I have mentioned about my plan to learn on how to make clay flowers in earlier post. A website ThaiFlowerArt.com commented on my post.

Apparently they have ebooks (both free and paid versions) that teach people on how to make clay flowers. This ebook basic techniques – How To Make Clay Flowers is one of them that I want to download one of these days.

They also sell materials needed to make such flowers, from air dry clay – Luna Clay, Daisy Clay, driftwood, stamens, wires to ready made flowerbulbs and many more necessary materials to make those beautiful flowers yourself.

Oh, BTW I also find the website a good place to learn how the different types of orchids look like.

I was out the other day and stumbled upon a clay craft shop. The shop has workshop for clay flower. Well, being me who are always interested in new craft, I almost sign up for the class but since my son is still clingy (I don’t think he can stand 2 hours of being apart), I come to my senses and decided to go home and think about it first.

So today I Google around for info on clay flower. So far I found 2 websites that mostly do orchids. Check out the picture of Phalaenopsis Orchid taken from lilychartier.com.

Who would have thought that this orchid is made from clay? They are so life-like..huhu!

I also found another website : pattyclayflowers.com. She conducts class as well but she is in Melbourne.

These clay flowers are made from air dry clay, which means no baking needed. They also have cutter and resin moulds to make different type of leaves and petals.

I am so tempted to go to the clay flower workshop!!

As I was browsing the women forum on the topic of craft, I read about 3D decoupage. I found a website that shares on how to decorate hand made card with 3D decoupage technique. It is different than the usual decoupage technique I did on tin or wood. So here it goes – 3D decoupage on card.

It is important that we have the printed decoupage sheet since the picture will be glued layer by layer, giving the 3 dimensional effect.

Above is the picture of the completed card.

If you think this is some kind of dessert, look closely. It is chocolate oatmeal soap picture taken from the website TeachSoap.com.

I suddenly take interest in this soap making after reading a local women forum. A forummer sells DIY kit for this home made soap and she’s using the melt and pour soap making process.

After reading more in the website, I think I will buy the DIY soap making kit and see whether I could come out with my own soap creation.

I have done decoupage before but after reading more, I am quite interested to learn about 3D decoupage or paper tole.

Taken the definition from papertolekits.com,

Paper tole is a fun craft/art form which transforms a 2 dimensional image (picture) into a 3d picture, by selectively cutting, shaping, and gluing individual components from copies of the original image. The result is a beautiful life like creation that is your own work of art, as there are no two finished paper tole projects that are identical.

I am still thinking whether it is wise for me to invest in this new craft since I haven’t started on the ribbon embroidery kits, one stroke painting and brush lettering I bought last year…heh!

Inside the kits are 3 type of ribbon embroidery crafts – 2 to make cards and another one is the embroidery kit with cardstock frame. The one that I bought is the Anna Griffin card kits, you can see the picture and more about her kits here.

And the Anna Griffin,TRELLIS ROSE Ribbon Embroidery Kit looks like this. Here is another store online which you can buy all these kits but the one I managed to grab from eBay are much cheaper..hehe!

Now, will I find the time to start doing this ribbon embroidery craft?..huhu!

Do you want to make something DIY to save the budget, or simply want to have something straight from the heart as a keepsake in the scrapbook album?

Here is your chance to make use of the cardstock and scissors.

I love the idea of glittery slipper and tiara. It doesn’t have to be extremely perfect because what matters are the memory.

Your princess will definitely cherish the thoughtful gestures you showed when she flipped through her party album years later.

Good luck and may all the glittery spirit of royal joy be sprinkled in that special heart of your beautiful princess!

It was fun though and very thrilled to wait for the reply every week. Of course if your pen friends were kind enough they will take the time to reply the letters you sent to them within a week.

I had a friend who wrote letters to a girl (or was it a boy) in Germany and they discussed a lot of things including World Cup..haha!

I wonder if people still write old-fashioned letters nowadays. It’s sad that we are losing the art of letter writing with the advanced technology of Instant messaging, Skype and email. Nothing can beats that scrimpy, hard to read handwriting of your old friend.

If you are thinking of doing some hand made card to give to the mothers in your life – your mother, mother in law, your wife, your aunt, any woman that could fit a description as a mother, check out this page on pop-up card.

If you have some great ideas to entertain her on Mother’s day then that would be very nice.

But if you are not sure what could make her happy, check out the tips here on the most innovative idea to make your mother happy.

Or if you can’t afford to get her an expensive bouquet, why don’t you make her a paper flower centerpiece.

After all it’s your thought that counts!

At ShabbyPrincess.com you would be spoiled for many choices of samplers and kit.

Check out their download page.

I’m currently downloading their February release – the Festival papers, Elements and Alpha.

The one in the picture on the right side is their collection of Entire Spendid which screams for Spring. It’s just right for the season, huh!

And if you are new to scrapbooking, they also have tutorials for you to learn a tip or two on how to assemble albums and pocket calendar.

Oh, check out the blog of Shabby Princess.
There are a lot of example of scrapbook art work and creations – all creative chaos that have been done by the Princess herself.

Have a look!

It’s time that those pictures saved in all your folders make it out to the world to see.

I finally managed to do my own hand bouquet. It’s going to be used by my client for her wedding in Jun.

I was not sure whether it will work in the first place as I’ve never tried to arrange hand bouquet before.

Since the wedding has English theme so I thought the color cream and red would be nice.

I use velvet and satin flowers as it is easier to arrange compared to fresh flowers. And the fact that the real wedding will only take place in 3 months time so the artificial option is more realistic.

I found my inspiration and guide on the FloralCraftResource.com. It compiles most of the links and sites useful for those interested to learn floral arrangement on their own.

Before this I learned the basic techniques and tips on SaveOnCrafts. I like the layout of the site as it is very clean and easy to navigate.

I found something I want to learn next..haha..Glass Painting! Not sure whether people know about this craft, but they look good (for those who like colorful stuffs) and does not look too intimidatingly hard to try.

Check this site out. When I Google for glass painting, it takes me a while to dig out those that relates to my kind of glass painting. There are sites which tell glass painting in details including the one that you need kiln to burn, (too much hassle for me, I don’t need to burn my house to be crafty..haha)

There is also one great site which provides guides on glass painting. Check it out. There is also one online store selling all the necessary materials for glass painting. Check it too. While on it, I have new ideas to venture. All these craft supplies just make my head feel giddy with excitement.

While browsing further, I found one personal glass painting site which I like. She made all sort of things like cards, sun catcher (this is something that glass painter has in their syllabus..hahaha), candle holder and candle stick, bottles, you name it as long it is glass. The picture above was taken from her collection of suncatcher.

I will try this glass painting on my own based on what they taught online. If it doesn’t work then I know a shop which conducts such glass painting lesson. Way to go suncatcher!

This is one of the crafts examples they do for Valentine. To have full instructions, check here.

But now I wonder where I could find a nice empty matchbox. Everyone I know seems to be using lighter to smoke, nobody use match to light up their cigarettes nowadays.

Anyway if you are doing business online or offline, perhaps this tips will help to boost your sales during Valentine week. Check this one out.

About a month ago, I attended a beading class in a flea market, nearby my place. Since I was already in the area, I went to a craft shop upstairs. The shop called, Creative Cottage (I’ve checked the interior design magazine where it was featured this month) offers all sort of lessons in crafts – decoupage, decorative painting, glass painting and whatnot. Now I’m thinking of finding leisure time to spend 2-3 hours there, just to feed my curiosity on the crafts itself.

Yesterday, while googling to find how to wrap Valentine bouquet, I happened to come across not so relevant sites, (but still relevant to me since it’s all about crafts), check this out, it shows how to do the rose motifs in decorative painting techniques. I sometimes bought this Better Homes and Gardens magazine, though I hardly implement whatever methods it shows in decorating home. I have to admit I am really bad in cleaning and arranging things..:)

Anyway, while searching for good pictures to complement this entry, I came across this book, perhaps with the minimum time I have in hand, I should invest in this book..and try to learn the decorative painting methods on my own, that’s one option but I still prefer to be taught by human. I hope by May I would be able to have some free time to join the basic class on decorative painting.

It’s a book title written by Tera Leigh. Quoted from her website, “I wrote this book with two audiences in mind,” explains Leigh.

“One, the person who does not feel creative, but has always had the desire to break through.

Two, the struggling creative who has discovered their own creativity but find themselves blocked in moving forward to their best creative work.

In each chapter you will find exercises and ideas for taking the things you have learned and spreading your creative wings a bit.”

I will check this title out in the local bookstores, if it’s not available maybe I have to order through Amazon.com.

I find this link useful as they provide basic tutorials and lots of freebies to start with. I have downloaded the kits they have and will try to figure out how to make my own first page of digital scrapbook.

As I continue to search about oil painting, I came across word Renaissance, and it led me to this painting.

It is known as Arnolfini Potrait, quoted from the site “It is one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art history, and in particular is, together with his Ghent Altarpiece the oldest very famous painting in oils, signed and dated by Van Eyck in 1434.”

I remember it to be part of the parody in the opening sequence for Desperate Housewives series…now I know what it is actually. Do check this out.

I always want to learn how to do oil painting but here in my place, those artistic ventures would cost a bomb, not to mention how hard to find the materials, if available the price would be too much too pay. Maybe in 15 years time I would be able to afford such hobby..huhuhu..to those who want to know what oil painting is all about, check this out.

Oh I did try my hands on ribbon embroidery too, but I find it’s too hard to pull out the needle from the cloth and my effort just ended on the first and the last piece of cloth I ever managed to start on..hahha..I guess I dont really like embroidery, I tried years ago on normal thread embroidery and the table runner never see the finishing stitch. However do check out this link as it shows the basic type of embroidery using silk ribbons. The image shown above is taken from this site.

While in college, I tried pastel painting, I managed to complete about 5 pictures of flowers and framed them on the wall, 2 were given away to friends. I have been thinking of going for oil painting but still not confident. Then I tried calligraphy and stopped when the calligraphy pen keep on squirting ink on my shirt..hahaha..

Few months back, I have interest in scrapbooking and went to a basic class at the only retail store for scrapbooking materials in my place. However the interest stops for a while since it is very hard to find affordable material where I live (those available are too expensive to indulge in). Now I’m accumulating all the USD in my PayPal account to bid for wholesale scrapbook stuffs on eBay. Check also this site.

My latest craft venture is into decoupage though I have not tried anything on it yet, still reading and gathering info and checking how much should I invest for the craft. Check this site which has a lot of great ideas for decorating. Maybe if I’m still free in January 2007, I will attend the class conducted. Then we will see whether this new craft will stick or just another collection of stuffs collecting dusts under my bed..hahahah..