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.