A Malay Girl in Paris - mixed media with beeswax

Hi there! Wishing Eid-el-Adha to those celebrating tomorrow!

Today, I want to share a mixed media work entitled 'A Malay Girl in Paris'. It's a 'not-that-simple' project using canvas, acrylic paints, texture paste, distress inks and ......beeswax. Yes, beeswax! You can't see clearly from the photos because I didn't use much or lets just say...I wasn't adventurous enough to play with much beeswax on that day. Lol! Not as much as I thought I would...hehe...next time....

So, the story is about a Malay Girl who travels to Paris seeking inspirations to create. She's very proud of her traditional costume and wears it everyday in the city. I gesso'ed the canvas first before painted it in acrylic orange. Then I stamped scripts randomly on the canvas with the archival ink. I mixed a texture paste with a green acrylic paint and applied on Balzer's design stencil. You can see that on the bottom left corner of the canvas.

Maybe next time I will do a Japanese girl in KL? A Chinese girl in Timbuktu? Hmmm.......

She has 'creations and inspirations' in her hands.

Thanks for stopping by! Gotta rush..... Do come visit again soon!

TTFN!

Love Birds - mixed media / decoupage on canvas

Hi there! I think I would like to call this work ' Love Birds'. The gentleman came in a bicycle and is waiting just outside the gate with a bouquet of roses to meet his lover. The lady is standing in the room getting ready, looking over and over again at herself in the mirror; patiently waiting for him. What a nice and sunny day when you can hear the birds singing and see the butterflies flying.

How's that for a love story? Lol!

The images are from Ladies Diary by Graphic45. They make sweet romantic scenes.

I gesso'ed the canvas first before I applied the acryclic paint in pastel green. Then I decoupaged decorated tissue paper onto it. I mixed the same pastel green acryclic with a sandy white texture from Martha Stewart and applied it on the patches that I didn't decoupage and also the distress stickles for that shiny glittery effect.

The wooden gate is from Kaisercraft. I just love them. You see how the gentleman is standing outside the gate with the flowers bouquet in his hand....quite a romantic scene I suppose.....lol! handsome he is too....hehe..love the beret!

I made the white lace ribbon look like a long drape / curtain in the lady's room. She is probably looking at herself in the mirror to see if she got everything from the hair, the dress, the makeup, the shoes perfect, top to toe. Love the long dangling pearls and the sling bag!

And also a white dove flying over with a letter; the love letter. And two white butterflies just flying around having fun in the garden.

So that's it folks! Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by! Do come and visit again soon!

See ya'

It's been a looooonngg time......

Indeed it has been a long time since I was here at Central Market!

This trip was purely accidental. I actually wanted to go here with a bohemian crafter friend of mine since I believe she is better at the nook and crannies of this place for I haven't been here for the longest time!! Owing to my busy schedules, I'm still unable to fix a time for the girls' day out! Sorry Shahrul! Hehe....one fine day ok!

Nevertheless, being here with my family is also very priceless. For one, this is the first trip here for my son. I've always wanted him to know me not just me being his mommy but also what I have always cherished and look for in life. My hubby is already astrayed into a different direction when he finally concluded that I'm a compulsive shopper! Hehehe...actually, I'm definitely not one. But sometime, my shopping can be driven by stress so I guess thats where the compulsive shopping comes in I guess...lol!

Anyway, i love being here at this place. Everything seems so friendly... Relaxing...don't even mind wearing slippers here...I can see myself ( if I'm a tourist!) in a backpack, slippers and of course a camera in my hand snapping away photos of this unique place. I don't have to look good; I just need to feel good.... Bliss.....

Okay enough of my ramblings and let's get on with the photos shall we...lol! I didn't edit all the photos here. It was hard to catch Faiz sitting or standing still. An active boy he was on that day. I think he liked the environment too. Hubby was in a good mood and let me wander around the building while they went for a fish foot spa and a drink at nearby kopitiam. I dashed away quickly with my camera and started taking few photos that I'm sharing now. Ooh..and of course, I did buy few things for myself too. I bought a bangle, a bohemian style bag and a 'genie' or aladdin? pants. Love them all! I wouldn't say they are cheap though cos this place is meant for oversea tourists...

Gosh,..ramblings again.

Faiz posing in front of the shops selling unique and exotic items

Just look at the items on sale above. Yummy....So mystically gorgeous...

Lovely colourful lanterns. Yupp..I think they are lanterns alright!

A shop called Puteri Gunung Ledang. I wonder if they sell items that the princess wears....

Maybe they sell hati nyamuk too! Lol!

aaah...wonderful gift items above.

I love pearls. Do you?

note books. They are all unique!

anyone interested in a mask?

Oh yeah...I bought one of those....

walked through this lane...smells great!

And below are photos of the decorative tiles adorning the staircases.

 

 

 

Ok, wish I have some more photos to share but my time was up and we had to go home. Next time around, I hope to be able to spend more time here and walk the corridors inside and outside of Central Market.

Ciao and thanks for stoping by!

My Story - a pop up altered box for charity auction at Papier

Hi there! It's late at night now and I decided that before I go to bed, I should really post my new pop-up altered box, which will go for an auction for charity at Papier. This is my first attempt at pop-up box. Not sure of the mechanism to make something pop-out/up from a box! I did google on it but didn't spend time long enough to find a good instruction on how-to. So, I decided to just give it a try.

The box was a packaging for a chocolate covered dates I received before the Raya holidays. The pop-up figures are all from Ladies Diary (Graphic45). It had a square clear window that made things inside visible.

I covered the sides of the box with patterened papers and a paper valence, which is just on the front-side. The inner base of the box is firstly covered with a patterened paper. The patterned papers that I have used here are all from my Papier DT kit for this month.

The buyer { hope there will be..lol! } will not only get this pop-up box but also a mini journal that I have created to nicely fit inside this box. The mini is given a title ' My Story ' and it goes with the title for this box on the lid i.e. Ladies Diary. Once the box is closed, these ladies will be just resting on the diary.

So as you can see, these ladies will be on an upright position once the box is opened. After a few "try and error"s and quite a bit of scraps that went to the bin; I think I'm quite satisfied with this one. Lol!

Then, I just decorated the base of the box with a paper flower and cut-out from Hambly's.

On the inner lid of the box, I have also placed a journalling tag and a cut-out of a bird cage on the side. I tried to hide the pop-up strips mechanisms with die-cut flowers. I guess that kinds works...hehehe....

thanks for stopping by! See you soon!

Written lines ... .? - an art journal page

 

Hi there! Firstly, I'm totally suck at sketching. I know and I acknowledged the fact that I can't draw. But I guess that's the thing about art ya' see. No matter how terrible you think your work is, there will always be someone out there who would say it's ok. Lol! { yes? No? }

In my real work, making mistake is totally and absolutely a big No No! The key is to do it right the first time. This will eventually saves time and money and sometime maybe even life! In art, I can blend the colours however I like it and would still look acceptable ..well..at least to me..hehehe.... But at work, to get from A to B, you have to use a certain formula and if you forgot to add the squared for example; you sure gonna regret that bigtime later. So, it's like making mistake is quite unforgivable.

There are 2 challenges in this page. One is the music challenge over at Art Journal Cafe and the other is one I created myself for me i.e. to sketch by pencil, no eraser AT ALL! and no colours this time. So, a bit on the work side that I have taken in here and that was 'always to do it right the first time'. No eraser and even if I think I made mistake, I'll need to try to correct it or create something else out of that mistake. And it turned out my sketch looks like a kinddie work of art..hehehe.....yeah, and I'm really good at scrutinizing my own work..lol!

The girl's hair was done by journalling on thin lines. She even has short bangs and I journalled on those too. The girl reminds me of Madonna somehow and I was listening to few songs while I was doing this and I remember one of it was Material Girl! That was what probably influenced me to draw Her looking like that. Lol!

Below is just an extension of what I can do with journalling on lines. The scene below is about 2 butterflies and and they were flying around in the rain. So, yes, those vertical journalling are actually rain coming down from the sky and the butterflies are so happy that you can see them flying around as if entranced my the sound of the rain. The sound of rain is like music to their ears. { yelarr tu.. }

I finished the page above while I was traveling up north recently to Penang. It was a very short stay..I wouldn't even call it a vacation..lol! But it was a good visit nevertheless since I took few photos of the old colonial buildings using my iPhone and DSLR. I'll post them later.

So thank you for visiting. Have a nice day!

Ciao!

 

Mixed Media layout

Hi there! This week at Papier, I'm sharing a mixed-media layout on 12x12 patterned paper by Basic Grey. I have used acrylic paints, distress inks, archival ink, my gelatos from Faber Castell, white gesso and dimensional glue/paint.

Here I have used techniques such as stamping, stenciling, painting ( with my gesso, gelatos and acrylic paints ) and of course a bit of journalling on the edge of the paper.

Basically, I tore strips of patterned paper ( October DT kit ) and make it as the flower stems. Cut-out the red bloomers and used it singly as a flower to each stem. The leaves are done by stamping on another piece of paper and cut to shape. The 'greens' just below is actually a white gauze soaked in green acrylic paint. Perhaps it represent some kind of a moss.... Hehe...

The clouds are cut-out from the page of an old book - a flea market finds. I have splashed over with white gesso and later add dimensional pearl paint in white.

Don't you just love mixed media?!

Thanks for stopping by! Ciao!