August Inspiration with Blue Fern Studios

Happy Sunday friends!

We had a very enjoyable evening by the Bay on Saturday watching the aerial and fireworks display for our 50th National Day celebrations rehearsal with friends. It's actually our first time going all the way out for National Day festivities and the kids were just having a blast. Now, taking a break on Sunday and popping in to share my creations for Blue Fern Studios, using the new Paisley and Vine collection. I've kept my layouts and clusters to a minimum because of the strong lines and patterns in the papers. This collection is quite different from the others in terms of color and design and I had to approach it with a slightly different style, but that's all what is so fun about playing with different papers!

First up, here is Michele's sketch for the August challenge:



And my take on it:



Keeping things really simple here because there are lots of gorgeous images on the paper itself that I didn't want to cover.

Close-ups:

Title using a piece from "Playing Cards".

Mod Squares chipboard pieces which I coloured with gelatos.

Lots of stamping and heat embossing to create a textured background with the Journey Stamp set.

Next I have my Educator video, made also with the Paisley and Vine collection. 

I layered both papers and chipboards, and made my own rosettes as well from different sheets in the collection. The papers themselves were so detailed and colorful that I didn't feel the need for additional embellishments other than the chippies and rosettes.

Some close-ups:

Using the centre negative piece as a pop up.

Keeping themes consistent with sun bursts in the background under my Radiant Burst chippies and black microspheres on both chipboard and background.

A title piece from "Playing Cards".

And here is the start to finish video:



I hope you have enjoyed what I shared here. Have a great week ahead!

love,

Just Perfect for Made With Love

Hi there friends!

I'm in today to share a canvas I created for my LSS Made With Love.

I'm so in love with the Rustic Harmony collection from Kaisercraft that I have used it again here in my paper layers. My background is just a very simple mix of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in Coral and Cadillac Pink, over a brick stenciled with the Bone Dimensional Medium from Art Anthology. All these products are available from the 313 Somerset store. 

Now, some closeups:

My floral cluster over a Blue Fern Studios chipboard. I'm SO glad that the store is finally bringing in BFS products! This was colored with Coral glimmer mists and Ranger's Distress Paint in Victorian Velvet. And lastly a coat of Prima's soft matte gel with a sprinkle of art sugar. 

Another floral cluster here with a resin angel, also from Prima. 

That's all I have for you today. Thank you 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,

My first post with Made with Love Singapore

Hello friends!

I'm so excited to share with you my first project for my favourite LSS Made with Love. It's the first store I shopped and took classes with in Singapore and have made many friends over the years. I took my first mediums workshop (Tattered Angels) there as well and it's as close as a second home. So it really brings me a lot of joy to be part of this wonderful family.

My first project is a mixed media canvas created using products available from the store at Somerset 313.  I've used a few different types of mediums for my background. To create the soft blue and green highlights, I used Tattered Angels' Chalk Mist and Ranger's Distress Stain.

Instead of using my usual white acrylic modeling paste, I've used Art Anthology's Dimensional Paint with Stone Effects over a stencil. This was followed by random stamping using the Stitched Circle Stamp with Archival Ink and a French Script stamp with Prima Chalk Ink.

A close up of one of my clusters. I diecut some leaves from a piece of Prima Resist Canvas, my title was also cut with a Sizzix die from a piece of glitter cardstock. Under my photo is a piece of vellum with silver polka dots. Tucked within the cluster are also little chipboard hearts from Pink Paislee's Mistables which I colored with Ranger's Distress Stains. Layered at the bottom are pieces of pp I cut out in random sizes from Prima's Princess collection. 

This side of a cluster features a shabby frame which I fussy cut out from a piece of Teresa Collins pp. There's also a Prima resin frame and cardstock doily which I cut using Prima's new metal die. For these two, I lightly distressed them with Distress Stains.

List of supplies (available from Made With Love)

Tattered Angels Chalk Mist (Boogie Nights)

Art Anthology Dimensional Paint - Stone Effects (Sand)

Ranger's Distress Stains (Milled Lavender, Bundled Sage)

Prima Stamp - Stitched Circles, French Script

Patterned Paper - Prima Princess collection (Sophie), Teresa Collins Memorabilia collection (Frames)

Black Glitter cardstock

DoodleBug Designs - Sprinkles Vellum in Silver

Prima Resins - Frames

Prima Metal Die

Pink Paislee Mistables Hearts

Prima flowers

Prima Elementals Resist Canvas

Prima wood frame

Prima Stencils

Sizzix dies - "Love" and Tim Holtz Alterations "Tattered Leaves"

That's all I have for now. The canvas is on display in the Somerset 313 store, so do drop by to have a look. Hope you like what I have to share with you today!

love,

Blue Fern Studios DT - Memories

Hello good people!

As promised, I'm back in to share Part 2 of my Blue Fern Studios DT reveal. This is created with the lovely Blue Fern Garden collection, using one of my favourite papers "Parlour". I love the blue/green combination and it matches my photo perfectly.

We were out to Rockingham for the day as it was our first sunny day of the trip. For lunch, we decided to do a little picnic thing and hubby picked a little patch of grass sprinkled with sweet little yellow daisies, with a gorgeous view of Penguin Island and the Indian Ocean. Of course, eldest kept asking if the Malaysian Airlines plane is out there and if he could go look for it, and the seagulls kept stalking us and eyeing our food. But it's really our first time doing this and gosh, it was so much fun! 

Some close-ups:

Love the wildflower flourish bundle chipboard. I coloured it yellow using Lindy's Stamp Gang "Yellow Rose of Texas", followed by patting on some gel medium mixed with LSG's Color Shot in "Icy Primrose Yellow" to match the little daisies in the photo.

Using a word from "Calling Card" paper (Blue Fern Garden) as my title. These cut-out elements are so useful!

Checkered bits and graduated circle chipboards. Love these to bits. 

My floral cluster, dusted with some Ferro special paste in gold by Creative Imaginations. I mentioned that adding gold is a recent favourite of mine and I found this special paste while in Perth. It has a sandy texture with quite a nice shimmer to it.

So here's the video tut I've put together. As usual, silly me didn't realise that the camera stopped recording halfway when it came to the part where I was altering the wildflower flourish bundle chipboard. Still, I hope you enjoy the techniques in the video and find them useful.

The month of May is a busy one, and I hope to be back in soon with more stuff to share! Until then, keep calm and keep on crafting!

love,

Blue Fern Studios DT - Blessings

Hello friends!

Am glad to be back in to share a layout I created for Blue Fern Studios. I revisited my old Prima collections and pulled out the Rondelle for this page. But it doesn't really matter what brand of patterned paper I use because BFS chipboards are so versatile, they suit any style of scrapbooking. 

You hardly see me scrap pictures of myself or with my kids because I just don't have that many. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to having my picture taken so unless I know the person is able to capture what I already visualise in my head, I rather just pass. Also, I look terrible in photos so you can imagine, selfies are definitely out. Even those with my handsome hubby. But he did such a wonderful job with this photo of me and the boys, so this one is really a keeper.

Love pinks and yellows, and how they mix to make a sweet orange. Not exactly a boy's sort of colours but who says you have to follow the rules?

Some close ups":

I used the "Blessings" word from "Spiritually Speaking" word set as my title and kept it very simple with a coat of gesso, some dabbing with grey chalk ink and distressed the edges with some black ink.

And layered in between my patterned papers are pieces from "Mini Ring Things". I covered with a coat of gesso and painted with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Flat Fabios to match my background. This was followed by patting on Shimmerz Dazzlers in Lemon Drop and Dreamsicle.

My floral cluster using Prima flowers, and layering bits of knick-knacks here and there from Kaisercraft and Heidi Swapp. 

A little wooden frame from the Optimist collection and more floral goodies! If you can see the background, I sprinkled some gold glitter on my texture paste. Fun, that is!

That's all I have for now. Do check back here in a couple of days for Part 2 of my BFS DT reveal. There's a video tut included as well! Until then, happy scrapping!

love,

close to my heart

Good day everyone, how has your weekend been? I'm back for my final share on a lovely Saturday before I head out for some last minute Christmas shopping.

This is an altered clothes hanger I've created for Green Tara. Now this is really special to me 'cos the hanger is somewhat of a relic I got from my dad's little dry cleaning shop. The business has been around for more than 60 years, my dad inherited it from his dad and now my husband is helping out with the biz, hoping to bring it to the next level. Strange how things turn out, and what they say is true - the man you marry is often very similar to your dad. If so, then I'm a really lucky gal 'cos my dad is one of those fathers who don't say much, but are smart and extremely hardworking to make sure that their children (my brother and me) are well taken care of. He believes that the key to success is hard work and prudence, and his joys are simply his twice weekly badminton game, a cup of hot Milo before bedtime, and my two sons. Dad is also extremely down-to-earth, and easy-going despite having really wealthy customers (one of them is an ex-President of the country, several are CEOs of multinationals). Sadly, they don't really make men like that anymore. Anyway, there are about twenty of these hangers in the shop and I've stolen one of them. Dad's not too happy about it actually. The inspiration actually came from SATW's December mood board:

Love the shabby patina frames and the pinks! The ring reminded me of those family heirlooms passed down from generation to generation and I can't help but think of my grandfather and my dad, and how the business has been passed from father to son. And that's how I ended up stealing something from the shop - in the name of art!

So I've done some masking with texture paste and misted it over.

 

 The beautiful ladies from Green Tara. They have just enough texture and yet soft enough to match the shabbiness of the hanger.

 

Hidden behind the Damask and mini-roses is a Gabrielle butterfly from Blue Fern Studios. This is a really sweet butterfly motif which I misted with the same colors as the rest of the hanger.

 

One of the grande bird cages, also from BFS. I had intended it for another project but found that it is the perfect accent for this. Very simple embossing with Ranger's. I've recently received my shipment of EPs from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and I can't wait to see how they work with BFS chippies.

Now that I'm done for December, I'll be back soon to share more new reveals for the new year. Until then, happy holidays and may the new year be full of new joys!

love,