home – anniemaychang

Agate Wedding Place Cards

February 27, 2018February 27, 2018 annie may write

As you know, my calligraphy hobby is turning into a full-on obsession. I started off first using brush pens and markers, which are so much fun. But my favorite calligraphers are old-school and use dip pens, so I wanted to try it. I had a rocky start, but with practice, I’ve gotten better at finding the right amount of pressure and ink flow!

Weirdly enough, I’ve found that writing on agate is so much easier than writing on paper. The nibs are so sharp that they tend to tear and stick on paper. But on these smooth glass surfaces, they just glide.

These are place cards I’m making for Austin’s sister’s wedding, which is in April. She got an assorted set of 200 agate slices. The ladies are getting Ph. Martin Silver ink, the guys are getting copper plate gold.

diy, Uncategorized

gallery wall: check!

February 4, 2018 annie may write

We *think* we are finally done decorating our home… a year-and-a-half after moving in! We have been talking about putting up a gallery wall since we bought the home. We finally did it!

My boyfriend, Austin, travels pretty regularly as the International Operations Manager at his company, an engineering consulting firm here in Tulsa. He’s been all over the world – five out of the seven continents (all but Australia and Antarctica!), and while he only has his iPhone on hand, he comes back with some pretty decent photos.

To make this gallery of ten photos, we purchased this set of nine simple black frames with white matting on Amazon for $68. The frames are 12 x 12, and with matting, show photos that are 8 x 8. Since most of the photos we printed were taken from Austin’s Instagram page, they were already square. I printed them at our local Walgreen’s, which now has an 8 x 8 photo print size!

But of course, that was only NINE frames, and we needed ten! Austin came up with the genius idea to buy a separate frame that he found at Target for about $12. Up close, they are not identical. But far away… can you tell which one is the odd frame out?

blog, diy, Uncategorized

calligraphy on coasters

January 22, 2018February 6, 2018 annie may write

Austin’s mom’s birthday is coming up, and while she’s relatively easy to shop for, we wanted to do something special. Austin suggested buying her power tools (WHAT) and I promptly shut that idea down.

I have been wanting to experiment with calligraphy on different media, so I suggested doing some custom work for her. I came up with the idea of writing the fruits of the spirit on some agate-slice coasters. We found these beautiful blue coasters on Amazon. At $60 for six coasters, they’re pretty pricy, but the reviews were excellent and we didn’t want to risk buying a bad product. They were perfect for this project – gold-rimmed and in assorted colors and sizes.

First, I had to check and make sure the metallic brush markers I have were waterproof on glass. Luckily, they are. I use Bianyo Metallic Brush Marker Pens, which have some gorgeous colors and write like a dream. Because there were only six pieces, I couldn’t write all of the fruits of the spirit (also – I had to Google “what are the fruits of the spirit), but we’re pretty pleased with how they turned out. Excited to work with more agate surfaces in the future!