AZLINA ABDUL

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As you can see, I'm a little....just a little addicted to making hand-bound books lately ehehehehe :D. This time around I tried making the French Stitch hand-bound book. It may look a little complicated to make....but in reality, it's actually a lot easier than the Coptic Stitch! Seriously! And the best part of it all, I didn't even need to use a wax thread for it. The thread just slide easily in and out the signatures. Yay!
In the beginning I did have some problem doing the French Stitch because I couldn't find a tutorial on it on Youtube. The stitch is similar like a Long Stitch except that the difference is I only had to hook each thread from each signature together so that it looks like it's connected from the first signature to the last one. Very complicated to explain it here. I just did it based on observation from photos I found in Google Images and tried it out. I tried doing it 3 times and the third time's the charm! ;)
This book is actually ma…

I'm super excited today because I finally get to blog about my experience in making another type of hand-bound book. The technique used for making this hand-bound book is called the Coptic Stitch book binding technique. I was very skeptical about making it at first because it looks so difficult to do and requires some special thread for sewing the papers together. I didn't have any at first.
Luckily for me, I found out that WholePort has some really nice threads in their collection and I immediately requested for some from them for me to use in making my Coptic Stitch hand-bound books. Below are some of the threads I received from them and one of it I used for sewing this hand-bound book. It's not a wax thread but it's quite strong enough for sewing small hand-bound books. I waxed it with some candle to make sure that the thread won't get entangled when sewing. You get the same thread at the link here: Brown yarn.

I also used some of the brass charms that I receiv…

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I've said it before.....I'm not good at making cards for men. But I wanted to challenge myself when asked for the second time around from my customer to make a birthday card for her hubby that has an elephant and a horse in it. 
The elephant represents my customer and the horse represents her hubby. I was given full freedom to design the card. The time given to complete it was more than enough..... in fact, she gave me ample time to think it over and get it done. I took such a long long time to do it because the idea did not appear when it should have....if you know what I mean! hehe! 
At last I finally got it done. A lot of technique came to mind when thinking of how to do the animals.....but in the end I decided to go with felt as it is easy to draw on and form the shape of the animals.

I loved using distress ink to enhance the look of the card. It makes such a huge difference if the distress ink is used compared to when it's not. It's something that I can seem…

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My Mom requested me to make a special birthday card for her friend who will be celebrating her birthday today. But I decided not to make her a card, I made her a Japanese hand-bound book instead! hehe! Since I'm really into it right now, so I thought it would be nice to make one for her since I know how much she appreciates craft work so much.
I used another one of the Japanese pattern paper that I got from Wholeport.  I love the colours and the design of the paper a lot. I didn't want to keep the cover empty, so I decorated it with a simple quilling flower design on it with a die-cut pattern design on the background. I like the colour of the flower because it's a combination of two different colours, which is red and maroon.
I used to love making beaded bookmarks a lot.....I got so many beads in my collection, so I'm glad I can use them when making this hand-bound book. It's nice to get to do it again even though it's just a simple one for this book co…

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I've been wanting to make these hand-bound books for the giveaway for the longest time and today I managed to do just that! Yes! I made very simple Japanese hand-bound books since I didn't really have the time to make them (but I still wanted to make them hehehe), so in the end this is what I came up with. It's one of those times when I want to give something but timing was a problem. 
I used Japanese pattern paper that I got from Wholeport. They are so nice....I just love the motifs and the gold lines on it. It makes the books look so fancy even without a lot of decorations on them. Another purpose of keeping them blank is so that the receiver can decorate the book any way they like! ;)
I love using beads and sequins as decorations on the cards. It just makes them look fancier. I have a lot of them at home coz I used to love using them to decorate my beaded bookmarks. This would be my 2nd and 3rd time making the books using 1/8 inch ribbons. They are great!! …

It's blog giveaway time again! It's a little special this time because I am combining both the month of November and December in one giveaway. I didn't have the time to do November's giveaway early this month due to my work load that is way up to my neck till now hehehe....so I decided to just combine the two months together and still have 2 winners after the giveaway is over.
Yes......two winners will be chosen during the first week of January 2014. I guess this will be my last year holding giveaways back to back. For next year, I'll only do giveaways whenever I have the time to spare. Next year is going to be a very very busy year for me. So I'll have to manage my time better so that I can have more time for myself to relax a bit. As of now....I barely have the time to rest.
As you can see at the photo above, for the end of the year giveaway, I'll be giving away two Japanese hand-bound books that I made recently. It's a very simple design, no heavy d…

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A sweet little girl named Jaja got very good results for her UPSR recently, yes you've guessed it, she got 5As... and she's the one who is getting this Japanese hand-bound book from me. I didn't know what to give her as a gift and suddenly I thought of making this book for her. I'm sure she has never seen a hand-bound book before. I hope she will like my surprise gift! hehe!
I made it so fast since I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the book....so it's not as neat as I wanted it to be. I also added too many paper for the book and it looks so thick. On the bright side, there's plenty of paper for her to write on! hehe! I love the idea of mixing different colour paper in one book but for this one I only used soft pink and white to suit the wrapping paper that I used for the cover.
I gotta admit, I just love sewing the book with the ribbons and decorating it with those white pearls. It's so much fun.....but decorating it more on such a small sp…

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When it comes to designing a card for a guy, I would be soooooo worried that I won't be able to design something that a guy would like. Because most of my designs are so girlish...so I just might somehow make it look girlish in the end but I think for this card, it's a combination of both. 
I was given permission by my customer to design it any way I like although the choice for the main colour is fixed which is purple and black. I think this is the first time I'm using this combination. Tough!! I was also given the permission to put hearts here and there to show some love to the receiver. I didn't have any pattern paper in purple and black so I designed the patterns myself by using stripe black and white ribbons and some tight coils (been a while since I did any quilling by the way hehehe) and some strips of thick black and white paper. What I love most is the background paper I used to decorate the card with...which is three types of purple colour paper. Only …