Monday, 7 June 2021

A Bunch of Bohemia Bazaar Thank You Cards

Graphic 45's Bohemia Bazzar is actually quite an understated paper collection. Perhaps it's due to its very vibrant and geometrical colours and designs, it can be hard to balance the elements and colours together in a single project. I do think so. However, when comes to making cards, it might be a little easier. Making use of it's vibrancy, I made 4 cards that's strikingly vibrant with each of its distinct colours.

Prior to the start of the pandemic, I've been making cards for various preachers from the USA when they're here to preach to local congregations. Well, these cards are made in 2019 just before the outbreak of COVID-19. 





As usual, personalised messages are printed and pasted on the back of the cards for each of them.






Well, breaking away from the vibrancy, I decided to make 2 cards from the collection with a more pleasant colour palette; practically can't really tell it's from the same paper collection. And this comes with choice of colours and design elements which I decided to use just green and blue only. Apparently, it's not that scary to work with this collection and I was actually quite pleased with the outcome.




These cards are well gifted and I hope they love the vibrancy of these handmade cards. Due to the pandemic and several travel restrictions, I think it's going to be a few more years before I can meet them again in person.


Friday, 7 May 2021

Talking About Mood Boards for a Recycling Project

It's almost 2 years! Ever since my last entry till we're in a pandemic situation, I decided to get myself back into crafting to ease the stress and tension that's related to COVID-19, as a form of outlet. There were some projects done in midst, however I simply didn't take the time to get myself active in blogging. Well, I'd reckon perhaps only a few will read.

Nonetheless, in today's entry I'd like to talk about mood boards; something many creative individuals will know what I'll be talking about. Please pardon me as I'm not a trained creative artist, as I'm mostly self-taught. This is a 2019 project class I've devised for a group of ladies, teaching them about recycling and how creating a mood board will help to facilitate ideas. 


And this is my mood board for a recycled project I had in mind, which took me quite some time to research on. Decided to use some felt, paper scraps and some embellishments from my stash to create this cactus penholder.



To make the penholder more interesting to use, I actually adhere pins at the back of the wooden embellishments and poke through some felt balls. At least there's some fun elements in place to play around with the cactus!








In a nutshell, these are the various recyclable materials I've used for this project.

Well, click HERE to download my notes for the class if you'd like to know more about mood boards and how to use them as guides to build a project. Feel free to let me know how this will benefit in creating recyclable projects at home. Meanwhile, have fun and I'll be back for another entry soon. 



Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Many Thanks to a Friend...

Everyone will have a least a friend that means a lot to them. Ever since I join as a new member in my local Church of Christ congregation, I got to know a lot of amazing and inspirational people there. Given that I didn't know anyone in the church before I came in, it could be a rather daunting experience to face so many unfamiliar faces. Eunice is one of many unfamiliar faces among the crowd who had extended her very warm welcome on my very first Sunday there. And this is very unforgettable.

Alas, for the past Graphic 45 #G45lightside challenge that happened in May (which was also my very last ambassador post with therm 😢), I'm presenting this gift set idea for Eunice. Took me this long to settle down to blog this entry. As much I know I'm rather late in updating, I decided to just to get this done...


Knowing how busy her life can be as a doctor, I decided to gift her a book about balancing life. It's a book written with biblical principles in mind to aid Christians in finding and keeping balances in life. I have this book as well and I thought this will make a great gift to Eunice. 


Decided not to just merely wrapping up the book like a typical present, I made a book sleeve as part of the gift wrap. Learned that green is Eunice's favourite colour, I decided to pair up the book with a personalized bookmark that bears her name.



Graphic 45 Garden Goddess is perhaps one of the paper collection that mainly features various women within the entire collection. And this makes creating female-related gifts a much easier choice. Eunice is someone who has this positive and kind vibe in her that I find this sunflower goddess a good fit in her personality. Instead of presenting this with a "Happy Birthday" title in front of the gift packaging (which is what this gift is intended for initially), I chose a "Many Thanks" diecut frame to thank her as a friend to me. 



Oh well, it's better late than never in updating! I hope this can keep myself within the loop even I've been rather quiet recently. I hope to come back really soon, actively whenever time allows me to. Nonetheless, this won't be the last entry of the year (I promise!) and there'll be more to come; for the least with some level of consistency (I hope!)...

Below is the list of supplies I've used for this project with various links to purchase if you are interested to get:

Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Magical Fairy Tooth Gift Box for The Koays

One of the brethren in my church actually fell in love with my work after I showed him my blog on what I'm doing over here as a crafter/artist. Despite not an avid crafter himself, he was rather amazed by the work I do. So much so that he even watched most of my YouTube videos and read my blog, just to found my tutorial on the making of the fairy tooth door shrine an impressive one. 

And so... from there on after much communication about my works, he thought it'd be good to get something for the kids he adores from the church in Perth. Without much hesitation, this fairy tooth door is the ultimate choice for them.

It came so handy right after I've created one as my pioneer blog post for Graphic 45 as their ambassador last year. As it's going to be a gift, I decided to do up a shadow box specifically to fit the door in so that it will be easier for them to bring it over to Australia as well as for easy storage when it reaches the hands of the children. Took a great amount of Fairie Dust papers to doll up the shadow box. Not to mention, abundance of flowers on top of the box. These are Graphic 45 ivory flowers which I've colour sprayed them with some Prima purple mist to match the papers. 

I've also added a few Petaloo blooms and some other floral elements.

Bottles of pixie and fairy dust that sit well on top of a nest.




Presenting far more than just a fairy tooth door, I decided to get the tooth fairy Pdf printout from the whimsical mess maker lady Nicola Battilana. This will be so much fun in using this kit! And I heard the kids really love it very much.


For your interest, below is the list of supplies I used for this project together with links to where to get them. Unfortunately, most of the Fairie Dust collection ran out of stocks.

Monday, 6 May 2019

Imagine Junk Journal - Imagination

Greetings everyone! I know it has been a long long time that I had not been really updated. I wasn't missing in action, neither am I gone in the crafting space! It's just that I was caught up with a lot of things later and with my digital gadgets getting old and slow, I couldn't update fast enough to catch up. It's really time to upgrade some of my gadgets before they die on me.

Well, this is a long due post that I've yet to share personally on my blog but to most it has been featured on Graphic 45 blog. I'm deeply sorry that I took that long to come online. However, better than never while all my digital gadgets are functioning, I'm going to update as much as I could. Here is my very first page layout I've done in the junk journal I've done for Graphic 45 previously. As stated in my orientation video, I might do up a series so this is the very first episode I'm gearing towards at.


It's just a very simple layout I created using the various elements from the paper collection. Because I wanted this journal to be flat, it's not going to be dimensional. I've provided some tips over at Graphic 45 blog which you can hop over to read more. Below is a short run through start to finish video in how I do this layout up. 


Some close up details here using an "Imagination" quote stamp by Tim Holtz. They were stamped over some leftover scrap paper using the Decades Dye to match up the colour scheme.




I hope this will provide some basic inspiration for everyone who wanted to start something within their junk journals. Here is the list of supplies I've used for this project which you might be interested to know where to get them from:
Till next update... I shall catch up with you guys really soon...