Cardmaking Over the Weekend; Cherish Cards

We all have that in our craft storage—crafting dies bought and kept unused (or minimally used). I was sieving through my dies over the last weekend, wondering what I could make, and I found this Cherish die set from Spellbinders 2019 club kits I previously subscribed to. Surprisingly, Spellbinders still have these dies in stock, currently running as clearance past kits sale.

Jan 2019 Club Kit - Large Die of the Month

With the idea of getting back into crafting, I decided to put these dies to use. I crafted two cards out from these dies — a Cherish card for a dear friend of mine and a Mom's card. Well, Mother's Day had just passed, but I wanted to extend the joy of crafting by maximising my existing supplies. I created both backgrounds using a mix of pink mists and my old Prima floral petites 6 x6 stencil, which fits the overall theme pretty well.

To match the cards I've created, I chose a white A6 envelope for the Cherish card and a hot pink one for the Mom's card. 

I made a video on how I created these cards. For a better experience, be sure to hop over to my YouTube to view it. I mounted the finished designs onto A6 notecards (4.5" x 6"), which I made using 110lb (~300 gsm) Neenah cardstock. I used various sentiments from Spellbinders' 'Just Wanted to Say Sentiments', which I embossed them over using ultra-fine silver embossing powder. Unfortunately, this stamp has run out of stock, however, the glimmer foil version is still very much available.

I tried stamping over the sentiments onto the inside of the card, but it ended up a mess! To cover up, I used the scraps I trimmed off from the backgrounds I created as matting to cover up the mistake I made. And it turned out pretty well. Sometimes, it's good to keep whatever scraps are left over; it might save your work!

Breaking away from my usual cardmaking style, these are fresh new perspectives that I tried exploring. I enjoyed creating the background myself instead of sieving through various pattern papers to match. 

Cheers!

Below is the list of supplies I used for these cards. 

Clicking the links below will bring you to a new page.

• Spellbinders Cherish - Large Die of the Month (Jan 2019)
• Spellbinders Just Wanted to Say Sentiments acrylic stamps
• Lettering dies from own stash
• Prima Floral Petites 6x 6 stencil (retired)
• Versamark watermark ink (SB, AMZ, AMZSG)
• Versacraft small ink pad in bubblegum
• Ranger Ink ultra fine embossing powder in silver (SB, AMZ)
• Neenah heavy weight 110lb classic crest solar white cardstocks (AMZ, AMZSG)
• A6 heavy weight 110lb white envelopes (AMZ, AMZSG)
• A6 hot pink envelope (from mix coloured selections) (AMZ, AMZSG)
• Daler Rowney system 3 in white titanium acrylic paint
• Bearly Art precision craft glue (SB, AMZ, AMZSG)
• Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Glass Mixed Media Cutting Mat (SB, AMZ, AMZSG)
• Time Holtz Stampers Anonymous Acrylic Grid Block Set (SB, AMZ, AMZSG)
• Misting sprays (retired) - Lindy Stamp Gang cotton candy, Shimmerz cotton candy and sweet heart

Legend:

SB (Scrapbook.com), SPB (Spellbinders), AMZ (Amazon), AMZSG (Amazon.sg)

Compensated affiliated links used are at no cost to you, refer HERE for more information.

Magic Wonder - A Winter Faeries Fairy Box

For the past weeks while I was re-organizing my stuffs, I came across this half-done prepared (gessoed and texturized) filmstrip shadow box together with several primed fairies and flourishes hidden underneath my working desk on top of my craft mat. It was a long time overdue project; a project that I had planned and prepared way in advance supposedly to be completed in May for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts as a Guest Designer. However, things happened and almost all of my WIPs went into a halt instantly. Flipping through my notebook where I did all my project line-up scribbles, this is so much I had missed. 

Life shouldn't be full of resentments. For the very least, I had indeed a good long rest (mentally, physically and spiritually). I just need to get myself started somehow and those scribbles I had made months back is just what I need to rejuvenate my creative brain cells. Pardon me for the nag (I've a tendency to talk a little about my life) for life has been tough on me. The process of creation has always been a hibernating moment that will set me free from the real world. This has been one of the ways that I can be really be myself without any form of masquerade in order to maintain my inner sanity. So, I shall end my story here and present my completed project...

Presenting... 

A Winter Faeries Fairy Box, showcasing a little magic wonder for this Christmas!

My initial plan was to create some sort of gardening fairy scene but that's back in May; still stuck at the back of my head. Since Christmas is round the corner, I wonder why not doing up some wintry scenes? And yes I should. Since I've been hoarding a bottle of Aleene's True Snow for almost a year, it's time to try and use it. I transformed the filmstrip shadow box into a huge snow box that carries various miniature wintry scenes within the box, with a snowflake balcony on top. 

I planted 2 Christmas trees within the 1st and last box to keep it really simple. Unfortunately, I had quite a hard time trying to capture them within my camera due to the flourishes I placed on the outside. Sometimes the kind of work I do is just not camera friendly and you need to view them using your physical eyes. This is so much I could capture and I hope the pictures are not straining your eyes too much. If your eyes are really sharp enough to penetrate through the pixels of these pictures, you will get to notice some little magic I had added within the wintry scenes. I added some florescent glow-in-the-dark powder onto snow and trees! They do "light" up beautifully at night, subtly I should say.  Again, unfortunately I couldn't capture them 'cos the details are so hard to capture and only human eyes can view them.   

The entire media application, from creating the glittery snowy effect, building the snowflake balcony to building up the wintry scenes within took me close to a week to complete. It's the drying process in between that's taking up a lot of time as I was trying to garner the the kind of winter effect I want before I seal them with iridescent fine glitters. Oh yes! glitters! This was indeed a very glittery project and I used close to 3 different types of glitters throughout.

I decided to exalt one of the fairies to the centre of the box, in front of the frame of which she carries a sign - believe in the magic of Christmas. 

I built a mini glittery snowman and place him onto a pile of snow filled with tiny snowflakes.

And someone left an ice skate there as well...

Lots of snow, glitter and flakes at the back of the snowflake balcony! I'm afraid the picture is not doing much justice - the ultra fine details are just meant for the human eye. I found an ornate rectangle frame which I moulded out from a silicon mould which I was trying to test earlier this year. Oh well, it seems I needed some sort of wordings and I decided to affix some woody letterings onto it to complete the entire project. Finally the magic wonder was done!!!

A little different away from conventional Christmas projects I've done previously, but I do hope this can give a you guys a refreshing idea in how to create a piece as such. Give it a try, you never know Christmas is not more than just snowflakes and fairies!

Here is a list of supplies I have used for this project:

• Gypsy Soul Lasercuts (filmstrip shadow box, small garden fairies, flourishes 2, stackable label set shape) 
• Prima Marketing Art Basics and Ingredients (heavy gesso in white, modeling paste, light paste, soft gloss gel, 3D gloss gel, art sugar in white)
• Tim Holtz (stackable snowflakes die, Christmas word bands, ice skates, woodland mini trees, perfect pearl PPP17714)
• Martha Stewart Mother of Pearl acrylic paint
• Clear Snap Smooch accented ink in silver fox
• Lindy Stamp Gang delphinium turquoise mist
• Melissa Frances Mica Flakes in white
• Aleene's True Snow
• Iridescent ultra fine glitter powder
• Acetate sheet
• Paper clay
• Own stash (various tiny and mini snowflakes, jewels, glitter garland, letterings, paper balls for the snowman, fluorescent glow-in-the-dark powder)

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

Precious Memories Patina Baby Boy Shadow Box

Somewhere in last winter, a friend of mine who is currently living in the USA, Chicago had a baby boy. When Graphic 45 released the Precious Memories collection for Winter CHA, it came in just in time for me to do something for her newborn child.

Revisiting my Patina tutorial, I'm using blue as the main colour with a touch of pink. On the inside, I created this "Welcome the little One" as a sentiment inside the box and made a pair of mini booties inside as if they're hanging from the treetop. The booties are made of felt and I created the shoe patterns and made everything from scratch. Something that I get to put some of my footwear knowledge in practice. I even made a card to go together with this box... This project was sent over to Graphic 45 as part of the CHA project display this January. So if any of you guys have visited the booth, you probably have seen this around...

Hop over to today's Graphic 45 blog post to see the rest of my fellow teammies' amazing creations. A list of supplies that I used for this project can be found there as well.

Graphic 45 Newsletter - Patina Mixed Media Tutorial

Mixed media is endless with so many possibilities. And it all started from imagination. In this week Graphic 45 email newsletter, I'll be showing you how to create this beautiful vintage patina look on this ivory 5" x 5" mixed media box. If you haven't subscribed to Graphic 45 newsletter, click HERE to subscribe. You wouldn't want to miss other wonderful projects and exculsive tutorials featured on newsletters.

I was deeply inspired with layered frames that I've pinned on my Pinterest. And since I've several resins frames in my stash, I thought it was the best time to fully make use of them and created this lovely sentiment.

Sit back and enjoy! Happy crafting!!!

Here is a list of supplies to create this sentiment box:

• Graphic 45 Time to Celebrate 8” x 8” Paper Pad 
• Graphic 45 Staples (5" x 5" Mixed Media Box in Ivory) 
• Prima & Melissa Frances Resin Frames 
• Petaloo Flowers 
• Prima Flourish Stencil 
• Script Stamp 
• Clear Gesso 
• Modeling Paste 
• Tinted Gold Acrylic Paint 
• StazOn Midi (Spiced Chai) 
• Lindy Stamp Gang Starbursts & Magicals (Tiffanylou Blue, Delphinium Turquoise, Ponderosa Pines Olive & Tibetan Poppy Teal)

Wanderlust Mixed Media Shadow Box Workshop at The Art Republic

Coming up next workshop at The Art Republic is this Wanderlust mixed media shadow box, using Graphic 45 Come Away with Me paper collection... There'll be lots of Lindy's Stamp Gang misting, paints, stenciling, stamping, brick & mortar building and much more...

As always, my affection for the minis, I've incorporated mini suitcases and books here... And a cropped out me here!!! My very first shadow box LO here as a class...

Happening in early August... See ya!!!