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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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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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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]]

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Notions & Accessories

Yarns

Tools & Equipment

Online shops

Physical Shops

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Kanzashi Christmas Tree is now on Etsy Shop!!!! This is my first item listed on my Etsy shop.

Due to the long-hour labor needed to “build” this Christmas tree and I don’t want to disappoint you by not being able to send it on time for the holly season, I have to limit the quantity to 10 units only.

I need around 2 weeks to get the Christmas tree done, sending via surface parcel is around 2-3 weeks depends of which country it is going to (from Malaysia). So, in order to have the Christmas tree reach you on time, you have to place order 1 month ahead. Anyway, there is an option to get it ships via air parcel with additional shipping cost.

The glittered star on top of the Christmas Tree is packed separately, there will be an instruction sheet included in the packing for putting it up. A small amount of craft glue will be included in the package for the installation.

Wish you all Merry Christmas!!!

Clicking the following button will bring you to my Etsy Shop. If you don’t have etsy account, contact me to deal direct!

Continue from Part 1…..

I have a confession to make, that I have been peculiar about weaving since childhood, don’t know why, but the interlacing between the warp and the weft threads is so harmonious that they hold each other into places, this is what I like about it. When ever I was at Little Penang Street Market,  I would stand beside this foot-treadle floor loom and watch this lady demonstrating the weaving process. When she asked me if I wanted to have a try, I shied away, sigh! I was worried that my hand, foot and eye coordination is so bad that I made a mess…. ha ha ha…. but I regreted immediately after I turned her offer down. Next visit, I would definately have a try on it, I promised.

The woven threads can be used to make into various products, key-chain, book mark, doll, vest, table runner, scarf, creative decoration like the rooster head in the photo and many more….

You are going to be amazed by the creativity of this guy. Watching his hand twisting and turning the aluminium wire by using only a pair of long-nose plier. Look at the 3 little robots and all those tricycles he had made, I totally agreed that creativity is only limited by his imagination.

This will be related to my next vital goal, to set up a stall there and promote my handmade, especially in bags. So….. I have to survey what has been around in the market and what can I offer to make a different.  So far, I have seen lots of tote and recycled bags hanging around, kind of a hmmmm….. normal!!!  I think I should be able to make an exceptional shine if I were to “parade” all my bag’s creations there…. ha ha ha!!!! Agree with me?

Not only handmade, there are some stalls selling antiques and collectibles.  Among them, I like the tricycle the most, astonished by its detailing in the craftmanship – just look at the wheel and the chain, not to mention the metal carving on the passenger cart, the craftmanship is just stunning. Worth the value to collect!!!!

Looking for some nice and one of the kind glass decorations, search no more, just come to Little Penang Street Market, a place where you can buy handmade of various crafts. Glass painting in this stall is pretty and special, you can never find one of these in any department store, they are simply…. AWESOME!!!

Here is another special stall I found and would like to share with you. This stall is selling wreckages salvated from the rubble of abandoned heritage buildings and ganished them into some meaningful piece of decorations in the form of memorial plates. They were very old roof tiles collected from some dumping sites where the owners refurbished their historic buildings. Since George Town , the capital of a former British settlement of Penang, were being listed as Unesco Heritage Site in 2008, we are glad that the government is paying lots of attention in maintaining and preserving those previously inconspicuous architecture.

Honestly speaking, there are too many crafts and stalls to cover in just 2 posts. If you have a chance, come and visit Little Penang Street Market which is happening at every last Sunday of the month, I am sure you will be delighted with the crafts displayed and sold here.

I stopped by at Little Penang Street Market last Sunday. I have not dropped in since a year ago (exactly), thanks to my new-born who has just turned 10 months old recently, it was just too inconvenient to bring him along to shop and explore around the street market, yeah…. put the blame on him, I am a good excuse-finding mummy huh~  I really missed those good times exploring beautiful crafts and handmade there as I will always be surprised by their new crafts every month!!!!

Just some background about Little Penang Street Market, it is Penang’s premier street market which take place in Upper Penang Road every last Sunday of the month, it is run by a committee of volunteers under the auspicious of the non-profit Penang Arts Council. This month, July, marks the 3rd anniversary ever since Little Penang embarked this street market in 2006. Coincidentally, it is also George Town’s 1st Anniversary being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The street market not only sell handmade, they also showcase cultural performance like traditional dance, martial art demonstrations, children activities, and hand-on craft’s lessons. Besides that, we also get to eat lots of local delicious food there too, just to point out a few – laksa, malay delicacies, pasembor, prawns noodle, ice kacang, and some local snacks, yummy yummy.

As  I walked into the market, the first stall ever grabbed my attention was the stall selling Natural Handmade Soaps. They sell soaps and related products made from natural ingredients such as herbs, milk, honey, fruits, vegetables, beans and etc. All the soaps are free from chemical, not like commercial soaps, these handmade soaps don’t contain synthetic detergents, fillers, preservatives, coloring and fragrances.

I bought a few to try and I really like them a lot, as they don’t dry up my skin, non-sticky, and the natural fragrances from the herbs are so refreshing.

To find out more about their range of products, please visit Is-Living

See this cute little leave grasshopper below? There was a live illustration in the market showing how to make it (they have different craft illustrations for each month). Too bad I don’t have much time to watch all the steps as there were simply too crowded and too many things to explore. With the weather here in Penang/Malaysia, I sweated so much that I would faint from dehydration and heat if I didn’t get enough fluids and shades.  The length of the handmade/craft street market is about 300ft in a row, there are 2 rows side by side, which come to 600ft in total, so, let say I were to spend just average 10 minutes in every stall ….. I would not finish browsing through the whole street market before they drew the curtain for the day .  Consequently, as I said before, you will never get bored visiting them every month.

Coming up next, more crafts showcasing in the market….