The Story of Lin's Birthday Book

It was Lin's birthday last month, and the brain scratching routine of what to get for her... Well, her brother came up with the present and I'll do the card. So I figured the card will be my present only it has to be more special than just a card. And knowing me, would it be anything less?

When I was designing and experimenting with the ideas, it was while in front of her, hehe. Good thing she was too occupied with her drawings. I only started making the card on her birthday itself after work and knowing there's her birthday dinner to attend to that night as well, time was very tight. Fortunately I already picked a colour scheme and bought the papers already. If any of you guys are stuck for a present, there is nothing more personalised than this... here comes the tutorial!

Total work time, 2 hours give or take...

1. Take 2 A4 sheet of card and concertina fold evenly.
   
   
2. Count out the spacing, you need a single spacing for the front and back, and every letter will take up two spacing. (I needed to use 1.5 sheets.)
   
   
3. Line up where the letters are going to go, (in my case it was a straight line). mark the centre of each already cut out letter and line it up with the middle line of the two spacing per letter allocated.
   
   
4. Glue letters down.
   
   
5. Cut the outline of the letters that are on the right side of the two spacing to create a pop up of the letter.
   
   
6. Make covers for the front and back. (I used a hard board, covered in the same paper used for the letters of her name, and overlay a chiffon material with silver dots over it)
   
   
7. Attach any embellishments like ribbons onto the cover before sticking the ends of the concertina down.
   
   
8. Decorate the inside pages. (I used a flower shaped punch outs and glued down).
   
   
9. Write birthday messages in 'book' with matching pen, (I used white).
   
   
10. Bring book and pen to said dinner and pass book around for everybody to sign.
    
    
11. Present book to birthday recipient as a memento for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Lin! Have a great year ahead of you! More pictures of the book here

What people say...

This week I was told by a career consultant...

You can't draw. You will never make it as an artist.

Gee, thanks.

But you will be great at teaching it. You don't draw on demand, you just have to be in the mood to draw.

Teaching....? Second statement true.

When you draw, what do you draw? Landscapes? Portraits?

Currently painting a series on close ups of roses.

Detailed work, you're more into analysing, you will be good in that one.

An analyst? That's a new one on me.

Later on that same day, I got a text message asking if I'm interested in applying for a job as a hostage negotiator.

Wonder how much the pay is....

Fillers...

Just some pictures I found knocking around my drive. Have fun...


Aaah, a little corner of my studio. The red and gold painting is mine, you have to see it in real life, it sparkles. The maroony gold one was done by my niece, below that are models of a financing bank pop up invitation I designed, behind the peonies are canvases still in its wrappings, and next to it is my baby guillotine. underneath it is rolls of paper. The pink lotus painting was a work in progress, the completed one is now hanging on the wall of a yoga studio, above it are some drawings my nieces did (big manga fan) the gold and white dancing figure is a paper embossing I picked up from Cambodia, and below it is an oil pastel drawing I did of oranges against blue which I never finished from art school, so that makes it about ten years old... In front of it is a pop up alphabet designed by Ron King of Circle Press, he was throwing them away because it had extra creases or dirtied and I had permission that I could take them. So I cleaned up what I can and I had the intention of framing it up but I haven't gotten around to it yet. In front of it in the wooden frame is the only baby picture of me. The blue green screaming guy was also from back in art school, it was an exercise, got given a black and white picture and we are only to use two colours to recreate the picture. I should've picked two primary colours instead of a primary and a secondary...

Studio does not look like that now.


Like my money ball? This was when I had to arrange my cousin's wedding 'belanja hangus' as part of the dowry to the bride. 5K in hand... in hundred notes... so I turned it into a ball, and I had to redo it twice cos the first gluing I did fell apart on me. It was real solid and heavy by the time I was done with it. Then my aunt decided to turn it into a topiary... complete with a bird!


And look, found a picture of some christmas cards I made from years past...


Just a simple wrapping I did in a jiffy... It looked pretty at the time...

?!?!

Rozi is in shock at the moment, please stay tuned til everything sinks into her...

Buku Hantaran: Pretty Pink

Pretty pink ain't it... 100 flowers (more or less) individually glued down one at a time... Here's how they look together! Pink and girly and curly ribbons she asked. You got it.


I can't help but think I OD-ed on the curly ribbons part... Well, Rona was pretty happy when I delivered them to her. She got her siblings to carry one each cos they came with the instructions 'do-not-place-anything-on-top' cos don't want to flatten out the ribbons then it'll spoil the look of things. Rona got a bunch of other instructions as well, her function will be beginning of next month so gotta make sure they stay as pristine as possible up until then.

It was a bit sad letting them go, but I'm well happy that Rona loves them. That made it worth it.

Jigsaw Family Fun Day

This afternoon will be alot of fun. I have volunteered to help out with the kids face painting. We had a workshop the other day to try out the paints and see what works or not. So this afternoon, people are going to be volunteering their faces as canvases for me to paint on! Last year when I helped out, I was a bit stressed cos I wasn't familiar how to use the paints to full effects and it took a while to get the paint to work. There're several stencil templates we could use as well this year, but unfortunately we could only use them at a max of four times, but it's ok. So, if you got nothing to do this afternoon, make your way down to Kiarong for the the fun day, there're a bunch of other activities as well too.

I'm Back!

Was away for a while, work stuff, workshops and conference to attend, of all places in Bali. Will update as soon as I get myself sorted.

Thanks for visiting :-)