tiniest stamp album

Dear friends,
I still have a few pieces of crumpled brown paper bags left. And I felt like making a tiny book and do a little sewing yesterday. Itchy fingers, LOL. I collect stamps when I was in primary school and only last year I started collecting again. Sadly, they now have a shoe box to call home :P. 

Yesterday, I did a test. Sewing a tiny stamp album. I LOVE it, maybe I should do more of these!. For different themes, maybe. I'm so happy that these might just work. 

And this one, to house a few stamps from the British Royal family & castles. I just sewed some plastic sleeves to the paper bags to keep the postage stamps in place. This tiny album measures about 2.5" X 3.5", so small with minimal sewing :). I just stapled all the pages in the middle and decorated the cover with a piece of linen scrap.

 A little flower patch for the front cover.

A suede leather for closure.

A simple stamping on linen for the back cover.

Let me share a few of the pages inside; 

I also added pages with some rags & buttons, just for fun;

I love to keep little scraps, be it papers or fabric. You never know when you need to use them :). I think, tiny projects like this stamp album is a perfect way to use up junk mails with plastic windows!. Just stitch around to make little sleeves. Easy  & fun way to display your stamp collection and recycling. Hope you'd give a try :). Take care all!. HUGS. 

LESSology Challenge #17 : Fun With Envelope

Hi there, Happy Thursday. 
I like to share an upcycle project that I made for LESSology Challenge #17: Fun With Envelope. I have earlier playing with a few 'potential' envelope projects but this one has got to be my favorite!. It's trendy enough NOT to be called an organizer. LOL. Well, it is a bit of a sorter, where I could keep receipts, postcards, some loose photos or even business cards in the build-in accordion folders, made out of envelopes.

Front view. Love the 'boho' look of the black-on-black pattern here.

It's a hoot creating this purse. I've got to play with a scallop punch, stamping the foam covers with black gesso, hand-stitched all four corners with black thread, a bit of making beads tassels and using a crochet doily!. Bliss.

Humble materials used in the project. [I changed my mind. Didn't use the evil eye in the end, it's for another project :)]

I created an accordion sorter inside the purse. You could hide the envelopes from showing on the sides with scrap fabrics or strips of pattern paper. I like mine bare, just like so. I scallop-punched pattern papers for easy labeling. You could also use decorative paper clips, wooden pegs or small tags as labels. Love the texture from stamping with black gesso on the foam covers. (Donna Downey said it best, "when in doubt, gesso!". LOL. So cute). I guessed, you could also use Stazon for stamping . And lastly, added beads tassels for additional interest. I used jewelry making tools to assemble the beads & the findings. 

I hope you'll be full to the brim with ideas and ready to play with us @ LESSology!. Have fun upcycling!

Hugs,

Shahrul

Fancy A Bubble Wrap Necklace?

Dear friends,

I'm so excited to share a website that shows how to make a necklace out of bubble wraps!. Yaha, my jaw certainly d.r.o.p.p.e.d!. Sherri Haab and Michelle Haab featured a cool bubble wrap necklace in their book, "Jewelry Upcycled!". Check out their great tutorial here and you'll be making one handsome jewelry piece in no time :). I tried making one last night and was quite happy how it turned out. I also added a pair of earrings just for fun.

The finished project.

Some of the materials used; glass beads, bubble wrap discs, jump rings, findings and salvaged bracelet & necklace. If followed the tutorial very closely, you'll ended up with quite sturdy fused bubble wrap sheets. The more layers of bubble wraps, the thicker the fused sheets would be. From here, I drew and cut circles of various sizes before punched holes in them. Then continued assembling the glass beads and bubble wrap discs with jump rings & findings to the necklace using jewelry-making tools.

I love how the fused bubble wrap discs retained its original 'bubble', yet compacted. They have such beautiful sheen, almost like pearly shells. 

Do check out LESSology Challenge #16 (Bubble Boy or Girl) for great inspirations from the designing team, many more cool ways to upcycle bubble wraps . Come along join in the fun with us!. Till next, have a good Wednesday :).

Hugs,

Shahrul

Have You Seen Bubble Wrap Dandelions?

Dear friends,

In search of random items to play in my journal, I was nicely surprised to find bubble wraps hidden deep in my craft closet. What a benign neglect on my part!. I used to pop bubble wraps with my cats when they were young kittens, so much fun. And soon enough, they ended up as dandelions on my journal. LOL.

I started by sticking masking tapes randomly over the pages to create some sort of patchwork. Colored over it with blue soft pastel and smudged with wet finger. After that dried, I decoupaged some decorative tissue papers. Later adhered brown twines, gauze and bubble wrap (as dandelions). Smudged gesso on bubble wraps. Lastly, drew circles & dots around each circles and wrote 'Carry my dreams, dandelions' in black india ink.

Bubble wrap as dandelions. Gauze as clouds. And decoupaged rose garden!. Happiness.

Another fun use of bubble wraps. This month at LESSology, we are also playing with bubble wraps!. Take a peek at fabulous ideas using bubble wrap and come play along with our Challenge #16: Bubble Boy or Girl!.

I'm also linking up my journal pages today to Art Journal Cafe (Tissue Paper Challenge). Have a good Monday, everyone!. 

Hugs,
Shahrul

LESSology Challenge #15 : Bookend

Hello friends,

I like to welcome you to the latest challenge over @ LESSology, LESSology Challenge #15: Bookend which starts today. Yippee!. That simply means another fun time upcycling. All you need to do is to just include one upcycled item in your artwork.

Our sponsor this month is EAD Designs who is generously sponsoring a $25 gift certificate to their exciting store!. 

Here is a sneak peek of my little bookend. Come back on Thursday for the full reveal :).

Come hop on to LESSology blog for lovely inspirations from LESSology Design Team members. The challenge ends on Sunday, July 1st 11.59 pm EST. I just can't wait to see your creations!.

Hugs,

Shahrul