Graphic 45 Design Team 2012 Audition

Hi. Yes, I LOVE to apply for Graphic 45 Design Team 2012. Especially, when I always loved & dreamed about Graphic 45 papers!. I'm SO glad that my friend Sharon (love you girl!) had reminded me about it this morning. So here I am, creating a blog post today just for that noble cause; sharing & showcasing my past 10 projects! Yay. Oh ... hop on to here if you like to read more about the Graphic 45 DT call.

I always loved making mini albums & off-the-page projects. Especially, altered projects. So I'm going to share here mainly of my favourite mini album projects and a scrapbook layout.

Project #1 : Domestic Goddess Mismatched Mini Album.

What is it for: A tribute for my loving, late mom.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here

Project #2: My ATC Wonderland Mini Album

What is it for: To display & protect my latest ATCs.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #3: 'Yesteryear' Scrapbook Layout
What is it for: To scrap about me NOT Smiling.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #4: Flights Of Fantasy Altered Suitcase
What is it for: Altered-cigar-box project for Guest Designing @ LESSology Challenge #11

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #5 : Floral Delight Altered Box
What is it for: An artwork for LESSology Challenge #10

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #6: Twilight Comes Mini Album
What is it for: An imaginary journal by Edward Cullen.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #7: My Grunge Suitcase 
What is it for: An altered suitcase project.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #8: Accordion Album
What is it for: A mini album dedicated to document Elizabeth Bennet's dresses in 'Pride & Prejudice' movie.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


Project #9: Tiny Twilight A-Z Mini Album
What is it for: To capture everything you need to know about Twilight.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here 


Project #10: Buckle-Me-up Pencil Box
What is it for: A storage for my hand-made hearts.

Link to the detail post & photos: Click here


So, that was it. My ten favorite projects that I created in the past. Graphic 45 will be choosing 30 finalists (1st round) and they will be announced on Friday, March 2, 2012 on Graphic 45 blog. After that, participants will be shortlisted in the second round. 
Wish me luck!


XO,
Shahrul

Nothing But The Blue Sky

Hi there. I'm creating this layout inspired by Lets Capture These Sketches' latest sketch, Sketch #120.

... Sketch #120.

I've been meaning to crop about THE amazing sunny afternoon which I spent playing tourist earlier this year. We have been experiencing many afternoons & evenings with very bad thunderstorms. They often created traffic jams, freak mini tornadoes (yup, with uprooted trees and stuff) and bad, bad flash floods in the city. 

And after a few days or so, we would have very sunny afternoons. This is the layout to capture one of those beautiful days when the sky were blue with very little patches of clouds. I took my camera and went sightseeing downtown, right smack where the tourists hang out. I had fun.

The title 'Nothing But The Blue Sky' came from a song, maybe? or so I thought. The teal colored flower previously adorned a headband.


I liked how this quick & simple layout turn out. 
Till the next post. Happy creating. 


XO,
Shahrul

Valentine's Mismatched Mini Album

I like to share a custom order made for a friend who just celebrated their 3rd year anniversary & Valentine's Day.

It was another mismatched mini album, and this time 

I added lots of romance & love 'mood' in the craftmanship. I chose a very soft blue color theme, used many pattern papers with romantic letter prints and hearts. Frills & burlap flowers for embellishment. I also created a pocket with a blank love letter, so that my friend could write something for his Juliet. A sweet surprise!. I can't help it but created a mini tag book inside this mini album. Love is in the air.

If you have noticed, I'd used the original design from 'Domestic Goddess' mini album that I created for my late mother. Posted about it earlier this month. For this mini album, I simply tweaked the size of the papers and used cool color embellishments. Just dressed the album a little bit more girlish.


Thank you for visiting.
XO,
Shahrul

LESSology Challenge #11 Guest Designer

Hi all. I'm so excited to share with you my latest artwork that I created for LESSology latest challenge; Flights of Fantasy, Challenge #11. I was invited to be their guest designer for this challenge. Thank you Angi & Yvonne for the cool assignment!. 

Here is what I made; 

A suitcase/storage out of cigar box!.

To read more of this cool upcycled project & detailed photos, hop on to LESSology Challenge #11 website. Have fun reading!

XO,

Shahrul

ATC mini album

Hi all. As promised in the last post, I'm going to share the mini album that I created for my latest ATCs. It has pages with plastic sleeves, so that I can easily display the ATCs just like any other photo album.

Here's what it looks like;

I used 4" X 6" plastic sleeves to protect the ATCs (act as album pages too). Minimum embellishments such as ribbons, metal clock face and alphabet stickers.

I will be teaching classes for making this mini album @ Scrappingville in March. Just hop over to their website, and there will be an update on March classes schedule very soon. (FYI, the ATC mini album classes are separate from Making ATC classes). 
Have a good weekend.


XO,
Shahrul

ATC Flutter Series

I have just created some ATCs and have displayed them at Scrappingville recently. 

I have always LOVED winged creatures, hence the name FLUTTERS. I was inspired by Scrappingville's many beautiful stamps in store. And these ATCs are the results ... If you're interested to know or learn how to make ATCs, there are ATC classes held every Saturdays & Sundays @ Scrappingville. Do check out their February class schedule here.

I also quickly made a mini album to store these ATCs, which I'll post soon. Now, I can make many more ATCs to fill this album up. What an incentive to create!. If you don't feel like embarking on a lengthy art escapades or hate to work on long-hour projects or even a layout, try ....ATCs. One ATC a day, maybe. 

For me, ATCs are like cupcakes. 
You can't never have enough of them. So, happy creating.

XO,

Shahrul

Materials used in making these ATCs are:

*Pattern papers: Prima Marketing Inc., Botanical Collection "My Darling", Tracey Whitney Designs "Altered Journal"

* Stamp: Catslife Press, Darkroom Door, Inkadinkado, Margaret Stamp Set

*Rubons: 7 Gypsies Butterflies

*Inks: Brilliance Dew Drop "Galaxy Gold"

*White Gesso: Daler-Rowney Gesso Primer

Movie Poster Valentine's Day Layout

I love this unique challenge site called From Screen 2 Scrap!. I always loved scrapping about movies...so I like to try make a layout based on their February challenge; Movie Poster "Valentine's Day".

Here is the inspiration:

To get extra 6 bonus points, you must use two hearts on the page (1 pt), black background (2 pts) and at least 10 tiny photos (3 pts).

...and this is my interpretation:

I actually used black gesso to cover my pink cardstock. This is going to be my background. I left a few pink spots here and there.

I wrote the journaling at the bottom as if it is the movie credits, like in the poster. I wanted my layout to be looking similar to the movie poster. So I used many tiny photos in film strips, glued on bright pink corrugated papers as background. 

My movie characters are basically my three cats, and I doodled each of their names on the spots where I left the background bare. Tried to mimic the actors' names on the poster :). I used minimal embellishments, just a crochet flower and a few buttons. I made a heart from a twine!. Lastly, I added a stamped heart and 
wrote 2.14.12 in the center, to imitate the heart @ the bottom of the movie poster.


It's a fun layout for me. Thank you for visiting.


XO,
Shahrul

I made it Top 3 Frosted Design's Fabulous Friday Recipe!

Dear oh dear ... I just realized that I had won Top 3 for Frosted Designs' Fabulous Friday! LOL. It was announced @ Frosted Designs like ten days ago and I just found out about it tonight. 
Silly girl:))

But, I'm happy nontheless. Yay! Click here to read about the winner reveal post that I'd missed earlier. And this is the mini album that I created for the challenge;

I'm happy. Good nite everyone.

Domestic Goddess Mismatched Mini Album

Hi all. I have just completed my second DT project for Scrappingville. I was given Graphic 45 pattern papers 'Domestic Goddess' collection to work with. I have always loved G45 bold papers, but I find this collection quite tricky to work with. After much thought, I decided to finally scrap about my mother; my beloved domestic goddess. My mother died of asthma, twenty years ago when I was barely 17. I like to remember her as a strong, independant and courageous woman. I'm using photos of my mother when she was in her twenties, studying in a nursing school.

This is what I created as a tribute to my mother. A mismatched mini album bag with the title " Mak, my beloved domestic Goddess". (Mak is another word for mom, mother or mama in Malay).

... the raw materials used in this project

The lid is secured by two little velcro squares. A door handle is 

adhered to the top using brads. I used 1" bronze coil (Zutter) to hold the pages together, then tied with gazillion ribbons because I like it that way :)). Added book corners to the front page for a vintage look.

... I was inspired by Kelly Rae Roberts' artwork.

On the left is a little pocket, inside it there is a letter for my mother. There are a lot of tags from this collection. I can't help myself to create a hidden tag book, inside this mini album. On the last page, I made a stamped background and wrote my favorite childhood song; Que Sera Sera.

I know I get a little carried away ... I posted too many photos here:)). But hey, I just like to share the whole thing. And next month, I will be teaching how to make this album at Scrappingville. The schedules for this mini album classes will be posted on their website very soon. 

Materials used in this project;

*Pattern Papers: Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess

*Cardstock; Coredinations

*Stamps: Crafty R, Paper Artsy Minis, Micia Craft

*Wooden Alphabets: Pink Paislee Expressions Woodshop

*Glitter foam letter stickers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy

*Rubons: 7 Gypsies Butterflies

*Transparency: 7 Gypsies Journal

*Ribbons, Lace, Pompoms: Momoyo

*Medallion Flowers: Maya Road Trinkets

*DYMO label maker

*Copper binder: Zutter

*Book corners: Tim Holtz Ideaology

*Eyelets, brads, paper doilies, button: miscellaneous

Have a good weekend and Happy crafting!

XO,

Shahrul 

Card for Sebastian

Hi all. Just today I read about a boy named Sebastian, from multiple blogs that I follow such as Yvonne's, Amy's and Charlene's. I cried when I read all about him. You can read the details about Sebastian's sickness and how you could help cheer him up at his teacher's blog here. 

It is a very humbling, sad but motivating story for me. I want to help cheer him up too, even though I know well that my card won't make it to the hospital on time. But, I hope that he'll get my card eventually and knows that there is HOPE and so much LOVE from all over the world.

Here is the card I made for little Sebastian. Hope he likes it.

So, to all creative people out there ... I know you're with me on this. Let's do our part. Let's give Sebastian a little joy & hope by sending him a card with lots of hugs & kisses too.

Please have your card(s) out in the mail as soon as possible, so they will reach him at his hospital room on February 15th. You can find the mailing address at his teacher's blog as well. 

XO,

Shahrul

B is for Bella!

Hi. Last night I was looking for some more things/projects to decorate our 'Twilight tree' @ Scrappingville. And I found this!. An old project of mine, the letter 'B' for Bella. 
Sorry, no 'E' for Edward though.

I thought it was such a good idea (then), to make a wall decor out of alphabets. At that time, I was into the vampire-human-love theme, and particularly looking for big wooden letters B & E. So, I was pleased to have found it at my favorite store Art Friends. I wished they have a bigger one.

I started out by painting the wooden letter with some acrylic paint (cream for the front, purple for the back) and decoupaged on some roses from tissue papers. I was trying to make the design looked more gothic, like 'dark-mysterious-girl-with-tattoo' thing. So I stamped all over it with black intricate floral patterns on all sides, especially on the roses. 

I glued on a skeleton key (it was a pendant) and a wooden heart (an earing) at the back. You know ... key to my heart, sort of :). Then added the 'ELLA' red stickers, the pearl strip and some rubons. Lastly, I tied up an old bracelet with the letter 'E' charm ('E' for Edward, mind you) and a silk ribbon to complete the project.

I really like to upcycle old things (or junk) & incorporate them in any artsy projects that I'm working on; be it scrapbook layouts, mini albums or simple altered project such as this one. Such joy. 

Happy creating!

XO,

Shahrul

Twilight Altered Photo Frame

This February @ Scrappingville, there will be lots of delightful projects coming up. We're celebrating LOVE in many ways, one of it is by creating projects inspired from the Twilight Saga.

I have shared and recently displayed some of my personal collection of Twilight-theme scrapbook projects at the store. Sharon Yong (Scrappingville's scrapbook/mixed-media artist cum owner) has dedicated a special place to display layouts, mini albums & all Twilight novels/movie companions to help inspire visitors to create art around the beautiful love story. I'll share some pictures of the new decor soon.

I have another altered project that I forgotten to blog about. It was a simple altered photo frame I made when Twilight movie first came out. This project revolves around what I thought Edward must have felt after James attacked Bella in Phoenix.

Here is what it looks like;

First I painted a wooden IKEA's photo frame with a few

coats of bronze acrylic paint and stamped with doilies
& tree branches images. For me, the tree branches are a reminiscence of Bella's meadow. 

Edward says; "Bella, I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you". How sweet is that?? "It was impossible ... to stop. But I did. I must love you" - Edward.

After the frame is completed, I then created a 4" X 6" montage made of Edward-Bella magazine clippings and some romantic silver rub-ons. Lastly, I stapled a metal string (salvaged from a necklace) to the frame. Maybe it is perfect to hang this frame up on the little antique bronze tree at our Twilight corner. 


XO,
Shahrul