Always Remember with Made With Love

Happy Sunday friends!

How are you doing on this long holiday weekend? I am taking in a lot of lovely smells of rendang from my neighbourhood as our Malay friends here celebrate their festival, at the same time the two younger ones as they have both chosen to fall sick at the same time. But nothing to make myself feel better than to share about some lovely products I've been using recently!

I got a HUGE wooden thickboard tag from Stampers Anonymous in my DT kit for Made With Love some time back, but had completely forgotten to use it. Well, I found it again while packing up my room and thought it will be perfect for a nice shabby project. 

And what speaks shabby and grunge more than Blue Fern Studios' Artisan collection of papers? I'm using Happy Accident here, and instead of the usual cut and paste, I've done gel transfer for the background. It's lovely how the designs seem to blend and fuse into the thickboard itself. You can see here for a tutorial of the gel transfer background technique. Then I took some Tim Holtz Ideology tissue paper and added it for some relief and details.

More details in the close-ups:

In my kit was the Prima Marketing Artisan Powder (designed by Frank Garcia, one of my favourite scrapbookers). It's a pretty amazing thing and I've used it 3 ways here - dusting it as a pigment on my flowers and fabric trim, using it as a distress color on the edges of my tag and mixing it with gel as a tinted medium I can use over my stencil. 

I like to use chipboards in my projects and here is no exception. The wildflower chipboard was first colored with Peacock Feathers distress paint, followed by Shabby Shutters and some dabs of Dina Wakely's acrylic paint in Elephant. Then was a layer of crackle paste from Prima and lastly, a watered down layer of the acrylic paint in Medieval to bring out the cracks. The mushroom chipboard showed the exact same colors except without the crackle.

For my title, I used Dina Wakely's acrylic paint in Gilt to cover the entire piece. What I like about this paint is its rich colors and how easy it is to work with. The small bottles come with a handy fine-tip applicator so you don't end up over dispensing too much paint and waste that good stuff. 

A little bit more of some metal bits I've painted over with Prima's acrylic paint in Patina. 

And that's all I have for you today. Enjoy your day ahead!

Family with Made With Love

Hello friends! What a wet Monday in May! It's supposed to be all bright and hot and sunny in Singapore now but the weather's been so funny. Well, can't complain because I love cool weather.

In fact, that was what we had on our trip to Melbourne last spring - albeit too cold for comfort. But oh, so many wonderful memories and today, I've finally scrapped our family photo from that trip for my DT project for Made With Love.

Family photos go on display on the counter by the main door, so it has to be something really sturdy. I used an IKEA photo frame as a base, and the rest of the supplies are from the awesome kit that Aida packed for me. And the kit has all my favourite Blue Fern Studio goodies! Although I have left their DT after 3 wonderful years, BFS products always get my mojo going - and the best is they are available from Made With Love - in Singapore!

For the picture frame, I prepped it with Dina Wakely's white gesso followed by grit paste from Ranger's. This added to the beach/ocean feel that I wanted to create in the project.

More details in the close-ups:

The background paper is from their new series of amazing background papers, aptly called Artisan Collection and this particular set is named Happy Accident. Happy days indeed because papers like these are perfect for lots of mixed media background work with their neutral tones and subtle details. For my project, I had a very simple stencil to match the splatter patterns on the paper, painted over with Distress Stain in Antiqued Bronze to give a nice shimmer.

I had a little anchor from Blue Fern Studios which I painted over with Copper metallic paint from Prima's mixed media range of products, and dabbed over with their Patina paint to create a distressed and weathered look. For the chipboard leaves, I first painted over with Prima's metallic watercolor palette before going over Distress Paints in Shabby Shutter and Distress Crayon in Peeled Paint, giving me a very dimensional but well-blended effect.

This chipboard from Blue Fern Studios had a lot of work done on it as well. The bits with shells had first script stamped embossed with dark blue embossing powder, followed by painting over with Prima's Opl Magic paint in blue/gold. The seaweeds were painted the same way as the other leaves chipboards, but for the flowers I had used Distress Crayon in Spun Sugar, and the chain bits with Copper metallic and patina paints. Phew, that's a lot of painting and mixing around different stuff!

I also tucked in a lot of ephemera from Kaisercraft (these pretty die cuts are just right for layering, accenting and filling out your projects) as well as some hessian I found in my kit. Fabric is a wonderful material for layering and adding a special bit of texture. 

Another seashell bit chipboard that I altered with liquid pearls. This dimensional paint is so useful - I can use it to create pearls (duh, that's pretty obvious) but it is also wonderful to use as a shimmery paint with 3D effects like these. Pearl-fect for a shiny seashell!

I rarely use Thickers but the set that came in the kit was just so me - lightly distressed with a wonderful texture of rough glitter bits. It was just right for my title.

Filling in the gaps in the project with these cute little pebbles, also from Prima Marketing.

And that's all I have for today! You can find the list of supplies I used for this project below, and they can all be found at Made With Love.

Supplies used:

paper: Blue Fern Studios - Happy Accident

flowers: Prima Marketing Inc

Distress Crayon, Stain, Perfect Pearls: Rangers

acrylic paints: Prima Marketing Inc

chipboards: Blue Fern Studios

die cuts: Kaisercraft

alpha-stickers: American Crafts

Today with Made With Love

Hello friends, how are you?

It's the end of the school holidays now and we are all geared up for the second term of Primary One! I'm thankful that it's been a fun journey so far for eldest, not so fun for me as I juggle my part time work in digital marketing and managing these three wiggly monkeys!

But there's always time for crafting eh?

Today, I'm sharing a project I created with the lovely goodies from Made With Love. As usual, I will have a supply list at the end of this post, and remember - these gorgeous products and more can be found at MWL's store at 313 Somerset B2.

Here's the project I created with Bo Bunny's Petal Lane:

I love the set of papers DT coordinator Aida has packed for me, and they are just perfect for a LO of my little girl. As I went through them and saw the black piece with the polka dots, I knew I had to do something high contrast - which is quite suitable for this little girl who is so different from her brothers.

My background was done with first embossing white embossing powder after using a script stamp on the paper. It acts as a resist when I subsequently put the paint on.

What I got in the kit was a set of acrylic paint from Dina Wakeley and I love these. Really intense and bright colors to spruce up your projects. Now the colors were a bit strong for the softness of the papers, so instead of splashing everything on with a brush, I used a sea sponge to apply. The result is a lovely sandy look which resembles dandelions in the air. I started with the Magenta, mixed in some white for a light pink shade. The yellow I used last just as an accent. This is what the sea sponge I used looked like:



Now I love Blue Fern Studios' chipboards and they are also available from MWL. I've used a doily here which I first embossed with white embossing powder. Followed by a coat of the amazing metallic wax from Prima Marketing. The texture is smooth and I applied it with my fingers. To remove, just gently wash your hands with soap. I love the effect it had on my EP, as well as on the metal bits.

More close-ups below:

In the floral cluster, I had white roses which I painted on with the left overs of my paint for the background. Don't waste the good stuff!

That's all I have for today, catch you again soon!

Supply list (available from Made With Love):

papers: Bo Bunny - Petal Lane

flowers: Prima Marketing Inc
paint: Rangers' Dina Wakely

embellishments: Prima Marketing Inc
chipboard: Blue Fern Studios

Altered Fun with Made With Love

Hello Friends! and welcome to 2017!

The year is off to a quiet start for me as we prepared for eldest's first year of formal education and it has been quite fun so far. Always nice to have a break and finally spend some time creating stuff in my art room. Today, I'm on the blog for Made With Love and I have a cute altered pouch that took me just under 2 hrs to make.

We had a combined church service on the first Sunday of the year and the kids had various stations they could go to for activities instead of the usual Sunday school program. Eldest brought back this fabric pouch that had only his name stamped on it - he didn't know what else to do with it, so it was up to mummy to have some fun with it.

I had covered the fabric pouch with gesso before using some modeling paste over a floral stencil. Once that is all dried, I had me a bit of fun with the Distress Spray in Antique Linen. Using this color, I ended up with a soft, vintage look with which I could slowly build up on.

More details in the close-ups:

To create a soft palette, I gently brushed Distress Stains in Bundled Sage and Tattered Rose over my original layer of Antique Linen Spray. The resulting effect was a sweet pastel-like background without looking at all patchy and forced. On top of that, I did some stamping with some botanical themed stamps. I also added some fine details with Liquid Pearls for a feminine touch.

I saw some Grit Paste from Ranger's at the store and I knew I had to use them somewhere. So on to this huge piece of vine chipboard from Blue Fern Studios it went, which I had colored with Bundled Sage Distress Stain.

Lots of fussy cutting from the Kaisercraft Cherry Tree Lane collection. Just love the bouquets and colors of this collection! I had also mixed in some die cut pieces from the Be-you-tiful collection.

More bits and pieces to layer up.

Supplies used (available from Made With Love at 313 Somerset):

paper, die cuts: Kaisercraft
spray, stains, grit paste: Ranger's Distress spray, Distress Stain, Liquid pearls

flowers, stencil, chipboard stickers: Prima Marketing Inc
chipboard vine: Blue Fern Studios

Christmas Memories with Made With Love

Hello friends!

Can you imagine? Just 7 more days to Christmas! Time has passed by so fast that the year has been just a blurry of faces and places. Thank God for cameras that we can capture those moments to remember by!

Today, I'm on here to share a Christmas layout I created for my LSS Made With Love, using the amazing supplies that can be found at their store.

I had chosen a light and neutral paper from the Kaisercraft Christmas Wishes collection for my background paper as I wanted to use Distress Stains to create the color washes. I had a mixture of splashes (created by forcefully slamming down the tube of Distress Stains on its dabber) and washes (created by using water to dilute the paint). The brush strokes of the clear gesso applied to the background paper before the mediums were added lent a grungy look. I also had stenciled UTEE-embossed stars under all the Stains, resulting in little resist patterns all over.

More details in the close-ups:

Gold-foil words and die cuts as my embellishments. Also added in are Tree Toys chipboard (altered with embossing powder and Distress Glitter) from Blue Fern Studios and sequins from my own stash.

More Gold-foil words. These are a real treat to add to any layout! I also tucked in fussy cut poinsettias, another Blue Fern Studios chipboard (altered with embossing powder and Distress Glitter) and a wooden clock into my cluster.

Some sweet flowers and an epoxy sticker. You can see some of the finer background details like the different stamps I had used.

A lovely metal tag from Tim Holtz to top up the sentiment, nested on a bunch of sweet Christmas flowers from Prima Marketing.

List of supplies (available from Made With Love):

paper: Kaisercraft

gold foil die-cuts: Kaisercraft
Distress Stains, Distress Glitter: Ranger's
Embossing powder: WOW!
chipboard: Blue Fern Studios
metal piece: Tim Holtz

flowers: Prima Marketing Inc.

Thanks for joining me today, and have a Merry Christmas!

5 Questions with Made With Love

Hello friends!

Today is my turn on the Made With Love blog. Right now I'm actually enjoying a long-awaited family vacation and taking lots of photos for memories. Can't wait to get home and scrap those!

But first, today's post is a special segment on the Design Team and who we are. I'm going to take some time out to show you one of my favourite projects and answer some questions at the same time!

This mixed media canvas was created for MWL sometime back with lots of the Finnabair products, as well as Blue Fern Studios chipboards. What I like about this piece was that it has been in concept for the longest time - ever since I found out about black gesso (which has a been a few years), I wanted to do create something that is based on that and just screams for attention. It wasn't until the Opal Magic acrylic paints were available that I knew I had the right ingredients for this piece. 

Personally, the past 3 years was all about discovering who I am and learning to love myself for it. We are often our harshest critic and there was a period of acceptance and growth where I gradually started to feel comfortable in my own skin. Knowing where my heart lies and moving towards the pursuit of true happiness has brought me closer to my family and God.

 Below are just some of the close-ups:

And now for the questions!

1. Who am I?

I'm a mother of 3 wonderful children - 2 boys and a girl - and wife to an amazing husband. I used to work in cancer research and forensics, but now work as a digital marketer from home so that I can still be with my brood. I picked up scrapbooking when my eldest was born but only dabbled in mixed media when my second child arrived. It was love at first sight as it gave me a lot of creative space to work with than just mere paper and glue.

2. What is my creative style?

Mostly shabby chic with pastel colors. I love to layer and layer and mix the colors around.

3. What inspires me?

Mostly my kids. They are quite a photogenic bunch so during the weekend family outings, we would take photos that I had conceptualized. So sometimes, the layout would have been planned for months, right down to the attire, location and materials to be used.

I also like to visit blogs of other scrap artists. There is a wealth of ideas to be found there, although most times I'm just awe-struck by the gorgeous works.

4. What I love about being Singaporean?

Everything is so convenient and safe! Growing up in Katong, I could walk down the street in the middle of the night and still be overwhelmed by the choice of food available. Need to grab something and still run errands? There's always a mall somewhere that allows me to do everything together, and with really short traveling time too. When I was staying with my aunt in Tucson, Arizona, it takes a 2-hr drive just to get to the nearest Asian grocery store in Phoenix City, so we would stock up on months' worth of food in the deep freezer. Compare that with NTUC that is just 5 mins' walk from my flat. No horse run.

5. What do I wish for?

World peace.

Nah... but I do hope that we can leave a good legacy behind for our children. Be it the way they are raised, a good education, a world with less strife and more love, or an Earth that is not trampled upon and destroyed by greed.

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

September Inspirations with Made With Love

Hello friends! Hope all are well with you guys!

Today I am sharing a project I created for my LSS Made With Love with some gorgeous supplies from their store at 313 Somerset. It's been awhile too since I did a tutorial for them, so here is a photo step-by-step to show you how I created this canvas.

1. Prime the canvas with gesso. 

2. When the gesso has dried completely (important!), create some texture on your background using UTEE powder, a stencil and some embossing glue. Use a heat tool to melt the UTEE powder.

3. Layer papers to create your main cluster. 

4. Prime your chipboard with gesso. Create a resist pattern with a stamp, white embossing powder and embossing glue.

5. Color it with Distress Stains, using water to blend. 

6. Ink the sides too to make it pretty.

7. To color the background, I'm using Tim Holtz Distress crayons. These are so fun to work with!

8. I spread out the colors in the order they came in, like a mini-rainbow.

9. Using baby wipes, I activated the pigment into paint and could control the intensity and blending between each color very well. 

10. Ta-da! Add more interest with stamps.

And this is the finished canvas after I added more stuff. It's my eldest boy's first birthday and a family photo we took. I'm planning to make a gift of it for my in-laws during Christmas. 

Details in the close-ups:

Altered chipboard from Blue Fern Studios

Background details showing the UTEE powder, Distress Crayons and stamping at work.

Cute whimsical title

And here are the supplies I used from Made With Love:

papers - Bo Bunny (Double Dot Design), Echo Park (I Love Family)
chipboard - Blue Fern Studios

mediums - Prima Marketing Inc (gesso); Distress Crayons (Tim Holtz); UTEE powder, Embossing powder, embossing glue, archival ink (Ranger's)

title sticker: Thickers

stamps: Prima kareting Inc, Kaisercraft

stencil: The Crafter's Workshop