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.

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

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
  

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)

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

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.

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. :)

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.

Art in Your Pocket

I'd been asking around, not many artist/crafter in Malaysia knows about Artist Trading Cards, so far, none. I am not sure why this fun art exchange activity is not popular among the artists and designers in Malaysia.

For those who is still wondering what is ATC, here is the definition I found from Wikipedia.

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards,^[1] or 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches (6cm X 9cm),^[2] small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets.^[3] The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland.^[4] Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc). The cards are usually traded or exchanged rather than sold.

Recently my art nerves suddenly surfaces and I'd been digging back some of my ATCs. Most of them are dated in 2005. wow....5 years ago. Wow...I can't believe it! 5 years. and I'd not been creating anything (except the two bird illustrations and mixed media). Shame on me :( I'd been riding on the craft horses and forgotten about the smell of acrylic paints, sticky fingers with glues, messy table full with papers and ephemeras.
This year my one and only resolution is create more art.

ATCs I created, mainly collage and rubber stamping.

Artist Trading Card - Restored

Recently I restored my infatuation with Artist Trading Card (ATC) by signing up a few ATC swap at Swap-Bot. What is ATC? Read it here : very thorough introduction to ATC.

Here are some of my previous ATC, made by me, for my own pleasure and collection. Back in my hometown, I have a few more dozens of ATC sent to me from other artist. I am looking for a way to store them, but they are slightly larger than business card size, so I can't keep them in business card file. Right now I just tuck them away in my craft drawer, some inside metal boxes, some became my bookmark.

I love vintage style collaging and mixed media.

Chinese pin-up girls. I collected alot of those ephemeras and images.

The tea ATC is my personal favourite, there is real Chinese tea leaves inside the handmade tea bag.

Do you notice that I use a lot of butterfly and wings images? They are my favourite.

And stack of ATC blanks and cardstock, some I cut out from cereal boxes and some sent to me from my swap friend.

So tonight I have an ATC challenge to complete, alphabet theme, D and E. Hmm...what to make?

Shiori Ningyo Bookmark

Finally, I finished making 25 (+1 extra) shiori ningyo bookmark for my customer. Shiori means big sister, ningyo means doll so it's a Japanese big sister doll bookmark, suitable to give to friends, students and small children to encourage them to read and do well in exam. All those papers are washi chiyogami paper imported from Japan. It is very difficult to find in Malaysia, even though we can find them in some craft shop but is very very expensive, selling for ~RM8 per piece of A4 size. Usually I got them from Etsy and Ebay, best place to look for rare craft material. Malaysia still lack of craft material and supplies.

So, I spent 5-6 hours making them, while watching drama (A Chip of the Old Block-super super funny TVB drama), my speed was slow by half if I were crafting while watching something on the laptop but that's how I like to work. :p

I really love washi paper. They are so beautiful.


Kimono....
Aiks...no head??


Here they are, all pretty with yukata and hair bow, ready to go to their proud owner in the USA.
Hope you all will have a fun time there and meet great children!!

If you like to have one, I am selling them for RM5 each.
But need to re-stock my washi paper now.

Cute Fabric Promo for Malaysian

Many of you know that I have an established shop in Etsy and they are all priced in USD. Today I am giving this privileges to fellow Malaysian to purchase them in RM and with a promo price!!

Below are the two hot selling Japanese linen fabrics from my shop.

Material : Thick Linen (20% linen, 80% cotton)
Imported from Japan.
Price : RM40 per meter/RM20 per half meter (minimum purchase half meter)

Happy Musical Panda

Matryoshka (Russian Doll) Family Beige and Black

Interested? Email me or drop a comment. :)

Check out for more fabric from my Etsy shop.