How to start on your Inchie Journey

So, I signed up for Dena's 100 inchie in 100 days swap. 100 inchies. It may seem like a lot but it really is very managable. We got to discussing inchies and how to start making them without going blind and batty. I started putting down all my ideas and thought a post on things I've learnt on my inchie journey might help someone starting out. Yes, I am actively converting the masses....

First start with great lighting. Lots of of crafters will espouse the Ott-Lite. It is pretty pricy but supposedly gives you true colour representation. I myself, use a Sunlight lamp from Lights of America. Got this from Costco a few years ago and am pretty happy with it.

A good one inch punch is a must. I have several. There is the 1" whale of a punch from EK Success. It is pretty good. And the same company also makes 7/8" and 3/4" punches, also great for matting inchies. Marvy makes a Clever Lever Extra Jumbo punch that is a 1" punch too. It is a smidge larger than the whale punch, though. But only if you're counting.

Other companies that make 1 inch punches are Creative Memories. Martha Sterwart has some scalloped edged and stamp edged punches that can be layered onto the 1 inch square.

Some people like to mat their inchie with something sturdy, like chipboard, or cardboard, to give to more weight. You can also purchase 1 inch chipboard squares from Magenta Stamps. And I think Inchie Arts also carries these. My recent favourite is 140lb watercolour paper. I gotta thnak my fabulous friend Phyllis (Pugs) for this idea. It's sturdy and it accepts colour very well.

Precision tip scissors is also a must since you'll need to be getting in crevices when you're cutting out images. Mine is an EK Success Cutter Bee with teflon coating. An Xacto knife is also useful, along with a self healing mat as well.

Other things needed are tweezers (to pick up small embellishments, half pearls and other tiny bling), good glues like the Sakura glue pen, or Judikin's Diamond Glaze, or Stampin'Up! Crystal Effects or Ranger's Glossy Accents.

Another must are micron pens with a really fine tip, such as the Sakura Pigma Micron Pen. They come in very fine tips and normally available in artist supply stores.

Various embellies can be obtained from crafting stores, dollar stores and even second hand stores. You want them smaller, of course, than the usual so keep your eyes peeled for them. German scrap foils are also lovely.

Then all else you need are the old magazines, art catalogs, flyers, postcards and away you go. You will only be limited by your imagination. Inchies typically have a word them and also a bling item.

I'm still here.

Nope, I havn't expired. I am still alive. Just busy with the big move. Whenever that happens. Well, when the house sells. It saddens me that people aren't as enamoured with the house as I was. I am very sad to leave it as I like it very much. Meanwhile, I am still living in limbo. Half my crafting stuff is in Calgary.

I did manage to get some art done for Tammy's ATC/Twinchie/Inchie swap on SCS. Here is what I submitted.







And to appease some of you, here are some beautiful pictures taken earlier this year-the top picture of Crescent Falls- a lovely gorge with some awesome falls, I am told. I only saw it in the winter and I look forward to taking a picnic lunch there in the summer. The middle one was taken on the way back from Bighorn or Kiska Waptan, which is in the Rockies. The third picture is taken just a ways away from the Rafters Six Ranch, just outside Kannanaskis. There are still some other lovely views I've yet to share- and I do look forward to doing that sometime in the future.

I know, I am sooo blessed to work in such beautiful surroundings. The only downside is the weather can be unpredictable and dangerous.





I was trolling my pictures file and noticed I have in inordinate number of dog pictures there. Next post, I shall include my favourite doggie. He is very expressive. And maybe I'll also have more art as well. (I can hope my muse will visit).

The in between world.....

Liminal. Thats how I've felt the last two months. In between. On the verge. In the doorway. I had hinted to some that my life is in upheaval. An opportunity presented itself to me awhile ago decided that I would like to move back to Calgary. The time was right and although this was not a climb up the ladder move but more of a lateral move, it was a big step for me. I have enjoyed the city of Edmonton. I love the life I managed to carve out for myself here, with friends I like and a lovely home. So when I got the go ahead from the powers that be, I was happy but apprehensive since this would entail moving. So for the last month in a half, I had been frantically packing and decluttering my place to prepare it for sale. All my art stuff got packed away, save some christmas stamps and so I am desperately missing my crafting time. Things were given away, donated or sold. Furniture promised to strangers and friends.

It's been almost a month since my house went on the market. I did have some looky Lous but no nibbles. I am tired of living this way. I have been trying to keep the house in a presentable state so I have refrained from cooking (so I didn't have to clean up after). With me travelling back and forth but not really having a permanent place to call home since I am already mentally letting go of my current home, this has been hard. I have even started to look for a new place in Calgary. Every breathe I take in my current home beings me closer to goodbye and I know I will miss the spaciousness of this space. Especially given what I can afford in Calgary. I do not know how I am going to downsize. It will be a challenge. But first, may I ask you to say a little prayer for me so my place sells? I don't want to back in three months whining about the same thing.

Because of the frequent travelling, and uncertainty, I am feeling somewhat anchorless. And I miss the grounding my art affords me. So the next time you sit down to craft, whether it be a story, an inchie or some cards, or knitting, or quilting, please savour the moment for me, and for others that cannot do it for one reason or another.

Here are some pictures from my new workstation. Please don't be too envious of me since the roads to and from the mountains are sometimes treacherous and slick.The bottom one is from my desk. The top one is from out in Morley, where we were out doing some outside work. I think I am blessed to work in such beautiful surroundings.
They were taken two weeks ago. The mountains and the meadows are covered in snow now.

Comfort and Joy

This post won't be about the usual Christmas saying. I have been a little distressed lately. My life has been in flux and I find myself seeking comfort in familiar foods. My comfort food is very asian. It is rice porridge or congee. In Cantonese, it is called chok or jok. I am more accustomed to calling it moey, the Hokkien dialect of Chinese. It is a very cheap meal to make- a cup of rice will likely feed the whole family since it is mostly water or stock. The rice is soaked for about an hour and if you're like me, you'll break up the grains before you boil the daylights out of it. It can be had with any kind of meat- chicken can be steamed or poached with ginger and some green onions before shredding the meat. Fish filets can be marinated with soy, sesame oil and ginger and be cooked in the porridge. Ground pork balls can be made with some chopped up tung chye (Tianjin Preserved turnip), which is very salty, and dropped into the porridge or be made into a soup to be added to the porridge. But if you do it the latter style, your rice porridge has to be thick and goopy so it can be diluted with the soup.



Condiments for rice porridge include a little bit of the following: shredded ginger, chopped green onion, white pepper, soy sauce (not China Lily, of course- but the typical real kind of soy sauce from China), fried chopped garlic and some garlic seasoned oil and thinly sliced bits of the chinese long donut called You char koay or something similar sounding.



One of my favourite rice porridge is a standard dim sum offering- Century Egg and Pork Congee. Now I cringe everytime I see Century Egg in western media. Typically, it is in the context of strange things those other people eat and it is lumped with balut (fertilized egg embryo), or dinuguan (congealed blood and meat) or bugs, bats, civet cats and bushmeat. I am sure some of you will remember episodes of Fear Factor with contestants having to chow down on century egg slurry or something unappetizing to western sensibilities.



I attibute my love for century egg to my term in my mother's belly. She had some nasty cravings, one of them being century eggs. Luckily, she didn't crave the smell of gasoline/petroleum like she did when pregnant with my brother. In asian countries, century egg is cut up and served with slices of ginger, or cooked up in my favourite porridge. Basically, it is a duck egg that is allowed to cure in a very basic solution for a few months. The chemical process solidifies the yolk into a brown gelatinous mass and converts the yolk into a creamy, yet very ammonia-y custard. Sometimes, the egg white will have some very pretty snowflake like crytals develop within the gelatinous mass and it is oh-so-pretty.

I won't lie to you- century egg truly is an acquired taste- but to me, a very comforting one.

So I made this porridge this weekend, and as I was scraping off the mud that is wrapped around the egg to preserve it, I remember taking mud off salted duck eggs and remember how much more satisfying that process is. Salted duck eggs are covered in grey clay and then rolled in black ashes so they don't stick to one another. And suddenly I am taken back across time and space and I am in my mothers kitchen and washing off the ashes and clay, bits of the clay washing down the sink as water dilutes the mess. The salted ducks egg typically has a blueish hue. We only made salted ducks egg one way- boiled and eaten with porridge. The white is typically very salty so an egg would feed at least two people, when eaten with congee.

There really isn't a point to this post, I suppose, aside from remembering and being comforted by things familiar, no matter how unfamiliar they are to others. I hope that I can still turn to my comfort foods and things that bring me joy when I need to.

Gratitude and Thanks

I meant to get this post out before Canadian Thanksgiving but of course, for on reason or another, was not able to do so. I have been thinking a lot about being thankful- I have a lot to be thankful for. We all do. For all the big things like peace in our lives, for being able to enjoy the fruits of our labour. For the fact that we can see the leaves fall of the trees, or as I sit by the window and look out and watch the cold raindrops beat against the window, for the shelter that I have, the warmth that my working furnace affords me (nevermind that Iwill pay through my nose for the gas that stokes the furnace), Most of all, I am grateful for my life. No, nothing dramatic has happened to me-I didn't survive some earth-shattering moment that opened my eyes- my eyes have been open all this time- but sometimes, even when we are grateful for the good and bad things in our lives, we forget to express it- so I am doing just that.

Tammy, I am thankful for that stuffed camel you sent me, along with the Puppy chow mix. Pugs, I am grateful that you thought enough of me to send me those stamps. Sister, thanks so much for thinking to set aside those newspapers for me, even if you really wanted to throw them out two weeks ago, Mum, thanks for cooking me my favourite meal, even if you didn't tell me about it till too late. Pat, your kindness was amazing, since you don't know me, yet thought enough of me to send me that camel. Liz, thanks for inspiring me (and addicting me) with your fabulous works. Rox, what can I say- I write some of my entries to make you laugh. I was listening to the CBC program, Spark (which comes as podcasts, BTW) and they were discussing what makes blogs great. One of the things Merlin Mann said to do is to ask yourself "who is my audience" and focus your writing on one person that inspires you and write to that. So, I try.

To each and every one of you, I thank you. I am grateful.

In Bahasa Malaysia, to thank someone is to say "Terima Kasih". Literally translated, it means "Receive Love". Please receive my love

Art in the Summer

I've been bad. I went out and got some more stamps. If my house were to ever catch fire, I am sure I'd die from all the fumes from my rubber stamps. I already have a plan. If I am home, I will open up the window and fling out all my stamps. Meanwhile, I am keeping a record of all my stamp acquisitions so at least I can try and claim insurance if I need to. Something tells me I am woefully underinsured since I first got my insurance. There is a cautionary tale on the news today about a home that was struck by lightning and caught fire. Even though the family had insurance, they don't think it will be enough to rebuilt the home.

So, here are some bits and bobs I've been working on. This card I had made specially for my friend Komali's daughter's birthday. The idea I got from JanTink. The colours are what my friend had picked out for the theme.

Stamps: Unfrogettable, Zoofari, A little birdie told me, Doodle wheel (all Stampin'Up!)

Paper: watercolour paper, rose red, celery (SU)

Accessories: Organdy ribbon from a ribbon share I got from Heidi at Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts

Inks: Stampin' Up! Classic Inks, StazOn black.
I punched out the squares from watercolour paper and inked the animals on then watercoloured them using my Aquapainter.

Something else I was working on is the ATC below. It's a prelude to the Tasteful Nudes ATC swap I signed up for. Like I said, I got new stamps!! One of my favourites is the Quartet of Bobbies that are from the Queen's Dresser Drawer. I picked this up from Stampdiva, along with Frida, and some nudie stamps from PaperArtsy. Below is a glimpse of what I am currently working on. Can I say I love my Tim Holtz Distress Inks? They are so beautiful and they take to paper so well. I was afraid I was going to get mud when I tried to colourwash two different colours but instead, the colours just blended nicely without mixing. I used Broken China and Shabby Shutters. The stuff on the writing pad is some songs I'd picked out for a Favourite Music swap I am going to be doing with some ladies I know. Its been fun revisiting my favourite songs to see if I want to include them in this swap.

I seem to be having a hard time uploading my quartet of bobbies. I'll try again once more. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to retake the picture another time.Grrr!

There, the bobbies finally uploaded. Phew! This was the fifth time trying. I usually don't have much problems uploading my pictures.

The nudie ladies are from one of the Vintage Nude Plates from Paper Artsy. I stamped the bobbies, then masked them before I stamped the ladies on. I used my Distress Inks, with exception of the bobbies, who got the Not Quite Navy treatment.


I've been having fun watching the traffic on my blog since I installed Feedjit. There are quite a lot of people I don't know visit- please DO say "hi", as I don't bite- unless you want me to. But we'd have to be good friends- I don't bite strangers. :)


Please, do validate me.... after all, the diva part of my name didn't come from nothing. Feedback is valued, but like Shelli (of the Shelli Gardner fame) said, I reserve the right to surround myself with positivity and good vibes on only hear the accolades :)

Blog Awards

So, my friend Sue passed this award on to me.

Thanks, Susie! I would like to pass it on to three people:

Roxanne, author of Art of Practice . Roxanne is a very talented writer, who has recently taken steps towards writing full time. She is, a little bit of a philosopher as well and is a true kindred spirit, a la Anne of Green Gables.

Donelda, who has been steadily digesting Jim Krause's book, Design Basics Index and sharing the tips to better design wth us. Donelda mantains Wiggy's World of Crafts and her enormous talent at creating cards is obvious when you visit her site.

And of course, to Irene, who inspires me artistically (and lives on the other side of the world). Irene lives in the city I was born in. She is an astounding scrapbooker, whose work is a result of layers and layers of details. She also has some marvellous techniques that she demonstrates on her blog. Her site is called Scrapperlicious.

Lastly, my friend Kimmie passed this on to me. Thanks, Kim!. I am supposed to nominate seven favourite blogs ... hmmm... I think this a ploy to get us all sucked into the vortex that is the blogosphere .......

1. Susanna Boyd's Card of the Week.com . Susanna does a review of people's blogs and does a best of blogosphere summary. Its a good place to hop to if you are lazy to blog hop.

2. JanTink's Stamps Paper Scissors. I am a big fan of Jan. She is too funny, with her chocolate devotion and her guilt about commiting rubbah -dultery.... although she seems to be straying far for Stampin' Up! lately.

3. Kristina Werner's KWernerDesignBlog . Kristina does some really nice work and she also does videos that you can watch *and* she also works for Stampin' Up!

4. Julie Ebersole's Paper Trufflez . I've always admired Julie's deceptively simple and clean looking designs and she is so funny as well.

5. Shari Caroll's blog. Shari is the designer for Hero Arts. I have loved Hero Arts as long as I remember and so they are very close to my heart.

Really, I can't think of whom else I'd like to nominate. I try not to blog hop because it just sucks waay too much time.

I do have some art that I will post soon. I have a week off so I'll do it sometime this week.