Alpha Stamps Design Team

Alright, guess my hands will be pretty full for this year... Announcing that I'm part of Alpha Stamps as an international design team member... I'll be working with collages this time on their monthly kits... New exciting journey...

Home Sweet Home Seeds Pocket Tags

To kickstart for this Spring, on this week's Graphic 45 weekly newsletter I'm sharing this DIY seeds pocket tags using the Home Sweet Home paper collection and large kraft tag staple which you can easily make them as tokens or gifts for people who as green fingers.

Simple to make and not too difficult. I made these for 3 different kinds of seeds which are found in the paper collection - carrots, tomatoes and peas. If you'd like to use this tutorial for other seeds, you can a range of seeds labels available here for download and print. Click HERE for the tutorial.

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A Tibetan Poppy Altered Vase

One thing about dealing with colours is the ability to give you the freedom to play around... And this is exactly what I like about colours... Even I had received some training in both design and arts, I'm still learning how to see colours... Throughout the various DT projects I've done previously, thus far the colours I've played with are within a restrictive zone that I'd have to match accordingly to the colour scheme of every paper collection... Sounds rather convenient and to a certain extend yes it's pretty much straight forward...

When it comes to just using colours alone, that's a totally different thing altogether... It's usually nonrestrictive with a huge space for creativity... Anything could happen under the sun... What really excites me as part of Shimmerz DT is that I finally get to play with colours; seriously playing with colours... As I progress as an Artist I started to understand what colours are all about in a very different way... Every day I discover and learn new things... Pretty exciting journey I should say...

So for today Shimmerz's blog post, I'm sharing this altered vintage milk vase which I had it totally transformed into a piece of art decor... The original idea came from the Himalaya Tibetan Poppy, mainly the unique blue colour from this flower... Because of the unusual texture of this particular vase I've, it gave me a very medieval feel as if it came from somewhere back in the 12th century where the medieval Renaissance period was... To transformed into something more modernize yet preserving the vintage feel, I decided to use blue as my main colour with contrasting yellow to gold colours... I deliberately altered the flowers to mimic the Tibetan Poppy and darken the edges to worn down the look with a more vintage touch... To give a little Renaissance touch, I used some white feathers and twine to soften down the blue for a balance of colours...

Here is a list of Shimmerz products I've used for this project:

• Coloringz (Heidi Ho Blue, Well Blue Me Down)
• Vibez (Egg Noggin')
• Creameez (Get Glowing, Ride the Tide)
• Inklingz (Miner, Miner, 49er)

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...

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!!!