This Spring...

...I'm totally mad about balloons. I'm going to post a lot about that floaty things until you pop. Sue me.

Papris'.

Jacqleen Bleu's found via Oh Joy!.

Free People 2008 fall shot.

Cherryblossomgirl's.

My Polaroid Blog.

Tim Walker's photography found via clairekathleen444's.

This Weekend...

I'll just stay at home and read some books I haven't got a chance to read for long time. It's raining too. Looks like it's going to rain all day. *sigh*

Oh, looks like Terry the Tiger cub is doing the same thing as I am! Feel free to take him home with you. I think Terry looks good as a recipe card, a kid's book label, or a lunch bag's label. Did I mention how Terry loves his stripy sweater?

Grab, print, reproduce, and share. Happy weekend, everyone!

An opposite of a Dentist Office..

Janethillstudio's The Little Cake Shop

Ginko's birthday card.

Bakers Dozen's Blanca Gomez's card.

..guarantee to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Easter Gift Tags Printables is Here!

I am not really healthy at this time, (thank you for all of you wishing me better soon!), so here's my Easter printable, quite different from what I have planned, but I hope all my dear readers will love it. Fell free to download here, share, craft, and do anything with it, even sell it, maybe, but be a dear and send me a link to your creations using these gift tags, you don't have to post it on your blog, a flickr link or an email would make my day.

Earlier, my so called Easter craft plans including some Easter rabbit puppets, Easter paper game, and Easter build up paper diorama (hello, big dreamer!), but due to my condition and very limited time (my deadlines are still endless despite the holiday and my sickness, unfortunately), I just have the strength to do a set of gift tags. *boo-hoo* I know, I know, it's lame, so hate me, throw rocks at me, and dump my body at the sewer.

Nevertheless, making up for my weakness I'll share with you a list of things to do/craft this easter. Obviously, these ladies did their homework better than mine, so please visit them.

1. download lovable yet adorable art you can print yourself at Jen's FeedYourSoul.
2. making Easter eggs? Don't forget to decorate the holder too! Visit Zakkalife for the how-to.
3. enter Calamity Kim's giveaway to win a chance of a basket full of spring time goodness.
4. dyed some eggs with Lolly. (I swear she posted this craft tutorial first before Martha Stewart Living hit the racks!) The sweet Lolly has a bunny week running too, in case you're more of a bunny than an egg person.
5. make an artwork, yes, YOU make the artwork. You can do it by following sarahjane's easy step by step.
6. make a "baglets" and print them pretty ala Jessica from howaboutorange.
   
7. does my list suck or just can't get enough of Easter craft? Head over to Christy's to find better options, guaranteed.
   

Quirky Little Chandelier..

.. of forks and spoons. from bikinbarang.


(I'm sorry for the short post, but I'm not feeling well today, and I have to see the family doctor now. Sorry!)

While taking a break..

..from extra cute things and cotton candy color, I met Lulu. She said she's going to bite me if I didn't post her on my blog. She's still cute, in some way, and the most important thing, she's a little naughty and crave for attentions. So, here she is.

Happy Weekend, everyone! You can print, share, or use this illustration as a card, e-cards, etc when you feel a little like Lulu.

Stamping Fun

I was in a desperate need of a decent envelope today, my husband's relative had been sending him lots of good things and he wanted to thank him with a proper thank you note in an envelope. Due to the relative's tradition, it's not polite to use a white blank, usual office envelope, so here's what I do in a very limited time. (It is effectively cheap and fast!)

I have a stack of self-carved eraser stamps, if you're like me, who unexpectedly always have to decorate something quickly, it might be a good idea to carve in your spare time and make 2 or 3 stamps as a start. If you want to carve your own eraser stamp, Geninne has a very good tutorial on how to start carving.

So here are my weapons of urgent envelope decorating.

What's a pencil doing up there? I used the eraser head to make red dots, not exactly a dot since I have used the head to erase earlier, but I like my non-dot.

It's the final envelope. Quick and easy. It works well to spiceup a fabric (use a fabric ink pad), cards, book covers, envelope liners, etc..or in case you need a gift wrapper but you only have a blank brown piece of paper.

The Clovers Finger Puppet Printable!

Happy St. Patricks day everyone!

I know I'm not Irish and not celebrating this holiday but, hey, it's always nice to have an excuse to celebrate something! To celebrate the day (and feeling extra lucky today) I'm giving you a free printable of mr. and ms. Clover here, and boy, they love to dance, so print them while it's hot and slip them through your fingers (they are not on the net forever, boys and girls!).

I love to make finger puppets, it brings me back to my kindergarten days. I was always putting this and that to my puppets and I remember making a lion once, I put many color shredded papers for his mane, some ruffled strings (I can't fine straight one) for its whisker, some beads because it came from Africa (my logic was poor, I know), and finally dabbing my crayons all over the puppets to illustrate fur. My kindergarten teacher said to me, in a Simon Cowell kind of tone, "It's a little over the top, don't you think? Why don't you just color it with crayon like your friends?" Well, I'm glad I didn't.

download me.

So, if you're unfamiliar with finger puppets, try my Clover for your initiation, next time, you can make your own. Here's how to ...

1. Cut along carefully until all white spaces are gone, yes, including 2 holes on each Cloverboy/girl.
2. Slip your fingers (usually your pointer and middle one) and make them walk, run, or dance! If you think you have smaller or bigger finger diameter than the holes I provided, before you print remember to adjust the pdf files first.
3. The hats and ribbons are their accessory. Slit the white line on top of their faces and slip the accessory's gray space behind. Voila.

As usual, if you play with mr. and ms. Clover please let me know. You don't have to blog about that, just put them on Flickr or something and let me know. I want to see their new feet.

If you need another clover craft head to Zakka life. She has the most utterly amazing clover craft tutorial.

My luck meter is decreasing again...

..for winning an adorable Bunny pin from RE-read! I won it on February and it just arrived yesterday, for Indonesian snail mail it can be considered extra quick, trust me. Anyway, I am soooo.. excited when the neat package laid on my mail bowl (yes, the bowl looking kinda empty nowadays.. in that case I'm double excited!). This would be my second winning this year!! Whooaa if this is hoe things are going for me, I'm sure my luck meter will run out by June!

I was thrilled too about the fact that Re-read actually use magazine covers and such for the envelope, labels, and stuffings. How thoughtful! Even my prize is also made from recyclable stuffs! How great is she? I'm into recycled craft and if you're like me, RE-read has a whole lot of them at her store.


What make my winning more interesting is that my friend Anna also won a bunny from Re-read, just a week or so before I won mine! Isn't that a pretty coincidence or what? You can read about Anna's bunny here. I can't find a proper dress to pin this baby on, so meanwhile she sits on top of a book that have a pretty matching color. Say hi to everyone, bunny!

Watch your back, Agyness!

If the center of fashion hasn't moved yet, last time I check it was Paris, France. Even their child's fashion magazine is sooo fashionable, in a Paris kinda way, of course. And look at these adorable models, they are so good at posing, I think they are re-sizing Gemma and Agyness with photoshop. So here's a little indulgent for your fashion sense to decorate your desktop. Warning : if you're a 50 years old guy and happens to feel really excited looking at these, please look for help, immediately.

Yaay for Craft Store!

Lovely Christy of Sweet Tidings is opening her new shop, happy handmades. What is she selling?
Well crafters alike should rejoice because she's going to fill her racks with one of a kind craft supplies, Japanese craft/zakka books (wooo-weee!), softies, and many more!

If you're a big craft fan and can't get your hands idle, check happy handmades daily!

As if the excitement alone isn't enough, Christy is having a giveaway to celebrate the opening of her store! It's open until this Thursday and all you have to do is coment on her post, congrats her, and tell her I'm sending you! Here's a peek to what you can win!

Happy Weekend

..from Chubby Shroom and son.

Feel free to grab, print, send, ..anything to the Shrooms. Just link back to me, I'll check how they are doing at your home.

Get Ready for Spring Dress..

..for free!! Head to Grosgrain to enter her giveaway. I think the paper crane dress is so pretty and spring-y, I imagine it twirling when you move. But I must warn you that the dress is quiet small, I think, judging from the model's figure in pictures. I am not sure but Grosgrain provides the measurement, be sure to check if it fits you or someone you know before you enter the giveaway. Don't shut the chances of your smaller size sisters :).

Me? My post baby figure might not fit in, but I have a cute cousin who might. So, all you pretty petite ladies head over here quickly!

Can't get enough of pastel.

Look what I've done to February's blog title theme. I guess I want a fabric printed like this.

Martha's Craft Dept

I am a Martha Stewart fan. Go on, laugh, despise, and humiliate me if you want, but I do love Martha Stewart. Not Martha as a person, of course, but her whole media and especially the decorating, the wedding, and the craft section. When I first grab the issue of Marta Stewart Living I always flip all through the recipes and other articles to see what's in store for craft and decorating. Same thing happened to MS Wedding, I safe the gowns and rings for later to see the decor and the invitations. (Yes, my husband continually asking why am I still reading MS Wedding after I get married? Men, they never get it, don't they?)




So do you ever wonder why MS publications have all the best layouts, greatest projects, and of course, the best craft section? Here is the blog of their craft dept called The Craft Dept (how unpredictable)! Why so excited, you say? Well for me, I love to peek into someone else's kitchen, even more intriguing to me if the kitchen actually serve the tastiest, most good looking foods. So here I am drooling over pictures of my dream job, dream office, dream stack of papers...

Well, since you're there, they also post about other things too like craft projects they made for the magazine, so be sure to grab a triangular box pattern.

Illustrate those Typo!

I was reading through a design magazine (I'm sorry I forgot what magazine it is, I'll tell you when I remember, because I read it on a stall, ssshhh!) when I came across this article about typography and it's purpose in design in general. It was stated that a typo (I hate typing the whole word, so do forgive my lazy fingers) defines itself and the design it is in. So, when you decided to use one typo in a design, you shouldn't add any more design elements to define your whole stuff, for example, a Helvetica can stand alone in a design to tell you that the look is simple, modern, and so on.

I agree to that, at some point, mainly because my Indonesian clients always think that the more the merrier, in a ridiculous way. In my experience with clients, they always want more than a typo to go with their design. A picture, photograph, illustration, clipart, anything but typo-only. The more you can add to a design, the better. It's like a photograph of a banana with yellow and brown puffy font saying "this is a banana" and below that a watercolor illustration of the banana itself.

But I resent to that theory sometimes, when the "add-ons" to the typo are something related, beautiful, they deserve being there with the type (or embedded in the typo itself, in my picks), and obviously making the typo "speak" louder than before! Check out these example and you might agree with me.

Kate Forrester for Wallpaper magazine.

Rodrigo Braga found via designfeedr.

eika.dopludo found via Holga.

Press me..

I don't know about everyone else, but I just love letterpress. There's something magical about different levels of paper it creates. It elevates a design into some kind of personal art instead of just printing it, it lets you know that a human actually involves making the design. Here are some of letterpress studio I adore.

Sweetbeets.

Fugufugupress.

sycamorestreetpress.

letterpressed and diecut card (punchable character) from Egg Press.

Don't you just love running your fingers through all these? Or am I just crazy here?

Feeliing a little airy..

..sometimes I just want to fly around with a lot of beautiful balloons on my hands. A great way to welcome spring.. la-dee-da..

French movie, Le Ballon Rouge, found via OhJoy.

Miss Dior Fragrance advertisement, directed by Sophia Coppola.

Vintage Balloon Girls from milliemotts.

New Blog Title, for now!

I am not happy with my new blog title, but I am also hating the "February" word on the previous one. Mental note : I shall not make a blog title that expires so fast. I will change this as soon as I can. Really busy week. Phew.

Just in case you were wondering how my old blog title looks like. Advice and criticism are always welcome. :)

70 Years of America Style Icons

Amazing photography, great style, notable icons, and great modern day depictions. I love the idea of newest Glamour magazine fashion spread to celebrate the magazine 70th anniversary, not as exciting as Bazaar's fashion spread with the Simpsons, but hey, I love seeing icons brought back to life. And the choice of models is simply intriguing! Alexis Bledel (Gillmore Girls, Sisterhood of Travelling Pants), for instance, who occasionally played the role of miss goodie two shoes, is depicting Rosie the Riveter ( the 40's "We Can Do It" poster lady) or Hayden Panettiere as Amelia Earhart. That's what I like. When you say American icons, you don't always go for Marilyn or Bridgette (though Hepburn still make the list). A missing female pilot is an icon too! Glamour picks icons from athletes to an imaginary poster lady, from hippies to 2000 New Yorker fashionista.

Nice one to read through lazy afternoon.

Ready to Mail.

First, I want to apologize for the outdated blog title, I know it's March already, happy new month everyone (gee, isn't it fast how time goes by? March 2009 already? I thought I was still picking for the "it" calendar!).

Ok, back to the actual post. I want you to meet my new graphic designer friend Sakato of Sakatodesign from Tokyo, Japan. I stumbled upon her lovely blog one day, and I was quite fascinated of her project or campaign or.. I don't know what you call it, but here's what she actually do with her blog; she's giving her Sakatodesign stickers to every reader around the world, free, yes, free. In return, all readers have to photograph the sticker in their hometown and send the photos to Sakato. Sakato then files all her pictures in her blog, her stickers are everywhere now! From Barcelona to Chile, to Belgium to Australia! It's amazing how stickers can connect the whole world! Way to go Sakato! I think it's a very creative and effective way to know about different people and other parts of the world!
And... it's my turn! She just shot this picture for me to let me know that mine is going to arrive soon! Thank you Sakato! I'll take a lot of pictures!

Check the whole lists of cities with photographed stickers on her blog.

Feature Artist : Muchlove

Don't you love sweet quirky things, especially the ones you can put on your body and defines your whole look and fashion statement? Let's face it, all girls love to accessorize. How many bracelets are too much? And how many necklaces does a girl need in her lifetime? You don't know a thing about being a girl if you say 12 or 20 and you're completely clueless when you say 6 or so, and which planet are you from when you say none.

Given the fact, I'd thank God for those who make fine accessories. Meet one of accessories crafters extraordinaire, Anna from Muchlove (and thank the people who run Etsy)! Her design can be describe as sweet, pretty, yet quirky. They seem to fit in a girly girl type of person but a vintage dress fan can also put her accessories too. And so is a one of kind unique personality. They all seem to fit everyone's taste. Anna doesn't just have eyes for accessories but also a keen interest in design and fashion. Visit her blog for inspiring arrays of fashion talks and creative tutorials like what you can do with old thights. A natural on her field (Anna is a Flash/Graphic designer), she hauls from birthtown Jogjakarta (an iconic cultural city with a lot of traditional and modern art scenes in Indonesia) to Melbourne, Australia, and settles there now happily and creatively.

She is also kind and patient enough to let me interview her! So here's the sum of our little chitchat yesterday ...

Hello, Anna! Introduce yourself to our reader, please!
Hi, my name is Anna, and I like pretty things.
Do tell me, what is your biggest inspiration source? I am mostly inspired by my thoughts and imagination. Everything around me can inspire me... people, blogs, culture, fashion, I like to take it all in.
Let's say, you're not making accessories right now, what would you do? If I were not making accessories, I'd probably be trying to do something creative anyway. I've always liked to dabble in art and crafts.
What do you regret as a child? I regret that I wasn't more outgoing as a child
Have any desirable item(s) lately? Recently, I am dying to get my hands on the latest issue of Lula magazine! That magazine is insanely gorgeous.
Please share your best kept policy as a craft seller? My ultimate personal business policy as a seller that I'd like to keep in mind all the time is I would never make or sell something that I wouldn't wear myself! It wouldn't be as fun if not.
(quite simple yet so true!)
Do you have any pet peeves? My most un-tolerable pet peeve(s) is/are arrogance

Thank you, Anna!! Keep making those beautiful things for us!