La Rosa Especial Artist Trading Blocks

Somewhere not too long ago I was busy pinteresting and found a lot of works using ATBs, aka Artist Trading Blocks... It's till recently when I got myself into Alpha Stamps DT I manage to get access to some of these blocks... 

As I excitedly received my first batch of blocks, as usual my excitement is far more than ideas, it took me quite a while to come up with something... As I was imaging French Ladies sewing meticulously in a room filled with roses, I decided to use Pion Design's Alma's Sewing Room paper collection and From Grandma's Attic French Ladies pictures for this... I came up with these shabby chic ATBs duo... Using monochrome colours with a touch of pink, I'm trying to catch one of an old French feel and get these done up as La Rosa Especial... 

These pictures actually don't do much of a justice as I had used quite a huge amount of Shimmerz products together with various Finnabair's mixed media range to give this vintage shabby French look... A lot of teeny weeny details such as the beauty of micro beads and glitter are not captured well, mainly due to the reflective nature of these products... However I'm listing them up for sale on my Etsy shop, and if by any chance you'd like to own them, feel free to get one home...   

This piece is available here...

This piece is available here...

List of supplies:

• ATB Wood Blocks
• Medium Wooden Finials
• Candle Stick Holder
• 3" Candle Stick
• Acrylic Beads Sprays
• Platinum Sticklers
• Finnabair Art Basic (heavy white gesso, light paste, soft gel) and Art Ingredients (micro beads - silver)
• Prima Marketing 6" x 6" Floral Petite Stencil
• Prima Marketing Antique White Frames
• Prima Marketing Cigar Box Secret Acrylic Stamp
• Shimmerz Paints (Inklingz -misty morning, pink-a-boo, tarnished treasure, Shimmeringz - baby breath, Coloringz - night moves, Texturez - crushed coral, Dazzelerz - spun sugar)
• I Am Roses Mulberry Roses and Lilies
• May Art Ribbon

P.S. I'm entering this project for MAY IAR Challenge...

Rococo; Marie's Sentimental Pouf Constructed Art Workshop

After teaching for coming to a year plus, I started to move towards to technique based teaching where I'll have more interaction with participants... It's also a channel for me to develop and share more interesting techniques and ideas to my fellow crafting peeps and make their mind blown away by the amount of creations I can develop... 

As far as I'm concern, coming from an Artist's point of view I probably didn't get fairly paid for the amount of work done to bring these to the craft table... However, that's not my main agenda... What's really amazing during my entire craft teaching adventure is that I got to meet people who truly appreciate what I've done and the things I'm doing... This is one of my greatest accomplishments in life and no amount of my previous corporate years can compare to this...

For my next upcoming Prima class with Made with Love, I'm gearing away from the usual projects most people are doing. Influenced and inspired by Rococo, a form of late Baroque artistic movement, I'm taking Marie Antoinette's sentimental pouf as one of the main element for this project... It's not something overly done, yet subtly enough to own a little Rococo... 

You will get to learn how to build and construct this hanger from scratch using wood plank and chipboards using Prima Epiphany paper collection and some images from Marie Takes Tea collage from Alpha Stamps... There'll be some mixed media involved and I'll be teaching to create a vintage baroque texture look using gilding wax... At the end of the day, you will take home this hanger which you will be able to use it as a decor piece for all your jewelry and accessories...  

I hope to see some of you around...

Safari Trunk Boutique Diorama

Besides being a coffee freak, I'm equally a freak in imagining doing certain things in unusual places such as shopping for my favourite trunk in a Safari park. Presenting here my ideal Safari Trunk Boutique diorama which is on this week's Alpha Stamps newsletter project highlight using this month kit.

Used a bazillion of Alpha Stamps' supplies plus those greens and other supplies I've been keeping for God knows what the hell I'm hoarding for, I transformed a small wooden box into a wooden chest using Tim Holtz wood grain stencil and painted it over with various shades of brown. Added a layer of bushes and dumped some branches and fern garlands at the top. To finish off, I added on claw feet and lion head door knocker. Oooo how cool is that!!! I love these new Graphic 45 staples!!! They simply match this theme so well. Don't you feel Safa-rish-ing? 

There's 2 level in this boutique, level 1 is for men; all sort of explorer stuffs while level 2 is for women!! Fashion parade in front of the mirror and have a comfortable rest on a nice chair, ladies are only interested for bags isn't it? What's more to this diorama is I can hold it with one hand. Feels like I'm owning this whole Safari Trunk Boutique all by myself. Added a 3D giraffe nibbling the leaves off the branches, as well as some little pocket watch charm, binoculars and ornate key on the other end of the branch. This just spice up the entire Safari scene. I have a step-by-step tutorial in how to make this 3D giraffe from the collage sheet at the bottom of this entry. A full list of supplies follows by.

Happy trunk shopping. And I hope you have a wonderful day ahead.

The entire view of Safari Trunk Boutique. This diorama is available HERE.

The tree branches and greens at the top.

The main entrance of the Safari Trunk Boutique.

A closer look at the fallen charms.

A shawl, folding newspapers and a passport of a lady traveller.

Explorer stuffs all men will love...

Tutorial in making 3D giraffe from Out of Africa collage sheet

Step 1: Create a mirror image of the giraffe. You can reverse the image within Adobe Acrobat by following the instructions HERE if you've the software... Otherwise you can reverse the image using Microsoft Word by taking a snapshot of the giraffe on Adobe Reader, paste the image onto a word document, copy and make another copy and flip the image horizontally (under Picture Tool > Rotate). 

Step 2: Print and fussy cut the giraffes out. In order to "strengthen" the giraffes, backed the print outs by gluing them over a piece of cardstock before fussy cutting. This can be omitted if you had printed them on a heavy weigh paper. Distress the edges if preferred.

Step 3: Paint or distress the backing cardstock with black paint or black soot distress ink. You will only need to do this if you are using a light colour cardstock as backing or you've printed on a heavy weight paper. Otherwise, backing with a black cardstock will conveniently save this step.

Step 4: Build a 1/4" block by stacking a few medium weigh chipboards. I often keep scraps of my chipboards so that I can use them for functions as such.

Step 5: Paint the edges with some black paint.

Step 6: Glue the block onto one of the giraffe as shown.

Step 7: Sandwich the block by gluing the other giraffe. 

Make sure they are match in symmetry.

Step 8: Glue the heads together as shown.

This will eliminate the illusion of having a double-head creature.

And you are done!!! Here is one proud standing 3D giraffe.

Supplies List:

• April Vintage Vagabond Kit
• Out of Africa Collage Sheet
• Vintage Travel Tags & Hardware Collage Sheet
• Steamer Trunk Parts Collage Sheet 
• Haunted Ship Travel Collage Sheet 
• 2mm Brass Flat Back Studs
• 3mm Brass Flat Back Studs
• Faux Suede Sheets
• Bronze Binoculars Charm
• 1” Bronze Keys
• Narrow Gold Fleur Dresden Borders
• Fancy Chipboard Corners
• Wood Flourish Frames
• Glittered Mini Seed Pods in Gold
• Violet Cherry Blossom Garland 
• Tim Holtz Damask Regal Flourish Embossing Folders
• Tim Holtz Wood Grain Stencil
• Golden Rod Sticklers 
• Alphabet Baby Beads
• Moss Sheet
• E6000
• White Gesso
• Molding Paste
• PU Varnish
• Kraft Cardstock
• Graphic 45 Claw Feet
• Graphic 45 Lion Head Door Knockers
• Dusty Attic Chipboard (mini chairs & atc frame)
• Twiddleybitz Chipboard (flourish corners)
• Martha Stewart Craft Paint (chestnut brown)
• Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Paint (burnt umber no. 233, pale gold no. 708)
• Own Stash (pocket watch charm, modeling foliage, faux tree branches, fern roping garland, jute twine, mirror sheet)

La Petite Haute Couture

Oh yes it's the annual La Petite Haute Couture Faerrari Show that's happening... The Queen of Whatcha-NaNa Land cordially invites everyone for a preview of her latest 1739 wings collection... Not long long time ago, the Queen received a few pairs of naked skeleton wings from the city of Basin, land of Victoria Aussilia... Looking good with a flare appeal, the Queen decided to gather the town best artisans to furbish up the wings... Meticulously hand painted and plated with dust and gold, all are transformed into pieces of grandeur wings... Presenting these wings as a form of specimen to the Queen and she was indeed very pleased...

While the fairies were awe with the newly crafted wings, installing them on their petite bodies aren't an easy job... Irony are these little fairies, they love huge wings to flaunt their petite frames... Such a vanity! And here they are all winged up in their pink poofy dresses hand stitched by the renown haute couture dressmaker, Mademoiselle Nettlerlilie... Those glamorous millinery are freshly made from the freshest blooms harvests in town, handcrafted by Princess Petablooms... Join me to welcome these little sweeties and I hope you have a wonderful evening...

Smooches from the fairies...

XOXOXO

Marie in Wonderland Tea Party Topper

On this week Alpha Stamps newsletter highlight I'm sharing this tea party topper as a topper decor for my cupcake stand... This month kit Marie in Wonderland is currently available at Alpha Stamps website...

It's quite a small topper stands at ~6" tall, I built the base by stacking 2 of these tiny paper mache boxes and put a Marie on top... Using paperclay, I molded some teapots and cups as well as mini bows out from the silicon molds, painted them and use them as decorative elements around the base... So here is what I've gotten.. I wanted to keep it simple and straightforward for the sake of easy display and keeping...

Here is a list of supplies for this project:

• March 2015 Kit - Marie in Wonderland
• Marie Takes Tea Collage Sheet 
• 27mm Resin Tea Party Heart Doilies 
• Die-Cut Chipboard Panniers Dress 
• Creative Paperclay 
• Tiny Paper Mache Box Set 
• Mini Bows Silicone Mold 
• 3D Tea Party Silicone Mold 
• Stitch leaf Ribbon in Pink

Alpha Stamps Design Team

Alright, guess my hands will be pretty full for this year... Announcing that I'm part of Alpha Stamps as an international design team member... I'll be working with collages this time on their monthly kits... New exciting journey...