My Official Return as Graphic 45 DT and A Crafter's Card Holder

Today is the day I come back to the Graphic 45 DT for the 2nd year. My first year with them was indeed a heavenly one and it's an experience that I'll never forget. Though there's a lot of changes in my life this year, it also means I'll have more work to do and there's a lot of adjustments to be made. While I'm "transcending" and adapting, I'm working hard to crack my brain cells more bringing more exciting artwork and projects in the near future.

As a start for my 2nd year with Graphic 45, I'm sharing here a tutorial for Father's Day or any other day which may deem fit for any other special occasion - a Crafter's card holder for the exquisite, rare and unknown. Beware of its size, it only holds a minute amount of cards exclusively where cards are only given to a few which make them uniquely rare.

Alright, I'm not exactly sure how many cards are usually given daily unless you are a salesperson. But in my previous work as a Innovator/Researcher where I held different level of position, sometimes I don't even issue one card within a day. I'd have to warn you that these card holders can only hold a maximum of 5 typical name cards and they are indeed for the rare and exquisite people. If you've gold plated or diamond cards, these are probably ideal.

I Won A Challenge

It has been a seriously long time I ever send in my projects for challenges... So somewhere in May, I decided to submit one of my Pion's ATB project for I Am Roses Blog Challenge... And I won!!! Here is my winning entry... More details about this project can be viewed here... If you love to one of these ATBs, I've listed them in my Etsy store for sale...

ScrapFX Tips & Tricks Blog Hop

We have reached 1000 likes on our Facebook Page and to celebrate this, we are having a "Tips & Tricks" Blog Hop! Each and everyone of us in this wonderful talented Design Team have been busy creating a special little something for your inspiration and we will share a special tip or trick! So why not join us for the creative ride? I can assure you that everyone of us will not disappoint you! What's best of all is that you could win yourself one of these fantastic ScrapFX prizes! 

Check out these goodness:

Foam stamps prize pack...

Chipboards prize pack...

Stencils prize pack...

So how do you get in the running for a prize? All you need to do is:

• Visit EVERY blog listed below...
• Leave a comment to let us know you have been...
• Head back here, and tell us what prize pack catches your eye! As easy as 123! 
• For another chance to win, visit, LIKE and SHARE ScrapFX FB page HERE! 

The hop is open for everyone, world wide! The hop starts 12 Noon Friday 5th June till Tuesday 9th June 12 Noon (Eastern Australian time). 

So what you've got to loose?!? Let's get Hopping!

Arantzazu 

Bec 

CindyB 

CindyP 

Claire 

Elodie 

Irina 

Katie (You are HERE!)

Riikka 

Song

Alright here is my take for this Blog Hop, and I'm having a little tweak on these chippes. Instead of using them as they are on layouts, cards and such, I built this little candy house for my candy world. The trick here is to break apart various chippies to create something else. All you need is to break the conventional barrier and think out of the box. I know the chippies look too lovely to be break apart, all you need is a little courage to do that in order to create something new. With all these various laser cut chippes, creating become endless and fun.

I hope this has been an inspiration and happy hopping. A list of supplies follows by at the end of this post.

List of Supplies:

• ScrapFX Chipboards (Heart Strings, Floating Pacifier, Padlocks & Keys, Mini Alphabet)
• Shimmerz Paints (Inklingz - Pink-A-Boo, Miner, Miner, 49er, Creameez- Berry Hot)
• Lindy Stamp Gang Embossing Powder (Sweet Treats)
• Graphic 45 Precious Memories Paper Collection

Love Beautiful Friends Butterfly Chest Box

When Prima release their Winter CHA collections, Butterfly is the only collection that caught my eye... After much planing, finally I've done up a mixed media project with a little flutter and whim... Presenting here Love Beautiful Friends Butterfly mixed media altered chest box... Happening this end June and early July at Made with Love and only opening for a few seats due to the nature of this class...

You will get to learn how to transform a plain wooden chest box into a rich vintage purplish wash-out texturized box, as well as building some small little stuffs within the box... There will be lots of mixed media involved and you will get to learn not just how to apply the colours, but also how to creature texture and distressing using various colours and mediums... But be warned, this class has a lot of fussy cuttings and if you were someone who has a concern in cutting, it may not be suitable for you... However, that's where all the details are...

Below is the promotional collage and additional pictures of the project... I hope to see some of you around... Cheers!!!

My Artist Facebook Page...

It seems very much like a convenience to share my works and interact with my existing Facebook account, but as I get busier I noticed I hardly really do that... Instead I flood my account with quite a number of rubbish... Yes, I don't deny that I posted some nonsensical stuffs at times... After weeks of contemplation, I finally decided to set up a Facebook Page for myself... At least this will be a no nonsense page and solely about my works, WIPs (work in progress) and what's happening in my petite studio... It's also an opportunity for me to share and showcase some of my projects' BTS (behind the scene) in near future...

When I decided to click the "Create Page" button, a great sense of excitement came upon me... As I excitedly filling up the information and uploading photos, I realized something is missing... I started to notice I do need a logo for myself... It doesn't seems it's mandatory, but somehow I find there's a need... Though I've been trained informally in area of Graphic Design, doing up a logo is not really my thing... Even I had to, I'd probably come up with something unusual... For the sake of my sanity, I think it will be best to consult one of my friends who is in the field for decades... And, indeed I was given some advice and suggestions... My "Katie Z. Graphical Paperworks" has too many words... Seriously?!? I just changed my blog link and my Etsy shop name not too long ago!! Do I really have to make another change? That's what came to my mind first... After re-looking at it, he was pretty right though the ultimate decision still lies in me... After giving some good thought, I decided to remove the word "Graphical" and make it "Katie Z. Paperworks" instead, for the very least there's isn't much of a drastic change... And thank God, I had cut short the "Graphical" with a "g" for my blog link and shop name so it's not that bad afterall... All set and done!

Logo 1: Preferred and most favourite logo chosen...

The very next thing is to create a logo for myself that will represent my works best... Though I'm able to create and draw stuffs out, the process is going to take me very long given by the way how I work... Hence, to make things less frustrating I decided to search for some frames images to incorporate into my logo... Just by doing this, it took me several hours to find a couple of appropriate ones... And I finally came out with several designs and posted to my friend for advice... 

Logo 2: A secondary choice...

Logo 3: Seen as a logo for butter cookies maker despite it's cleaner and neater look...

My friend feels that Logo 3 is a better choice due to it's cleaner and neater appearance... About 1-2 of my friends felt that this logo is less cluttering and more suitable to be shown as a logo... However, to my youngest sister and her fellow friends and colleagues, they find this logo looks like a cookie; something danish butter cookies makers will use on their cookies tins... This is thus far the best interesting comments I received... Though I clearly understand the concept of having a clean, simple and straight-forward logo to showcase an identity of a corporate company, for my case I feel strongly that Logo 1 is more closely related to my works... I could be wrong at this very initial stage as I've yet to evolve into a full-fledged artist where there's a distinct identity... As I sent these logos around for my fellow friends to choose, majority of them choose Logo 1 with only one of them chose Logo 2 as a secondary choice...

At very end of the day I decided to choose Logo 1 as my logo for my Artist page and Etsy store... I hereby invite everyone to visit my Artist Facebook Page, join me and watch me grow together as I progress gradually as an Artist... And I hope to see some of you around... =)