Governor's Island Origami fun!

Governor's Island Nolan Park
Isn't it amazing a place so full of trees and picturesque as Governor's Island is literally 10 minutes away from lower Manhattan? For last Saturday which Mr. Weatherman said would be thunder storming (which it did not) I was volunteering to help teach people how to make some origami whales, fish and crabs.

Ferry entrance/exit at Governor's Island
First off the ferry ride was packed full of people but then again its free and there's boats every 30 minutes but you'll have to check the schedule HERE. The ferry was full of people who were dressed as flappers and even a steampunk couple. Apparently there was a jazz festival on the island! I was amazed by this sudden leap into the Roaring 20's and really regret being too shy to ask to take photos of some of the more elaborate costumes!

The view of Manhattan from Governor's Island was awesome. The above pictures shows the ferry dock/piers on the Manhattan side. You could also see the Staten Island ferry along with the other NYC boat tours. It was pretty sunny and hot out on deck but inside are two hallways of benches to sit on and there's no air conditioner. No worries the trip was about ten minutes.
What's also neat about the island was that there are these old homes that can be rented out. The New New Team rented a house and basically decorated the inside and made a whole gift boutique full of wonderful items from the New New Team! Of course I couldn't help but buy a little something something for myself:

Vintage Beaded Necklace from WishByFelicity!
Seriously I have been eyeing her colorful jewelry from we first met way back when. She's also such a sweetheart and helpful during our craft show shares. I tend to wear a lot of neutrals like beige, soft greys, dark blues... pretty monotone and I've been leaning towards buying colorful accents to add to my mundane clothing hues. The one above was perfect... even my mom was eyeing it. (no mom I will have to get you your own!) Okay enough of me and my goodie of the day! I was pretty late but Lucrafts (who makes these unique switch light covers!) , Paperelle (who makes awesome origami stars jewelry and going to vend at New York Anime Festival) and Lamusekalliope (who makes adorable little critters and pouches) were already hard at work with table of little kids around them!

As usual I was the awkward "OMG I"M SO LATE AND SO SOOOORRRYYY" person. It took a bit but I got into it and taught all these kids how to make whales, fishes and crabs. Whales were a big hit with the girls and the boys like the crabs... go figure? By the end of the day we were all covered in glitter with goggle eyes and tiny plastic gems everywhere. It was so fun! The kids were adorable though the younger ones wanted you to make it for them while the older kids were actually having that "I'm going to learn how to make this" look on their faces. Oh btw we learned origami from this awesome website Origami Club... the animations really really help!

All in all it was a great day. Volunteered, met some more awesome crafters, delved into another hidden gem of NYC and went back to watch Crazy, Stupid Love (hilarious movie!) and ate with my cousin and sister before she left for college. It was one of the best days of summer!

Until next time... what were your summer adventures?

DIY Flowers for Wedding? Hmm?

For a wedding for about 300 people and about 34-36 tables my friend decided to go though the DIY flower centerpiece arrangements. It took about 8-9 hours to create a bouquet of 15 roses (salmon and light pink color) for 30 odd tables. Though for the first few hours it was just two people making it but it sure got a whole lot quicker when five people were bunching them up. If you're going though the DIY route you better have time set up for:

1. re-hydrating flowers ( can take up to 12 hours)
2. make sure you have enough buckets and room to store them.
3. good pair of gloves and shears etc (if you need to de-thorn them)
(not all roses are created equal- the salmon colored one had bigger but fewer thorns compared to the pale pink one)
4. Watch or print out some DIY tutorials on how to arrange flowers.
5. great slaves... I mean friends to help you out.

All in all the flowers (600-700 roses) and four bridesmaid bouquets, 1 bridal bouquet and a throwaway bouquet (all premade) and vases roughly came out to under 2k. They were ordered from Grower's Box (For some reason they don't deliver on Mondays but the flowers did arrive earlier then expected by Fedex. They have instructions and I think they also provide some tools to help cut the flowers. The flowers were fairly fresh and looked nice) . Another similar site is Fiftyflowers. The vases the flowers were put in were at a dollar a piece came from Dollar Tree (They can ship it to the store to be picked up and let me opened and inspect every single vase before I left the store).

It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun as we all rushed to make everything ready for the wedding that turned out to be an awesome time!

On a side not I'll be vending at the Brooklyn Flea this Sunday so if you're in the neighborhood stop on by! Also I'll be announcing a new contest sometime this week and it's going to be a doozy!

Until next time... have an awesome day!

DIY Wedding Invites

The real reason I've been extremely busy this last couple of weeks was doing a favor for my buddy and making her wedding invitations. The above is the final result. The blank pocket invitation was part of a DIY from AC Moore though there are other stores online and in stores that sell blank pocket invitations. This is when those coupons come in handy! They ended up being around $11 for 25 pack that consisted of the pocket invite, invite envelope, RSVP card, RSVP envelope, and two/three various sheets of printable paper for the invite itself and maybe directions etc.

The cherry blossom design was made by me and has soft petals falling down as per her suggestion. For this I printed the invite on bright white card stock that was 4.5" x 6.5" an odd size but with some tweaking was able to print it. Using double sticky tape (ones in dispensers aka tape runner) designed for photos and scrap booking we (me and my other buddy!) stuck the invite on pearlescent pink 5 x 7 card stock and that onto the brown pocket invite. (I highly suggest not using glue for this as it may cause the paper to bubble and warp as it dries). I also printed out the RSVPs and address on the RSVP envelopes.

There was this odd little slot on the pocket for like a card to slip into but to my dismay it was smaller then business card size. My friend saw this other invite with a cute calender with the date circled on it. So we made a calender and stuck it on covering the slits.

Last but not least my friend wanted to put a wax seal to fasten the envelope. She brought a metal stamp with the character "double happiness" on it. She brought a glue gun and the wax sticks that was a champagne color but against the slightly metallic brown pocket invite looked slightly good. This one was a challenge. The wax is melted into the glue gun and my friend made a dime sized puddle on wax paper where I put the seal (that was soaked in ice cold water) onto it and waited about 10 seconds and ta-da! Every time one seal was finished I had to dip the seal in cold water so that the metal seal won't adhere to the wax. (We made a lot of booboos here)

To me the best way was to have a nickel sized drop on wax paper and have the stamp cold from being in ice cold water. Gently press on the molten wax and count till 10 and gently remove it. Press one finger on the wax paper while removing it. Though it's recommended that the wax paper also be cool which would make it easier to remove the seal from the paper like maybe cold damp cloth underneath but I didn't get the chance to try it.

We gently removed the emblem from the wax sheet and put a glue dot on the envelope and the seal on it. We get the above. Not too shabby! It reminds me of the old fashioned royal sealed super important documents which is what my friend was going for.

Next up centerpieces? Table cards? Bouquets and Boutineers? OH MY!

Until next time... what's your DIY project?

Simple Congee

Every culture and country has it's own version of a food that is homey and in China "Jook/Congee" is that homey food perfect food that's warm, soothing and great for people who are ailing. My sister caught a pretty bad cold so I decided to try my hand at making some congee. I used the Rice Congee Soup Recipe as a base and changed it a bit to mimic the awesome congee my grandma use to make.

Ingredients (makes about 4-5 bowls):
1 cup of rice
9 cups of water
half an inch knob of ginger
1 tbls of salt (normally about 2 tbls but since the meat is already salty I halved it)
fist size salted pork

Slice the pork into small fingertip sized bites. Cut the outside of the ginger and leave whole (my grandpa suggested to leave the skin on because it's suppose to have some kind of healing properties) Add all the ingredients to a pot and boil it until it reaches your ideal consistency (some like congee watery and some like it more thick). Watch the pot or else it'll boil over. I usually boil it with the cover on for half an hour and then leave it to boil uncovered for another half an hour. Ta-da easy breezy and very good for colds/flu or a weak stomach. You can also substitute other things in it like different meats or seasonings. Green onion, tiny dried shrimps and scallops are common. Thousand year old eggs are also used if you like the unique flavor. My sister appreciated the congee and said it was surprisingly good. Here's a simple recipe if you ever need some comfort food =)

Until next time... stay well =)

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend was a busy one! I was vending at the Hester Street Fair and it was very fun! I shared the space with two other NewNew Teammates... Corey from Sansmap that makes these awesome bags and Angela that has her own WEBSITE in the making and Etsy shop EnchantraGirl also in progress =D. She mixes and makes all these beautiful jewelry that has a fresh simple taste to it. I've already ordered a ring XD. Can't wait to see it!

Today was slow and probably because the weather had that "threatening it might rain" outlook but the day was actually very beautiful and warm. I was also the day with the World Cup game between England and the U.S.A if I'm not mistaken.

Despite that there was a fair amount to traffic coming in and there was 50/50 amount of vendors and food vendors. The food is awesome... I tried out the chocolate baguettes from the bread stand across from me and it was so so so good! Angela raved about the omelet station and the summer rolls. There was also the interesting spice vendors that had just bowls and bowls of different spices above. They also made blends of spices on request and I thought that was pretty darn nifty. Thankfully the wind was minor and the spices weren't sent to our tent as I'm very sensitive to strong smells.

Here are the new cards I made with the new stamps and stamp pads. If you want to know more about the process and reviews on the new ink I brought you can refer to this POST. My sister was surprised they were stamped on because they look printed to her. The ink dries so smoothly on the paper. I was surprised at what sold which was this octopus tea card I made a while ago.

These are my prints. I've yet to find a nice 5 x 7 photo holder that can hold my photos both vertically and horizontally so I left them in small piles. One thing I do love is the 5 x 7 three photo frame where I put my animal trio in. That was how I had meant for the trio to be displayed. It would look awesome in a nursery or child's room. I might be making some new animal prints like that very soon. I've also been asked to make custom orders of the simpler designs like the animals with people's names on it. I haven't thought of that but that's a great gift for people.

Sunday my friends and I had a crafting party of sorts where we made different pocket invitations for the wedding. We followed these simple instructions on Wedding Bee. I don't have any pictures which I regret but it was fairly easy. If you do like pocket invites you can adjust these to fit your style. Once thing is I do love the Martha Stewart Score Board which is awesome for scoring =D.

Until next time how was ya weekend?

Sewing a Bag

I'm very proud today because I made the above little purse out of my bf's torn shirt. The shirt was torn beyond repair and I love the feel of the 100% cotton fabric and the nautical stripe pattern of it. So I was looking though different patterns and one of my favorite blogs full of fun things to DIY is How About Orange. Her website is clean and chock full of awesome ideas! I came on this Buttercup Bag Pattern from Made By Rae. My sewing skills aren't very advance and I'm lucky that my mom has a sewing machine at home and taught me the basics. My seams aren't super good I really like how it came out. The instructions were clear and I loved the various diagrams and pictures. It even has a little pocket on the inside. Note that I didn't use a metal clasp but instead got Velcro which was the only thing I had. I added the little bow from ribbon to add a girly detail to it =DAs you can see it's roomy enough to fit my huge wallet, green first aid kit, my phone and a pack of tissue. I had enough room to put small other things like maybe lipstick, chapstick, a pocket mirror etc. This is the best thing I've made from an old shirt and if you have some old shirts this is a great way to recycle/upcycle it!

Until next time... reuse, recycle and upcycle!

Cool Popsicle Fun

Ice Cube Popsicle Fun @ LiPeony

It's getting pretty hot and June is already here. Time sure flies by! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! I went to my cousin's graduation and boy it was cloudy then it rained then 10 minutes of rain it got all hot and sunny. Anyways I remember when we were all young our dear grandma would make some toothpick Popsicle in the ice cube trays. They were perfect to pop into our mouths, cool out drinks and you can freeze any juice or soda. Sprite and Coke ice cube pops were pretty darn good!

Here's a super simple recipe that I'm sure many have used to make tiny ice cube Popsicle!

Popsicle Ice Cube Pops
Ice cube trays (for extra fun you can get inexpensive different shaped ice cube trays like hearts/stars etc.)
Juice (any juice/soda)
toothpicks (optional)
small fruit pieces (berries, cubes or balls of melon, apples, oranges etc)

Pour juice into the ice cube trays to about a centimeter or so below the rim. This allows space for the ice to expand without overflowing. Put it in the freezer for about an hour or so and take it out. The juice should be sort of ice/slush now you can put the toothpicks in the center and place it back in the freezer for a few more hours and ta-da ice pops!

For something a bit fancier you can pour the juice halfway into the cube and freeze for an hour then put small fruit pieces like berries and what not and pour more juice over it but leaving space for the ice to expand without overflowing. You can put in funky/decorated toothpicks to add some pizazz to them. These are great for parties and a fun way to decorate your drinks while staying cool.

I'll be hoping for nice weather on June 12th when I'll be vending at the Hester Street Fair.

Until next time... how are you staying cool?

How I Make Stamps =)

Howdy everyone! I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend. This weekend is my only time to relax at home since all my other weekends this month and next month will be out of state, craft fair or out running wedding errands for my roomie =) . I've always mean to show people how I carve these stamps. To be warned this one is intermediate level stamp but the same concepts and techniques are applied to simple and more complicated ones.

First of all got to have the tools. I have two types one is the X-Acto kit which belonged to my bf. Though its actually for woodworking I find that it works beautifully with making rubber stamps. For the tiny tiny details I use Speedball tools. Third is Speedball rubber. You don't have to use the same ones I do but I find I like the tools and medium I use.

One great thing about the Speedball kit is that all the cutters can be stored in the screw top bottom. This one is actually a lino cutter but I've yet to move to carving on linoleum.

Have a design ready drawn out in pencil. Retrace the lines strongly in pencil because that will help in transferring the image to the rubber surface. The above one is one I've drew about a month ago. I know it's so very Alice in Wonderland =D When you make a design you should think of how detailed you want it to be. The more details and tiny details the more time you will have to devote to it. Also you have to decide which part of the design will be inked and which part would not be inked.

For this bunny design I've decided to have the background of the bunnies inked while the bunnies themselves will remain un-inked and show the color of the paper/medium I am stamping on.

Now cut the appropriate size of the rubber sheet to fit the stamp. Mine is 4" x 6" image so I cut one that's about 4.5" x 6.5" big.

Now position the drawing over the sheet of rubber.

Then use a pencil to scribble all over the back of the design. Do multiple criss crosses to insure that the pencil drawing is transferred onto the rubber. You can lift a part of it up to make sure you got all the black lines.

You should see the image onto the rubber like above. You can trace it with permanent marker like a Sharpie or with pencil again to define the lines.

Now here comes the carving. I use the largest cutter size to cut the big areas out without going too close to the edge. Once that's done I use a smaller size cutter to make more careful outlines of the image. I tend to carve like how I peel an apple... with my left hand guiding my right hand. Though everyone does it differently one thing is you must be very careful as these tools are very sharp and you can accidentally nick your stamp or yourself. So slow and steady does it.

There are varying sizes of cutters I rotate from the biggest, medium size to a very tiny one. Unfortunately I have no good stamping ink though I'm planning on getting Versa or Staz-On ink as I heart great reviews about them and the potent color.

Instead I'm using Speedball block printing ink and a brayer. Stamping and block printing are actually very similar.

I only have red, blue, yellow, white and gold so I mixed the red with white to get a nice pink color. =D. I use a thin plastic sheet protector to spread my ink one. I used a toothpick to mix the ink.

I mixed the ink and spread it with the brayer to get an even coating. Now I run it across the stamp until the whole thing is evenly inked. Now I pressed my paper on it which happens to be a 5 x 7 blank card and smooth it out firmly but gently. Then I peel off the card.

Ta-da! You get some lovely images on cards. What I love about using block printing ink and a brayer is the way the color comes off on the surface. It gives this faded fabric look. Everyone one that's printed is different. I really loved how these came out. I think I'll be giving out a few of these. I even have the deer one framed on my desk. =)

I'm still a novice in carving and stamping and block printing. I hope this tutorial help you. There are a lot of tutorials and tips out in the Internet so search away or you can shoot a question here and I'll try my best to answer it =D

Until next time! Ta-Ta!

How to Make a Peekaboo Bunny Card

Happy March everyone! We're getting closer to Spring and hopefully nice warm weather here in New York City! Anyways today while looking at all my art and craft tools and wishing I had more (really want some new ink like Staz-On or Versacraft etc) I fiddled with what I have and made some neat little cards. When it's closed it looks like that above.

But when you open it... sha-zam! Bunnies! It's very simple to make this Peekaboo Bunny Card.All you need is a blank card 5 x 7 or 4 x 6 any size is fine and dandy. Some stamps like the ones I carved above and a large hole puncher. The one I used is 1.25 inches that makes large circles. What's great is that these paper punchers come in tons of sizes and shapes. Imagine peekaboo bunnies coming from heart shaped openings that would be super cute!

So all you need is to plan where you want to position them. Note is that the punches limits me to punching holes close to the edges. You can punch the holes out first then stamp the bunnies on the inside page or vice versa. Then you can decorate the punched holes. Depending on the hole size and stamp size the whole stamp can show though but I think it's cuter to just show the bunny ears. You can do so much with them from different punch shapes/sizes to the stamp size and animal or object. Very easy to do and the possibilities are endless!

Currently I have many tons of bunny art and cards like above all made that I'll be introducing into my shop though I have to get my rusty camera skills up. I'm also going to be at Brooklyn Flea. The experience and food was so great the first time I'm going to be there again on Saturday March 20th. So if you're in the neighborhood just stop on by... grab a fish taco or cupcake and browse around =D

Until next time wishing for warm weather =D

Tutorial: Chinese New Year Decorations =D

Howdy! It's one week before Chinese New Year to celebrate the year of the Tiger! It's been a while since I put up a crafting related tutorial so today I'll be making one on how to make some Chinese Lantern Like Decorations. This is going to be a picture heavy post so ya'll have been warn =P.

What you need are glue (any type of glue is good. Elmer's, glue gun and also tape is fine too) Also some red embroidery string, a needle to help thread some of the details (optional) and at least two dozen Red Envelopes. Red envelopes are small red decorated envelopes that people would give to one another during Chinese New Year. Inside was usually money and it's been believed that the more we give to others it will come back tenfold throughout the year.

You can get them from Asian markets, stores but if you happen to not be near one... you can use rectangular paper about 3 inches x 5 inches (this can vary as the bigger the paper the bigger the decoration size would be) you can use any color/pattern paper but to capture the Chinese New Year feeling it must be mostly red with or without gold or other details.

Let's get STARTED! First fold down the little envelope part so that it's a smooth rectangle.

Fold it in half across the width. (As in all origami... make sure the creases are smooth and crisp)

Now fold it in half along the length.

Now when you open it, it should have a T pattern on it. Now at the halfway marks where my fingers are over in the photo above fold that into a triangle.

Fold it like above and repeat to all four corners of the envelope.

After folding all four sides you should get a diamond shape like above.

Now fold about 12 more of these diamonds.

Now when you have all twelve folded take 3 of them and match the folds to one another. Glue the flaps together.

When you glue them together it should make sort of a pointed dome like above. Note that there are three of them attached at the flaps and are along the length.

Now continue gluing the flaps of the envelopes together. Since I started length wise my next layer is along the width.

Once the ball is almost complete STOP and cut and knot a length of red string use to hang the decoration.

You can glue or tape it to the inside and make sure it's stuck on tight and the length of the loop is good to hang with.

To add some paper firecrackers to the bottom of the decoration ball, take some of the envelopes and roll them up like above. It doesn't have to be super neat.

Once you have about 7 or more ( you can make as many as you like) cut a long piece of red string and start tying the paper rolls in the middle,

Continue tying them until all of them are onto the string and double knot the last one.

For more stability I glued the string to the paper rolls.

Now you attach the paper firecrackers to the opposite side of the hanging part of the ball and let dry.

Once it's dried you can hang these little balls anywhere. The firecracker part would naturally twist a bit giving it a twirl. The best part is that you can use the same pattern with different color, texture, pattern paper to suite your mood to make ball decorations for parties and what not. It's easy to do with kids and that you can make HUGE ones by using more envelopes as the top base. Since I used 3 envelopes as my top base it's a bit smaller then a soccer ball. IF you were to use more the ball will get bigger. Also if you don't like the little flaps coming out you can fold and glue them to the inside so the outside would make a smooth diamondish ball configuration.

Until next time... have fun and look stop on by for more posts about Chinese New Year =)