Fabric Ring Necklace

Stacy of Hart+Sew posted this nice tutorial. I was browsing around of fabric necklace images through flickr, then I ended up at her blog. It's really easy to make and I have all the materials. Not all actually. I use a cardboard (that've been used by my kids...see the doodles) to substitute the plastic ring as she suggested.

And here's the pictorial :
1.

2.
Wrap them with something soft first to give them a plumper effect.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Look! Piece of cake!

Spring Summery Dress

Ohh Dana I heart you and I heart your crafty life. When I first saw her tutorial in her blog...I feel like...I have to make this one. This is a great way to reuse one of Dad's old shirts...too cute! Unfortunately I didn't have one. I made it with a new fabric.



Check here for the tutorial.

Batik Skirt

You have no idea how I love fabrics scrap. These batik skirts made from fabrics scrap of my batik dress. I didn't use pattern, just use my imagination and feeling :D

Dish Towel Dress

I bought these 2 packs of dish towel at IKEA. 1 for my food photos property and the other 1 sat nicely on my pantry. Actually I was thinking to make cushion cover but there weren't enough fabric. So I decided to make this little dress (it's not long enough, tough, you'll see it as a top). Like usual, I didn't use any pattern.

Handmade Hairband

What I love about having a daughter is making sweet&cute little thing like these ;). I don't like spending money too much on their accessories because they are easily get bored and often forget where they put their accesories. Making one on their own or making together with me, will teach them about creative process, how to save money and how to appreciate handmade products.

Look what we've made together! We only need scrap fabrics, lace, assorted button, beads, colorful ribbon and elastic ribbon.


cute&romantic hairband


sweet pink hairband


pink my way hairband (arwen made this)


funky&edgy hairband (leia made this)

That's our crafty girl!

Home Sweet Home

It's been almost 4 months,since we moved to this new apartment. And we love it. It has more bigger room and playing space for the kids.

2 years in the old apartment and we had such a really sweet memories. Especially in our artful life. We've done so many artful things.



Now we have a new nest. New place we'll fill with artful things. New chapter in our journey.

Food Photography Contest Winners

I was on vacation when David Leite from Leite's Culinaria e-mailed me. I'm so surprised that he told me about my Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies photo goes to final.

It was the only photo I sent for this contest. I didn't have much time to try another recipes and to make so many photos because I was preparing my vacation to Indonesia.

Then at the beginning of the September month, Allison from Leite's Culinaria e-mailed me. Yayyyyyy!!! I'm so thrilled that I made it as a second place winner.



Now, I can't wait for my $200 gift certificate from B&H Photo *dora dancing*

Our Podcast is Back

Enjoy our journey documentary videos (incl. our art & craft activities) in our video podcast (iTunes link)
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=377643579

Download the episodes & view it in iTunes or sync to your iPod, iPhone & iPad.

DIY: Doll House

Woohoo! Look kids, another cardbox! Let's create something. Let's build a doll house!

Today's achievement: Building a doll house by ourself!

Us: So do we still need those fancy pricey doll houses in the toy store?

Arwen & Leia: Yes! Barbie needs neighbor! *facepalm*

Painting Our Family - an experiment with Sherlock Holmes end title style

When the first time I saw Sherlock Holmes end title, I was like "This is the one what I've been looking for!"
Well, I was looking for a style that combine live-action footage, painting & motion graphic & that end title inspires me.

So I decide to make a 'rip-off' style from it. I have no problem with the drawing itself, but the problem is in the ink-smearing motion effect.

Fortunately I found this website with tutorial & material about the same style, Jake & Dan. So I grab the paper texture file, the smearing ink blot etc from them.

Next step, I pick some of video footages from our Canon EOS 500D. Then in Corel Painter X, I draw the outline & put some hatches in different layers. I keep the original image from the video footage for color effect, later in After Effects.







Then in AfterEffects, using the smearing-ink material from -- as Luma Matte for each layer of my drawings & apply BCC Watercolor in the original image.





In the final composition, all the layers are in 3D mode because I want to add depth (3D environment) & put a camera with slow track movement.









I pick a beautiful music from http://opsound.org The Blossoming Lilies by The Orchestral Movement of 1932 as the soul of the motion.

So here it is. Enjoy

Painting My Family [Final Version] on Vimeo.

Hardware: Canon 500D, MacPro, MacMini, Wacom Bamboo
Software: AfterEffects, Painter XI