Paper Flowers Galore

I'm addicted to anything Do-It-Yourself and inexpensive crafts! This time its paper flowers! I would like to share with you some of the DIY tutorial on making paper flower.

1. collections of lovely paper flower tutorials from Oh Happy Day

2. how to make paper flower from A Beautiful Mess

3. making fiesta pom-pom flower from Creativebug

4. making paper flower headboard on Design Love Fest

5. paper to petal by Design Sponge and Oh Joy

6. mini pajaki tutorial on Honestly WTF

7. making paper flower bouquet on Creativebug

8. mixing real flowers, paper flowers, airplant into bocquet by Michelle Edgemont

9. making paper flower corsage and boutonnieres by MicheleNg

10. tissue flower on A Beautiful Mess

11. giant peony paper piñatas on Corner Blog

12. fabric flower on Crafty Craft Fair

13. felt flower on In My Nest

14. shabby chic flower by Little Snippets, tutorial can be found in Guidecentral

For more inspirations, you may also visit this websites:

• Cut Out and Keep - collections of origami
• Emmaline Bride
  
• Guidecentral
• The Crafty Blog Stalker
• Tip Nut
• Dear Hand Made Life
• Accents and Petals
• Handcraft Your Life
• Our Lake Life
• Save By Love Creations
• Capitol Romance
• Craft Unleashed
• Carolyn Scott Photography
• Elli
• 100 Layer Cake
• Sweet Violet Bride
• Laura Ashley
• Whip Up

Happy Crafting!

Jo Avila Photography Class

Hey folks! I have started another seminar. It's Basic Photography Seminar by Sir Jo Avila every Saturday at Unit 114 Gold Building, 15 Annapolis St., Greenhills, San Juan.

Here are the coverage of the 5-sessions photography seminar:

Session 1 - Basic Theories and Principles of Photography

Session 2 - Composition Technique

Session 3 - Basic Studio Lightning and Flash Photography

Session 4 - Basic Post Processing and Basic Color Management and Inkjet Printing

The good thing about this seminar is that Sir Jo Avila offers 50% discount to celebrate their 20th year of teaching basic photography. What's more is you may attend multiple refresher session for FREE!

You may visit his website at www.joavila.com!

My Favorite Polymer Craft Store

These days I considered myself crafty, not surprising since I've enrolled polymer clay workshop. However, polymer clay equipment and supplies are sometimes difficult to come by since we have few specialty shop in the Philippines that sell this product. Most of the good finds were found on internet. Below are the lists of shops where I would like to get my supplies.

1. Deovir Arts and Supply

• have branches all over Metro Manila, mainly in malls.
• they have US imported polymer clay such as Sculpey and Kato
• various arts supplies
• tools

2. Purple Nook Clay Shop

• Slightly lower price than Deovir
• wide range of polymer clay supplies/equipment

3. Jigs and Clay

• Mostly pre-order items

4. Shmily Arts and Crafts

• they have a shop in Sta. Ana

5. Hobbes and Landes

• Greenbelt, Greenhills and Rockwell banch are known to have a polymer clay supplies. I will go check if their Trinoma branch have clay availablity.

The Gift of Time

 You've probably heard this statement a few times"Time Stood Still For No Man". How true are these words. Time denotes our existence here on earth, the dash - between our birth to the last day of our lives contains a personal history of who we were, how we lived, who we knew and what we did with our lives. 

It is filled with memories of love, joy, laughter, pain, sorrow, anger, forgiveness, emotions all entertained, some internalized, some expressed, and some exploded.

In the midst of our living, time continues on its endless journey - time is a gift, though we rarely stop and acknowledge it as such. With everyday time is equally allotted to everyone - 24 hours, and what we do with that time is totally up to us. 

We can spend out time wisely, or worthlessly, we can squander it, or invest it, we can enjoy it, or abuse it, we can live it, or retreat from it, but it moves on regardless. 

Time cannot be contained, only the memories caught within that time can be. With time we have the amazing ability to capture within our memory bank those moments that cause us to become embodied with adrenaline, love, passion, peace, and a revealing awareness of who we are as individuals.

I have always wanted to do everything at once. These past few weeks, I have taken various short classes of the things I want to learn and also, I plan on taking more in the future. It was a huge sacrifice on my part, especially if you are someone who wants to be beside your guy all the time. For the past three years, I always tends to my boyfriend for enjoyment and contentment, until I felt that I have to do something worthwhile to accelerate my personal growth. Which is a big surprise for me because I rarely get bored with monotony.

Seeing Labsie working out every weekend and enjoying his chosen hobbies sparks something in me. It got me thinking that I should do something about it. Since I was into arts and crafts, I decided to take various arts and crafts and enjoy my life. Travelling was out of option since I'd like to go travel with him. 

Spending time with your boyfriend is no biggie - but you have to have passion for other things. If Labsie was into sports and I was into him is not the mark of good relationship. Finding other passion will make you love yourself more. It also gives you enough confidence and self-esteem.

These days I manage my time between my passion and my boyfriend which is good for us as it make the two of us grow together and separately while chasing both our dreams.

Labsie gift for me on Christmas 2013

Craft 101: Beginner's Tools for Polymer

Starting a polymer clay is a bit expensive since you will be needing a lot of things especially when you are a hoarder like me. Here are some of the "shopping list" that you might need really need.

• Polymer Clay - obviously you can't work without polymer clay. Make sure you store your clays in cool area away from heat since clay cures at low temperature. 
• Oven - Never ever use oven toaster. Use electric oven like mine.
• Blades/X-Acto Knife/Hobby Knife - spare blades can be bought at School/Office Supplies.
• Needle tools and awls - for poking hole, making marks, securing tiny piece to bigger piece.
• Chopstick or Knitting Needles - very handy when you are doing some sculpting or working with cane slices
• Pasta Machine/Acryllic Rollers - use in conditioning clay
• Baking surface - lay a piece of paper on baking surface. You may use tiles.
• Steel Ruler/Tape Measure - for measuring
• Liquid Clay - discuss in previous blog. 
• Working Mat - can be tiles or rubber cutting mat
• Glaze/Varnish - discuss in previous blog.
• An Assortment of Brushes - artist brushes, toothbrush
• Pigments/Chalks - Acrylic paint, sharpies, alcohol ink, soft pastels, fade-proof ink, mica powder, glitters, metal powders, liquid colored clay, sparklers powder
• Various Tools:
• Alcohol/Wet Wipes - you may put alcohol and water in spray bottle separately. The water is to spray on thin sheet on clay so they don't stick to my work surface.
• Toothpick
• Pins
• Cotton Buds
• Baby Powder - applied on workplace or molds to avoid clay sticking on items
• Tweezers - for placing rhinestones, pearls, and teeny tiny eyes on face
• Small craft scissors
• Assorted sculpting tool - you may visit dental supplies store for this.
• Mold/Texture sheet/Cutter
• Drill
• Acrylic blocks - for making lentil beads
• Waterslide Transfer
• Pliers and other beading materials