Grateful ♥

This post is dedicated to all my lovely subscribers who have supported me in this past 5 months on YouTube! Without all of you, I don't think I'd even be making videos!

To begin with, I had no idea I was gonna start making videos. I learned about polymer clay in June, 2012, and started polymer clay soon after that. In the following months that I've made my first polymer clay and felt plushie creations, I realized I had nobody to share them with! My friends were not interested and my family is too far away! Since the crafting community on YouTube is so full of enthusiastic crafters, I thought I'd jump in and give it a go!

Since then, I had expanded into other forms of crafting, including resin, and other non-crafting stuff (such as the wonderful world of kawaii and San-X stuff)! It sure keeps me very busy and it is a great hobby to have! I have also made many new friends all around the world!

Someday, I'd like to open a PO box, so that I can receive mail from anybody who would like to send me stuff! Hopefully this will happen before the end of the year! :)

Another goal I would like to achieve is to open an online store to sell my creations! I haven't quite figured out how much I would price my items, or how shipping costs would work! Maybe I will get on with that when I can bear to part with my charms! :)

But for now, I'll focus on making more creations and sharing them with you on my videos! Thank you so much again for following me on my crafting and YouTube journey!

Arpakasso craze!

Look what this is! My newest addiction?

Arpakasso!

Fluffy kawaii alpacas! I really didn't know what the craze was about until a few days ago!

There's also the mini plushies from the UFO catcher machines.. I'm so jealous I want some RIGHT NOW!!!

Too adorable!!!

They are so cute I can't even form proper sentences, let alone a proper blog post!

*faints*

Music taste

Ever wonder what kind of music I listen to?

I'm a proud fan of country music! Sure, it's tacky and corny and not well-liked by many, but I think the lyrics of most songs are really touching, and some are hilarious!

My favourite country artists are Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Tim McGraw!

This post may not be craft related, but I thought it'll give you a little extra information about me hehe!

PS. the lyrics from the picture is from "Cruise" by Florida-Georgia Line :)

Happy April!

Hey everyone! Easter weekend has zoomed by in a flash~ I hope you all had lots of chocolate eggs, I'm going to get mine on clearance later! Hopefully there will be some left for me!! ^^

I haven't been feeling inspired to make charms or plushies lately, I don't know why! I hope this little rut goes away soon! Meanwhile, I've been doing lots more resin, and in my latest batch, I put a TON of glitter to see how it would come out! I'm really not sure yet~

I still wish I can get my hands on some Martha Stewart glitter, especially the tinsel ones coz I think they make resin pieces SO SHINY! Maybe I should save up for some :)

I'm itching to start another craft! Maybe making bracelets? They look like so much fun! I know I know, I get carried away with starting too many kinds of craft, hehe! Makes me wonder why I didn't start earlier~

I hope April will be an awesome month for everybody! Spring is in the air and summer is just around the corner! :) Have a great day and week!

Hello Kitty Waffle Kit

I saw a video on Youtube making this kit and it looks like SO MUCH FUN!!! I want it I want it I want it!!!! I can just imagine doing this with cold porcelain!

It's $11 (probably plus shipping too)~ >.<

But it comes with such a lovely waffle mold and molds for all the other shapes!

Should I or should I not? :D

~Nikki

Resin Hates Me

Resin hates me.

I used to think I would never start resin, because I had no idea what the finished pieces would be for! Drilling holes and inserting eye screws can make them charms, but it seems like an awfully complicated process.

One day, I was intrigued by all the glitter (never used to be, I have no idea why) in the resin pieces. The combination of glitter, stickers and glossy plastic just suddenly got me started. What's more, I found a complete tutorial on how to do resin, so I decided to start!

I think I started shortly after Valentine's Day, and I was so happy with my glitter purchase! The endless bottles of shiny powder are so nice to look at! Now, if only I can make beautiful resin pieces with them!

My first few resin trials turned out to be more complicated that I imagined. Putting in the glitter and deciding what colours to put wasn't a piece of cake after all.

Yesterday, I tried it for the 5th time, and I think it was a terrible fail! Last few trials, my resin was relatively well behaved. This time? Not so much! I had warmed up my resin before using it, but by the time I got around to pouring it after preparing my work space, the resin had already gotten cold again and it was SUPER TACKY by the time I poured it into the molds! This never happened before. I guess I have to work with my warm resin right away!

Pouring the glitter was also a disaster. Last few times, I was using mini glitter packs. This time, I decided to try my new tubes of glitter. When I opened them, the tube of glitter was for pouring, and not little holes for sprinkling, if you get what I mean. I tried to sprinkle and ended up pouring a whole clump onto one spot! Yikes.

In a nutshell, I don't think my resin or my glitter was cooperating with me yesterday! I wonder how they will turn out! I also put too much dark pink glitter in the mold with the bear sticker, I wonder if the bear will even show up!

Every resin trial has been a struggle so far. But, I am still fascinated by the pretty glitter creations everybody else makes! I must not give up that easily! I do believe that you get better and things will go more smoothly after some failures and lots of practice!

Wish me luck in future resin trials!

~Nikki

My Journey with Yarn & Needles

What is this mysterious ball of yarn, you ask?

I have always liked knitting. It may sound like an activity associated with grannies sitting in rocking chairs, but I'm proud to say that I certainly am breaking that stereotype! Heck, I knit on the bus and I don't even see old ladies knitting! :D

My knitting story dates back to high school, when I first came to Canada. Staying at the school library often after school ended, I often saw my librarian knitting away and one day, I was intrigued. I asked her if she would teach me and she gladly said yes!

I didn't catch on right away, but it was more like learn and fail, learn and fail, with gaps of months and years in between each cycle. But one day, it finally clicked! Everything just made sense even though it took a long time for me to get my stitches neither too tight or too loose.

I knitted on and off during my time in university, making several scarves and even hats! Sometimes I would forget how to begin or end projects, and I would refer to online videos. But it always came back to me after refreshing my memory.

After having mastered knitting (well, of course I'm not a pro!), the next thing on my mind was crocheting! It seemed pretty amazing how you can do so many things with just a little hook and some yarn! So I bought a crochet hook and tried learning online.

Nope. That didn't work. So my crochet hook had a nice long hibernation before I finally dug it out again a few months ago. I was interested in amigurumi (crocheted stuffed toys) this time and I tried to learn from online sources again, but no! I still couldn't get it. I decided I needed a actual teacher! My friend happened to be making amigurumis herself so we had a short lesson!

I got the basics of crochet, but I somehow couldn't count the stitches properly and I JUST DIDN'T GET IT! So I put away my crochet needle again. This doesn't mean that I am giving up. I remembered what happened with my knitting and believed that one day, a lightbulb will go off and I will be able to crochet!

Last weekend was that magical day when my crochet hook and yarn decided to finally become friends! I don't know why I picked up the crochet hook again out of the blue, but this time, I GOT IT! The picture above is my first crocheted ball of success!

I was so excited!! I am now looking forward to the wonderful world of amigurumi! I am still having some troubles counting and keeping track of my stitches, but at least this is a start! I'm glad I did not throw away my crochet hook! The day I had been waiting for is finally here!

Moral of the story? If you don't get something, don't give up. Put it away for awhile and come back to it another time. It will eventually come to you one day.

~Nikki