack for my dear cousin, Jia's daughter, to her. As she looked at the fabric, she said it was too much for 1 backpack only. I said, that's ok, she can return the rest of the fabric to me, just make the red backpack 1 piece only and the rest (I was giving her other fabrics too, to be made as multifunction backpack) in black color. Then off her went home, to do the orders.

Yesterday, she gave me the backpacks, including the red one for my cousin. Surprise, surprise, she made 2 of them, the other was made by using other stitched fabric intended for the black one ! She said, it's because the fabric was enough for 2 backpacks, instead of one as I instructed. And she made the side pockets for my cousin's backpack, which I strictly prohibited from the beginning (as Jia's wish), just because she thought it will looked better with them, lol...

My cousin's backpack

Eid Mubarak!

My Other Flower Fairy Magnet Brooches

After I finished the green-pink Flower Fairy brooch, I actually made another two of them, also Flower Fairy, but different flowers/colors.
The images were also grabbed from The Graphic Fairy.

I think, the ruffled edge of these two are better than the first one I showed in the previous blog, though I still didn't dare to make it wider. Don't you think so?

Yellow Flower Fairy

Pink Flower Fairy

Craftgossip's Giveaway; My Etsy Wish List

When I read Craftgossip's post about their giveaway, I thought, what could possibly greater giveaway to me, than this one (if I won it). I'll have a chance to have unique fun craft supplies, the ones I can't find in my country, the ones I've been eyeing all this time at Etsy, yoohoo!

With US$ 100 as a limit, my wish list will be a long one, lol.
So, here they are (ooh, I'm so excited!):

1. The glorious ribbons:

• A wired ribbon for my ribbon art project, in my favorite color (light pink), from Griffith Garden. $4.
  

• Another one, with bolder color, also from Griffith Garden. $1.25
  

• Green leaf vine ribbon, from 4Allthingsbeautiful. $ 1.05
  

To my fellow muslims & muslimas...

Ramadhan Mubarak...
Hope we all can do our ibadah successfully, in this holy month and afterward.
I also would like to apologize, for all the mistakes I may have done to you, my dear friends.
I've never meant it and I love you all for Allah's sake.
May Allah bless us all, amiin

My newest project; what do you think?

Remember the multi looks bag I posted previously?
I made another one, similar to that on the post, but it reversible, so even more looks I can get from only 1 bag .
But because it's reversible, I made it without any embroidery/embellishment, I'm afraid if I do, when it's on the inside part, it will ruined because it flattened or tangled with the things I put inside.
Instead, I just put my magnetic corsage on, so it can be detached or moved from 1 side to another.

Look no.1: Denim clutch.

A New Craze: Cabochon Embroidery

Well, at least it's new for me. Beading embroidery it's not something unfamiliar for me, but I've never weave it into a cabochon embroidery before. I've been wanting to create one, I have the tools, supplies and tutes but hadn't got a chance to make it.

Yesterday, I spent a whole day, tried my hand on this, based on mbak Dini Sarbini's book.
Because it's just a first trial, I didn't dare to use the stiff stuff and faux suede for the backing. Instead, I used felt (lol!) and attached a magnet instead of a pin ( I love magnet, it won't make any hole if you attach it to anything ).
I have the cab made of resin from a picture I grabbed at The Graphic Fairy.
I appreciate any critics and suggestion for improvement, for I still not really happy on the ruffles edge I made .
So please, I welcome any comment(s) .

(Recap) "Koncoku Handmade" @ Pasar Nova, Jakarta, 31 July - 01 Aug 2010

Initially I was meant to attend Pasar Nova in "Koncoku" booth with my friends; mbak Puri of Ideku, mbak Dita of Cemprut, Anchy of Onigiri Shop and bu Pia of Idys. But for some reasons, I didn't come, I only consigned some products of mine to mbak Puri and bu Pia.

Nevertheless, "Koncoku" is my other "baby" (I'll write all about it in other blog, insha Allah), so I was excited and happy for my friends. So, when it's over, I urged mbak Dita to post the pictures and bu Pia to share the story of their activity in Pasar Nova .

How happy I was when mbak Dita granted my wish and bu Pia came to place to tell their stories. It seems they had fun, though they experienced heat and rain, that I quite regretted my decision to not to come. I'm happy that my friends had a good sales and "Koncoku" booth visited by many interested buyers and got good responses, alhamdulillah.

Here I'd like to share to you also the pictures and the fun my friends had

"Koncoku" booth

Blog Award

Thanks to my dear friend, mbak Ina of Feathering a Nest for this award, I'm so happy and honored :)
Hmm, 7 things about my self... see if I can make it 7, since actually, I'm a boring person, lol.
Ok, let's start then...

Fathia and her new creation

It's been a while I haven't see Fathia and her family, because of the school holiday; I went to my hometown for a week and when I got back, it was her turn, they went for two weeks, spending the holiday.

When we finally met last week, she told me that she went to Crayon in Bandung, her favorite place and mine too. Well, actually Crayon is every crafter's haven, they sold craft supplies and provide free course and tutorial (as long as we bought the supplies there).

So, in her latest visit to Crayon, she learned how to make stuffed animal from recycled sock.

Fathia and her latest creation.

Corsage Craze 2: Finally, a perfect bloom :)

Those who've read my previous blog, know that I have a thing with fabric flowers.
Because I haven't made anything near my expectation, I kept looking for corsage tutorials.

In my quest, I came across this tute. I tried to make one, still haven't got what I was looking for.
Then, I modified it a bit, still using the same template, but instead of only 4 smaller flowers, I used 9 smaller ones, so it became 4 tiered.

Voila ! I've reached the result I've always wanted. Instead of pin backing, I used magnet, so as not to make a hole on anything it attached to.

A perfect bloom

This is why I prefer to work alone...

Well, not completely alone though...there's one who helps me sew things (based on my designs). But designing, hand stitching, ribbon embroidery, beading, fabric drawing, making handle-necklaces, shopping for supplies, etc, all done by my self.

I used to have another who helps me with the sequins & beads, but unfortunately she moves to another place, quite far from where I live. So actually, I need more assistant(s).

I was happy when my best friend offer me her new employee's assistance, just when I was about to over load with works for bazaar's stock and orders. She said, because she doesn't have many jobs for the new employee to do at the moment and she was going to Jakarta and Bandung for sometimes (to spend the school holiday with her family), then I can temporarily use her new employee's assistance.

I gave her the job that I thought the easiest one, which was sewing laces. I dropped the job over my friend's studio, gave the new employee some instructions.

The day after, I called to see if she finds any difficulties and she said her sewing machine broke, so she hasn't done anything. I suggested her to do what I usually did, which is stitching it by hand.

A couple of days later, I came to see the result. Apparently she done it wrong, so again I gave her instructions on how to improve it.

I gave it another week, but what a horror I found when I visit her to collect the job...she has done nothing but one (and only half way done too) ! And it's all wrong, it was stitched upside down! And the bazaar is next week!

The messy laces

How to make a wound rose (ribbon embroidery)

A very dear friend asked me how to make a wound rose (side way) like the ones I made on the above bag.

Honestly, I'm not much of a teacher, but I'll try to explain it here. So please excuse me if there's any confusing parts, but I'll try to answer if you have any question.
Mind you, I didn't invent this technique, I learned it first from a book titled "Sulam Pita, edisi 2" by AJ. Boesra, so I won't take any credit for it. Well...not exactly the same though, a little simplification here and there, because the rose I made was quite tiny . But this tute's pictures are all made by my self .
So, here we go...