Located next to Kinokuniya Book Store at Liang Court is “Crafts Beautiful”. A store that was going to revive my love and addiction to scrapbooking! Jenny Khoo is the founder of Crafts Beautiful, and has been teaching paper crafts for 16 years. She started off by teaching small groups of Korean and Japanese housewives at their homes. She has travelled extensively to different parts of the world to learn different crafts and to source for unique and interesting craft ideas and materials.
Irene and I were both there for their scrapbooking workshop. Even though I have done scrapbooking before and used to be absolutely mad about it with my gal pal, Bernice, it’s been a long time since I found time to sit down to do a page. What better way to kick off the intrest again then with friends and a conducive environment at Crafts Beautiful where all the equipment and beautiful papers are all within reach.
Although I was there to do scrapbooking, I learnt from Jenny that the main clientele for Crafts Beautiful is actually Japanese women who would come here to do paper tole.
Paper Tole (also known as 3-D decoupage) originated in the 18th century Europe. The craft involves cutting off several pieces of identical prints, which are then shaped and arranged together to give depth and elevate the piece (hence the 3-D effect), as the finishing touch. A layer of varnish will be applied to the surface. The combination of colors and pieces of prints on a large scale will create a lively piece of art that will stand out and impress the viewers as compared to a common flat print we are so accustomed to.
I’m immediately captivated by the possibilites and the beauty of the paper tole technique. I was told that some people even combine both scrapbooking and paper tole together for an impressive photo layout frame. It will definitely be a craft I’m keen to try out in the future.
Crafts Beautiful is a one stop shop for crafts materials, craft classes, gifts and cards. Started off as a Paper Tole shop, it has since included Scrapbooking, Paper Quilling and many other interesting crafts. Below is a photo example of a paper quilling at their store if that is what tickles your fancy.
I’ve digressed quite a bit but coming back to scrapbooking which has gained quite a popularity in Singapore, it is a really fun method for preserving personal and family history and you can add photographs, artwork. journaling or anything else you can think of to bring together the theme and the memories you want to preserve in a beautiful aesthetic way.
Some common items used during scrapbooking are cutting mats, paper cutters, paper punches and scissors. Since it is supposed to be a way of preserving your memories for a long long time, you should only use archival acid free papers and special archival glue to ensure that nothing fades or disintegrates when kept for the next generation.
Of course other than the basic tools, you can go really hardcore and invest in fancy tools such as die-cut mini machines or stickers and rubber stamps. But if you are just startting out, there is already a lot you can do with basic tools and a little imagination.
After some tips from the owner and teacher, Jenny, each of us got engrossed in creating our very own scrapbooking layout with whatever photos or theme we had in mind. My dearest friend Sushi hasn’t been feeling well recently and even got admitted to the hospital so I wanted to do a scrapbook page of her son (my godson) to cheer her up. I had recently visited Godson Leo and realized he has taken an interest to gardening and have thus based my theme on that.
Here’s how my layout looks like! All I need to do now is to print the photos and add them in! There were quite a few 3D effects but it doesn’t really show well on photos.
Together with Irene’s stripy layout! As you can tell I’m a lot more conservative in my layout 😛
And a photo with the owner, Jenny Khoo.
Here’s how the page looks like after I added the photos of Godson Leo! I brought it over to Sushi’s parent’s home to give her and Leo got excited with it.
Maybe in time he’ll too be able to do some scrapbooking for his mummy and his godmother! He’s now starting by using all his strength to open his colored markers.
Okie, he’s still very much in the scribble stage so it might take a while before he starts doing up nice cards and scrapbooking pages.
However, if you would like to try your hand scrapbooking to keep the memories of those you hold close, they have a 1-for-1 scrapbooking class promotion at only $45 if you sign up in October!
Give them a call or head down to
Crafts Beautiful
177 River Valley Road #03-01
Liang Court Shopping Centre
Singapore 179030
Tel: 62352330