End of 2011: A Rollercoaster of Emotions - A New Passion was Born

I knowww, I know ... guilty as charged ...  it's been quite awhile since my last post - so many end of year happenings happened last 2011 - some good and some bad sad. Very sad.

Maybe some of you knew that last November my dear sister Reny passed away - the hurt from losing someone so dear to my heart was so great, it stopped me from writing for almost 3 months ...

but it didn't stop me from crafting.

It was from this life experience that my 'Sister Love' collection came to be (a dear friend later told me that it was a beautiful way of remembering my Reny).  Instead of using my usual media of felt or cotton fabric, I used glass and digital images ...

Here are some of them:

My inspiration came from here, a tutorial from F Yeah Lolita blog, later on I learned more techniques from the tutorial videos found on YouTube (yay for YouTube!).

One thing though, as I prefer using transparent glass dome instead of epoxy resin, and glass by nature, is a fragile material prone to chipping or cracking, so my pretties here are NOT suitable for children :P

Up to this time, I used ready made collage sheets that I purchased online, but being the madcrafter, I wanted to create MY own digital images, madcrafter style! hehehe ... so here they are - some from my own design and some using altered cliparts from other artists, hopefully they're not too bad for a newbie ^_^

It's actually easy, you could do it too ... [so here's to you Reny, love you always Sis!]

Initials - 'M'

Matryoshka Doll - Green

Happy Crafting ^_^

DIY - Vintage Inspired Art

I don't know when did I start liking vintage things - but I do know that my collection is growing more and more each time.  For sure, my mom's antique gallery-like house has the biggest influence on my artistic expressions/collections, if I might say so ...

Oops, wrong house! Heh heh .. :P

It so happen that I didn't marry a billionaire (which is okay by me) - even if I couldn't buy expensive artworks - the solution is actually very simple. 

I make my own art.

Yeah, you  could do that, too - for yourself and for others, even. :)

For me, there's nothing more artfully satisfying whenever I succeeded in turning an empty 'canvas' (or even a packet of white cement) into something beautiful, something that I could appreciate and cherish ...

{aaawwww ... starting to get mushy here! Some one please get me a swimming pool!!!}

Let's start with some of my personal favorites!

My first choice would be this little garden statue - she was born from a mold that I purchased directly from England.  Isn't she a real beauty?  I just love every details on her.

An english garden mini statue - white cement

And here are some  of the collages/artwork that I had done in the past few months ...

in remembrance of my cat, Tigerlily
(been missing since last month) :'(

Two commissioned scrapbook-influenced profile logos that I did for an FB friend

This one was the first vintage logo I made for BBC

Some of my friends had asked me where did I get those honest to goodness, gorgeous vintage graphics ... did I buy them online, googled them, etc. But the answer is a big 

'nope'. 

You could get all the vintage graphics you want for FREE!

Don't believe me? 

Check out the Graphics Fairy. 

It's a very special, special blog managed by Karen - God bless her soul! :)

You could 'process' these images with your favorite program, even a Microsoft Powerpoint would do.  Well, if you're good at Photoshop, that's even better.

You could even make some money selling your art, check out Etsy.com or even Ebay.

So, start creating people!  Your art is waiting for ya ..

My next post will be another DIY - Turning Trash into Treasure ep. 2, stay tuned!

DIY - Designing your own name card ep. 3 (final)

They're HERE!!! Yay,  BBC's namecards have finally arrived!

Thank you Sis Shela Nie!

Ooo, I love happy endings, don't you? :)

Here's me wishing you a great weekend! Cheers!

Links to my previous posts:

DIY - Designing your own name card

DIY - Designing your own name card ep. 2

The Angry Birds Experience *_*

THE GOOD NEWS

Just last week I got an order for 60 pcs of 'Angry Birds' keyrings as birthday goodie bag filler from my favorite customer - yay! Officially the first big order for BBC! ^_^   

{well, maybe not much for a wedding souvenir supplier, but for a single fighter like me, this was quite a BIG job plus I hadn't done this before, heh heh}

And sure enough ... I was pushed almost to my limit since I had to divide my time between doing the motherly and wifey chores, caring for my 4 children (including a 2 year old little miss want to know it all plus a nosy brat of a cat), and meeting the deadline for the birds.

Deadline ... Ooo, what a scary word .. and this is my closest brush with Mr. Deadline :)

THE DOs AND THE DON'Ts

I know that this will not be pretty, but I had to admit that I did procrastinate in the beginning {ouch!}. 

I shouldn't have done it - cuz if I hadn't, I would have more time to sleep, less crankiness in the morning, well, you know ... the whole package that comes with them. Worse, there were several times that I panicked - like when the pickup guy was supposed to arrive in 3 hours and I haven't even started on the last batch (the bomb bird). Oh dear!

But then I remembered seeing this saying at Shabby Blogs so I repeated it several times in my head:

After taking a few deep breaths, I finally calmed myself and carried on ...

and finished all 50 birds and 10 pigs! Tadaaaa! What a RELIEF!!

 

My moral of the story: 

Rule no. 1:  NEVER ... with all capitals ... PROCRASTINATE! 'Cuz if you combine it with DEADLINE and your other RESPONSIBILITIES, they don't mix well together ... :P

Rule no. 2:  DON'T PANIC, you may make mistakes when you do. I did attached two keychains on the birds' butts, not the heads, lol!!  So, remember to always 'Keep calm and carry on ...'

Rule no. 3: WORK WITH A SYSTEM, i.e: when working on big orders like these, cut all the basic patterns first.  This will make it easier (and faster) to assemble later. It may be a little boring at the beginning but you'll appreciate it later.

Well, I think that's a wrap, hope you all enjoy reading this post :)

Happy crafting! ^_^

DIY - Designing your own name card

As Blessedly Blissful CraftStore (aka BBC) is steadily growing (thanks to God!), I realized {a bit ironically} that now she needs a formal name card.

Why ironic? Cuz in my hectic schedule of making logos and stuff for my customers, I haven't done a single formal logo for my own store *smirking sheepishly*.

So here's what I made for BBC myself, in 20 minutes top, using Photoshop:

1st try - I love bird cages, so I used this image that I purchased online (commercial license OK) for my logo.  I added a yellow ribbon as an accent too - but the card still lacks information, so I added more info using a playful 'Juicy'  font, see below:

 2nd try - looks better, but I'm still forgetting something! o ho! my email address! 

3rd try - changed my font for the address to a stubbier 'Arial Narrow', so the email address would fit in nicely without sacrificing the space in between the address and the list of BBC's products.

Hmmm .. not too bad! :)

I was thinking of adding my blog info into the card, but aesthetically speaking, there is practically no more space on the poor thing.

{Of course I could add more info at the back of the card, but that would affect the printing cost, or, I could make the BBC writing smaller, but I don't want that .. }

Sooooo ... I'll go with my 3rd try and excitedly contacted my fellow FB olshopper that specializes in card and label printing - she's having a special 5 box for Rp. 100,000 promo for a certain period of time - hopefully I could still get it.

Guess what?

She replied that printing would have to wait for until AFTER Lebaran {that's a good 2 weeks from NOW} and the promo period just ended YESTERDAY!

AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGHHHHH!!!!

{the end to be continued}

NOTE: On the lookout for a good and reasonably priced printing shop .. any suggestions?  ;)