This is Life - a special project for Once Upon A Sketch with 13arts

Hello everyone!

How was your first week of December so far? I'm just absolutely stoked because it's nearly the end of 2014 and new adventures beckon in 2015.

But first, let me share a special project with you, created for the final sketch at Once Upon a Sketch, using beautiful mixed media products from 13arts. As you may all know, our beloved leader Nadia is closing the challenge blog next year and it is indeed a sad time for everyone. OUAS holds a special place in my heart as one of the first few challenges I took part in, won something and even got on the DT. Working alongside so many talented people have taught me much and I've made many friends along the way. So here's a special project as my way of saying goodbye.

This is the sketch:

And journaling theme:

Journalling Theme: "It's December..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

And my take on the sketch and theme:

Here at the equator, all we get in December is rain. Lots and lots of rain. And wonderful monsoon winds that brings a respite to the hot humid weather we get for the rest of the year. With rain comes puddles. And with puddles... well there's no way you can stop a kid (or a young-at-heart adult) jumping into one of those and making a splash.

December is also a time when I cuddle up (because it's cold and windy) and start to take stock of the year that has passed, to reflect on how I have lived my life the past 12 months. If any time is a good time to come up with "emo" philosophical metaphysical life quotes, December is the time to do it LOL

My journaling (on the back page) reads:

"December. A time of rain, a time of reflections. Jumping into puddles, making a splash. In this year that has past, I hope I have made some splashes, had some fun and made ripples that would result in small but meaningful changes to other people's lives."

Here are some close-ups:

The layout was created with tons of 13arts products, which I absolutely love. Featured are the new metallic paints by Olga Heldwin, the new mist colors as well and the new paper collection Cozy Evening by my boss Aida. Tucked in between the layers are also the Splattered Circles chipboards from Blue Fern Studios. It was such a joy making this and provided the art therapy that I sorely needed.

And lastly, a start-to-finish video of how I made this layout:

That's all I have for today. Thank you for dropping by. If you have the time, please go by the Once Upon A Sketch blog to leave your farewells and wishes for Nadia and the rest of the team.

love,

OUAS November Challenge

Good weekend to all of you lovely readers!

How are you today?

Today is reveal for Team 2 over at Once Upon a Sketch and here's the sketch and journaling theme:

Journalling Theme: "Inspiration/I am inspired by etc..."

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

Some of you would know that I scrap mostly about my two boys and it's not hard to guess that they are my inspiration. How I got started scrapping was that before we had kids, my loves were photography, scuba-diving and traveling, and it was through my interest in underwater-photography that I proceeded to land photography. Well, all these changed when my first boy came out and our dive trips were greatly cut down to a few choice destinations a year. But photos had to be taken (I'm trigger happy) so the focus turned to our little boy. From then on, the photos I took are mostly of my children and what better way to showcase those photos than to scrap them right? 

And here are some close-ups:

My title is from Blue Fern Studios' Chunky Words set, and pretty much sums up what these two cheeky monkeys are to me.

some gorgeous prima blooms here colored with Ayeeda matt paints.

Another sweet chippie from Blue Fern which I've used as part of my layering. I've only just used gesso with a word stamp here to keep in line with the white-washed color scheme here.

That's all I have for today. Thanks for dropping by!

love,

OUAS October Sketch Challenge

Hey there awesome folks!

I'm in today to share my take on the Once Upon a Sketch challenge for October. I took a break from it in September because of some crazy in the schedule but I'm back! Nadia has another beautiful sketch and theme for us to play along with this month.

Here's the theme:

Journalling Theme: "The women/girls etc in our lives..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

So for the August challenge, I scrapped about my Dad so it seems almost natural to scrap about my mum this time. Well, no. I chose to scrap about my Dad's Mum instead (that would be Grandma, by the way) because this is an emotionally overwhelming topic for me. Memory-keeping doesn't always have to be about the happy stuff, but also lessons that we keep deep in our hearts that we hope we never ever forget. 

So here's a photo of Grandma with my brother, because I couldn't find a photo of her and me. She has been such a pillar of strength in the family with a fierce character, but beautifully tender-hearted when it came to the poor and needy. As a devout Buddhist, she would travel to the temple everyday to cook for the people there (for free, and her culinary skills.... OH MY.....). Once she had a dream about an orphan who was wandering in our backyard searching for its family (I never knew the gender) and during the Hungry Ghost Festival, she put out an extra meal for the orphan. Being a Christian, I didn't buy into all these but it was quite something witnessing her unconditional kindness and generosity. My aunt, whom I'm closest to, was one of the two children Grandma adopted into the family just so that they won't be left alone in the streets. Although, you have found it ridiculously hilarious to hear stories about how she chased Grandpa down the road with a meat cleaver because of something he said. 

We all lived under the same roof, so Grandma took very good care of us. So some family issues came up along the way as Grandma got older, and we grew apart. Can't really say what those were as they are personal family stuff, but I was filled with tremendous regret that I hadn't been a better granddaughter to her while she was still alive. I was respectful and all, but things could be better and it weighed heavily on my heart that I didn't manage to build a deeper relationship with her. Like my Grandpa, she passed away suddenly but peacefully in her sleep without any pain or suffering. It still tickles us to think that just the morning before she passed away, she was still yelling vulgarities at her BFF (this old auntie who lived near us) for doing something stupid.  Such was the extreme ends of her character, which we found so endearing and incredible. 

Anyway, some closeups:

I don't usually scrap red, but because of the photo, and also because of the sacrifices she made to keep the family going, and also ... because of the terrifying amount of chili and spice she would put in her cooking, I used some really hot colors here. "Lifetime" from Blue Fern's Chunky Words as my title, just to celebrate her life of kindness and loyalty to the people around her.

A floral cluster. I used lots of 13arts paints and chalk mists, especially my favourite Gold pearl paint because of Grandma's heart of gold.

Another Blue Fern chipboard which I did lots of altering by layering paints. My journaling is all the words that I never got to say to Grandma, and it's written on the back of one of the layers of paper (from 7 Dots Studios) matting my photo.

So that's all I have for you today. If you have the time, why not take part in this month's challenge and celebrate the women in your life?

love,

OUAS August Challenge

Hey there folks!

I'm in today to share my DT work for Once Upon a Sketch. Below is the sketch and them, created by the ever talented Nadia, for this month's challenge.

Journalling Theme: "The men in our lives..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

For this month, I chose to scrap about my dad. He's probably the least celebrated person in our family, but definitely the pillar of our household. A loud man (with his words and laugh) but worked tirelessly to put food on the table. He's a mini-celebrity of some sorts actually; the TV station loves to feature him and his 60 year-old family business in documentaries about the city's historical places.

I used an old photo of Dad back from his army days and chose Prima's Cartographer collection for this page. I've never tried teal with earth tones and it turned out quite pretty actually. 

Some details:

My floral cluster with some Junkyard resin and metal pieces. For the burnished look on the metal gear, I used the Patina metal glaze from Ranger's, Versacolor to ink the clock piece and Lindy's T-bird Turquoise for the number plate. Under all those layers are some stencilling, Tim Holtz rub-ons and random stamping.

Love those Prima flowers!

Lots of tucking in of bits from Kaisercraft. 

A filmstrip chipboard from Blue Fern Studios which I inked with Distress Stains, and finished off the layout with splatters of white gesso.

So that's all for now, don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's take on this sketch and link up yours on the blog. Thanks for dropping by today!

love,

OUAS July Challenge

Hello there friends!

Today I'm in to share my DT reveal for Once Upon a Sketch July Challenge. Nadia has come up with a wonderful sketch and theme again.

Journalling Theme: "Numbers.." 

 Pick a number and center your journalling around it. (i.e. FIVE men in my life, TEN quirky traits, THREE long term goals, or 2014--the date I will do ___)

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

And my take on it:

Every year around September I will create a layout just to mark our wedding anniversary. This year's a bit earlier because I really love this photo of us taken when we were holidaying in Perth. Hubby and I hardly take photos of ourselves together (we're not much of those couple photos people) so one as nice as this (LOL) is hard to come by.

I've kept quite close to the sketch and included my journaling at the side. There are a lot of Blue Fern Studios products on this layout, and I really love their new collection Ombre Dreams. Think I've used it on just about every other DT project for the past two months as much as I could. The beautiful watercolor backgrounds are just perfect for my mixed media style and I love the pastel tones it carries.

So, on to some close-ups:

Yummy Prima goodies

6 - for our 6th year of being man and wife. 

And here's a video to show how I put together this layout. Sit back and enjoy the process!

OUAS June Challenge

Hello friends!

I'm back in today to share my take on the June sketch challenge over at Once Upon A... Sketch. This month, Nadia has come up with yet another beautiful sketch, and I must say that this has to be my favourite so far. So many ideas running through my head on interpreting it, and I've chosen to go with a really colourful take on it.

Here's her sketch and theme:

"The best things in life aren't things"

I've gone back to using white cardstock for this LO and picked a really cute moodboard as my colour palette:

And my take on the sketch:

Lots of gelato goodness in my background as I was getting reacquainted with my stash. I'll have a video tutorial soon on how to use these yummy cream sticks to create a gorgeous background. But before that, some close ups:

My title and some floral fun.... with a little chippie (Layering Stems) from Blue Fern Studios to end off my cluster. 

Layering bits from Kaiserkraft, Prima and Studio Calico.

Love this cute little floral frame, also from BFS, which I used to frame my photo. I brushed a coat of gesso over and highlighted some of the bits with the bolder colours from the mood board. After that, it was some stamping followed by a very random coat of crackle on some parts of the chipboard.

More layering, with my journaling on a manila tag tucked under all those stuff. I wrote about a life lesson which I wanted my kids to learn, which is the quote above. The "best thing" we as parents have given them are not material comforts or a hefty inheritance, but one another and the brotherly love that they will nurture as they grow up together. We want them to remember that love is the greatest gift of all, and that they should always cherish this bond between them. 

Remember, this challenge finishes at the end of this month, so hurry on and get your entry linked up before that. I will be back soon with more lovely stuff to share. Until then, happy scrapping!

love,

OUAS April Challenge

Hello friends!!

I know this is a little early as my sketches for Once Upon A Sketch are usually revealed mid-month. There are too many things going on so I better get this out first.

So, so, so lucky that I got to work with the April Kit of the Month from The Flying Unicorn as a cross feature between FU and OUAS. Here's what can be found in the main kit:

Featured is one of my favourite brands 7 Dots Studios and the amazing Cold Country Collection designed by Finnbair.

Here's the April sketch:

Journalling Theme: "An event that changed my life..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

Here's my take on it:

I know it sounds a little cheesy, especially to friends of different faiths (or those without any). Initially I had wanted to scrap about my marriage, my kids, and other specific events which I felt had a tremendous effect on me. But after some deep thinking, I realise that none has as much impact on my life as the day that my Lord and Saviour gave His life for me. Of course I had to accept Him first, but everything that I am and that I have today, it was because of what He has done for me. It was also because of His sacrifice that I found a wonderful and God-fearing man in my husband, and now blessed with two beautiful and sweet children. My life though not very glamorous and neither are we wealthy, is filled with laughter and good times with family and friends. More importantly, I am secure and safe in His unconditional love, and perfect love casts out all fears. So I chose to scrap about how in that wonderful sacrifice, He has helped me overcome, with the promise of eternal life. And I pray that the people around me will come to know the same promise as well. What a wonderful thing to share for Good Friday in April!

Enough with the preaching! Some close-ups:

I've made quite a few mistakes during this layout, some of which include forgetting the stencils, and even forgetting there was a pack of flowers in the kit! And you get to see my boo-boos in the start-to-finish video I've put together for you. 

I should have some VERY exciting news that just make me want to jump out of my pants to share with you soon. Stay tuned!

until then,
love from Jelissa

First DT reveal for OUAS January

Hey friends! We are well into the second half of January 2014 and I pray it's been good for you so far! I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to a nice holiday in Japan in just 2 weeks' time. Meanwhile, I wanna share with you my very first DT reveal with Once Upon A ... Sketch. You know, this is so surreal, I was so surprised to make it onto a team with some of the most talented ladies in the industry, including my idols like Limor Webber and Elena Olinevich. It's a real dream come true and I'm still pinching myself! A big shout-out to founder Nadia for this awesome opportunity, thank you so much babe!

So anyway, here's the beautiful sketch for January:

Journalling Theme: "Lesson learnt..." 

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

Wonderful sketch isn't it? And here's my take on it:

One of the most important lessons I've learnt for 2013 is to know when to let go; letting go of expectations, of things that aren't meant to be, letting go of things I want but are bad for me, and letting go and let God take over. The real story behind this is journaled at the back of the page. It's pretty long so I didn't want to clutter the page. The photo wasn't my own - I got it off google search and it was done by an artist from deviantart. 

Some close-ups and techniques:

I've used Green Tara flowers here and they are amazing! The tiny roses and cherry blossoms were colored by misting some colors on my craft sheet and gently dabbing the flowers to lift up the ink. I've torn apart the velvet rose and layered a Blue Fern bird cage in between the two pieces. The chipboard was heat-embossed with Lindy's Stamp Gang's EP. I'm falling in love with those!

Have I mentioned before the "Graduated Circles" are my mostest favouritest chippie? They are just perfect for framing photos, sentiments and if not, just for making your project a little more funky. Well here, I coated the chippie with a layer of gesso and randomly sprinkled some more LSG EPs all over and heat set them. I then went over with gesso near the end to soften any edges. 

For the bird chippie, I primed it first with gesso before coloring it with Faber-Castell gelatos. I dabbed on just a tad more water near the wings so that when I heat-dry the paint, there would be a nice gradient of colors. This was followed by some stamping and I finished it off with a coat of crackle paint.

For this cluster, I did a big bow with the polka dot organza ribbon from Green Tara. Absolutely love how pliable this ribbon is and I've used it more in other projects. For the Dandelion chippies, I coated them with chalk ink and highlighted the ends with Liquid Pearls from Ranger.

I hope I've inspired you with my take on the sketch, do hurry over and link up your projects. Rules have changed a bit and the challenge now closes at the end of the month instead of the 25th, so you've some extra time to get in your entry. Good luck to all!

Love,