Last Saturday, I surprised my sister and my brother with a homemade red velvet cake for their birthday! They turned 25 and 21 on the 1^st March and 2^nd March. Bunch of March babies we are. And when I said homemade I meant me waking up early and quickly drove to cousin's and let her do all the cool baking stuff while I sat there looking dumb because I certainly do not have that baker's touch. I do help here and there though so yeah *pats self on back*. And they say, its the thoughts that count, kan?

 

Of course, dragging reluctant felines on birthday photoshoots are always fun!

In case you're interested, I ironed some hama beads and glued them on toothpicks and voila! Instant cake topper. Oh and I got the recipe for the cake from here. Happy trying!

I was cleaning up my room when I stumbled into a few paper cranes that I folded last year (!). So I thought why not make something out of them and while I'm at it, I'm gonna show you guys how I made the garland:

1. Yarn/thread/strings 

2. Scissors 

3. Needle big enough to thread whatever you used for (1) 

4. Paper cranes 

5. (optional) A needle threader

a. Fold your paper cranes. Here's how. If you can, use recycled papers to save the earth. Mine were pages from a magazine. b. Cut a piece of yarn and thread it through the needle. Make a knot at the longer end. Make sure the knot is not too small. Knot twice if you must. c. Stick your needle into the hole on the bottom of the crane. d. Poke the needle at the center of the crane's body. e. Pull the yarn all the way through. f. Repeat the process with the other cranes. Vary the length of each yarn if you want. g. Cut a long piece of yarn. h. Tie your threaded cranes onto the yarn.

And you're done! Now you can hang them wherever you want and enjoy. I tied mine on the curtain rail:

Happy trying!

Malays have this old tradition of giving boiled eggs as wedding favours on wedding days. I'm not really quite sure why, perhaps eggs are the symbol of fertility? Anyways, more often than not, the eggs are given away inside 'containers', like the porcelain ones I had above. Because I was bored, I decided to spray paint them! (You have to admit, the English-ish patterns are quite dull, aren't they?)

All I need were spray paints and off I went! Since this was my first time holding a spray can, I have to admit the results were sloppy. I learnt that the best way to spray is to spray many thin layers and wait for each layers to dry before spraying another layer. Spraying one heavy thick coat will result in drippings (and that was what I did, unfortunately).

Aren't the end results pretty? I'm so loving the solid colours. Now go spray-paint crazy! Paint things you think would very much need a new make-over. Sometimes a coat of new paint is what is needed to bring back a life of an old item. And since I had paints left, I even painted this wooden tray I got for Mum:

A week ago, Amoi asked me for some help with her school projects. One of them involving making an animal mask. Since I love working with felt, I made her a cat mask! Took me around 5 hours with all the cutting and sewing.

Quite happy with how it turned out since it's the first time I ever made a mask.

Used Moku and Mokuchi as models for the mask. Who wore it better guys?

Few other things that I did for Amoi. I must say it is quite refreshing to be doing things traditionally instead of digitally. I've spent too much time on computers lately:

This is Amoi.

Sigh all of my friends are so cute

Just felt like sharing this DIY because it's so easy and I like doing easy things muahaha. I made it as a gift for a dear friend of mine. Not really proud of it though cause I wish I had better lace and a better frame. Oh well.

Anyways here goes:

Things you need:

1. Lace 

2. Frame 

3. Scissors 

4. Strong glue 

5. Clip (not in picture because I forgot xD)

6. (Optional) Colour paper

7. (Optional) Normal glue

The following two steps are optional. I did them because the lace I used was almost the same colour as the frame's, um, backing? Just gonna call it that because I don't know what it is called wtf. Anyways I wanted the lace to stand out a bit from the backing but sadly the only coloured paper I have around was this brown kraft paper thingy. My craft supplies are so sad omg I need new thingssss.

Alright, focus Kiwa *clears throat*

Trace the size of the frame's backing on the colour paper and then cut it.

Glue the paper.

Next, cut your lace. 

Make sure you cut it bigger than the size of your backing.

Like so.

This is the clip that I forgot lol. 

You might not need one but it make things easier for you to do and like I said I like it when things are easy. OK Kiwa shut up.

Clip your lace in place and start glue-ing! :D

Make sure to pull it tight.

If your backing has hooks like mine, make sure the lace do not cover them because you might need them if you want to hook your frame on the wall.

Put the backing inside your frame.

Voila!

Ready to use.
Btw, you can always decorate your frame nicely if you want.
I just left it as it was because I was lazy thought it look neater that way.

Now you can hang your jewelery i.e. earrings or whatever on your frame!

Since I don't have earrings I used a brooch instead just to show you.

Put your frame on your vanity table or hang it on the wall.

If you're like me, who don't own jeweleries, you can use the frame just as it is. 

As a deco item.

That's it, easy peasy.

Happy trying!

:D

Many moons ago, I have all these cardboard boxes laying around so I decided to make Tigger a scratch pad! Tigger is such a lucky cat for having such loving, caring, thoughtful and cute owner servant ohohoho. Anyways, I'm gonna share with you how I made it because well, it may be useful.

Trust me, your might need one when your sofas or carpets become the victims of your cats' scratchings. Or if you're lazy, you can always buy one. Many petstores have this. Even Daiso has them. But I'm all for free things because I'm cheap :P

So to make one you will need the following:

• Cardboard boxes
• Cutter
• Ruler
• Glue
• Cutting mat

Now let's start, shall we?

Cut the boxes into the desired length and width. 

Mine were about 19 inches long and 1 inch wide.

Cut and cut and cut until you're sick of cutting. 

Or until you've reached the amount of boxes strips that you wanted.

Start glueing. 

Be generous while you're at it because you don't want the boxes to break apart due to your cats' vicious scratchings. You can use double-sided tapes too.

Stick the boxes togetherrrr.

Stick them till you're satisfied with the size, or the surface area for your cats to scratch on.

Mine is pretty small because I got distracted *sweats*

The princess in action, scratching that pad with no mercy whatsoever.

That's it! Easy peasy. Now go make one for your furkids. They'll be very happy :D

EDIT: You can sprinkle some catnips on the cardboard to attract your cats. Thanks for the tip, Lisa!