LESSology Design Team Member

I am so EXITED to receive an invitation from Yvonne Yam at LESSology to join her team!. And of course I said YES! :). 

Officially today, I am a LESSology design team member. So happy. I have been following their innovative challenges since earlier this year and had a GREAT time playing!. Every single time. Naturally, to become a member of such team is a great honor. Thank you again, Yvonne and all the lovely ladies in the team :)

Hop over to LESSology and check out our latest Challenge #14: "Birds of a feather" which ends Sunday, June 3rd, 11.59 pm EST. Get inspired with the lovely work of art from our DTs and come play along with us! :)).

Hugs,

Shahrul

Happy Nest

Hello,

A quiet day for me today and I was able to complete another collage page in my 'Happy Soul' art journal. I made a promise to fill up the journal in two weeks, but I think I am a little behind :). 

I am always intrigued by art work that has houses in them i.e, altered bird houses, little box of paper mache houses, or simply a photograph of brightly colored British bathing boxes. 

I painted, collaged and decoupaged little box houses in my journal today. So happy that I tried this. I used scrap pattern papers and tissue papers for the doors, windows and roofs.

I started by sticking random clippings from Moof's brown wrapping paper onto the page followed with a tissue paper over the entire page. Then, washed with gesso (tinted with a few drops of blue acrylic artist ink). Remember to dry the page completely before each step. Then I started painting a few boxes with bright colors. While drying them, I spritzed some water and let the colors dripped from one to another.

After this dried I started adding doors, roofs & windows to my houses. Lastly, I wrote bold letters with black india ink and doodled at the bottom of the page. 

"In her wanderings, she stumbled upon such HAPPY neighbourhood and stayed. Every door welcomes her with LOVE and friendship. She is finally HOME". This is a journal about me finally loving to art blogging again :). 

You can vary doodling on several sides, doesn't always have to be horizontal. By ALL means ... write vertically, sideways, make swirls or circles of words. Certainly, NO limit :). It's also fun to doodle along the outline of your collaged images. I did one on the roof, see it? 

Today's page makes me want to build little paper mache houses next. Don't know why. Is it summer yet?. See you soon.

XO,

Shahrul

Going Monochromatic

It took me long before I could post this page. I managed to paint and collage while entertaining my cat Fuji ... talking about multi tasking, yes?

The theme was Monochrome Colors. I had the page misted with dark blue glimmer mist over a stencil from before. Over that, I had collaged prints from an old book and some washi tapes. By doing this ahead of time, I really don't have to prepare the page much.

I tried not to paint at all, so I used a tan colored tissue paper as my background. Glued pieces of the crumpled tissue paper to the page with mod podge. Did this over entire page. After that dried, you'd have a beautiful textured, lovely tan colored page without a splash of paint!. Neat right?.

Then stamped a couple of doors and butterfly images and added some printed words. Lastly, drew circles and wrote inspirational quotes with black india ink. Dripped some, splashed some. My ink smeared badly, I think must have been the tissue paper. Then I finger-dabbed some diluted black india ink on a strip of punchinella along the bottom of the page.

When all that done, my page really looking sad and gloomy. So, I drew a box with red acrylic artist ink around the word 'COURAGE'.

That's it. I'm liking the tissue paper technique, it almost giving a rough texture of a tree bark. I definitely going to experiment more of this.

I'm linking up this 'Monochromatic' art journal page to Stencils & Masks challenge @ Frilly & Funkie. First time entering an art journal page to any challenges, so this should be fun.

Until then, happy journaling :)

XO,

Shahrul

Hello, intruder :)

Hello, look who's here?.

I was getting ready to paint another page in my journal when suddenly my cat Fuji decided to lounge around!.

She is the most inquisitive among all three of them. She just had a very bad shedding episode and lost almost half of her fur!. Poor Fuji. This is her in a new, softer coat. She looks ODD now but healthy :). 

Ok, I'm going to continue to paint. See you in a bit. 

Hugs,
Shahrul

'Choco' Art Journal

Last week, Sharon Yong of Scrappingville had given me such gorgeous brown canvas sheet as part of my June's DT kit. The most beautiful canvas I've ever seen. I almost felt guilty to cut it up :)). Really looked like it was dipped in Hershey's chocolate!. So yummy.

I cut the large canvas sheet into several 7" X 9" pages and bound them into an art journal, deliciously named 'Choco Journal';

The color of the canvas sheets is already rich, so I used minimal embellishment. Just some brown ribbons, eyelets and beads. 

I tied up some twines with beads & apothecary bottles to add more texture to the plain covers and most importantly to hold the pages together. I found the little metal plate at the flea market just last week for only a 'ringgit'!. A perfect label. When my journal started to look masculine, I quickly added ribbons :)). I love stretchable closure for journals. Simple & durable.

Here are some pages in the journal. I'm not sure if I should do some more work in it. What do you think?. Add colors? Paint? Collage?. Leave them blank?. I also made some canvas tags and oddly-sized pages as inserts. LOVE the white contrast against the brown pages. 

So, do check out Scrappingville's June classes for a slot to learn how to make this art journal with me. I might bring in some chocolate chips cookies to the class :). Well, store-bought. I don't bake.

XO,

Shahrul

enchanted forest?

I just have to share with you this scene I took a few minutes ago. It's 7.10 pm now. The sun is setting on the other side of the apartment building. I was looking out the window and just realized that the woods nearby looking so forlorn. Look at the branches!. Almost like enchanted forest. Beautiful :).

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hugs,

Shahrul

Collage explosion!

Hi there. 

I had a blast creating a journal page yesterday. I was forever inspired by Donna Downey's Collage Monday ... BEAUTIFUL happy page!. I can't wait to try this myself :)).

Since I don't have many washi tapes, I decided to use fabric stickers, several colorful tissue papers and masking tape as well. So, here was the page that I made;

I started by applying a white gesso wash and later rubbed yellow soft pastel all over the pages. Wet the color with my finger while spraying the page with water to dilute some more. After this dried, then started sticking all the tapes!. This was REALLY the fun part. Just fill up the page. I decoupaged some bits & pieces of tissue papers with modge podge and dried that too. Then gesso-washed the page again.

I stamped some musical notes; two spots in the middle of both pages. Drew two circles with Rowney Blue 119 acrylic artist ink, let some of the ink dripped and dried them. Then I added some quotes I found in old books and wrote 'Artist' in one of the circles. That should read "Being a girl of brains and character, she would make a splendid artist". I LOVE the quote. After that dried, added some more washi tapes and fabric stickers, just for fun :)).

This was a lay back page since I just needed to stick the tapes. When you have the itch to create something really simple, grab those washi tapes. They work wonders. You can even make cards or tags with these tapes. Endless possibilities.

Have fun sticking. 

XO, 

Shahrul

Little visitor ... and a giveaway winner!

Hello friends,

I woke up this morning feeling so great. I had a good yoga session in the morning. I took a rest, enjoying the gentle breeze at the window and then I saw a little friend!. A red dragonfly just perched near my window. Wow. 

My apartment is on the 3rd floor!. How high can they fly, I wonder?. I scared him when I took this picture :P. Loud  click. Anyway, that was quite fun :)).

YES. I have picked a winner for my blog's 100th post. 

It's LALO!.

Congratulations Lalo for winning my handmade art journal. I hope that you'll be inspired to create simple art everyday :). Just email me your mailing address to krazycruzzin@yahoo.com soonest.

And that's not ALL. I have two other winners who gave me great feedbacks and inspirations. 

These little cute jotters goes to Nida!. You're such a great sport. Keep me smiling with your creations.

And these happy note books goes to Yvonne!. I want to bask in your enthusiasm. You energy is so addictive :)).

Ladies, kindly email me your mailing address so that I could get the prizes delivered soon.

Again, thank you so much for your lovely comments. Hugs.

XO,

Shahrul

'Forever Love' Tin Mini Album

Hello all,

I was listening to Christina Perry's 'Thousand Years' song the other night. It is such a beautiful song!. I was so inspired by the words and the lovely video.

So, first thing when I received my June DT kit from Scrappingville, I just knew what I needed to do. A project to celebrate the music, the words, and the beautiful love story behind the song "Thousand Years". It is included on "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". 

Lyrics | Christina Perri lyrics - A Thousand Years lyrics

This is my humble tribute to the song. I'm using Graphic 45 round tin film canister & accordion mini album set. (Nida, I'm having so much fun playing with a round tin too, just like you). 

I colored the round tin with a couple of alcohol inks and planted a garden full of multicolor red roses on the lid!. 

I used the lyrics and many pictures from the movie 'Breaking Dawn - Part 1' in the mini album. They basically tell the love story. You can also create your own love story or your parents' in this style :)). Just pick a favorite song. And here are some of the pages;

I could just pick this mini album up and sing along! :)).

I'll be teaching how to put together this mini album @ Scrappingville in June. Just check out their new website for details on June classes. Stay tune for more DT projects from me :).

XO,

Shahrul

Supplies: 
Graphic 45 Tin Film & Accordion Mini Album; Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Currant & Raisin); Rubons from Hambly and 7Gypsies; Pattern Papers from Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket; Ribbons, lace, flowers and metal embellishments from stash.

Already the 100th blog post?

Hello my friends ...

Six months ago I said to myself, maybe I should keep a blog again. Just to share my art with anyone out there who loves making things and also learn from them. Although, the thought of managing an interesting blog looks super heavy and downright scary.

I'm glad I took THAT first step. Small moves. And I am having fun right to this very minute. Thank you all my dear followers (and guests alike) who keep the flame going. You all rock!. 

So I made this art journal with the thought of giving it away on special occasions. Would you like to win it? :)).

Delightful watercolor papers, tags and brown paper bags ready to be painted & doodled on. Exciting!. Metal charms tied up with funky fibers on the side. A simple closure with a button & stretchable string. And I added some crochet flowers inside the journal pages. Hope you like them :).

All you have to do is leaving me comments/suggestions on what you like to see more (or less) in my blog for the rest of 2012. I will enter you in a drawing and I'll pick the winner this Friday (Malaysian Time). Sweet and simple :). Good luck! 

Hugs,

Shahrul

CCCB Week 109 - Sketch by Linda

Hello all, 

It's such an honor for me to guest design at City Crafter Challenge Blog for this week, Week 109. The theme is Sketch by Linda. And I'm using the most beautiful whimsical ballerina and vintage ticket collage images from this week's sponsor; Digital Paper. Thank you so much :)).

I'm so excited to share with you an of-the-page project using Linda's sketch shown below;

I love altering old books!. For this week's inspiration, I have made a book box, which I can later use for storing little craft things or jewelry. Here is how I interpreted Linda's sketch for the interior of the book box;

First we must 'prepare' the book. I carefully cut out a portion of the original pages, but left a few of the last pages intact. These last few pages will be glued to the book cover, and would act as the base of the 'box'. I stapled every half a centimeter of the loose pages around the hole as reinforcement. I repeated the process until I've got several thick pages bundled up, and secured. Then only I glued all them together to make one thick 'box' with a hole in the middle. Best is to let it dry for about 2 days before doing more work on it.

I love the rich red color the original covers, so I used them as is. The best part about altering a book is creating the closure. Here, I used an old metal hook & a key chain with leather strings as closure. So fun!. I decoupaged a few roses to both covers.

I can't help but to add cute charms to the back cover :). I have to cleverly hide any original prints with laces. At last, a fun storage for anything small. Love letters, stamps, postcards, etc.

I hope you'll enjoy altering books :)). It may look like hard work, but it's worth it. I had fun with this project. Thank you again Kirsty, for having me this week @ CCCB.

XO,
Shahrul

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all. 

I celebrated it last night at home by spending some quiet time making this page :)). 

This page is all about the love my mother had for me & my brother. As some of you may know, my mother passed away a long time ago when I was still a teenager. Only this year that I'm ready to create mini albums, art journal pages, or just write about her in my blog :).

I used her favorite color; blue a lot in this page. And some white, yellow and pink to cheer up the page a bit.

I used her picture taken when she was in college. Now she looks like she enjoys reading in the clouds!. The 'circles of thought' means that I'm thinking about her a lot lately. Simple doodling will do for a simple page, I think. Two flowers; one for my mother and one for me :). The doodle on the flowers are actually inspired by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog banner. You can see it here.

Till next time, have a great Monday!.

XO,
Shahrul

Altered Box Birthday Gift

Hi all. 

Happy Mother's Day to all dear mothers out there .... (I'm a mother of 3 cats, is that count?). 

My friend Sharon K. had just celebrated her birthday. I asked her what would she love to have for a gift?. She gave me a smile ... and said, "Make me one of your altered things!". I have no idea that my altered things could be a gift :)). So, I made her this altered box;

It is almost like a keepsake box. Like me, she loves hunting for treasures at flea markets. This box is perfect for storing her finds. I prepared the box with gesso & painted it in cream. 

Added some flower patterns with stencil & texture paste on the back & front.   I wanted the front to be looking like a bird house (Sharon loves birds). Hence, the bird decoupage work :)).

The flower is from a broken old ring. I love the peek-a-boo door on the box. Sharon loves red roses. I decoupaged her some rose bushes here and there. I hope she likes this box. Just another storage :).

I'm also playing along and linking up this altered project to Frilly and Funkie latest challenge; 'Alter It'. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!.

XO,
Shahrul

Color me Happy

It rained again this afternoon. Now the small woods behind my apartment building is covered with mist and the birds are chirping. I can hear many different birds, singing different songs!. Wish you could hear them. I love this moment. 

Just before the rainstorm stopped, I completed another art journal page. I have made a promise to try fill up my 'Happy Soul' art journal in two weeks. I have no idea if I could, but as of now, I'm enjoying the process of making little art every day.

This is a very simple page. Experimenting with soft pastel colors mixed with some water. I begin to like pastel now ... and the color orange! :)).

I started preparing the page by sticking re-inforcement rings all over the edge and covered the whole page with a wash of gesso. (Just remember to dry thoroughly after every paint you put on the page, and before adding a new color). Then I made a heart paper cut out, and sprayed onto it with red glimmer mist. I drew a thick line along the crisp lining of the heart with an orange pastel, then smudged it with my wet finger. After it dried, outlined the heart with black india ink.

On the opposite page, I used my finger to smudge sap green acrylic color on the sides. I drew 3 orange circles with pastel, wet it with my finger. With one hand holding the other page upside down, I added more water to the orange circles and let it dripped!. I did the same thing to the magenta pastel color. After all that dried, I wrote "Play with Color, makes me happy" with black india ink. After that dried, added stamping with Stazon, and a couple of fabric stickers. That's it. It's done.

I'm so happy how this turned out. Came to think of it, rain makes me want to paint. Weird. There is a theory that says, you are most happy when there is a lot of water around you. People sing their heart out in bathrooms :P, and no one is sad at the beach, right?. I hope you are happy today no matter what is going on in your life right now :)). 
Adios.

XO,
Shahrul

Clean them palettes in NO time!

Hi again. 

I like to share a journal page that I completed today, inspired by Donna Downey's Inspirational Wednesday video. Her technique was WOWW. Who would have thought??. I like her ideas of creating art out of the 'inspirational mess' you have laying on your table, or for this case ... in your color palettes. I'm like, yeah I have got a few dirty color palettes from God knows when that needed cleaning. Never so excited to clean up until NOW. This is what I created today;

"I am strong when I'm on your shoulders" is from Josh Groban's song 'You Raise Me Up'.

Dirty palettes (inspirational mess). I just peeled the paint off my palettes and scattered them on my journal, like so. They kind of looked gross, but it's totally fun to peel them!. You should try. I now have cleaner palettes. So happy :)). Then I glued all those paint skins on the page. You can use gel medium, let dry and iron them with a craft iron. I'm too lazy and skipped this step. I like the lumpy and bumpy texture on my page so much.

I first painted my page with acrylic yellow and when dried, covered all over it with gesso. When that dried, sprayed over a stencil chalkboard glimmer mist (Cherry Cola). Dabbed the leftover red mist onto the other page. I used baby wipes to clean off the gesso on some of the bigger paint skins, so that their colors showed up. I then drew circles with black india ink, and maybe let some drippage going on here and there :)). Lastly, add inspirational words either handwritten them, or typed. 

I LOVE the rough texture of my page. Wish you could feel them. So, have fun peeling off those palettes and make something simple yet beautiful. And don't forget to link up what you've made in my yesterday's blog post. Who knows you could win something. *wink*.

For everyone's inspiration, check out the video that shows how Donna works her magic here.

XO,
Shahrul

La Luna journal page

Hi folks,

I wasn't lucky to see the recent super moon long enough. We had heavy clouds and smog that night. Then all I see was a very big smeared yellow ball :((. Although, the night before (May 5th), the sky was clear and I had a glimpse of the awesome super moon!. Did anyone had a great time watching it??.

I grabbed my journal and started painting. I was awestruck. I watch the sky every now and then, looking at Pleiades and Orion's Belt. I'm sort of an amateur stargazer too. 

My journal entry today is capturing the super moon!. Easy peasy, because I'm using just black, silver & pink acrylic colors. I painted black gesso all over the page and stamped 4 large circles with a mug. These circles supposed to be different moon phases, can you tell? Oh, and I finger-smudged pink paint over a strip of punchinella inside these 'moons'. They made good moon craters! Moon is made of cheese, no?

 Added some lunar rubons and a grid transparency. I think the grids make me feel like I'm looking at the dark space from my space orbiter. LOL. Used washi & masking tapes to stick the plastic down to the page. Lastly, sprinkled silver paint by rubbing the bristle of a large paint brush. I guess, you could use any clean brush to do this. And that silver dusty dots are my stars!. 

"Are we alone?". My favorite question, everyday. BTW, I'm a fan of the Ancient Alien series. :)). Okay, lets come back to Earth. 

If you did any art journaling this week, I like to see them. Or maybe you like to share breathtaking photos of the super moon. You could link them up using the InLinkz at the bottom of this post. After a week, come back and check out what everyone is working on. (I hope the link works).

XO,
Shahrul

Another collage page :))

Hi everyone. 

I like to share another collage page that I completed two days ago. This time, I'm playing with fuschia, pink, metallic mint and dark green colors.

Mostly I just used my fingers to color the page, either by dabbing, or making circles. Certainly no rules. Spritz water if the colors get too thick. Another fun technique I tried was using the tip of a small paint brush to draw circles!. Although, you may have to repeat making the circles as paint don't stick well on the tip. I even drew the leaves with that. So random, I know.

With the tip of the brush, I made small dots all over the page. After that dried, with a brayer I colored the edges randomly with white gesso. Stamped a dragonfly on a scrap paper, then glued it on the page. At this point, my page was already full of colors but I think I could add more texture & words on it. So, then I glued on scrap lace, washi tapes and even masking tapes!. Masking tapes are so cool. You can doodle on them, paint, stamp or mist.

So, that's it. I'm going to figure out how to add the 'link' tool, so everyone can share their art journal pages here. THAT would be fun. Any clue??. I LOVE to see your work :)). But till then, stay tune.

XO,

Shahrul

Donna said 'Use a color you hate this week"

Hi everyone. 
On Monday, I worked on the very first collage in my recently made ' Happy Soul' art journal. I read Donna Downey's Collage Monday and was simply smitten with her suggestion; use a color you hate this week!. I said, wow ... I love to try this.

I don't really have a color I hate, but i DO have a color I like the LEAST, orange!... arrghh. After a couple of hours playing with orange color, I still not 'warmed' to it. :)). Felt good that I tried though.

I used masking technique with stencil and masking tape to create the vertical orange-light blue stripes. I suck at peeling the masking tapes out and torn the page in a few places. Using a bottle cap, I stamped orange & blue circles all over. When it dried, I stamped a little bird & a chandelier images with black ink. I also decoupaged a couple of musical notes (tissue paper) and a bird (newspaper cutting). Next I added buttons and cut out messages in the circles. Lastly, the most fun part .... doodling! 

So, pick up that color and have a try. It's fun.

XO,
Shahrul

Material used:

Daler-Rowney Simply Acrylic light blue

Delta Ceramcoat pumpkin Acrylic Paint

Fairbro Gesso white primer

Paper Mod Podge (for decoupage)

musical notes tissue papers

Christy Tomlinson She Art pattern papers (quotes)

masking tape

buttons

brown twines

black eyelet

Moof black plastic sequins

Momoyo heart embellishment

Margarie stamp set

Tim Holtz tapes