Planner Addict

Yes, I am a self confessed planner addict when I was in college (I think a lot are at that time). I would buy pretty fillers and mini stickers from Regina's in Greenhills, stick my neo prints in my dividers, write my favorite songs in the pages, stick pretty post-its and use multi-colored pens in writing everything. I poured so much love in my planner at that time, that's why I just change a few pages instead of getting new ones.

Cut to a "few" years later, I find myself in the planner craze again. There are a lot of creative people who use it and decorate it like scrapbooks, and the crafter in me just shined again. I feel lucky that in 2012 my bff Elia gave a planner from their Simalakamma collection, because you won't be able to find nice ones in Manila, even the inside pages are non-existent. So how did this Nanay keep up? I head to National Bookstore and bought some 12x12 scrapbook papers and those plain colored ones and started cutting and punched holes in them the moment I got home. I also got me some sticky notes to liven up the pages. 

I've been getting crafty at work and take 5 minute breaks to shoot my daily planner themes. And here's what I have so far.

These pics are all posted in my instagram account @nanaydiy and you can follow me for the more regular posts. I know there are some people here who would fall in love again with planners, let's share this passion again, message me! :)

Missing Pieces: Textile Tease

I grew up with most our cabinets filled with different fabrics, my mother runs a small business of making bed sheets and curtains for her friends at work. Every Saturday, she would head to Divisoria and buy her supplies. Which is how I also came to appreciate and aspire of creating my own items with sewing. I have yet to learn and buy my own machine, but I already have a list of the projects that I want to work on. 

In 2012, I went to Japan for an art residency,andmy roomate Elia who is from Indonesia was the queen of fabrics, don't get me wrong, I also love them but her passion was immense. So I quickly brought her to Yuzawaya in the city to check out my craft store find and we were instantly best friends. 

Elia's work really revolved around fabrics and stiching a story, so she'd go on trips  exploring the city to find her supplies and it lead her to the biggest fabric disctrict in Japan called Nipori, she went there for a couple of times and brought me with her when my schedule freed up. It is very similar to Divisoria where fabric shops are just beside each other, the difference though (aside from the botique like stores and wider walk ares) is that their biggest shop called Tomato was really pure heaven. Ifloors and floors of fabrics, most of them designed and produced in Japan which made the fabrics really unique.

Inspired by what I saw, I started to look at the fabrics and thought of projects to work on with it. I bought small scraps that I want to turn into coin purses and card holders. I recently found all these fabrics again and sharing with youn the pretty prints and patterns from my collection.

Skulls, owls and science, It was love at first sight.

I liked the simplicity and character of this rocket pattern,

Which also goes the same for this mushroom prints.

The brick wall reminded me of my friends who do graffitti. And planning to sew something with the likes of graffitti also.

A dose of salt water.

Blazing colors against a black background.

Weaved simplicity.

Another brickwall version.

A toast with the beers of the world.

And kampai from us too! 

Missing Pieces

I have been moving things for the past couple of years. From my parents house, to my own studio, to an apartment with my son and my partner. In the process of these transfers I learned how to let go of objects that mean something ro me, because it is inevitable. It was after Ondoy (a strong typhoon that struck Manila), where I lost a lot of my treasures (books, photos and trinkets from way back), I have learned to un-attach myself these things, to slowly let go. 

I am currently working on some pieces for an art exhibit and started looking for objects that I know I have can't seem to find in our studio. So I went to my parents house to check my stuff that has already been boxed, no, I didn't find what I was looking for but I found these objects that somehow made me happy.

Brush pens that I only used for maybe three times. I am so happy to find these because I'm planning attend a caligraphy workshop next week :D this is a sign!

My graffitti mask. No, I don't do graf but I use this whenever I spray paint on my artworks. I got them from carrotbombing.com which is owned by my friend Trip.

These miniature toys that I got in Japan. These will be for my little boy when he's old enough to play with tiny toys.

Paints are always a happy find.

This craft book that I got for only P20.00 at National Bookstore.

And these stamps! ❤️

By the way, I had a solo exhibition last year about these "missing pieces" and you can check the works here: http://mimitecson.com/Missing-Pieces

Clay Craft: Gift tags

Wht I love about the light weight clay (paper clay) is that it dries and keeps its shape. Using this material gives you an opportunity to make other clay crafts. The only thing though, is that it's so light that an electric fan can blow this away. 

A craft that I worked on this afternoon is small tags using clay and stamps. 

Here are the materials and steps:

Paper Clay

Stamps

Just cut the clay to your desired shape. After that, start stamping :)

Here's a sample of how I tied it to my gift

Here's a tip in storing paper clay. You have to keep them in air tight containers because the material dries out easily.