Create, Love and Dream ATCs

Been a little late for updates for this month as I was quite busy lately with several activities for the past weekends. Trying to strike a balance and has been making an effort to plan my time well. There are a lot of things happening around me and I'm very glad to share they are good things. It'd also mean I'll busier for a very different set of reasons, as well as transiting into a new phase in life. More challenges ahead I should say and I may face some adaptation stress which might not be a bad thing. Rather, it'd mean I need to be more disciplined and have to constantly keep my emotions under control. Nonetheless, it's still something positive to look forward to and I'm super excited about it! 😂 

Moving on, sharing here my latest project today in relation to my recent YouTube channel trailer. Decided to do up these ATCs to portray the message I've been wanting to bring across and what it really means by "Creating the Dream". It has been an amazing creative journey so far. And I've witnessed the creative progress in me during these past 4-5 years, which has moulded me into a better thinker and person; an experience that I never acquired during my past working life. 

Create, Love and Dream are terms that I always want to use them as frequent as I could to remind myself why I'm into this journey. Regardless of what kind of art or creatives you are in, the desire to love the work you do and continue loving it makes the dream possible. Hence, creating is more than just a journey itself. Loving it makes the journey more complete and fulfilling. It's also my greatest pleasure to invite everyone to join me on this journey together, not solely to share my works but also to encourage and inspire as much as I could. Likewise, I'd also love to be encouraged and inspired as well and that's the whole purpose of wanting to do this.

I had bought this Tim Holtz ATC mover and shapers die many years ago thinking it might be useful in the future. Very unfortunately, this die has already been retired and is hardly available online. It took me this long to finally get to use this for this project. Well, it's always better to use them now than never. A great amount of supplies I used are actually within my existing stash that I've kept for very long especially those ornate frames chippies, mulberry leaves etc. I'm aiming to have a nature feel hence I added quite a number of "leaves", "straws", "stones" and "foliage" to make it as if you are entering into a tropical rain forest. I hope I've gotten the feel correctly. Notice there's also some dew on the leaves as well?

As much as I could, whenever time permits, I'll try my best to do up a tutorial. And here is my first tutorial for this month of February. I hope this will provide some interesting ideas and inspirations. An extensive list of supplies I used for this project can be found at the bottom of this entry. 

List of supplies used for this project:

• Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook 8" x 8" paper pad
• Graphic 45 Botanical Tea cling stamp
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink in brushed corduroy (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distressed stain in tarnished brass (Scrapbook.com)
• Smooch pearlized ink accents in molasses (Scrapbook.com)
• Pale gold acrylic paint
• Prima Marketing straw jute
• StazOn midi in spiced chai 
• Viva Decor pearl pen in magic transparent
• Acetate sheets
• Dusty Attic chipboards (upper alphas, lower alphas, mini corners, mini flourish)
• Woodland scenic underbrush in light green
• My own stash (leafy ribbon, jute straw, mulberry leaves, fern clear stamp, ornate frame chipboards, micro styrofoam)

#Ernestephanie

So far, it's very likely this is the most simplest and shortest project ever completed in less than an hour, with limited tools and supplies on hand. I made this well wishing card for a lovely couple who is going to get married this March. 

Today is a day for the bride-to-be after weeks of planning. Together with a few sisters, we organized a bachelorette party for her. And part of the programme was to do up a page for the couple, which forms part of an album for her retention. Most of the supplies are from my stash, which I gladly contributed for this party. If it's not due to this event, I wouldn't have dug out my Pion Design papers. Oh! How much have I missed for the past months no knowing these treasures I've in my stash?!? Nonetheless, I managed to do up something without any creative plan in mind. And this is solely on random mode - unprepared, unplanned and just jump in and do it!

It was indeed intriguing and interesting to do up a project as such. Without much other crafting tools with me such as 3D foam dots, glossy accents, etc. (the only tool I've was my precision scissors!), this is purely putting my creative mojo to a test. It felt so much like a sudden quiz where only nutty professors will provide, though we probably have been warned before hand. Still, at the end of the day I did enjoy the process and crafting together with my other sisters (whom probably don't have not much crafting background) together which made such a gathering a rather unique one. 

I hereby wish Ernest and Stephanie a blissful marriage ahead... God bless!!!

#Ernestephanie 

An Altered Patina Photo Frame

It's 2018! I hope everyone has a pleasant New Year. Over at my tiny country where I reside, it was raining over the countdown period; practically rained through the last day of 2017 to the first day of 2018. Quite a significant day to remember; raining through 2017 to 2018.  

From this year onwards, I'm coming back with more updates and video tutorials, continuing to share and inspire people alike within the community. And I hope I'm able to do this for as long as I could. Your earnest support and encouragement in the work I share do means a lot to me. Though I may be slow in certain ways and may not be able to respond, I do value each and every one of you who has shown your kind support and encouragement towards my work throughout these years. As I promise before, I'll make an effort to bring more exciting projects and tutorials that's easy to follow and learn. Pretty excited for this and I'm looking very forward for this come back. 

Without me saying further and get carried away with my excitement, I'm moving on to share this altered patina photo frame which I made it as a belated birthday gift for one of my sisters within the Church of Christ. 

Throughout the years, I've been buying and collecting quite a number of "alterable" items which I've this tendency to keep them first, then think later what to do. At the end of the day, I'll always ended up forgetting what I've bought and never get to use them. It's because of a patina paint set I had bought since early last year, I decided to whip something up. While digging into a huge box of "alterables" (this is where I tend to keep them, conveniently sealed beyond my physical eyes), I found this Ikea Kvill photo frame which I had already torn away the plastic packaging. So right on the spot, YES! YOU'LL BE THE ONE I'M GOING TO ALTER! Without much further thinking, it got to me that I should also do up a start to finish video tutorial for this. 

There's an abundant amount of patina effect tutorials available online which I believe there's isn't a standard way in obtaining the effect. Neither is there any straightforward way as well. Previously, I've created a "non-traditional" method in creating patina using mists and solvent ink during my term with Graphic 45 which I still enjoy doing it this way. Certainly, with ready-made paint set available commercially, it just makes creating the patina effect much easier. 

In most of my projects, I've this tendency to match the colours and design elements as closely as possible. Basically speaking, they need to be in harmony and collectively a theme. As I was planning this project out, I already had in mind what kind of effect I want, and I had this Unearth paper from Kaiser Kraft Antique Bazaar paper collection which I took the design as a reference to create the patina effect. 

Unearth, from Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar collection

Besides owning a number of "alterables", I also have several dies I bought and never put into good use. Decided to use this opportunity to use my stash, I dug into my die collection library (once again) to search for suitable dies to use together with this frame. The rose die from Susan's Garden collection and Tim Holtz's tiny tattered florals dies finally came to their pilot use, after being kept for years (Oops!). Because it's patina, I do find using bronze/copper metallic papers for these flowers as one of the better options over regular cardstocks. Very unfortunately, the bronze metallic paper I used from Time Holtz's Kraft Core collection is no longer available. This does shows that I do hoard onto things long enough till they could go into retirement. Nevertheless, it's not really the end of the world, I manage to find alternatives which I've stated a few in the list of supplies below at the end of this post.

This beautiful Spellbinder's ornate die-cut frame is also making it's debut. Yeah! I know! A crafter can never have enough. Suddenly, I took noticed that I just have too much things that haven't been put into good use. Guess I'd need to make several craft debuts in the future.   

I got the son from my sister-in-Christ to quote some bible verses that will describe his mum well and got these verses printed out onto premium paper. The print-out was subsequently tea-dyed and distressed. I mounted the print-out onto a piece of chipboard before placing it on top of the die-cut frame. I trimmed the Unearth paper to size to fit the window and I used the patina design as the backing of the sentiment. If you take a closer look, the altered patina frame does matches up quite well with the designed paper. 

To perk up the look, a little golden fleur dresden will be just nice. And a final lettering completed the whole project.

Here is a full list of supplies I used for this project, with links to various places you can get them if you're interested:

• Ikea Kvill Ornate Photo Frame
• Finnabair Patina Effect Paste Set (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Finnabair Art Basic, Clear Gesso (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Tiny Tattered Florals Thinlits (Scrapbook.com, Sizzix)
• Spellbinders 5x7 Reflective Moment Etched Die
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Copper Metallic Papers (Cardstock Warehouse, CutCardStock)
• Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Paint (pale gold no. 708)
• Dusty Attic Teeny Tiny ABC Set
• Susan's Garden Rose Thinlits (retired)
• Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar - Unearth (retired)
• Ranger Rose Gold Stickles Glitter Glue
• Golden Fleur Dresden

A Blessed Thank You Card

I've recently bought some club kits from Spellbinders after viewing some interesting project ideas on Facebook. Without much hesitation, I bought the September club kit that came with this very beautiful large lace dies after getting inspired at that moment. 

As usual, I won't have much of the ideas in what I want to do when the dies finally reached me. And this explains why sometimes I'll be a little slow in using them. Considered that one of our fellow brethren from the U.S. was coming to edifying us via the Gospel meeting last month in November, I decided to volunteer to do up a Thank You card for him to show our appreciation in his earnest effort in serving the LORD. This was where I got to play with the large dies I bought.  

Looking into my stash, I still have these rather old collections (Engrave and Printery) from Prima Marketing that I haven't been using them that much. Hence, I decided to do up a masculine Victorian card that displays mainly scripted texts and damasks, which coincidentally goes really very well with the flourish etched dies I bought together with the September club kit. 

A heartfelt message was printed onto premium paper and was mounted at the back of the card. To give some dimension and sparkles, I finished off the card with some jewels around the diecuts, both front and back of the card.

Though the September club kits are no longer available to purchase at membership pricing, the large die set is still available for purchase here. If you are interested in joining the Spellbinders Club Membership, they are having a 15% off for the 1st month when you sign up. Offer will end this year end (till 31st December 2017). Unfortunately, most of the December club kits are sold out for now, however worry not as very soon they will be launching the January club kits very soon before the end of this year. When the kits are launched for purchase, you will be able to enjoy the discount.

A list of supplies used for this project can be found below. Click onto the links to purchase the various Spellbinders dies and supplies if you are interested to get. 

List of Supplies:

• Spellbinders D-Lites Flourishes Etched Dies
• Spellbinders Classic Lace Die Set (Large Die of the Month)
• Prima Marketing Engraver & Printery Paper Collection
• Golden Chenille Stem
• Doodlebug Bumblebee Assorted Jewels
• Conqueror 100gsm High Quality Wove Finish Paper
• Wood Veneer Letterings (own stash)

A Special Box of Memorabilia

First of all, for people who has been faithfully following my various entries in my blog even till this point of time... Thank You, sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I know it has been a long long time ago I last posted on my blog. I'm terrible sorry and equally guilty for unable to update as soon as I could. Nonetheless, I've finally made a serious effort to come back despite all my procrastination and those busy hours.

Before I start introducing my latest project (not exactly new because this was completed on late July. Oops!!!), I'd like to share a small fraction of my current life story that forms part of this project. There has been turmoils in my life that I'd have to put my various crafting projects and teaching plan on hold. Such a halt actually ended up close to a 2 years hiatus. Seems long, yet I felt as if I had been living for almost a century. Indeed, a lot of things happened, with some still feel like a never-ending event. Not to dwell into the details of the issues I'm facing, perhaps going straight to what led me to do up this project will be more meaningful.

A couple of you have probably read some of my life events that I had recorded down in my past entries. To begin as an introduction (to most whom don't really know), I was a "Christian" for the past 13 years and seriously, I thought I was really one though not a very pious one. As life wasn't very promising for me during those period of difficulties, I decided to renew my faith with Christ. The journey begun somewhere between last Winter and beginning of this Summer, I found myself starting to develop an immersing interest towards the Bible, on how historical facts and evidences coincides so well with the Bible. And since then I embarked into a remarkable journey in Searching for the Truth that led me to know the One True God and become a Christian legitimately. 

Currently, I'm serving and worshiping the LORD at my local Church of Christ and got to know this amazing sister-in-Christ Baby Tan who is one of the earlier Christians who planted the seeds in Singapore. Without her, my local congregation would not have started. It was my greatest honour and pleasure to be invited to do up a memorabilia for her as a special gift on her 90th Birthday this July. Without much of me saying further, here is the finished project... 

It's a big 12" x 12" box, which I altered it using the shadow box from Graphic 45. Because I want to make it last, I tore down the outer structure of the box and rebuilt it using some muslin fabric to reinforce the edges before layering some Melange tissue paper from Tim Holtz. The entire deconstruction and reconstruction took me a day to process before any mixed media and decorative work could be done.

I learned from various members within the Church that sis Baby Tan loves purple, flowers and butterflies. And this really narrows down to the colour choice and theme for this project. Without much thinking, immediately I know which paper collection to reach out to - Sweet Sentiments and Botanical Tea from Graphic 45. 

I deliberately chose one of her younger days photos and created a vintage layout for her at the front of the box. As I had done up a notable amount of stenciling, stamping and painting work on the entire box, I tried not to over-embellished the layout and kept it really simple with her picture as the main focal point. 

At the back of the box, I further embellished it using this "inspiration" wordlet from ScrapFX over an ornate flourish frame I found in my stash which I had bought it many years back. This is probably one of my favourite portions of this project.

This is where all the treasures are, all kept safely inside the box. As you pull the drawer, you will be greeted with 2 albums and a scroll.

At the base of the drawer inside, I covered the entire surface with this very sweet floral paper from Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiment paper collection. And I fussy cut the main thematic "Sweet Sentiments" scroll image out and placed it at the center which blend in quite well with the entire theme and purpose for this project.

These are the two albums I did; one hand-stitched photo album and one tag album with all the hand-written messages. 

I had handwritten some Bible verses and had use a couple of them throughout the albums' covers. Some were nicely contributed by our preachers in our Church. 

The scroll is actually a written biography of sis Baby by our late brother-in-Christ Ira Rice. I was reading it for several times on the night I was formatting the font and text after extracting this article out from a book. Her story really inspires me greatly and certainly put me to awe. She's one seriously petite godly woman who truly belongs to the LORD.

And so that's me presenting this special box of memorabilia to sis Baby during her 90th Birthday celebration on 30th July this year in the Church building.

We managed to take a short video of this project, filmed by Rachel Poo (our fellow sister-in-Christ) and here is the orientation video.

List of Supplies used for this project:

• Graphic 45 Botanical Tea and Sweet Sentiments Paper Collections
• Graphic 45 Staples (12" x 12" Shadow Box, Ivory Regular Tag Album)
• Tim Holtz Melange Tissue Wrap
• Decorative Chipboards (Scrapiniec Park Avenue Layers Sign Frames 1 & 2, ScrapFX Mini Alphabets, Inspiration midi, Dusty Attic Mini ABC Upper, Blue Fern Studios Layered Frame, Twiddleybitz Ornate Flourish Frame)
• Finnabair Art Basics (clear gesso, heavy gesso in white, modeling paste)
• Clearsnap Smooch Pearlized Ink Accents (cherry chocolate)
• Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Paint (pale gold no. 708)
• Martha Stewart Craft Paint (hailstorm)
• StazOn Midi (spiced chai)
• Prima Marketing Flourish Stencil
• Assorted May Arts Ribbon
• Petaloo Flowers
• Own Stash (golden fleur dresden, crochet lace, scripts & wood bark clear stamps, chipboards, purple glitter, purple & cream cardstock, pearl accents, faux pearl strings, eyelets, yarns) 

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)

A Harvest Gnome - Give Thanks

It's Thanksgiving today; day of harvest and giving thanks! For this year thanksgiving and just in time for today, I made this very last minute Thanksgiving project - A harvest gnome using wine cock.

Please do not underestimate this little gnome for he knows how to give thanks in every situation. Life might not be as wonderful as we seem to be. For this harvest season, just Give Thanks and life will be grateful...

As little as he looks like, he's just small enough for me to hold him with my hand. He's just a handful big. 

 A stump of his harvest. Happy Thanksgiving!