Project Life : Week 13

Keeping up with Project Life can be challenging sometimes but I do put in a couple of days every fortnight to edit, print and complete a week or two worth of our life in the year.

Week 13 is the week my lil' man turned 1 and that is just amazing. I cannot imagine where the time went! It was an incredible year for all 3 of us, a lot of adjusting, getting to know you and lots of love.

 I like to keep my cards fairly simple but still embellished. 

As you can see, I focus more on journalling :)

Do you Project Life as well? What motivates you and what slows you down when keeping up to date with your pages?

Share your thoughts! I would love to hear from you.

Being a Dreamer

I am a daydreamer for most part. I believe this trait may have developed from my childhood when I read voraciously. My mum used to subscribe to Reader's Digest (back when the digest was much thicker & with more content) and when I was 8 or 9 years old, I look forward to reading "Laughter is the Best Medicine". I read the jokes first and then a story or two.

Gradually, I read more of the Digest. They were less 'boring' to me as I grew up. I read a lot of other story books too, to the point where my teacher came up to me and asks me if I studied at all (I was getting good grades.. why she asked me that is another story all together. A good one too). My mum never asks me to stop reading. I scored 6As and 1B for my PMR (Lower Secondary Assessment) which was not perfect but at least I got to read books other than my text books.

So, I dream... my imagination was vivid. I loved to go on adventures with the Famous Five, go away to the Faraway Tree, disappear from our world and into the world I was reading. One day, I am exploring island, another I am in Victorian England or some other imaginary place. It is magical.

But I digress... I set out not to write about how much I loved reading (a habit I should get back into) but about being a dreamer. About dreaming of the various projects I wanted to undertake. And about one particular dream that is coming to light.

I will share more about my dream that is materializing in my next post on June 3rd.

It is just so amazing, the things that happens when we set out to pursue our dreams. It started out as a thought, and then it stayed a thought for quite a while before I decided to act on it. And wonderful things happen when we decide to act on our dreams..... It seems the universe really does wants to help make our dreams come true :)

And while you wait to find out what I am keeping secret for now, you can always pop over to my shop for a gander :)

Do you believe in Unicorns?

I do.

I would love to believe that they exist in some obscure corner of the Earth. That they know of mankind's destruction and always hid themselves from our view. I believe that they exist as much as I believe that Yetis and Nessie exist. They are just really good at eluding us :)

When I found out that there are 'unicorns of the sea', I was intrigued. These 'unicorns of the sea' are the narwhals (pronounce /närwəl/). They are small Arctic whales and the males have a long, forward-pointing spirally twisted tusk developed from one of it's teeth.

They seem so mystical to me and I found myself drawn to them... and so, one night I just painted one free-hand. No pencil, no prior planning... I just dabbed some watercolor on my paintbrush and painted.

My little narwhal

I loved how it turned out and decided to make it into a bookmark for a dear friend.

This is an original watercolor bookmark and I really hope she will like it :)

If you would like to have an original narwhal watercolor bookmark, just contact me via my shop and I'll make one just for you!

Cork Embellishments

Before I started Project Life in 2013, I was just starting to get into scrapbooking. I wanted to preserve memories and I love how beautifully scrapbooking makes that. However, I wanted to remember daily bits and pieces too and Project Life made that so much easier :) I would still scrap big events but for our everyday life, I prefer the Project Life method.

And because of that, I am always on the lookout for embellishments that I could use to jazz up the little 3x4 or 4x6 cards. Embellishments that are pretty and yet does not add too much bulk (else it wouldn't fit in the pockets.. haha).

So when I saw that Studio Calico was selling these DCWV cork sheets, I knew I wanted to make some cork shapes for my Project Life pages. I bought my supplies and then I procrastinated (that and I needed new scissors. My old cutter bee basically destroyed my first batch of cork shapes).

I use Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI's vintage cream and Hero Art's Fresh Peach. You've got to wait a a little for the ink to set before handling them (else you get inky fingers... like me). Alternatively, you could heat dry them with heat gun. I want to try embossing them. I think that would be pretty too.

And you would need very sharp scissors to cut these babies. I used my old cutter bee and it was a disaster. The shapes frayed and turned out really badly. These were all cut after I bought a new pair of cutter bee.. So, do take note of that.

If you like any of these and don't have the time to make them, you could custom request and I will make and list them in my shop for you to purchase.

Lovebirds

If you followed my blog since before "A Brand New Start", you would know that I illustrate custom portraits as well as greeting cards and art prints. I also hand stitch journals and accept custom requests for them. Basically, I love working with my hands and if you can't find what you want in my shop, I am open to your requests :)

This project that I was working on was of my brother and my sister-in-law. I wanted to give them a gift for their wedding and felt that a custom portrait illustration of them would be a meaningful gift.

 They visited us back in 2012 and we went to Universal Studios together. Love this picture of the two of them and I used it as a guide for their portrait. 

I love the effects of watercolor. Soft and dreamy :) I used wink of stella to add some glitter on the purple background too.

Completed with frame

Hop on over to my shop if you would like to have your own custom illustration. All I need is a photograph and we're all set!

Greeting Cards

Getting back into the groove of illustrating again last year and slowly but surely finding my own style & character through my art. There will be more refining as time goes by, I am sure, as we all strive to improve but here's my illustrations that I have printed into greeting cards.

They make really cute greeting cards and are available in my shop now. They are blank inside so you can customize your own heartfelt message and some of the cards are appropriate for multiple occasions. Perfect when you buy in bulk to keep for future occasions :)

Sharing a few designs with you here (there's more in the shop!)

  Happy Beary Birthday

Elephant Party

Sweethearts

A Little Magic

Hope you like my illustrations and hop on over to my shop if you are keen to have them in your greeting cards stash :)

*** pssstttt... they can be placed in a frame and voila, it's an art print too!

Sing ABC to me

I have always loved to draw and though I doodled here and there for a while after school, I just started illustrating seriously again especially after Ryan was born. He is my little muse :)

This is the first piece of illustration I drew for him. I was planning to teach him ABC and I wanted it to be a fun and playful way as well. Most importantly, I wanted it to be something special for him.

It was so fun illustrating this. I had to sneak in time when Ryan was napping and it was done over many nights but when it was finally done, I just felt so happy! :)

I am offering it as an art print (with a frame too!) and it is available in my shop.

It can be used to decorate your baby's room and even if there is no baby, this is still pretty cute piece to hang on your wall, won't it? 

Watercolor & Ink Illustration

Hop on over to my shop to get this for your own home :) 

Pssstttt.... I do have other illustrations there and oh, I offer custom illustration work too. 

A Brand New Start

I have been blogging at this space for quite some time now and what started as a personal blog evolved into a crafting blog where I shared my handmade cards, scrapbook layouts, mini albums, Project Life, book binding and well, just about everything crafty.

And as much as I loved what I was doing, I have come to a place where I want this blog to be more structured. Yes, it is still going to be a space where I share my love for crafting with the world but I am also going to be sharing a bit more about other things, for example, food we've tried and loved, recipes, places we visited and maybe a new hobby or crafty things to explore. It's going to be predominantly about crafts & illustrations with a side dose of personal touches. And of course, it's also going to feature my illustrations and artwork that is available in my shop.

My illustration of our cat & Ryan

Come by and visit me often. I promise to work hard at taking better pictures, illustrating more and sharing them with you :) I will also offer free printables and tutorials. It's going to be fun!

Free Printable - Mother's Day PL Card

Just for the fun of it, I took out my paintbrush and drew this little illustration for Mother's Day. Writing with a paintbrush is really fun as well. And since this is freehand (no pencil, just dabbed brush in watercolor and paint), there are no restrictions. It is a pretty liberating process.

I am going to share it with all of you here as a free printable journaling card. It is already sized to 4x6 inches and would be great to add into your Project Life to document this special day.

Do hashtag #evelintdesigns if you take pics of how you use these cards on your Instagram or Facebook and if you blog, do link back some love! I would love to see how you use this card :)

And if you like watercolor accents on your journalling cards, I will be adding those to my Shop pretty soon. This is going to be fun!

Eve