Travel Tip #4

We came home really late again tonight so I will keep this post as short as possible. I want to go to sleep!! Hahaha xD

Each night I have to charge my camera battery and transfer my pictures onto my computer. But in the past I have forgotten to put the battery/SD card back into my camera and end up not being able to take any pictures all day long. So to make sure I don't forget them I like to leave all the (battery and SD card) slots on my camera open. That way when I take my camera in the morning I will see the open lids and remember to put the battery/SD card back into my camera. Here's a picture of what I mean...

Another thing I do (as a second check) is to take a random picture with my camera before leaving my hotel room. If your battery is missing then obviously your camera won't even turn on. And if your SD card is missing, most camera will show a message telling you that it is missing. 

Hope you find today's tip helpful!

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Travel Tip #3

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. We went to an onsen (hot springs) in Odaiba yesterday and we didn't return to the hotel till 1AM. Also because the onsen was so relaxing, all I wanted to do when I got back was to go to bed. So here's my travel tip #3 (for yesterday).

When you travel overseas you often have to bring an adapter plug suitable for the country you are in. But have you gone shopping for a adapter plug? They are EXPENSIVE, ranging from $20-50 each. And with all the technologies today, we often have many things to plug in or charge up each night (your computer, iPhone, camera battery, etc). Who wants to stay up all night waiting for your camera battery to finish charging before you can charge your phone? Here's my solution for that problem. I bought one adapter plug that is suitable for all kinds of sockets and a small power bar. You plug the adapter into the electric socket and then plug the power bar into the adapter. That way you will have more than one socket to use. Here's a picture of that...

The power bar in the picture is from Ikea. It not the one I would recommend you buying because I find the cord to be annoying. I have another power bar that doesn't have any cords and it is much more compact. I think I bought that in Walmart back in Canada. So take some time to search around for one that is inexpensive and compact.

***Disclaimer - Don't go overboard with the electronics. You don't want to set a fire or cause any kind of explosion in your hotel room. Do this with caution! Also, if you have to use a voltage converter/transformer, I really don't think you should plug multiple electronics to that!! I always buy electronics that have the capability to convert voltage on its own. So I never had to use a voltage converter before.

Hope you find today's tip useful!

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Miss Anya Love Valentine's Day Card

I have another card I would like to enter to this week's Retro Fresh Challenge over at The Greeting Farm. Their theme is Hearts Galore... do you think I have enough hearts here? Hehe... ^^;

The image I used comes from the set Miss Anya Love. I love her necklace along with her cute outfit.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Mermaid Anya

I am re-posting a card I made for one of the lessons in Clean and Simple Card Making 2 class. The Greeting Farm has a new Retro Fresh Challenge this week and the theme is Hearts Galore!!! Here is Mermaid Anya behind a heart shaped window.

I never win anything, but you can wish me luck anyway. Hehehe =P

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Travel Tip #2

Travel Tip #2 - Flat Pillows
How often have you gotten flat pillows at the hotel? For me 10 out of 10 times. One pillow is never enough, but two pillows are way too much, what do you do? A quick fix for me is to fold up some clothes or a bath towel and tuck it underneath your pillow. Then you will still get the comfort of the pillow but you are also able to adjust the height of the pillow.

Here I am using my hoodie to give my pillow an extra couple of inches.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Day 2 of Tokyo Trip

It was such a beautiful day today so we decided to go to the Doreamon Cafe at the TV Asahi headquarters in Roppongi. Not only did our lunches look good but they tasted really good too!

Afterwards we went to Tokyo Tower. Do you like day view or night view more?

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Travel Tip #1

Since my blog is called Chering the Ryl Me I thought I'd share some of my other interests as well. Traveling is a huge part of my life. My parents love traveling and they've been taking me and my sister all over the globe since we were babies. So it was natural for me to love traveling as well. Like I mentioned in my last post I'm in Tokyo, Japan this time. I'll be here for 10 days and I think I'll use this opportunity to share some of my traveling tips with everyone. Each day I will share a tip and by the end of my trip I will have 10 different tips for you. = )

Travel Tip #1 - Fresh Smelling Clothes
It is very important that I look and smell my best all the time. I know it sounds weird, but that's just how I was raised. Every time I go on a vacation I will pull out all the clothes I'll be bringing and give them a wash first so they smell really clean and fresh. However, when you are on longer vacations your clothes will end up smelling not so fresh, even after only wearing it once. You could pay a bunch of money for the hotel to wash it for you. But who wants to waste that kinda money? You also could find a laundromat and wash the clothes yourself. But who wants to waste precious vacation time sitting in a laundromat? A quick fix that I use is spraying Lysol on my clothes after wearing them. In the LA area, you can find travel sized Lysol cans at Target. They are usually placed with the other travel sized things. (I know... I know... aerosol cans cans are not allowed in your luggage, but who doesn't bring them onto planes? I do it all the time and so far it's been fine.) Besides, it's a small bottle you are carrying so even if you get caught and they confiscate it it's only a few bucks you are losing. Anyway, back on topic, each night after you return to the hotel, hang up your clothes and then give your them a quick and light spray of Lysol. You don't need a lot. Just a fine mist over the front and back of your shirt/pants is good enough. This will keep your clothes smelling fresh without having to wash them. **Disclaimer - I have only tried it on my t-shirts and jeans. Be VERY careful when you use the spray on other delicate fabric, it could ruin your clothes, I don't know for sure...**

That's it for today, I'm super exhausted from waking up early this morning and from the really long flight.

Thanks for visiting,
Cheryl ~

Heading off...

Just wanted to leave a quick post before I take off tomorrow. I'll be in Tokyo for the next two weeks so I won't be able to make any cards for a little while. Hopefully I will have some time in between to post here and share some pictures of my vacation! ^_^

Thanks for visiting,
Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 10

I cannot believe that today is the last day of the Clean & Simple Card Making 2 lessons. Good times seem to always fly by faster. Today's lesson (well, it's past midnight, so I should say yesterday's lesson) was about using 1 stamp in multiple ways. I didn't have time to make 3 cards again so I focused on one I've always wanted to make, an interactive card. Jennifer Rzasa gave a great lesson on how to make one. I followed her instructions and this is what I made...
(Daddy, if you are seeing this post please pretend you're not seeing it and act surprise when you receive this card for Father's Day! Kekeke =P)

That is what the card looks like before you pull the tab. 

And this is what it looks like after you pull the tab...

I added a touch of colour by colouring all the hearts red. I also picked a washi tape that would go well with the colour and it also points to the direction of the tab/focus of the card. I couldn't find the right sentiments for this card, so I wrote everything myself. Explains why the letters are a bit crooked and wonky, hahaha.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 9

I skipped lesson 7 & 8 because I wasn't getting any ideas on how to make my cards. So after watching today's lessons I decided that I'll make one based on the pleated card that Jennifer McGuire made. It took me many hours to finish this card and this is the final product.

The pleats are difficult to see in this picture.

You can see them better in real life and in this picture.

I added a bit of establishments. I didn't have blue crystals so I took a Copic marker and coloured on some white crystals. 

The Chinese/Japanese character on the fan says "love". I coloured the fan with a gold Gelly Roll Metallic pen by Sakura. The gold ink wasn't flowing out properly. I tried everything to get it out and finally my husband had whack the pen several times before the ink would start to flow again. @_@ This was one of the reasons why this card took so long to make.

The other reason I took so long was I just couldn't decide on what colour the kimono should be. I finally decided to go with the bright orangey-yellow.

Next time I would not use such a colourful paper to make the pleats. Or I would choose a kimono that's plain and doesn't have little flowers on it. The kimono against this background seems way too busy and cluttered. I will remember that for next time. = )

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making - Lesson 6, Card 2

Here is the second card I made for this lesson.

Out of the two which one do you like more?

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 6, Card 1

I learned how to create tone-on-tone backgrounds on Monday's card making lesson. I really like the effect it creates. This is one of the cards I made. I also made another version of this card (click here to view).

The background is not a single stamp, I created it by put them all the little stamps together to create one big background stamp. I really like how it turned out.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Bonus Days

First of all I want to thank all of the teachers over at Clean & Simple Card Making 2 for sharing and complimenting on the card I made on Friday. I was really surprised to find my name on the list and felt really honored to be mentioned. And what made me even happier was to see all the sweet and encouraging comments everyone had left on my blog. Thank you so much!!

I love die cutting, but I've always had trouble incorporating them into my cards. So when I had to come up with a design for Saturday's Bonus Class I was stumped! A couple of days ago I bought a wafer die that cuts out the word Paradise. I really want to use it in my card but what could go with that? I went through my stamps and found this little Mermaid Anya by The Greeting Farm. This is the card I ended up with...

That is where you'd normally find a mermaid right? In a paradise? Especially one this cute, hehehe!

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 5 (Card 3)

This is the third and last card

For this card I stamped the flower over and over using clear embossing ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Afterwards, I watercoloured the background and all the spaces that wasn't embossed and this is what I got. The sentiment says "You are special to me". It's a little difficult to see in the pictures. The sentiment was also stamped and heat embossed to create a resist for the orange watercolour.

Here are the three cards together

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 5 (Card 2)

Here is the second card

I learned from one of the instructors, Kristina, that floral stamps doesn't always have to stand up straight. So I put the stem side ways as she did in her demo and I think this card turned out pretty cute!

*Please continue to the next post to see the last card I made for this lesson.

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 5 (Card 1)

Friday's lesson was all about using 1 stamp 3 different ways. I'm not sure if I did it right, but here are 3 cards made using the same floral stamp. I also purposely used the same brown card base to give myself an extra challenge. I hope I got the right idea for this lesson.

Here is the first card

I used the stamp as a border and then trimmed around it. I also stamped the flower in light pink to give the card a foreground and a background.

*Please continue to the next two posts to see the other two cards.

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 4

Thursday's lesson was all about white/blank spaces. I tend to fill up my cards with as many things as I possibly can, but I'm really starting to like this clean and simple look.

The stamped images didn't turn out very nicely on the watercolour paper because of the texture. So to fix it I watercoloured on top of the images and added some red to it. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 3

Today's topic (well, Wednesday's topic) was Inking and Stamping Techniques. I love stamping on my cards and I was excited to learn new techniques. This is what I learned in Wednesday's lesson, gradient stamping.

Since we have company staying at our house I thought making a tag would be faster, but this actually took way longer than it usually takes me to make a simple card. @_@ I like how it turned out though. I used a border stamp to create the pattern in the background. I masked the side leaving a blank space for the "thinking of you" message. Then I added a button, some twine, and I made some faux enmeshment by punching out some dots, colouring them, and adding a coat of Diamond Glaze. Maybe later I will make a card to match this tag.

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 - Lesson 2

It's already day 5 of the online card making course, but I've only had time to make a card for the second lesson. Actually I made two cards. The first one turned out so awful that I'm too embarrassed to share it. But I didn't want to give up so I gave it a second try.

I made this card for my hubby to thank him for the wonderful job he did on my craft room. I made this card the similar aqua colour as the walls of my room. I also used purple because I thought it would be a nice complimenting colour. This card is actually a combination of the techniques I learned in lesson 1 and 2. I thought it turned out pretty nice. = )

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~

FFF Challenge - Miss Anya Hats Off

I made this Valentine's Day card for my little sister and for the Fresh Farm Friday Challenge over at The Greeting Farm. It is a simple card made with one of the stamps from the Miss Anya Hats Off stamp set. It is one of my favorite stamp sets, but I'm not sure if you can still buy it from TGF website.

I die cut the card into a heart shape and then I used the Distress Watercolour Embossing technique I learned from Mel McCarthy's blog Mel Stampz (click here for her tutorial). She is an amazing artist/card maker and I just adore her work. Anyway, Anya was stamped, coloured with Copic Markers and pencil crayons, then fussy cut out. I used foam dots (as you can see in the third picture =P) to make her pop out a little. I also added a little ribbon to tie it all together. I didn't put any sentiment on the front of the card this time, because the card is quite small, only 3 3/4" by 3 3/4". I hope my sister likes it and doesn't see this post until I give her the card on Valentine's day. Hehehe ^^

Thanks for visiting,

Cheryl ~