My little cutie - Entry for MCS July contest

Finally, right before the submission deadline, I finished this layout for the July sketch contest.

The typhoon signal No. 8 was hoisted in Hong Kong yesterday and most of us gained a half-day holiday. Therefore I spared a couple of hours to work on this layout.

I picked a photo of my 2-year-old daughter, Hannah, when she was making a funny face during a lunch recently.

She's indeed my little monster and little cutie, a very active, naughty but smart girl.

This is a relatively simple and quick layout and I hand-cut our some flowers from various scrap pattern paper and match them with some fabric flowers and Prima flowers.

I punched a few butterflies using the MS Butterfly punch;

then used the left over paper pieces as "stencils" and spray over on the background.

Therefore you can see the shaded butterflies on the background of this layout.

Thanks for visiting!

Irene

Hurray ~ "Giant duck" layout is being featured!

I woke up early this morning and saw the notifications showing a few inbox message sitting on my Gmail account.

Since the Gmail inbox is only used for receiving messages related to my blog so I guess something should have been happened about my posts.

Oh yes, it's about my recent participation in the My Creative Sketches June sketch challenge.... My "Giant duck" layout is being featured!

Hurry! It is absolutely a great recognition of my work. Thank you very much for picking my artwork.

It has been almost an year since my last layout being featured by MCS. I love playing along with MCS which gives me a monthly brainstorm of scrapbooking ideas. 

I have been participating in their monthly contest since July 2012 but unfortunately missed 2 months in April and May due to my super busy schedule.

I hope I will continue with this and try my very best to get more layouts done, and add in more new elements.

Thank you again - Happy scrapbooking and crafting!

Giant Duck

It has been 2 months for not participating in the MY CREATIVE SKETCHES' MONTHLY CONTEST due to house-move, holiday and business trips. Once everything was settled down last month, I urge myself to create a layout and get it done fore the deadline on 14th July.

This is the MCS June/July sketch which is actually quite familiar.... 

The theme of this layout is Giant Duck - For those who are in Hong Kong, we have been desperate for visiting this 32-meter tall duck which has been sitting on the Victoria harbour for a month. The duck is an art piece created by a Dutch artist 

I took my girls to take a closer look at the giant duck on its last day in Hong Kong, i.e. 9th June.

To create a background highlighting sea waves, I applied some LIGHT MOLDING PASTE over a STENCIL of wave pattern. I sprayed a thin layer of Shimmer blue colour mist over the mold. 

I cut out the Giant duck from the photo, and outlined it.

I created two CHIPBOARD frames for two pictures of my lovely daughters

On the top left hand corner, I made the SUN by cutting out a small circle from an embossed swirl pattern paper, I added a few small pieces of ribbon. And yes it was a sunny day when we went to visit the duck.

There is a big circle on the background of the layout, I cut a circle out using Martha Stewart circle cutter, I hand-wrote some notes on it.

I added a die-cut chipboard of Sizzix bigz die - Picture wheel

Last month I went for an holiday in Los Angeles and I found this pair of cutie yellow duck buttons from JoAnn Store, which are very suitable for this layout.

I stamped some rainbow arrows over the background using the ARROW ROLLING STAMP.... I actually tried to stamp it neatly on the page, however it failed. So I just rolling back and forth and created this messy stamping pattern, which is quite good for the layout

This layout turns out nicely and gives some feeling of mixed media. Thanks for MCS for their sketch idea!

Japanese 3D paperart workshop

Anson - my 5 years old daughter has started her summer holiday. Last Saturday night, I signed up for a parent-kid workshop at Teapot Art & Craft Workshop http://www.teapothk.com, learning how to make a 3D card using the Japanese paper art techniques.

[Photo Courtesy by Teapot Art & Craft Workshop]

We were in the 1st class of their workshop so I was really excited. And it was my 1st visit to their branch in Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong, about 30km from my home, it is in a very convenient location though.

We arrived slightly early and met the tutor who taught me how to machine-sew a fabric bag few months ago. Anson chose a material pack, featured Cinderella, her beloved princess; and chose a nice pink colour pattern paper for making the frame.

Iris, a well-known blogger in Hong Kong, who is also the own of the workshop. She demonstrated and explained how to get started. Basically it involves lots of cutting.

I cut all shapes out into different tiny pieces; and Anson used a round-shaped pen - i.e. a tool to "tilt" the pieces and made them became 3D.

[Photo Courtesy by Teapot Art & Craft Workshop]

This is a project requires much concentration but it was a good fun.

[Photo from Teapot Art & Craft Workshop]

As time moves on, there was a new joiner to the class and that is actually the mother of Anson's classmate. If her daughter was also here that would be perfect and the girls would love to work and play together.

It took us quite a while to cut everything and in the 2nd half of the workshop, Anson got knowing other kids and they played together happily.

Iris's daughter, Charlotte was also there who is about 1.5 year older than Anson. Charlotte shared some of her beloved "crystal" with Anson and shared the drawing tools with her. 

Both me and Anson surely had a great time there.

[Photo Courtesy by Teapot Art & Craft Workshop]

Since the project involves lots of steps and touch up, I actually finished them at home. I hand-stamped Anson's name on the card as she said she wish the card to be her birthday card - She is a July girl!

I look forward to joining another class at Teapot Art & Craft Workshop!

The kissing sisters

This is supposed to be a last-minute submission for the March/April contest of My Creative Sketches. However, I was extremely busy on the day and finally missed the submission deadline. At the time I could do the upload, it is closed!

It's okay, and am still pleased to share what I've done on this LO.

This month's sketch is quite simple to follow, but, that's make it difficult for me to brainstorm what exactly I should do. Behind the scene, I've really tried different series of paper stock and couldn't find one that I'm really happy with.

Until one day, I saw a picture drawn by my 4.5 years old daughter, which has a rainbow on it, I thought that I should prepare a rainbow background myself, instead of using a pattern paper.

Therefore I used a stencil and inked some distressed ink over the background, layer by layer and the rainbow pattern appeared - and I got inky fingers too!

The picture I've chosen to feature on this layout is my most favourite shot of this month. I, just on my own, took my two babies one day during Easter, to Stanley in Hong Kong and spent 2-hours at the seafront. The girls were so lovely chit-chating with each others, looking at dogs, etc and they were very cooperative in posing for my photos.

They kisses and I captured the sweetest moment! How sweet is it?

The decorations on the layout were from everything, such as fabric roses, layered flowers but I dye them with colour spray; as well as some tiny accessories (i.e. the little birdies) I bought from a Japanese zakka store in Hong Kong; as well as the punches butterflies.

I really like the final layout and I am very happy with the background particularly - which was made ALL BY MYSELF!

Happy Scrapbooking!

Irene

February layout: Girls' talk & laugh

I took 3 instagram pictures of my two sweeties and I love them so much.

The pictures were taken in an evening, after dinner, when the sisters were playing together.

It wasn't a game, just the girls making funny face and made the other laugh.

So sweet!


Because of the 3 instagram pictures, I've decided to uses them to make a layout for taking part in My Creative Sketches' February contest.

I love this sketch and it stimulated my creativity to do a layout highlighting my girls.



What a coincide that Echo Parks launched the edorable Sweet Girl collection in February and available for sale at my favourite craft shop - HK Memory Chest. I bought a few from the collection.

Though I only used 3 pieces of their pattern papers but they all look great after mix and match with other papers and adhesives.

I love the girl dresses pattern and I cut them out and add a pearl chain on it, which look like the dresses are being hanged.



I saw from many other artist's layout that they stitch on the papers using sewing machine, this time I've done the same too.

Though I've not used my sewing machine for long, plus I'm not great in sewing.

I love the stitching technique very much, I think I'll do that more in my upcoming artworks.



Pink, red and gardens are always suitable for girls.

I added lots of scraps on this layout.... they are all the left-overs from previously, such as paper flowers, birdies add-on from Kaiser; and the punched butterflies and they really refreshed the entire layout.



I hope you like this too - Happy scrapbooking!!!

Splash time... in Phuket

It's my 5th participation in the monthly contest organised by My Creative Sketches.

It's a really good drive to encourage myself to get at least 1 layout done in a month.

After seeing the January sketch, I thought it is quite simple but actually not!

We recently came back from our annual family holiday in Phuket and the weather was amazing, sunny and clear sky everyday. We have therefore tak en many pictures and some are great for doing layouts.

Seeing there is an unused kit I bought at the end of 2012 - Amy Tangerine Sketchbook, designed by American crafts, and being inspired by Kelly Purkey, who visited Hong Kong in end Nov 2012 and hosted a class for HK Memory Chest. I've decided to use the kit for this layout.

The Amy Tangerine Sketchbook collection features splashing colour, I love the contrast while putting each piece of paper together. 

I love the Indian-style pattern paper and I use it as a background. I sprayed some colour over the background, though the paper got a few colour drops originally.

In Phuket, we went swimming in pool. The picture I chose was taken from there and  a big portion of marine blue, which matches perfectly with the paper pad collection.

I cut out a few piece of textured paper and spray some blue ink over them, cut them in semi-circles and they became the splash... !

The Sun on the top right hand corner was from KaiserCraft's Fine and Sunny collectables, and the "Bring on the Sun" clear stamps set, by Ali Edwards also works perfectly with this layout.

I love this layout so much. By seeing this I can still feel the "Sunshine" and our happy time.

Thanks for passing by and visiting and I hope you like it too. 

Feel free to leave me with your comments too.

Cheers.

Irene

Handmade Chinese Red Packets

For Chinese, we have Chinese new year according to the Lunar (Chinese) calendar.
It's a tradition that all of us who are married to give away red packets to friends and relatives who are still single, as well as children. Each red packet usually carries some cash money.


These red envelopes are usually given away by shops or banks, but for me, it's the 4th year to make some handmade, personalised ones.

Red packets are usually given away in pair, i.e. we give away 2 envelopes to each recipient as we are in couple and both are still alive. 

I tried to be more creative this year on making these red envelopes, Besides embossing, I also applied other techniques including stamping, inking, etc.

I've also placed an order from Taobao, a China-based online shopping site (like eBay) for a few customised stamps. The one in the middle of the picture is "Wong", it's my husband's family name.

I have a funny thought that I wish recipients focus more on the art of handmade, rather than on the money inside! : )

Full of handmade ~ Christmas 2012

I've been hand-making Christmas cards for years, but they were pretty basic.

Over the year I've been involving in lots of art and crafts and learned much more techniques on paper crafts. This year I tried to make a difference.

I added lots of new ideas, new elements to my cards. On each card I have re-used many scraps such as Christmas catalogues, promotional materials etc. I think it's good way to recycle!

One of my friends asked if I am working as a designer for Hallmark....hhahahahah, Of course not!

But I do have a dream that I can sell out these cards and donate the amount of money to the charity, not sure if it's possible to make it happen next year?

 

 

Handmade baby boy card

My publisher + ex-colleague has become a father, his little boy was born at the end of 2012. I made a baby boy card to circulate around in the office and get everyone signed.

The card was made in a very simple design, the little foot were cut by SIZZIX ECLIPS's, OCCASIONS CARTRIDGE, it's cute.

I know the little boy is named DASH, his family name is Singh, his father said he wish his son to be "dashin : );  I added his name with my beloved alphabet stickers from American Crafts.

The other bits and bops including Crate Paper and Bo Bunny's Little Bo Peep Chipboard Accents Stickers. 

Best wishes to the little baby boy and Singh's family.