Eye sketches from the sketchbook

Hello friends! Just sharing some eye sketches from the sketchbook. The top eye was done with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils (super easy to blend) and the bottom eye was done with Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils (very vibrant and pigmented but hard to blend).

Happy weekend friends!

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Bonding with nephew #1

So I got to bond with nephew #1 back in November when the folks and sister went on a short getaway.:)

Yeah...the poor kid had to spend those few days with his aunt...such torture right?

He had to sleep on a mattress on the floor of my bedroom, surrounded by cushions. Now, he could technically sleep on my queen-size bed with me but that would mean I get no sleep because the kid does kungfu fighting in his sleep. And all the cushions is so that he wouldn't hit the wardrobe in his sleep and wake me up.*LOL*

Since I was working on some home improvement projects, I brought him along to Ikea where he had his first ever meal there. And no, he did not like the Swedish meatballs. But he did enjoy helping me assemble the Ikea furniture.

I tried to incorporate as many bits of paper scraps as I could without overwhelming the layout. It was such a fun layout to put together.:)

Playing along with Let's Get Sketchy.

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A bag of happiness..a super easy project

So the race to finish my pile of patterned papers (as mentioned in my paper goals for 2020) is on! Like this super easy project - a bag of happiness. :)

Even though I've stopped taking paper bags at the stores, other members of the family still do. Nephew #1 brought this back home the other day, emptied its contents and just left the sturdy paper bag out on the table (yeah, nothing Greta Thunberg about him for sure...*LOL*).

I measured and cut the patterned papers, ran them through my trusty Xyron Creative Station and then adhered the pieces to the bag on all four sides on the outside as well as the insides to really reinforce the bag.

Then I adhered the "Happiness" sentiment and a gold doiley (from some recent happy mail) to the front and finished off with some coordinating wrapping tissue. I couldn't decide where to put the bag handles so I eliminated them completely.

I'm gonna to put some snacks in it and leave it on my sister's desk so she can have a bag of happiness. Knowing her, she will probably fill it up with some goodies and gift it to one of her friends. I love the idea of passing a bag of happiness around. *winks*

P/s: Two sheets of patterned papers down, a gazillion more to go! *High fives all around*

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Embracing colour in my life

For the last year or so, I've been embracing colour in my life...again. People assume that because I love bold patterns and colours in my creative projects, that extends to my wardrobe too. But nope. Your gal was always ready to attend a funeral. Colour of choice for any new clothing item tended to be black...except during CNY when I will buy a few dresses in a bright colour (grandma would kill me if I showed up in black..hahaha)...always toned down with a black blazer/cardigan though.

Now I have dark brown hair and eyes and am of medium-built so black doesn't really overwhelm my skin tone or frame. Plus I always mix up my textures and add a pop of colour via my bag or shoes. 

A large part of it was pure laziness - with a limited colour palette wardrobe, I could get dressed in the dark and still be coordinated...and my obsession with not getting tanned. Black absorbs the UV rays from the sun and protects it from damaging your skin. My body temperature tends to run on the low side so I rather bear the heat of wearing a dark colour then the sticky sensation of sunblock on my skin. Plus black never goes out of trend, right? *winks*

But after a year of watching beauty gurus on YouTube, I got considerably bored and started venturing into fashion videos, notably inspired by "slow" fashion - using what you already own/buying second-hand to create new outfits. And since I tend to "keep" everything and fashion tends to be cyclical, I went to my storage bins to see what old clothes I could wear to bring some colour back in my life. Luckily for me, the love for all things black only dates back 5 years or so...so I found a treasure trove of colourful patterned clothes! 

And now I'm challenging myself not to repeat outfits, layer pieces, change up the shoes and play with accessories. This process of playing dress-up has stretched my creativity and enabled me to appreciate colours and patterns so much more. I find myself reaching for the less frequently used coloured pencils in my stash just to "experiment" with something different...which is a good thing, right?

It's been really fun playing dress-up except for the "need to be careful while eating" part. I love my spicy food like curries and all...and those are a no-no when I'm wearing pastel colours because your gal is a sloppy eater *LOL*.

What about you? Have you been embracing colour in your life? 

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More pages from the travel planner - Sydney 2019

Hello friends! I'm back to share more pages from the travel planner. A continuation from last week's post: a page from the travel planner.

We went for lunch/tea at La Renaissance Patisserie and Cafe. I googled the place and it had great reviews and a lovely courtyard for dining in.

So Lizzy said she had to have something savoury for lunch so she went with a spinach quiche and coffee. I went straight for the sugar because I didn't sleep all night on the plane (which resulted in poor decision-making...*LOL*).

Anyway, I got the almond croissant, a hot chocolate and a cake to share with my pal.

In case you were wondering, the cake was a raspberry mousse with a creamy passionfruit centre, almond nougatine, pain de genes biscuit base. And everything was sooooooo good that we went for Round 2. *hehehe*

I'm really enjoying doing these travel planner spreads because there are perfect for those thin paper strips from the scrap pile. :)

And of course, I brought my pal a gift. I mean she did travel 100+ mins by car and train to meet me in the city. See a familiar decorated paper bag? *winks*

Happy week ahead friends! :)

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What's in my current art-on-the-go kit?

I remember not too long ago how awkward I was about sketching in public. Now I'm like "Great light source, let's take out the art-on-the-go kit and start my meditative trance." *winks*

Anyway, here is my current art-on-the-go kit... a ZipIt pencil case and a Strathmore Toned Gray Sketchbook (in hard cover).

Here are the contents of my ZipIt case: Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils and a smaller pencil case that holds my various erasers, white gel pens, white paint marker and sharpener.

And here is this week's work-in-progress with my art-on-the-go kit. I wanted to attempt the blond hair blue eyed portrait and of course, my Aussie pal Lizzy had lots of reference photos for me - she has 3 gorgeous grandboys that meet the description. :)

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Just another quick card from the scrap pile

It's been pretty fun pulling little bits and pieces from the scrap pile....and using my creativity to put them all together into a somewhat cohesive design on a card. Did it work? *LOL*

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A sweet CNY layout

Hello friends! Here is this week's sweet CNY layout. :)

Yep...that would be nephew Elijah with his mum. The other photo includes his daddy and grandpa.

This layout came together really quickly. I picked a gold-foiled ornate patterned paper so I had to keep the other elements simple to prevent the "overdone" look.

LOVE the cute furry rats that were part of CNY 2020 home decor. Super cute!

What do you think?

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A page from the travel planner

Er...yes, it's been a while since I've shared any travel pages because it's been a while since I did any travel pages. *LOL* Well, things are going to be different in 2020 (mostly because the mobile phone is running out of storage so I don't have that much of a choice..hehe) because this year will be a year of completion. *encouraging music plays in the background*

Well, enough waffling...let's look at my travel page shall we? The photo was taken back in July 2019, when I was in Sydney and got to meet up with my mate Lizzy Hill! We stopped for a "friends in sunnies" photo on the way to lunch. :)

I decided to change to form factor for my personal travel layouts for 2019. Instead of using the Traveller's Notebooks (as used previously), I went with a large 6 whole file planner type system so that I had a little more flexibility in the order that I created the pages (I could do later trips first instead of doing them chronologically based on the calendar year). Plus I could actually put to use these large Kikki K Planners that I have in my stash.

I used up lots of paper strips from my scrap pile and made a teeny dent in my letter sticker stash. Yay, go me!


Happy week ahead friends! :)

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This week's eye sketch from the sketchbook

Hello friends! Just sharing this week's eye sketch from my sketchbook.

Here it was about an hour into the sketch.  Coloured pencil is a very SLOW medium but it really allows you to build up the layers and play with lots of colours.:)

Happy weekend friends!

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Another CNY 2020 layout

Well friends, I may have gone a little overboard with the reds and golds on this particular CNY 2020 layout! *winks*

In case you were wondering, the lady in orange is my aunt and the two men are my cousins. The other lady is my cousin's Vietnamese wife. And the baby you've seen before...albeit through my drawing - my nephew S.

And of course, extended family has to pose with my signages too. *LOL* (These really get a lot of mileage...you should make some if you always have guests over.)

Apologies for the slight glare in the photos..the gold glitter is hard to photograph!

Yes, I added a googly eye to the cute rat for a little dimension.

What do you think?

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