Handpainted pantone swatch cards

This is an idea that came to me while I was browsing through color palettes in Pinterest. I saw a lot of beautiful shades of neutrals and pastels. I wanted to paint some washes on paper but thought of something nice to make out of them. I love how they turned out!

These are just for fun so the colors and names are not accurate. I assigned them pretty names to finish the whole look.

I'm thinking these are great to use in journaling or scrapbooking. They'd look wonderful with a nice word or phrase written on them, don't you think?

Mini Kraft Cards - Open When

These are mini envelopes with blank folding card inserts. You can write a special note to someone, give it to them and let them open and read it at the specified time. It's really cute and unique.

I made these using kraft paper, WRMK envelope punch and alphabet rubber stamps.

Sea Glass Art

Recently, I got commissioned to create small artworks made from sea glass. The person who asked me to do this is a businesswoman and a friend. Her family owns a number of restaurants in Dumaguete but interestingly, her home is filled with so many beautiful works from local artists. These are not just paintings but different types of art a person can make.

In previous occasions, I have made a few paintings for her and my hand-painted wood slices also caught her attention. I'm so happy that my work adds beauty to someone else's home.

In this recent project, she asked for me to make tiny framed artworks from these random (but special) objects. It's something I have not done before but I was willing to give it a try. It was challenging at first and took me a while to decide on what illustrations would be suitable. One thing though, she requested that I could include birds. I did some research and found out it's quite a popular style to make art.

Sea glass, as random as they look, are very special and are made beautiful through time. What better way to preserve their beauty and giving more meaning to their unique appearance by making them into simple artworks! I had a little help from references, though, but because no two pieces are alike, you'll have to take some ideas from your own imagination!

In the end, I was able to make six artworks and I am so happy about them! I'm working on another batch and I can't wait to show you!

Word stones for Cebu Florist

My second batch of word stones were made from a friend who requested me to customize the stones. He owns a flower shop in Cebu and he thought it would be a great accessory to add to flower orders. When you give flowers to someone, you can add a short thoughtful phrase or message that (usually) comes in a card. But it doesn't have to. Instead, you can give them a piece or two of these stones which has sweet words written on them:

"i miss you"
"i luv u"
"beautiful"
"hugs"
"i'm sorry"
"hugs"
"love"

These will be placed in a nice little pouch to give to your loved one together with your flowers. It's great because it's something new and adorable which others can put on their desk, trinket dish, shelf or use as paper weight. Truly enjoyed making these and they all look very nice when put together.

See?

My wax seal collection 2019

If there's something I never thought I'd get into, it would be wax seals. Not until I decided to try out a custom stamp. I sent my logo to be made as a stamp along with another one I designed, a simple calligraphy text. The design has a lot of others similar to it but I wanted to do my own in my handwriting.

One stamp was not cheap and I ordered two from a stamp-maker abroad, but if there's something you should know about me, I am willing to spend for something that I really want to try, just to see if I can do it. So after more than a month, my stamps arrived and hey! I was so happy to see my very own work in a wax seal!

I thought that it would be great to introduce wax seals to my small hometown who rarely use these things and bring something new to the usual invites that we see during weddings. In the years I have photographed weddings, not many couples have used them. I believe it would be due to limited or no access or having access but out of the budget. I would understand, wax seals are not cheap because they need time to make and the supplies are not cheap. But mainly, it's the time. Not a lot of people would be willing to sit and make average of 50-80 stamps for invites!

Anyway, so after a year, I have made a little collection of stamps. There are graphical designs and calligraphy ones which I designed myself. Most of them can be used in wedding invitations, thank you cards and even craft projects!

I'm so proud of this! Take a look!

DIY Custom Ribbons

Guess what!? I was able to make my own packaging ribbons! I was so happy I discovered this! I used satin ribbons, alphabet rubber stamps and good quality ink pad (Ranger Ink Pad, black). The ink pad is very important because at first I tried the regular ink pad brands from the office supplies store but there is a huge difference with the alphabet imprint.

My rubber stamps are small so I opted to use 3/4 inch satin ribbons. I can use 1-inch ribbons too, but the words will still be the same size. There are cotton twill ribbons that I am looking for and there is no one selling locally. I will order that online (from abroad) and honestly cannot wait to use it on that!

Anyway, there are some limitations to this. I only have the a black ink pad so I'm only using light-colored ribbons. It still looks great though. I have a Delicata Metallic stamp pad in Silver and Gold, the latter wasn't as good, the former is a hit or miss.

So, how to use them? If you like to put gifts in boxes, it would look great to tie around them. Not just for Christmas presents. If you have a small business, you can add it to packaging small items. Aside from boxes, you can tie it around small pouches and use it to close the bag, with a custom thank you tag! Super nice and very customized!

It's surely going to make an impact to anyone who will receive it!

Sticker Themed Notebooks

I adored stickers when I was younger. I had a small collection of those along with scented stationeries and I super enjoyed trading them with friends. It was like fun currency. I don't know what is it with these pretty paper goods that just made me squeal with excitement when I saw them with lovely dainty illustrations. The problem with having a collection is they never served their actual purpose. They were kept until they got old and then we outgrew them. I wonder where I kept them.

Anyway. I recently got hold of these awfully cute sticker flakes which came in sheets like travel, summer, flowers by colors, and thought why not put them together by theme on a notebook cover? I never realized how fun it is to peel and stick these little things to other cute little things! So here they are! I'm happy with how they turned out. As perfect are these neutral-colored notebooks that have such great feel to them. They have blank cream pages that are so nice to write on!

See?

A First Look at Word Stones

An awesome thing about calligraphy is that it's so easy to make ordinary things look pretty. Like these shiny stones. You'll normally take no second look but with an inspiring word or phrase, they automatically become more special.

These aren't your ordinary stones though. I admit I didn't just pick them up from outside. As much as I wish have them for free, I had to purchase them. ;) Ordinary stones are more rough in texture so they wouldn't look as nice.

Here I'm only using black, white and neutral colored stones. And the ink, just gold and white, sometimes black. They're the perfect accessory to tiny potted plants like succulents and baby plants on desks, shelves and window sills. The stones can be simple bits of reminders or inspiration that you'll surely get a glimpse of every time you water those plants.

Plus, they make lovely instagram photos, don't you think?

Hand-painted buri pouches

This batch of painting was somewhat a challenge in terms of color choice. These pouches were already dyed with a certain color combination when I purchased them. I had to choose another set of colors to complement the existing ones which really has to make the design pop-out.

Here I'm using acrylic paint and sealed with acrylic spray. For each bag, I decided to include a little "care" card which says how to care for the bag design which is important to make the bags last a bit longer.

It can fit a mobile phone, folded bills, coins, keys and/or lipstick.

{ Krafted } Wax Seal Stamps for Salt and Bleach

This is a wax seal stamp I designed for photographer Salt and Bleach. I'm very happy the engraving turned out well done. I was concerned that the elements were too fine that this order would have been a complete waste. But yes, here it is! This would go perfect with his packaging style!

{ Krafted } Hand-painted wood slices

Wood slices are great canvases for calligraphy or any painting project. I managed to acquire a few pieces of these from the local department store. They're made of nice and smooth type of wood and a great natural wood color. I was torn between painting over them with other colors or just directly add calligraphy. For this batch, I decided to add colors. Next time I'm planning to do sunset and galaxy scapes.

These objects are small and are best used as coasters or desk paper weights. They can serve as decorative pieces to your desk or shelf by putting them on a mini plate stand or a tiny wooden easel.

Handmade placecards using deckled paper

Here's something I want to see in weddings: placecards on deckled paper. Deckled paper is a rare find in local Dgte weddings. If you're anyone who loves these kinds of detail, this is for you! Handmade is the way to go because there's little chance you can mass produce anything like this with a machine.

Perfect project to apply calligraphy! For these samples, I'm doing earth colors with gold accent and the ever lovely pastels.