Sanrio Merchandise Journal Pages

McDonald’s Singapore had Yu-Gi-Oh! x Hello Kitty & Friends mini plushies as their Happy Meal toys since mid-March. I don’t follow the comic, but thought the soft toys look adorable, and so ended up eating the kids’ meal once a week, till I collected the 4 (out of 10) designs I wanted. Some of the designs look much better as artwork on the boxes than the actual plushies! So I decided to fussy cut the characters and made mini journal pages out of them.

Somerset Studio magazine Artists’ Papers are used for a varied background, so I didn’t do much except cut and paste.

Having started, I thought I might as well create an entire mini journal book on Sanrio characters. And all the packaging of the Miniso blind packs came into play. I used MT washi tapes to create quick backgrounds, and some old Daiso stickers filled up the voids.

Again, I love these pictures of Sanrio tops on the Miniso blind boxes more than the actual items! And took the effort to create Japanese themed pages using Muji washi tapes and sakura patterned memo papers.

An impulse buy of a blind pack led me to find ways to include this removable Pekkle badge on stiff card. If ever I find another home for it, there would still be a medal design left on the page.

I found an old Hello Kitty boarding pass memo pad in my stash, bought during a holiday in 2014! Can’t even remember if the papers were cream coloured originally or if they yellowed with age! Trimmed a couple to size to fit the mini binder book.

Looking forward to fill up the rest of the journal book with more Sanrio pages! A full flip-through video of these completed pages are on my Youtube channel.

Aderia Retro X Ryu Ryu Art Journal Pages

I was eager to work on my Aderia Retro X Ryu Ryu mini memo sets, where the little envelopes serve well as sturdy backgrounds for me to art journal on.

I like the thick texture of the retro desserts & drinks, so it’s just a simple assembly of stickers and shaped memo papers against the bright backgrounds.

The rectangular memo papers received different treatments: one has a basic design with a focal sticker and doodle border, while the other has an added paper dolly to soften the fussy cut circle from the blue envelope.

I like double-sided art journal pages, so the underside of the papers were not left untouched. The large drink PET sticker was placed on plain white paper and cut out to serve as focal point, against a background of a mix of stickers and memo paper.

I tend to forget to use my other craft supplies when art journaling, sticking to just what I have on the table. So this page turned out rather raw, with just the scrap blue envelope (after fussy cutting) as ackground, stamp stickers from the set, and some disastrous doodled borders.

I also created an interactive page, by cutting an envelope in half and enclosing a decorated memo paper within. Full Youtube video available here.

These pages go into the 3-ring binder art journal I started last year, which is still half empty. To create the “separator page” for this new segment, I made use of the little stickers to assemble this simple yet representative collage.

Unfortunately, the written words (re the materials used) on the reverse side is visible from the front of the thin paper. Oh well, nothing is perfect!

Simple Journal Page

Working to clear my craft stash and came across a pack of old Daiso sakura themed stickers. Made of thick jap paper with gold foil accents, they reminded me of the Jap red packets journal pages I made recently, and I thought they would make a good “separator” page for those beauties.

So, I paired the stickers with some pink cloud-shaped washi tape from my stash and a stamp washi. A simple page to record those sakura moments.

April Stationery Haul Part 1

Already spent quite a bit within the first 2 weeks of April, so decided to post about it:

Miniso had new stuff – Disney Pixar Food Festival collection. Love the cute Rex! I bought the solid Phone case sticker ($2.90) and the embroidered patches (S$3.90 each), to use in my food blogging.

Earlier in the month, I went cuckoo over the Pottering Cat series (all at S$5.55 each, except for the $4.35 mini envelopes), when I saw them at the stationery section of Books Kinokuniya Main Store, in Ngee Ann City. Couldn’t resist the adorable cats! Planning to use them in my mini art journal……

The Bugis branch of NBC was having a sale on the Aderia Retro X Ryu-Ryu series, at almost 50% discount! I had trouble deciding which design to try out, and after deliberating for a long time (hubby cleared 3 different shops in the meantime) I settled on these 2 memo sets ($3.50 each). Such retro style is not my usual forte, but I thought I should be able to create some mini art collages with these beauties.

Didn’t realise the box contains flake seals ($4.80) – I thought the stickers would be in the form of a roll, which would make it hard to select what I want to use. Should also have bought the blue version too!

The Miffy washi tape with cutter (S$8.90) was a no-brainer, since I don’t have a Ribbon-Bon cutter of that shape, and the ticket-styled washi tape would be useful in journaling. The muted pastel colours are just right!

I also succumbed to the cat-themed gachapon acrylic stand & stamp ($9.90). I have been eyeing this series for a long time, somehow self-restraint broke that afternoon. Maybe because I had been spending too much money & time on Gachapon!!

And blind boxes too! Tried out this Chiikawa plastic clip blind bag from Miniso (S$5.90), with a total of 14 possible different designs. Although the quality is not bad, for the price I thought it’s rather flat & plain (the mofusand gachapon clip costs about the same but has 3D surface), not exactly value for money.

So think I better keep my money for other stuff instead……

Snoppy-centric Mini Art Journal

I bought some Peanuts stickers from Miniso with the intention of using them in my mini 3-ring binder journal – I wanted create a cartoon-themed one and had already added mofusand and Miffy charms (both from Gachapon) to the spine for decoration.

I had been wondering what to do for the journal covers, and the metallic Snoopy PET film stickers look lovely enough on their own. I simply cut up the patterned backing cardboard of some of the sticker sets to use as the front & back cover of the mini journal.

Little puffy stickers add a further pop of colour.

For the inner covers, the metallic film stickers are now placed against a backdrop of coloured washi tape – double layered to try to block out the prints on the reverse of the backing cardboards!

This single journal page (on the reverse of my last ancient chinese scene) was created by simply adding MT washi tape and Coffret film stickers to the trio of puffy stickers. The rest of the Peanuts stickers I’m putting aside for future use. My plan is to fill up odd pages with Snoopy-themed designs, so that I can start new projects on new sheets.

Turns out the Snoopy-head memo papers are printed in light grey, not black like the cover page! So I outlined everything in black, taking the chance to use my various black pens. Then I placed the memo paper on the window and made use of the sunlight to trace the image on the underside of the paper. Thus creating a double-sided Snoopy head as my divider page! One Snoopy for every type of cartoon in this little journal!

I use permanent marker when tracing the reverse image (left photo), as it dries fast. The image made with the black Sakura Glaze pen is shinier (right photo) with slight raised dimension, but takes several minutes to dry completely.

Turns out that the shiny Sakura Glaze ink can stick to the plastic cover upon direct contact! The 2 small broken segments near the neck are the result of the ink being peeled off!!! Not sure if it happens because the ink hasn’t dried completely, but I’m not taking further chances. Remembering not to use the Sakura Glaze pen for this purpose anymore, and making sure the current Snoopy dividers are not touching any PET film surfaces!