Review of Paperless Post

  If you've been reading my weekly posts, you'd know that I'm currently pregnant. How exciting, I know. :) I've just crossed the six months mark and if all goes according to plan, I should be due on the 13th of July 2018.

  One of my best friend, Hush, decided to plan a baby shower for me. Funny thing; the Chinese do a "full month celebration" or a "100 days celebration" for the baby, so I thought that baby showers were the Western version of that. Apparently not. Baby showers celebrate the parents and happen BEFORE the baby is born. Who'd have thought.

  I've got catering done. Balloons will be bought. Decorations have been planned. Now I just needed a way to send out invitations. It just happened that I discovered a company called "Paperless Post" to do just that. Paperless Post creates e-invitations to any events that you might have. This was a great option for me because I didn't want to send out physical invitations, but just sending a text message to my guests seemed a little too casual. Electronic invitations seemed like the perfect in-between.

  Paperless Post has beautiful design templates, with an easy-to-use interface. And the best part is, people can RSVP directly through the invitation- no more phone calls or text messages needed. I can also see that this would be great if you have an informal gathering for cocktails, or a really large event like a wedding, or if you didn't want to contribute to paper wastage.

  To start, you can use your Facebook or Google account to sign into the website, or you can create an account. You can then go ahead and add email addresses to your "Address Book".

The red arrow is where it's at.

  After that's done, you'll get to the fun part- designing your own invitations!

  There's so many designs to choose from, for so many different occasions... Birthday parties, weddings, happy hour get-togethers (that sounds fun)...

  I was glad that the baby shower invitations were not all pink or blue, or gender reveals... I never liked the idea of that. My baby shower's theme was going to be teal-white-gold-coral.

Literal baby shower? hehe

I liked this coral-gold combination.

 There were storks, and flowers, and animals... In some designs, you could even upload your own photos. Lots of designs were really pastel and soft, and I'm a more... *coughs* loud, sort of person... So I picked this design:

  You can change everything from the text that's written on the invite, to the fonts, the sizes of the words, the colours of the words... You can even add a backdrop for your card. One thing I wished you could do, is to have multiple boxes, so that you could add texts in a staggered fashion rather than align left/centre/right only. 

  After that, you get to choose an envelope and a liner. For an additional coin, you get to pick your own stamp design.

  What's this "coin" thing I'm mentioning? It's a virtual currency that you use to buy the designs on Paperless Post. After you've finished designing your invites, the site will tell you how much it'd cost per invite, and then you can use the currency to purchase however many invites you need.

  You can also add additional "pages" should you need to tell your guests how to get to the venue, or when to arrive, or whether food/drinks will be served. Here's how mine looked like:

  After you've done the invitation design, (and that took me forever in its own right... there are literally so many design options to choose from...) you get to fiddle with how you want your guests to reply. I discovered that you could ask for their mailing address, which seemed like a great option if you were having a wedding and wanted to figure out how many people would be free to attend it before you ordered physical invitations to send via post.

  I just picked the RSVP option, so guests could just click "will attend" or "will not attend". Paperless Post then got me to fill out a form that included the event's name, venue of the event, date and time of the event... and then it gave me the option to include my phone number for the guests to reach me, and also an additional box if I wanted to ask them a question. (I asked whether they would bring additional guests.) Here, you can also get guests to give you their mailing address, add a comment, and you can even include a gift registry.

  After that, you click "Next" and it's just a matter of making sure everything looks good by clicking on "Preview Invitation". If all looks swell, you can import your contacts from your address book, and then send out to e-invites to your guest list. There's even an option to send yourself a test email.

  I checked and re-checked, and double re-checked the card to make sure all the details were correct... and then finally hit the "send" button. I sent one invite to myself just to see how it'd look like on the guests' side. I was very pleased. The cards that I had spent so long creating were there. The last card told guests to reply below. After you scrolled down, you'd see the date and time and venue of the event. You could even click a button to get directions on Google maps to the event. And you could send a message to the host by clicking another button. And the little buttons for "will attend" and "will not attend" would follow you as you scrolled down the page. Great attention to detail.

(Address blocked out for obvious privacy reasons..)

  After you click "send", Paperless Post directs you to a page with a list of all your guests, and whether or not they have replied. An easy way to check on how many guests will be attending, and whom you need to check-in with as the event date draws closer.

(Emails blocked out for privacy reasons. Mine is shown, because it's all over this blog, so it's not like it's a secret.)

  Oh, and... If you're a more traditional letter-by-post sort of person, I happened to find out that Paperless Post has a sister site that sells actual physical invitations. Find out more here: https://www.papersource.com/

  I'm beyond thrilled at how the invites turned out. Now, I just need to wait for all my guests to RSVP. All in all, I would use Paperless Post again... I even have remaining credits. They also do "thank you" cards, but I'll be creating mine by hand and gifting them my guests on the day of the baby shower. Perhaps I'll do a Christmas card for this year.


  Expect pictures of the baby shower. :)  I have a couple of cute things planned.

  I'm excited. A new chapter of my life. It feels surreal, at times. Or I'll forget that I'm pregnant, and then I'll feel the baby kick and then be reminded. Stephanie: Artist, Certified Zentangle Teacher, daughter, wife, and now soon-to-be mother... I can't wait to see what the future holds.

The Black and White Journal Course

  I've been working through my sketchbook using projects from the Black and White Journal course. Here's what I've done so far....

  We used the quote "Transcend the Limits" as inspiration for a page.

  We learnt how to carve stamps.

Look at my stained fingers! That's how you know you've had fun, eh?

  I didn't have black ink, but that's not too much of a matter. I just used what I had- blue and red. Here's a test page.

  And here are pages in my actual sketchbook.

  I wanted to use Apprentice tiles in my sketchbook, and I knew I wanted to add a coloured wash on them. I would usually reach for really bright colours, but because of the Black and White course, I decided to use shades of grey instead.

I cut them into circles and they ended up looking like moons!
So I stuck one of them into my sketchbook and wrote a moon quote below it.

  We also learnt how to do a mood mandala. Here's how mine turned out once completed.

  It all looks so fun, doesn't it? If you'd like to join in on the fun, you can find out more about the course via this link.

Art Studio & Gallery at Eastpoint Mall

I recently found a new art store. It's called "Art Studio & Gallery" and is located at Eastpoint Mall's #02-28. They have two other stores located at Bugis and Bedok Mall. They open from 11am to 9.30pm. You may also contact them at 6538 9916.

  I do believe that they have art jamming sessions because there was a dedicated space for seats and tables, and some finished drawings were on the tables. They also offer tutored lessons with personalised guidance based on your chosen medium, art style, and artistic standard.

  They carry the brand Potentate, and also sell Renoir coloured pencils.. coloured versions of Sakura Micron pens and also brush type Microns (which Art Friend doesn't carry). Koi Brush pens, and Winsor & Newton brushmarkers are also available.

  They sell oils and acrylics by Pebeo, a variety of brushes, a variety of sketchbooks, markers, pencils.... and most charmingly, they sell busts too.

Bristol paper!

When pay-day comes, I shall be purchasing one of these to try, just to see how they compare with the ones Art Friend sells.

A sketchbook filled with Kraft paper. Cool!
But there wasn't a price on it, and I was scared to ask. hahaha

  All in all, it was a decent art store. It was filled with brands that I wasn't familiar with, and I'm sure I'd have a great time trying out some new products. Maybe you'll get to see some product reviews next month. ;)  We'll see.

Tiga sketchbook review

  The Tiga sketchbook is A5 sized (5.8" x 8.3", 14.7cm x ), has a hardcover, and has a unique sketch hot stamped in black foil on the front. On the spine is the artist's name (in this case, it's "Peisy Ting") stamped in black foil... Along with the tiga logo in gold foil, and on the back cover is the tiga logo in black foil. Inside are eight sketches by the respective artist printed in various ink colours on various coloured papers. The remaining 128 blank inlay pages are made from eco-friendly FSC certified 150gsm Italian paper. There's also an expandable pocket sleeve inside the back cover, a black elastic that keeps the sketchbook closed when not in use, and a silver cloth bookmark.

  I still remember the sketchbook being packaged beautifully when it first arrived at my doorstep.

A copper toned wrapping with the Tiga logo printed on it.

I also bought a notebook (that I haven't used).
The little yellow card is a thank you note from the artists.

The short foreword by Peisy.

And the back that shows what papers were used.
Acid-free. Soy ink. Recyclable.

The logo printed on the back of the sketchbook.

  And of course I'm going to show you what I've drawn in this sketchbook. This is a long over-dued video. I had filmed one part of the video in FEBRUARY... Can you believe it? Gold medal for procrastination goes to me. Woop woop! I'm already at the three quarter mark of my current sketchbook, so I'm probably going to be making a flip-through video of my current sketchbook soon. :) I was embarrassed whilst editing the video, so I think I've definitely improved in Art... Ahhh~ My new sketchbook is filled with a lot more better drawings than this one.

  (This is also the first video where I show my face. teehee)

  The sketchbook doesn't take watercolours very well. There's a lot of buckling even with just light washes. Coloured pencils are difficult to lay down too as the paper is too smooth. Basically, it has almost no tooth, which is great for pen and ink. After your ink completely dries, the paper holds it very well. I also like how you get a blank coloured page to draw on with each new "section" of the sketchbook. The pages with the artist's drawings also give you an extra boost of inspiration when you need it. I love the concept of it.

  I bring my sketchbook out everywhere with me, so it has held up really well to the amount of abuse use I've given it. The elastic band is still really tight. The cover is a little banged up on the edges but it's holding up well and doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart or anything like that. And none of the pages have fallen out.

  Would I buy it again? Yes, if they featured new artists.

  For now, you can buy a Tiga sketchbook of your own, featuring either Vince Low, Kerby Rosanes, or Peisy Ting via this link: https://tigaartistry.com/collections/sketchbooks-journals

Review of World of Zentangle

  Bai YunYun, a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) from China, approached me in September last year asking whether my mother and I would like to be featured in a book that she was writing. I was thrilled, and agreed in a heartbeat. It took these many months for the book to be completed and printed, then sent from China to Singapore, but I must say that it definitely was worth the wait.

 "World of Zentangle" is a beautifully printed book. The pages are set out wonderfully. It doesn't look cluttered, the text is easy to read, and all the pictures in the book are lovely and sharp. The cover is a sturdy cardboard material that is the colour of Zentangle®'s renaissance tiles. It has a nice border of tangles and the Chinese title of the book is printed in white ink that makes it seem like it is slightly embossed.

  The pages have a slight gloss and the book is printed in full colour. Each chapter is colour coded, which I find really useful for finding a particular section when I want to.

First chapter... And with the Zentangle motto: "Anything is possible, one stroke at a time."

  The book starts off by telling you about the origins of Zentangle, then moves on to talk about different styles in Zentangle art. It briefly touches on materials used to create Zentangle art (even including markers and watercolours). And only after, does it teaches you the 8-steps method and shading techniques. The final few pages gives you ideas on different crafts you can do as Zentangle-inspired art, and the last chapter has tangle exercises with empty boxes that you can draw in. (How smart of YunYun to do that!)

  The book is filled with plenty of pictures of YunYun's own art works, examples of patterns, and pictures related to what she's talking about on any given page. Eight other artists were featured in the book, of which my mother, Joni, and I am included. We truly are honoured to be included in such a wonderful creation.

Here's the section that I was included in.

And here's Joni's section.

Line exercises...

And a spread from the last chapter, where there are step-outs to a few tangles and empty boxes that you can draw in.

  Flip-through video of the book:

  It's truly a blessing for us to have received a copy of this book because we're planning to teach Zentangle classes in Mandarin soon and we wanted to be sure that we would be teaching the Zentangle method using the correct words. This book will really help us.

  I hope you enjoyed reading my review of "World of Zentangle". If you have Mandarin speaking students, this book will be a great purchase. Or if you're like me and just like to collect books about Zentangle, you can currently purchase the book through Dang Dang or through China's Amazon.

Review of "Unwind in the Wilds" a Colouring Book by Derwent

  There's a new colouring book being sold at Art Friend. It's "Unwind in the Wilds" by Derwent and the illustrations within it are by Sarah Taylor. It's retailing at $18.50 (or $16.65 if you have membership). Go buy yourself a set of Coloursoft coloured pencils while you're at it. (What do you mean I have an obsession with Coloursofts... Shhh~)

  It's a colouring book based around a theme on nature... Lots of little critters- bunnies, bugs, owls, deers, song birds, swans... Lots of leaves and trees... There are some pages with just repeating patterns.

  The first few pages are really interesting, too. There's a little guide on how to blend coloured pencils to achieve different tones of colours, and some super basic colour theory. And then you also have two fully coloured pages to give you an idea on what you can do. 

  And scattered throughout the book are a couple of little Complete-It-Yourself pages. For example, one has an owl and you have to draw its feathers and hat. I haven't attempted any of those kind of pages cause when I am drawn to my colouring books, I usually am just craving to handle some colouring materials. So I wouldn't be in the mood to draw. There are other fun activities in the book, too.

Like mazes...

And item hunts...

  Some of the drawings are two-pages spread, and we all know what happens when that's the case... The middle part of the drawings get swallowed up by the binding. *sad face* But I'm happy to say that most pages are single spreads, and some even have nice borders so they'd look wonderful if you cut them out of the book to frame. I prefer to keep my pages IN the book, but to each his own, eh?

  And here's a quick flip-through of the book:

  I coloured a really cute mouse with just less than seven colours:

Yep. Mostly greens, blues, and a yellow. The mouse is actually orangey-red. No browns were used.
Even the background is red plus dark blue. No browns or purples..

And here's a song bird. One of the advice that Sarah gave was to not be afraid to leave certain areas white. That's why I left the flower-y patterns on the bird's throat white.

I rather like the page left this way. Pretty birb.

  Wanna' see another awesome colouring book? Try Enchanted Forest.

Canson Arches Paper and Sketchbooks Review

  Art Friend has been stocking Canson Arches paper for some time now, but recently, I found out that they're currently having a promotion on A LOT of their Canson products and I had to restrain myself from buying too many things.... #artistproblems  I thought it'd be nice if you had a place to see all the different varieties of papers that Art Friend has, and also to show you what their current promotion is about.

  I apologise in advance to all the international readers who get art materials envy from this post. However, there will be a giveaway at the end of this post. :)

Hand lettering done on the back of a Canson Arches Esquisse paper.

  Here are the Canson papers Art Friend stocks. I hope the pictures will give you an idea on the texture of the papers...

Canson Arches Huile Oil Paper Pad. 300gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 12 sheets. $24.50/pad

Canson Arches Aquarelle Rough Watercolour Pad. 300gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 20 sheets. $44.90/pad.

Canson Arches Aquarelle Cold Pressed Watercolour Pad. 300gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 20 sheets. $44.90/pad. They also sell a hot pressed version of this paper. The Aquarelle range of papers are all wonderful.

Canson Arches Dessin Drawing Pad. 200gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 16 sheets. Comes in extra white or cream. $21.40/pad.

Canson Arches Esquisse Sketch Pad. 105gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 20 sheets. $18.50/pad.

This one had different textures to each side of the paper. It kind of reminded me about Fabriano's Goffrata sketchbook from its Bouquet of Notebooks series. (What are that? I have a post where I show you the Bouquet Notebooks. It's towards the end of this post.)

Front

And back of paper.
I used the little ridges as gauges for my hand lettering picture at the top of this post. Not my wisest idea as I did have trouble keeping my lines straight. But hey, not all of our ideas work out, eh?

  You might be interested in: Prices of Art Materials in Singapore

  And the "heart the art" promotion Art Friend is currently holding looks like this:

"Friend Friend got lobang one" *dies laughing*

  In case you can't read the promo card in the picture properly, it says... If you're an Art Friend member, you can get 40% discount on Canson products in the promo...

See all the yellow tabs? 40% discount if you have membership. 
That's about $3 to $10 for each sketchbook in the Canson range.

$2... Now with 40% discount.
There are five colours in the Canson Notes- light blue, orange, royal purple, magenta pink, and grass green. But I only saw the pink and green on shelves. *sad face* I'd have liked a purple one.

*strong urge to grab five of each sketchbook*

  Art Friend is selling A4-sized 100 percent cotton paper in packs of five for 50% discount with every purchase of qualifying products....

I cut my Extra White paper into small squares to use when I teach my Zentangle classes.

They also had the paper in "Cream" colour.
The ones with the blue and yellow covers are (in order from left to right): Prominent Grain 160gsm, Cold Pressed 300gsm, Fine Grain 250gsm, and Hot Pressed 185gsm.
It's anywhere from $1.50 to $4 for each pack of five sheets.

Here's what I did with my Fine Grain paper. Done with Uni-ball Signo pens- nothing fancy.
The white circles spaces for me to add jewels to it.

  Art Friend is also selling certain papers in bulks- great deal for art students. So many choices.

All paper packs under $10!
A staff at the store saw me standing here contemplating which pack I should buy and said to me, "Just buy lah. Buy all, also can. Once these stock run out, we won't sell in bulk anymore." 
... I proceeded to put two stacks into my shopping basket.

  Art Friend... why you do this to me? My wallet was crying after. (But such good deals. Cannot pass up on them, am I right? The struggle is real...)

  As a side note, I was at the Plaza Singapura branch and they had these cute little monkeys in the glass display area in celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Paper mache oranges! Ahhh~ So cute.

And love letters! (For those of you who don't know, love letters are this thin wafer that is usually rolled into skinny cylindrical shapes. Westerners call them "biscuit rolls", if I'm not mistaken...?)

  Chinese New Year happened on the 8th of February this year. It is the year of the Fire Monkey now. Here at Everything Is Art, we gave out candy, chocolate, and new year goodies to our students. ^-^   Perhaps I should also do a Chinese New Year craft next year... Hmmm...

  Anyways. Back at home, I did a watercolour project with the papers. I used my Derwent Inktense blocks, and as always, the colours were really vivid and beautiful.

The top ones are Prominent Grain papers, and even though the cover didn't say that they were meant for watercolours, they took water really well.
The small paper on the bottom was a leftover Huile Oil paper that I still had. I think the colours were a little more streaky on this paper than on the other papers, but I'm not complaining since it was originally meant for oils. It was just a little fun experiment.

In this picture, the top row are the Aquarelle Cold Pressed paper.
And the bottom one is the Aquarelle Rough.

  I didn't stretch any of the papers because I just wanted to lay colours on them so that I could then cut them up into smaller tiles to draw Zentangle on. I'm thinking of doing art swaps with them.

Look at all the pretty tiles that I now have.

Here's one Artist Trading Card that I created with the papers.

Close up of the Huile Oil paper. I cut it down to about postcard size.
I think the granulation and streaks actually add character to the paper.

  Onwards to the sketchbooks... From what I understand, the papers within all the sketchbooks are the same, all 96gsm Crob'Art paper. It's just the binding and size that makes them different. They're more suitable for sketching, and ink, with maybe some light watercolour washes.

The "Inspiration" line has stitching on it. Each come in a bundle of two books, and you have four colours to choose from- navy blue (really pretty, and I seldom see that colour, so I bought two sets. I know... I have self control issues...), earth brown, deep purple, and your regular jet black.
The sketchbook reminds me a lot of the EcoQua by Fabriano (that one is stapled not stitched, though).

The "180°" line, of course, has the ability to open flat. The spine is a cloth finish to enable that.
And yes; tried and tested- it really does open flat.

It has a magnetic clasp to hold it close, and has a faux leather sort of finish. I got one to use after I finish my tiga sketchbook.

   The "Universal" sketchbook is your Moleskin alternative- with its sturdy finish and elastic band closing. They're really beautiful sketchbooks and a much *much* cheaper alternative to Moleskins.

It's all in the small details... Embossed Canson logo on the back.
You can also see the textured finish of the sketchbook better in this picture.

Little pocket at the back to keep your loose bits of papers, sticky notes, tiles... whatever floats your boat.

  It was one of my New Years resolution to get better at hand lettering. I'm currently using one of my many Canson Inspiration sketchbooks as a place to practice. Just know that the paper takes ink very well. However, the paper is thin, so I can only use one side of the pages. I'm not complaining, though, as there is no bleed-through even when I'm very heavy-handed. If you'd like to see a video of what I've done on my Canson sketchbook, click this link.

  And that's about all I have for you. I hope you had fun seeing the Canson range from Art Friend, and the little projects I did with the new materials I got. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments section below. And to all my readers based in Singapore, I'm so sorry if you decide to make a trip to Art Friend... I will not be held liable for any overspending on Canson products whilst there.... You have been warned. :P


 I bought so many things at Art Friend, so I'd like to share some of those goodies with you, too! It has also been too long since I did a giveaway... One lucky reader will win a set of A5-sized Canson Inspiration sketchbooks.


Here are the rules:

• If you've been a long-time reader, you should know that this isn't the first giveaway I'm hosting... Like my previous giveaway, this one will be opened worldwide. So matter where you live, you're eligible to join. I'll cover the postage fee so you don't have to worry about that.
• The giveaway starts on 15th February 2016, 08:59, Singapore time, and ends on the 14th March 2016, 09:00, Singapore time.
• Please provide an e-mail that I can contact you with if you win the giveaway. The winner will be drawn randomly and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends.
• If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me an email- stephanie@everythingis-art.com

Other than that, you can join via the widget below. Anddd~ Good luck!