La Rosa Especial Artist Trading Blocks

Somewhere not too long ago I was busy pinteresting and found a lot of works using ATBs, aka Artist Trading Blocks... It's till recently when I got myself into Alpha Stamps DT I manage to get access to some of these blocks... 

As I excitedly received my first batch of blocks, as usual my excitement is far more than ideas, it took me quite a while to come up with something... As I was imaging French Ladies sewing meticulously in a room filled with roses, I decided to use Pion Design's Alma's Sewing Room paper collection and From Grandma's Attic French Ladies pictures for this... I came up with these shabby chic ATBs duo... Using monochrome colours with a touch of pink, I'm trying to catch one of an old French feel and get these done up as La Rosa Especial... 

These pictures actually don't do much of a justice as I had used quite a huge amount of Shimmerz products together with various Finnabair's mixed media range to give this vintage shabby French look... A lot of teeny weeny details such as the beauty of micro beads and glitter are not captured well, mainly due to the reflective nature of these products... However I'm listing them up for sale on my Etsy shop, and if by any chance you'd like to own them, feel free to get one home...   

This piece is available here...

This piece is available here...

List of supplies:

• ATB Wood Blocks
• Medium Wooden Finials
• Candle Stick Holder
• 3" Candle Stick
• Acrylic Beads Sprays
• Platinum Sticklers
• Finnabair Art Basic (heavy white gesso, light paste, soft gel) and Art Ingredients (micro beads - silver)
• Prima Marketing 6" x 6" Floral Petite Stencil
• Prima Marketing Antique White Frames
• Prima Marketing Cigar Box Secret Acrylic Stamp
• Shimmerz Paints (Inklingz -misty morning, pink-a-boo, tarnished treasure, Shimmeringz - baby breath, Coloringz - night moves, Texturez - crushed coral, Dazzelerz - spun sugar)
• I Am Roses Mulberry Roses and Lilies
• May Art Ribbon

P.S. I'm entering this project for MAY IAR Challenge...

Home Sweet Home Cards

I don't deny the fact that I'm pretty sucks in making cards... After viewing so many beautiful cards on Pinterest and on various social media, I just simply don't have the cut in making cards... LOL!!! Nonetheless, I'm still able to make cards but on a very simple basic level...

On today's Graphic 45 blog post, I'm sharing these set of Home Sweet Home cards using 2 of the cut aparts... As I find them rather attractive, I'd like to see them pop... Hence, I made these cards using the concept of paper tole where various elements are cut and layer on top of one another... These cards look simple to make, but it seriously took me hours to cut them apart and re-assembled them back together... Phew!!! Not an easy task...

Rococo; Marie's Sentimental Pouf Constructed Art Workshop

After teaching for coming to a year plus, I started to move towards to technique based teaching where I'll have more interaction with participants... It's also a channel for me to develop and share more interesting techniques and ideas to my fellow crafting peeps and make their mind blown away by the amount of creations I can develop... 

As far as I'm concern, coming from an Artist's point of view I probably didn't get fairly paid for the amount of work done to bring these to the craft table... However, that's not my main agenda... What's really amazing during my entire craft teaching adventure is that I got to meet people who truly appreciate what I've done and the things I'm doing... This is one of my greatest accomplishments in life and no amount of my previous corporate years can compare to this...

For my next upcoming Prima class with Made with Love, I'm gearing away from the usual projects most people are doing. Influenced and inspired by Rococo, a form of late Baroque artistic movement, I'm taking Marie Antoinette's sentimental pouf as one of the main element for this project... It's not something overly done, yet subtly enough to own a little Rococo... 

You will get to learn how to build and construct this hanger from scratch using wood plank and chipboards using Prima Epiphany paper collection and some images from Marie Takes Tea collage from Alpha Stamps... There'll be some mixed media involved and I'll be teaching to create a vintage baroque texture look using gilding wax... At the end of the day, you will take home this hanger which you will be able to use it as a decor piece for all your jewelry and accessories...  

I hope to see some of you around...

Raining Cats & Dogs Horlicks; A Cat Layout

Tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day... When I ran out of ideas, sometimes it's good to go back to the basics and do something traditional... Here on today's Graphic 45 blog post, I'm sharing this Horlicks layout using Raining Cats and Dogs paper collection... 

Featuring my friend's cat, he was named after a malted drink Horlicks... It may sounded familiar to some of you perhaps... It's definitely one of my favourite drink after Milo... So I am presenting this one cool cat on this layout and this will be gift for my friend...

Making it to the Graphic 45 Design Team for the 2nd Year

Oh Yes!!! I'm on the Graphic 45 DT for the second year!!! Yeah!!! I'm still absorbing the news though... Last night I struggled to sleep as I'm thinking how to complete one of my May assignments which I intend to make a tutorial out of it... Partly is also 'cos of the excitement for this DT announcement... 

Well, I guess it's due to the lack of sleep or my brain is still in Scatterland, I forgot about this completely till the various FB notifications from my fellow g45 DT members... Given the fact I placed my milk in the freezer this morning, indeed I was reacting a little slow today... Holly Heck!!! It seriously caught me by surprise and shocked me till my heart skipped a beat the moment I saw my name on the list... Goodness!!! I'm still in frozen moment... Join me in this excitement and welcome this year DT...

Arlene Cuevas - USA

Belly Lau - China

Brit Sviggum - Norway

Danielle Copley - USA

Donna Espiritu - Saudi Arabia

Ginny Nemchak - USA

Joanne Bain - Australia

Katie Zoey Ho - Singapore (That's ME!! Holly Heck!!!)

Lori Williams - USA

Maggi Harding - USA

Mariusz Gierszewski - Poland

Robin Shakoor - USA

Solange Marques - Brazil

Tanya Dudkina - Russia

Tati Scrap - Spain

Graphic 45 Ambassadors

(This is an invitation-only program for educators. What amazing artists and teachers on this list!)

Alberto Juarez Diaz - Spain

Clare Charvill - UK

Jane Tregenza - Australia

Jim Hankins - USA

Laura Denison - USA

Pardon me, I seriously feel like a slow poke today...

Getting excited is one thing, the next most exciting thing is I can boggle my creative brain cells for another good year with Graphic 45... As pervertic as I could be, I pinkies and thumbies swear that I'll be bringing more interesting projects that will blow you away... This week new paperlines preview is just insane!!! Look at this year Halloween collection - Rare Oddities!!! How crazy can this be?!? I wanted to build a curio shop diorama since beginning of last year using the Olde Curiosity Shoppe collection but for whatever hell reasons I didn't attempt, and now being part of the DT again for the 2nd year, there's absolutely no reasons for not doing one up... Wow!! I'm all maxed out but I love it... Hope over to their blog here and here for the preview... You will not regret it...

I shall see you guys very soon again... 

Smooches... XOXO