Precious Memories Patina Baby Boy Shadow Box

Somewhere in last winter, a friend of mine who is currently living in the USA, Chicago had a baby boy. When Graphic 45 released the Precious Memories collection for Winter CHA, it came in just in time for me to do something for her newborn child.

Revisiting my Patina tutorial, I'm using blue as the main colour with a touch of pink. On the inside, I created this "Welcome the little One" as a sentiment inside the box and made a pair of mini booties inside as if they're hanging from the treetop. The booties are made of felt and I created the shoe patterns and made everything from scratch. Something that I get to put some of my footwear knowledge in practice. I even made a card to go together with this box... This project was sent over to Graphic 45 as part of the CHA project display this January. So if any of you guys have visited the booth, you probably have seen this around...

Hop over to today's Graphic 45 blog post to see the rest of my fellow teammies' amazing creations. A list of supplies that I used for this project can be found there as well.

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!!!