Snowflake Tutorial

When I found out I was pregnant, I instantly knew that the baby's 1st birthday was going to be a "winter wonderland." My winter wedding plans were derailed by the little miracle growing in my belly so I vowed to have my wonderland come to life one way or another! Now here I am, exactly one year from the day I was originally supposed to get married, writing about my little snow baby's 1st birthday plans. :)

For the past few weeks, I've been obsessed with snowflake-making. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may have seen me churning out quite a few of these bad boys. I originally learned how to make them from a holiday craft handout that the boys brought home from school. Over time, I refined my technique and after numerous requests, agreed to post a tutorial on how to make them. This is my version of the many, many 3D snowflake tutorials out there. I promise it's a lot easier than it looks once you get the hang of it. :)


Materials:
6-8 sheets of paper*
1 pair of scissors
Tape
Stapler

*The size of the paper you use depends on the size you want your snowflake to be. Keep in mind that smaller snowflakes are much harder. With that being said, I suggest you use a standard 8.5x11 paper for your first snowflake. For the example below, I quartered one 8.5x11 sheet of paper. It's easier to photograph a smaller snowflake for tutorial purposes. (I used vellum paper, but you can use any paper you want.)

Materials

Step 1: Take the paper and fold it at a diagonal as pictured below.

Step 2: Trim off the excess paper to make a triangle. You can skip this step if you're using 12x12 scrapbook paper for your snowflake.

Step 3: Fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle.

Step 4:  Take your scissors and snip the folded side leaving approx 1/8" at the end of your cut. (I put 5 straight slits.) You can eyeball the spacing -- it doesn't have to be perfect.

This is what it looks like when it's opened up.

Step 5: Now comes the fun part. Take a pencil (or your finger) and tape the two points of the inner slits together.  

Step 6: Flip the paper over and connect the next row of slits on the opposite side. Flip over again and connect the next row and so forth. Repeat until all ends are taped together.

Flip & Tape.

Flip and Tape

A side view of the flipped & taped sheet.

The final product: One "arm" of your snowflake.

Repeat Steps 1-6 six to eight times depending on how many arms you want your snowflake to have. Note: Things go a lot faster  if you mass produce your triangles before hand.

 Step 7: Once you've created all of your snowflake pieces, it's time to connect them together. Take the center "x" on the side of the individual arms and tape or staple them together to create a chain. 

Before being connected

Hope this picture clarifies where to connect them

The "chain"

 Step 8: Take a small piece of tape and connect two arms together. Repeat this step until all of your arms are taped together in pairs.

For the sake of the tutorial, I took a picture of how to connect the ends BEFORE I made the chain.

Step 9: Close the chain once all of your centers are connected and stapled in the middle.

 And there you have it, the finished product. :) Happy snowflake-making ya'll! :)

It's ALWAYS Sunny in Philadelphia?

This past October, Niki's drug company invited me to share our family's story at a conference they were having in Philadelphia. With John's blessing, I accepted their offer traveled completely alone for the very first time in my entire life. I was nervous, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I couldn't pass it up. (I mean really, when was I ever going to go to Philadelphia again?) My trip was from 10/2-10/4.

Without further ado, here's the story of my trip in photo-essay format. :)

After we attended Church, John and I had a lovely brunch at JoAnn's in South San Francisco before I left Sunday night. My very good friend Kim took me there shortly after Noie was born and it was delicious. 

Here's a pic of my breakfast from that day (The Gaucho.) I realize that my addiction to Instagram-ing EVERYTHING is borderline pathetic, but it's my blog and I'll document what I want, mmkay? ;-P

I took the red-eye to Philly and I tried my best to sleep for as long as possible. My flight arrived at around 6am EST. Novo Nordisk arranged for a driver to pick me up from the airport. The driver met me at baggage claim and he had my last name on a sign! Call me sheltered, but riding in my very own town car has to be one of the coolest things that happened to me this year. The guy had a hat and called me "Miss Intal" and everything! Made me feel like a real grown-up and shit.

Goodbye SF.

Hello Philly!

He was a history buff and had the most badass accent I've ever heard. :)

In case you haven't already noticed, I took pictures of pretty much everything so John could feel like he was there with me. The poor guy tried to get off from work so he could join me, but alas, I had to go alone. Here's some pictures of the hotel and of course, another food shot. That was the best oatmeal I've ever had -- I ordered it twice while I was there!

 

After I scarfed down breakfast, I took a nice long nap. I'm not a morning person (and I was still functioning on West Coast time), but somehow I managed to wake up at with enough energy/time to do some sight-seeing. First up, the was LOVE park. I've seen the "LOVE" statue around before, but I never knew its origin until my sister's friend Kid told me about it. It was close to my hotel so walked over to check it out.  {Note: From this point forward, you'll see Ethan Lion-Lion make cameos in the pictures I took. The boys were sad that I was leaving so I told them that Ethan Lion was going to be their "stunt double" while I was in Philly.  If Ethan Lion was in a picture, then that meant the boys were "there"too. Kev and Boo really got a kick out of seeing the Ethan Lion pics.}

See Ethan Lion?

After Love Park, I took a nice, leisurely walk to the world-famous Mutter Museum. It started to sprinkle as I was walking and I was ill-prepared. I quickly learned that contrary to the popular show's title, it is NOT "always sunny in Philadelphia." ;) Thankfully, I was able to duck under building overhangs to avoid getting wet.

The Mutter Museum let me use my CCSF ID (yes, I'm back in school) so I scored the student discount on admission. As I was adjusting my camera settings, the cashier advised me that pictures weren't allowed inside the museum. (Sorry guys. You can watch a YouTube video here if you want to see what the museum is all about.) There was a lot fascinating stuff in there, but there was some really disturbing stuff, too. There was an exhibit on President Lincoln's autopsy, the preserved liver of world famous Siamese twins, and the most disturbing part, preserved babies in various stages of development. There were also many "deformed" babies in jars as well.

Call me crazy, but I was compelled to pray for those poor babies knowing that their bodies would never be laid to rest. And I did just that...I prayed. Afterwards, I called John crying because I just needed someone to talk to.  I wasn't expecting it, but it was the most disturbing thing I've seen in a long time.

The entrance

The ticket

A window display. Unclear if these things are actually real.

I wanted to go back to the hotel room, but John encouraged me to make the most of my trip. I felt better after I spoke with him so I rode the bus (last time I rode a bus was in high school!) to see all the historical stuff featured in National Treasure. I must say Nicholas Cage made the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall look 20 times cooler than it is in person. (Maybe it's the suspenseful Hollywood background music? Who knows?)

I wasn't very fond of US History in high school so I guess you can say I'm way too ignorant to truly appreciate the symbolism of our nation's history.  Nonetheless, seeing all of these historical artifacts up close and personal was on my bucket list anyway so mission accomplished, I suppose. The 45 minute tour of Independence Hall was 40 minutes too many for my taste. I managed to glaze over all the history-speak just like I did in high school. I snapped my pictures, stepped back, and found myself being more fascinated by the  the furniture and architecture than anything else. {I realize I sound like an unappreciative imbecile right now, but you have to at least give me credit for being honest.}

Cast from the Liberty Bell

Let Freedom Ring

:)

The Path to Independence Hall

George Washington's Chair

The original railing that was here during Ben Franklin's time

Ethan Lion Lion propped on said railing

I still had a few hours before sundown so decided to check out the the Franklin Institute. I took  the PHLASH to get there and discovered that I wouldn't have enough time to see the entire museum before it closed. (Side note about PHLASH, I highly recommend this mode of transportation if you want to sight-see in Philly, but don't have a car -- $2 will take you anywhere.) There was a really cool mummy exhibit there so I was bummed that I didn't make it in time to check it out.

For whatever reason I decided it would be a good idea to walk to the Art History Museum  from the Franklin Institute. Bad idea! Not only was I wearing the wrong shoes for that type of walk (boots) but the area had too many trees for my taste so it reminded me of the type of places where joggers are found raped and murdered. There weren't any rapists or serial killers in sight, but I'm paranoid so I scurried as quickly as possible to the museum. (I should have took the PHLASH.)

I made it to the museum in one piece, but it was closed. (Boo!) No matter, I took my pictures and hopped back on the PHLASH to go back to the hotel. There were two very cute little boys who were racing up the stairs while their mom was taking pictures, and it made me miss my cubbies. It would have been so cool to take pictures of them at the top of the steps from Rocky.

Had a huge FML moment here. I didn't know the PHLASH went to the museum until I walked up and saw it parked in the front! LOL!

The view from the top of the steps.

I really missed the cubbies here.

Afterwards I took the PHLASH back to my hotel. As soon as I got to the hotel it dawned on me that I skipped lunch. I only had about an hour before dark so rather than go back to south Philly to try Gino's or Pat's, I asked to concierge to point me to the closest place with the best cheesesteak. I can't remember the name of the place, but it did NOT disappoint. As delicious as the cheesesteak was, I could barely finish half of that monstrosity. On my way back to the hotel I stopped by Starbucks to unwind from the day's events.

For his own peace of mind I promised John that I wouldn't go out after dark. So, I spent the rest of the evening chatting on the phone with him, doing my Physics homework, and panicking about my speech the following day. Oh, what a glamorous life I lead! 

I woke up the following morning with knots in my stomach. I never spoke in front of a large group before! To say I was terrified is a gross understatement. To make matters worse, I felt myself getting weepy whenever I started to talk about Ethan while I was practicing the night before. I knew I would be mortified if I lost my cool in front of a bunch of strangers.

A picture I took while they were testing everything out on the projector. It was so weird seeing my stuff up there!

Time was on crack that morning because 1 o'clock was there before I knew it. I was on the brink of hyperventilating when I saw how large the ballroom was. The good news is the coordinators set me at ease right before my speech. It helped that I broke my speech up with a video of Niki's infusion and sharing some family photos. While I was presenting, I looked up at the crowd and I saw a quite few people dabbing tears from their eyes. I *almost* started to cry too, but by some miracle that I maintained my composure despite having to talk about some seriously depressing stuff. It was humbling to know that these complete strangers were touched by our story. I even managed to survive the question and answer portion. At the end of my presentation, I got to meet quite of the few faces behind the drug responsible for saving Niki's life. It was an awesome experience!

I had an hour to spare before I was supposed to fly out, but I called the driver to come pick me up a bit early. I had a great time traveling by myself, but I couldn't wait to go back home to my den. There's no place like home.

My First STD...

If you thought this was going to be a post about my first sexually transmitted disease, you were wrong my friend. I've never had a STD, but I'd like to take a moment to state how much I enjoy that particular wedding acronym. You wouldn't believe how much fun I've had  using that term in the presence of non-crafty folk. I miss the amusement dearly and hope to publicly use the phrase "making STDs this weekend" in the near future.

No my friends, today I'm sharing a picture of the very first Save-The-Date I've ever made.  I crafted 250 of these bad boys for my sister Stef and her then-fiance Josh's vintage-style wedding. They know what they like so it was really easy to come up with font combinations that worked for them. I just adore how the STDs turned out even though, frankly, I'm certain I've got carpal tunnel after tying 250 teeny, tiny twine knots. ;)

This STD was the first of many, many craft projects stemming from what I will now refer to as the "Wedding-mageddeon" part of my life. Three weddings in two weeks = end-of-the-world for my poor back and fingers. But as much as I bitch and whine, I wouln't change that time in my life for the world. ;)

My First STD

Pink, Teal, and Gray Save-the-Date


While we're on the subject of "saving the date," I thought I'd also sneak in their super cute engagement photos. You guys know I'm a sugar-fiend so these candy shop shots had my sweet tooth aching for a fix. Also? The pictures were so awesome that they were featured in a wedding blog called Sparkle & Hay. You can see that post by clicking here.  Their very talented photographer did an awesome job. If you want to see the post at Aubrey Joy Photography, you can click here.

Too Adorable!