Ever since I first found Lindsey Bugbee's blog I was hooked! She offers simple do-able crafting DIYs that will make you look like a Martha Stewart without the cost and worry. You can check her out at www.thepostmansknock.com. A few days ago she posted a tutorial on how to watercolor gems. So this evening, I decided to try it out because I needed art therapy to forget my migraine. You can read the tutorial yourself here. To warn you I don't know much about watercolor and find it hard to control in most times. I bought myself a cheap 16 colored set by Prang before Christmas and have used it sparingly. For this DIY you'll need:
You really need to use watercolor paper because if you don't the colors won't be absorbed as nicely making it watered down. Additionally it will cause the paper to warp. I first started with drawing a circle by tracing a roll of tape. I then began drawing triangles slowly building from the center towards the outer borders. After which you take your brush and the "gem" color of your choice, in this instance I used green, and slowly paint your triangles. BE CAREFUL TO NOT PAINT OVER YOUR PENCIL LINES. Just paint the inside shape of your triangles and leaving a border around. Continue to do this until your entire gem has been painted. Afterwards, let the paint dry for about 10 minutes then erase your pencil lines! TADAH!! A gem!! After my central "gem" of a green emerald, I decided to add 2 more: a diamond and ruby. I googled images to see what the gem shapes look like or you can copy what Lindsey has on her blog. Lindsey was right! Painting the shapes is very therapeutic, after a while you'll realize it will be over too soon! I still had space at the bottom so I placed a few words in calligraphy. (Took the opportunity to practice my nib skills since I've been using my brush too often lately.) So here is the finished product! What do you think?
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For months now the country has been a-buzz with news that Pope Francis is coming to the Philippines. Yesterday, all preparations were realized when "Santo Papa" (Holy Father) safely landed in the Philippines from his visit to Sri Lanka at around 5:30pm.
At the first sight of his plane, crowds in Manila began cheering. Upon the actual landing of his plane, bells all over the country begun ringing. For this country, the biggest Catholic Community in Asia (and 3rd in the world), the coming of a Pope and particularly THIS Pope has brought much rejuvenation to our church. The visit's theme is MERCY & COMPASSION. Pope Francis' visit shall give particular highlight to those affected by Typhoon Yolanda and Bohol Earthquake. At this very moment (10:35am) I am listening to his speech in Malacanang and he highlights the ff: 1. Resilience of Filipino people in the face of tragedy 2. Youth and Family as the building blocks of faith and community I feel a special bond to this particular Pope: 1. He is a Jesuit Having spent my college years in Ateneo de Manila (a Jesuit university) I understand and embrace Pope Francis' mission of giving importance to the poor and marginalized. During my college years, Ateneo ingrained in me a special love for those who struggle everyday for food, medicine, etc. Third year Theology gave importance to the ecclesiastical theology that started in Mexico and Argentina -- where Pope Francis is from. Starting faith building at the grassroots level -- the family -- is how Roman Catholicism becomes relevant, saving and inspirational in today's trying times. 2. He is from the developing world Most popes in the past few years come from the Developed World. Pope Francis is from Argentina, a country that is like the Philippines -- developing and growing from the embers of civil war, poverty, corruption, etc. So this means He knows what we face every day and understands it very well. This is why Pope Francis has preached a gospel of JOY -- of being the face of compassion at all times. To me this is the kind of renewal our church needs, to be the face of compassion. Seeing his plane land in NAIA yesterday I couldn't help but get teary-eyed. It was unexplained, but seeing him land was a very emotional moment for me. I sent a prayer up to God asking him for a special petition and for Pope Francis to be an interceder. Viva Il Papa! Bienvenido Pope Francis! The third part (and probably last) of my literary documentation of the North Luzon 360 Trip.
To backtrack, we spent most of Dec 27 exploring Lal-lo, Cagayan and its neighboring towns. December 28 was a Sunday and also the celebration of the Holy Family. The entire family caboodle shuttled to attend the 8am mass in the same church where dad was baptized 50+ years ago. Apparently Lal-lo was the seat of faith for Nueva Segovia prior to the area being drowned by the Cagayan River. Which is why many of the churches in the area are from the Spanish Occupation. The church was made of brick with a leaning belfry. It's frontage faces the river where a 300 year old cross stands. The place is really immersed in history -- many of the places still have the Spanish Influence. After lunch, martin and i packed ourselves into the car to start our drive back to Manila. This time we decided to take the western coast route instead of backtracking our previous travel. This meant we would be passing by many Ilocos tourist offerings which include:
The drive would be a long one, which we didn't feel at all because the roads were BEAUTIFUL! And every so often you get treated to a view of the sea. Both martin and i were totally amazed at how different the scenery was up north. Vast lands full of rice will then be interrupted by strong waves breaking the shore. The entire trip was a great adventure that even my body could not take anymore. As we approached the end of the North Luzon Expressway i had started to warm up with a fever. Too much excitement for the holidays but totally worth it. Below is a gallery of photos I took en route: Okay okay, I think I'm being over eager with my New Year's Resolutions. It's only January 9 and I've tackled a lot of them already. Number 1 on my list was to learn how to digitize my calligraphy. For this I turned to my most valuable resource: SKILLSHARE. Signing up to the site is easy, and they offer a free trial for a month. There are also countless of video lessons in varying topics. This is where I first learned the art of calligraphy -- I took classes from known calligraphers such as Molly Thorpe, Bryn Chernoff and Molly Jacques. To achieve resolution number 1, I took Molly Thorpe's class entitled "Digitizing Calligraphy: From Sketch to Vector". It has 15 videos tackling an introduction -- to sketching -- to inking-- to scanning-- to Photoshop (and finally)-- to Illustrator. Okay, to start off I am a noob with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It also took me a while to familiarize myself with the functions of these programs. (To be honest until now they're all a blur.) But Molly walks you through the steps with her calm and jovial voice making the subject matter easy to understand and interesting. I was not able to catch on right away and of course I stumbled and had to repeat a few steps but after 2 days I have been able to finish the class. (With extensive notes!!So I don't forget!) I "graduated" from Molly's tutorials just this afternoon practicing on a calligraphy I had scanned months ago. It was tough at the beginning moving from Photoshop to Skillshare then back again. After a while, and countless mistakes, I was able to get the hang of it. The three photos above are the transition form Original to Edited. What do you think? Most of the edits are cleaning up the scan to remove dirt and refining the curves. I am still a far cry from making real edits like changing loops but I think with practice I'll get there. Which takes me to Practice No. 1. Right after dinner, I was quite excited to flex my new learned "skills". So with scratch paper I sketched a simple phrase " Happy New Year" then went over it with my black Zig Cocoiro Brush Pen. After scanning and refining with Photoshop, I then recolored it in Illustrator. I really wanted to use it for something so I went through my 2015 Fireworks display photos and masked the phrase on top of it. So here is the finished product:
As previously written, I was in the process of making my first new recipe for 2015: Bun Cha. I had already marinated the meat and bought the rice noodles. (Luckily the noodles are available here in Legazpi!) So finally time for the actual cooking! I was in a mad rush to prepare the food because my food tasters were hungry : Mart and Pop. So with the aid of my kitchen helpers I set to work to: 1. Shred the carrots with a cheese grater 2. Chop the coriander (which luckily there was stock in Robinsons Supermarket) 3. Pound the peanuts to tiny pieces 4. Cook the noodles (use boiling water and the noodles should be well hydrated/cooked in 10 minutes) 5. Shred the lettuce to bite size pieces 6. Mold the meat and cook in a cast-iron pan 7. Blanche the bean sprouts 8. ASSEMBLE THE MASTERPIECE! Now to commence the final part of the recipe: assembly of the salad. There is no art to how I placed the dish together -- I was too hungry to make it overly designed a-la Master Chef-- but the simple rule of layering all the components apply. I had originally placed the greens, sprinkled a little of the carrots, cucumber and bean sprouts. After which I placed a heaping amount of noodles and topped it off with the pork and more vegetables.
(Our bowls at home are too small to house the entire dish but I tried anyway. In the end we dumped all the contents on the plate to eat with all gusto. ) I then drizzled the dressing on top and the dish was finished! |
Who is sab_adventures?I have always wanted to write. This will now be a creative outlet-- home to all my arts and crafts. So feel free to browse around my everyday adventures. Interests
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November 2016
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