Papel de Pinay at Good Morning Pilipinas

March 17, 2017

People’s Television Network, Ch. 4

Thank You, 2016!

It’s the 28th of December — just 3 days short of it being 2017. I could’ve sworn I’ve just written a recap of 2015 in my blog, but hey, this year flew by like it had a mind of its own and no one could’ve stopped it if they tried.

Papel de Pinay had a late start in terms of kick-starting this year. The first craft fair I joined
for 2016 was at Estancia on March 19th. That was also my arm-knitted scarves’ debut. The following day, March 20th, I held a small papercutting workshop at Spectrum Lifestyle Store in Alabang. Spectrum was also where I had been a consignee since late last year. Unfortunately, the store ended its run in October. It was a good experience for me, though. It’s healthy to explore and take risks from time to time. 
Summer was the highlight of PdP’s year. April and May were all about exposure. LOL. Minimal exposure, yes, but who am I to be picky? In April, Maker’s Market collaborated with HGTV. An event filled with local and independent crafters was held at the Alabang Town Center on April 3rd. The place was packed mainly because the event was held in the atrium and a program with hosts was held late afternoon. The hosts took time to interview all makers — including myself 😉 — so the shoppers became more interested with the items for sale. I was told it was shown on HGTV, though I have yet to see it.

 

May came and I received a call from GMA-7 (a local TV network in the Philippines) inviting me to guest in an early morning show to showcase my items and teach the hosts some basic papercutting techniques. You could imagine my nerves then, especially that it was on live TV. Thankfully, I managed to calm my shaky hands and was able to move my lips when it was time to talk.

The craft fairs I joined in were spread throughout the year. Some of them were back-to-back events (I don’t encourage this if you want to have a life), and boy, was it tiring. Fulfilling, nonetheless. 🙂 It was also at a craft fair (my first 10a Alabama experience!) that I met Mai of Fake Alchemy through a common friend. This friend suggested that we do a collaboration of our works, thus, the birth of the handmade papercut glass pendants that we now both sell. Amazing how things come about, huh?

The third quarter of the year brought about my first ever radio guesting and my last papercutting workshop for the year. The radio guesting was at RX 93.1’s Heard on Thursdays show. I got to talk to Hazel and Raffy about my craft and experiences with papercutting.

It was also the perfect time to promote my then upcoming workshop in September, which by far is my biggest workshop to-date. I’m hoping for more of these next year. 🙂

Looking back, it makes me wonder how all of these happened considering the other things on my plate which kept me busy, too: a full-time job (including the wasted hours spent in traffic), my personal life, and a litter of puppies my family had to take care of since August (note: not an easy job!). But I guess, more than time management, cheesy as it may sound, it’s the people around me who made everything happen. I’m thankful for every single one of them. ❤

HAPPY NEW YEAR, FOLKS! Cheers to a more craft and love-filled 2017! 

Christmas and Me are Through

Before the festivities are over and gifts are unwrapped, allow me to greet you a Merry Christmas!!!! I do hope you are where you want to be right now, that is, with your family and loved ones.

Now, back to business 🙂 This is a project I’ve been meaning to share in my blog but couldn’t because my client requested not to have this posted before Christmas (the papercut will be given as a gift to her friend). And since I couldn’t wait a day after Christmas to post this, here it is:

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”

Here’s a much clearer photo (but with a cream background which I replaced later on):

I don’t know if it can be seen through the photo, but if you look closely, I’ve framed it in a way that the papercut is embossed over the background. Here’s how I did it:
(Top) Glass – Papercut – Acetate – Mounting material – Background.

If you have your own frame-maker (which I don’t), it doesn’t have to be this complicated. You can just have him customize a frame and mount it for you. I substituted acetate for glass as I needed a thin material that the frame could hold. I couldn’t find a thick enough double-sided tape at home so I folded strips of black paper instead as my mounting material. Besides, the dark paper helped in concealing the mount since the papercut is also black. For the background, I used a semi-hologram board paper in lilac with astral print. It just so happened that I have this paper lying around in my room and thought it was perfect in creating that “holding hands in the twilight” feel to the artwork. 🙂

You might wonder why the title of this blog entry is so far off from the papercut. Well, it is. It’s just my way of getting all emo in bidding goodbye to the Christmas season. 😛 And it’s also the title of a song I like which I first heard on Chuck. The song doesn’t have an official video so the one below shows clips from the TV series instead (which I certainly do not mind). Hope you’ll like it as much as I do.

Merry Christmas once again, craft geeks! 🙂