Tag, You're It!

When Dena was an 8th grader she liked to keep cool and awesome tag mostly from clothing item she bought. That lasted about a year then she threw everything away. I don't even pay attention to labels, for me they are obstacles that keep me from using the product. Now that I'm on the other end as a maker of a product I can't help but thinking about label, but judging my own experience as an end user I use materials I already have so I don't have to be so heart broken when I find my label somewhere in someone's trash. Not very practical & very time consuming I suppose, but there is nothing practical about hand made product. All items are cut, glued, drawn, assembled with love :-)

Tante Nelly

4 simple designs + 4 colors of paper + 10 types of ribbon = 100 one-of-a-kind-invitations; cut, glued and tied by hands with love. A tribute to Tante Nelly who left her footprint in my heart: Maleos-leosan, Marendem-rendeman, Wo masawang-sawangan {Love one another, care for one another, help one another}. You are always be remembered!

Angry Bird

It's okay to be angry. What you do with your anger is what matter. Anger can be a positive force instead of a destructive force. It's not easy to be angry assertively: one need to learn to say the right thing, at the right time, with the right attitude and with the right tone of voice. 

Last week I went to this caricature shop to order three drawings for a gift. The artist insisted that I should pay cash 50% of the total cost, I didn't have much cash on me and the guy refused other form of payment, which meant I had to go out of my way to find an ATM and went back there. So I went home instead and decided to do the drawing myself. The next day the guy called me (silly me for leaving my number) and asked if I still wanted him to do the caricatures.  When I told him no,  he got mad at me and said that he already did the drawings, he stayed up all night to finish the drawings and he refused other jobs to finish mine on time....basically trying to put the guilt on me. I took lots of  deep breaths and said calmly, "I'm sorry you took the initiative to do the drawing & worked all night, but I haven't made any commitment yet, I haven't even given you the required down payment." The guy hung up on me. 

Rob & Corrine

 

Eager Beaver

It's almost the end of semester. The grade is already in, all projects are done. What to do, what to do? When stuck with ideas I ask my students, they are endless source of cool ideas. Derek from grade 5 suggested enthusiastically to make a silhouette. So I took their side-ways-mug-shot-style photos with my mobile and teach them how to create silhouette with Photoshop. Awesome idea Derek!

While I was...

I used to think that life is like a roller coaster, one minute I'm up, next minute I'm down or upside down. It's either good or bad circumstances. I would get stressed out and agitated when I'm down and would be so anxious to go back up again. Then I came across this beautiful quote by Rick Warren;

“Life is actually more like two rails of a railroad track, with one rail representing the bad things that happen in your life, and other rail representing the good things. We always have both at the same time- never just one or the other. Life is never all good or all bad. Both come at you simultaneously. No matter how good things are, there’s always something you need to be working on, and no matter how bad things are, there is always something good you can thank God for."

While I was driving in a bumper to bumper traffic, I had a great time talking with my Mom (in person, not on mobile). While I was waiting in a doctor's office with a long queue of patients I got lost visually at what I saw right in front of me...

Hello Etsy!

After long hours of taking and retaking photos of handmade journals, writing description for each item, searching for the right platform for online shopping, and figuring out the shipping cost I finally have an online shop! 

After a long period of being overwhelm because the hundred and three things I had to do were from my online-shop-to-do-lists,  now I'm overjoy because the next one hundred two things I have to do are from my getting-the-word-out-to-do-list. Say hello to Outodbox, my online shop in Etsy; a playground filled with sea of colors, aweso-mazing inspirations, one of a kind stuff, stories from the heart and people of handmade nation. Come & play!

Plan What I Do, Do What I Plan

I wish I could just creating, designing, coloring, cutting, gluing, stitching, drawing all day. Time just flies when I make handmade journals. I wish I didn't have to deal with the inartistic sides of being an artpreneur. I wish I had the patience & the persistence to deal with marketing strategy, spreadsheets, planning & projected income and such. I'm about to open an online store for my handmade journals. I'm excited to do what I love but I'm also overwhelm with all the things that need to be done.

The other day I was browsing through Periplus, my favorite bookstore, I came across Right-Brain Business Plan by Jenifer Lee. The title really intrigued me.  Other how-to business books really got on my nerves: terms I can't remember & description as dry as an old encyclopedia. Not this one! This one has lots of color, drawings, pictures, friendly terms & descriptions to help me plan & address business bits in a creative, easy & fun ways. Check out my business plan!

Card Sale #2

I love children's drawings; there is always something whimsical about their drawings. That sense of innocence and wonder can't be captured even by the most experienced painter. KidPix is an awesome drawing program with loads of cool tools to create amazing digital drawings. You can turn this digital drawings into all kind of products: blank cards, postcards, bookmarks, place mats, books, t-shirts, totes, posters and more! The list just go on and on.If you need to do fundraising go with the blank cards with your students' drawings. We sold 100 cards last Friday during a special event in our school.

The Apple Tree & The Apple

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Yes it's true that my daughter Dena & I both love to draw, but there are 2 things that set us apart. First, when she sketches she already has the image in her brain and knows exactly where things should go when she draws it; when I sketch I go through trial and error with a series of thumbnails and then work on the final layout. Second, she loves drawing her imagination, I love drawing ordinary things around me.

The other day she let me look through her drawing journals and scanned some of her drawings. She was surprised to see her imagination turn into a handmade drawing journal in her favorite color!

Speaking of tree weeks ago Dena was working on a poster project for a green campaign and asked my opinion on ways to write the message. She ignored all my ideas and came up with her own. I love brainstorming ideas with her, her ideas are so free & fearless. Shh...don't tell her, but Yearbook 10/11 concept was conceived during one of our brainstorming sessions.

Blue Bird

This morning I left my mobile in a Blue Bird taxi. The taxi driver, Pak Nur Hendy, went out of his way through the congested morning traffic to return it to me in person a few hours later. When was the last time I give a random act of kindness to a perfect stranger? As a tribute to Pak Nur I'm giving away my handmade journal to the first person who comment on this post. {Yes! I will cover the cost of shipping and ship it to anywhere in the world} 

Tribute to the 80's

I grew up as teenager in the 80s. I shiver in horror when I think of hideous shoulder pad, big hair, high waist pants, stretch pants, ridiculous leg warmer. But I do cherish the analog world of the 80's. To preserve the memory I turned my cassette collections into mini notebooks. Great for to-do-list, doodle, ideas, poem, & bragging that you experienced the good ol' 80's!

Left Brain vs Right Brain

Sweet

My morning tea ritual is now sweeter. I usually take my tea without cream or sugar, but starting from today I will add one sugar sachet from Gulaku just because the packaging is so cute! I get sugar rush just from choosing which color suites my mood of the day: psychedelic pink, yummy yellow, pop-art purple, baby blue, or glam green? Such sweet dilemma.

A letter to Sikka

Meet Aristo, my sponsored child, who lives in a village in Sikka, East of Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. I've been supporting his education through World Vision Indonesia. For IDR 150.000 or USD 17 a month you can make a difference in a child's world. Aristo loves math, writing & sweet potato. His dream is to become a teacher.

  

Today I received a progress booklet filled with photo, drawing, and the latest update about Aristo and his home village. Yay! A once in a blue moon chance to write a letter! I made him a booklet letter filled with stories, drawings, photos & crafts. Hope he likes it.

Re- Project #4: Portfolio Scrapbook

In the school where I teach all students from grade 1-6 get a portfolio every semester. This portfolio showcase their academic progress in every subject in school. An average portfolio has about 40 pages of worksheets, reviews, artworks, photos. So by the end of primary years a child will end up with 12 portfolios or 480 pages. 

Parents what do you do with this portfolio? Do you have them somewhere collecting dust somewhere on a book shelve? Do you throw them away after you run out of shelves?

If you love scrapbook but don't have a budget for fancy paper, pages of portfolio are excellent for scrapbook pages for your child.  It's personal, it's one of a kind, and it's earth-friendly. If  your child doesn't have a portfolio save worksheets, drawings, doodles, artworks, pages from notebooks, letters from school etc. 

You need:
Pages from portfolio
An Awl
A piece of cardboard
Needle craft
Wax/craft Thread
Graph paper
Pencil

Steps:

1. Fold a group of papers in half. In bookbinding terms this is called signature. 
2. Continue folding until you have some signatures.
3. For the cover choose your favorite page, cut in half & have them laminated.
4. Mark 6 points on a graph paper about 3 cm apart. Open a signature, place the graph paper in the middle. Put a cardboard underneath. Use an awl to punch a hole through the signature on each point on the graph paper. Repeat for all signatures. For the cover leave a space about 1cm from the edge.
5. Use coptic stitch technique to bind the book. Click here to watch a tutorial from Jim Escalante

Re- Project #3: Scrap Ribbon

Have you ever get a feeling that you have to do something but can't figure out what it is until you see something that somehow trigger your brain to suddenly remember about it? The left over chocolate cake in my fridge last nite reminded me that I forgot to buy gift wrap paper and ribbons for a gift that I was suppose to give to a friend in the next morning. Shelves after shelves of scrap papers but no ribbon or gift wrap. I thought I have left overs ribbons from the Yearbook project but no such luck. What to do? What to do? Use whatever you have and turn something from scrap!

Art Bin Alphabet

Ideas come at the least expected moment. The other day I was working on Re- project #3 and I had no idea what to do. So there I was on my table staring at my art bin where I keep all my tools & stuff. The shape & the color of every items were screaming for my attention and I got lost in details of each object. Before I knew it I abandon Re- project #3 and worked on something totally out of plan. 

Re- Project #2: Petal Envelope

Petal Envelope takes more time to make than the Not-so-Plain Envelope. Cutting curves is not as easy as cutting straight lines, it requires patience and fine motor skills. Don't be discouraged, be challenged! 

You need:

Step: 

1. Get the template here. Re-size it to fit your magazine pages.  
2. Select pages from the magazines; use the template to trace the outline on the magazine page with a pencil or a black marker. Cut.
3. To make sure the envelope is folded straight use a ruler to connect the dotted line and make a crease against the straight edge of the ruler. Do the same with the remaining petals. Fold in all sides. 
4. Use a round sticker to hold the petals. Use a rectangle sticker for address. 
5. If you want to make the envelope size bigger but don't have a wide format magazine find the template & instruction here.

Re- Project #1: Not So Plain Envelope

In the digital era sending/receiving letter is a lost art. Apart from my monthly bills & junk mails, last time I received a letter was back in 1985 from my friend in DeKalb, Illinois. Even though the chance of me sending or receiving  a letter via postal service these days is slim to nothing, I occasionally send personal notes to friends (mostly with gifts). What better ways to appreciate friends than to make a special envelope for them.

You need:

  

Step:

1. Download the envelop template here. Re-size it to fir your magazine page. Cut.
2. Select pages from magazines, use the template to trace the outline of the envelope on the magazine page. Cut.
3. Use the edge of a ruler to fold along the dotted lines. Fold in all sides. Glue side flaps to the back of the envelope.
4. Cut a small piece of double tape and stick it on the back of the opening flap. Use rectangle label stickers for address.

"Re-"

After 9 Yearbook publications, 10 years of teaching, 17 years of being a mom (and still counting), 2 weeks of helping my mom moved out of the house she lived for 30 years, I ended up with piles of scrap papers, pvc banners from the Yearbook photo session, left over prints, zillions drawings, old encyclopedias, out dated magazines, old blank cards, tons of buttons, cassette tapes, yards of ribbons, books in the "done-reading-but-have-to-keep-it-for-unknown-reason" category. 

I think I'm a hoarder *sigh*. But wait! A hoarder doesn't do anything to the piles he or she accumulates over the years. I can do "Re-" thing to my stuff: Re-cycle, Re-design, Re-do, Re-use, Re-purpose!

{I hereby solemnly declare to make more shelve space available by creating "Re-" projects from my piles}

Book of Rhyming Lines

Recycled cardboard, colorful ribbons, 156 poems

Child of Collaboration and Think Outside The Box

Lover of words, doodles & day dreaming

Who feels enchanted, cuddled and loved

Who needs a good shelve, illustrator, and a hug

Who fears shredded machine, termite & internet 

Who gives joy, love & laughter

Who would like to see dreams, imagination and nothing turns into words

Rhinolicious

Once upon a time there were 30 grade 3 students who were enchanted by Charllote's Web, a classic story beautifully written by EB White. They decided to take matter into their own hands and went to the King & Queen of Words and asked their guidance to make their own comic based on the story. The Queen dust them with grammar & spelling sprinkles, while the King guard them from the 3 legged word snatcher.
The Queen & The King had many helpers:The Knight of Hue dipped the students' hand drawings in rainbow.

The Knight of  WWF brought the students' attention to Rhinoceroses in Ujung Kulon National Park. They were all in tears when they learned that the rhinoceros are endangered.  "Let's...sell...comic to ...to....to....help the Rhino!" one boy said, barely able to speak while crying. 

The Knight of outOdbox helped them brainstormed different ways to raise more money to adopt a rhino and the Wizard of Sound help them created a rhino song.

People and creatures from far land came to Adopt-a-Rhino Fun Day. All the hard work paid off. The students raised enough money to adopt Lulu, a female rhinoceros. The Queen & The King were so proud of them; the students were awarded the highest title of all: The Duke & Duchess of Rhinolicious (When the land of the Printed Words learned about this they sent reporter IC to see it with her own dot).
THE END