I realised it’s been such a long time since I updated anything on this blog. To my surprise, there are still some visitors to the blog daily. To these people, thank you so much for your support and for dropping by.

Unfortunately, due to a very very hectic day job schedule, I am unable to spare any time making cards. It’s very sad for me and I really feel sorry to have rejected several people who wrote to me asking for cards. I didn’t want to make it official here at first because in my heart I kept wishing and thinking that I would be back to this very soon but alas, it really seems quite impossible at the moment (or in fact the past few months)

I will come back to making cards one day because I really like doing it and those papers and the tonnes of ribbons / stamps stashed away in a big box under my table need to see daylight once more.

To those lovely people who have bought cards from me in the past, I thank you from the bottom of my heart because you have given me much needed motivation and proved that what I did wasn’t meaningless. And to those who are interested in getting cards from me but can’t do so now, I hope that I can return to this hobby soon enough for you to revisit the site. In all, thank you all for your patience and I look forward to the day when I can reopen the site again.

Despite the temporary absence, I found that I still had some visitors to my website which I am guessing is because Christmas cards by ASHCARDS have reached their destinations and people are dropping by to check the website. I certainly hope that’s the reason!

Christmas is going to be a busy period for me but I may take some time out to start on New Year cards post Christmas. I believe most people combine their new year greetings with their Christmas wishes in their Christmas cards so what I am thinking is not so much of “Happy 2011″ but more of Chinese new year cards. I am not so sure if people my age give out CNY cards but I am guessing that people around me don’t do so because most of the cards on the market look too traditional and “old”. Perhaps if cute and simple CNY cards are available, some people may start giving them out.

The year of the Rabbit (2011) is a theme which may provide a lot of creative ideas, as rabbits are viewed as soft and cute creatures and it’s easier to translate these qualities to a card as compared to say, the year of the Snake or the year of the Horse for example. I am thinking simple rabbit cut-outs and carrots? LOL An extremely appropriate character which I thought of is Miffy. (Since we had Mickey for the year of the Mouse and Snoopy for the year of the Dog etc.) I don’t know any other rabbit characters who look pleasing  and simple enough to put on a card (Bugs Bunny is too annoying to be on a card) So in a nutshell, stay tuned for the CNY cards!

Sorry for the inconvenience, I will put up new cards again after I come back!

It was really a surprise to me when I ran out of Christmas cards because I thought I had enough for my friends, but I guess the response for ASHCARDS Christmas cards was better than I expected! In all, about 30 cards went out in November and including the 18 I had reserved for my own friends, I actually made a total of 48 Christmas cards this year! Wow, that’s a lot of paper, glue and ribbons haha

I really enjoyed making the Christmas cards though…everything about the Santa/ reindeers / snowmen patterned papers and embellishments made me happy and excited about Christmas once again. If only I had more time (sorry, I had to reject some people who had written in to request for customised X’mas cards), I would really love to continue making more Christmas cards right til mid-December whereby people can still get them for Christmas. Regretfully, I am going to be away for most part of December and I felt I had better draw a line somewhere instead of overpromising and then failing to deliver. So for those of you who managed to get Christmas cards you liked from ASHCARDS, thank you for your support! And to those whom I had to disappoint, I appreciate your interest and I hope that I can be of service to you in future when you need cards again.

As a sort of recap and prelude to Christmas, I am picking out some of my own favorites among the ones I have done this year

Rows of Santa brighten up your Christmas Day!

Card measures 6″x4″, is blank inside and comes with a red envelope.

SGD 5.20 (includes normal local postage)

Card measures 5×3.5″ , is blank inside and comes with a white envelope.

SGD 5.20 (inclusive of normal local postage)

Card measures 6″x4″, is blank inside and comes with a red envelope.

SGD 6.50 (inclusive of normal local postage)

Card measures 6″x4″, is blank inside and comes with a red envelope.

SGD 6.80 (inclusive of normal local postage)

Little penguin wants it to snow! (Just like all of us spending tropical christmas)

Card measures 6″x”4, is blank inside and comes with a red envelope.

SGD 6.00 (inclusive of normal local postage)

Another request from the same friend who asked for “some birdy loves you”, this is the 4th “You deserve a star” card I have designed. I ran out of the usual star chipboards I used in the previous cards so I have to use this bigger chipboard, which looks a little overwhelming no doubt. I glued and dusted gold glitter onto the chipboard from scratch and in the process sniffed in a lot of gold powder lol, not to mention having glittery hands! Even though this is already the 4th version I made, it’s one of the most classic and versatile design I ever came up with , so I still love it to bits.

Card measures 6″x4″, is blank inside and comes with a white envelope.