WEDGIENET.NET

So sorry for the lack of new posts! The last update on this blog was more than a month ago! The holiday rush was exactly that– a rush. Afterwards, things slowed down and mellowed in January. I think the whole world gets a little lazy in January. I know I did… hence, the lack of updates.

I’ve just returned from almost a week-long vacation in Macau (which was wonderful) with my family. I have to ease out of my extended vacation mode fast… as I START A NEW FULLTIME JOB TOMORROW. It’s totally unexpected and this job offer just came out of the blue, when I wasn’t even looking for a job. Remember my article How I Quit My Job to Follow My Dream? Saying yes to a fulltime job seems contradictory after everything I’ve said, but I said yes to the job after finding out it’s not as much of a 15-18 hours/day time-suck like my previous job (where all my free time was spent catching up on sleep) so that means I still have time to maintain my Etsy shop on the side.

Memo pads and to do lists available on Notebooks, Etc.

I may have to let go of my freelance design/illustration projects in the meantime, but nothing’s set in stone yet. For now I’m turning down freelance projects until April 2010 to get a feel of how I can balance a fulltime job and my Etsy shop.

I still have a backlog of new things and recent projects to post– I’m looking to churn out another post in a week or so!

Posted on Jan 25, 2010 in Blog | 2 Comments »

The Christmas Carnivale bazaar organized by the Zonta Club of Alabang last December 5 & 6 was a success!

Our booth setup

The bazaar was well-organized with various activities like a dog show, fire dance, an impersonator show, a fun run, and all other things I didn’t get to see/attend– we were busy attending to our booth as we had a good amount of people buying Christmas gifts from us! I didn’t even get to go around much to visit the other booths, all of which selling unique items unlike some bazaars which tend to have just clothes and not much else.

For those coming to this website from one of the cards we handed out, thank you for dropping by and/or buying from us! For Notebooks, Etc. (handmade notebooks, illustrated tumblers, memo pads/to do lists, and button pins), our items are available at our local reseller’s Multiply site, The Fundamentals: http://thefundamentals.multiply.com.

I’ll also be uploading/listing a few new items to the shop (both on Multiply and on Etsy, our online store for international customers) within the next week including a new batch of notepads fresh off the press (literally– we got them from the printing press the day of the bazaar) so watch out for that.

* * *

For those interested in King Beans Coffee (short name: King’s Coffee), our Batangas-sourced Barako/Liberica coffee, check out this Multiply album for details on how to order. We’re accepting local orders and we are looking to have a proper website created for King’s Coffee hopefully in the first quarter of 2010. Stay tuned!

Tags: alabang, barako, bazaar, carnival, christmas, craft show, cuenca, handmade, king beans coffee, kingscoffee, liberica, market, notebooks, notebooksetc, zonta
Posted on Dec 7, 2009 in Blog | 6 Comments »

Just a quick post to let you know two things. First, I have a feature on the just-relaunched Pixelbureau! Click here to read it. Thank you, Errol, for the invitation!

Second, Notebooks, Etc. and King’s Coffee will be at the Zonta Christmas Carnivale bazaar on December 5 and 6!

We’ll be selling our handmade paper goods and Barako coffee. For all the Southeners in the area, come check us out! I’ve temporarily closed my Etsy shop in preparation for the bazaar. We will reopen after December 6. Thank you!

Tags: bazaar, carnival, christmas, king's coffee, notebooksetc, zonta
Posted on Nov 29, 2009 in Blog | 3 Comments »

Not THIS Silva… no, not me, but my cousin Roxanne. She got married to Rudolph, her high school sweetheart of 13 years (they had an on-off and sometimes long-distance relationship) two weekends ago and I, being one of her secondary sponsors (AND her cousin!), was only happy to help with wedding-related designs she needed. Now I don’t offer wedding design as part of my services for clients. That’s reserved for only my closest friends and family, at no charge. If you want to save a bundle on design costs for your wedding, you might want to start dating my male relatives as early as now. Hahahaha! :)

Aside from the Save the Date wedding e-card, I also designed my cousin’s wedding invitations. They didn’t want anything overly-girly and invites that were too formal-looking (embossed Bickham/Edwardian Script fonts, anyone?) , so this is what I came up with.

Due to restrictions on invitation printing, I was allowed only two colors to work with– dark brown and orange. The plant motif on the side is a modified free Photoshop brush/vector image. The invitations were printed for free by one of the bridesmaids whose family owns a printing press. Don’t you just love free stuff! It came out like this:

The invites came in this envelope bound by a satin ribbon with the wedding seal (which I also designed). The wedding’s color motif is green and orange.

Inside, the envelope expands to reveal the wedding details and a pocket containing the entourage list, map, and RSVP info.

Here’s a close up of the wedding logo/seal I designed which was used for various wedding collaterals like souvenir gift tags and wine labels.

The table setting with a wine bottle providing the table number.

The wedding seal and plant/foliage used on the wedding invitations also made their way to the couple’s photobooth pictures. They rented out an instant photobooth for the night where you can have your pictures printed out right on the spot.

My cousins and I (left, in orange dress) goofing off at the photobooth. Pose and Print also printed a large tarpaulin backdrop with my wedding logo design for the background.

Last but not least, I also made a five-minute audio-visual presentation (AVP) with the couple’s pictures which was played at the reception. Some screencaps:

The wedding was a big success. Every little thing was planned and coordinated down to the littlest detail which made for a truly beautiful celebration. Congratulations to Roxanne and Rudolph!

Rudolph and Roxanne – November 8, 2009
Photographed by Atty. Raymond Fortun – http://raymond42n.multiply.com

Tags: avp, Design, envelope, invitation, label, logo, marriage, motion graphics, photobooth, seal, table setting, template, wedding, wine
Posted on Nov 16, 2009 in Blog | 6 Comments »

I’m back from my cousin’s wedding weekend! Before I share the stuff I designed for their wedding though (I’ll save that for my next post), I first have to tell you that CJ from Missy Posh has a Q&A feature on me up on her blog! Check it out.

CJ also asked to take a peek at my studio/work area for her readers. Now remember the bazaar I joined last September? To tell you the truth, I hadn’t cleaned up the studio since! I had strips of paper lying around, stray spiral coils on the floor, supplies unceremoniously dumped on my table. You can’t see what color the tabletop is anymore, seriously.

Well, my cousin was coming over our house to work on last-minute wedding details and CJ needed pictures of the studio so I set to work cleaning and straightening up the studio. I have a couple of pictures up on my Q&A interview but I don’t want to have my clean-up effort go to waste so I’m posting the other pics here. This clean state may not last long as I have another bazaar coming up in December to mess up the place again.

My work table – this is where computer stuff gets done. My laptop, drawing tablet, printer, and DIY lightbox (that white box thing at the end).

This just might be my most prized material possession– my 15″ Macbook Pro. It’s two years old and I bought it myself with my own salary back when I was still working a toxic day job. Below it is my month-old Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet, given by someone (who doesn’t want to be named) as an advanced gift for me on my birthday (I turned twenty-something last week).

My craft table. I cut, fold, trim, glue, assemble on this table. On it is my guillotine paper trimmer, bundles of paper for my notebooks awaiting covers, and a couple of pencil holders. Behind it is a drafting table and a green supply cabinet plastered with pictures of Ryan Philippe, Prince William, and various magazine cutouts– relics from my teenage days.

None of us in my family are engineers or architects but my dad likes to have various, useless furniture made and this drafting table is among the rare pieces he had done which we actually have a use for. Its surface covered with a huge cutting mat, this is where I cut large sheets of bristol board into smaller pieces for my notebook covers. The table’s downward slope also makes it an ideal place to work my slide punch (left). The contraption on the right is my wire binding equipment.

A peek inside the green supply cabinet. Some of my papers, packaging supplies, and art materials. Hanging from the door is my small collection of kawaii Japanese/Korean erasers.

Various kawaii erasers shaped like food. Looks good enough to eat!

One of my cabinet shelves. This one has various art supplies from blocks of polymer clay (bottom left) to padding glue, markers, paint, paint trays, brushes…

An orange candy can on my craft table doubles as a pencil holder… so does my Donuts tumbler which holds my scissors and paintbrushes. Behind it is a stuffed dog named Whitey hanging out on the couch.

Thank you CJ for the Q&A opportunity! :) Looking for more artist workspaces? I’m always interested to see how other artists work. Check out Workspaces on ShareSomeCandy for design/creative inspiration and major eye candy!

Tags: artist, Design, feature, interview, photo, studio, tour, work area, workspace
Posted on Nov 10, 2009 in Blog | 6 Comments »