Review : Crafted by Mei

If you could recall some time back, I engaged in the service of Crafted by Mei as well to custom-make a bracelet and two necklaces. Much to my delight I did received my goodies and they are really pretty and up to my expectations!

All of your orders from Mei comes in a packaging like the one below - very sweet indeed. Ideal for gifts you get to save on wrapping! 

And here are the two necklaces which I ordered from Mei. I would say that both turned out very good and exactly what I had in mind.

Original Design

My modified design - wanted an unconventional
colour of dark blue and blood red.

Original Design

My modified design - Honestly you can't see much of a difference
here but I changed the link from snowflake to butterflies.
And the color of the necklace carries hues of light green as well.

 

And the finale is of course the bracelet which was made entirely from scratch - meaning I combine both designs to be made into one. This is to symbolize my pregnancy where I chose the pram as a charm and the color of sapphire/blue represents me and amber/purple represents bear. Both are our birthstone.

Original Design 1 - I wanted the bracelet to be entwined
with beads like the above.

Original Design 2 - With the charm, flower cabochon,
and Swavovski crystal to dangle from the middle.

And here is Mei's creation. It was perfect, simple, and fits the description of what I had in mind. I love it to bits.

Perfect! *heart*

So yes, aside from Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast, you can always opt for Crafted by Mei as well. Both are good albeit having different styles. I guess it is entirely up to the individual's preference. 

For me personally, I prefer Wendy from Diary based from my past experience primarily because she is fast in answering emails, very pleasant and accommodating, and somehow her style suits my taste better.

Of course to be fair I am not saying that Mei is less talented in terms of the creative department, it's just that due to her workload, she can be a tad slow in replying emails. I just find Wendy more engaging. That's all. :)

Love;

Mummy Geri

Review : Completely Under the Charm of the Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast

Note: All pictures are taken from Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast and it's Facebook Account. Please give them due credit should the pictures are to be duplicated or copied.

As mentioned before, I've engaged in the services of Wendy from Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast to  custom-make two charm bracelets for myself. She is a very nice person to work with and her reply to emails are prompt and fast. Not only that, she is also a very patient and accomodating person (are all creative people like that?). 

Although she may not update her blog often, you can always opt to head to her FB page where updates on her work progress are being documented quite frequently in a day. It is very interesting to follow her development as she placed her arrangements for a customer and then a couple of hours later voila~ a pretty new customized bracelet is done!

It is even more kan cheong interesting if the progress is your own order. Because you can't wait to see how the final product will look like. I call them, the teaser shots. :)

If you could recall; I ordered two bracelets from her existing series with minor tweaks:

(i) Dainty & Demure No. 2 

Original design of the sweet Dainty & Demure No. 2

What I requested was to keep the original design but add in a personalized charm with my initial "G" in it. I've also asked for the ribbon charm to be changed to a butterfly charm. FYI I love butterflies!! 

And here is the final work taken from the FB page : 

The new addition :)

Don't you think my initial "G" is done so prettily??? It fits into the entire theme perfectly and the font is so vintage~y and classic! Perfect! Such a classy design! Thumbs up! Perfect if I want to go all frilly, sweet, and innocent. 

(ii) Old Chinese Cafe Charm Bracelet

Original design of the quaint Old Chinese Cafe Charm Bracelet

I've asked for Wendy to add some colors in black and maroon/dark red. My intention is to make it look more like a Shanghainese theme like The Bund. Antique and vintage. Classic and old school. Think of the 1920s era in Shanghai. That's the overall feel which I want to create.

And here is the outcome taken from the FB page:

Woah ... that's Shanghai Tang for you!

All I can do is gap at her masterpiece piece of artwork. It was exactly how I pictured it to be. The dark red and black combination is so va~va~vom! So slutty Chinese old school. Noticed the "girl in cheongsam" charm? It has been changed to black and white. Ohhh.. spooky like those old Chinese news print ad. So mysterious. Two thumbs up! It's perfect to be used for work especially on a gloomy Monday especially if I'm wearing something of a darker shade. 

Aside from the above two amazing and beautiful charm bracelets, I was so itchy hands have also added one more order. A purely customized order to celebrate my pregnancy. I named it, the Baby Boy Charm Bracelet.

(iii) Baby Boy Charm Bracelet.

There was not much of a reference. All was done from scratch in the sense that I have a rough idea on what I wanted. I pretty much choose the charms which was to be included and leave Wendy to come up with the creative part to string it all up together.

Basically, my request was as follows:

- Keep it simple with drops of blue hues.

- Customized a "It's a Boy" charm.

- Rocking horse, pacifier, and teddy bear (because my boy is a baby bear) charm. 

I've suggested that perhaps she can use the acrylic cabochon blue ribbon in her Alice in Wonderland Charm Bracelet or the blue flower cabochon in Dainty & Demure No.1. Or alternatively, she can use blue ribbons like the Keep Calm & Go Shopping series. 

The acrylic cabochon blue ribbon in Alice in Wonderland Charm Bracelet

The blue flower cabochon in Dainty & Demure No.1

Blue ribbons in Keep Calm & Go Shopping

Further I've also suggested that she could make a sapphire blue bead / Czech bead / Swavovski crystal to dangle from either one of the charms. I've also asked for her to add a faceted teardrop blue crystal as well. Why blue? It's because the baby is a boy and my birth stone is sapphire. :)

After sending out my elaborate request, I was a bit worried that Wendy would think I quite TTLY asking for so many things have a hard time trying to figure out exactly what I want. But no, in 15 minutes' time, came her reply and I quote a portion of it:

"It's no problem at all :) ..."  

And in my heart I went like.. seriously? 0_o"

Even with my TTLY many requests, she managed to churn out something within the next day that's exactly what I wanted. I couldn't help complimenting her with heaps of praises on the FB page! Look at all the pretty trinkets and the blue color beads and .. and.. the Swavovski sapphire heart crystal!!! *heart* The only thing that I've asked Wendy to add on in the arrangement is the acrylic blue cabochon ribbon. 

From the FB page : Teaser arrangement shot
before hooking them all up.

And so I was stalking waiting anxiously for her to update the final arrangement (refreshing the FB page every hour or so) and here it is .... 

T_T *tears of joy*
Beautiful isn't it?

For those who wanna do a charm customization of bracelets/necklaces/keychains/bookmarks etc, please do contact Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast. Wendy is a breeze to work with and her creations are amazing! She is fast and efficient too!

Highly highly highly recommended! :)

Love;
Mummy Geri

Review: Unique Gift Ideas by Pinky Craft

Note: Read here for part 1 on Pinky Craft.

Somehow I knew that I wanted to give two of my psycho colleagues an appreciation gift in view of my upcoming 3 months maternity in November, simply because they will have a handful of stuff to take care of.

I also knew that I wanted to give something meaningful and thoughtful - not your usual photo frame, mug, fountain pen etc. That's just too boring. I wanted something that represents them and represents the situation and of course to represent me (ahem~ narcissism alert!).

With the two crazy gals.

Of course, naturally charm bracelets/necklaces was one of the first choices (since I was in the midst of custom-making for myself, I might as well make theirs as well). But then halfway through it suddenly occurs to me that they are not really that into accessories as much as I do. Don't want to waste the money on something they don't need.

And so I was stuck again. -.-"

So started my Googling quest on custom-made stuff and came across Pinky Craft which specialises in handmade miniature clay. It fits what I want which is special, unique, represents that particular person, within budget, and most importantly no duplicates. :D

Promptly emailed Pinky Craft and after much emails flying back and forth, the owner Leena and me came up with the idea of mixing clay charms and silver charms to be made into a keychain. I was toying with the idea of keychain or a bag charm - in the end I settled for the earlier.

What I had in mind was something very simple and fuss-free. Something that is not too childish as well. After finalising on the details and payment has been made (within a short span of two days), Leena created two amazing pieces for me. It was beautiful and fits exactly to what I wanted.  

May I present to you (I really hope my colleagues don't read my blog!!), the custom handmade clay creation by Pinky Craft ....

TADA~!!!!

To the left, it is for one of my colleague Miss N
and to the right is for another colleague Miss R.

Come on you have to agree with me .. the keychains are so adorable and not too over-the-top. I trusted Leena with the colour coordination and she did it perfectly. For both, I standardised them in the sense that the baby silver charms and "made with love" silver charms are the same. Leena was the one who came up with the idea of the lace to jazz up the keychain a little.

I also wanted to have their name stamped to the keychain to further personalised it, and Leena came up with the simple idea to make a round clay with a baby face in the center. You can't really see the wordings but at the top it says "Thank U" and at the bottom is their respective names. :)

Significance :

Baby charm - Means I am going off for my maternity leave.

"Made with love" charm - Means I heart them a lot. :)

"Thank U" clay charm - Means I appreciate them a lot. :) :)

And let me elaborate the story behind the other two clay charms, which represents them individually.

Story #1 : Miss N.

Why I chose to make the coffee clay charm (initially wanted a Starbucks clay charm but it was out of stock) was that throughout my pregnancy, I had these occasional craving to drink coffee (also to help with the sleepiness after a heavy lunch), and our Miss N here would head to the pantry and make me a cup of coffee.

Coffee made with love

The funny thing is the coffee is really sedap and aromatic but she refuse to let me know what brand it is. So everytime all I need to do is pick my phone and call her extension and voila~ coffee is served! Just like my personal tea-lady. p/s: Until now, I still don't know what "special" coffee is that.

Story #2 : Miss R.

In case if you are blur, the fish is Dory from Finding Nemo. Why Dory? It's because our Miss R here is blur-blur like Dory. In fact her nickname is Dory. We even say that she has a "Dory memory".

She looks like this most of the time :p

Yes, she is that blur. 0_o

So what better way to represent her than to make a Dory fish for her?

So yup, I am extremely pleased with the service, efficiency, and the creativity of Leena. For awesome and unique gift ideas, I strongly recommend for you to drop by Pinky Craft. You won't regret it. I promise. :)

Love;

Mummy Geri

I Love Miniature Clay Charms (part 1)

Anything that is charm-related really fancies me a lot. I noticed that there is a growing trend of clay charms. To me, it is a really unique idea and is so adorable! Of course it being clay, the charms can be molded into anything you want. 

At Pinky Craft, the owner Leena is very creative and is able to custom-make clay charms to be made into handphone strap, keychains, bag charms etc.

These are perfect for gifts as it is out-of-the-ordinary and I am sure the person at the receiving end would be thrilled at receiving them. Leena is a very pleasant person and you will feel immediately at ease with her.  

I have also made some gifts to be given away to my colleagues. Will post that up later once I receive the goods. Hopefully they don't read my blog, or else there wont be anymore surprise. :D

Feel free to ask for her suggestion and input if need be and she will be glad to be of assistance. Do not be shy to state your budget and she will help to tailor around it.

Yes, we do have a whole lot of creative people in Malaysia :)

Love;

Mummy Geri

I Love Charm Bracelets (part 1)

Yes I do!! In fact, in my possession I have two expensive charm bracelets from Thomas Sabo and my first ever and probably the last Tiffany & Co. Both are presents from Bear. As much as I adore charm bracelets, I still can't bring myself to spend exorbitantly for one piece of sterling silver. 

Thomas Sabo

Unless if it is a present. Heh~ My Thomas Sabo bracelet with all its charms cost roughly RM900, whereas the Tiffany & Co classic Return to Tiffany bracelet cost RM1,200. Extremely pricey I know. 

Return to Tiffany

Fret not, pretty and custom-made charm bracelets/necklaces need not always be expensive. I managed to find two such blogs which sells amazing pieces. 

(1) Crafted By Mei

And so one fine day I was flipping through The Star and came upon an inspiring story of Mei, who had cancer and was paralyzed waist down. She found God and through His grace, she started the business of handmade charm accessories. You may opt to custom-make your pieces of jewelry - you can refer to the design on her blog and then converse with her via email an your requirement.

Dainty by Crafted by Mei

Droplets by Crafted by Mei

I have used the above two designs to be combined as one and asked Mei to custom-make a charm bracelet for me. Can't wait to see the outcome. :)

Aside from the charm bracelet, I have also requested for Mei to make two necklaces for me inspired by these two designs below. One is more casual for my everyday wear, and the other is more sweet and can be used for formal wear as well.

Chrysalis by Crafted by Mei

Made in the style of Morning Dew by Crafted by Mei

(2) Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast

In my honest opinion, I prefer the designs from here because they are more unique and they have more themes to choose from. Of course, you may custom-make your designs as well. I have chosen two charm bracelet designs. 

One is Dainty & Demure No. 2 below with minimal changes. I am really a sucker  big fan of all things sweet and lovely. Couldn't resist on this one. :)

Dainty & Demure No.2 by Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast

Then as I was scrolling the site, I came across this charm bracelet with an antique kind of a feel. So quaint! I've requested to add in a little more color into the bracelet so we shall see how it goes. :)

Old Chinese Cafe Charm Bracelet by Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast

So if you are as crazy about charms as I am and don't want to over-spend, please do go through the above two sites. I am sure you would find something that is of interest to you. Will do another post on the custom-made jewelry once I've gotten the bracelets/necklaces. :)

Love;
Mummy Geri