Tuesday, December 28, 2010

captured memories — altered aviary workshop in 2 parts

for those who have heard me talking about it, here it is....

 captured memories - mixed media altered aviary

it began when i saw this enticing 3d wood board aviary.  i acquired it all the way from france.  as most things french, it has unsurpassed beauty and quality—design and material wise.  

one by one, vendor by vendor, country by country—4 months and so after i finally gathered some elusive materials i wanted to to use in indulging this altered aviary.  i must say i'm swooned by how it turned out; worth all the efforts.

antique teak wood finishing

this aviary stands up as a 3d frame, and layer by layer it opens up to its inside spreads.  i have personally experimented and developed a few mix media vintage finishing for this project.

that's the first part.

atc tray swap

in the same spirit, the 2nd half of the project is this tray.  it is meant to hold up some round robin atc swap within the participants.  the plan is to introduce international swap scenes for those who are interested.

inquirers will be given access to private online viewing and more information about this project.

footnote
i dedicated this aviary in the memory of my grandmother, helene papakostas.  all pictures are of her family, my ancestors.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

the story of my life


classes hardly ever come by in town, so i was very excited to join lia of scrapgoodies' long awaited first with the lovely ladies on sunday.


 

we made this gorgeous story of my life journal.





my focus lifespan didn't get me too far in finishing the album in the class, but as soon as i reached home, i immediately continued working on the spine.




the "secret" key was my starting point and i build up the rest.





along with extra supplies given by generous lia on top of the class kit,  i add various trinkets from tim holtz ideology, prima pebbles, webster's trims, 7 gypsies, twills from max' supplies stash and scraps of this and that from my personal flea market/junkyard dumps.





i haven't got the chance to work on the inside yet, but i'm already thinking to make more and more of this journal.

thank you dee, anita, marlin for the wonderful time and especially lia for the awesome journal. you're an awesome dt and i'm so looking forward for the next one. 

Monday, December 13, 2010

scrapgoodies' hip hip hooray class

scenes from scrapgoodies' hip hip hooray class....
























pictures by jackson and lia.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

la vie est belle

for the longest time, there are 2 names i remember in scrapbooking: elodie touzet  as iggydodie and ali edwards.  we all know the later for her superior story telling style and memoir.  she records her family daily events for her generations to come.

if ali tells her story with words; elodie tells her story in black and white pictures with subtle beauty and romanticism.  her scrapbooking is about her traveling the world with her husband, and her beautiful little family: she, her husband and their adorable little yorkshire.

i respect both mostly of their timeless consistency and how they keep true to their vision regardless the trend today. to me, elodie and ali are the memory keepers; they scrap their stories and pictures to keep for years and years to come.  when they look back, it's always the story and the pictures...the rest, details et al, are just extra peripherals.


my first mini album many moons ago :)

a few years ago, i made my first mini album mimicking one of elodie's.  i wrote her in my poorly translated french asking her how she altered the album.  sweetness...she responded immediately in her broken translated english, telling me to use an old children storybook, gesso, acrylic and sponge.  my artist friend who was visiting from oslo introduced me to the technique.

it's a story of max' first bath at home if not one of his earliest.  :)

so, when i first got back in scrapping earlier this year, the first thing i did was to check iggydodie.  it turned out that she now has a boutique selling class kits, instructions and other "elodie's stuff".  right there and then i bought some of her kit, embellishments, cds and all.  months after, doing it bit by bit, reading from the pictures mostly, i finally finished the kit.

please excuse the harsh afternoon sun and dark shade on my balcony today.






and thanking my dear cousin tattie for some of the beautiful pictures...




from a recent cousin's wedding...



elodie always make her own embellishment from left over papers, use mix media distressing and add subtle romanticism to her scrapbook.



wish some lady cousins in town: marlene, ladi, monica, dewi and uncle christian from montreal... 






my favorite aunt josette and my mom nicole...dewi and her husband marcel and adorable daughter brinette... 




dewi is like my mom's youngest.  she used to stay over every weekend and on school holidays...




before the show biz and her marriage. they still do drop by a lot. :)




the happy bride and groom...




my lovely cousin gisele, now a grown up...like me!  haha...she's all over my childhood.




aunt celine from...er...  ok aunt celine was born in france, took a long journey with my grandparents and other siblings and grew up in jakarta.  got married and lived in california for a while and moved to genève, bermuda, few places, nyc, bangkok, back to jakarta for a while.  we counted she had moved 44 times, cities and countries.  ok now she's back to aunt celine from california.







sun and shade...bad boys!




i'm fascinated by elodie's touch of detailing and how over the years she manages to keep the same style but with different comprehensive self indulging techniques.  although it might not look like it, but there's lots of work and lots of techniques involve in the creation of this ensemble.  everything is there not to beautify the piece, but to blend and signify the design into the treasured stories she's immortalizing.  all these, like most of elodie's pieces are created merely by a few piece of papers, tags and a few simple embellishments, but always with flowers.  just lovely!




i had to take the last page out.  :(  due to some measurement mishap, i couldn't fit this in the album.  me don't read instructions very well, especially in french, worst with lots of long breaks in between.  alas, it's the page where i have my cousin george—whose talented wife tattie had taken some of the pictures in this album—and their children, handsome gabe and pretty kayla, also my mom's goddaughter.

wish i could fit all individuals from my mom's remarkable family including my own, but the album has a limited space and elodie hardly put up more people than the 3 of them: hubby, wifey and puppy. aha!  that's an idea.  i will do a vintage project of my mom's family i love so much.  her best friend for more than 55 years recently did something like that in dvd for her birthday present.  (that's partly why i was mia for a while.)

hmmm...that's it!  i hope i do elodie justice in recreating her  la vie est belle.

i promised lia that i would practice to sleep earlier tonight so i can be up and running on saturday for the hip hip hooray class; and earlier is almost passed now since it's 1:26am desktop time and i haven't even bathe yet.  oh...and do my egret therapy.  i better go! 

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

viva mexicana bracelet

i finished dazzling hip hip hooray class sample last night and made this bracelet after karin's while waiting for lethargy to kick in.




i used tierracast charms—viva mexicana, sacred hearts and a tree of life. influenced by the mexica folk artists josé guadalupe posada and frida kahlo, the viva mexicana collection brings elements of dia de los muertos (day of the dead), mexican milagros (miracles), talavera pottery and religious iconography. [sic]

so suwage-ish—a dear friend, an indonesian contemporary maestro, a partner in "beagling"...you know his vox mortis, vox orbis.  i'll show this to him.  :)

i'll be back later today with another project i just finished.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

hip hip hooray

scrap goodies—owned by a dear friend, lia—is trial launching a monthly scrap kit club.  she started with 3 kits.

i'm honored to run 1 of the classes based on glitz designs's hoopla collection kit and other various trinkets and supplies.





we agreed to do a birthday and anniversary reminder journal, which i will personally use to record a daily anecdote next year.





i call it hip hip hooray...  

we will do a glueless secret stitch binding and turn a boring plain chipboard to a beautiful textured spine...






monthly pocket signatures and decorate them with pictures if you wish...





 a few basic pop up... 




a little of this and that.... :)

if you care to join us, you can add scrap goodies on facebook for more details and info.  i'm off to do some final retouching and finish the journal.

delovely

it's been a long hiatus!  in the midst of life, time flies too fast.  between short travels, health problem and other issues in life (including practicing the art of doing nothing), 2 months have passed.  but, i'm very much alive and kicking.

i've promised max (yes...the handsome beagle) that i would scrap him.  i also committed to my patience scrap group a couple projects.  i agreed to do a piece using cosmo cricket's delovely collection, which has perfect sofa for max to lounge around.




i altered a wall key box and turned it into a living room frame.  i had to reframed the glass window since the original wasn't working.



it is intentionally cluttered to flatter the joy my dogs bring to my life.  :)




my favorite boy with the caterpillar—i cut it apart and adhered it back using zip by thermoweb—one of my must have adhesive.  it's a hybrid of silicone-glue gun and gives a perfect lifting for layering.



i use a couple punches to create the flowers


 
and cut free hand shapes on some of them.


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this is choki—my sweet golden retriever, who loves to carry stuff in his mouth and has to eat laying down with the bowl served between his paws.

the small roses between the caterpillar are really tiny! 



 ...and meet brownie the eldest among the lot.


i think the jewels i used are prima and melissa frances.

take a peek inside...


tada...his highness max—sofa, snack and sniff lover posing in his "turkey style" snooze.  usually with 1 hand straight up like a pole and head tilts back.

pepper gets the honor to be on the wall with me.  :)

my friends wanted to have a mini album with this project.  so i'm suggesting that they use the frame as the mini album cover.  so basically when they take it out from the wall there will be more pages.

i adore my curtain.  i can't remember the trims's brand, but the curtain hanger and the frame are melissa frances.

inspired by my merry little hound—sofa lover


madame desiree aka chili stitched the 1" square pillows neater than a prada shirt while i paced back and forth holding my breath behind her.  i managed to thread the needles for her...hahaha....  she also kindly knitted the rug.

the things we do for the love of a beagle!
dogs are not our whole life
but they make our life whole
i'll be back tomorrow with a preview of a workshop i'm invited to run next week.  watch out for it.  :)   early next week, god willing and with the mercy of my impaired internet connection, i will try to post more works.

have a blessed thankgiving weekend everyone.