Talking About Mood Boards for a Recycling Project

It's almost 2 years! Ever since my last entry till we're in a pandemic situation, I decided to get myself back into crafting to ease the stress and tension that's related to COVID-19, as a form of outlet. There were some projects done in midst, however I simply didn't take the time to get myself active in blogging. Well, I'd reckon perhaps only a few will read.

Nonetheless, in today's entry I'd like to talk about mood boards; something many creative individuals will know what I'll be talking about. Please pardon me as I'm not a trained creative artist, as I'm mostly self-taught. This is a 2019 project class I've devised for a group of ladies, teaching them about recycling and how creating a mood board will help to facilitate ideas. 

And this is my mood board for a recycled project I had in mind, which took me quite some time to research on. Decided to use some felt, paper scraps and some embellishments from my stash to create this cactus penholder.

To make the penholder more interesting to use, I actually adhere pins at the back of the wooden embellishments and poke through some felt balls. At least there's some fun elements in place to play around with the cactus!

In a nutshell, these are the various recyclable materials I've used for this project.

Well, click HERE to download my notes for the class if you'd like to know more about mood boards and how to use them as guides to build a project. Feel free to let me know how this will benefit in creating recyclable projects at home. Meanwhile, have fun and I'll be back for another entry soon. 

A French Carnival Sweet Paper Jar

Good day everyone! 

I'm so glad despite of my recent erratic hours, I manage to squeeze some time in between to showcase an interesting way in how to embellish a paper jar using the various dies from Spellbinders for Canvas Corp Brands' Product Match Up series. This will be especially useful if you're their Club Kit members.

I've this French Carnival idea at the back of my mind with an attempt to do up a Parisian concept-base project. I deliberately chose red and ivory as my main colours and would love to do up something sweet for a friend and sister-in-Christ. Without much consideration, I decided to do up another paper jar, based on a tutorial I did for my Graphic 45 Ambassador Audition entry last month. To give the jar a some dainty look, I added some Tresor de Luxe laces around the jar before embellishing. Move over to Canvas Corp blog here to view how I get all this done up! 

So here is the final product (with more pictures below) which I've already gifted to my friend on Sunday for her birthday. I filled up the jar with some sweets and small gifts within the gift box prior in gifting, which are not captured in the pictures here. However, this can serve as a good gift idea that's one of a kind; handmade and nowhere else available for purchase. After all sweets are consumed, the jar itself can be continued used as it labelled as or to store other things.

The top of the lid...

The gift box...

Using an eye bolt screw, I hang a small tag with handwritten birthday wishes beneath the lid that further make this gift a more personalized one. Well, that's how I used the various Spellbinders Club Kit dies to compliment and match up the various papers from Canvas Corp. If you're not or yet to become Spellbinders Club Kit member, you can simply sign up as a new member and get 15% off your fist kit by using this coupon code: CLUB15. As good as it'll last, therefore do sign up before it's gone for good!! 

Below is a full list of supplies I used for this project together with various links in where to get them:

• Canvas Corp 12" x 12" papers (Red & White Mini Dot Reverse, Red & Ivory Ribbon Stripe, Black and Ivory French Script)
• Spellbinders Fretwork Accent Die (Amazon, Spellbinders)
• Spellbinders Club Kits (Domed Treat Box set, Holiday Frame set)
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Ribbons (old gold shimmer organza, ivory satin with gold metallic trim edge)
• Tresor de Luxe laces (white flower applique, Venice lace trims)

Always Love, Love Always - A Poppy Heartfelt Card

Alright, after months of delay with held ups, etc., finally my pilot Canvas Corp post went live. I'm sharing here today a poppy heartfelt card that I made for this month watercolour challenge. I also did up an easy-peasy tutorial in how to use various Tattered Angels products to watercolour stamped images. Click HERE to find out how.

I'm using the Poppy Heart stamp from IndigoBlu as the main focus of the card. Because poppies are red in colour, I contrast the background with a variety of blues, using the various texture papers from 7gypsies Architextures paper series as well a few drizzle touches of Frozen Berry Twinkle Me'lange, one of the complimentary goodies gifted by the owners of Little Birdie Crafts. Can you see how it sparkle that "special effects" on the card?

Well, aside creating this card for the watercolor challenge, I decided to gift this card to one beautiful couple from Texas I met 2 weeks ago while they were here for missionary work - John and Carla Moore! It was via John Moore's Searching for the Truth programme I managed to find my way to the LORD's church. The one True Church where I get to meet many Christians around world where we are all bound by one faith and one truth. Christ's Church is without border and that's the beauty of the LORD's church. It's indeed one such blessing to be part of this amazing big family of God. LORD's willing, I got to meet him this year together with his lovely wife, Carla. They are back to their home in the US, and till next time we will surely meet again...

Me with The Moores 😄

All the biblical virtues of Love which I dedicate to the Moores...

I hope this will be a refreshing idea in how to use various Tattered Angels mists and paints for watercolouring. Again, here is the shout out! The watercolour challenge is open to everyone till 4th June. The winner of the challenge will be invited to be Canvas Corp Brands Guest Designer. Meaning to say, you will get a box filled with goodies from all 3 Canvas Corp Brands to play with should you crown as the winner. Without much hesitation, do hop over HERE to enter the challenge.

Below is the full list of supplies I used for this project with various links in where to get them:

• 7gypsies Architextures™ Mixed Media Pack (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• 7gypsies Architextures™ 8″ x 8″ Paper Pad
• Architextures™ Parchment Rub-On – Inspire
• Tattered Angels Naturally Aged Kit - Rusty Metal (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• Tattered Angels Calendar Mist Kit - Kisses (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• Tattered Angels Color Wash Paint Faux Finish - Verdigris (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Key Lime Pie (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Curious (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Cork (Amazon, Canvas Corp)
• IndigoBlu Poppy Heart A6 Stamp
• Little Birdie Crafts (Twinkle Me'lange in Frozen Berry, Chipboard Vine)

That about it for today and I shall see you very soon again for my next tutorial. Therefore, do stay tune!

Graphic 45 2018 Brand Ambassador Audition

The moment is finally here... Despite of my rather tight schedule recently, I managed to get this posted in time hoping I'll get a chance to be considered to be part of Graphic 45 again. Missing all the fun I had previously, it was a good rest in between and I'd want to take this opportunity to come back and provide more creative inspirations. Heading straight ahead, here are the projects I created for this audition.

Project One: Cafe Parisian Candies Paper Jar (step-by-step tutorial)

Earth day is approaching (22nd April) and I think it'd be good to do up some upcycling project and transform them into daily useful items. Besides being a "junk collector", I do keep quite a number of disposable items which I find them as potential upcycling objects. And those jumbo toilet rolls are one of them which I kept many of them. For they are sturdy and hard enough, they provide very good bases for jar making. 

Notice a little butterfly among the flowers?

May it for your pantry storage or even as a gift, it doesn't cost that much to do up one. Trust me, it's not going to be that difficult. You just need to be a little patient while working on it. I decided to do up a step-by-step tutorial which is more clear than video tutorials.

Supplies List:

• Graphic 45 Cafe Parisian Paper Collection (12" x 12" paper pad and 6" x 6" pattern & solids)
• Prima Marketing Royal Menagerie Flowers (blue sprays and velvet leaves) 
• I Am Roses Mulberry Flowers (roses and lilies)
• Trims (fabric laces and pastel blue organza ribbon)
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Tag Dies
• Upcycling Materials (jumbo toilet rolls, assorted think and thick cardboards/chipboards)

Project Two: Nature Sketchbook Merci Beaucoup Butterfly Duo Cards

The very next project I created are these duo thank you cards for a lovely couple who is coming to Singapore from the USA this week. Using the Nature Sketchbook paper collection, I made these dimensional cards using a pair of butterflies denoting the loveliness of the couple onto the contrasting patterns of the papers.

Supplies List:

• Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook Paper Collection (12" x 12" paper pad and 6" x 6" pattern & solids)
• Graphic 45 Core'dinations Signature Series (ColourCore Cardstocks in dark cashmere and spring green)
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock
• Conqueror 100gsm High Quality Woven Finish Paper
• Spellbinders Club Kit Dies (Holiday Frames, Welcome Autumn Wreath)
• Trims (gold foil organza ribbon, double satin green/yellow ribbon)

I hope these have been a good source of inspiration and pleasing to the judging panel for this audition. I also wish all participants the very best for this year audition as well.

Cheers!!! And keep on creating to inspire!!! I shall see you all very soon again for subsequent creations and tutorials...

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

Some Updates and Some Stuffs in my Store

I think it has been "x" number of times I've been "MIA-ing" for a while then came back with new projects and maybe some updates. Yes I'm pretty inactive since last July as I was constantly caught up with loads of life issues; mainly on the various major changes in both my life and family. 

Little do you know, I was actually going through a tough marriage and was (and still) in midst of separation and divorce since end of 2014. Plus my parents' health are not doing well in particularly for my dad who is at very high risk of getting a stroke. Over the last weekend, my dad was admitted to the hospital as he suddenly couldn't control his movement, collapsed and fell twice - on streets and at home. He was so distraught that he suddenly became a baby, cried in despair as he lost control of his bowel and wet his pants. After a series of MRI scan and labs tests, we got to know he was actually infected with Influenza A virus and the neurologist managed to discover a teeny weeny blood clot in one of his brain vessels. Though the clot is not life threatening enough to cause any physical stroke symptoms, his doctor got him started on aspirin. He was infected with the flu bug and why was he so weak that led him to lost control of himself is something doctors unable to explain to us.

Well, my dad is on cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar control medication. This really speaks how unhealthy my dad is. He is on so many medications that I think it's a little overkill. As I look into the various medications he's taking (very seriously for the very first time), I got to realize the various side effects of these drugs he is taking. One of them in particular (though rarely reported) has an effect on skeletal muscle tissues which the drug will break down the muscles tissues. Perhaps it's the constellation of various medications he has been taking plus the attack of flu bug made him so vulnerable. Though I'm not a trained doctor, I feel strongly that such drugs should be prescribed with care. There has been a huge misconception that patients can totally rely on medications without realizing that these are drugs, and drugs have side effects. They are not elixir or some sort of wonder drugs that can prolong a person's lifespan, unless you are in a condition that you need to be then that's a total different story. A lot of effort has to be made on the patients' side (often on diet and regular exercising) to ensure they are not fully dependent on drugs but using them to assist their current health condition. This is something a lot of us have been taking for granted, unfortunately.

Life wasn't that fantastic for me for year 2015 and the beginning of this year but despite all hurdles I managed to overcome them, one by one. Though it seems that the path ahead is tough, there's always a bright side that I can always look forward to such as creating more exciting projects and be able to share with all of you. 

Oh well, I know this has been a long wait and finally I manage to get it done and make it available. I know some of you are really looking forward for this and I hope this don't come in too late. My STACK SUITCASES tutorial is FINALLY available at my Etsy store! Phew! After a year plus?!?Alright I know it has been quite a long wait. But trust me, I'm probably someone who is able to provide  tutorials with such clarity together with loads of illustrations and photos. 

Tutorial Sample Pages

I don't take short cuts and will make an effort, put my very best to illiterate every step as clear as possible.  For those who had purchased my Suitcase Treasures PDF tutorial, you get to notice a lot of illustrations are digitally drawn by me so that you know exactly what to measure, which paper to use and what to cut. A lot of effort put in and this explains why I charge my tutorials a little more expensive than most others. 

If you love building things, my tutorials are for you. Head over to my store HERE to get a copy. I shall talk to you soon. Have a great day ahead and happy crafting! Cheers!!!