life's portrait workshop

by request of my lovely friend who lives in a middle of nowhere with no zip code...i'm throwing my first private workshop for a group of 7 artsy ladies.  i mean, they're the city's creme de la creme of scraps and beyond.  so that's like me landing in normandy on world war II with a pair of scissors with a mission to overtake the germans.  by the way, i was just kidding about my friend's domain.  it's my pun for her severely impaired internet connection which allows her to type 1 3/4 of a sentence before it lags for another 15 minutes.  we're planning to communicate by owl mail in the future.

anyway, it began with her request for a carousel pop up album and she managed to convince the whole troop to join during their next gathering, which is august 7.

i'm calling mine, "portrait of a young girl"  after portrait of an artist as a young man and portrait of a lady of course.  i recently found a black and white negative of me and my brothers from when we were toddlers.  considering that's close to 40 years, the negatives were in a pretty good shape.  a dear friend is helping me cleaning up some spots and i'm up to scrap them major style.  now that i think of it, i should be calling it portrait of a young lady.  see if i can peel it off.

i will share the pop up dream catcher page after the workshop. that last page is my favorite and rather ambitious i should say.

memory shadow frame box for a dear friend

my most enthusiastic scrapper friend, lia sutra and i talked about swapping a project.  she loves vintage style and i thought of making her something with metal and polymer.  then she mentioned again and again that she loves the carousel mini album and mother's day frames i made.  since i still have the materials, so i came up with a memory box using the cosmo cricket's material girl stash.  i love cricket's products, but none of the indonesian scrapbook store carries the brand.  i'm still aiming for their delovely collection.  i missed it's arrival at laine's papeterie singapore.

anyway...

i find this project redundant, but lia said if she doesn't have it yet, nothing is redundant, even if it's being reproduced numerous times.

memory box

inside

the frame is detachable and can be displayed as a stand alone.  so is the mini book.

with this construction, which is slightly different with the previous mini album carousel, i should actually do 5 chambers instead of 4.  too many cutting, sticking and multitasking in between that i missed to see that before i attached the cover.

i'm happy that this memory box will go to lia and her beautiful family.  she's just starting a blog as i'm typing this and chatting with her  simultaneously.  do drop by to her sanctuary and say hello.  i'll take a peek of her newly made prima album as soon as i hit publish.

get your scissors and glue ready...

dim the lights...and...i hope you dance goes to...

theralea of hand prints and carrie underwood.  please email me your address dear.  i hope you don't sit it out and start dancing with the kit when you receive it.  don't tell anyone if you spot max' paw print, he's still working on his sticking skill.

thank you ladies for playing and your wonderful compliments.

summer cha 2010 breakthrough tool

unarguably the greatest ad that has ever been created is "1984", a tv commercial introducing apple macintosh personal computer during the superbowl. 

nineteen eighty-four, george orwell, dystopia, the big brother, but most importantly...the birth of mac. it's brilliant period.  a genius unsurpassed by any apple products combined.  btw my first computer was macintosh II 20mb with a color screen and it was a major style then.  it cost me almost $7,000 in 1988, not including the b/w hp printer...not that you asked.

 mac 128k introduced in 1984

what gives?  now, if you're done laughing, we can go on to what i consider the most innovative scrapbooking tool ever...
 

teresa collins stampmaker

this tool basically let you create your own stamps and stencils endlessly (until we brake it perhaps) in a heart beat.  look at how detail those stamps are. teresa has shown what we could do with it and a video questions she's been receiving about the product.  if you catch my drift, you should by now begin to imagine the endless possibilities this tool could do. if you haven't and have difficulty imagining so, compare it to the mac.  unlike my mac II which i used about 27 times, teresa said the suggested retail price is merely US$169.99.  don't worry, i rewind it and listened twice to make sure my hearing is working properly, and the refill packages of various sizes are...whatever, they're reasonable.  i's so going to get it.  hopefully it will hit retail by next month.

additional thought the morning after...

now that the adrenalin is back to normal and i've slept on it, i'm no longer keen on buying this tool.  i'm quite sure the second generation will include the laser precision printer it needs.  that would be handy.  without the printer, i might as well skip the tool and do the stamps using regular bulb.  still, many thanks to teresa for  opening up information on dyo polymer stamps.  should one day i feel the need to make my own stamps, i will start calculating the most cost effective way.  for now, i just buy the designs i need or like.

i hope you dance ~ giveaway

what comes around goes around...so here's my 1st blog giveaway in celebration of the craft gifts i received this week.

i present you...i hope you dance carousel mini album kit inspired by lee ann womack's signature song...if you don't already know it, it's a narration of a mother's wishes to her children, in the case of this album, a daughter or you.

i hope you never lose your sense of wonder

you get your fill to eat

but always keep that hunger

may you never take one single breath for granted

god forbid love ever leave you empty handed

i hope you still feel small

when you stand by the ocean

whenever one door closes, i hope one more opens

promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

i hope you dance

i hope you dance

i hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

never settle for the path of least resistance

living might mean taking chances

but they're worth taking

lovin' might be a mistake

but it's worth making

don't let some hell bent heart

leave you bitter

when you come close to selling out

reconsider

give the heavens above

more than just a passing glance

and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

i hope you dance

(time is a real and constant motion always)

i hope you dance

(rolling us along)

i hope you dance

(tell me who)

i hope you dance

(wants to look back on their youth and wonder)

(where those years have gone) 

...

beautiful song, beautiful lyrics, beautifully covered by the country songstress carrie underwood, the soulful gladys knights, ronan keating, danny gokey and others. 

i used mostly k & company hopscotch girl and doll house collections throughout.  i fancied the company so much that i have everything, i mean everything, they made since the beginning up to prior ek success acquirement.

now, i better lay out a few disclaimers this project needs:

• the skeleton of this album was supposed to be just a mock up.  i was to do another one once i figured the structure.  albeit i found out that i'm going to be occupied for the rest of the week.  so i tried to make it work in one sitting with the disruption of max kept tugging me and when i ignored him, being a beagle he decided to scrap along. he is a master of trimming and today he abruptly learned to fold papers, before he figured his masterpiece served better function as another cozy lounge rather than artwork.
  
• the making memory ready-to-glitter stickers i used in the cover wouldn't hold the glitter.  so i layered it with glue and glitter, leaving me with a glittery beagle and wiggly alphabets.
  
• i couldn't get the pictures right, not that i usually could anyway.  i laid them in a lovely composition and the picture turned out rather foggy.  so i wrote this up and thought i would reshoot in the morning. turned out, the sky showered wildly.  in the afternoon i didn't have time to find the right spot to get the shadow right, nor time to do editing and decided to use whatever is there as is.
  
• i purposely left it as is so you could continue to customized it to your own story, thus i include the goodies.

all for my excuse of the album being rather dodgy, let alone its rather corny cover.  it's paw-made!  just kidding...  it's still made with my best intentions though.

so much for the blah and the blah, here we go...

the carousel mini album

the extra goodies for you to work on your story

hopefully it's acceptable to your liking.  anyone can play of course.  to win it, just leave me a comment bellow and tell me which artist covers your favorite rendition of the song.

added info:
i'll announce winner on july 18.  thank you for reminding me, ria.  newbie here :)

talkies

i made these speech bubbles while rooting for the one man spanish armada battled for the single handed champion of the world.

i got the idea while reading my facebook newsfeed.  it's so happening...i sure am surrounded by opiniated relations.

the silhouette are made of black velvet textured paper...classy!  thought i was going to beautify them by adding gloss, glitter and shadows... 

then again rafa claimed his title straight set, robbing my extra time to work on the talkies.  so for now  i will just leave them bare basic until they're ready for their debut.

vamos rafa...let's get the us for career golden slam, then the golden grand slam!

becareful of what you wish for

you might get it!  woooohooooooo...just the other day i was saying how much i wanted to win a blog giveaway.  guess what...i won!!

my friend ria was announcing the newly added indonesian scrapbookers she linked up on her blog.  so i went to her home to look around.  while i was hopping around the blogs she loves, i stumbled on celine navarro of green frog studio giveaway post.  just thought i left a note and it happened!

yippeeeeeeeee...a kit courtesy of bulle2scrap celine used for her inspiration tuesday last week.  i'm so deliriously happy...thank you...thak you...celine and bulle2scrap.

look who just moved in!

look what's inside a package i received today!  look....

 wise 

i took a moment of silence when i saw it. ria has sent me wise, the original 24" x 24" painting.  she presented me her treasure, just like that.  then i read her note....   

i wasn't overwhelmed with her gesture.  it's a state of existence i very well understood, we found ourselves another kindred spirit, no further explanations needed.

some people come into our lives
and leave footprints on our hearts
and we are never ever the same

some people come into our lives
and quickly go...some stay for a while
and embrace our silent dreams

they help us become aware
of the delicate winds of hope...
and we discover within every human spirit
there are wings yearning to fly

they help our hearts to see that
the only stairway to the stars
is woven with dreams...
and we find ourselves
unafraid to reach high

they celebrate the true essence
of who we are...
and have faith in all
that we may become

some people awaken us
to new and deeper realizations...
for we gain insight
from the passing whisper of their wisdom

throughout our lives we are sent
precious souls...
meant to share our journey
however brief or lasting their stay
they remind us why we are here

to learn...to teach...to nurture...to love

some people come into our lives
to cast a steady light
upon our path and guide our every step
their shining belief in us
helps us to believe in ourselves

some people come into our
lives to teach us about love...
the love that rests within ourselves

let us reach out to others
and feel the bliss of giving
for love is far richer in action
than it ever is in words

some people come into our lives
and they move our souls to sing
and make our spirits dance

they help us to see that everything on earth
is part of the incredibility of life...
and that it is always there
for us to take of its joy

some people come into our lives
and leave footprints on our hearts
and we are never ever the same 

~ some people by flavia weedn

my...my....  she remembers that i have asked her about the canvas she used in her "life artist" class and sent me some as well.

i have said that i wanted to win a blog giveaways so much that i'm willing to send more in return...hahaa....  today i have won 10x over and like i told ria, today i could go win a trojan war.

 

to the many, ria nirwana is the indonesian pioneer of scrapbooking as we know it today.  i first met her a few years ago when she opened her scrapbooking shop in jakarta.  i reconnected with her recently when i picked up the passion again and joined her "our journey" class where i took the pleasure of meeting the lovely ladies in the scrapbooking community she has built over the years.  ria has so much passion to what she does and her level of energy in doing so never cease to amaze me.  if you're local and haven't already joined her class, you should!

now i'm going to watch nadal beats murray...vamos rafa!

deus ex machina

lia sutra made the travel back in time distressed chipboard album for the swap event last week.  i told her that i will use hers on my next project, so here it is.

originally i made a time machine altered doll from a dismembered watch parts, dead electronic board, charms and various metal parts.  i was trying to create a deus ex machina.  half way through, in an inkling bougureau's la crepuscle (twilight) (or evening mood—as i knew it) struck my vision, so i left the zetti meets steampunk doll and the original idea of the project and came up with whatever was handy.

every so often she travels back in time to revisit

if there was anything impressive i did a few years back is that i read classical literature.  i  came across the collector's choice book list and my 2 years of dedicated hunting and reading begun.  one list went to another,  i was assured then that all i wanted was to be a literary bum.  that was another story though.

here are my all time favorite thinker whose words inspired my every aspects of life.

her muses

i spent a good hour typing who, what, why and deleted them when i realized that i should probably do another blog on the soliloquy.  to keep it simple, they are: leonardo da vinci, aristotle, hilaire belloc, st thomas aquinas, dante, king david, homer, william faulkner, james joyce and shakespeare.  of course i adore other stories and writers, like evidently the merchant of marvels and the peddler of dreams or on seeing the 100% perfect girl on a beautiful april morning...these are the brilliant ones with unsurpassed beautiful minds.

i never actually realized the detail of my design unless i blog them.  look at that stamped flower on top of aristotle's head, why is it popping up, and why is the vitruvian man scroll looks as if it's knocking his head.  i like leonardo's thinking cap though, it's a watch machine.

the majestic michelangelo's king david whose psalms are the most beautiful writings we have to read. the key is meant to be his kinnor.

 and dances to the lyric of time

hmmm...i will add that line to the back of the board.

added picture:

rather jam packed perhaps, but it serves the purpose—the end justifies the mean , so i'm still good with it.