Shimmering Shadow Box

Hello everyone!

Today, I am really excited to show you one of my project - an altered shadow box which I did as a farewell gift for someone leaving office.  

Completed shadow box

For the shadow box, I had made use of the embroidered lace ribbon and the crystal mat that I bought from Dubai.

I had cut out four strips from the crystal mat and adhere it to the front of the shadow box. The embroidered lace ribbon was then glued to the sides of the frame.

For the layout, I had made use of a combination of embellishments:

• Wood embellishments from Bo Bunny and Prima Marketing; 
• Papers from Blue Fern Studios and Kaisercraft (including transparency from Kaisercraft);
• Flowers (including the flower resin) were a combination from Prima and those that I bought from Bangkok.  Had added shimmer metallic paint on it;
• Chip-boards from Blue Fern Studios and Dusty Attic (sprayed with distress inks and shimmer paint);
• Metal pins from Prima Marketing

Doing a scrapbook layout and framing it in an altered shadow box could be a challenge as you've got to ensure that the layout matches with the shadow box that you altered.  

Beautiful Dubai

It’s the New Year.  Time sure passes by amazingly fast!

For my first blog in 2015, I want to show you guys my craft findings while I was travelling Dubai in October last year.

Dubai City - view from Burj Khalifa

A little about Dubai

Dubai is a modernized city and one of the seven emirates that make up the country United Arab Emirates (UAE) where it's Capital is Abu Dhabi.  

Beautiful sunset in the Desert Dune

Burj Khalifa (or Khalifa Tower)

Dubai lies within the Arabian Desert and the weather is hot all year round.  The weather was around 41-42 Degrees Celsius when I visited Dubai in October! Scorching hot and dry as the weather might seems, it didn't affect my trip.  If you feel faint from the weather, you could always escaped into the comfort of the shopping malls that are so well "air-conditioned".  You might need a light cardigan or sweater in-doors! No kidding!

Spices from The Spice Souk

Dubai is known as the shopping paradise of the Middle East for it's super large malls and traditional souks (open air marketplace like Spice Souk, Gold Souk, Perfume Souk and Textile Souk) and if you've got keen eyes, you could also spot several Gold machines while going around Dubai tourists attractions! (Lol! It's actually not hard to spot them)

Gold To Go!

A glimpse of the famous hotel - Burj Al Arab

Shopping for craft supplies

Fida Trading in Satwa

I made a point to shop at Dubai's local craft shop. As I had only that much time, I had only visited just one.  The name of the shop is Fida Trading in a place called Satwa. You may check out it's Facebook page. 

Rows of ribbons and different types of beads

Stack and stack of laces

Another stack of ribbons

There are really many colorful and beautiful ribbons/laces. Some ribbons and laces are commonly found in our local stores too, so do look out for those that are uniquely middle eastern designed ones.

Bunch of ribbons I bought

Metal embellishments

Here are the bunch of items that I bought. Really love the crystal mats and metal flower embellishments!

If there is any chance of visiting Dubai in the future, I would love to visit other local craft shops that are located in Deira. 

Pin that 'School Board'!

There are generally 2 school terms in my country.  The first term starts in January with a one month holiday break in June and thereafter the second term starts in July.  Well, school term definitely differs between countries.

A "Back to School" theme came across in the Lori Whitlock Link up Party blog and here's me giving it a shot at it =)

Front view of the Pin Board

I used Lori Whitlock's 5x7 rectangle frame to set the cork board. All papers used here are from Lori Whitlock's "We Are Family" and "Fine and Dandy" series.

Back view of the Pin Board

At the back of the Pin Board, I've added more notes and a pocket tag to the back of the Pin Board.

Linking to:

Lori Whitlock Link Up Party

Showing Shadow Box

I bought 2 shadow boxes out of impulse sometime ago and I was quite at a lost at how to use them, partly because I've only tried simple altering on small boxes.

The opportunity came for me (to use the shadow box) when I was thinking of getting a gift for a friend and his lovely family for showing their warm hospitality when we visit their country.
I would like to show you guys the shadow box that I've altered with Kaiser Craft papers.  

Simple misting to the background of the layout

Laying out the cut out transparency sheet to get an overview.
The transparency sheet was stick on the back of the shadow box glass cover

This is the end result of the shadow box!
(Note:  The empty white paper would be where we would paste our friend's family photo)

Engrossed in Embossing

Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you these 2 layouts (for a colleague leaving office) that I have done.

After laying out the cut out patterned flowers, the initial background of the layouts still seems pretty empty...and I didn't want to add anymore flowers so I decided to emboss butterflies on the background.
I started with embossing a couple of small butterflies on the background and as the effect was quite all right, I just continued embossing bigger butterflies and added them to the layouts.

Matching layouts when you put them side by side

Working with Embossing powder:
I am not sure about you guys but one thing I've experienced about embossing is that if you use stamps with intricate designs and apply glitter embossing powder, the outcome might not turn out that neat as the glitter tends to clutter together.
Glitter embossing powder doesn't seems to work that well on transparency sheet.  I prefer using non-glitter, metallic embossing powder on transparency sheet.

Birthday Blinks!

Just recently, I realized that there are actually some "standard embellishments" that I like adding to the cards and layouts that I make.  They are Blinks, Flowers, Pearls and Lace Ribbons.
Though not in order of preference, I do seems to like adding blinks (regardless the 'amount' of it) most of the time.
This birthday card has all embellishments that I love to use!
What's your favorite embellishments?