Victorian Valentine Puzzle Purses

Oh yes!!! Valentine is just round the corner and it's happening this Saturday. For this loving season, I'm reviving this almost-forgotten Victorian Valentine tradition - the puzzle purses. Nothing new in fact, and this historical information can be easily found over the internet.

These puzzle purses are folded origami-style envelope-like box packet, which unfolds into a pinwheel or 4-arm star, revealing either a romantic poem, love messages or even trinkets to a lock of a sweetheart’s hair. They were once popular from 1720 to 1840 during the 19th century and on those days, lovers sent these purses as love messages to their sweethearts. They are traditional handwriten with ink and decorated with motifs such as cupids, birds, flowers, hearts, and darts, usually painted with watercolours on parchment papers.Very often the handwriting itself was considered as one form of fine penmanship that was part of the artwork. Indeed it was one kind of a beauty. Sounds too romantic to be true?? But people of that era were seriously that romantic!!!

To let you guys have an idea how these vintage puzzle purses look like, click the link below to view the various purses from different times:

• 1790
• 1816
• 1830

Alright, moving back to 21st century, I'm re-introducing this old art form in a friendly and more straight-forward way as shown in Graphic 45 blogpost yesterday. Below are the various purses I've made in various sizes, giving you an idea what you can do for this coming Valentine. Click HERE to follow through this tutorial and video tour follow by...

Enjoy and have fun!!!

Create; An Altered Artist Palette

It has been coming to about a year plus I've been seriously crafting, creating various DT projects and conducting classes... Gradually I've witnessed myself evolve in the way how I create... It was indeed a journey that had brought me this far and I learned alot, much more than what I could have learned in a design school... I'm still learning though and it's not the end; still searching for an identity that will mark me as an Artist/Designer...

So, finally an opportunity came... An opportunity that never occured to me that it will serve as a beginning to fulfill my dream as a designer... After 2 meetings with the prospective company, I'm finally offered a position with them... I'll be learning everything under the sun which will equip me with all knowledge and skills that I'll need in order to create my very own label in the future... Seems promising and of couse I'm elated... Holding my joy back a little, I try not to get too overly happy and idealistic... I had learned to be more practical and realistic... Dream don't just come true just like this and it requires a lot of time, effort and commitment... Getting into a job as such doesn't means it will nurture the creative aspect of my brain... Afterall, I still need to have an identity that's highly original which is what I'm always pursuing for...

I'm pretty known for my intricate details in most of my works and I pay attention to details and love to create innovative works that seems to be complex yet creating an illusion that look way too simple to achieve... I'm refining this creative aspect of mine in fact... When I decided to move into innovative teaching, I know it's one such challenge and risk I'll have to take - it's either you love or hate me... Students who had attended my classes regularly will understand the amount of effort I put in for all my class projects... And there's a reason why sometimes they will often label me as the most pervertic craft teacher on Earth... LOL!!

Well, for the very first day of this week, I'm sharing this altered artist palette that I had done previously as one of my DT works for Clear Scraps using Prima Printery collection and quite an amount of their flowers, gems and resins... It's a project that I'd like to showcase to mark my creative journey...

I shall catch up with you guys very soon... Happy Monday!!! Cheers!!!

My Debut Creations with Shimmerz Paints

My debut creations with Shimmerz is here!!! Finally I manage to get them posted here... For those who have been following Shimmerz, you guys probably had seen them on the blog.. Here are the 2 projects I've done for my January assignments - an altered journal book cover and a 3D Victorian altered heart art placard... 

I had this idea of building blocks of pencils and plant some blooms onto it... Since I didn't get to have the space for such a garden piece, I transferred this idea onto a book cover using yellow, gold and pink as my choice of colours... Used a total of 14 wooden pencils and flooded almost the whole cover with roses from Prima... It's pretty great amount of work...

Always wanted to do something Victorian, yet can't get it started when you've the idea but kinda unable to get inspired... While I was searching for something to work on, I found this very nice frame chipboard in my stash and its like there forever untouched... Certainly this was what I've been looking for for this project... Breaking away from the common pastel shabby look for Valentine, here I am creating this Victorian piece of art placard with a Baroque touch...

Here are the lists of supplies and various Shimmerz products I used for these projects:

Book Cover

• Gesso 
• Cheese cloth
• Wooden pencils
• Shredded wood fibres
• Gold tinted acrylic paint
• Clear Scraps acrylic chicken wire
• Prima mulberry roses
• Vintage dictionary papers
• Melissa Frances resin frame
• Shimmerz Inkingz (Pink-A-Boo, French Twist & Miner, Miner, 493er)
• Shimmerz Creameez (Berry Hot & Get Glowing)
• Shimmerz Spritz (Cotton Candy)
• Shimmerz Vibez (Egg Noggin') 

Victorian Altered Art Placard

• Gesso
• Styrofoam heart
• Vintage dictionary papers
• Ledger script stencil
• Baroque frame chipboard
• Prima art ingredients (mica gold flakes, rose gold glass glitter & plum glass beads)
• Shimmerz Inklingz (French Twist, Sheer Bliss, Ruby Lost Her Slippers)
• Shimmerz (Wed Wagon)
• Shimmerz Blingz (Pixie Dust)
• Shimmerz Dazzelerz (Spun Sugar)
• Shimmerz Spritz (Bed of Roses)

Shimmerz has recently launched a range of new products; Creameez & Tonez, do hop over to Shimmerz Paint Store to have a look. Some freebies for you guys should you shop at Shimmerz, simply mention my name (Katie Zoey Ho) under "INSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT" during checkout, you will get to receive a FREE jar of Inklingz...

Happy crafting and I shall talk to you guys soon!!! Cheers!!!

Gear Up! Mixed Media Box at Made with Love

Hello peeps,

I know I've not been updating. Things are seriously piling up and I was freaking busy last week... There's a lot of unplanned happenings together with an unexpected design meeting and interview, my emotions were on rollercoaster ride... Moreover I had recently accepted a DT offer from one of the Sweden manufacturers and had gotten my DT starter pack, I was super excited the moment I saw how pretty the papers are... Well, in time to come, I'll be sharing my debute works soon...

Phew!!! I hope things can get more lined up this week... Alright for my next upcoming Prima class at Made with Love, I'll be teaching how to create an antique worn out patina look using various Prima Art Basic mediums and paints... It's somehow similar to my patina snapguide tutorial, but I'll be showing how to create the look in a different way using paints instead of mists... It's going to be a little intensive so I'm opening to only 12 pax for 2 sessions...

I hope to see some of you around... Below is the promotional collage and more detail pictures on this project...

Back to School Student's Sketchbook

I have been amazed and greatly inspired by fabric-based album, especially combined with papers... One of my fellow Graphic 45 teammies, Nadya makes gorgeous fabric-paper albums... Inspired by her, I decided to attempted one using ABC Primer, one of the deluxe collections and the latest mixed media album for today's feature on Graphic 45 blog post...

I wished I had bought a couple of ABC Primer fabric previously when I saw them on sale at Spotlight... It didn't occurred to me that Graphic 45 will be re-releasing this collection that fast and I was like "Oh damn, I should have bought it!!!" So... it happened that I have scraps of polka dots fabric left after making a blouse, and I decided to use it for this album... As it's pure white dots on black background, it didn't look vintage enough to go with the paper collection... Without a second thought, I tea-dyed the fabric and TaaDaaa, I've a vintage polka dots fabric!!!

Though the overall appearance of this album is not as pretty as Nadya's, I was having so much fun doing this up especially with those scrabble tiles... These tiles just goes so well with the paper collection...