Post Valentine...

This year, I was busy completing a commission such that there was no time to fit in my valentine's book for the fiance. He told me to concentrate on doing the commission first and he can wait. He knows he's getting a artist book you see, because I told him last year, heh. I finished that commission 4am valentine's day morning.

Valentine was spent having a little family party, my dad's birthday falls on the day with mom few days before and my nephew before that. Three birthdays and the table was filled with cupcakes, cheese cakes, meringues, pavlovas, and pies. Fun evening it was as we organised a lucky draw. Microwave oven, dinner sets and DVD player were the most sought items that night! Everybody went home with something.

This image on the left, was something from my archives, it was back in art school, I made my own pen and was trying out a little calligraphy using paint. It was part of a translated poem from the Tao Te Ching. Took a detailed shot and played it up on Photoshop. I think I vaguely remembered how I did that...

Oh, I had a class yesterday, and an 8 years old girl was one of the student. Her finished book was so sweet! Will post about it after I'm back end of the week, I'm flying off in a few hours *wheee!!*

Pop Up Hearts On Black

We (My H and I) just had our anniversary and to commemorate, I made this for him. The idea has been playing in my head for ages, and finally broke free of its chains and controlled the hands to make 'the book'... weelll... it's the prototype really... and it worked!

With the help of this book...

I knew of this book when I used to work with Ron King when I was a student in uni, and I love love love pop ups. But back then being a student, money was a bit tight and I only managed to get my hands on this book several years ago, it cost a pretty penny (in this part of the world) but it was worth it.

Gotta plan a book for Valentine's next....

1st Valentine's Artist Book

If you want to read my rambling on how the book was made, go here. For more images of the pages in the book go here. For the short version of the story, read on...

Here are some images taken by my wonderful sweetie of the valentine present I gave him. Conceptually this was conceived back in December, mulled over in January, planned out in February, and physical form hashed out in a week just because D day was coming up fast.



The wrapper I used to wrap the book was from the first bouquet of roses he gave to me in the beginning of the relationship. It' was a conscious decision to use it to wrap up my present to him. The significance and meaning behind it, I'm like that. Yes, I saved it all these while waiting for the opportunity to use it.


This is the book, size dimension is 10cm by 10cm, I actually planned the cover to be something else but it would require the cover to not be stuck down yet, but my hands had automatically glued it up and pressed the cover down before I could remember and whacked myself in the head and had to think up of something else to put on the cover as I continued to finish the book. Mental note: do covers last last last!!


I'm not too sure if this is how a star book is suppose to be when close, a wedge. Is it? I have never seen an actual star book before so...


Here's the book, partially opened, see all the punched out hearts, stars and teddy bears I stuck on around the windows, took me a whole afternoon just to do that. But well worth it. I love the effect it creates.


This is page one of six pages in the book. Each page consists of a selected quote from the many text messages we sent to each other since the beginning of the relationship. The tiny red heart highlights a key word in all of them. The white heart pop up component was stuck on after I glued the covers down. It was most difficult to do. Mental note II: do covers last last last!! (ooh, I hear an echo...)


Top view of the star book, I like how the whole thing looks structurally. Especially how the pop ups crosses through the black middle layer, that was a bitch to stick in. And the fact that the initial adhesive I used came off after spending another whole afternoon just creating the pop up components and sticking them into the book. And I had to redo them quick using another type of adhesive and just managed to stick the last bit in before his car pulled up, thank god... Mental note III: use a very strong adhesive when gluing pop up components.

All in all, it's a pretty good prototype I must say. Now I know what works and what didn't and how to improve on the next one. I'll probably attempt another, just need to work out a content is all. The valentine theme leaned itself perfectly for this. I love this holiday, just because it contains all the things I like!

Since I have decided this is going to be an annual tradition, I'm already thinking of the design for the next valentine book he's going to get!

Valentine's Artist Book Preview

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Here's a sneak peek to the valentine artist book I wanted to make for my significant other. This is my first star book having never made this structure before... I sewed the three layers together using the three hole binding instead of gluing, like they do with the ones I've seen when I did research for the book. I used craft punches in shapes of stars, hearts and teddy bears to cut out the shapes to stick onto the white windows. White on white looks so chic. The black layer had heart shaped cut outs, a total of six pairs of hearts.



After this shot was taken, added on the covers and pop up hearts placed in the center of each section. As I was gluing the last pop up component his car pulled up to take me out for dinner. I didn't get the chance to take pictures of the finished book, so wrapped it up and gave it to him over dinner. My lovely guy said that he will take pictures and we'll just have to wait for those... I got a dozen red roses from him :-) Thank you Sweetie, they are most lovely xoxoxo