Florilegium Journal No. 1

I like taking down notes when I read. I’ll even write whole passages when I’m very much moved by the words. One of my favorite books right now is Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison. It is about slowing down and learning to be fully present in one’s life. Every word in the book spoke loudly to me. When I found a used copy of the book, I decided to create a florilegium journal. A florilegium, in Medieval Latin, was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. I started with a small blank journal and transformed it into a lovely collection of clippings from the book. (My thoughts and reflections are reserved for a different journal.) I enjoy going through the pages in the mornings to help me focus on my intentions for the day.

Here are some sample pages from the journal:



“We do not need to judge our daily lives by how much we accomplish.
There is real value in simply being present.”



“Our relationships
with ourselves and with each other
need time if they are to flourish.
We need time for solitude,
time to stretch and think and wonder,
time to become acquainted with ourselves
and with the world around us.”



“Each time we pause to breathe deeply,
we are affirming our life forces
and celebrating our miraculous existence
on the planet in this place and time.”


Here’s a video flip through of the journal. (If you want to view images of the journal pages, you can go here.)


I took advantage of this project to use up some of the paper scraps I’ve been keeping. I randomly glued the scraps of paper on the pages to create my background and toned down the colors with gesso. I kept the process of creating each page fairly simple with repeating elements all throughout (mostly from the stamps and leftover stickers I used) so I can finish the journal in a week. Here’s a peek at how I created some of the pages:



I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me your comments here.

The Aesthetics of Melancholy

I am thrilled to write my first feature article for Somerset Studio Gallery, a special bi-annual mixed media magazine from Stampington & Co. The 4-page article, entitled “The Aesthetics of Melancholy,” is included in the Winter 2016 Issue. In it I share how I harness my melancholic tendencies, prevalent during the winter months, and turn them into inspiration for my creative works. I also discuss some techniques that I incorporate in my encaustic projects.




Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Winter always puts me in a state of melancholy. Maybe it was the bleak, icy winters from when I used to live in the Midwest or the long dark evenings that even California, where I now reside, is not exempt from. Whatever it is, I cannot escape the sense of longing and sadness that pervades me. If I let it overwhelm me, melancholy easily turns into depression – that emotional state of resignation that looms over me like a dark cloud. To combat this, I learned to channel the various shades of emotions and memories that melancholy can evoke into my creative work. This way I can embrace melancholy when it comes and treat it as a source of inspiration and a time for indulgent self-reflection.”



I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me your comments here.

Exhibition in Paris, France

Salon Art Shopping, the biggest and most important annual art event in France, is coming up in a few weeks! And I will be joining them this year! Yey! It is my first international show and I am super excited! You can find my encaustic work in B23-24. I have tickets to the event for those who would like to attend! (Posted May 18, 2015)




I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me your comments here.

Christmas Tree Popup Card Tutorial


This uniquely creative card is sure to impress with its classic simplicity. This mini Christmas tree pop-up gift card is the perfect accompaniment to any holiday gift. The finished card size is 3½” x 3½”. Have fun making it!


Project Pattern

You can download the project pattern here. The file includes 2 copies of the pattern on 1 sheet of paper. It is in pdf format, so you’ll need the Adobe Reader or a similar pdf reader to view the documents. You will also need a printer or some way to print the pattern on cardstock paper.


Materials You’ll Need

  • 8½” x 11″ white cardstock paper for the inner card
  • 3½” x 7″ colored cardstock paper, folded in half crosswise to make a 3½” x 3½” base card
  • X-acto knife with the standard #11 blade
  • craft or utility knife
  • steel ruler
  • cutting mat
  • glue stick
  • scrap paper to glue on

Lesson Video


This card is one of several pop-up cards featured in the Christmas Pop-up Card Workshop. If you enjoyed this project, I invite you to check out the online workshop! If you want to receive information on new tutorials, workshops, and special offers, please subscribe to my newsletter.


You Are Worth the Time

This day – this post – marks the rebirth of my blog. I feel good about this. It feels like I’m reunited with a dear friend that has been gone for a while. We’re going to have so much fun again. And to kick things off, I’d like to share an old post from the archives – an inspirational video that will remind all of us about the importance of creating and motivate each one of us to produce our own magnum opus! xo




You are Worth the Time
by Jan Phillips

It’s not easy these days making time for our creative work. Voices call us from everywhere demanding our attention, our energy, our time. And many of us, somewhere along the path, got the message that making art was self-indulgent so we relegate it to the bottom of our list. It becomes the thing we get to when the laundry is done, the kids asleep, the groceries bought and put away. We get so caught up in the flurry of our lives that we forget the essential thing about art – that the act of creating is a healing gesture, as sacred as prayer, as essential to our spirit as food to our body. It is our creative work that reveals us to ourselves, allows us to transform our experience and imagination into new forms – forms that sing back to us in a language of symbol – who we are, what we are becoming, what it is we have loved and feared.

This is the alchemy of creation that as my energy fuses with the source of energy, a newness rises up in the shape of who I am and I myself am altered in the course of its release. I am never the same in the wake of this work. As I create, I come into my power and wisdom, into my deeper knowing, into that newness which becomes the gift which I share with the world. As a result of the time I spend at my work, there is more of me to give, more awareness, more joy, more depth. I become centered in the process, focused on the interior, attuned to the inner voice. Life is no longer about time, and demands, and errands. It is about the extraordinary metamorphosis of one thing into another. What begins as cocoon emerges a butterfly. What once was sorrow may now be a song.

As I am changed by the art that passes through me in the process of becoming, so am I changed by the creations of others. Having felt the truth of your cobalt blue, my red will remember and its voice will be clearer. In the turn of your phrase, the tenor of your voice, the pulse of your poem, I find fragments of myself I have long forgotten. It is to you I look to find myself. In your words I find the courage to write my own.

Making time for creative work is like making time for prayer. It is a healing act, a leave-taking from the chaos as we move from the choppy surface towards the stillness of the center. To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations, nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums, or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist, it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of a cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry freely, to collect experience, and shape it into forms that others can use. It is not to whine about not having time but to be creative with every moment. To be an artist is not to wait for others to define us but to define ourselves, to claim our lives.

Our cities and towns are full of poets, playwrights, composers, and painters who drive buses, work in offices, wait on tables to pay the rent. Few of us are paid much for our creative work so we squeeze it into the hours we have left after working other jobs. We write our novels in the wee hours of the morning, work in our darkrooms through the night, write poetry on subway cars, finish essays in waiting rooms and parking lots. We rarely think of ourselves as artists, though it is our creative work that brings us to life, feeds our spirits, and sees us through the dark. We may feel alone but we are not alone. There are hundreds, thousands in the night doing as we do, trading this sacred time for the bliss of creating.

There are a lot of things we don’t have in life but time is not one of them. Time is all we have – one lifetime under this name to produce a body of work that says This is how I saw the world. Your work is worthy of whatever time it takes.


Art for Kids: Mini Felt Plushie

You know what’s very rewarding about homeschooling – no matter how challenging it is to undertake? Seeing your child explore and create without abandon! Rinoa, who’s presently 8 years old, saw me making the mini felt plush bear for her cousin. And even though I promised to make her one (after we buy some more mints for the tin container), she decided to make her own plushie – all by herself. I just noticed her sketching out a pattern on felt and before I knew it, she was presenting me with the finished piece! I love how she gets an idea in her head and just carries it out – fearlessly! It does help to have full access to a well-stocked studio! *wink

And here she is, all smiley, as always!

Mini Felt Plushie

This craft project is perfect for kids learning how to sew. Felt fabric is an ideal material to use since it doesn’t fray and comes in a variety of colors! I purposely didn’t include a pattern for this project so children can create their own designs which will encourage them to use their imagination and explore basic silhouette shapes. If your child is just learning how to sew, make sure you assist them when using a needle.

You will need:

  • pencil and paper
  • felt in various colors
  • scissors
  • embroidery needle
  • embroidery floss
  • 2 buttons
  • stuffing

1. Sketch out the design of your plushie animal head on paper. Draw a pattern to trace on the felt. Cut out 2 pieces for the animal head – one for the front and one for the back.

2. Work on the plushie’s face. For Rinoa’s plushie, she sewed on a felt piece for the nose and buttons for the eyes. She used backstitch for the mouth and french knots for the whiskers. And then she added a felt piece for the tongue.

3. Use running stitch or whip stitch to sew together the front and back pieces of the head. Leave a small opening to insert stuffing. When your plushie is stuffed, finish sewing the head.

Mini Felt Plushie in Mint Tin

A charming handmade gift for my darling niece on her birthday – a mini felt plush bear with her sidekick bunny in a mint tin house (complete with a pillow and sleeping bag). If you want to make one – and who wouldn’t? – you’ll find the pattern here. I used a mini pompom for the bear’s tail for extra cuteness. And if you don’t want a sleeping bear, you can substitute buttons for the embroidered eyes.

Needlebook Tutorial

Here’s a needlebook project that you can easily make. It’s a wonderful gift idea – especially since Mother’s Day is fast approaching. I made one to store and organize all my needles but then I got smitten by how adorable it is so I decided to make a few more to give as gifts. The finished project measures 3-1/2″W x 4-1/2″L.

The pages of the needlebook are made with felt and each page is sewn with a strip of felt topped with a lace trim – for a decorative way to hold the needles. For those I made as gifts, I wanted to include threaded needles of various colors so I added narrow strips of ribbon/lace to hold the threads, like the one shown below.

You’ll need the following materials for this project:

  • a sewing machine
  • fabric* for front cover, 7″ x 5-1/4″
  • fabric* for inside cover, 7″ x 5-1/4″
  • batting material, 7″ x 5-1/4″
  • felt for needlebook page, 6″ x 4-1/2″
  • 4 strips of felt for holding needles, 1/2″ x 2-1/2″
  • coordinating thread(s)
  • large decorative button for enclosure, 3/4″ to 1″ wide
  • hair elastic tie for enclosure
  • 4 strips of 1/2″-wide lace, 2-1/2″ long
  • 4 strips of 1/4″-wide lace, 2-1/2″ long
  • pair of scissors
  • large size crochet hook, see step 5
  • laces, beads, appliques to decorate the cover (optional)

*This project is a great way to use up any scraps of fabric you may have. You can use 1 piece of fabric for each front and inside cover but if your fabric scraps are smaller than the required size, just stitch them together to create a beautiful patchwork cover for your needlebook. For my front cover, I used three pieces of fabric that I machine-stitched together, as shown below. And for the inside cover, I used 1 piece of coordinating fabric.

Step 1: Decorating the front cover.

If you’ve chosen a nice fabric design or have created a patchwork of fabrics for your cover, it’s really not necessary to add any more embellishments – especially if you want to keep it simple and since you’ll also be adding a large decorative button on the front. But if you really want to add more to the cover, like lace or applique, now is the time to do it – before sewing the front cover to the inside cover – so the back stitches won’t show. For my needlebook, I simply handstitched a lace trim to the front cover and added a few red beads for a nice accent.

Step 2: Putting the covers together.

With the right side of the front cover fabric facing up, place the elastic tie on top as shown in the diagram below, with the loop facing inwards. Stitch the elastic tie to the front cover, 1/2″ from the edge.

Layer the materials for the cover in this manner: batting at the bottom, front cover fabric in the middle, and inside cover fabric on top – with the right sides of the front and inside covers facing each other. Sew along the edges with a 1/2″ seam allowance. Stitch the area where the elastic tie is positioned a few times back and forth to reinforce the elastic to the fabric. Leave an opening about 1-1/2″ wide.

Turn the cover inside out. Press (iron) and topstitch 1/4″ from the edges.

3. Preparing the needlebook pages.

Fold the felt that’s to be used for the needlebook pages in half lengthwise. Mark the center, if you wish. Each page will be 3″ wide x 4-1/2″ long.

With the photos above and the diagrams below as your guide, sew the felt strips and lace trims on the pages. (Stitches are shown as dashed lines in the diagrams.) The vertical stitches are 1/2″ apart to hold the threads. The placement of the strips on the pages are arbitrary – so long as you stagger them so that when the needlebook is closed, it will not be too bulky.

4. Finishing your needlebook.

Place the felt page on top of the inside cover and sew a line on the middle to attach the felt to the cover.

Hand sew the large decorative button on the front cover, about an inch from the edge – adjust accordingly so that the elastic is not too tight and not too loose when the needlebook is closed.

5. Filling up the needlebook pages.

If you want to include threaded needles in your needlebook, here’s what you need to do: Thread 6 needles with different color threads (length of thread is up to you). With the 2 ends of the thread together, loosely loop the thread around your forefinger, then gently slip the looped thread from your finger. Use a large size crochet hook to help you insert the loop of thread in place, as shown below.

So far, I’ve been showing you the needlebook I made to give as a gift but for my purposes, I made my needlebook pages a little bit differently. I needed a place where I can keep my assortment of needles organized. I have a plethora: embroidery needles, beading needles, everyday use needles, bookmaking needles, repair needles, etc. – all different lengths, sizes, sharpness – well you get it. So I labeled some of my needlebook pages as shown below:

If you want to do something similar, simply print or stamp your label on a sheet of canvas or canvas paper.

And there you go – not too bad, right? I hope you try out this project – and if you do, let me know how it goes.

Introductory Book Sculpture Lesson

In this lesson, I’m going to teach you one of the basic folds in creating a book sculpture — the triangle fold — and how this simple fold can easily be modified to create interesting designs for your book sculptures.


An array of triangle folds creates a simple but captivating design.


Modify a series of triangle folds and you can come up with a variety of designs like this one.


Materials You’ll Need

Read this post to help you find the right book to use for this project. You may want to use a bone folder to help you make clean, crisp fold lines – but personally, I prefer to just use my fingers.


Video Tutorial


The Utzon Book Sculpture

I’ve provided the following diagrams to help you create the Utzon Book Sculpture as demonstrated in the video.


(1) To make the middle folds, follow Diagram A.


Diagram A


(2) To make the background folds right behind the series of triangle folds, follow Diagram B.


Diagram B


(3) To make the background folds right behind the folds you made in (2), follow Diagram C.


Diagram C


(4) To make the last background fold in the Utzon Book Sculpture, just follow steps 1 and 2 in Diagram C.


Things to Remember

Attention to detail makes all the difference between an amateur work and a professional one. Here are some things to remember when making your book sculptures:

(1) Make sure you have the same number of folds on the left and right sides of your book so that when you display your book sculpture, the whole thing is balanced.

(2) Always make your folds away from the center of the book so that your fold lines are hidden.



I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me your comments here.