Friday, January 28, 2011

My Inspiration Board


This is the board that I carry out for display every time I went to bazaar and market. A promotional board but more like an inspiration board to me. Some are the handmade things I bought from other talented booth vendors.

I don't know why I am super hard working this year. I have already booked almost all my weekends with bazaars dates and craft workshops and my schedule has been filled up until April. I guess this year my blog will not that lonely (I will try to blog more, with the new camera, I guess I will have more things to show you all)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

A Ball of Yarn


I want to try on learning crocheting again. Learning by yourself following online tutorials are not as easy as I thought. I tried to learn crochet a year ago and I stop halfway, gave away the ball of yarns and hook to my friend (who did not learn it either). Somehow I got the urge and sudden determination to grasp this challenging (and addictive?) craft once again. So I get myself a new golden hook (wow!) and a ball of high quality yarn (RM16/ball!!). A high quality yarn is worth buying because the yarn will not become 'furry' and loosen and it is so much easier to handle compare to the cheap yarns I bought last time (hehe...I try to blame it on the yarn).


Look, I made some round thing! I am a step closer to amigurumi.

p/s : Chipmunk is made from a handglove. Isn't he lovely? He is always on my work table.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Postcrossing Malaysia Meet Up

Malaysia Postcrosser United!~~~

My first Postcrossing Meet Up, at Berjaya Time Square, Kuala Lumpur.
In conjunction with stamps week. So many stamps, first day cover, miniature sheets, postcards, old stamps. so many things to see!!!
Most fun is to meet up with the Malaysian postcrossers, from all over Malaysia!!

Jeremy15 is busy signing postcards. I arrived late so I have a big stack to sign.
Postcrosser Goddess (Kak Nurul) is monitoring. hehe

The stack of postcards that I have to sign.
I regretted bringing only 20 postcards. We seldom could meet up like this....

philomenaloh is excited too!!

From left:
kiie10 (me!), philomenaloh, lalalander, jeremy15, antujahat666, newrule (the #1 postcrosser from Malaysia!!!), lim8, Verlustangst and Tjclassic8482.

The meet up postcard!

I spent RM60 just on stamps!!!


To Yokie and Pekkie, you missed the fun. But I got souvenir for you.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Handmade Photography Postcard, anyone?

I have more than 1000 pictures in my hard disk (both laptop and the portable drive) but it never occur to me to print them out.

But recently the Postcrossing craze hits me again. Those that doesn't know, Postcrossing is a postcard exchange community website with a system that make sure everyone gets a card from everywhere in the world, from strangers who send beautiful postcards. The magic of snail mail is never lost with Postcrossing. I have been collecting postcards for many years ever since, somehow stopped (due to work, etc etc) and recently I recommended my friend to this site and then I began to start sending and receive postcards again. But then, I got bored of our dull Malaysia postcards (we only have the Yacine cards...) and I wonder, can I make my own cards?
Of course, with my crafty fingers, I attempted a few art cards before:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kii/sets/72157612513039510/

But ever since I gotten my hands on plastic toy and vintage cameras, I started to venture into the magical world of photography. Still an amateur, but then I wonder, what if I turn some of my favourite shots into postcards, slap on a stamp and send across the ocean? Will people like them as much as I do?

And then I stumbled on EOE.com, an online printing site. Awesome! The internet is really awesome, I can now print them without leaving my house and go search for photo printing shop. And EOE's price is very reasonable too, 30sen for 4R and 50sen for 5R. Hey, with the money today, we can't do much with a few sens. Store bought postcards are now priced at RM1! (used to be just 50sen....). I can't wait to register on their website and try out their service.

Did I ever tell anyone that plastic toy cameras are fun?

My first attempt using plastic toy camera with film

Tanjung Sepat captured in film (with a plastic toy camera too)

Phuket on film

(this was taken on a digital camera)

Are they good enough to be postcards? :)

I am going to let you guys know when I got my pictures and how I transform them into postie.

and wait....I might have the chance to get 50 prints from them for free!!!
Here's the link if you want to try them out too : http://www.eoe.com.my/data/st/24/index.html

Thursday, September 09, 2010

the little things



that I made lately

:)

Happy Holiday

So it's a long weekend ahead...
Hmm, what should I do?

Let's make another list:
  • take the Nikon out from the cupboard, start to make friend with him
  • clean up my fabric room...too many stash, too many fabrics lying around
  • send out all Etsy packages
  • take pictures of all new fabrics
  • promote
  • blog more
  • learn Zen Cart
edited to add:
  • clean house (zzzzzz)
  • post pic of some of the new craft I made
  • make more stuff....(hands getting crafty lately)
  • find a new template for my boring blog

Sunday, August 29, 2010

A long weekend but a lot of work to do...

Lot's of new fabby to be seen at www.fabricfanatics.blogspot.com


Monday and Tuesday (Malaysia's independence day) are holidays for me. yay...but there's plenty of work to do. There's a whole bunch of new fabby to be uploaded into the catalogue.

other things to do:
-create new ad box
-make payment to my fabby supplier
-process all Etsy orders (all the sudden, sales in Etsy has been growing tremendously, because of the coming holiday season?)
-prepare for the bazaar booth in Oct+Nov (must remember to put up poster in Blog!)

bought/done:
-straighten(rebond) my unruly hair
-shawl/scarf from Studio Tangs, crazy sales over there!!
-a new Hobo bag. I love love love Hobo designed bag
-new clothes and lots of sexy leggings from www.ezytred.com

things to buy:
-a sewing machine (am thinking of buying from Debbie, I have a lot of ideas and I really should make something out of my own fabby)
-still looking for a handmade fabric Hobo bag, there's a lot of Pudu/central market area but those look cheap and fragile. I want a customize handmade one!
This is oh-so-pretty : http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2008/08/margarets-birthday-bag.html (I want one in red)

haha...I love making list. :D

and another happy thing (at least for me), see the outcome of my beautiful fabrics....

beautiful fabric wallet made using fabric from my shop
(picture courtesy from one of my talented customer)


Monday, August 23, 2010

American Designer Pre-Order

Wow, 4 months since my last entry. And I still have readers bumping into my Feel Station. And to summarize, the 4 months were all spent at Fabric Fanatics.

Here's some updates on Fabric Fanatics. Pre-order calling for American Designer fabrics. See below for sneak preview. :)

(ok, I promise to write more bout personal life on next entry.....)

Michael Miller's Collection

Alexander Henry's Collection

Kokka's Collection

Robert Kaufman's Collection

Saturday, April 24, 2010

What is Japanese Fabric?

Japanese famous brand KOKKA fabric


What is Japanese fabric?
Japanese fabric design is so cute, whimsical, fairy tale-like, happy, colourful and famous for multi-colour printed cotton and linen fabric.
There is also kimono fabric, which is also very rich with colours and floral design but what I offer in my shop are craft fabric, with cuteness and zakka feeling.


What is the standard measurement for fabric?
Fabric is usually measured in yard for US metrics.
Malaysian is not very familiar with yard because we always use meter.
Actually 1 yard = 0.91meter.
A fat quarter is 1/4 yard. Refer the below chart for better understanding.


Fabric international measurement


Where can I buy Japanese cotton and what is the standard price for Japanese cotton?
If you google Japanese cotton, you will find a lot of shops selling those beautiful fabric.
And the standard price is around : USD3-5 for one fat quarter.
You can try to find for more variety and price range at Etsy and Ebay.
You can also buy them from several Chinese website (from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong) but you will need a Chinese bank to deal with them and they usually do not accept Paypal payment. Unless you know a middle person who can order those fabric for you. A middle person is willing to do a transaction on your behalf by charging a commission fees of 10-20%
Easier choice is buy from my local blogshop. Here's my shop : http://fabricfanatics.blogspot.com
I accept local bank transfer and also Paypal (credit card).

Price for authentic Japanese cotton are more expensive than normal cotton fabric because of the cute and rare printed design on cotton and linen material.
I have check at our local largest fabric shop Kamdar and Nagoya, but they do have a very limited choice of Japanese fabric, price at minimum RM18/meter. Design are mainly floral, very similar to normal cotton fabric. I could not find any cute or 'zakka' design fabric.
If you are staying around Klang Valley, you can also stop by Craft World at SS2, they are selling a looooot of beautiful imported cotton and linen fabric, English, American and Japanese fabric. And their price starts from RM17 per fat quarter. Cut from bolt (what is bolt? refer pic below) is a minimum 0.5 yard.

In Malaysia, so far, I only found cute printed Japanese fabric at craft shop (Craft World) and other blogshop selling them. But unfortunately, many of the blogshops are Work At Home Moms (WAHMs) who does not play by the rules and sell them for overly cheap. Yayyy for the buyers but sad for other sellers who are trying to stay on the business ethic side by maintaining the standard price. But buyers be cautious, some might not be authentic Japanese fabric.


What is the difference between cotton and linen fabric?
As you can from the picture below, linen has rough grain and texture. It is also thicker (medium to heavyweight fabric). Linen is not suitable for making clothes but most suitable for making bag because of the sturdy thickness, it does not need to add another layer of inner lining fabric for protection. Other ideas on using linen fabric : purse, wallet, apron, table cloth, home decor craft, pencil case, laptop casing, tote, brooch, hairpin.


Printed Linen


100% cotton is very soft and lightweight fabric, suitable for almost all sorts of fabric craft. It is suitable for making clothes/dress too. But I would not recommend for making baju kurung, because in my opinion, for making baju kurung, silk+cotton fabric blend is still the best material because of more comfortable (not too hot while wearing).


Printed cotton


fabric in bolt



To buyers:
I hope this will help a little on fabric knowledge and also choosing the right fabric for your lovely hobby. Happy crafting!

To sellers:
I hope you know what you are selling and please don't spoil the market by simply labelling it as Japanese cotton. And if it's authentic Japanese cotton, please follow the standard international price and do not spoil the image and authenticity of Japanese cotton. Let's compete in a healthy market.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Fabrics New Arrival

Last week I received a loooot of fabric from my supplier and I just finish taking pictures of those beautiful fabric. I already upload most of them in my shop. Local Malaysian can buy them from my catalogue, price listed in RM. Fabric Fanatics.
Readers from other country can check them out at my Etsy shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kiiss



Get them fast before they sold out. :)

Saturday, February 06, 2010

New Cards

More cards made during the weekend. Ready to send to host for AFA swap.

For 'Strings attached' swap.

For 'Fun and Funky Polka dots' swap

I just couldn't stop painting poppies. They are just so fun and easy to paint.