June and July ATC Session... Postcard and Tags

To prepare for June ATC session in Bishan Library, I did some research into the background of iris folding and shared with participants, all first time trying their hands on this paper craft technique.  The chosen pattern was a bit tough to work in ATC size in the limited time, but several completed them. 

I did my "Holidays" ATCs in iris folding - Holiday Cruise and Holiday at the Beach.

Swapped 1 for Hiang's marker pen drawn Holiday ATC.

Chin Yean introduced pop art to our participants in the July ATC session, we sure had a colourful time!





I made more of my Gemican people (dolls composing of gems from brochures).  Swapped 2 ATCs for Selina's iris folding tree with an inchie bird and Jessica's under the sea with a fish inchie. 



I haven't show this delightful piece of work - Marion Bockelmann's (Germany) lovely postcard which I won in her Our World Our Art blog giveaway (Apr 2014).  Marion did it with collage and sanding technique. My postcard collection is slowly growing! 

Over at Paper Traders group, I participated in another interesting swap - Mother Nature Tag Flag Book. We swapped 8 tags and stored them in our own book. Here's the tags I did and the book I made containing all the tags returned.

From left to right:
top row: (1) Tag by Pam Colosimo, (2) Study Nature, Love Nature by joarty1, (3) Bird House by Shelly Recicar, (4) butterfly by Connie Holso.  
bottom row: (5) Dragonfly by Pam Prosser, (6) Bloom Where You Are Planted by Beckie Holso, (7) GHIJKL by Cathee Stegall, (8) Nature garden by Nancy.

A Bit of Everything and More on China Trip

Perhaps I was trying to settle down back into my usual routine after the 11-day holiday break in China, I only manged to finish 2 iris-folding kimonos done with fabric tapes on handmade fabric paper this whole week! I tried a few new things on these 2 ATCs: (1) The red circle below the glazed sticker fan is actually a Chinese character in my Chinese name, stamped from a stone craving, and I added a layer of glaze over, (2) A new way to sew the border!

The green piece is going to Annet in the Netherlands.

I was going all WOW seeing every piece of the Alphabet ATCs that came in: Sherry Dreier's (USA) L is for Lace, M is for Mouse, N is for Nine Patch Quilt Block;

and Mari Strydom's (South Africa) L is for Lion, M is for Mushroom, N is for Needles and O is for Owl. I love the idea of the Needles card especially.

Here I photographed them by the alphabet. All the tatted critters on the left topmost are my work :)

Rag doll that arrived from the USA, created by Sherry Collier.

I love the way Sherry punched tiny holes all over the (black) body, giving a sparkling effect. Sherry also punched tiny holes on the head to tie on the hair and on the arms to tie all the rag stripes!

Continuing to part 3 of my China trip: We spent the 3rd and our last full day in Guangzhou (10 Jun, Fri) visiting the shopping belts - Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street (北京路步行街) and Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (上下九商业步行街).

Kristine wondering what they are looking at?

Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street is a pedestrian street where most stores are open from 9 am -10 pm, but prices are generally higher than shops in Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street. I found a street where shops sells stuff like buttons, crystals, fabrics, wholesale, but no, I didn't buy anything, it's really too much to buy unless I plan to sell them, LOL!

Managed to find a mall selling lots of jades (from pendants and rings to big craved pieces) in stalls which are lined up just like our local wet markets! However, nothing really catch my fancy, and I don't want to risk getting conned for fake jade pieces. So at the end of the day, we only bought an extra luggage bag and more bags, watches, socks and T-shirts for the children.

After an early dinner in Panyu, we moved on to the circus!

It was a pity we didn't have the time to visit the Chimelong Paradise (长隆欢乐世界) or the Chime-Long WaterPark (长隆水上乐园), but the Chimelong International Circus (长隆国际大马戏）certainly made up for it. This was Kristine's and also my first time watching a live circus show.

This is the world's largest permanent circus; the world's largest circus stadium which can contain more than 8000 guests per show, and with the largest circus stage in the world. The stage is approximately 100m wide and 50m deep with more than 11 levels of different floor space settings.

The star-studded cast of more than 300 international performers form the Magic World 《魔幻传奇》, along with 40 species and 500 different animals certainly overwhelmed the audience - interesting animal shows, pyrotechnics and hi-tech flaming and lighting effects which created a mysterious dream world, vibrant colours and costumes. One of the last segment on the penquins (not real penquins though), really leave a lasting impression! Sitting in the VIP seats right in the middle front of the stage on the second row, Kristine was simply delighted to "catch" 3 squirrel soft toys!

On the 4th day (11 Jun, Sat) we departed Guangzhou and took a domestic flight over to Guiyang (贵阳). Here, it is totally different from Guangzhou, the weather I mean. Just like in Singapore, it was hot and sunny in Guangzhou (after we left, storms had overtaken the place!), but it was like going around in a big air-con room in Guiyang.

Guiyang, dominated by mist-shrouded hills, is the capital of Guizhou Province. The climate is mild throughout the year. In Guizhou, the most famous is Maotai Wine (茅台酒), which is China's most famous alcoholic beverage, and one of the world's three most famous distilled liquors. Besides having a large chemical industry, rubber industry and a sizable domestic pharmaceuticals industry, Guiyang also manufactures aerospace engine parts and equipment, industrial and mining equipment, as well as railway vehicles and equipment. DH is working in a factory manufacturing excavators. Guiyang is also home to more than 30 minority ethnic groups including Miao, Buyi, Dong and Hui, etc.

DH is staying in the condo named 蓝波湾 in 都习路, which is very near to the Wal-mart supermarket.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the streets in the area, buying some food and fruits back to the condo. Lots of Chinese Bayberries (杨梅) and small managoes. Came across a fried chicken shop which sells all the parts of the chickens deep-fried, including all the intestines and claws - not at all appertizing to me!

Iris Folding Fabric Postcards, Art Dolls and More ATCs

My new maid is finally here! But looks like it's going to be a long way to teach/supervise her. I shouldn't be complaining really, it has to be easier with an extra help. So hopefully, I'll have more time to supervise my children's homework and of course, on work on my crafts :)

Heard of iris-folding? Iris folding is a paper craft technique, which originated in Holland, that involves taping folded strips of coloured paper in such a way to create a spiralling design that resembles the iris of an eye or a camera. Early designs were done using patterned paper cut from the inside of envelopes. Today, crafters use any light weight papers and even RIBBONS. Yes, I read that somewhere, so when Leah M organised an iris folding fabric postcard swap, I specially requested for a private swap with her.

And I used fabric ribbons, which I picked and matched from my stash, I do think they fit into place pretty neatly. How can I not go further to tat some flowers for that special touch to the card? I'm so pleased with them, I couldn't bear to post it out naked to Leah in the States. So, I even ran down especially to the Philatelic Museum to pay for the special chop on the stamp affixed on the fabric postcard, and mailed it in an envelope! Hope this piece will have a very special place in Leah's collections!

My patience paid off - I really felt that way when Lynette McNamara's Goddess doll finally arrived after a whole month of travelling from New Zealand to Singapore. I almost can imagine the Nature Goddess savouring the places she past by and abosorbing all the natural elements by the time she came!

Dana Keenan's "By The Seaside doll "swam" much faster from the USA in comparison, despites her heavy sea-shell head! How artistic we crafters get! It's such a great feeling to receive all the treasured mails in the post from every corner of the Earth. Just amazing, the exchange of not just arts, but also the culture and friendship!

Presenting Lady Madeline and Lady Mae, ladybug ATC dolls created by Karen Bassie (Canada). I always fancy red ladybird, my regret is not having seen a real red one but only those brown beetles. Well, Karen had a great way to incorporate the ladybug on the head! Lovely!

All the metallic ATC swap pieces have also came in. Here's the group photo of all the 8 pieces. Starting from top left corner going clockwise: Marjolijn van Wijk (The Netherlands), Cathy Vigor (USA), "Steel Magnolia" from Mrs Carol Jamieson (Scotland), "Thai Elephant" from Dayle Morrison (Australia), Kim Young (USA), postcard from Pauline Mackenzie (Australia), Debbi Baker (Australia), and finally, mine in the centre.

Cathy's coppery piece had a square brad to hold the metal pieces together, while Dayle's "Thai Elephant" had wire crotchet, old copper coin, beads and modelling clay stamped with an elephant! Interesting array of metallic elements in each and every pieces!

Thank you, ladies, for all the swaps!

I showed a mini-ATC album in my last post. Valerie asked to see the inside. Here are the interiors - the ATCs can be changed. I didn't made the pages fanciful as I wanted the focus on the ATCs.

Iris Folding and Paper Cutting

I haven't been actively trading my ATCs, so this is only the third ATC which I traded but first one received - "A Peek Inside the Fairy Garden" by Carlin from USA. I love flower fairies, especially Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies. I believed Carlin used rubber stamping and applied the stones and ladybird sticker on the background picture, which was cut from some box. It is a nice composition.

And look what I have here....

Well, these are not done by me, but how I wish they are! These colourful pictures are actually Chinese paper cuttings which I bought and lightly mounted on acid-free cards. The paper cuttings are very, very delicate. It is so amazing how they were cut with such thin papers and how they were coloured. I would think they were hand-cut (unless someone knows there are machine-cut Chinese paper cuttings!)

These are my fist attempts at paper cutting. These three paper cuttings in black paper are Western style, very unlike that of Chinese style in my opinion. And the ATC on the top left is an Iris folded pot with tatted flowers.

Iris folding is not a new technique, but it is certainly new to me. It was an accidental discovery for me when I was browsing the books in the library with my children. If you don't know what is it and want to find out more, Iris Folding is a paper folding technique that resembles the iris, or lens, of a camera. The patterns are typically circular and focus around a central point. Here's a pretty good website on Iris Folding:

http://www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com/

I think children should be able to handle this technique well enough to create complicated-looking cards that look more difficult than it really is.