Paper Roses

Crafting with le Grandma. We're making a wreath. Inspired by this.

Drying Flowers

Drying flowers for the first time... let's see how this goes!

The first bouquet has roses, gerberas, and some purply pink flowers that I cannot identify. Edit: They are Statice flowers.

I love how this one looks as if they're levitating(!):

The other day, while wandering, I saw a bunch of these gorgeous antique pink roses at a dairy. 

They came home with me, and are now hanging in my closet:

I've hung the pink roses for two days now, and the outer petals are starting to go brown. I had hoped the pink would stay. :-(

First week back + hair bows

Wow, so, the first week of the last year has swept past in talking, giggles, and catching up on updates! It was fun to see everyone after a long four month break, and I feel like I have talked more than I did all February! People have updated their hairstyles, and I saw a lot of fresh nail colours!

I thought that after such a big holiday, I'd be reluctant to get into the working/designing mode again, but I am actually really very excited/inspired to get designing and working towards assignments.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what I've made in the holidays!

I'm so proud of my hair bows. Such a step up from this!

New Years'

This year, we're having the New Years' get-together at our house. It's a good chance for me to do something crafty!

I was thinking of making this or this, but finally decided on something like this from Confetti System:

It's cute and fun and festive! For $3, at any Look Sharp store, you can get a pretty big sheaf of coloured tissue paper. I've been using them to make my tassels. To make the tassels, I cut out a long strip of tissue paper, folded it in half and then in half again, and made it into a fringe. I opened it up, cut it into smaller individual fringes (each one about six cms long), then rolled it up to make a tassel!

DO IT if you have spare tissue paper and some time before the par-tay!

Ooh, and I might also make Martha's amazing pom poms... they seem to be erupting on the blogosphere :D

No camera = no photos, but I will take some with my SLR. Then I'll get them developed, scanned, and uploaded. Sigh, such a long process; technology, you have made me lazy. :P

And woohoo! Libby and I are going to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1... again! :D

Happy Diwali!

I'm a little late in wishing you all, but Happy Diwali!

I designed a 68-page Diwali magazine (68 because in order to get bound properly, it needs to be designed in multiples of four) for our local Marathi Mandal, and it was inaugurated yesterday. It was a wonderful feeling, because it was my first time designing such a large amount of information (and it wasn't in English, either!). It was a little stressful at times and it clashed with my assignments, but I thoroughly enjoyed designing it!

Just some quick Diwali photos. I love how Diwali just lightens up the whole atmosphere!

Hermes Corporate

Have you ever been to the Hermes Corporate website? I love it - it's full of inspiration, and I visit it often.

Earlier I also posted about the print-your-own Hermes Kelly bags and Hermes Collier de Chien bracelets. The Kelly bags are not available for download anymore, but the bracelets are.

Hope you had an amazing weekend! I did!

Lancome WIP

I've mentioned earlier that we're designing fake nail packaging for Lancome (it's a made up product; no such Lancome product exists in the market). Here's some rough work in progress/concepts:

The first two (top left) are the concepts that look most similar to the current Lancome products, and the concepts then on have my own little additions... My main inspiration was Marie Antoinette. Here is a quick inspiration board that I created:

Recycled Crayons

Niiice. via {not without salt}

Origami Rose

Just wanted to share and save it here for myself. :)

Edit: How lucky is Jim's daughter?!

Winter blooms and birds

I can't wait to get some lovely pastel shades of crepe paper and make these fabulous flowers! They would totally brighten up my room! 

Edit: Wouldn't these make a fun bouquet for your mum?!

And these sweet bird cages!

There are a lot of other DIYs on The Bride's Cafe [which is where these tutorials are], and I really like the moss initials!

Saturday

Rainbow cake's in the oven as I type this ... the purple and blue layers are done, and green's a-baking ... I had to use generous drops of liquid food colouring as I couldn't find the gel type [which is said to give far more bright colours]. I'm going to do the remaining layers later, and ice them - frost them? - tomorrow. I'll put some pics up too. Yay!

And now I must scoot and do some assessments.

Edit: If anyone missed it, the recipe for rainbow cake is here. And I used Betty Crocker's Super Moist Vanilla Cake mix for the base.

Easter!

Yay for the Easter break! Here's a nice Easter wreath tutorial that I stumbled upon earlier today, if you're interested. 

Okay. Half-way through writing that, I remembered: Today's April Fools Day! And ... it's 8:30pm! Damn!!

So I whipped up this easy prank:

Dried-up blood and wound:

Take some glue. The kind you get in sticks. I used Amos Baton de Colle. It's quite a soft glue. Scrape a bit off, and apply it to wherever you want the wound to be. Paint over it with a red gel pen/pilot pen/whatever you want. I used a vivid [a permanent marker] because I was in a great rush, but I'm not sure how it's going to come off now! So think before you paint :P

It's awesome how glue looks just like dried up blood. I did mine on my palm [it was "a cut from a blade!"]. And yes, if you are wondering, my little trick did work, though I think the person who I was tricking was a tad annoyed. Okay, maybe more than tad. But that's because my "wound" was huge and pretty awful-looking. Hahaha ...

By the way, someone from school taught me this four years ago :D

Also. It's George [and Fred *sob*] Weasley's birthday today! Happy Birthday to the master pranksters!

PS: This post was only supposed to be about Easter and eggs and such. But one thing led to another ... ha ha ha ... funny how that happens!

Edit: The time down here ↡ lies.

The brooch bunch

Well, here they are. Made, bought, given. Isn't it a lovely bouquet? Tutorial for corsage brooch here.

Make a corsage brooch!

Corsage brooches were quite the hype this summer! They look stunning on a simple white tee shirt! I bought two, made four, and got given two. I might post a picture of all my brooches later.

Today, boys and girls, we're going to be making this:

Okay, so let's get started:

You will need:

- Tulle [in any colour!]

- Some thick cardboard [It's okay to recycle some, I got mine from a university project!]

- Scissors and strong glue [the basics..]

- A circle template for the centre of the brooch [or anything circular that you can draw around! I used the base of a paint bottle earlier]

- Some jewellery findings, and brooch pins

How to make it:

1. Cut out a circle from the cardboard - it can be as big or small as you want it to be! Mine was about 3-3.5cms in diameter. Cut out a circle from within it, like this:

I also coloured it black because my tulle was black, but this isn't strictly necessary because in the end your tulle completely covers the cardboard base, so it's not seen.

2. Time to cut your tulle! Cut it in long strips, about 1cm by 15cms. But you can make it wider, shorter, or longer! And don't worry about cutting it extremely perfect - no one will be able to see.

3. Now get knotting! Get a strip of tulle, and hold it in a upside-down U shape over the circle cutout. Like this:

4. Then take the two bits that are loose and pull them up from under the circle and through top loop of the upside-down U.

5. Pull the loose bits tight ... tighter!

6. Repeat this with the rest of the strips. One thing to keep in mind: Keep tightening those strips together. After you think you're almost done covering the circle, push it in and create space for more. This will make it sturdier and make the brooch look fuller.

7. Done yet? Just a little more to go!

8. Stick a jewellery finding in the middle of the circle, and a brooch pin on the other side. [Make another circle, cover it with fabric and stick the brooch pin on it. I've also shown that in this tutorial]

The final brooches!

9. Yay! Your super cool corsage brooch is done! Wasn't that easy? Aaaand, doesn't it look similar to this one Emma wears for Teen Vogue?!

Extra notes:

- Instead of using a jewellery finding, you could also make a smaller version of the brooch and stick it in the middle, like how I did it here.

- After you make the brooch, you might want to snip uneven ends, if any. Or you could purposely make it uneven! :) [I should try that!]

- This brooch was inspired by DesignMom's Tulle Tutorial.

- This brooch, before any glue was applied, went through the washing machine. It came out good as new, and nothing happened to the cardboard inside. Phew. No guarantee what happens after the gluing, though! :)

Let me know if any of you makes one! Or if you find out about any other broochey tutorials!!

Oooh, and don't forget to buzzback/comment!!!

Emma's photo © Teen Vogue; all the others are my own.

Anthropologie Bottle Art

Wow, take a look at this amazing article on Anthropologie's window display - made out of cut plastic bottles! Such a cool project!

Kandee Johnson, one of my most favourite bloggers, also talks about the display here. Do check out her amazing channel on youtube, where she shows heaps of make-up and dress up tutorials and tips! Yay for free online tutorials :D

Edit: I was writing this post, and the power went off. Thank goodness for sweet "Save As Draft" mode!!

Got that image from Kandee's blog, I'm sure it's © Anthropologie :D I only intend to use it for illustrative purposes.

Headbands I made

I've just realised that I would be leaving for the airport in exactly one week! This is incredibly exciting.

I made the headband using the tutorial that I posted here. It worked quite well, and it didn't take very long to make. However, I did find that:

1.) Cutting 4 inches is cutting too much off. I didn't even cut 3, and it fits quite tight. [I worked with half a metre to start with].

2.) The headband needs to be ironed, as the glue makes it pretty wobbly.

3.) The satin gets wet really easily, so don't wear it if you have wet hair like I did.

4.) It looked quite cute! Especially with my curled hair!

I especially chose a ribbon that was ready-folded on the inside, so it would be stronger. But this also made gluing the elastic easier because I just had to tuck in and glue it :)

p.s.: I curled my hair with Remington Straightini, and I have to say, it's an amazing product. My friend curled my hair with her tongs and since my hair is poker straight, the curls fell out in half an hour. My Remingtonised waves and curls, however, lasted for almost two days. With the length and the colour, I dare say my hair looked like a longer version of this!

Ariel and Jasmine

I found the most wonderful Disney tutorial book on how to draw their princesses! It contains detailed information on how to draw Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, and Tinkerbell!

My most favourite Disney princesses are Ariel and Jasmine. This was my very first attempt - not counting the attempts to do both these princesses when I was nine - to draw them Disney style.

I'm very happy with my Ariel, but I think Jasmine's eyes should have been wider and her lips fuller and smiling.

The book is called "How to draw Disney Princesses", and it's available on Scribd.

DIYs

Hi hi! How's DIY month going? Missed any? Not to worry, here they are:

- Headbands

- 3D Origami Stars

- Lanvin-Inspired Bracelet

- Ruffled Corsage Pin

- Easy Corsage Brooch

There's some more comin' your way ... I'm sitting down to make my headbands right now, and hopefully I will also be able to put up the tutorial on the rosette brooch!

Toodles, and have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! I think I'll have an individual post on that though ... :)

Hair and headbands

I've decided that I want to grow out my hair. It's never been very much longer than my shoulders, simply because I've always found it easier to work with in the mornings. I believe that I've been inspired by Bonnie Wright's Ginny Weasley in the newest Harry Potter movie.

But my hair is at a stage right now where it's just below my shoulders, and doesn't look good in a ponytail. This is where headbands come to rescue! ;D

I especially like this olive lace headband:

I got cream lace [I couldn't find olive green :( ], a brown satin ribbon that is absolutely gorgeous, and some elastic. These make two completely different headbands [or is it hairbands?!]. I got 1m of the cream lace, which is more than enough, and can make two headbands, and 1/2m of the brown satin, which is just about enough. Phew. [cream lace = 0.60c, brown satin = 0.70c, and 2m of elastic = $1.50. Sweet!]

I looked at a couple of blogs and websites, and this is a good guide that I came across at eHOW:

1. Measure the ribbon around your head where you'll be wearing the headband.

2. Mark this length on the ribbon.

3. Cut the ribbon about 4 inches shorter than the marked length.

4. Apply a solution to avoid fraying at the ends [they recommend Fray Check]. {Lightly burning the ends with a candle also works - we used to do this for school all the time}

5. Stitch the end of the ribbon to a piece of elastic. {I'm going to glue it with my super glue - simply because it's extremely strong ... and I can't sew to save my life ;) }

6. Overlap the elastic and the ribbon about 1/2 inch.

7. Check if the headband fits okay.

8. Sew [or if you're like me, glue] the other end of the ribbon to the elastic.

9. Voila! Headband success!

Another - albeit a teensy bit complex - tutorial here. Let me know how it goes!!

Origami Stars

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday break. I certainly am. Devouring lots of chocolate in the form of Lindt choccy balls [picture here], Nutella, and Chex [my usual breakfast cereal is however Cheerios]. Drinking lots of Coca-Cola. Playing lots of Bubble Struggle. Reading The Midnight Twins. Straightening my hair with my brand new Remington. Taking part in heaps of giveaways. Getting ready for that overseas trip. Mmm.

Anyway, here's a tutorial that I found on how to do 3D Origami stars! Don't forget to click on it to view it better!

p.s.: Okay, yeah, today's the 24th but I'd saved this post as a draft on the 22nd ... :D