Season's Greetings

Wishing all my readers and blog friends a very merry christmas & a happy new year, may it brings us more inspiration and creative endevors!

Pop Up Greeting: Star

I was asked to make something for a guy by his wife for his birthday. She wanted something that he can have at work for his table. The thing that came to my mind was the pop up book/folder/frame watchamacallit.

The original colour scheme she gave me was blue, white and black, and he likes planes. But when I saw the photo she provided the colours won't flow, and my other dilemma was how am I going to make planes work for me?

To cut a long story short, I went with stars, like he's the star in his family eyes, yeah I thought, that'll work.

Going with the blue gold base and echoing the red from the photo's background, the gold stars popping up against it was just fantastic.

The client loved it, the husband loved it and I was told it's sitting proudly on top of the mantle at home, he dare not risk bringing it to work and have it ruined. More pictures can be found here.

It just occurred to me that every time I make something like this it's always for a birthday...

There's one for Muji

There's one for Her Majesty...

I wonder when will the next birthday request be from and to whom, I quite enjoy making them. I can picture this for anniversaries as well, that would be nice...

Buku Hantaran: Pink & White

I happen to have a spare if anyone is interested for that special engagement. It's A5 in size, 16cm by 22cm. Perfect for anniversaries (a friend had one and she wrote out the lyrics to 'their song' and placed it in the folder to give to her husband for one of their wedding anniversary, he was floored!) or that special photo...

It got pink tassels in the corners just because... More details and pictures can be found here.

Update (3rd December 2011) The folder is finally going to make it's debut tomorrow, a buyer came over to have a look and immediately fell in love and went home with it to be used for the first function of 'bersuruh' and few weeks later for the engagement function.

Guest Book: 1st Birthday

A first time mother (not me) got a wonderful idea to have a guest book for her daughter's first birthday party. When she asked me to make one I thought what a great idea, a memory keeper! I might just do the same thing when my baby turns one... after I figure out if we'll actually have a party or otherwise...

Anyway, the colour theme for the party is white and pink. I got other details like the little girl's name just in case I was able to incorporate it, you never know.

The guest book I had in mind was a concertina, for various reasons, one, it will fit all the greetings and wishes from the guests at the party, two, the mother could stick in photos of the party, and three, and stick in all the 1st birthday cards. With this in mind I made sure there was ample space. So, the structure was all sorted, next was the design for the covers.

It started off trying to decide which motif represent childhood more, the bunny or the teddy. As they were equally important I feel I decided to go with both.

Both motifs have a furry texture when touched and I kept the design to an outline with suggestions using the hearts and flowers. I added more flowers and satin hearts around the motifs. I wanted to get a childhood feel without the overall design ending up being kiddish, something that also appeals to the grown ups, and I believe I have succeeded.

And here's a classy take to the old teddy and bunny, and I just couldn't resist to add on more flowers on the ends of the ribbons that tie the guest book close because they just work so well and give a finished look to the ribbons.

There's a chance I might have finished up all my pink flowers already... have yet to take stock...

More images of the guest book click here. (Do let me know if the album isn't viewable)

What's Keeping Me Occupied

She's almost six months old now, lots of milestones reached and more to come. Such an easy going baby, and mommy's been online shopping a lot for baby too, too many good stuff out there...

Thanks to Sarah for the pictures one lazy afternoon spending with baby. Studio is slowly making a come back, did the fourth batch of books ordered from JIS and delivered, a couple of wedding orders, and the odd birthday orders or two when I had the time the past few months. Now, I think I can handle whatever people ask for me to make, it just means baby will follow mommy shopping hunting for the items needed. She likes that, she got a fascination for cars...

It's Been Three Months...

Us, baby is exactly 3 months old when picture was taken about two weeksish ago...

Hi everyone, it's been three months odd so far, hanging in there with baby in the house. Learning and adapting to her developments and changes, all this is new and we're both enjoying having her. So far routine is all centered around baby and I'm taking things easy, with the husband, the two cats and the house to take care of on top of taking care of baby I'm trying not to be too demanding on myself. Oh, and I also need to fit in the 'me time' somewhere in there, and I have a full time job during the day as well, so creative endevors is on the back burner for now...

I've recently had her playroom ceiling painted like a cloudy blue sky, something for her to look at when she's on her back... that's the idea. Waiting for the paint fumes to dissipate before moving the stuff back in. Looking for ideas for the walls, it's a small room and I have to keep that in mind not to make the room look even smaller.

I've taken the odd order or commissions, just to see if I could cope with doing those with baby. So far the only way I could do it was send baby to my mom to babysit which isn't really ideal. I had to say no to quite a few because I just don't have the time, and I know I said studio is closed until end of the year, so we'll take stock then, see how things are. I did fantasize about cleaning up and streamlining my studio, make it all neat and tidy and organized during this time. Did it happen? Nope. The cats getting into my yarn stash is not helping either, but what can you do, things will get cleaned up... eventually.

In the mean time, I'm trying to streamline my site a bit, put up more information without over crowding the look, good thing blogger put up 'pages', and I'm slowly putting up stuff there, I'm working on a FAQ at the moment so if you got one, let me know and I'll add that in. Also if there is anything else that you'd like to know more about let me know as well.

Thanks again for hanging around and being patient dear readers and followers. I don't know how you moms out there who got kids and have time to do your own thing do it, I hope I'm getting there, but number one priority for the moment is, my baby, so studio will just have to wait.

Wedding Guest Books: The Daryline Wedding

The guest book in action, not many signatures yet as we got there early so there would be parking in the basement as it was raining that evening...

The happy couple! Ok, so we can't really see the groom's face and you can see how pretty the bride is and reason why I chose this picture was because of the cake, how many brides actually made their own five tiered wedding cake, each tier a different flavour, which she finished baking and decorating (covered with tiny pink fondant butterflies) at six in the morning the day before? Cake was served up to all the guests and the table I was at got the chocolate and orange ones, it was yummy...

And Baby D came to the wedding too at 7 weeks old! Her first social outing and she slept through out, apart from waking up to nurse twice, she didn't bother with all the noise around her.

Wedding Guest Books: Fuchsia & Silver

(Sorry about the pictures quality, shots were taken at night and I was tired to even think about redoing them, although now I kinda wish I did... oh well...)

This is fun, the person who made my wedding cake has now asked me to make her wedding guest book. Not just one but two, one for the church wedding and the other for the dinner reception which I gladly said yes to.

The colours asked for were fuchsia and silver, it was a bit hard trying to find the right shade of hot pink for this and a solid plain colour in the shops were far and few, which I happen to find luckily.

Using the fuchsia as a base colour, the silver became accents. Mainly in the ribbons and the sparkly mini gem stones which were 'carefully randomly scattered' (hehe...) on the flag book version and arranged into the wedding couple initials on the concertina version. I love using the stuff! Must get some more!

So for the church guest book since I'm not sure how big a table they'll have for signing I designed it as a double flag book with double doors. That way the book could be opened flat giving ample signing space and if there are too many pages they can always stick in pictures and because of the concertina spine the book can accommodate the swell easily. Of course as always I like the sculptural look of a flag book. I must admit this was my first double flag book, and it turned out great!

This is the concertina guest book for the dinner reception. It has the same elements as the concertina version and more, additional of the white flowers with the roses and the green heart shaped gems. It took a while for me to decide to do the initials of the couple because I was overthinking it. I would love to be able to add on a particular personal details of theirs but I was too afraid I might spoil the whole thing if it didn't work out and I decided to omit them instead. Better safe than sorry especially when you're so close to completing...

To add interest to an otherwise span of 8 feet stretch of pink, I added on silver ribbons with bows at the side.

With both guest books done, they were wrapped up and went on their way. Her cousin came to pick them up and I showed him how the books work so he could show to her how they work. She left me a message that she totally love them and I'm so happy I could make them for her, she's such a sweet person I tell you.

Caroline and Daryl, may the both of you be happy and in love with each other now and forever...

Life Changing...

Meet Baby Dyanna (as in the princess) with daddy.

Born on the 12th June 2010, 3.35kg (about 7lbs), 55cm (22.5").

Normal Delivery.

13 minutes of pushing before she popped out!

All creative endeavours are currently on hold until further notice...

Mommy is currently recuperating.

(I never expected post birth was going to be like this physically, ack!).

My little angel :-)

Mommy love you very much!

xoxoxo

Paper Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary! First anniversary. Paper. I think I got that right. Paper is so appropriate for us in so many ways. Our love for books. Graphics. Novels. Recycled. What he does - writer, what I do - creative visual artist... Maybe I should do projects based on the theme every year. I wonder what I'll be doing when I hit the metals like silver or gold, probably a sculpture. Ooh, imagine diamonds, what would I do then? It's a thought...

When we were dating a couple of years back, I kept all his phone text messages and one day typed them all out alternating with my text to him. I gave him the printed out copy and the file got lost as my machine crashed and didn't have time to make a back up file. To this day, he walks around with the print in a protective folder in his work bag.

Love you sweetie xoxoxo

Wedding Guest Book: Concertina Turquoise & White

This is part 2, the guest books, part 1 was the buku hantaran. Now I'm going to refer the guy who's wedding this was for as Gorilla Guy because the very first time I met him, he was wearing a gorilla mask and that stuck with me, first impression, hehehe...

The one who contacted me to arrange all this for him was Gorilla Guy's sister, and she wanted the buku hantaran (engagement folder) as well as guest books in the colour theme of turquoise, white and silver. I managed to do that with the folder, found lovely silver plated leaves but I wasn't able to get them for these books unfortunately but I have managed to keep to the same elements.

>When the sister came to pick them up, she brought along Gorilla Guy's fiancee and explained to her this was the reason why she got the corsages to have blue feathers as part of the arrangement to tie everything into their theme. I didn't realise me using feathers would have an impact into their wedding, cool...

Because of Gorilla Guy's heritage, they will have lots of chinese relatives coming to the malay wedding, and Gorilla Guy's sister said she wanted a chinese style guest book but unfortunately chinese guest books are always red (to denote luck) and it totally doesn't go with the theme colour at all.

So I made a concertina style book, that way it could be stored neatly and folded up, and when stretched it spans over 6 and a half feet long. Easy access for guests to sign their wishes without having to queue much.

On top of that, they are expecting a lot of guests and Gorilla Guy sister asked for three books!

Initially I thought it'll be great to make a slip case to store the books together, but because of the three dimensions of the flowers the gaps between each book when stacked didn't look right, and had to think up of another idea and I thought of why not a slip cover? It'll protect the books and it'll look pretty won't it?

Had a bit of drama with that aspect, we don't need to go into details, I'm just grateful it's done.

Three wedding guest books, in individual organza slip cases with pretty fun ribbons with roses at the ends, don't they look like dragonflies somehow when tied...

More images can be found here.

I'm so glad Gorilla Guy's sister likes them as she is the client, and I'm pretty glad how they turned out as well, considering I was experimenting with this, and so now I know what do to with my next guest books that are for a July wedding!

Plaster 101

The significant other and I had an interesting time last night, we made a belly cast... Well, he did most of the work, I just stood there as it was applied on to me.

It took longer than I expected.

He had to be all crafty and learn how to use the plaster gauze there and then.

Lots of water was involved.

We went through 5 rolls which I cut into strips prior.

Cats got very curious to what we were doing.

Didn't realise how heavy it got as we were making the cast with me standing and I had to cradle the breast to hold it up.

Removing from body was easy, popped right off.

So now, the cast is stuffed with newspaper to support it while it fully cures, then I could sand it smooth before painting... only I have to figure out what to paint on it, can't decide...

Thanks to my friend Nadia for gifting me the kit to make it!

I have 9 days until my due date :-D

Apologies...

...for the lack of posts, other things been occupying my mind, baby especially. So baby's blog is pretty active, especially now that the day is getting nearer... whenever that is...

Me, 36 weeks!

I am now in my 37th week, the doctor had said I can give birth anytime now... within the next three weeks... Yesterday I had that 'nesting instinct' all the pregnancy info I've been reading about says will come , cleaned the house as much as I could and napped in between. This morning before heading to work I had the sudden urge to wipe down and rearrange the display cabinet upstairs, which I did.

Later, I'm heading to a tailor to make some baby stuff, at the same time decided my living room cushions need new covers as well. I have all these ideas I wanted to do, I just don't know how to do this whole sewing thing yet, I have bags and bags of materials I must use up! One of my things-I-need-to-learn-and-do. Give me a while, I'll crack it eventually.

I feel like there are deadlines looming over my head, and must do as much as I can before baby comes, because after that... I have no idea what I'll be like after that.

Have no expectations. Enjoying the moment.

Stab Bound...

There you go, 30 stab bound books. I never realised 30 books would make a pile that tall. Made them on and off, whenever I had the time. Wasn't going to do the do-them-in-one-sitting mistake again. Destination, Jerudong International School Brunei, sent and delivered this morning. Now I have another lot to do for their next school term in August. Not too sure if it'll still be stab bound though...

Wedding Guest Book: My Very First Commission

For three wedding events & photos!

This book was made in... 2004! Goodness that was a long time ago... Back then I only knew two binding methods, coptic and stab. That was it. Good thing I expanded my répertoire.

Right, this guest book was commissioned with the idea that it was for three seaperate wedding events. The couple was a local Chinese bride and a Protugese groom. So they had a chinese wedding style, a local malay style wedding and a church wedding in Portugal. So the bride wanted a guest book that can accomodate all that.

So the book I made consist of three sections, one for each event. Each event got their own sections so they would only need to undo the ribbon for that particular sectioned event, hence all the gold ribbons at the sides. The bit with the windows is where they can place their wedding photo hence the window. This book has two front and no back if you get me...

Oh, the cool part, the material used for the covers was the same material that the bride made her wedding chongsam. She only gave me so much, 1/2 meter or 1/4 meter, it wasn't alot and man, I was glad you can't see the joints because I had to join them and by the time I was done, she asked for the leftovers, it was only like 2 x 3 inches.

I can't remember the details about the book now, I think I made sure each section had 100 pages, the dimension was probably 10 x 7 inches based on the bench it was on in the picture.

The book travelled well, it went half way around the world and back, and I told the bride if anything happens just let me know and I'll repair it for you... I'm good like that.

Concertina Album: With Love, Bluebear

I was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without falling sick, and there I was, almost the home stretch with 7 weeks to go, I got sick! A cold, but it was still annoying enough that made me short tempered and cranky like hell. The worst is over, I hope, I'm just dealing with a stuffy nose, phlegmy, occasional cough and unexpected sneezes when it gets too cold.

Despite being sick, I managed to start and finish making this album. Made me feel better too.

This was a commission from a friend in Australia, who used to catsit her next door neighbour late cat who passed away at 17 years of age and very much missed by his human parents. As a parting gift for her neighbours as she's moving away, she asked me to make an album in memory of the cat, who was named Bluebear.

I chose a stripy material to remember the joy Bluebear brought to them, and used red as the joint for the spine and the ribbon closure for the album, and holding the photos down are red skinny ribbons at the corners.

I used the same material throughout the whole album and a handmade red woody paper for the end sheet. I like this shot, you got the zig zag of the concertina and the vertical stripes of the pattern of the material.

I used red for the spine joints and it echoes beautifully here with the pattern of the material, and then you get the diagonals of the skinny red in the corners. The album was about 9 by 7 by 1 and a quarter inches, and the photos were 5 by 7 inches.

This was the bit that almost made me cry, I'm a cat person so I could relate... and also this pregnancy is making me very sentimental, things just trigger me off...

When the photos were passed to me included was this button, a blue bear, I sewed on the lower part of the spine with binding thread so it will stay on nice and tight as the spine was slightly curved. On a whim I decided to put a red heart on top of it, thinking love... and that was when it hit me, this album was like Bluebear's last 'letter' to his human parents, a memory of him for them, his love for them and their love for him. I was floored, and added on two hearts to represent his human mom and dad.

When my Aussie friend came to pick it up, she was really happy. Now I wait to hear what Bluebear's parents have to say when she gift it to them...

More pictures of album and content can be viewed here.

Colours On My Studio Floor

Isn't that cool? Check out the riot of colours! Over the weekend, my cousin Wina came over to complete the commission she got from a semi government entity's annual dinner, the organizers had asked her for twenty colourful snowflakes they going to use as part of their decoration. They encountered her small ones when she made them last December. So, armed with the materials she required, my studio floor transformed into a sea of colourful six pointed stars.

More pictures can be seen here and Wina said you can find tutorials online by googling.

Buku Hantaran: Julie's Pink & Purple

A very popular colour combination pink and purple. This one is an A5 with an open heart center. The client was specific with the pink on the inside and purple on the outside.

Pink & purple buku hantaran, engagement folder

It turns out that the client is a staff at where darling hubby works, so he brought the folder in, easier that way, also I figured an indirect way of promoting, you never know right, I found out majority of the staff are at that age of getting engaged and what not. Probably one of my first client that I don't actually meet.

More pictures of the folder can be seen here.

Work In Progress: Long Overdue... Part 4

Aaaaannnndddd they're complete! Ok, 99% because I still have the single folder left which I finished earlier but now when compared to these I'm not too happy with and I might just take that one apart... maybe...

The concertina portrait

The pictures given were a mix of both portrait and landscape, and to make that as one album I didn't like the idea of the dead space the framing will have. It's a construction that I'll leave for another time, right now it was a matter of finishing and be done with it.

All stretched out, more or less...

There were three portrait pictures and five landscape pictures. They are quite big as each framed picture is 11 inches by 13 inches, when you start pulling them out you can imagine how much space they take.

A back view

These shots were taken on my king size bed as I needed a large flat uncluttered surface. My usual set up was just too small...

The landscape version

So you can imagine when I pull out the landscape concertina it stretched across the length of the bed.

Back view of landscape album, notice the different ribbon placement

Due to their size, I couldn't figure out how to photograph them interestingly enough. The client and her family are away for two weeks, leave me with enough time and daylight to experiment with the photo composition at least...

More pictures of the albums can be seen here.

A Flag Book: The Cookie Project

It was that time of year again, the significant other's bithday. So this year I decided, I'm going to bake cookies, slap on fondant or icing on it, and write short messages from friends and family with edible ink pen on each one, record it, and compile into a book for keeps as cookies gets eaten.

When I started receiving the quotes, greetings and memories I realised there was no way they'd fit on a cookie unless they're huge! Because I don't think I could write that small and still be legible to read.

Scratch cookies, straight to the book.

Chi guarding daddy's birthday book

I chose the flag book structure, invented by Hedi Kyle in 1979, as construction was easy and I don't have to worry about the layout of the images and text. Each page is treated as a singular.

The book when closed is about 3 inches by 6 inches, and 18 inches by 6 inches long when fully stretched open.

The black ribbon slides off with the title to open the book. The title is to signify his age and there are 37 stories and wishes inside.

Turning the pages

The wonders of this flag book structure is that it allows the pages to be open flat and be read like a book...

The criss crossing of the pages when opened

And when extended it creates a sculptural form, and the way the pages are arranged are more noticable.

On the inside of the front cover end sheet I wrote an explanation of the project, and on the back cover is the 37th story which was mine, long and epic, hehe...

With the covers overlapping

I had an interesting time making this book, lots of factors to deal with, content mainly, if it weren't for the messages the book wouldn't work so well, structurally it'll be fine, but content plays a part too. I had to deal with contacting people, setting deadlines, the logistics of layouts, printing, construction... On the morning of his birthday I was still hunting for images of cookies I was hoping to find in magazines to tie the whole theme together to be used for the front cover.

But it worked out the way it should in the end. I like the white of the cover contrast with the black band, I'm not sure if you could see it from the picture but the white is a textured white, I'm not too fond of a totally flat surface.

So, this is one of my rare Artist Book moment. Thank you to my darling husband for being the inspiration. Now my sister in law wants one too for her birthday! Oh dear...

Work In Progress: Long Overdue... Part 3

The home stretch is almost near, if only I could remember where the heck I place the rest of the material so I could do the covers... In mean time, cut boards to make covers... One is landscape and the other is portrait, can't wait for them to be finished. Dare I say by end of the week?

A Thank You Note

Don't you just love it when you open up your email and you get this waiting for you in your inbox. Things like these makes all those late nights, fretting when will the paint/glue dry, accidently cutting your fingers with the knife, and so on and so forth worth it...

Dear Rozi,

I would just like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU so much for the wonderful and creative wedding invites, they truly are more than what I expected or wished for! You truly are a talented and vibrant young women that really knows her stuff about product and "paper" he he he ....
Thank you for all your hard efforts in creating such a memorable wedding invitation.
Much appreciated
Raewyn Smith
New Zealand

This was the client that I did the Chinese themed wedding invites for! Wheeee!