An entry for SATW July

Hello friends, how was your mid-week?

I'm back in after my birthday celebration (read: eat and scrap) to share a layout I created for
Scrap Around the World's July challenge. It was rather last minute as I was quite busy with DT assignments and a sickly toddler, but seeing that my talented friends Priscilla and Fiona have submitted their entries, I was inspired by them to put up one as well. 

Here's the moodboard created by dear Tusia:

and this is my take on it:

Obviously you can see where the pink and teal came from. And this must have been the second dandelion photo I scrapped this month, the other is a DT project for 13@rts. The dandelion came from the picture on the bottom right, and I wanted to create a light airy feel to the page. I started with Susan's Dream from Blue Fern Studios' Ombre Dreams as background and begin to layer it with color from Ranger's, 13@rts and VersaColor.

I went in vertical strokes with my painting and vertical strips with acrylic modeling paste because the stripes on the lampshade told me to.... 

One of the clusters. Instead of using texture paste or acrylic modeling paste, I used gel medium over a stencil and sprinkled embossing powders over. My stamping done with the dragonfly stamp was deliberately incomplete for both halves of the page, and this was inspired by the room with the mirror. That both are an unequal reflection of each other and you don't always get the full picture unless you put the two images together (did that make any sense? LOL).

The picture of the plant in a bottle reminded me that I still had a layering stems die from Sizzix in my stash which I have not started using, despite me trying to design projects around it. So out it came and in it went into the floral cluster.

A title from one of the sheets from the lovely "Fly Away" collection from 13@rts. I would have liked to title the page "Let It Go" to sync with the theme of happy thoughts in the second photo from the moodboard, but thought it was a bit cheesy. And it reminded me too much of a certain song that my boys have been asking me to sing n times every night.... But the sentiment I chose did represent the flying dandelion seeds and theme quite well; our lives are defined by the wonderful moments that we capture in our art. 

This is a chipboard piece from Blue Fern Studios (the name eludes me now) which I actually snipped into three pieces and colored with distress paint and 13@rts matte paint in turquoise, followed by some heat embossing. The flourishes were layered just under the photo while the circular frame was tucked under the rest of my flowers. 

Well that's all I have for now. Hope this has inspired you to make something pretty too. Also, don't forget that there's a birthday giveaway happening here, so don't miss out on a chance to win a pack of lovelies!

Until then, happy scrapping!

love,

a BIRTHDAY post and a GIVEAWAY!

Hello everyone! I don't know about you, but I'm truly, really excited today!

You see, today I turn 36 years old. Almost at the midpoint of my life and I'm so glad that in a way, life has just started for me. So many things to do and explore, so many people to connect with and love, there's just so much in my life now I can't help but jump for joy.

Today I'm sharing a DT project I did for 13@rts. How apt to have a mixed media post up on my special day. And I decided to create something that is about "me".

"#shemakesstuff"

I know rainbows have been done to death, but I've never tried it before. I also took a "selfie" of some sort - those are my hands in the photo working on an art journal page. My title is written on the photo, and is a hashtag I use in some of my Instagram posts - "#shemakesstuff". 

Some close-ups:

lots of fun bits there with textures and colours

more fun stuff

and more colourful stuff :D

Color pencils I "borrowed" from my youngest since they are too short for him to hold. I have given them a new lease of life as embellishments. 

Here is a start-to-finish video tutorial for this layout:

And what is a birthday post without a birthday giveaway?! Here is what you stand to win - an entire kit from C'est Magnifique Kits and lots of extra embellishments and goodies, inclusive of both domestic or international shipping. 

To win this, just simply complete the following:

1) Follow me on the social media platforms listed
(it's ok if you don't have an account for all of them):

Blog | YouTube  | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Google+

2) Share this giveaway on any one of the above

3) Leave a comment below to say you've done so

As simple as that! This giveaway runs for a week till Wednesday 4th August and I will draw a random winner on Thursday 5th August. So all the best to everyone. Art requires an audience, and I'm so thankful to all of you for always making a point to drop by and leave your love.

until then, happy creating!

love,

Two projects for Blue Fern Studios

Hello friends!

I'm in today to share two projects I've created for Blue Fern Studios, using the Ombre Dreams paper collection, as well as their beautiful chipboard pieces.

Lucky

My first project is a layout of my two boys. 

I've used Charlotte's Dream from the Ombre Dreams collection as my background paper and added some misting, masking with texture paste and random stamping to further highlight the beautiful watercolor effects already printed on the paper itself. I also used a cut out from Dream Cards as a subtitle.

The "Lucky" chippie from Charmed Page Dangles was cut into two pieces and the word used as my title. I did some heat embossing in black and smeared purple Liquid Pearls over for highlight. 

The other half of the chipboard was first colored with gelato, followed by some stamping with Versamark and heat-embossing. 

I used only one piece of the Honeycomb bits here, but snipped it into three parts which I layered throughout my page. It was first misted followed by random sprinkling with a mauve-tinted embossing powder.

All Dressed Up

My second project is a mixed media canvas I made as a birthday gift for a very talented friend who runs her own fashion designing label. 

When I saw the Sweetheart dress form, I knew it was meant for her and there is also a similar mannequin on display in her office reception. 

The chipboard was covered with gesso and I made a dress out of some organza curtain fabric, which I decorated with some tulle and organza roses, aqua sequins and mini paper roses. I also snipped the Majestic Frame in half and covered it with gold glitter.

There's a pretty funny story behind how I got my hands on more than a handful of very expensive fabric from the owners of one of the biggest curtain makers in Singapore. This particular company is a close working partner of my parents (and husband's) so I thought I could request for some SCRAPS for my artwork. This kind old man in a polo T-shirt and jeans brought us to their warehouse and told me I could take my pick of ANY fabric I wanted. And so I did. After I picked 3 or 4, he told me I needed more and made me pick out another 4 more. When I asked for 30 cm by 30 cm squares, he told me to take the entire BALE of fabric. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by his generosity and thought, what a nice old uncle!

Much later, my husband told me, that "nice old uncle" is the CEO of the company, and the fabrics I picked cost about $100 a metre. I now have almost a hundred thousand dollars' worth of fabric sitting in my storage.

Thanks dear, for the heads up -___-"

My little cluster here is full of bits from the Miss Tailor set. I covered the spool with a fine layer of gold shimmer. The buttons I used Liquid Pearls and for the scissors I used my gold textured paste. The other half of the majestic frame is tucked beneath the flowers and also dipped in gold glitter.

That's all I have to share for today. Be back in a couple of days for a really exciting post from me. Hint: there is a HUGE giveaway happening!

until then, happy scrapping!

Love,

A little bit about Me....

Hi friends!

Today's post is somewhat a different one. My very talented friend Miae Rowe asked me a couple of weeks back to take part in a blog hop of some sorts. The purpose is to let my readers know who I am as a scrapper, and also to send you folks over to other people whom I think are inspiring and truly creative. Feeling really honored that Miae would ask me, because her works are so, so out of this world! 

Just a couple of questions to get things rolling:

1. What am I working on?

I currently have my hands full with 5 DTs - Once Upon A Sketch, Off the Rails Scrapbooking, Blue Fern Studios, 13@rts and Marion Smith Designs. I'm somewhere between an art journal page and 2 video tutorials right now.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I'm not exactly sure how different they are actually. I do mostly mixed media and because of its popularity, everyone's work seems to resemble another's in several ways. But I do spend a lot of time on the background, and I like to create soft watercolor effects with soothing palettes and black and white splatters. Everything is layered, some the background to the photo to the embellishments - the more the merrier!

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

I started out with memory making, and I'd like to imagine that my boys will enjoy looking back at these albums I've made for them and laugh over the different incidents. But I also like to make gifts of the canvases, tags and the idea of blessing someone with something one-of-a-kind makes me happy. Of course back when I was still a forensic scientist, being in the art studio is all about releasing stress from work, throwing away all those rules and letting go to express myself. 

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

It usually starts with a photo or a certain feeling I want to convey through the work. Sometimes I spend up to weeks trying to visualize every single detail in my head, sometimes I just pick up a piece of white card stock and use a mood board for inspiration. Ideas mainly come form the many talented people around me - my FB newsfeed is always full of colour and beauty - but it also comes serendipitously - like an art painting in a cafe, the colors of my boys' laundry in the basket, their Lego bricks combination or things I pick up from totally unrelated conversations. 

So now, to introduce a fantastic lady who has been a wonderful team-mate, and I find so fun to work with and inspiring because she is so versatile in her creativity. Introducing ... Ulrika Blomfelt!

My name is Ulrika Blomfelt aka LillBlomman. I live in Sweden with my three boys. My hubbie who I have been together with for twenty-two years, my soon to be six year old son and my soon to be seven year old dog. We live in a yellow house close to our capital Stockholm and still I live just next to the woods. Perfect! I´m a happy and almost a bit manic scrapper. I started in April 2006 and I love it more and more for each day that passes! I feel the best when I can sneak up to my Studio for a little while every day. I create in all genres and often switch scrap style and projects. But I think most people would say that my style is an romantic mixed-media style with lots of flowers. I love to find the perfect color combination and I can fussy with my flower clusters for hours. During the years I have been on many fun designteams and got to be part of fun projects. My current teams are: C´est Magnifique Kit Club, Papirdesign, One Upon A Sketch, The Color Room, Tresor de Luxe, Inzpira Magazine, Swe Scrapbook and Pyssloteket.

It will be Ulrika's turn to talk about herself next Monday, so remember to drop by her blog to get to know her better!

until then,

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!

Prima July BAP

Happy Monday friends!

How has your weekend been? I'm in today to share my entry for Prima's Build-A-Page challenge. I havn't had the time for challenges and this one was created on a whim, almost didn't even finish it. But anyway, here is the sketch:

And my Prima-based project:

I mixed papers from a few collections: Something Blue, Delight and also Fairy Rhymes. It's quite amazing to see how versatile these papers are across different themes and colour schemes. I didn't really quite stick to the sketch, but instead flipped it and shifted my title down to next to the photo.

Also, you can't quite see it here but I actually covered up my very first layer of the background. Some misting and masking gone wrong and I buttered some 13@rts acrylic primer over. The result is quite cute actually; I had a very soft white-washed and pink-tinted base for the subsequent new background I was going to create. The acrylic primer has got to be my best friend now! 

A wood piece and resist canvas butterfly, layered on top of a Prima flower (this is one half of it, the other half is tucked in another cluster). The masking was done using Ayeeda Acrylic Modeling Paste over a Prima stencil, and misted with Ayeeda Chalk Mist in Pastel Green.

More Prima resins, wood shape and flowers. 

That's all I have for today, thanks for dropping by!

love,

13@rts July sketch challenge

Super Sunday lovely readers!

My blog has been really busy these days with postings, and I just want to say a big thank you to those who have been dropping by so often to leave such wonderful words of encouragement. Especially the two Lizzy's - Lizzy Crust and Lizzy Hill, thank you girls for being so supportive!

Today I'm sharing with you a layout I did for 13@rts July challenge. Every month there will be something interesting going on in the challenge, and it's a different theme hosted by a different DT member. This month it's hosted by the owner and art extraordinaire herself, Ayeeda. 

Here is the sketch:

Rules of this challenge:

1. Create any project based on the sketch, use at least two mediums and at least one butterfly (it can be an embellishment, stamp, or paper design).

2. Publish your project on your blog and add link directly to the post using Inlinkz tool at the end of this post.

3. Please add link and info about our challenge, where your work is published.

4. You may submit as many entries as you like.

5.You can enter with your project to maximum 2 other challenges and your work must be new, not published before our challenge has started.

7. The challenge ends on July the 27th at 23:55. Winners will be announced on July the 31st, 2014. 

When the challenge ends, our Design Team will vote and pick the best project. It will be awarded with shopping voucher for 13 arts store worth - 60 PLN with free international shipping. The winner will be invited to join us in one of our challenges as Guest Designers. Additionally we will feature few works with biggest number of points.

And my take on it:

I've used the paper "Bittersweet Love" from the "All is Love" collection. Love the washed out pink and mint tones in this line, but I've chosen a pink background to match my sakura. The background was primed with 13@rts acrylic primer and misting with Ayeeda Pearl mist in Pink, followed by some stamping with a few different butterfly stamps.

Some close-ups:

A white paper flower and paper rose from 13@rts which I altered with some Pearl Mist and stamping.

Decorative twigs which I colored with Chalk Mist in Lime. The butterflies were fussy cut out from papers in the "Fly Away" collection. 

Using Ayeeda modeling paste over a stencil, which I sprayed Chalk Mist in Black over. The color bled a little, which makes the tree branch look like something from a Chinese ink painting.

And my title is from the All Naturale word set from Blue Fern Studios.

Hope this post has inspired you in some way. Do check out the rest of the DT's amazing samples on the 13@rts blog!

Until then, happy scrapping!

OTRS DT - Mixed Media for Beginners

Hello readers!

The weekend is here and if you're trying to fit in some crafting time,

I've got a little tutorial just for you up on the Off the Rails Scrapbooking blog.

In the last few years, mixed media has entered the scrapbooking scene and taken in by storm. Looking at the products, we can see that a lot are catered for the mixed media scrapper/artist. If you've always been a traditional paper/clean-and-simple sort of scrapper, but curious about how to get started on mixed media, today's blog post will give you a little head start as well as a guide to some of the commonly used products.

Here's the canvas I've created:

I've used the Butterfly Grid from Blue Fern Studios, as well as some gorgeous Prima flowers and resins to complete my canvas.

Some close-ups:

A small floral cluster and my title.

Another cluster using resins and more flowers.

And here is the video, so sit back and enjoy!

My first post for 13@rts

Hello dear readers!

I'm so glad to be sharing with you my first DT project for 13@rts! This new DT spot means a lot to me as I count myself very honored and lucky to be amongst some of the most talented mixed media artists, and to kick start a wonderful journey of discovery, I made my first art journal cover.

I got a watercolour paper pad from the local art store and ripped off the cover as it was too thin for my liking. I proceeded to work those lovely mediums that Aida sent me in my DT pack. I then went on to cover the page with some 13@rts gesso. And I can say I LOVE it! The gesso is different from the regular one I used, with a thicker consistency but smooth to the touch when dry. My usual gesso has a flaky feel to it when it's dry and less creamy.

After the gesso dried, I used some 13@rts modelling paste over a Tim Holtz stencil. The modelling paste is simply amazing - a creamy and smooth texture like whipped cream and it glides beautifully over the stencil. Quite different also from the regular one I used, which is thicker and a little more difficult to spread. For the next layer, I went on to splash some 13@rts mists over my page. I used the Pastel mists in Caramel, Salmon and Yellow.

Some close-ups:

Random stamping with an IndigoBlu stamp, followed by splashes of Burnt Sienna Chalk Mist and Pink Pearl Mist. I took the Ornament mat chipboard (large) in my DT pack and covered it with Burgundy Pearl Mist, Yellow and Salmon Pastel Mists. Lots of layering with papers from both the "Timeless" and "All is Love" collections. As you all may know, I have a soft spot for mini roses and these ombre and white ones are just perfect for me.

A cut-out from "All is Love" and an organza flower - my exact sentiments.

I hope you like my very first art journal project, and I'm looking forward to a year of art and discovery through it. Thanks for dropping by!

love,