Coin purse

As today is 29th February, I told myself that I have to blog about something to commemorate this once-every-four-years event. :) So today I wanted to share a recent craft project that I've completed. I made a coin purse using my own fabric design (available here for purchase via Spoonflower).

I specifically picked this pattern and coin purse frame thinking that using glue to attach the fabric to the frame would make everything simpler. Wrong! The glue made everything fiddly... :P Despite the glue mess, the coin purse turned out quite pretty. So I'm happy. :)

What recent craft project have you completed? Have you ever made a coin purse before? I would love to hear your tips on attaching the frame to the fabric or any other tips! ^^

Love,
from me to u.

Valentine's Day 2012 - Little Celebrations

I had wanted to do a book post seeing that Greta (from Something by the Virtue of Nothing) had mentioned that 14th of February is a Book Giving Day too... But I thought it would be apt to do a post on how I celebrated my Valentine's Day first. I'm a bit OCD, I guess...;;^^

I love celebrations as it is an opportunity for me to get all crafty. I made my husband a pop-up card with the help of the template I got from minico.co.uk which I covered in one of my past posts here. I finished it all off by using my stamping collection. This is our 6th Valentine's Day together since we've dated but I think it is very important to take the time to have little celebrations. Especially in a marriage it is very easy to settle into routines... :)

I hope all of you had a lovely Valentine's Day too. :)

Love,
from me to u.

Valentine's Day Ideas

Last year, I featured a set of love coupons that I've made for my husband as Valentine's gift idea. I didn't realise that there has been a request for the template until recently...;;^^

Since Valentine's Day is around the corner again, I thought it would be apt to put the template up. The template is available here. (Link updated on 23 Jan 2014)

The template is only for personal use and should not be used for commercial purposes. 

Thank you! ^^

Image source: Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night

I also found another fantastic love coupon template from this blog, Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night. She also provides a blank version that you can personalise to suit you. :)

If love coupons are not your thing, how about handmade cards? 

Image source: minieco.co.uk

This pop-out card tutorial from minieco is just adorable! :)

Image source: Alphamom

Or go further with crafty goodness by making this Tic Tac Toe Hearts from Alphamom.

So what are you making for Valentine's Day to give to that special someone in your life? ^_-

Love,

from me to u.

What I'm loving....

... my wedding anniversary. I'm told the first year is special. I'm also loving that we were able to create little traditions during the celebration. We took inspiration from this cake from Style Me Pretty. Thanks to countless hours of being addicted to Pinterest. ^_-

What else do I love this Monday?
Catching up with lovely friends over the weekend with good food. :) Here's Saturday... :)
Being able to introduce friends and having them get along well. (One of them said I should be a matchmaker, haha)
Meeting my PhD deadlines for publications.
Chocolates from Chokolait.

What are you loving this Monday?

Love,
from me to u.

This post is part of Anna's Much Love Monday.

A birthday...

I love birthdays and occasions because I get to make hand-made cards. I made this for a friend's daughter who turned 4. She loves pink and anything girly. I realised though little kids are hard to please. LOL she wasn't impressed with the card. But she's still cute nonetheless and I still love her to bits. ^^

What else am I loving this Monday?

Staying warm at home during a rainy day, earl grey tea, chocolate and loads of it. :)

Love,
from me to u.

This is part of Anna's Much Love Monday. What are you loving this Monday?

Before and After Project - A touch of vintage knobs

This is my first foray into the area of DIY before and after projects but I thought I'd start small. I've been watching a lot of renovation shows (very addicted to Divine Design by Candice Olson), and the one take-away I've got is that you can give drawers/cupboards a new look just by changing their knobs. What luck, when I was walking around at Provincial Living, I found the most amazing range of vintage style knobs!

I choose the simple glass knobs because I wanted something that would stand out against the black of the Ikea drawers beside my bed. My husband helped with this one as we had to cut away the excess screw length of each knob. Then he also helped to remove the old knobs, drilling and installing the new knobs. Ok, mostly I supervised, but hey, I came up with the idea! And I took pictures. So it counts! ^^

Anyway, I'm very happy with how this turned out! I think this is an easy way to get into doing restoration DIY. My next DIY before and after project is restoring my vintage mannequin. When I finish that project, I'll put up pictures too, so stay tuned! :)

Love,
from me to u.

Here's something I've prepared earlier....

About two weeks ago, I managed to complete a major deadline. To reward myself I did a bit of crafting. I made myself an apron from a piece of fabric that I bought two years ago and ribbons that I got a year ago. Since the study started, I've let the crafty side of things slide....

But I'm happy that I've been able to complete a project... never-mind that it was one year ago that I planned it. ;;^^

Do you have a craft check-list? I certainly do, and unfortunately it will be a while before I can tick things off.... >.<

Love,
from me to u.

I do make stuff, really!

Tea Time - 2 in 1 Brooch
2011 Copyright - jmh / me.u design

After much hiatus from creating designs (wedding preparation, marriage and PhD), I've finally finished some pieces. Yay! I'll be uploading them on my website soon. Meanwhile, here's a preview of one of the pieces I've finished. ^^ Now, back to PhD work again....>.<

Love,

from me to u.

A Wedding Journey: 3. It's a Sign!

As you know, signage are very important in any function. In a wedding, it can be the very thing that ties the whole wedding theme together. As I mentioned before, I did not have a specific theme for my wedding but rather I was using colours to tie the whole wedding together. Using signage, I used not only the colours, but fonts and motifs to create a feel for my wedding. 

I opted for a different, albeit a well-used idea in weddings by using words for each of my table instead of numbers. I designed and created the signs with a variety of words linked to "love". Some of my friends who were guests in the wedding helped me to come up with some of the words such as "adore, "devotion", "faith" and so on.

The fonts, motifs and colours were carried across onto other signage in the room. 

I did not want to settle for a normal excel sheets for my guestlist and sitting chart. So I created these. Again, I had hoped that by doing so, the continuity of the theme of my wedding would be preserved. 

Using cupcake wraps with stickers that I had designed to match the other signage around the wedding, I've saved time in making sure that my bomboniere were ready by the wedding reception with minimal hassle. I'm a big fan of doing things simple, easy and effective. Here, I opted for a typewriter font instead of the flowy font I had used in my other signage. Why? The size of these particular signage were tiny. It is important when creating signage that the guests can actually read them. That being said, the same font was also used in the invites. So again, it carried the theme of the wedding through.

Details, details details! It is the little details that can make a wedding unforgettable. I created a signage for my cake table to tell the guests what cake they would be getting. I created this by op-shopping my frame and painting it white.

Perhaps I was being overly obsessive about my wedding signage... but I absolutely think it is crucial to have signage that reflects your personality. The fun thing about these signage is, it could be the creative (and DIY) aspect of your wedding as you can actually do them way before the wedding, hence less stress. It is a fantastic way to get the bridesmaids and even guests involved!

Valentine's Ideas - Love Coupons

What I love about love coupons is that you can actually personalise it for the recipient. ^^

I made these for Christmas as a present to my husband, but I think it is still a pretty neat and relevant idea for Valentine's Day too.

What are you giving this Valentine's Day to show your love for someone? ^^

Update 8th Feb 2012:
The free DIY template is now available via this post here.

Been busy preparing for this...

When it should have been about me....

...why is it always about you? Another piece, part of the Words series.

What about...

.... me? This is part of my Words necklace range. Look at Another Love necklace piece here which is part of the same range. These will be available at the market in September. More details about the market will come soon. :)

Little Frog

There was once a little frog,

who lives by a little pond in the forest.

He jumps from log to log,

looking for love the fairest.

One day he saw a flower in the fog,

which he thinks is the prettiest.

He then decided to this beautiful flower,

he shall profess his love, oh so earnest!

------

This me.u piece is a modular brooch I made from glass beads, wires and a vintage button. Hope the new owner loves it as much as I loved making it. ^^

A gallery of Hana's

Hana was one of my most popular collection. The pieces in this range are custom-made. The client get to choose which flower and I work with the basic flower to create the pieces. I've just realised that I've done a couple of this theme and I've named them differently. I just never really told anyone what I call each piece, so I thought I'd take this moment to highlight each Hana.

1. Hana Brooch - The first piece in the Hana collection.
2. Luxe Hana - This second piece is adorned with semi-precious stones, the Rose Quartz.
3. Purple Crystal Hana - Although the flower is similar to that of the first Hana brooch, this piece is finished off with a simple purple heart crystal.
4. Vintage Hana - The highlight of this piece is the vintage button. 
5. Avant Garde Hana - This piece has a 'tighter' design in comparison to the other Hana's. I wanted it to be very simple but with impact. The line work with the wiring is a bit more artistic and the colours very minimalistic.

Words...

They were once alphabets, random letters scattered across my work table. Then they became words. These pieces from the 'Words' collection will be part of the things that I'll be bringing to the market. What market? Stay tune as more details will be revealed closer to the date! ^^