My first Mixed Media Canvas

I can't believe that I could really make this!

I'm never an Art person, and I always feel my drawing or painting is really bad; I always feel tired in creativity or imagination.

While I am a typical Virgo, i.e. a perfectionist, may be that's why I'm not happy with my works so far, I think they are not good.

Recommended by my new friend Stephanie, I went to a scrapbooking workshop based here - HK Memory Chest, which is not very far from my office.

Erika knew that was my first visit and was really nice to introduce me their products, works, kit club as well as classes.

I saw a very pretty canvas displaying there; Erika told me that is a sample of Mixed Media Canvas and she told me that there is a class to be held in that evening... WOW... so tempting!

(Photo Courtesy by Grace Wong, the tutor)

I had been thinking and thinking and 5 minutes later I made decision to enroll in the class and asked Erika to sign me up for the class; and I had been so excited and went directly after work.

Tutor of the Canvas Mixed Media class is Grace Wong, a very experienced scrapbooking, and also a mother.

Grace talked us through the steps and introduced various materials and how to use them. But she said the layout and design of the canva had to be created by ourselves.... "OMG!!"

(Photo Courtesy by Grace Wong, the tutor)

Grace also asked us to create the image by "free-hand", i.e. try not to sketch... oh wow... !!! How???

I spent about 1 minute to think about the design and I knew that I must draw a rainbow as my daughter, Anson, loves it...

Oh. why don't I draw or cut "happy birds" as they can represent our family.... YEAH!!!

Thanks for one of the classmates to have printed some clip arts for our reference, so I could easily cut out a "bird" shapes!!

(Photo Courtesy by Grace Wong, the tutor)

We have been trying different types of media, such as rub-on, acrylic paint, patterned papers, stickers, stamps, stencils, etc and finally I've done mine in about 1-2 hours.

Hurray I could really make it!!!

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Here is the blog of Christy Tomlinson, the expert in doing Canvas Mixed Media, our tutor Grace Wong was also inspired by her

My first trial - Decoupage Art

During my visit to the Book fair 2012 in Hong Kong last week, I saw many crafting materials are on sale and one of them is Decoupage.

What is Decoupage?

Decoupage (or découpage) is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and so on. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30–40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as the art of Japanning after its presumed origins.

Actually this is the 2nd time I see these materials since my last visit to the Flea Market @ Cyberport Hong Kong, I remember I've bought a kit last time but haven't had a chance to work on that.


This time I got no excuse and try to make one..

Hm... what should I make on my 1st trial... well, I've decided to test that on my used, nearly worn mobile phone protector. As I am using Samsung Galaxy Note, the protector is pretty big for me to put some design on.

Basically Decoupage can used on all kinds of materials including wood, paper, fabric, glass, stainless stell, plastic, etc I got a can of Decoupage medium (glue), a brush for applying the glue and some patterned tissue paper - This time I chose a beautiful rose patterned tissue

 

What I did was to apply an even layer of the Decoupage glue on the surface where I want to have the pattern on, then take the very top layer of the tissue paper, i.e. the layer printed with the image.


I pasted it slowly on the surface where I already applied the glue, then used a bone folder or ice-bar stick or simply use your finger to gently wipe the tissue from inside to outside. This is to ensure the tissue paper is smoothly laid on the surface without any bubbles.


After that, apply another even layer of  Decoupage glue to seal the image, so it looks sealed completely on the cover.

I found that the white background of the tissue paper has turned transparent.

I added a little bit of glitters on the flowers to highlight but you may skip it; then let it dry for 10-15 minutes.

It's pretty easy! However I am still not 100% satisfied with the ridge of the phone I think it's due to the "folder lines. But bear in mind this is just my first trial so I believe the technique can be improved soon.

Enjoy you day!

Home Craft - Ocean animal hand-painted magnets

I bought this Ocean Animal DIY magnet set from Eslite Flagship Store in Taipei about 3 weeks ago, which is designed for children. I saw this in Hong Kong before but the price in Taipei was cheaper plus it was on sales on the day we were there.

I thought this is a perfect activity for my 4-year-old daughter, Anson, to do during her Summer holiday!

There are 2 packs of powders (like that for making a plaster cast) already included in the box, you'd only need to add about 50ml of water, mix that well and you can pour into their molds which were also provided.

6 pcs of magnets are also included so simply stick them on the back of the molds and leave them dry for about 20-30 min.

The theme of this pack is Ocean Animals therefore you'll see these lovely sea animals such as fish, sea horse, Starfish, Turtle etc.

Included in the box, you can also see a set of 5 acrylic colour, as well as a painting pen

As there were only 5 color, if you wish to have a greee one, simply mix Yellow to Blue and its there!

This is a great way to let Anson learning about mixing colours

Look! She was really working hard.

On the day I let Anson paint all base colour and I just helped to touch up and decorate with multi-colour on the surface. Around 15 min; 6 ocean animals magnets were done!

Are they looking cool when I put them on the fridge door?

I highly recommend this for kids and if you are interested please let me know as I have asked for buying this at a discount.

Enjoy!

My first trial - 6" Mini Baby Girl Album

6" Mini Baby Girl Album 

Recently the best friend of mine has given birth to her adorable baby girl, being a best friend, I know she loves photography and loves handcrafted products

Therefore I made her a mini baby album 

Because of this, I picked up my paper craft hobby again!

The cover﹣A piece of FABRIC PAPER STICKERS is used. And the lovely paper girl doll was created by my newly bought - CRICUT EXPRESSION 2

The album was binded by ZUTTER Bind-it-all V 2.0

My friend has whatsapped a few pictures of her girl in the last few weeks -

Of course I should add them to the album - Sweet Baby!!!


My friend has still not decided which English she will give to her daughter on the day I visited them so I just put her Chinese name there "Chor Kiu" - this was picked by my friend as soon as she knew that she was pregnant.

 

A couple of different techniques were applied to this album, such as:


Magic Card - When you pull of the teddy bear card from the pocket, you can see the teddy filled with colour, isn't it amazing?


Here is the tutorial about how to do this

Hide-and-Seek Pockets - Look! the baby girls is taking a bath!

The Precious Moment Stamp was bought from Taipei - the only place I can find now. They accept overseas order and can ship overseas too.

I also used different kinds of embellishments such as CRYSTAL stickers.

This crystal stickers are really cheap - as they were from the "mobile phone decorating sticker" which costed me only HK$10 for a whole sheet of crystal, I cut them out one by one and they can be stuck on the paper, not even need to apply glue

The stoller can be rolled and slided - simply added two 10 cents and combined with double-sided foam tape - super easy!

The last page is reserved for celebrating the baby's 1st birthday, themed with the LITTLE MERMAID, which I persume every girl likes