An Encouragement Card

As the title of this entry suggests; it's a card that encourages. And this card was specifically made for one of the sisters within my congregation, in hope the verses I quoted from the Bible can serve as a source of encouragement for her. Last Sunday morning, she lost her husband to cancer who was also one of our brothers. 

Though I didn't get to meet them in person (until the day of the wake last Tuesday), I had heard about this brother's illness since the very first day I entered into the LORD's church since last June and have been following through his progress via our Sundays' and mid-week services and prayer requests. The whole congregation was praying for them during those period of times and when the news broke to us that he has finally passed on, we were all deeply saddened. We weep, mourn and grief together as a family (Galatians 6:2).

Because she's an orphan and her husband is her only family, when he passed on I'd think it'll be especially difficult for her. I spent few hours thinking and searching through the Bible and manages to choose 2 verses (Deuteronomy 31:6 and Isaiah 41:10) for her that might be best for her. They were printed out and affixed onto in this 6" x 6" card, in hope God's Word can be a true source of strength and encouragement for her to cope with her lost. Together with this card, I also gifted her a book - Songs of Deliverance - hoping via reading and studying of this book is able to deliver her out from trials and tribulations. It might not be enough at this point of time, for I may not be able to fully comprehend the level of grief and pain she's facing. However, I do hope and continue to pray for her that she can pull herself up, altogether again and bravely face her life ahead.

I deliberately opt for warm pastel pink and beige floral and rose papers from Graphic 45 Portrait of a Lady paper collection as the main colours and theme for comfort. Roses are beautiful but they've thorns. Life is often not always rosy but it's definitely beautiful the way it is. Not overly exaggerating, I kept the card as simple as possible to bring the message across directly emphasizing on strength and courage. These are the 2 major intangible elements in life that we always yearn for in very challenging times. Though we can garner physical strength via food, courage is something that requires much more than the food we eat that gives us the strength. Bravery is not often manifested in times of fear, pain and grief. In order to get out of such pits of sorrows, one do need to pluck up the courage and be braved enough to move on. To do that, you just need the strength to do that. 

Perhaps it's one peculiar behaviour of mine, at times of such I'll eat to fill my stomach first so that I can get enough ATP (Adenosine triphosphate - our biology energy currency) to fuel my heart and brain so that I can have the energy to charge forward. This applies to all my creative ventures as well. Whenever I'm stuck, even I may face stress and run out of time I'll just snack a bit (not binge!) in between before moving on. Because I was previously trained in the area of biochemistry, I clearly understand how deprivation of food under such circumstances will do to your body. Sometimes by topping up your ATP bank at times of such might help you to make more sound and logical decisions towards your life. Perhaps not entirely, however in some ways; one way or another.   

Mister Frosty - Winning Piece for 2017 Handmade for the Holidays Challenge

Occasionally or sometimes randomly, I'll enter some contests or challenges, and Scrapbook.com has this "Challenges" section where they'll from time to time organize a few challenges. Most of the time, I tried entering a challenge hoping to win some kits/items. Some of the winning items can be really attractive and I'll feel so dearly in wanting to win them back home. And for those voucher/gift certificates based challenges, I'll usually enter for fun without thinking I might win because so far such challenges often attracts hundreds to thousands of entries, especially for Scrapbook.com challenges. The amount of entries can be quite daunting.

Strangely enough, so far out of the several of such challenges (perhaps not more than 5 times) I entered, I had already won 3 times, including this which I entered for last year Handmade for the Holidays Challenge. It's seriously not within my expectation and I only got to know it when I received a private message (that got emailed to my inbox as well) from Amy that I'm one of the 10 winners who had won. I need to pause for a few moments to absorb the fact that "Ok! Yes, it's a fact I've won a $50 voucher."

The winning piece for the Challenge

There's a 1,183 entries altogether and this Mister Frosty managed to emerge out as one of the 10 winners. So happy for him!

An Altered Patina Photo Frame

It's 2018! I hope everyone has a pleasant New Year. Over at my tiny country where I reside, it was raining over the countdown period; practically rained through the last day of 2017 to the first day of 2018. Quite a significant day to remember; raining through 2017 to 2018.  

From this year onwards, I'm coming back with more updates and video tutorials, continuing to share and inspire people alike within the community. And I hope I'm able to do this for as long as I could. Your earnest support and encouragement in the work I share do means a lot to me. Though I may be slow in certain ways and may not be able to respond, I do value each and every one of you who has shown your kind support and encouragement towards my work throughout these years. As I promise before, I'll make an effort to bring more exciting projects and tutorials that's easy to follow and learn. Pretty excited for this and I'm looking very forward for this come back. 

Without me saying further and get carried away with my excitement, I'm moving on to share this altered patina photo frame which I made it as a belated birthday gift for one of my sisters within the Church of Christ. 

Throughout the years, I've been buying and collecting quite a number of "alterable" items which I've this tendency to keep them first, then think later what to do. At the end of the day, I'll always ended up forgetting what I've bought and never get to use them. It's because of a patina paint set I had bought since early last year, I decided to whip something up. While digging into a huge box of "alterables" (this is where I tend to keep them, conveniently sealed beyond my physical eyes), I found this Ikea Kvill photo frame which I had already torn away the plastic packaging. So right on the spot, YES! YOU'LL BE THE ONE I'M GOING TO ALTER! Without much further thinking, it got to me that I should also do up a start to finish video tutorial for this. 

There's an abundant amount of patina effect tutorials available online which I believe there's isn't a standard way in obtaining the effect. Neither is there any straightforward way as well. Previously, I've created a "non-traditional" method in creating patina using mists and solvent ink during my term with Graphic 45 which I still enjoy doing it this way. Certainly, with ready-made paint set available commercially, it just makes creating the patina effect much easier. 

In most of my projects, I've this tendency to match the colours and design elements as closely as possible. Basically speaking, they need to be in harmony and collectively a theme. As I was planning this project out, I already had in mind what kind of effect I want, and I had this Unearth paper from Kaiser Kraft Antique Bazaar paper collection which I took the design as a reference to create the patina effect. 

Unearth, from Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar collection

Besides owning a number of "alterables", I also have several dies I bought and never put into good use. Decided to use this opportunity to use my stash, I dug into my die collection library (once again) to search for suitable dies to use together with this frame. The rose die from Susan's Garden collection and Tim Holtz's tiny tattered florals dies finally came to their pilot use, after being kept for years (Oops!). Because it's patina, I do find using bronze/copper metallic papers for these flowers as one of the better options over regular cardstocks. Very unfortunately, the bronze metallic paper I used from Time Holtz's Kraft Core collection is no longer available. This does shows that I do hoard onto things long enough till they could go into retirement. Nevertheless, it's not really the end of the world, I manage to find alternatives which I've stated a few in the list of supplies below at the end of this post.

This beautiful Spellbinder's ornate die-cut frame is also making it's debut. Yeah! I know! A crafter can never have enough. Suddenly, I took noticed that I just have too much things that haven't been put into good use. Guess I'd need to make several craft debuts in the future.   

I got the son from my sister-in-Christ to quote some bible verses that will describe his mum well and got these verses printed out onto premium paper. The print-out was subsequently tea-dyed and distressed. I mounted the print-out onto a piece of chipboard before placing it on top of the die-cut frame. I trimmed the Unearth paper to size to fit the window and I used the patina design as the backing of the sentiment. If you take a closer look, the altered patina frame does matches up quite well with the designed paper. 

To perk up the look, a little golden fleur dresden will be just nice. And a final lettering completed the whole project.

Here is a full list of supplies I used for this project, with links to various places you can get them if you're interested:

• Ikea Kvill Ornate Photo Frame
• Finnabair Patina Effect Paste Set (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Finnabair Art Basic, Clear Gesso (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Tiny Tattered Florals Thinlits (Scrapbook.com, Sizzix)
• Spellbinders 5x7 Reflective Moment Etched Die
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Copper Metallic Papers (Cardstock Warehouse, CutCardStock)
• Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Paint (pale gold no. 708)
• Dusty Attic Teeny Tiny ABC Set
• Susan's Garden Rose Thinlits (retired)
• Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar - Unearth (retired)
• Ranger Rose Gold Stickles Glitter Glue
• Golden Fleur Dresden

Little Milk Carton Gift Boxes

Ever since I become a legitimate Christian, celebrating Christmas as Jesus being the reason for the season no longer hold any water within the Christian faith. I'm so glad to know there isn't such a stipulated "biblical" day to observe in order to be a Christian because such a "religious day" can be taken way too out of context. 

If you take a deeper look and do some research into the history, you'll be surprised to know it's actually derived from pagan roots and a holiday created by men. And for some, it only serves as the most depressing period of the year. Instead I'd much prefer to celebrate this day as a day of long tradition; a day of family gathering together to know everything from Charles Dickson to Christmas trees, or how St. Nick and Santa Claus came about! And why Santa wears red has an interesting origin. Check this out:

   

While almost everyone was busy shopping for Christmas gifts and decorations, as well as sharing holiday recipes on various social media platforms, it was perhaps one of the years I appeared not doing much about this Christmas. Maybe helping out my youngest sister to gift-wrap all the presents she had bought for her friends and colleagues. As usual, a little busy moment for this holiday season.

Although Christmas has just passed, it doesn't means gifting has to stop here. Rather I'd very much prefer to gift based on the heart to give and not restricted to such occasion(s). Hence, looking at the pile of Graphic 45 St. Nick paper collection lying around my crafting area, I decided to do some gifting using this collection together with the milk carton etched die I just bought from Spellbinders. Not something extravagant, but a little act of gifting makes your heart more fonder to gift. In actual fact, I just want to utilize my existing stash to create something. I just have too much! Guess as a crafter/artist, it always seems it's never enough to stock things up for whatever reasons.  

Therefore, I made these 8 little cute milk carton gifts for some of my friends and sisters-in-Christ from the Church. The 12" x 12" patterns and solids paper pad came in very handy for this project. It's probably one good idea to maximize your patterns and solids papers. 

These cute little milk cartons measured at about 3.75" tall, handy enough to be grabbed single-handedly. Puns aside, these milk cartons are just way too adorable. 

It took me some time to figure out what I should do to embellish these milk cartons. That was where I searched into my wafer dies library and found this Spellbinders Fleur de Elegance die set that has a little regal oval frame I could use. Using the gold metallic sheets I've in my stash, I die-cut 8 of them out. The effects it give on metallic paper is really amazing. It just gives a very special touch to the entire frame! Plus it goes really well with the papers I've selected. 

Each of them are thoughtfully named using the alphas from the stickers sheet along with this paper collection, and named them accordingly to the individuals I'm gifting. Thinking adding a little greens will be nicer, I decided to make some holy using the mini holiday green thinlits and placed them onto the labels. Since they're milk cartons to begin with, a little golden bell in front will perhaps jingle a little when the cartons are being shaken. Everything looked well and good, and I'm ready to gift (with some already been gifted)!

A full list of supplies I used for this project can be found listed below with links to various places I get most of my supplies from. This will be my very last post for this year and I hope to see you guys really soon with more tutorials and videos next year. Meanwhile, have a very good weekend ahead and Happy New Year!!!

List of Supplies:

• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas 12" x 12" Patterns & Solids (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas Stickers Sheet
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Green Thinlits
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Milk Carton Etched Dies (Amazon, Scrapbook.com, Spellbinders)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Fleur de Elegance Etched Dies (Amazon, Spellbinders)
• Tiny Golden Jingle Bells
• Own Stash (jute trims, seam bindings, gold trims, vintage binder clips)

A Blessed Thank You Card

I've recently bought some club kits from Spellbinders after viewing some interesting project ideas on Facebook. Without much hesitation, I bought the September club kit that came with this very beautiful large lace dies after getting inspired at that moment. 

As usual, I won't have much of the ideas in what I want to do when the dies finally reached me. And this explains why sometimes I'll be a little slow in using them. Considered that one of our fellow brethren from the U.S. was coming to edifying us via the Gospel meeting last month in November, I decided to volunteer to do up a Thank You card for him to show our appreciation in his earnest effort in serving the LORD. This was where I got to play with the large dies I bought.  

Looking into my stash, I still have these rather old collections (Engrave and Printery) from Prima Marketing that I haven't been using them that much. Hence, I decided to do up a masculine Victorian card that displays mainly scripted texts and damasks, which coincidentally goes really very well with the flourish etched dies I bought together with the September club kit. 

A heartfelt message was printed onto premium paper and was mounted at the back of the card. To give some dimension and sparkles, I finished off the card with some jewels around the diecuts, both front and back of the card.

Though the September club kits are no longer available to purchase at membership pricing, the large die set is still available for purchase here. If you are interested in joining the Spellbinders Club Membership, they are having a 15% off for the 1st month when you sign up. Offer will end this year end (till 31st December 2017). Unfortunately, most of the December club kits are sold out for now, however worry not as very soon they will be launching the January club kits very soon before the end of this year. When the kits are launched for purchase, you will be able to enjoy the discount.

A list of supplies used for this project can be found below. Click onto the links to purchase the various Spellbinders dies and supplies if you are interested to get. 

List of Supplies:

• Spellbinders D-Lites Flourishes Etched Dies
• Spellbinders Classic Lace Die Set (Large Die of the Month)
• Prima Marketing Engraver & Printery Paper Collection
• Golden Chenille Stem
• Doodlebug Bumblebee Assorted Jewels
• Conqueror 100gsm High Quality Wove Finish Paper
• Wood Veneer Letterings (own stash)