Maksu's Wedding project part 1

It all started with me offering my aunt to do some simple beading on my aunt's wedding veil. Somehow......it ended up me having to do beading on her wedding dress and also her hijab too. The photo above is the wedding kebaya that my aunt wanted to wear on her wedding day. The kebaya is quite old and was given to her by her best friend. She loved it so much so that she wanted it to be her wedding dress. Plus her husband to be once said she looked really pretty in it ;).

Well......me, on the other hand, could not accept it. The minute I saw the kebaya, I wanted to faint. The beads were not pretty at all. They had dropped off in so many places over the years. The kebaya looked like it needed help. So I helped her out! Let's just say, it's my way of giving her a wedding present. ;)

First of all, we had a small discussion on what colour I would use for the dress.....then, we discussed on the design. Well, it was more like me calling the shots when it came to designing it. But she did mentioned about the dos and the don'ts....first of all, she hates big pearls....so no big pearls on the dress, hijab or veil.....got it......and she wanted the colour of the beads to blend in with the colour of the kebaya itself. She didn't want the beads to look too contrasting or too outstanding. So I decided to use champagne gold and silver seed beads, off-white pearls, the smallest I could find and I also added some champagne colored flower sequins.

If you look carefully, at the sleeves and also at the bottom of the kebaya, I've already started beading on the empty space of the embroidery with champagne coloured seed beads and silver too. Gosh that was the most difficult beading I ever had to do. Sewing each seed beads one by one was the most crazy thing I've ever done. It took forever to finish!!! My fingers were sore too. Although it was something I regret doing in the beginning, somehow when it was all done, I felt glad I did it anyways. Because it was what made the kebaya looked special. :)

I took out all the dark gold tube beads on the kebaya one by one......and once all was taken out, I started to draw the swirling design. You can view the transformation on my next post!

Short course on sewing beads and sequins

Gosh.....how long has it been???? The last time I blogged here was in 2012!! Wow, can you imagine?? It's been a very very long time indeed! Been so busy with work and other projects, so much so that I've neglected to update anything here. Been neglecting other blogs as well huhuhuhu.

Anyways.....I thought I should blog about my latest activity involving beads! Just a few days ago, I attended a short course on sewing beads and sequins on fabric. It was actually a really basic course on the subject where we learned the simple art of beading and how to apply it on clothes. In fact we can apply the technique not only on clothes but also on other material such as scarves, bags etc....as long as it's fabric. But I'm thinking of applying it on paper too! 

I was invited to attend it personally by Datuk Faridah. Met her for the first time at a business seminar last month. She has seen my work and immediately wanted me to participate in this course as she thought I would do well in it. Well, I wasn't sure myself if I could do it as I am not familiar with the subject. But since she persisted, I told myself that I had to give it a try. And so I drove to Perlis for the first time in my life for this course. 

Believe it or not, I was really glad I followed my heart and went there. At least now I know how to drive to Perlis and also do simple beading on fabric. Since it was just a short course.....I definitely need time to practice more and explore more on the subject. Must do more research on it so that I can design something better in future. As long as you know the basics, then there shouldn't be a problem to do more complicated designs.

I managed to get new friends there and we all shared our own personal experiences. It was great! I really had a good experience mingling with other participants and teachers. I learned a lot. I hope to create something with my new knowledge this year. Something that I can apply both on fabric and on paper. It would be so cool if I can achieve that! ;)

Paper beads

*Photos above taken from Google images

Don't they look so gorgeous to you??? I love them! I used to make paper beads when I was in my teens and at the time I didn't know much about quilling. Little did I know that the paper beads does have some connection with quilling.

Since I'm so into quilling these days, perhaps I'll start a new project with this technique. Not sure yet what I'll come up with the paper beads but it would be fun to try it out again. :)

After all I have so many available paper at home and it would be a fun project to do during my spare time. I do have some ideas already in my mind on what I might create with the paper beads. Yay! ;)

I gotta say that it's been a while since I last posted anything here and I really hope I can post more projects  here this year. Will try my best! ;)

Pastel colors

RB001e

Sweet soft pastel colors were used for this new addition of ribbon beaded bookmark. I love this combination. How I wish I have more variety of beads right now. The more there are the more interesting the bookmarks  would be. :)

Pink star and purple ribbon

  RB001d

It has been a while since I last published anything at this blog. If I am not mistaken, it was in July last year that I last blogged about my ribbon beaded bookmark and now here I am posting another new addition to my  ribbon beaded bookmark collection that my regular customer had requested from me. 

I've been so busy with my handmade cards blog, so much so that I've neglected this bead blog. Oh how I wish I have more time in my hands or perhaps I need to be more organized? Oh well....

Ok, back to the ribbon beaded bookmark! hehe! This is actually an old design. The only thing that is different is the ribbon. She requested that the ribbon be in purple in color. She also requested another color which I will blog about soon. :)

I love this type of double duty ribbon beaded bookmark because it clings on to the book and will never drop out of it whatever happens. So you can be sure not to lose it. :).

To be honest, I haven't been making these ribbon beaded bookmarks in a long long time. So it was a really fun making these again for my customer. :)

Yellow flower beads...

RB022

Here it is....the other flower bead I mentioned in my earlier post. It's yellow in color. I matched the yellow flower beads with a couple of yellow pearl and orange tone beads. The soft orange ribbon suits the colors of the beads quite well. I love the simplicity of the design. Not too much of beads on each end of the bookmark. :)

Purple flower beads

RB021

I'm excited to share here my latest ribbon beaded bookmark with everyone! It's a very simple and cute ribbon beaded bookmark with a new type of flower beads that I bought quite a while back. This type of flower beads comes in a variety of colors but I only bought 2 types of colors which the purple and yellow flower beads. I will post the yellow flower beads ribbon beaded bookmark  here soon. 

I've been thinking of how to use this flower bead for quite sometime now. I really wanted to use it to make a beaded bookmark but didn't quite know how to go about using it. In the end I thought of this particular technique whereby you won't be able to see the ends of the ribbon. It's hidden inside the beads itself. Noticed that? Well, I love that! Usually whenever I make ribbon beaded bookmarks, the ends of the bookmarks can be seen therefore I have to make sure the ends are neat and does not fray. But with this new technique I don't have to worry about it fraying at the ends. Love it! Too bad I only have two colors available to make this type of ribbon beaded bookmark. I wish I had more choices though :).

How to make a simple beaded bookmark!

I've been requested many times from fans to show them some basic demonstrations on how to make a very simple beaded bookmark here. I wish that I could do a video of it but since I don't know yet how to make a video of one, I decided to show here a video of how to make a simple and a very easy to do beaded bookmark for you to try out yourself. I first learned how to do it this way before I ventured out to do the complicated ones. This is just one of the many ideas you can find from video tutorials online. How you want it done or how you want it to look like it basically up to you to decide and choose the materials. Enjoy the video and have fun trying it out!

Quilled red flower on a cute paper bookmark

PB003

I suppose this is the smallest paper bookmark I've ever made! hehehe! :) It's so small ...so cute! I was thinking of making more of this to giveaway as gifts for my friends. It's so easy to make and looks so cute too :).

Quilled dark red flower on a rectangular bookmark

PB002

I love this one! Yes! I love the two-tone quilled flower I made that has petals that look like a heart shape. It's several heart shapes combined to make a flower. This bookmark was made for my Mom's friend......it's for her birthday. I was so happy to know that she loved it so much. I didn't put any beads at the ribbon because I love it just the way it is......simple. I lined the edges with gold glitter glue to add that special touch to it. :)

Quilled flower on heart shaped bookmark

PB001

Ok.....this is the first time I'm making a paper bookmark without any beads on it for my bead blog hehehe. Sometimes a certain kind of bookmark does not look good with beads on it. And this particular one in my opinion does not really need one. :) But I did add some sequins on the flower to give it that special touch. I also lined the edges of the bookmark with gold glitter glue.....I love how it shines when it hits the light :).

I am enjoying making quilled flowers and leaves lately and I am experimenting this technique on my paper bookmarks. It gives that 3D look that I love so much. All this time I've been making paper bookmarks using rectangular shapes. So today I want to experiment on other shapes and sizes. And this heart shape is something that I've wanted to do for a long time already. I'm loving this design a lot heheh. :)

Quilling flowers on paper bookmarks

PBB024

Wow...I have not been updating my bead blog for a very long time now. This is all due to my workload at Lin Handmade Greeting Cards .....huhu. I hope to be more active here from now onwards. There are a lot of things to be done here and I need more time to focus on it.

Anyways......lately, I've been so addicted to quilling. I've been applying it on my handmade cards. I've never tried applying it on my paper beaded bookmarks before and today I gave it a try :). I love how it looks!! I tried experimenting it by using the bookmark ....placing it in my book.....and it's great....no problem at all with the 3D flowers and leaves. I love it!

I plan to make more of it soon! I have so many ideas......and as usual....so little time hehehe......but I will give my best this time! Till then! :)

Cherry blossoms....

PBB022b

PBB022a

I got this idea from thinking of what my Chinese New Year theme cards would be this year......I was just playing around with my new craft punch and see how it would turn out. So that's how these bookmarks came about. With the red, white, orange and gold combination.....that has been the common colors used for Chinese New Year's celebration. I kinda like the red design the most.....it's more outstanding than the other one.....but then, hey....that's just me! hehehe! Which is your fave? :))))

Lovely hearts....

PBB021

Lovely hearts.....all sorts of shapes and sizes! Love doing this one.....in conjunction of the Valentines Day that's just around the corner. :) I used red hot color paper and layered it with a cream color paper at the back. In between it is the white transparent shiny organza fabric to make the heart shine :) Love that effect! Then I decorated around it with multi-colored heart shapes. Last but not least, I dotted some glitter glue to add a special touch to it. Noticed that I did something else that's different this time?? Yes, it's the corners of the bookmark. I used pattern scissors to cut the corners of the bookmark. I love that effect. Don't you? hehehehe! :)))))

Soft blue and white combo

RB020

Soft pink and apple green combo

RB019

I just love this double duty ribbon beaded bookmark......why? Because of the colors! It's just so soft and sweet looking. :))))

Dark purple and pink combo

RB018

This purple double duty ribbon beaded bookmark a joy to make! Lovely to be placed in my favourite book too :). I'm loving how it great it functions as a bookmark and how pretty it looks as well. It definitely stands out. I'm loving it! :)

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year 2010 everyone!!! It's the new year and things are looking pretty good! :) I have many plans for this blog this year. Hopefully it will materialize in due time. I have neglected this blog last year. Was too busy with my card blog...hehehehe..... I guess I thought I could handle both smoothly but I guess not. What I want is to be able to provide my customers with good and reasonably priced artwork. I will try to update this blog as often as I could and improve more for this year. Wish me luck ya!!! ;)

Green paper bookmarks

PBB020b

PBB020a

Green! Yup! Another new paper beaded bookmark made in apple green color. Combination of green and purple which I love and also combination of red and green that feels a little Christmassy hehehe.... These bookmarks are made using the same technique like I did previously and am so loving it as it is easy to do. It also gives me a chance to use my flower and leaf craft punches in another type of craft. All this time I've only used them for my cards and now it can be used here for my bookmarks. Cool! :)