Magical Kewpie Post Tags

Perhaps my first rather familiar encounter with Kewpie was probably from a bottle of mayonnaise that's widely known as Kewpie Mayonnaise by Kewpie Corporation, a Japanese food manufacturer who popularize the condiment. I might have some personal "close up contacts" with Kewpie dolls while I was young however they didn't get into me till I had some Kewpie Mayonnaise! In fact, Kewpies are comic strip cartoon characters created and developed by Rose O'Neill, an American cartoonist and illustrator in 1909. As little as I know about Kewpies, I believe everyone of us has somehow have some sort of childhood encounter with them.

Well, I really have to say they are really cute! When I received my Graphic 45 Christmas Magic collection, I was delighted to see so many cuties within the collection and those Kewpies just caught my attention. They are way too adorable that I had to come up with something. Kewpie Post is what came into my mind back then. Combining with my love for flying matchboxes, I came up with an idea that they can "fly off" from the tags... 

Therefore... Using those cute little Kewpies as Post Dolls, here is what I've come up with...

My initial intention is to make the tags as a whole piece, without any separating elements or parts to them, but this seems like it would have probably "defeated the purpose" of adding wings onto the matchboxes. To make them removable and "flyable", I used magnets to "adhere" them together. Notice how these flying matchboxes "flying away" from their "bases"? That's practically the idea behind.

I used a variety of floral embellishment from mulberry ones to die-cuts holly leaves to create levels of dimensions. Used loads of metallic gold and iridescence here; from fanciful dollies to glittery flowers and ribbons. It's all these shimmerings elements that make the project stands out and not making these Kewpie dolls doing their job in vain.  

"Tis the Season" wreath is a stamped image from Graphic 45 previous Christmas collection, St. Nicholas, which I coloured with colour pencils to create a wreath base for the flying mtachbox to land onto. Subtly choosing colour pencils as my colouring medium to create this distinction, making the process in creating this tag a more "dimensional" one. After much thinking and searching for the right embellishments, I decided to make my very own tassles and insert them as "tails" to match the whole design using the metallic gold crochet yarn I found in a box of yarns and strings. 

Not forgetting these cute little Santa helpers, who play a vital part in making these magical Kewpie Post tags a more interesting one. They are also "removable" with magnets adhered at their backs where they can "jump" onto the wreath base on the tags or back to their respective matchboxes. Added a little jingle bell within each drawer adds some jingles as I pull the drawers. Since it's for this holiday season, I'd think this will add in some fun to the entire project.

Here is a very short and sweet video I made very last minute to show how the entire mechanism work with those magnets incorporated into this project:

Last but not the least, I kept the back of the tags as simple as possible so as not to complicate the design so much. I've provided some tips over at Graphic 45 blog which I didn't share it here. Though I'm a little late in sharing the story behind about this project, be sure to check the tips out at Graphic 45 blog to find out more. As usual, below is the list of supplies I used for this project with links to where to get them:

• Graphic 45 Christmas Magic Collection
• 12" x 12" collection pack  (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com) 
• 12" x 12" patterns and solids  (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com) 
• 8" x 8" paper pad (Blitsy,  (Scrapbook.com) 
• Ephemera cards (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas Cling Stamp 1 (Tis the Season)
• Graphic 45 Metal Dies & Staples
• Regular tag, gears 
• Square tag, clock
• Antique brass stamped metal brads
• Clearsnap Decades Dye Pad (Venetian Lace)
• Spellbinders Metal Etched Dies (Fancy tags 2, Opulent ovals)
• Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Greens Thinlits (Scrapbook.com, Sizzix) 
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallique Wax in white gold (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Glossy Accent (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Own stash (jingle bells, butterflies clear stamp, sparkling flowers, metallic gold dollies, organza ribbon)

Little Milk Carton Gift Boxes

Ever since I become a legitimate Christian, celebrating Christmas as Jesus being the reason for the season no longer hold any water within the Christian faith. I'm so glad to know there isn't such a stipulated "biblical" day to observe in order to be a Christian because such a "religious day" can be taken way too out of context. 

If you take a deeper look and do some research into the history, you'll be surprised to know it's actually derived from pagan roots and a holiday created by men. And for some, it only serves as the most depressing period of the year. Instead I'd much prefer to celebrate this day as a day of long tradition; a day of family gathering together to know everything from Charles Dickson to Christmas trees, or how St. Nick and Santa Claus came about! And why Santa wears red has an interesting origin. Check this out:

   

While almost everyone was busy shopping for Christmas gifts and decorations, as well as sharing holiday recipes on various social media platforms, it was perhaps one of the years I appeared not doing much about this Christmas. Maybe helping out my youngest sister to gift-wrap all the presents she had bought for her friends and colleagues. As usual, a little busy moment for this holiday season.

Although Christmas has just passed, it doesn't means gifting has to stop here. Rather I'd very much prefer to gift based on the heart to give and not restricted to such occasion(s). Hence, looking at the pile of Graphic 45 St. Nick paper collection lying around my crafting area, I decided to do some gifting using this collection together with the milk carton etched die I just bought from Spellbinders. Not something extravagant, but a little act of gifting makes your heart more fonder to gift. In actual fact, I just want to utilize my existing stash to create something. I just have too much! Guess as a crafter/artist, it always seems it's never enough to stock things up for whatever reasons.  

Therefore, I made these 8 little cute milk carton gifts for some of my friends and sisters-in-Christ from the Church. The 12" x 12" patterns and solids paper pad came in very handy for this project. It's probably one good idea to maximize your patterns and solids papers. 

These cute little milk cartons measured at about 3.75" tall, handy enough to be grabbed single-handedly. Puns aside, these milk cartons are just way too adorable. 

It took me some time to figure out what I should do to embellish these milk cartons. That was where I searched into my wafer dies library and found this Spellbinders Fleur de Elegance die set that has a little regal oval frame I could use. Using the gold metallic sheets I've in my stash, I die-cut 8 of them out. The effects it give on metallic paper is really amazing. It just gives a very special touch to the entire frame! Plus it goes really well with the papers I've selected. 

Each of them are thoughtfully named using the alphas from the stickers sheet along with this paper collection, and named them accordingly to the individuals I'm gifting. Thinking adding a little greens will be nicer, I decided to make some holy using the mini holiday green thinlits and placed them onto the labels. Since they're milk cartons to begin with, a little golden bell in front will perhaps jingle a little when the cartons are being shaken. Everything looked well and good, and I'm ready to gift (with some already been gifted)!

A full list of supplies I used for this project can be found listed below with links to various places I get most of my supplies from. This will be my very last post for this year and I hope to see you guys really soon with more tutorials and videos next year. Meanwhile, have a very good weekend ahead and Happy New Year!!!

List of Supplies:

• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas 12" x 12" Patterns & Solids (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas Stickers Sheet
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Green Thinlits
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Milk Carton Etched Dies (Amazon, Scrapbook.com, Spellbinders)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Fleur de Elegance Etched Dies (Amazon, Spellbinders)
• Tiny Golden Jingle Bells
• Own Stash (jute trims, seam bindings, gold trims, vintage binder clips)

Deck the Halls!

Lately, I'm into something new, something I wanted to do since late last year - to learn how to wool felt. I bought myself a reindeer kit to get myself started, however I ended up hoarding it and didn't manage to attempt. In view of this upcoming holiday season, I thought it'd be a good time to clear my stash. And yes, I've finally attempted!!! If you guys have been following me on my Instagram, some of you probably have seen a couple of my wool felting posts. Took me some time to get a hang of it and I'm still learning to get hold of the technique correctly. 

Though the pictorial instructions on the kit seem relatively easy to follow, I faced difficulties in getting the reindeer in shape. Then I got to realize the kit is probably a little challenging for a pure beginner like me. I should have started on something more straightforward and simple before moving on to more difficult ones. But heck, Christmas is here and I couldn't wait to get the reindeer done. At the end of the day, after struggling through I manage to finish off this bugger...

Apparently I had made this reindeer a little smaller than what was expected. I'd think it looks good for its size and to make it more adorable, I made him hug a Christmas tree with a jingle bell. Too cute! Just for that I had to make something to house him. And I made a hall just for this reindeer, my virgin wool felt!! Can't think of a better way than to deck the halls!

I used one of the boxes from Tim Holtz's vignette boxes as the hall. Painted a layer of crimson red over and finished with a touch of gold paint at the edges to tone down the already rustic look of the box in order to cater for this holiday season. This would seems like the hall has been refurbished. Decking the halls with boughs of holly wasn't easy. Certainly I find Graphic 45 St. Nicholas paper collection the perfect choice for this project (I still love working with Graphic 45, undeniably). Together with all my previous Alpha Stamp Christmas stash and Petaloo pine corn picks, everything just fit well into the theme. I had indeed spent hours digging through my stash to find these holly-related elements. And finally I managed to get the look I want.

How can I miss the little reindeer? He gets to sit in a bed of vintage Christmas flower soft bed!!

Added branches at the sides with some holly leaves hanging down to complete the entire theme. I thought it'd be nice to add some creature in the midst of a landscape and there it is, I found a miniature deer charm!!

And so forth, this hall for the reindeer is just this small, handy enough to hold. I hope you guys have been spending some great fun time in decorating your halls for this Christmas. I had so much fun (from juicing my creative brain cells) in decking this small little hall.

Here is a list of Supplies I had used for this project:

• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas paper collection (6" x 6" pattern & solids, 8" x 8" paper pad)
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology (vignette boxes, Christmas word band, mini plaquettes)
• Tim Holtz Alterations (Sizzix mini holiday greens thinlits)
• Ribbons (black & white checked flat braid, golden brown sweeper fringe, advent calendar tag ribbon set) 
• Flower Soft (vintage Christmas)
• Holly Elements (gold holly berries mix, holly & berry picks, pine corn picks, dark red holly berries)
• Acrylic Paints (Golden quinacridone crimson, Daler Rowney pale gold & rich gold)
• Charms and other stash (miniature deer, fleur dresden, 1/4" mushroom plugs, jingle bells, miniature Christmas brush tree, metal branches, wooden 2D trophy antlers, reindeer wool felt kit)