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}