Proud 2 B Me

Proud 2 B Me_picnik, a photo by my felt frenzy on Flickr.

Neon Owlies r in town! (SOLD OUT!)

New / custom order is now OPEN :)

Salley Mavor's Rabbitat Movie - MUST SEE!

OMG, finally, the 7.25 minutes movie is done!

I am soo excited to see Salley working on her Rabbitat piece and her beautiful narration just carried me away.

If you are into fabric relief art, then you know that this movie is priceless!

Click here to link up to her blog to see it. Enjoy!

DIY - Childproofing My Workspace

A couple of days ago my youngest cut her finger from playing with my metal ruler. The cut was not deep but still, it drew some blood :(

My fault really, I should have kept my crafting stuff out of my mini me's reach, she's a very curious busy bee and like to mimic me working - although she has her own stuff (kid friendly scissor, non-toxic crayon and stuff), she always want to use mommy's tool or play around with my thread box {ARRRGH!}.

As safety must come first, I sent the rusty machine in my head to think, think, think and gather around the things I already have at hand:

1. a medium sized wooden rod that I had spray painted white weeks ago { I  knew it would become handy one day :) };
2. an unused three legged garden support rod from ACE that I literally took apart;
3. some piece of fabric cloth to make the hanging as well as a makeshift pouch to store my scissors - I added one made of felt for my heavy duty cutter (tadaaa, I finally used the sewing machine! muahahahah!) - {thanks Bimbi for the fabric!}
4. a couple of  styrofoam backed 'memo board' to store my pins and needles, and
5. a couple of medium sized concrete nails (can't do it without the nails, heh heh)

And here is how it turned out (click on pic for larger image):

All my scary tools are safe and sound in their own little pockets, the thread spools are easier to manage now AND the metal ruler, pins and needles out of reach of ms. mini me's little hands.

SOOOO HAPPY!!!

Disclaimer:
Now, this DOES NOT WORK for people who sew w/ a machine, but for people that do hand embroidery/sew by hand like me, the thread 'dispenser' works like a darling! :)


10 months later:


 I'm still using my loyal thread dispenser, the one thing I can't do without!

My Wedding Banner II

At last .. I finally found the perfect embellishment for my banner: 

6 purplish-colored fresh water pearls

(that had been sitting in my little bead drawer for more than a year! Yee-haw!)  

Bought them at Studio Manik at Blok M Plaza (don't know if it's still in there, but I hope they are). 

Sooo glad that I can finally use them on my creation - I just scattered the pearls around like this (see image above) and sew them on. 

Simple and super easy! ^_^

And here's how it looks like right now.  

Not bad eh, for an experiment .. 

{in my book, that means I gotta make another one! :P}

XOXOXO!

My Wedding Banner

Been awhile .. I know.

All the designing work for FB profile has been really draining - felt like my brain is overheating ... ugh!
I've been itching to create something real with my hands, something that I can touch and not only see .. you know the feeling.

Well, inspired (again) by Salley Mavor's wedding banner, I wanted to make my own. Heyy, come to think of it, this would make a great anniversary gift also!

So here's what I did for my banner:

I randomly chose purple cotton yarn for our names since I only have 6 colors to choose from anyway (eek!) ... and I don't have the green florist wire as well so I used whatever wire I have from my beading supplies ... Why I chose green and purple felt? I didn't.  Those two were sitting on top of my felt stack (talk about uncomplicated).

For the wedding date I used my green colored cotton yarn and burnt orange thread for contrast ...

 I don't have the cool celtic accessories made of bones like Salley either (great stuff!), so I came up with these from my stash ...

Very fitting, as the four red stones represent our four children (yep, they're ALL ours .. lol!)

And VOILA! Here's what it looks like ... still unfinished though :(

I'm thinking of putting more embellishment around the wedding date area .. more sparklies maybe?
Dunno.  But I know I'll come up with something .. :)

Meet My Idol --> Salley Mavor

No, I don't know her personally.
But yes, I super admire her amazing skills at making fabric relief (blush blush) - if you never heard of her or had not seen her marvelous work, then you must 'meet' her here (click the link below):

Meet the illustrator of 'Pocketful of Posies' --> Salley Mavor

Her works are very inspiring - well, she did inspired me to do a simple fabric relief series called the 'Red Riding Hood Series' an adaptation to Lila Prapp's illustration in '1001 Stories'.  Here they are:

They're not as intricate as Salley's work (yet!) but they're my first darlings (and will be on their way soon to grace the studio of a very talented lady, the owner of Sew Stories. ^O^)

More on Salley Mavor's exhibitions:

July 15, 2011- March 4, 2012, Salley Mavor – Sewn Stories, an exhibit of Salley Mavor’s fabric relief artwork ( including 9 original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies) at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont
Oct. 10- Dec. 16, 2011 at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut  (26 or more pieces will be shown). Salley Mavor will give a presentation at UConn, during the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair, Nov. 12th, 2011.
July- August, 2012 at the Mahopac Public Library, Mahopac, New York (25 pieces), Talk by Salley Mavor- Wed., Aug. 29th, 7:00pm
Oct. – Dec. 2012 at the New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts (25 pieces will be shown)
Feb. 23rd – May 5th, 2013 at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, Illinois (25 pieces)
July 13- August 11, 2013 at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts (25 pieces will be shown)
Sept. - Oct. , 2013  at Historic Highfield Hall, Falmouth Massachusetts  (all 51 pieces will be shown)

Stay tuned for my next fabric relief project!

Hand Embroidery Tutorials

Morniinnnng ~ hope your day is bright and sunny and filled with happiness, amen.

Today I'm sharing with you a link to the awesome world of hand embroidery. These video tutorials by one of world's widely honored expert had changed my world forever!

Check it out (it's FREE!) Yay!

Click on the link below and pay attention ... :))

Don't thank me, thank Mary Corbet & the internet! :)