Guest Designer at Scrap Around the World November

Hi there people, how has the weekend been?

I promise this will be the last share (I hope!) for November before I take a short break to catch up with more DT assignments, as well as preparing the youngest for a new school term in January. Yes, he's old enough to go to childcare and everybody can't wait for him to start. The boy is really getting quite destructive at home!

It's been quite an exciting October and I have here my GD post for Scrap Around the World's November mood board. 

How cute is that! One thing jumped straight at me, and that's "FUN". Yep, the mood board says "have lots of FUN"... with colors, with layers, with new techniques, whatever! So this was what I came up with:

As you can see, I sort of went a little crazy with the watercolors on the background. That was done by blending Faber-Castell gelatos with water and using my fingers to spread them all over. It was messy and at the end of the whole thing, I had really nasty-looking fingers. I picked the papers from Basic Grey's Soleil collection, which was just about as sunny and colorful as you can get. 

Some close-ups:

 Lots of textures with drywall tape, texture paste on a stencil, gesso, resist canvas and a little wooden camera piece. A lovely cherry blossom, a tiny rose and an apple blossom from Green Tara which I brushed lightly with gesso.

Doing the same for the other Green Tara flowers (cherry blossoms, Primula and Heirloom) and a little chickenwire chipboard piece covered with distress paint and perfect Pearls from Ranger. I have a little piece of olive skeleton mesh (also Green Tara) tucked under the layers of papers as well.

Sentiment sticker from Pink Paislee, a transparency piece from BG and another wooden camera frame makes up this little cluster.

I hope you like my work, and do play along at Scrap Around the World! There are awesome prizes up for grabs and a chance to have your work featured as well. Until then, happy scrapping!

love,

OUAS Nov - My happy place

Hi there folks, it's me again!

I feel like I'm having blog diarrhea - 3 posts over 5 days! I hope nobody's sick of me yet.. :(

But before I go on, the news is out and I'm sooo EXCITED!!! I'll be on the 2014 DT for Once Upon a Sketch! Still can't believe my face is there! And the best part is, I'll be working alongside my idols ... super super talented ladies all on the same team! I don't think I'm anywhere near their level of work, so this little girl will have to work doubly hard in order not to let the wonderful people at OUAS down! Kampatei!

So anyway, I finally got around to finishing my entry for their November Challenge:

The minute I saw this journalling theme I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I spent a good day or two rummaging through my computer for the perfect photo. And this is my take on it:

LOVE LOVE LOVE 7 Dots Studios papers!! This is from the 9th Wave collection, and I realised Tusia used the same paper for her entry as well. This photo was taken during sunset at Bali when we were on one of our dive trips back in 2007. There was a man just standing there and looking out into the ocean and I felt the impulse to just snap the sight. The journaling theme is "My happy place", and there's no happier place for me than being out in the deep blue under the waves. 

I've got a pretty long title and it's a quote by the father of Aqualung, marine conservationist Jacques-Yves Costeau. How aptly it describes what I feel about the sea! 

Some close-ups:

A whole cluster of my favourite altered flowers! Sometime in the next month or two, I'm hoping to do a short video tut for my Green Tara's DT post on the various ways you can mess up their flowers in a pretty way! Here, I've used their wild rose which came in champagne and their cherry blossoms which I've added tinges of purple. I also finally managed to put in some shells which we brought back from Maldives and a lovely key from Tim Holtz.

Another view of the cluster. A piece of wood coral from Pink Paislee which I've altered with mists and crackle paint. My journalling is typed out on a piece of paper and kept in the little apothecary bottle (just like a message in a bottle, cuteness!). I would have preferred vellum but as usual, I can't find the one and only sheet I have amongst the horrible mess of scrapbook supplies (read: LOST). This is what the journalling says:

The sea is a place of wonder. It is where I am weightless; where I am free. It is where I see life and beauty. It is where my love first held my hand. I hear it call to me; its vast expanse. Though I did not come form there, to there I will go, when my days are through.

So that's all I have for today. I've got more works to share and another exciting piece of news which I just cannot share yet. November has just been so much fun and I can't wait for thing to get even more exciting. Until then, happy scrappin'!

love,

A splash of color

Hi there lovely readers! How has your day been?

I have my second layout for the Green Tara blog to share with you today. It's a photo of my youngest, who has quite a killer smile that helps him to get away with all sorts of mischief. He's 16 months old now, so you can imagine just how un-manageable he can be at times.

I was inspired by SATW's November mood board: 

This is just so colorful, cute and fun isn't it? Seeing a rainbow always makes me smile and so does seeing youngest smile. And here's what I came up with:

The Portrait collection from Pink Paislee isn't exactly my cup of tea but I got the pack at 70% off during a warehouse sale. And it's lying untouched (read: hoarder!!) in my stash so I felt compelled to use it. I scouted around for ideas and came across something that Stacey Young did. She is an immensely talented artist and I'm a big fan of her work. So I scrap-lifted from her nautical-themed layout and added a few things that made the layout "mine".

The apple blossom and tiny rose from Green Tara. These came in white so I had quite a fun time altering them with distress paints and blending the colors with water. The wooden camera from Maya Road was covered with black ink, followed by a layer of crackle paint.

The centre piece Wild Rose is just stunning. More altering of the flowers, this time with distress stains and letting the color run with water. To get the shade of teal for the Primula flower, I distressed the edges with Distress Paint, misted the fabric flower with Dylusions (in London Blue) and sprayed some water to blend the colors. I must say that the result is really quite amazing and I'm starting to fall in love with the Dylusions series of sprays.

My favourite flower for now, the Heirloom in champagne. I've also a piece of wooden gear which I've covered with embossing powder tucked behind. 

Lastly, layering of the cute ribbons and trims as cut-out banners. I'm also loving the random stamping with both ink and gesso. So much texture there! And of course my new set of word stamps from Technique Tuesday which has just the perfect sentiments for this photo. 

GREEN TARA PRODUCTS USED:

- DOUBLE-SIDED VERTICAL STRIP SATIN LATTE RB454LAT

- DOUBLE-SIDED VERTICAL STRIP SATIN SAGE RB454SA

- 1.2CM WHITE LACE L3054W

- 1.2CM OFF-WHITE LACE L29230W

- 38MM MESH GOLD RB6734GO

- HEIRLOOM 6.5CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER CHAMPAGNE XF9213CH

- HEIRLOOM 4.5CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER YELLOW XF9317Y

- PRIMULA 4.5CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER WHITE XF9325WH

- WILD ROSE 7CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER MOSS XF9318MO

- CHERRY BLOSSOM WHITE FLC22WH

- CHERRY BLOSSOM CREAM FLC22C

- CHERRY BLOSSOM TWO TONE BLUE FLC22BPB

- APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE FDV044WH

- 1.5CM ROSES WHITE FDR003WH

- 2CM ROSES WHITE FDR006WH

- FLOWER SPRAYS GOLD PFSTGO

I hope to be sharing some more work with you soon, it's been a rather packed week with the holidays coming up. Until then, keep calm and scrap on!

love,

First DT reveal for Green Tara

Heelloooooo everyone!!! Did anyone miss me???

I know I've been away for awhile because I have been so busy getting ready for my debut on Green Tara. I've also just finished a full week of a forensic sciences conference at Resorts World Sentosa; Saturday is another half a day of workshop for my discipline so please forgive me if I sound a little too excited - it takes 6 cups of coffee to get through the day. It's so awful keeping secret the stuff I've done with their beautiful flowers and ribbons and now I'm so glad I got to share them with you!

This is the first one (and a real simple piece) I've done using the blue/pink pack in my box of DT goodies, and I've matched the True Romance collection from Kaiserkraft with it.

Gosh, how young we looked before we had kids! Don't they just add so much more wrinkles and white hair (and immeasurable joy) to us?

So I've done some layering for the papers as well as for the meshes and lace flower. The lace flower came in white, but I've misted it with some glimmer mist and Shimmerz to fit the color scheme.

My main floral cluster. I've got the Heirloom (becoming a fast favourite) as the main piece, with some accompanying Primula bloom and cherry blossoms colored with glimmer mist. I've also used the Bud and Bow, and flower trims to create a cascade. 

I tucked a little flower-edge ribbon behind the photo and a little Rainforest butterfly above my main flower cluster. I've also cut up the flower spray and tucked the little pieces in here and there.

GREEN TARA PRODUCTS USED:

- 38MM MESH ROSE RB6734RO

- 38MM MESH PALE BLUE RB6734PB

- FLOWER EDGE ORGANZA PALE PINK RB221PP

- 30MM LACE FLOWER WHITE RB6815WH

- 1.2CM LACE OFF WHITE L28990W

- BUD N BOW 16MM PINK RB6761P

- 3MM PEARL TRIM PALE PINK RBKPPP

- HEIRLOOM 6.5CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER DUSKY PINK XF9213DP

- LACE PEARL 3.5CM FLOWER DUSKY PINK XF9332DP

- PRIMULA 4.5CM SILK AND ORGANZA FLOWER PALE GREEN XF9325PG

- CHERRY BLOSSOMS WHITE FLC22WH

- FLOWER SPRAYS RED PFSTR

- METAL HEARTS 2.5CM MESH

- RAINFOREST VELVET AND ORGANZA BUTTERFLY 3CM PINK XP0280P

So that's all I have for now. Do drop by my blog the next few days for as I share more of the DT reveal, as well as a couple of special layouts that I've done. There are also lots of exciting stuff happening soon and I just can't wait to share the good news with everyone! Until then, happy scrapping!

love,