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Demolition and Building New Walls

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We bought this 2000+ square feet condominium early this year, with a combo living and dining space, 3 bed rooms and 2 small utility rooms, 4 bathrooms and 1 powder room, a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen (if you wonder why we have dry and wet kitchen, please read on), and a balcony overlooking a sport’s courtyard. 2000+ square feet for a family size of 4 and my kind of hobby, I wouldn’t say that it is “enough” space for us to live in. Having said that, I have to engage an interior designer to help me with a proper planning and design, hope that we can “create” more useful spaces to occupy.

After, 3 months of discussions, many meetings to finalize the design, we kicked-off the renovation work somewhere end of September. Basically, we have to tear down a few walls and convert the unit the way I like and hopefully will utilize all the spaces as much as possible. A proper cabinet system in order to store my huge quantity of craft tools and materials apart of the basic household items.

I really missed my usual routine between family, craft and work; I knew I am going to be super busy this time of the year, and it really occupied me more then I thought it would be. Hope that I can settle down in my new home early next year, with my new craft room and sewing room…. YAY! Will keep you all update about the progress!!!

{Get full details on next page.}

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Meet up With Kelly, the lady behind Fabric Fanatics

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Remember Fabric Fanatics, the sponsor of the July fabrics and accessories giveaway? Today, I am so happy to meet up with Kelly, the lady behind Fabric Fanatics, for the first time. Kelly personally travels 350km from her shop to meet up with her fans and customers here. She has a stall set up at Strait Quay, Penang, until this Sunday. If you are around and want to grab some beautiful fabrics and accessories, or just to see this pretty lady in person, be sure to visit her stall before she goes back. For those who can’t make your self appear here, you are welcome to visit the Fabric Fanatics website and facebook to view and order the products, Fabric Fanatics ships to world wide.

Years ago, I used to think that buying craft materials especially beautiful linen fabrics was a nightmare. Now, I am glad to say that with the well spread of craft sharing across the country, handmade has made its way to gain more fans locally. With the current trend, we begin to see more sewing related supplies coming in. Sewing hobbyists like me are so lucky to be able to buy irresistible fabrics locally without even have to get out from the country (like what I used to do). Many fabrics were imported, cut into smaller pieces like fat quarters and fat eights, which is the right size to sew small projects like purse and zakka crafts.

I really enjoy today’s shopping, more fabrics to stuff up in my “already-choke-up” sewing room. As many of you may already knew, currently I am busy with my new home renovation, lots of design and planning to deal with my Interior Designer. I still craft but in slower pace, hope to sew and share more patterns & tutorials when I am almost done with my new home renovation. Please stay tune with all my updates.

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DIY Faux Brick Wall

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Some times, in order to make my photos more impressive, I will bring my handmad to other places for photography, such as beach, restaurant, park, jetty etc… That’s why you may notice that I need more time to prepare my tutorial which is normally 1 or 2 weeks of lagging. But, if I have a choice, I prefer to do the photography in the comfort of my home. With that in practice, that means I need some portable backdrops… fabrics and wooden backdrops came easily, but real brick is impossible to be “portable” due to it’s weight.

I have put off the idea of having brick wall in my home till I renovated my new condominium to purposely make a painted old brick wall at one of the corners…. until… I shop in my local Ace Hardware Store…… I was searching for some aerosol paints for repainting my old wicker basket when I saw the “make it stone!” texture paint on the shelf. I was so impressed with the effect shown on the cap of the aerosol can. I bought it back and thinking of “stoning” my old plastic wall-hung planter. That night on my bed, just before I fell asleep, I suddenly came out with the idea of making a faux brick wall with this paint after recalling that I saw a video using polystyrene foam panel to make similar backdrops for the stage. Guess what? I was insomnia that night because the processes of making this faux brick wall kept me awake, I was very excited and can’t wait till the next morning!!!!

I am glad that I had a sudden inspiration of making it and see how I did it after the jump….. There after, you will see it appears in my photos more often too.

{Get full details on next page.}

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Martha Stewart Craft Paint and Tools (by Plaid)

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Hope you have had a wonderful Mother’s Day… Are you ready for something new in Craft Passion? Yup, the Martha Stewart’s Craft Decorative Paint series (products by Plaid). A new craft materials that I wanted to try out when I first saw it in the market.

I knew Plaid launched this paint line in Q3/Q4 2011, a paint line and its accessories that every crafter would dream to own a set or at least a few bottles of them. Well, I am not that lucky to have the products delivered to my house from USA during the introduction period, but lucky enough to chance upon them in a craft shop in my country, Malaysia. As a good excuse to buy some thing for myself during Mother’s Day, I swept almost each of everything the shop has for the Martha Stewart craft decorative paint and its tools & accessories (too bad they ran out of stock for some I really wanted to buy). Check out the full range of what Plaid has to offer for the Martha Stewart’s series, here.

Wow…. I am still feel excited to be able to buy them locally, as I can do so many DIY projects besides the usual craft I did (should I grow more hands at the mean time?). If you have been close to me, probably you heard me telling that I bought a condominium on the island, that’s even excites me, with these paints, I think I can do so many thing for the new home… just hope I can get the key as soon as possible to start my dream home design and decoration Please scroll down to see my top 50′s project selection found among the fabulous craft bloggers. As you may notice, these paints are also good for embellishing fabrics, T-shirts and fiber… basically almost any surface. If I have these before hand, I should have used them for this, this and this. Never too late, I have great ideas to use them for some new tutorials. So…. STAY TUNED!!!!

WHERE TO BUY:

Shop & Workshop
Papier (M) Sdn Bhd
Lot 161, 1st Floor, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, Malaysia.
Contact: 03-7725 4815
Website: http://papierlove.com
Blog: http://papierlove.blogspot.com/

If you would like to know where to get these fantastic paint line outside USA, visit Plaid‘s International Distributor list, here.

50 Inspiring DIY Projects to Make:

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DIY Shamrock Bokeh From Dew Drops

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Happy St Patrick’s Day to whom who celebrate!

Remember the beautiful morning dew drops at the tips of the wheat grass I woke up to see and adore 3 years ago? Which I took the photos with my little point-to-shoot compact camera? Recently, I planted some wheat grass that meant for an upcoming Easter cum St Patrick’s Day craft. Again, I woke up to see some beautiful dew drops setting at the tip of the grass, so pretty that I can’t resist to take some closed-up photos on them.

Overs the years, I have earned and saved enough to invest in an affordable and good DSLR camera. Now, I am back to take another round of dew drops photos. Previously, I need to do some photo editing to crop on a big photo in order to show the tiny dew drops. But today, I am not just able to take a real closed-up macro photo but also able to have a lovely bokeh effect out of the dew drops light reflections with my Canon EOS 60D. After a few shootings and reviewing the greenery photos, an idea struck through my mind that I can do it with shamrock bokeh since St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and also to keep my promise, one stone two birds, why not!

One last thing before you jump to the tutorial, look what I have found in the wheat grasses… a tiny little visitor resting on the wheat grass. Ok, this is a cropped photo, my economical macro lens can’t get so close to it yet. May be I will invest in an expensive professional macro lens if I am going for the assignment of tiny world photography that I love to do. Who knows, may be another 3 years from now…. lol

{Get full details on next page.}

Congratulations, Gill, the winner of the fabrics & Ribbons bundle that modes4u sponsored.

[Gill, I have emailed you with the email address you left together with the comment. Please reply within 3 days (by Feb 15, 2012).]

Remark: You can see the number next to Gill’s comment here [scroll down until you see the number 233], and this is where I used the randomizer to pick the number randomly from 1 to 403.

Thank you for all your awesome 403 comments trying your best luck in getting this bundle. From your responses, I got the hint of what to do on the next giveaway. Till then, please browse through the site to see if you have missed out any of the patterns & tutorials. I have made the new web design even more surf-friendly. You can browse through category from the drop down menu, or using the gallery page with some small preview photos for you to choose.

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Craft Materials Shopping @ Taiwan

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Finally, I have the fabrics unpacked from my luggage, arranged and photographed. It has been 2 months since my shopping and vacation trip to Taiwan. I touched down at Taiwan with 20kg (44 lbs) check-in luggage and returned with 60kg (132 lbs). Out of the 40kg extra, majority of them are the craft materials I bought there, food came next followed by books and souvenirs.

Due to Taiwan’s geographical location and with the influential of Japanese culture, you may find that their craft style are towards kawaii. If you have plans to visit Taiwan, do spare a day or 2 to shop for some craft materials. Besides, Taiwan is also famous for it’s food, not sure which shop to eat? Easy, get into the shops with the most customers and you won’t be wrong.

The following are the places I would like to share with you where I bought my craft materials and books from.

Yong Le Market (永樂市場) – Map
The biggest textile market in Taipei, located at DiHua Street (迪化街), Taipei. It is a real fabric shopping heaven with nearly thousand of fabric shops in this area!!! Most shops closed on Sunday.

You will find lots of shops selling all kinds of fabrics and sewing notions, from quilting cotton, canvas, to upholstery and pile fabrics at 1st floor and 2nd floor of the market and the shops surrounding it. If you shop from door to door, you would need to spend at least 2 days here. Due to limited time allowed, I managed to do a quick shopping in a few shops within 1 day.

Look at the fabrics inside the market, note that this is only half the aisle along side and there are a few aisle in each floor. It is like a maze inside the market, all you got to see are fabrics everywhere. I lost myself in the market and can’t find the right entrance I came in when I am about to leave. If I wasn’t considering about the maximum weight I can carry for my check-in luggage and the maximum quantity I can hand-carry back without customs taxes and duties, I could have bought tons of them back…. how I wish I live next to this lovely market.

Besides those commonly found fabrics, there are also some shops selling pile fabrics, from microfiber and fleece, to faux leather and faux fur. You are to be amazed by the varieties of fabrics found here. Again, if it wasn’t the weight, I could have brought back a lot.

In fact, I went to this area twice, in the morning, my daughter and I went back to the hotel with 2 full bags of fabrics which my daughter helped to carry a lighter one. We took a brief lunch and went to Bear Mama (the second last photo from the bottom) for the second trip to this area. After buying a big bag of yarns (not in the photos above) and some purse accessories from Bear Mama,we walked back to the market and shop again.

To view the fabrics I bought, go to page 2, 3 & 4.

Bear Mama (小熊媽媽DIY) – also available Online, in Chinese only
Many of you wonder where I bought my purse making notion, like frame, handles, locks, metal zippers with cute pull etc…. This is one of the shops I bought some of them from. The shop is just a walking distance from Yong Le Market.

To view the items I bought, go to page 5.

Eslite (誠品) bookstore
After a long day of shopping and lugging a few bags of nice fabrics back to the hotel, my daughter and I decided to spend a quite and relax evening at a book store off Zhong Xiao East Road (忠孝東路) near our hotel.

As usual, the first place I would go to is the craft book section. Most of the craft books are in Chinese and Japanese, and the choices are simply profusion. I bought a few craft books for inspirations and hope to share some of the ideas one day.

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Craft Materials - My recent shopping trip to Singapore

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Now, I need you to tell me which segment in the shopping guide you would like to know more. Please cast a vote in the following poll form, multiple selection is allowed, so click which ever interest you.
 
The poll will be closed on 31 December 2011.
 
Thanks for your vote and soon you will see more on the shopping guide.
 
The above photos are the craft materials I bought from Singapore during my recent shopping trip. I went to only 4 shops to get all these. On my next trip, I will make sure to bring my camera to take some photos for the shop I went.

1. Sportlight at Plaza Singapura (Off Orchard Road)
2. Daiso (Plaza Singapura)
3. Sing Mui Heng (1st Floor People’s Park Center), they have a branch in Kuala Lumpur too.
4. Golden Dragon (2nd Floor People’s Park Center)

My trip was a little too rush to cover everything in Singapore, there are a couple of shops in my list that I haven’t had time to visit, they are:

1. People’s Park Complex (next to People’s Park Center), you will be able to find more fabrics on 2nd Floor.
2. A quilting shop in Tangling Mall

Poll For Craft Materials Shopping Guide. Please vote which segments you are interested. [select all applicable]]

Fabrics

Notions & Accessories

Yarns

Tools & Equipment

Online shops

Physical Shops

View resultsVote Now

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

Fabrics0%

Notions & Accessories0%

Yarns0%

Tools & Equipment0%

Online shops0%

Physical Shops0%

Other: (Please specify)0%

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

[Update 10 Oct 2011 - winner's names]
The winners are:
1. Teri Riordan via Facebook (comment # 26)
2. Royce (comment # 197)
3. Maddy Pierson Via Facebook (comment # 432)
4. Lisa Griswold (comment # 154)
5. Debra Rodkey Lee via Facebook (comment # 241)
6. Kenny Lim (comment # 104)
7. Pat V. (comment # 434)
8. Hanne (comment # 424)

To check if you are the winner, just go back to the giveaway post, the number beside your comment is the number I used to pick the winner in the random way.

Thanks for the gorgeous 443 comments in the giveaway, I really caught by surprise and I wish I have more kits to giveaway…. I will know what to do next time when I have similar giveaway. Thank you for participating in the giveaway…. THANK YOU!!!

I will contact the winners now to get the mailing details so that I can send out the kit as soon as possible. If you are the winner and don’t hear from me within 24 hours, please contact me, sometimes my email will get into your junk mailbox. Or, write on the wall of Craft Passion Facebook Page to inform me.

[Winners, please reply me with your valid mailing address by 12 October 2011.]

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Traditional Cellophane / Glass Paper Lantern

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Handmade Cellophane / Glass Paper Lantern is a sunset industry due to the tediousness and the skill needed to produce it. Not many youngsters are interested to learn and inherit the skill because it can’t make them a living. If I am able to find this special cellophane again, I will make a tutorial to show you how to make a traditional cellophane lantern.

Do you remember the Pagoda lantern I made 2 years ago… gosh!!! Can’t believe that it has been 2 years!!! I am still using it on every Mooncake Festival. Browse through the above album and you will find some creative lanterns I found in my local town ship.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!!!

Red Round Lantern hanging high up by the roadside