My Interview with Graphic 45 for this National Craft Month

Today on Graphic 45 blogpost, I'm featured as part of their DT member for this national crafting month. For this March, we are given a set of questions for a short interview which you can read them HERE. On top of this, I've also created a tutorial on how to make tumbling blocks (aka Jacob's ladder), a traditional folk toy for this crafting month.

Jacob's ladder by tradition is set of wooden blocks held together by strings or ribbons. When held at one end, the blocks will cascade downward, giving a visual illusion of one block flipping over the other. There's actually several tutorials available online as well as on YouTube but I didn't manage to find them clear enough and hence creating this tutorial in a more visual way.

How to play this toy? I've included a YouTube link in my tutorial for your convenience. I hope this will be a fun project for your family. Cheers!!!

Back to School Student's Sketchbook

I have been amazed and greatly inspired by fabric-based album, especially combined with papers... One of my fellow Graphic 45 teammies, Nadya makes gorgeous fabric-paper albums... Inspired by her, I decided to attempted one using ABC Primer, one of the deluxe collections and the latest mixed media album for today's feature on Graphic 45 blog post...

I wished I had bought a couple of ABC Primer fabric previously when I saw them on sale at Spotlight... It didn't occurred to me that Graphic 45 will be re-releasing this collection that fast and I was like "Oh damn, I should have bought it!!!" So... it happened that I have scraps of polka dots fabric left after making a blouse, and I decided to use it for this album... As it's pure white dots on black background, it didn't look vintage enough to go with the paper collection... Without a second thought, I tea-dyed the fabric and TaaDaaa, I've a vintage polka dots fabric!!!

Though the overall appearance of this album is not as pretty as Nadya's, I was having so much fun doing this up especially with those scrabble tiles... These tiles just goes so well with the paper collection...

It Has Been a Busy Year...

Yes it's a New Year... Year 2015 is here... Just 3 days ago, it was just last year... I actually didn't feel the year was reaching an end and a new year has arrived... Partly is also 'cos I was super busy with Clear Scraps & Graphic 45 CHA projects, Prima class projects and my other various DT assignments... I was seriously that busy that I actually missed the countdown for Year 2015... I only got to shout "Happy New Year" to my younger sister at 12:05am and she gave me a look... A "huh" look... LOL!!

Finally when all are done, I manage to slow down and slack a bit before I kick start for this year's planning... It has been a pretty fruitful life changing 2014 year for me though there's some major life changing events taking place... Things started changing from the day I got myself into the Graphic 45 Design Team for 2014/15... And gradually I become part of Prima Educators, ScrapFX and Shimmerz DTs... It was definitely a busy year for me and when I got to realize it, the year of 2014 has reached an end...

Whether you are someone who just get to know me via various DTs I'm in (notably Graphic 45) and my various social media network (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc), or those have been attending my classes in Singapore, some of you probably may think where is this lady coming from and what's her background?!? In particular from scrappers who had attended my classes at The Art Republic, you guys always wonder where the heck I find those technical inclined and interesting techniques to teach in class... 

Biggest question of all I always get is where do I get all my inspirations from and what's running in my mind?? Gradually, I'm labelled by most you as one of the most pervertic craft instructors on earth who loves to torture her students in class... LOL! I don't totally deny that but as always, you guys do love to be tortured by me... At the end of the day, you guys bring back home with a fulfilled mind other than the project itself isn't it? And it has been one of my most happiest accomplishment in craft teaching to see you guys practicing the techniques I taught and transform them into something different and share it with me... I suppose this is what education is all about... 

People who know me enough understand that I had previously received formal biomedical and scientific training and had been in the R&D and biomedical industries for years... My very first R&D job was with Johns Hopkins, under one wonderful inspirational boss, Dr. Natasha E. Zachara who taught me alot of things about glycobiology and scientific research... My very last job dealt with advance cutting edge technology and product development for early cancer detection, mainly in cancer management in terms of Personalized Medicine... Due the tremendous pressure to meet industrial demands yet keeping opportunity cost as low as possible and to push the most innovative product out while the iron is hot on a global basis, I decided call it a day and enter into a land where I want to be in before I could die from physical and emotional constipation...

Way before I received my formal biomedical and scientific training, I took up traditional and fine arts in school for a period of 10 years and had informal training in both graphic and web design... In January 2014, I won an inaugural national shoes design competition which awarded me a full scholarship to study footwear design with one of the renowned Italian school, Ars Sutoria... Being a designer in this aspect is never an easy process especially if you are looking at being real and orginal... As I embark my journey as a true designer, I was given advice by several veterans in the industry to search for an identity... And that's where I'm here entering into this world of scrapping and crafting!!! Re-learning what colours and design elements are all about...

Along the entire year of 2014, being in various teams taught me a lot of things, meet a lot of wonderful and inspirational crafters across the globe and definitely I can gradually see myself evolve... Still learning and improving... I'm very grateful and thankful for the various opportunities given in particular for my very pioneer LLS, The Art Republic whom had given me the pilot chance... I love exploring, thinking out of the box, putting my various life experiences in my works and sharing my inspirations across the globe... Though meeting project deadlines may be stressful especially in days when you lost your mojo, I actually enjoy these processes much more than what I had been doing previously...

So that's my little background story... I hope this hasn't been a boring entry... And now it's the exciting fun part, Graphic 45 is releasing 3 new collections for this CHA - Artisan Style, Home Sweet Home and Precious Memories... Sneak peaks up for next week!!! And... they are also re-releasing 2 previous collections; ABC Primer & Once Upon a Springtime... Simply gorgeous and to die for!!! If you're going for this year CHA, I've done up 5 projects for the booth... Be sure to pop by and see what my other fellow teammies have done as well...

Cheers!!!