StickerCon MNL 2022

Our 4th StickerCon MNL experience as January Makers PH. It feels familiar and new at the same time. StickerCon MNL 2022 had a new venue – White Space Manila. We had a member shuffle – Monique opt out this time. Aira (@airadenisee) was invited to our group. There were restrictions in how many people were allowed behind the table due to covid protocols of the venue. There’s no custom pin for artist ids this year.

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This is our first time to table with StickerCon MNL on October. It is the organizer’s favorite event of the year, and we were encouraged to come in costume. I bought bunny and cat ears for our group! Sadly, Hannah and Jean weren’t able to attend that day, so it was just 4 of us. We had a random draw on who were our designated sellers that day – Aira and Shine (@tingeofshine) were our hardworking sellers! Clair (@claircolors) was our seller in front who was assisting interested customers.

Thankful to my officemates and friends who came by – Abie, DJ, Jerome, Ate Jen, etc. They bought some of our group’s stickers! As for me, even if I had no cash in hand that day, I managed to buy stickers. In the surprise of no one, every store had QR code payment options (Gcash, Paymaya, Paypal, even BDO pay). This was pretty useful since some people people cashless payments nowadays. It was a good thing that we offered this as well!

My humble set-up. I bought acrylic trays from Daiso for my individual stickers. I also re-used my acrylic display stand for my other stuff. I should also mention that we loved that there’s a food and drink concessionaire outside. The ones they selected had really good food!

Monique also stopped by StickerCon! I would like to congratulate her as she had her first pottery exhibit last November. We weren’t able to visit sadly due to conflicting schedules.

Thankful for the chance to do this once more. ♥

StickerCon 2020

I will finally blog about the most coveted event of the year – StickerCon MNL 2020! We got the group table for our 6 member team. ♥

Our IDS!

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Some last minute promotions lol.

Super happy with our table set-up. Shine bought a pink furry throw that we could use on our table. The table cloth usually used for cons is in black. The throw completes our girly aesthetic HAHA.

Sticker sheets by Clair, Fashion stickers by Hannah, Skyscapes sticker by Shine. ♥

 

On the left side of our table were Clair and Hannah’s individual stickers. ♥

 

More of Hannah’s animal stickers on our mesh wire display.

 

Some of Hannah’s fashion stickers.

Hannah’s post cards. ♥

 

Monique’s best sellers – sticker sheets!

Hello to my post card collection. ♥

 

And my new flower sheets!

How will I describe our experience here? It was tiring yet amazing, crazy fun, and super supportive! The line outside was super long the whole day. We are grateful to everyone who attended and supported all the artists in this event. ♥ Thank you again to the organizers for another successful event. To our friends who visited, promoted, and supported our group. To table mates who understand the craziness of it all. I hope there will be a 4th one after this pandemic. But for now, let’s all STAY SAFE!

Feb Komiket 2020

Our artist group, January Makers PH‘s first convention for 2020 was February Komiket, held at SM Megamall Megatrade Hall B.

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Our pretty sellers ID! Art by Mervin Malonzo.

We’ve been to Komiket as visitors / buyers numerous times in the past. Last year, we were thinking of joining since we noticed that not all of the artists there were selling comics (although this is encouraged). Some artists were selling original and fan art prints, while some sell their handmade merch. Through some encouragement from our friends, we applied for Feb Komiket 2020 since there’s nothing to lose anyway.

Well, we got our 2 slots! One surprising thing is that they moved venues. From the usual Eton Centris events center, to the bigwig SM Megamall Megatrade Hall. Some of us had prior experience to working with malls, and this one is known for their strict protocols. There were SO many requirements and rules from both the organizers and the mall, we had to thoroughly review and clarify a lot of items through email and attend the exhibitors meeting.

Personally, I like rules. I also like emails since it will leave a paper trail if there are any possible disputes. What I don’t like are: miscommunication, wording, and timing of some announcements.

This was a 2 day event. Warning: picture heavy post ahead!

My side of the table ♥

My usual display of my flower sticker sets.

My display of my individual glossy and pearl stickers. ♥

Clair’s planner stickers! I love the tracker versions. ♥

Clair’s post cards.

Some of her individual stickers. I love the Send noods sticker HAHA.

Hannah’s individual stickers. Since she had fashionable girls, she added men as well.

Some of her cute animal sticker packs.

Her fashion girl stickers. One of these looks like one of our members. Can you guess who? ♥

Monique’s new sticker sheets. I love the morning meals set!

More of her food prints.

Jean’s side of our table.

Shine’s individual stickers. CUTE hedgehog bbs!

She also made new sticker sheets. I got the moon phases. ♥

More of Shine’s individual stickers.

The team. ♥

Thankful to this team. It was a fun experience! Especially our 12 feet long table HAHA. Next up would be my Komiket haul!

Tweedlebook Cafe

One of the surprising things that we experienced after Stickercon was getting contacts and commissions. Some guests liked our work that they invited us to their events, ask for commissions, or consign to their stores. One was Tweedlebook Cafe.

Tweedlebook cafe is located in the inner streets of Tomas Morato area. Its a small, cozy, book cafe that offers coffee and delectable food.

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My flower sticker packs. ♥

I once had my own alone time art tambay there.

After a year, Tweedlebook announced that they are closing the store and will do a rebrand in the future. Thank you for having us artists sell in your place and good luck to your future endeavors!

Papercon 2019

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. ♥

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Baguio Craft Fair

2021 Edit: latest wordpress updates botched up the photo sizes. I’ve been trying to fix this but to no avail. Not sure if I would still bother fixing it.

A few weeks after Sticker Con MNL 2019, 3/4 of the January Makers PH team went up north to Baguio for the Baguio Craft Fair 2019. Jean participated in this fair a year ago and said it was a good event. Since Hannah and I wanted a quick vacation, we went with her this year.

Baguio Craft Fair is on its 4th year. It was held at Mount Cloud bookshop, near Brent International School Baguio. When we arrived on Day 1, it reminded me so much of our Metro Manila version – 10a Alabama Arts & Crafts fair. It was held at the open area of the place, with different crafters selling their wares under the huge makeshift roof, or even under the pine trees. 

Picture heavy post ahead!

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Pretty banderitas!
Weaving workshop!
Amazing work!
I met someone famous! Meet Pacha the mountain dog. ♥

What about us? We were located under the pine trees HAHA. No worries though! Since we’re in Baguio, where the weather is cool and the sun is not that hot. 

Our table! ♥
seamountainco’s handmade watercolors, clay palette, and a bit of my stickers.
Some of her sample works.
Her stickers.
My flower stickers. ♥ I find it funny that they’re more interested with the bird rather than my stickers lol.
Hannah’s stickers and post cards. ♥
Cuties!!!
Hannah’s mom also asked us to sell her handmade knitted booties. They were our best seller HAHAHA.
I also brought some of my printed bags! (This was during Day 2)
Monique’s food stickers.

We took turns manning our booth. Sometimes I’d wander off and get coffee (they encourage everyone to bring their own utensil/tumblers). Or sometimes I’d take photos of the place and just breathe the fresh air. 

Coffee!
I was mimicking bemzenit’s post card HAHA.
My lunch. Hannah took this photo. I have no idea why HAHAHA.

We also had an extra task for this trip – which was to take decent photos of our products. Thanks to the huge space, we had lots of areas we could take photos from. It was also in our aesthetic – which was nature. Reasons for these photos to be announced hopefully soon!

It rained in the late afternoon, so we had to pack up and cut our bazaar time earlier than expected. For Day 2, the organizers moved the vendors located in the open area to inside the house.

Our table!
We had more space to display our products. More space for my postcards!

Anddd that’s it! Thank you for sticking around until the end of this lengthy post. Based from this experience, I would conclude that this event is really similar with 10A Alabama. The crowd prefers more handmade items rather than stickers. My postcards and bags were a hit here, I should have bought more original works for sale lol. Oh well! Here’s to another good experience. ♥

Will we join again next year? Hmm, we’ll see. ♥

Stickercon MNL 2019

It’s finally time for the main event – Stickercon MNL 2019! It was held at Bayanihan Center last March 16, 2019. We’re so happy that our group was accepted again for the second time! This time, we’re prepared:

Our table ♥

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Wire mesh filled with our stickers!

My part of the table: flower stickers, postcards, and my new food stickers! ♥

The popular flower stickers in 2 set varieties and the stamp sticker peel. ♥

Close-up of my food stickers. Everyone LOVED the taho stickers, I almost sold these out!

Circle Stickers ♥ I’m so proud of the quality & results!

Monique’s part of the table. Her best selling 90s candies, Chichirya set, and Biscuit sets are lined up front. She also made new sticker packs.

Close up of her packs. ♥ 10 pcs of glossy stickers per pack.

Her new sticker packs: the Kakanin set and Handaan set. ♥

Hannah’s side with our logo. ♥

She made a bunch of new fashion girls. ♥

And new dog breed sticker packs. ♥

And finally, seamountainco! She brought her new handmade watercolor set to the event and some postcards. But what was surprising is…

Her new sticker packs! And look at the packaging! ♥ I love it!

It was another fun filled day. The place was jam packed! It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to roam around the venue as much. We only got to buy stickers from our friends huhuhu. But we’re happy with our income HAHAHA. Thank you so much for everyone who visited and bought from our booth!

♥ The whole January Makers PH team

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Planner Soiree

First off, I’m back again HAHA. WordPress has updated into a weird editor and this is my first blog entry with it. Let’s hope I won’t get angry with this change. 

A few months ago, the January Makers PH team was invited to become one of the sellers for the Planner Soiree 2.0 .

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This was only our 2nd bazaar for the year! We were sooo busy with our lives that our bazaar team took a backseat for a while. We were invited to this event due to our participation last Sticker Con.

Our Fancy Sellers ID! ♥

Hannah’s new girl stickers. The one wearing the jumpsuit looks a lot like Monique!

Tried to sell my bag haha.

We have a special guest for this table! Clair asked me to sell her calligraphy stickers at our table.

Clair’s quote stickers. A best seller!

My sticker packs.

Hannah’s puppy stickers.

The team.

Overall, it was a fun event! But I think I’d rather join as a participant next year HAHA. They had amazing prizes for those who registered! So happy that I got to bond over my girl friends through bazaars again. I missed my original “tribe”. Until next time!

Art Tambays

Hello! I’m still adjusting to my new schedule huhu but hopefully I get to squeeze time to do art stuff soon! For now let me reminisce about my art tambays with friends from the past months.

Poppies. ♥

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The first one was way back in March at Coffee Project. There were the usual peeps Clair (@claircolors), Hannah (@hmb_urger), Nickey (@wyrdlittlethings) and new peeps Cami (@c4m1sama) and Dani (@cyanoscarlet). ♥ Everyone had a good time, I think! All of us had the same interests and talked about anime / manga hahaha. We even had an art activity where one would draw the lineart and another person would color.

I drew the lineart on the lower left and colored the one beside it. ♥

The second art tambay was at Coffee Project again last Labor day. It was comprised of me, Hannah, Clair, Mjoy (@majoy525), and Clair’s other friends. Jean was also supposed to join us, unfortunately something came up.

A momo botan. ♥

Nothing significant to write about this one. Except that I really, really love my Berkeley watercolor pad! HAHA. And I got to try Clair’s carmine color from Holbein. I bought myself a tube when I got my salary HAHA.

Just some floral practice.

The third one was more intimate. I met with Hannah & Aira (@airadenisee) for our usual Banawe Art Tambay. Aira and I had a “birthday exchange gift” thing since our birthdays were last March & April HAHA. I also brought larger paper with me that time. It was an A4 Aquafine Daler Rowney that I bought from SG a few years ago. Still trying to get used to it! Hannah’s favorite paper is the Canson Montval one.

Left: my painting. | Right: Hannah’s bubble princess painting HAHA.

Dramatic light that got a hundred likes HAHAHA. ♥

The last one is with the January Makers PH at CBTL Katips. We had a hard time painting due to the bad lighting. But it was fun bonding and catching up with the original art tambayers ♥ Present were: Me, Hannah, Shine (@tingeofsunshine), Monique (@mnq_illustration), and Jean (@seamountainco & @jeankelly11)

Apparently not in the mood to paint.

I hate this rose. Huhu.

And that’s it! Blogging about this made me realize that I have a LOT of pending things to do and talk about! Argh! But real life responsibilities first huhuhu. I’ll try my best to blog more in the future! In the meantime, I update a lot more on Instagram so please visit me there. ♥ (I find this funny since two years ago, I ranted about it this HAHA).

Handmade watercolors by seamountainco

I’d like to talk about seamountainco, one of my favorite watercolors! Seamountainco is a local store that specializes in portable handmade watercolor sets & notebooks. Their products are perfect for those who love to travel! The owner is a dear friend of mine & also one of the co-founding members of January Makers PH. ♥ Though we are friends, this post is not sponsored in any way & is not biased. Hopefully.

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(This post is long overdue. I planned on posting this last July 2017! But I was too lazy to do the sample artworks.)

The basic set (middle tin with 4 watercolor half pans).

We received one of the first batches of the Basic set last February 2017. You can read more about that here. The Basic set includes a portable tin can, four artist grade handmade watercolors in half pans that are highly pigmented with excellent light fastness. The four colors are: Ultramarine Blue, Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, and Raw Earth Umber.

We were tasked with reviewing the quality of the first batch. It really is highly pigmented. Just one swipe is enough. ♥ I used to joke that her watercolor is similar to the dishwashing liquid commercial: “Isang patak, sangkatutak!“. HAHA sorry.

On fabriano acquarello postcard paper.

What can you do with the Basic Set? I usually use mine for my sunflower watercolor paintings. I really love the yellow ochre for this. Its versatile that it can do the light yellows and also do the darker, muted tones that I want on my paintings. (Did that make sense?!). The only problem I think is the green. You can mix Ultramarine & Yellow Ochre to create an Olive green, but its not my preferred tone of green.

On further meet-ups, I received these from Jean: Philippine Indigo (aka #Jeandigo), Venetian Red, Verona Green, Cassel Earth, and Nicosia Green. I also bought the Purple Ochre, Pink Pipestone and Gold during our recent bazaar.

Clockwise from Top Right: Philippine Indigo, Venetian Red, Purple Ochre, Gold, Pink Pipestone, Nicosia Green, Verona Green, and Cassel Earth.

Even though seamountainco aims to cater to those who love to travel, their sets are also versatile in other subjects. My fellow January Makers PH members can attest to that! Check out their works below:

I’m very happy with my seamountainco set. ♥ I plan on buying more when I get the chance! HAHA.

You can follow seamountainco on Instagram & Facebook! For online orders, click here. ♥