style breakdown: (surprise) dinner

style breakdown: (surprise) dinner

Sunday, August 19, 2018

DIY floral letter

I found this beautiful floral letter DIY on none other than Pintrest, of course. I initially bought the cardboard letter "S" when I saw it on sale at the craft store with no project in mind. But after finding the pin and realizing how easy it was, I decided it was the best way to pass time as I spent the week trapped in my house because my car was in the shop. Unfortunately, not having a car meant I wasn't able to buy any flowers at the time I wanted to do the project. So, I may or may not have picked random silk flowers around my parents house.

I initially started out using the Fiskars blade to cut the cardboard out of the front of the letter. This quickly led to using a steak knife since the thick cardboard broke my blade 30 seconds into using it.

After cutting out the front face, I was left with a hollow inside. The cardboard zig-zag inside the letter allowed for the styrofoam placement to be more snug. I used a white styrofoam block cut into pieces that was haphazardly wedged into the letter. After placing the foam in, I wedged flowers into the foam in a random arrangement, and that was it! I was apprehensive about using white foam, but I was able to cover up any areas where the foam was showing with leaves.

I added glittery gold balls to cover up more of the white foam. I also used small pins and hot glue in places where the leaves or flowers were not staying in the foam.

Since the letter was kind of small (about 10" tall), I had to make sure the form of the letter "S" was still visible, or else it would just look like a shapeless floral blob. Using a hot glue gun to glue down some of the leaves or flower petals that stuck out too much helped retain the form of the "S".

DIY floral letter

Sunday, January 3, 2016

handmade cards on etsy

I've always been a fan of handmade cards, but I've lately gotten into incorporating watercolor and "modern calligraphy" into my cardmaking to create simple and fun designs. Watercolor is such a versatile medium and adding black ink makes things instantly look so polished. I'm still working on the handwriting and modern calligraphy part- it definitely requires a steady hand. I think the hardest part has been trying different fonts. I'm taking a modern calligraphy workshop next month and am excited to hopefully learn a few tools of the trade there.

In the meantime, I wanted to shamelessly promote some of my work I've posted in my Etsy shop (check it out here). I go on cardmaking binges (it's so relaxing), and then later realize I don't have enough people to give these to, so I post them on Etsy! All of the cards are 100% handmade by me (totally freehand, no tracing/templates) and are all unique designs. 



handmade cards on etsy

Wednesday, November 25, 2015