crafty – Page 4 – morestomach

knit | sparkly wedding shawl

Published on December 2, 2013December 1, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach13 Comments

when the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends. -Japanese Proverb

which basically tells you that
~~i’m batshit crazy~~
i’m incredibly blessed
and undeserving
from where i am sitting as i type this,
in the fading light of october,
a nostalgia has stirred in me
that must be indulged

you know,
i have four much younger sisters
three on one side
one on the other
sisters who i did not pick
but are indelibly part of me
like an arm i could not cut off
even if i wanted to
but to have a heart sister of my choosing
well
it can be easier said than done
nuria makes it super easy though
she will bully her way into your life
she will watch really bad medical dramas with you
she will make you bawl when she hands you a kindle for xmas,
(a toy you’ve been coveting)
she will drive your car like a maniac
during her driver’s test
(which she failed)
she will have poop talks with you
she will pick meat off chicken wings for you
cus you have braces on
she will braid your hair like the
bohemian gypsy you want to be
she will run the zombie race with you
while your beloved runs ahead
she will take you home to her motherland
and basically feed you stupid
she will also drive you crazy
she will make you question if metallica really
is the greatest band ever
and she will take 5 weeks off of playing video games
to knit you not one, not two,
but three shawls for your wedding

she is indelibly part of me,
of my choosing,
and i would never want to cut
that piece of me off

this is the pattern she used
wedding photo courtesy of Jonas Wilson, used with permission. my edit.
me+nuria pic courtesy of nuria gonzalez montelban mcintyre, used with permission. my edit.

homemade UP! buttons house

Published on October 7, 2013October 4, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach18 Comments

it might sound boring, but i think the boring stuff is the stuff i remember most. -up!

for our fourth or fifth date
(or based on the link below, the third date…)
dw invited me over to his home,
for a movie and dinner
i learned a few things on that date
most importantly,
for a white guy he’s very asian that he
requires shoes to be taken off the moment you enter the abode,
(a habit i promptly discarded the second i left home)
he’s fantastic in the kitchen
and he’s a great kisser
{blush}

let me just go ahead and disclose that i’m
an awkward person
touching is not my forte
i’m not a feely kind of girl
i tend to say inappropriate things to alleviate stress
and diffuse a situation
and farting cracks me up
every.single.time.
from a clinical standpoint,
the meshing of two people’s lips is weird
i have a hard enough time with my own lips
introducing another set is just odd
we were reaching a point in the whole dating thing,
where it was going to be a fabulous friendship
or a glorious love story
my inability to move toward that really painful
gawky First Kiss
and moving beyond it
was decidedly stressing me the eff out

we watched Up!
another thing:
i don’t like cartoons
but i sat through it
because sitting next to him was nice
while the credits rolled
i was in the middle of saying something
when he leaned in and laid one on me
i paused and thought
“oh there it is. that’s out of the way. that’s nice.”
and then i awkwardly kept talking

moral of the story:
i’m graceless
we survived the first kiss thing
we continued to kiss
we continue to kiss
and we are now living our glorious love story

for his groom’s gift i made him this picture
lawd knows i have a bunch of watercolors
and a container of buttons for some reason
when i saw this tutorial on pinterest
you bet your ass i had it in my head to make my own
we happened to be visiting his hometown of Rochester
i made him take me to his childhood house
snapped a pic of it on my phone
and then spent about three hours putting it
all together

busted buttons has a great tutorial,
hello, i was able to follow it,
go there for instructions
in the meantime,
you see that little attic window at the top
of the house?
little boy dw would crawl into that space
and yell down to people in the street from it
how effing adorable and weird is that shit???

wedding | diy envelopes

Published on September 23, 2013September 22, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach5 Comments

as simple as the wedding invites
turned out to be
i had to make them a shape
that normal envelopes don’t come in
oh you know, this girl likes challenges

supplies/how to:
watercolor paper – i didn’t want to use regular paper since the invites themselves were of thicker stock, and plus, i wanted the option of possibly painting on the envelopes
x-acto knife
ruler
deconstructed envelope of choice, this is your template
scotch tape
envelope glue
protective board

carefully unglue the envelope of choice that you want to mimic. tape it to the watercolor paper to keep in place. using the ruler to help you keep straight, very carefully cut the shape out.

once the envelope has been cut use the ruler to help with folding. glue along the edges to make the shape of the envelope. i used the remaining scrapes to catch the excess glue. allow to dry completely, a few hours before stuffing the envelopes. to keep it flat i would put a heavy book on top. address accordingly and if you’re feeling it, paint on them. i realize the post office is not the cleanest and the mail goes through various machines and is handled by many people before it reaches its final destination but it does make for a festive and pretty letter.

wedding | diy watercolor invitations

Published on September 19, 2013September 13, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach11 Comments

i don’t know what inspired me
to make the wedding invitations
when it’s just as easy to ~~shoot off an email~~
print them out on fancy schmancy paper
and call it a friggin day
but no
i took an online watercoloring class,
a class that i enjoyed
but ultimately did not use any
the techniques i learned
in the finished product
(dw says i like to sign up for things
and then kinda show up
halfheartedly,
and then deuce out)
maybe that’s why i went balls to the wall
with the diy stuff
to show him that i’m entering this
whole marriage thing
with all my heart

anyway,
i currently have an infatuation
with billy balls
lucky me they’re just fuzzy balls on a stem
which are easy enough to paint

supplies/how to (the last 4 items can be purchased at any arts/craft store:
inkjet printer
scissors or paper cutter
watercolor paper – i used Strathmore 400 series cold press watercolor paper
paintbrushes
watercolors

i decided early on that i’m not much for the bulky-tissue-paper-and-confetti-in wedding invitations. for some people it works, for me, that’s just the sound of trees weeping

so, i wanted to keep the information concise and to the point, on a square shaped paper. most important info: date, location and a website with all the other information

dw & i worked on the wording, the location of the wording on the paper, leaving enough room on the left side for me to paint. i think we managed two invites per sheet of paper

i think i chose to ignore what i learned from the online class because i didn’t want to have to worry about color blending. i went with the simple orange-yellow hue with grey stems. i kept it to just 2-3 balls. tip: stenciling might be a good alternative, using colored pencils instead

dry the invites overnight, on a flat surface

all in all, this project took just a weekend to do, 12 hours of which spent for drying

inspiration:
Bdesignsinvitations
BubbyAndBean
paper & ink

wedding | diy scratch off save the dates

Published on September 16, 2013September 13, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach18 Comments

y’all
the time is drawing dangerously near
for the next few weeks
i will be posting some crafts,
specifically diy things that
i worked on for the last 6 months
believe me when i tell you that:
it’s easy
it’s affordable
and most importantly
it’s personal

for the photograph used –
a tripod
camera – we used my dslr, but honestly, a p/s would work fine

how-to:
we chose a sunny day to snap the shot,
it may have taken us 30 minutes
the cellphones were blank, although we
did snap pictures of each other on them

choose a background that is neutral,
in our case, we opted for the brick wall of the condo building next door
and we’re standing on the fire escape
between the two buildings
the sun is at around 2:30pm so it’s not too harsh and not behind us
i stood dw in front of the camera
and had him raise his arm with cell in hand
i focused on the cell
set the timer
ran to stand next to him
10 seconds later, snap
repeat about 10x, or until bored

editting:
dw used photoshop to add the pic
of each of us onto the cellphone screen
i decided to go black/white with the photo we used
i used a random postcard making company,
i won’t tell you who, cus i ended up
cussing them out for bad service
you can google it or use a vendor you trust

scratch off supplies/how-to:
adapted from soda pop design who got it from martha stewart

packing or clear tape
paint, color of choice
paint brush
dish soap
black felt pen, i used faber-castell PITT artist pen in BLACK, size XS

on the back of the postcard, write up what you want
in my case, i decided to get fancy & do it up in calligraphy
i searched on youtube for tutorials
and then proceeded to doodle all the long day
to practice
stick the tape over the doodles,
make it as smooth as possible,
cus you’re painting over it

to paint, mix the dish soap + paint
(1:2 ratio, dish soap:paint)
paint over the tape,
a few coats will do
make sure the writing is not visible
allow to dry between coats

for postcards it’s difficult
to convey to the receiver that it’s a scratch off
but it was fun to hear from people who
couldn’t figure it out
and those who knew instantly what to do
in a card, a penny or coin can be included
in the envelope and most will know what is up

either way, it was a fun crafty project