Pastel Filipiniana Birthday Party Favor Bags

A friend throwing a joint birthday party for her son and daughter asked me to do write guest names in calligraphy for their party favors. She likes these bags made of buri or pandan leaves. It's a great fit for the party's theme which is Filipiniana pastels.

The bag contained a lot of goodies that kids would love, traditional Filipino toys like jack stones, pickup sticks, rubber bands, marbles and a few sweets.

For the adult guests, she used the same type of bags and put calico bags with Pinoy goodies like tableya (cocoa), rice and coffee beans. I made kraft gift tags that were attached to the bags to label their contents.

I love how they all turned out!

Quarantine days

I've kept my new nibs for a long time now and I finally decided to use them again. I love the output of pointed nibs better than brush pens but I prefer to use the latter because there's less to clean up after. For this, I used watercolors instead of ink. They work just the same but takes a bit more time because I'm using a paintbrush to take the paint and then transfer it to the nib, as compared to just dipping it in an ink bottle.

Most of us are in the safety of our homes and this is how simple we can help those who are out there serving and helping others. In my community, in my country, some people still can't stay put and stay home. Somehow they don't understand how staying home is the means of how we do teamwork. We can defeat the enemy if we work together. Our enemy is invisible and fast, but it isn’t immortal. It cannot spread if we work together by stopping it from spreading and claiming more precious lives. For those of us who are able to stay home, please do so. . Expressing deep gratitude to all of you who brave each day and go to work in the frontline. #staystrong 🌼🌸 . 

Pointed pen using watercolors

Personalized Wooden Coasters

Another new project this month is calligraphy work done in white ink on round wooden coasters. These are some really nice types of bamboo coasters that I found online. It measures 4 inches diameter and is the perfect size for standard ceramic mugs.

This set is given as gifts to a wedding party, for groomsmen, bridesmaids and family.

Word stones for Cebu Florist

My second batch of word stones were made from a friend who requested me to customize the stones. He owns a flower shop in Cebu and he thought it would be a great accessory to add to flower orders. When you give flowers to someone, you can add a short thoughtful phrase or message that (usually) comes in a card. But it doesn't have to. Instead, you can give them a piece or two of these stones which has sweet words written on them:

"i miss you"
"i luv u"
"beautiful"
"hugs"
"i'm sorry"
"hugs"
"love"

These will be placed in a nice little pouch to give to your loved one together with your flowers. It's great because it's something new and adorable which others can put on their desk, trinket dish, shelf or use as paper weight. Truly enjoyed making these and they all look very nice when put together.

See?

A First Look at Word Stones

An awesome thing about calligraphy is that it's so easy to make ordinary things look pretty. Like these shiny stones. You'll normally take no second look but with an inspiring word or phrase, they automatically become more special.

These aren't your ordinary stones though. I admit I didn't just pick them up from outside. As much as I wish have them for free, I had to purchase them. ;) Ordinary stones are more rough in texture so they wouldn't look as nice.

Here I'm only using black, white and neutral colored stones. And the ink, just gold and white, sometimes black. They're the perfect accessory to tiny potted plants like succulents and baby plants on desks, shelves and window sills. The stones can be simple bits of reminders or inspiration that you'll surely get a glimpse of every time you water those plants.

Plus, they make lovely instagram photos, don't you think?

White on neutral

A recent addition to my calligraphy projects are these super cute and tiny hair brushes. They will be given as party favors to a little girl's birthday party.

I've always loved neutrals and this is the first time I'm using white on light wood color. It's great and looks better than black, in my opinion.

{ Krafted } Hand-painted wood slices

Wood slices are great canvases for calligraphy or any painting project. I managed to acquire a few pieces of these from the local department store. They're made of nice and smooth type of wood and a great natural wood color. I was torn between painting over them with other colors or just directly add calligraphy. For this batch, I decided to add colors. Next time I'm planning to do sunset and galaxy scapes.

These objects are small and are best used as coasters or desk paper weights. They can serve as decorative pieces to your desk or shelf by putting them on a mini plate stand or a tiny wooden easel.

Gouache on canvas

Sharing this as my first time to use gouache on canvas and I'm so happy with the result! If watercolor and acrylic had a a child, it would be gouache. It's not as popular as watercolor but I love working with it especially that I've always had a love/hate relationship with acrylic. I want to use it more often!

This piece is a gift for Mary Lauren's first birthday. What better way to celebrate life than with flowers!

By the way, I also tried it on black painted wood. Needed to reapply another coat to keep it opaque. But overall it's great. I feel my brush "freer" with gouache.

Handmade placecards using deckled paper

Here's something I want to see in weddings: placecards on deckled paper. Deckled paper is a rare find in local Dgte weddings. If you're anyone who loves these kinds of detail, this is for you! Handmade is the way to go because there's little chance you can mass produce anything like this with a machine.

Perfect project to apply calligraphy! For these samples, I'm doing earth colors with gold accent and the ever lovely pastels.