Fun paper craft

This morning got a chance to do some fun craft, here is what I have done! It's so nice to do craft! I love paper craft =)

It is a happy birthday card for someone I love and care :D

Masterpiece - takeaway from my first women's retreat

Last Saturday I attended my first women's retreat, I was asked to play in the worship team :) The whole day was wonderful!

The theme of the retreat called masterpiece, yes we are God's masterpiece, each of us is precious. God is our great creator, praise Him!

So we made our own masterpiece on a canvas, about ourselves before and after (now). That is why you might see the head and the shoulder in the picture. It is me.

At the beginning I was quite nervous because I am not confident in making it beautiful :s I tried to paste some newspaper, having fun with my sister at the same time. Then I started feeling inspired, and I kept developing it. I was almost the last to finish because I was slow... anyway, I found that ugly at first but now I appreciate it because I got my story behind it.

The story is this: I before(= Newspaper) followed the pattern of this world, I had pride and envy in me. Then I knew Jesus, who shed the blood for me (= the red threads in the form of blood), I got touched and became christian. 

God (= thread in heart shape) lived in me, Holy Spirit (orange and yellow) filled in me. I change.

I'm still surrounded by the world (=black at the background), sometimes I got influenced by the world (=brown color around my cheek), sometimes when I serve the Lord I give positive effect on the others (=yellow color around the top of my head).

I hope one day I will spread more positive energy to the others, to lighten the world.

Lord, please help me to sanctify and purify myself, be the light shining on the others.

What I learnt: Creating an art piece is not only about the beauty of it, of course it is important, but the story behind shouldn't be neglected. I learn a new way to appreciate an artwork - to be more curious about the story behind each one.

I enjoyed the retreat and I will definitely join it next year, and also play again next year!

Stenciling technique - home decoration idea

I have learnt the stenciling technique when I was in secondary school. My art teacher taught us this technic, we used pastel and finger to achieve soft effect. I appreciated a lot her teaching, because today I applied this technique again, but on a wall, not only on a paper!

I have helped out my lovely friend to decorate the church, thanks so much for her trust. ( I love her so much >v< ) She always has good idea ;) We are always the best team, ever!

For more explanation on Stenciling technique, click here.

Basically it is to have a piece of plastic or thick paper, draw your design on it. Then cut the empty space out (spaces between lines) and color the empty part.

Here are the steps how I stencil the words on the wall:

1. In "Word" document, type in the words that you want to print out, choose the font and size that you like
Note: You may find that not all the words fit on the same page because the word is too long, that is ok. Leave them on separate pages, you can later cut out the alphabets and put them together to form a word.

2. Print out the document

3. Cut out ONLY the letters with a sharp cutter, put your cutting matt underneath, don't damage your table - you won't need these letters
You will now have a piece of paper with holes (these should be alphabets)

Note 1: It is better to put one word on the same paper - but in step 1 if you have one long word separated into few pages, now you need to use scotch/tape to stick them together
Be careful of the spacing! You can use your finger to measure, like the spacing of 1 finger or 2 fingers

Note 2: You may have a question - for the alphabets like "a", "o", "b", "d" etc, you want to keep the space in the middle not painted. What to do? 

See the above picture imagine it is the alphabet "o", you see there is an opening called "Bridge", because the non painted part connects the round shape in the middle called "Island". It is like a joint
If you accidentally cut the whole thing off (that is what I did too), don't panic, use scotch to fix the problem!

4. Now draw a straight line on the wall with your pencil, at least for the 1st row! To ensure the words are stenciled nicely!

Then you can stick these papers on the wall & paint the words. 
As you see in the photo the words are on several lines, the order to work on it: from the top to the bottom

5. With the line of the 1st row drawn on the wall, you can put the paper of the 2nd row just under this line to ensure the 2nd row is straight, then paint it.
Also the advantage is to have the equal spacing between rows!

Then, DO NOT remove the paper! I know you are getting excited... Me too! But keep calm! Keep them on the wall, put the paper of 2nd row, then you can remove the paper of the 1st line or you can keep them

6. Now come to the 3rd row, do the same, do not remove the paper of the 2nd row, stick the paper of 3rd row right under the paper of 2nd row. Then, you can paint it

7. If you have several lines, repeat step 6

Note: I didn't draw any line on the wall... because the paper on the 1st row just touch the border.

8. When the paint is dried, erase the pencil mark

DONE!

Enjoy!