Mas Kahwin: Maharani, Gold & Purple

Love how the gems catches the light

When I was asked to do a Maharani themed folder for a mas kahwin (dowery), I was not sure where to begin.  Google search didn't produce anything much and my other concern was do I make the folder specific to the amount it will contain, ie follow the size of the money.

360 individual blings, yes, I counted.

Fortunately the client was able to provide images that inspired her to choose the theme when I asked, just so I know what it was that attracted her to choose the theme and that I'm on the same page. What I saw was glitter, gold, opulent and paisley.

Oh no... 'Oh no' in the sense, 'Oh my god! I have to recreate that!' And I couldn't resist a challenge. At the same time I had to work on two other engagement folders as all three were due more or less around the same time.

I was lucky. I had this gorgeous glitter design paper and fortunately it had paisley as part of its patterns which I made sure I took the area that had them.

Normally I would make a folder from the inside out. But in this case after I had covered the front, I immediately worked on laying out the gems in various sizes and shapes to determined their placement to give me that maharani look. And when I was happy I started gluing them down. 

All 360 individual pieces.

One. By. One.

And this is working on an area that is slightly bigger than an A5. 16cm by 22cm to be exact. I was so glad the folder wasn't any bigger as this size alone took me several days just to glue down the gems.

It was one of those, 'I'm not doing this again' moment.

Strangely after I was done, I kind of missed it. Go figure.

Purple ribbon detail on gold tassel

I then realised why I left the interior last, my subconscious mind was already planning ahead without me realising, the tassels.

Had to debate whether to just use the purple tassels only for the door or do I also use the gold tassels. After putting the purple tassels in place, the folder was looking a bit 'bald' in a way, and gold tassels were put in. I used gold and purple ribbon to add interest to the tassels and to tie the gold and purple theme together.

Unfortunately, this was the only shot I had that showed the interior...

For the interior I used a royal purple satin with gold ribbons corners. Lovely contrast when the folder was half opened.

The client was suitably amazed when the folder was presented to her and she went home happy. I have no idea how the folder was used, I measured using the largest denomination note we have, lots of space surrounding it, and I wondered how they managed to fix the money in.

I kind of missed this folder, but it's ok. It was a nice end to the year as it was the last order for 2011. Let's see what sort of new challenges I'll be facing for this year... I wonder whether I should be saying that... It's like asking for it...

Happy New Year 2012!

Buku Hantaran: Green & Pink with Blings!

 This order came from a long time follower, she even wanted to join the book classes I conducted but due to circumstances she could not.

 And now finally, she's getting engaged! And naturally, she wants a folder of her own.

The first part of the request was blings! Lots and lots of blings. With light green and pink.

I have come to realise as much as I have the colours requested to start me off, I don't really know how the whole look will come together until I selected the base, and everything that goes along with it. In this case, I decided to go with the pink with white sakura print base, it had purple sakura too but that got hidden by the green and pink roses going on there. And the white sakura works well for the green heart gems I added on top.

 

Added more pink gems in heart and round shapes, and a darker shade of pink rhinestones. I used a large dark pink gem for the centerpiece as a highlight to all the pinks that is going around. The platform echoed the print that is happening on the inside of the folder.

Since I was already going with the sakura print outside, I decided to follow along for the inside, except it has a white base with pink sakura and green leaves. Just to add emphasis on the blings I put some on the inside covers too.

The folder came out pretty girly, and the client was very happy, and she's looking forward to her function that will happen beginning of the year so she can get the folder back for her to keep.

Buku Hantaran: Green, Blue & Silver

 An A5 no fuss no muss folder

A request for a simple folder, green and silver initially. Then I asked for a third colour which was blue. Then the colour green got complicated, it was 'lime-green-but-a-tad-darker'... Looked around the environment for inspiration for that one, banana leaf green? Could it be...? Usually lime green is brilliant with yellow, I'm not sure which shade green goes with silver though, apart from emerald green, that would go with silver. But emerald green is no where near lime green that is a tad darker.

Confused much, totally.

Then I got another email, 'as long as it's green'. Ok, I can work with that. The rest of the request was minimal flowers, bow would be fine. Simple.

I have this particular stripy silk green with a blue undertone material which goes well with the particular blue I have paired up with before and decided to go use the combination. To add interest to the material I added gem hearts and rhinestones. To be honest I thought I was using white rhinestones as a family for silver, I only realised I used citrine yellow when I was taking the pictures. Oops...

For the silver component of the request I did a centerpiece with silver border and used the metal silver flowers for the center, using more of the gems to tie the whole look together.

I must say it's a totally different taste to what I usually produce, but it was also a nice challenge and I get to use a different type of flowers that had been knocking around my studio for so long I wondered if I ever will use them. And finally I have!

Buku Hantaran: Deep Purple

Close up of name plate with pink and purple heart shape gems around the names

I got this really nice email from Nadhirah regarding her order, and she sounded really sweet too. All she wanted was the base colour to be deep purple and use whatever other colours that I see fit, and she wanted it to be clean and neat, no bows. 

I got this great plan of combining deep purple with banana green and cream, a fresh change from all the purple and pinks.

I used a particular type of silk to get the deep purple base colour, and then I spied the floral motif paper, hmmmm.... it'll look great against the purple...

     

 Two folders, interior and exterior

So, because I decided to use the floral paper as end sheets for the folder, I had to follow the colour scheme from the flowers. Pink. I could've gone with blue but I didn't have any blue flowers. It's ok. The folders came out great, the busy-ness of the paper contrasted nicely with the deep purple, minimalist flowers and sparkly gems, a nice balance.

I actually had issues with doing the names, plan A didn't work as to how I expected so back up plan B came into play. All in all, folders came out great.

More pictures can be seen here.

Buku Hantaran: Lilac & Silver

A sweet simple folder, if I recalled it was a 'no ribbons' order with their names. I decided to sparkle it up by using various shapes and sizes gems in shades of purple and white. Picture don't do it justice, it's prettier in real life as the light catches and they sparkles and shine...

More pictures can be seen here.

Buku Hantaran: Purple & Gold

This was order from a client, I would say she took the whole package, hantaran pertunangan, buku hantaran and menerima berian (engagement dower and dowry, engagement book and soon the receiving dower and dowry we're currently working on due in a couple of weeks time) of course all the hantaran (dower and dowry stuff) are made with my friend Heidi.

Anyway, the client, a sweet girl, requested for an A4 folder with a purple and gold theme. She also let me know other things she liked which was helpful. Purple and gold is a very royal colour combination, have to do it justice.

Fortunately I happen to have in my stash this purple with gold prints on it. Perfect! After I had it on the folder, I got stuck. It sat on my table for a couple of weeks until I decided on the fastening, and how to go about hiding it and everything else came into play.

There were almost 100 elements that needed to be stuck down individually. But it worked. It helped added some punch and a contrast to the pale gold in the background. I love how the tassels came into play. Not realising it while decorating, the print on the paper helped give a theme to the design, it had an oriental feel, the colour, the gold heart shaped gems, the tassels, the diamonds, I'm really liking this one, the print had spoken to me that was the direction it wanted to go. Good thing the inner me listened...

Buku Hantaran: Pink, Purple & Gold

These are my current favourite! I like how neat and tidy it looks. I love how considerate the client was for giving me ample time (she informed me two months prior to the event) and how nice she was when I called her up so I'm clear as to what she wanted. How easy I thought it'll be to get the colours and style...

Everything checked apart from that last line. I hunted everywhere! In the end, I had to go another route to recreate the fancy swirls that she wanted. It was pretty unconventional because I was using a material which I have not tried before and I wasn't sure how it would react with the glue but it was worth a try.

And it came out gorgeous! Because of the layering I was able to achieve that rich subtle look in and out of the folder. The roses scattered around the raised name plate ties in with the watermark rose their name was printed on in gold.

The fastening I used was much tidier and it need not be incorporated into the design, like how I'd normally would use ribbons and bows as fastening and have to figure how it would look to the overall design, so with the fastening I used on this one, you'd hardly notice it.

When the client came to pick them up and saw them, she loved them! I'm glad the folders have reached her expectations. It's always nice to chat a bit on how the wedding preparation is going, and she was a bit nervous as it was only a few days to go from when she picked up the folders. I told her everything will be well, just be positive and relax and enjoy the big day...

More pictures of the folders can be seen here.

Sneak Peak.....

Totally loving this one! Love love love! That is... until the next piece I'll construct, hehe... More pictures and story on next post when I'm free...

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.

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.

Buku Hantaran: Effa's Bronze & Purple

When this folder was done, I thought she needed it this weekend, turned out I was early by two weeks! Even better, more time to do the others on the list.

Effa and I been emailing back and forth on this one, I lost count how many colour changes she went through. And this was just for her engagement, I can't imagine what she's going through for her wedding end of the year.

Heh, at one point, one of her colour theme was camouflage green. I was like, how the heck do I pretty-fy that? Fortunately it didn't stick. And blessedly it was settled on a bronze and purple theme.

Detailed close up of the lower left corner

I used up three different shades of purples for the roses, I lost count how many there are in total on the folder, probably over 50, and one of the shade I ran out of completely.

After I did the first corner on the lower left of the folder, I didn't want to overwhelm the folder and had to figure out how to fill up the rest of the corners to balance it out without fighting the heart lined roses in the center.

I like the placement of the organza bow right in the center of the heart. I'm always trying to find new placement for the bow, which also acts as the tie for the folder's double doors. I like putting in some sort of bow, just makes it so much more prettier!

Ta-da!

When I first bought the ribbon it looked purple, a pale purple. There was nothing else available that would work with the bronze. When I attached them to the folder, I had a slight heart attack, it looked pink! Did I make a mistake somewhere? Do I go on? In the end I decided it was a very pale purple and it'll work, and it did. Bottom line, when my client came to pick it up, she was so happy she was speechless. She was the first client who didn't want to open up the folder for fear of spoiling the way the bow was tied. Lovely girl she was, so petite and adorable. We chatted a bit on where she's getting her wedding outfits done and all that and I enjoyed the time we had.

Effa, all the best to you and the future and may happiness be with you always! And yes, you can come to me to get your bow tied up pretty like again when it's time for you to use it for the day ;-)

Check out Effa's blog on their Journey to be Kanda & Dinda (husband & wife - old school malay way of saying)

More detailed photos of the folder can be found here.

Buku Hantaran: As long there's green in it...

I'm not sure if the camera was able to pick up the true colour since I took the shot at night... the background was a beautiful shade of olive green. I used up the last bit of the textured paper for this that I had saved for over a year. It worked well for this particular piece with the floaty gauzy bow.

I don't really like doing last minute order but this was my first order from the guy side, usually previous clients had always been the girls that does the ordering so I obliged letting him know he'll be picking it up only the day before he needed it. He said he wanted it to match what he'll be wearing, which was olive green. And I promised him it'll be pretty and it is truly in real life.

I contrasted the olive green on the outside with pink, beautiful isn't it, makes the colours stand out against each other.

When he came to pick it up, it was very strange, because I wrapped it up to protect it from getting dirty, he thought that would be what he'll be giving at his function. Uh, no, dude. Then after he realised it was a wrapping and took it off, he tried opening the folder without untying the bow and wondered how was he suppose to open it! By then I was in a stunned-shocked-silence type of mode and after a minute I just pulled the end of the ribbon to release the bow. I explained where he's suppose to put the list, closed the folder and he attempted to tie up the bow. He failed. Told him he got all night to practice making the bow as his function was the next day. I wondered how it went...

Side note, I made a little book for his sister as a thank you for she was the one who recommended him to contact me. I hope she liked it... I hope he gave it to her in the first place...

Buku Hantaran: Tuyy's Flowers

I got an email one day with an attachment that says, "I want something that looks like this, with this and this. Is that possible?" I took one look at the picture and go, no problem.

The attached picture in the email

I thought it'll be easy to find a print like that, it was all the rage, notice 'was'. The closest thing I could find was a silver backed and the pattern outlined in flock. Would the client go for it I wondered and emailed her. Fortunately for me she said yes. Fantastic!

Next was the flower, I must admit between the time when I first saw the picture to making the actual thing was a couple of months, and now when I look at the picture I didn't realise it wasn't the same type. The flowers got a lot of compliments though because they came shopping with me the whole day, so that was a good sign.

She also wanted their names in the window, which I decided to turn it inside out to simplify the creation process and it allows me to create a non tying fastening by using velcro instead, I've been wanting to do that. There were some bits which I thought of then forgotten and only realised after everything was stuck down but it's ok, only I noticed.

And after all that, I came up with this.

I had a bit of a challenge with making sure the flowers stay. At first there was only suppose to be one flower, but the bottom corner looked too bare and I figured each name must have a flower hence why there're two. Then I thought it looked too full but went with it anyway.

More pictures of the folder can be found here.

Verdict: She totally loved it! Oh I was glad. I received an email from her that had lots of hearts in it. How lovely was that. I hope you had a great moment on your engagement day Tuyy!

Buku Hantaran: Aqua or Turquoise..?

The email for this order was interestingly long. Colour combination of silver, white and turquoise was the theme. I visualised something clean and crisp and I wondered whether I could get away with snowflakes since it was a winter order.

I used minimal flowers in various shades of blue greens, and used the silver as accents. I especially like the silver leaves at the ends of the ribbons, I don't know if I am able to pick up some more in time for the matching guest books.

The blue heart shaped gems, oh man, it was a killer gluing them down one by one, but it was necessary. I thought of using more feathers but turned out one was enough.

Matching guest books next on the list, three to be exact...

More pictures can be seen here.

Buku Hantaran: Gold with pink and purple

I love this shot, I had to make it the first picture for this post, plus, it shows the true colours used for the base, the other shots I think I over did it on AP. Nevermind, artsy shots always good.

See those tassles? Perfect! A bit stiff here because they hadn't soften up yet, but it's all good, don't want them too limp either now do we...


I stuck the flowers down in pairs randomly over the cover, and I used the cylinder glass beads with the tiny pink rosette to finish off the wide organza gold ribbon used to tie up in doors closed.

The base was a two layer process with a cream patterned (you can just see it) and then over layed with a slighty bronzy organza with glass beads, the material was called Princess Organza when I bought it. Pretty isn't it...

Here's the overall look of the folder, the colours don't do it justice, I just can't get the AP right, and I can't retake the shot either since it was already picked up by the client. Fini was cool, in the sense she sent me images of things she liked colours or look of, the only thing was, she kept on changing her mind until the last image she sent. Which we both liked and I decided to use the colour pallet from that for her folder. Glad you like the folder Fini, I hope your engagement day was fantastic and happy occassion!

Buku Hantaran: Purple & Pink

This was a double layer process, as I first had to use a light purple base and then an organza which got the deep purple spirals with silver detailing on top. Since the pattern was already busy I kept the embelishments simple, a wide white organza ribbon which edges echoes the silver pattern on the folder tied into a simple floaty bow and pink flower gems to add punches on an already very purple folder, and I just had to add in the deep purple heart gems just because they look right at home.

See, even the interior is pale purple with silver ribbon corners. A very purple-y folder indeed. Who likes purple? A bunch of you out there got your arms up I see...

But then, the client that ordered it, never got back to me when I said that it was all done. I'll hang on to it for a while until the end of the month to see if she'll contact me eventually, after that, anybody wants it for their engagement or other purposes? It is made to fit an A4 list. Any takers, just get in touch with me!

Update March 2010: Finally after waiting forlornly on my shelf for almost five months, it now has a new owner. The buyer just texted me in the morning asking if I have an engagement folder available and I directed him to this one, and it was in his hands by the afternoon. He got a good deal too because I knocked off 1/3 of the usual price I normally have for this size. Thanks again Nordin, I hope your engagement function goes really well!

Buku Hantaran: Gold, Cream and Elegant

This order came during the fasting month, she wanted gold and cream to fit her theme colours, I assume it's also for the wedding, that would be nice... she saw the emo one during Hari Raya. Well, you can't compare really, the style and colours are so different!

I knew I wanted the beautiful spiral pattern on either side with the soft floaty bow for a ribbon in the centre. But I was stumped on how to arranged the gem crystal flowers and hearts. After many attempts I decided that this is the one, normally I'd like the gems to be secured whole onto whatever I'm gluing, but this time around, it looked right for the ones in the center of the folder. I used a different glue (E6000) for that, it is known to be a very strong glue.


The client was very happy when she came over to pick it up. She was very excited seeing it, I'm glad. And to show how happy she was, she texted me again that evening to say how happy she was! See, used the word happy bazillion times in this sentence already.

I love seeing a happy client, makes everything so worth while.

Buku Hantaran: Cha's Silver Black Theme

Remember this...

They contained these...

Silver black with a romantic Emo...

Inside the black folder

Inside the silver folder

I almost had a hard time trying to figure out how to do this. The request was for two folders that could fit an A5. One has to be black with silver, and the other has to be silver with black. And Cha wanted it to be an emo romantic love theme and she loves hearts.

With trusty old google, I checked out 'emo romantic love' and all I'm seeing was red, black and depressing looking characters. Oh dear... Cha added me on FB and was hoping to find some pictures which inspired this whole emo romatic love theme. Surprisingly, there were none. Double of dear...

After trying out several ideas and not liking any of the designs and last thing I want is to recreate depression, I went back to her original email. She mentioned she liked one of the folders that I have already done, and I decided to use that idea and it fell into place. I was over complicating things originally, thought too much about it. I keep on forgetting to stick with my preference of clean lines.

I finished one first before I finished the other. By the time I glued on the roses, it was missing something. They were nice, but they weren't nice enough for me. The roses looked too flat. I messed about with glitter and wondered if using glitter was emo, I messed about with tiny padded hearts and I didn't have any in black for the other folder, it needed something bling, something catchy, wondered where my mini rhinestones were...

Tiny silver beads were perfect! They looked like drops of water catching the light. Added on a pair of budding roses at the corner for blooming love.

When she picked them up, she was so happy. I was happy that she was happy. Makes all that work worthwhile. Later that night she sent me a text which I told her I'm going to share with you all:

Rozi.. thank you very much! I'm loving it! Feel like I wanna cry just now and my hands were trembling (when I first held them)! Hehehe, thanks SO much!

What a fantastic client, I really appreciated her telling me how she felt. You're very much welcome Cha, and I hope your engagement function yesterday was a joyous one!

Buku Hantaran: Brown & Gold

Sigh... Card... sheesh.... Anyway!

The golden brown buku permintaan. A colour which I have never used before and not in my stock so it was an interesting challenge. I told the client we're going for elegant and classic. It was a last minute order and fortunately I did not have anything on my plate and I was able to do it. Call came in Tuesday morning and it was for the Sunday. That left me with not alot of days to come up with this, especially when I aimed for a Friday delivery.

Thankfully, when I was putting this together, it was like as if I was meant to. There was no hitch, no frustrating moments, everything was cooperating, from having to shop for the stuff right after receiving the order, to cutting up the hard boards down to the sizes required, gluing the different types of delicate materials (no glue marks, yay!) the embellishments, and it was almost too good to be true until the finishing touch, I needed to get the right ribbons and I couldn't find the right shade of gold any where! But, it was a good thing because the one I chose in the end pulled the whole thing together and finished the ends off with more gold. The folder can accommodate her A4 'permintaan' list with room to spare.

It came out perfect. It also reminded me of old world India, where everything was rich, luxurious and decadent. Well, that was the feel I got when I stepped back to admire it after getting its final quality check.


The client wasn't able to pick up the folder any earlier and was only able to do it on Saturday evening, a relief for both of us that she loved it. One less she'd have to worry about for her engagement day, and I have another happy customer. I can understand her being busy during that time with her engagement preparation, because I'm experiencing the same thing now.


I need to start making my buku permintaan :-p


More pictures of the folder can be found here.

Buku Hantaran: Purple, Heart & Ribbons

I really have to figure out what's the English equivalent of 'Buku Permintaan' without it sounding corny.

Anyway, Alin contacted me and by the time she confirmed I only had a few days to come up with a concept, gather the materials and make it in time for her engagement that weekend. Pressure pressure pressure.

In the end... read more about it here and more pictures here.