Papercon Haul

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Papercon was a blast! I got to meet more floral artists that day. Below is my humble haul from the event:

Hydrangea sticker from Chichi (@chichilittle) | Sombra sticker from Pixel Hero PH (@pixelheroph) | Roses and Sunflowers from Kara Leonida (@renka002)

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Skyscapes sticker by Shine (@tingeofshine) Kitty postcard from our booth neighbor (@meow_project)

Postcards and a bookmark from THE Cynthia Arre! ♥

Art prints from Arlene Sy. ♥

Postcards from Alyanna Nebreja (@alfajone) ♥

And that’s it! Yayy. ♥

Papercon 2019

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This con was held last October 3, 2019 at Elements Centris – Prosperity Hall. At first, we had no idea where Prosperity Hall was. We were used to just Elements Centris during Komiket. When we asked the organizers, it was just half of Elements Centris HAHAHA.

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Prior to the event, I had to review the guidelines numerous times so I could explain and brief to the team. One of the things that I noticed is that they gave us an ample booth size – 2 meters by 2 meters! But they only provided a 4 feet by 2 feet table. Different units of measurement, but just convert one to the other. When I made the 3D mockup, we still had around 0.6 meters on the side for more visual merchandising space. I had this approved to the organizer before bringing in our JanMakers table. And that’s my tip for conventions, I guess? Read the guidelines thoroughly!

Anyway, Hannah and I went earlier than usual since we have the extra table. When we arrived at the venue, there was already a long line outside even though its just 8am!

Left side of the table. Featuring Clair’s and my works. ♥

Cork board for her stickers. Acrylic stand for my post cards. ♥ I bought the stand from Shopee!

It was a good decision to print a lot of my postcards! They were my best sellers for the day. ♥ Some customers even went to Papercon so they could specifically buy my postcards. Some even asked for my autograph! Our friends from IG, officemates, and loved ones also went to the event in support of us. Sobrang nakaka-kilig and nakakataba ng puso. ♥ These are the reasons why I kept participating in cons.

The mesh wire featuring our stickers. ♥

Various baskets for the sticker sets and individual stickers for our budget-conscious customers.

This was also Shine’s first convention! She’s one of my earliest IG friends (lol) and we used to do art tambays together with the rest of the JanMakers team back in Makati. She’s always supportive and always attends our events. This time, we asked her to join our team. Look at her cute stickers!

Momo the Hedgehog stickers by Shine! ♥

I LOVEEE the Skyscapes set! ♥

Right side of the table

Jeckrie and Sha also went to the event. They’re officially our Ops Manager and Marketing Consultant HAHAHA. Thank you so much for supporting us! ♥ I also met a LOT of flower artists that day. I was so happy that I finally met them in person. ♥ I’ll feature them in the next blog post!

How was our first Papercon experience? It was wonderful! (The income was nice too HAHA). The merchant application will open on April 4, 2020. I hope the rent price will be okay! We’ll apply again.

So sorry this blog post took a while! I wanted to be in the right mindset to write this post. I wanted to focus so I could remember all of the wonderful stories that day. ♥

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3RJISsH3IE/

Papercon Prep

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Last year, after StickerconMNL2019 and Baguio Craft Fair our January Makers PH team had no events lined up for the rest of the year. When Papercon was announced, we were hesitant in applying at first due to the rent price. But after a few weeks of discussion, we eventually applied. Gambling on a first time con is a big risk, but I believed that it would be a successful one. And so by August to September, it was back to the con prep once more.

New watercolor pad favorite: Canson Watercolor XL pad!

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As per every con, I wanted to sell new products. I think its good marketing that invites people to get first dibs on your new product. (If you have fans, I guess?). For me, well, I wanted to paint my new pencil case which was a tilapia lol. Then it reminded me of the Filipino meme that an ice cream in the fridge is usually 50% real icecream or 50% fish/meat/or any ulam. So I went with that concept “Trust Issues” HAHAHA.

I tried my best with lettering ok.

The final product. ♥

Printing time usually looks like this.

My office desk.

During that time, I also made postcards so my supervisor can give these to our designer counterparts in the US during her US business trip. I printed more in preparation for Papercon. I ran out of postcards because my officemates bought them. I had to print some more! It was a good thing that Hannah and Shine were also going to the print shop that weekend.

After printing, we found a korean cafe lol. We had our own cubicle!

Yasss foods.

Cutting a huge batch of stickers is tedious, but I’m so glad I have a support system! Thank you to my officemates once again for cutting my stickers while de-stressing in the office. ♥

Small steps

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When you thought January’s finally over with all the craziness of 2020, the Covid19 finally reached our country.

There’s more personal posts recently here. Here’s my summary of January to Feb:

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March is okay, I guess? We’ll get through this. Our office computers were shipped to our respective homes and they announced a mandatory 100% work from home for us days before the quarantine. Which is a good thing, right?

I just..don’t have the drive to blog. I know I have tons of pending posts. I know I still have responsibilities… just, let me rest some more. 

Small, easy steps for now. Since I bought my own scanner days before Stickercon, I now have a reason to scan new works and upload them to my POD websites. At least they’re doing well.

After all the craziness

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After 2 months of preparation, our events in Komiket Megamall and StickerconMNL 2020 are done! Its finally time to rest, I hope? So sorry for not updating as often as I should. I can still see my pending blog post list on the first page. I will do them this March, hopefully! ♥

5 years old

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I can’t believe that this blog is now 5 years old! ♥ Happy birthday!

I’m currently updating old entries and moving my images to another hosting site since there’s a problem with Google Photos. Asides from that, I’m also busy with con preparations since I’m the group spokesperson for both events (Komiket and Stickercon). Its a mentally exhausting task.

I hope after this craziness, I can finally rest.

2020

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Yes, it’s that time of the year again.

A chaotic year.

Compared to my quiet 2018, 2019 was full of chaos.

When I look back to my posts for 2019 – it wasn’t a lot. I lost the motivation to write. And I got busy with work and real life. Originally, the blog’s main purpose is for me to document my adventures and to look back on happy memories. 

I attempted to create an art tambay group in our office. But after numerous setbacks (different work schedules, commitments, distractions, etc.) I just… stopped. I mean, I invite people and they show up but instead of you know – creating, there are distractions and I’m the only one left committed to the art tambay. What’s the point, then? I could do this anywhere else. So I stopped. But then new people were hired with similar interests, and here I am hoping – maybe this year I could invite people again.

In the first quarter of the year, I got busy working on new artworks for StickerCon. I decided that I need to create something new – aside from my flowers. Since I already did that last 2018, I decided to continue working on food illustration. Compared to my JanMaker sister with her insane amount of details in her food illustration – mine was the complete opposite. It was loose and chaotic, definitely me. I was ecstatic that everyone loved my food stickers, some of them were almost sold out. Weeks after that was my birthday, and then we went up north to participate in an arts and crafts fair.

There were so many lows this year that were so… stressful. I cut off people to protect myself and my mental state. I wish for karma to decide their fates, but sometimes I just wish for something else. I got stuck in an unfavorable situation, so I just left. I’m just happy and grateful that I have the support system that I need ♥.

In between the stressful situations, I also had some achievements: I got accepted in an Open call of artists for an exhibition; two of my renders were accepted as finalists in an international competition; had numerous events with friends; and was accepted to StickerCon 2020 and February Komiket 2020. 

There were a lot of things that I had no control over that I hated, but needed to accept. So for 2020, I wish for a quieter and steady year creating art at my own pace. I’m so tired.

Agueda Pinta Cookie Workshop

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A few weeks after Daluyong, my friend Dandi announced that she was going to have her first Pinta Cookie workshop at Papemelroti! I’ve blogged about her brand Agueda Manila a lot of times here in my blog. You could say that I’m a pinta cookie veteran lol.

The workshop kit consists of 1 square cookie, 2 round cookies, a hexagon cookie, and a paint brush. The “paints” were also included, and we were given the freedom to choose our own colors in our palette.

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Hi Dandi! ♥

 

Some of the paints that we could choose from. ♥

I was grouped together with my blockmate Tin. The first cookie we painted was the rectangle cookie and we were to paint wood grains. It reminded me so much of our first year in UST doing our “plates”. 

With the rest of the class. ♥

After painting wood grains, Dandi and her team collected our cookies for drying. Next up is the Hexagon cookie and marble painting! ID na ID ang peg HAHA. 

My white marble paint. ♥ How do you paint like this? Just like watercolor. Add a generous amount of water or vodka, and then add the paint on the dry parts of the cookie for detail or on the wet parts so the paint would spread.

 

Beautiful marble tiles with gold leaf! ♥

The next tasks were floral wreaths by Sav and my own flower painting demo. I did a quick peony painting on my square cookie. Insisting everyone to use liquids on the cookie and letting the paint do its magic. After my demo, everyone had free time to create their own subjects on the square cookie.

My floral wreath that consisted of poinsettias and berries; my peony painting demo; a rose painting for Tin (referenced from a rose given to her by her boyfriend).

Tin gave me her extra cookies YAY so I did more flower paintings: a blue hydrangea and an anemone.

 

After we finished painting, everyone got all of their cookies for coating with corn starch.

Coating your cookies with corn starch will give your cookies a matte finish. And its quicker to pack since waiting for the paint to dry will take a while!

I also saved my IG Stories of this event in my Highlights.

Overall, it was a fun and successful workshop. Congrats again, Dandi! I hope there will be a part 2 workshop soon. I’ll volunteer! ♥ 

Please follow Agueda Manila on their Instagram or Facebook page. Thank you!

Daluyong Opening Night

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A few months ago was my first ever exhibit at Pineapple Lab. Inggo and I went to the exhibit after our work. What we didn’t expect was the heavy traffic since it was a Payday Friday. So we walked from my office all the way to Rockwell Guadalupe.

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There’s not much else to say, really. I felt proud and giddy when I saw my paintings up on the wall. I wished my bbs good luck, and we went to Rockwell for dinner. I bought an XL watercolor pad as a reward for myself. And then we went home.

I think its because I’m just writing this now that I can’t remember all the details of that night. After a month in Pineapple Lab, I had a Lalamove driver pick up my paintings. Nobody wanted them, so I proudly display them now on my office desk.