Sunflowers and Umbrellas

Art dolls for April - Sunflowers! Again, I mixed and matched my QuicKutz dies to come up with these paper dolls with movable head and hands. The big sunflowers were snipped from a daisy cut out of watercolour paper and painted with watercolours, and the small sunflowers on the pants were tatted with size 80 yellow thread and 1 strand of brown embroidery floss. One will be leaving for Canada soon, going to Karen Bassie, who created the pair of lovely ladybug ATC dolls for me last month.

Now in Singapore, it's bright and sunny just like the sunflowers, but rainy in the afternoon for the whole of last week. I don't leave my house without an umbrella. Talking about umbrella, this is one of the themes for the April inchie mingle. Failing to find suitable stuff to go on the inchies and my drawing is terrible, I had to make use of yet another QuicKutz die and tried my best to squeeze the umbrella on the 1-inch square!

Rita once showed me an ATC incorporating an inchie and a twinchie. This came to my mind suddenly when I'm looking at this postcard of a lady. So I cut it up into inchie, plus-size inchie and twinchie and assembled all the pieces back on an ATC to form the doll back. The top left one shows it all folded up. What do you think of it? I'll say it's a good one to show the relativity of all the different sizes!

The theme for the ATC session this Apr was "Alphabet". I came across this "Hands" word in a book, and was so intrigued by it that I simply had to try to re-create it. Again, using embossing folder for the background and die-cuts for the letters and hands, they looked classic.

Still in the mood for more iris-folding after the 2 fabric postcards, I went on to these alphabets. These ATCs are done with embossed origami papers though - E for Ellen, K for Kristine and J is for Joy.

Ok, now let's see what came in the mail this week. First, I have Lyn (USA)'s X is for Xylophone , Y is for Yellow Submarine and Z is for Zebra-Striped Zero. In case anyone is wondering, this is showing up in the wrong orientation again :(

A mouth-watering needle-punched "I is for Ice-cream" from Sherry Dreier (USA) and a jovial "J is for Joker" from Norma Mason (USA).

I'm so excited to receive my third fabric postcard in the mail, this time from Lyn Hodge (USA). Lyn created a winter landscape with sparkling snow - something we don't get to see in Singapore!

Thank you for all the fabulous cards, dear swap partners!

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.

My First Inchies

What is an Inchie?

An Inchie is a miniature art piece. Inchies are 1 inch square pieces. A Plus-Size Inchie (PSI) is a larger size Inchie which is 1.5 inch square. 1 inch circle is called a Rinchie, and 2 inch square is called a Twinchie. It was mentioned somewhere that they evolved from the popular Artist Trading Card revolution, I'm not sure, but like ATCs, they can be created in any media or technique including paper, metal and fabric done with drawing, painting, quilting, collage, clay, altered materials, etc, the only criteria is the size. And because of their small sizes, they can be incorporated as embellishments on larger projects, to create mosaic artworks, and to create jewelry.

Depending on how you see it - whether it is more challenging or time-saving to do your art on this small size, I jumped on the bandwagon to create my first inchies. Nothing really fanciful, but they still took me a good 10 nights to finish the 2 sets of 16 inchies based on the theme "Well Wishes" - mostly collage-style on painted watercolour papers and some scrapbooking cardstock, putting my QuicKutz dies to good use, and utilizing whatever sequins and stuff I could find in my stash. I also designed an ambigram for my name or is that what it is called? In any case, it's a mirror-image, or almost one, and embellished with a small tatted butterfly.

I was surfing the internet and ordering some supplies when I came across ways to display ATCs - not about storing the bulk of them, but displaying just a few. They are some pretty neat kits and products selling in the stores, but some are kind of steep in the price too. So, I whipped out my die-cuts and machine to assemble this little album. The inserts are just great to display 1 ATC on each page. And since I'm just working on inchies, I incorporated them on the cover, tying everything together with yarns and fancy trims.

Remember the backgrounds for my ladybug boys and girls in my last post? They were paper napkins. Art4Mail group has a playshop last weekend, coincidentally, on Napkin Art. So I used the 2 napkin designs to do up some small cards. I didn't try much style, just simply using the napkin wholesale with mod podge. Either I was clumsy or I was too much of a perfectionalist, I made at least 5 failed attempts before I could get something decent-looking. Will either try stamping some words on or using some word stickers on the cards as a finishing touch.

Another piece of the metallic ATC came - this Steel Magnolia from Carol Jamieson (Scotland).

Moses graciously extended the invitation for the National Library's Learning Communities Appreciation Dinner to a few of us, regulars to the ATC sessions. The dinner was held at The Pod, the roof top gallery on the 16th storey of the National Library building.

The view there was fantastic, and here's one seeing the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands.

The other thing I must mention was the delicious halal buffet dinner catered from Old Chang Kee Take 5, a brand extension of Old Chang Kee, which serves 5 distinctive Asian dishes. Simple fare, but simply fantastic on the taste buds! It was a great evening!!

ABC Waters @ Alexandra Canal, ArtScience Museum and Of Course, More Craft Works!

In conjunction with the World Water Day, the Tanjong Pagar GRC held a Family Day Carnival by the Water-cum-Opening of ABC Waters @ Alexandra Canal last Saturday. It was pouring pretty heavily just an hour before the start of the event, but the weather couldn't be better after that - a cool fine evening just great for taking a stroll by the nicely done-up canal. BTW, ABC stands for Active, Beautiful and Clean!

We were even greeted by an Indian with a handsome snake to pose for photos! With free flow of snacks like popcorn, candy floss and malt candy on stick and even burgers good enough for dinner, the good number of crafting activities kept children and even adults and old folks occupied.

MM Lee Kuan Yew accompanied by the other MPs of the GRC.

Then on Sunday, I brought the whole family to the newly opened ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. Even at 20% discount for the tickets, it was a whopping $97 for a mixture of 5 tickets, but well-worth the price walking through the four opening exhibitions -

(1) ArtScience: A Journey Through Creativity,

(2) Genghis Khan: The Exhibition,

(3) Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, and

(4) Travelling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World.

Personally, I enjoyed walking through the Genghis Khan exhibition most. A good flow of easy info displayed at every turn intertwined with the display of more than 200 authentic artifacts and weaponry from the conqueror’s reign, you are guaranteed to walk out knowing a well-rounded story of one of the world’s greatest leaders - his background and family, the wars and warfare, weapons and tactics, the influence of the Mongol empire on culture, law and finance.

The dim lights in the Shipwrecked exhibition added to the "at the bottom of the sea" feeling when we walked through the some 60,000 objects carried by a ninth-century Arab dhow. Lying undisturbed on the ocean floor for more than 1,100 years until its discovery near Indonesia's Belitung Island in 1998, the collection has been kept intact as one entire collection to reflect accurately the assortment and magnitude of the find which is the single largest consignment of Tang Dynasty export goods ever discovered - thousands of glazed bowls, ewers and other exquisite ceramics. The highlights have to be the several gold and silver items with such fine intricate details.

The journey through the Silk Road immersed visitors in the sights, sounds and smells of the bustling marketplaces in Asia and the Middle East - yes, you could smell the spices and hear the stimulated sound of the marketplaces at Xi'An, Turfan, Samarkand and Baghdad which were part of one of the greatest trading routes known to Man. The Silk Routes were crucial paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, soldiers and nomads from Ancient China, India, Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries a millennium ago.

Back to crafts. This month, I managed to complete my artdoll and ATC dolls very early, as inspiration came just so suddenly. I mixed and matched, cut and joined, modified cut-out from my QuicKutz dies to assemble this "By The Seaside" doll - see the waves and sequin seashells. Added a nice piece of fabric for a wrap around the movable hands, she sure would make heads turn!

I was also just as pleased with my ladybirds/ladybugs ATC dolls.

I used paper napkins I bought with this theme in mind, placed on painted watercolour paper to stiffen it up and add more interesting dash of colours. Can you smell Spring in the air? Little Ladybird boys and girls look like they could almost fly (or perhaps they really do fly)!

These following 3 fabric ATCs came in the mail this week. The lady on the beautiful blue background and all the fancy trims and ribbons was done by Lisa Maria (USA). See all those holes on the background - it is what is left over from when they make sequins. There is a big name to it - Punchinella. I learned something new :) And Google is acting up again, I just can't load the photo in the correct orientation

The other fabric ATC is Sharon Scothern (UK)'s Z is for Zip.

This green piece is done by Debbie Baker (Australia). She used a bright green stretchy sequin fabric (mostly used for dance costumes) which she toned down by painting it with a few coppery and olive shades of Lumiere paint, and layered with a felt backing. The embellishments are beads on metallic wires and squares of copper sheet that she heated, cut, embossed and distressed with black paint.

Thank you, ladies!!

The Lion King

I mentioned in my last post about the OWOH giveaways I won. This is the 2nd one - a set of floral stamps, complete with a piece of acrylic block handle and a stamp pad, from Gail's Card Cafe. Thanks, Gail!

This artdoll is overdue, but nevertheless, she's completed and on her way to Amelia Ruscoe (New Zealand). The theme was Goddess, but I wanted to create one closer to heart, so I found a Goddess of Mercy picture and drew on parchment paper to create these dolls. The colours of the variegated paper and the embossing done on the paper created a lovely surreal effect. Had to add a touch of my tatted flowers ;)

I was unsure if I should jump in on this Metallic swap, but I couldn't stop myself. I created, in a way, a personalized fabric ATC for everyone but all based on the same concept - embossed metal foil coloured with black Indian ink, with a hint of Spring in the background colours and the rolled fabric rose. The surface was touched up lightly with metallic crayons and the border finished off with a metallic thread.

Pauline Mackenzie (Australia) was the first to send out for the swap, but she mistakingly made a postcard instead of an ATC. Of course we won't mind the mistake, and it's certainly a well-composed one - the embellishment was done with model magic then painted, and rubbed and buffed to give the metallic look.

The 2nd piece of metallic ATC came from Kim Young (USA), she textured the metal foil and sewed over them onto handmade silk paper. Love the bright, yet at the same time, warm colours!

The last 2 ATCs came from Germany by Ann Seidel - I is for Inchies and a Valentine Heart (for the F card I sent her mistakingly). Ann's I card with all the inchies came just when I'm going to do an inchies swap, I couldn't stop smiling at the coincidence :)

S$10 million musical, The Lion King, is the inaugural theatrical event at the new Sands Theatre, which can seat 1,627 people. Stunning costumes - the giraffes and zebras are my favourites. Of course the mask of Scar and Mufasa and how they hang over like real lions (photo above) are simply fantastic. Kristine, who went to the musical with me on Friday night, felt that the all the animals look so real like. Indeed!

We didn't manage to explore the whole Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands on Friday, we went a second time today and also to the ArtScience Museum. More in the next post!

Leaving The Garden - A Custom

Survived another week without a maid, but hope a new one will be coming real soon, sigh. I was too busy to participate in this year OWOH giveaway. I did manage to visit some of the blogs though, and was lucky enough to win 2 giveaways. 1 is this black and silver stone bracelet from Anna McCurdy in Western Canada. Anna arranged the stones in such that the length will fit me and it's just perfect. I'm not a fashion guru, but I do think it's chic. Thanks, Anna!

My J cards revealed .... they are ... jellyfish! I'm not sure if they look like the real thing, but I'm happy with the tatted design and the whole card in general. Hope my recipients think likewise.

The theme for this month ATC session in Bishan Library was "March". Let's see - we have March starting on the same day of the week as November every year and February in common years only. International Women's Day is marked on the 8th of March every year. Pi Day is observed on March 14 because of the date's representation as 3/14 in month/day date format. This representation adheres to the commonly used approximation of 3.14 for π. World Water Day is observed on March 22 since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as World Day for Water, and the theme for 2011 is "Water for Cities". After doing so much homework, I decided just a simple "March Marching In", and well, they do really march by pulling the 2 plastic strips.

We also learned to draw the Ed Emberley way using his books available in the library. Some are quite simple, but some are pretty complex pictures, he is able to show step by step drawing with just simple shapes and lines which will lead to the all sorts of pictures. You can see for yourself what we managed in the half hour!

I drew this scarecrow with highlighters following one of the books. Not bad for someone who don't draw :) The green hexagons piece was traded with Vicki, who painstakingly cut and pieced every piece by hand, while the ducks were drawn by Lyn.

出花园是潮人一种特有的成人礼俗。家中有15岁男女孩子的家庭，要为他们办出花园仪式以表示他们已经长大成人。出花园当天清早，要为孩子备办三牲果品拜别从小守护他们的公婆神，表示孩子已经长大，可以走出园，不再是终日在花园里玩闹的孩童了。其仪式是将三牲果品合凑成四件或八件或十二件，陈置在俗称“胶掠”上，请出公婆神的神炉，由出花园的孩子跪拜，拜毕，以后就不再拜了。出花园的孩子要穿红皮屐，吃公鸡头，所有食品都要吃一点。

Here's an attempt to translate the above Chinese text. "Leaving The Garden" is a traditional custom unique to the Teochew (which is one of the Chinese dialect groups). When a child reaches 15 years old according to the Chinese calender, the child goes through the garden ceremony to indicate that the child is already grown up and may go out the garden, and is no longer the noisy child who would play all day long in the garden.

Well, my boy just went through this today. I guess my mother-in-law has simplified a lot of things already. We went to the temple in the early morning to pray. As the child cannot meet any strangers (and so not go out of the house) throughout the whole day of the ceremony, we brought his new pyjamas, briefs and shoes to the temple instead. Back home, he then bathed with the flowers offerings and wear the new clothings. After that, offered tea to parents, and everyone sat down for lunch, eating a bit of every item of the temple offerings. This is the first time I know and went through such a ceremony (cos' I'm a Cantonese and we don't have such a custom).

Have You Watched Emily?

Another week passed without a maid :( Only consoling thing is that I have lost a little bit of the weight I gained which stubbornly would not go down!

I finished "V" finally! V is for victory, but alas, I'm resolved on tatting animals, so it's V is for Vampire Bat. I came up with a little black critter with bloody red eyes, but I think it looks more cute than scary.

Another set of animal done - I is for Ibis. Since they look like flamingo, I modified Martha Ess' flamingo design to come up with this. I'm designing and working on J now, and is pretty pleased with the J********, can you guess!?! Stay tune!

Here's my set of complete H - my tatted hedgehog, hats from Mari (South Aftica) and Norma (USA), and a house that Sherry Dreier (USA) just built with needle-punching.

V is for Veggie and W is for Weaving received from Lyn Strauch (USA) and Y is for Yarn from Sharon Scothern (UK).

Sharon explained that she laid organza over the background fabric and sewed the channels to make the Y. Frizzy yarn were then inserted into each channel. Ingenious way to make up the Y!

Last night, my boy and I were at the Esplanade to catch Ivan Heng in his role of Emily of Emerald Hill, a finale to W!LD RICE’s 10th Anniversary season of smash hits. A one-woman play, Emily is a Chinese Peranakan, who by dint of her native wit and cunning, emerges as the matriarch of a large and distinguished household, but only at the expense of her son’s suicide and her estrangement from her husband. The end of the play sees her alone in a much reduced mansion. She is old, and wistful, and the remnants of her family have moved to the suburbs while she is surrounded by the urgent hammering and pounding of an expanding inner-city construction.

Since 1999 when Ivan Heng became the first male actor to play Emily, he has performed a total of 98 performances as Emily to date. “A moving, funny and accomplished piece of theatre.” – The Age, Australia - this summed up nicely my sentiments too.