craft – Sincerely, Syl

Dear Laura and Richard,

You know, when most people offer to paint a mural in your newly renovated home, rarely do people take on the offer. But I’m so glad you’re both so trusting and adventurous (I believe Howard called it “brave”) because now we can brush aside the naysayers.

Thanks for laying down the tape and prepping the wall for me to doodle on. And thank you for finding me a relatively easy design and colour scheme of one.

Equipment

Painter’s Tape
Pencil
Molotow ONE4ALL Acrylic Paint Markers in 4 mm, Mister Green
Molotow ONE4ALL Acrylic Paint Markers in 15 mm, Mister Green
Molotow ONE4ALL Acrylic 30ml Refill in Mister Green
⅛ inch or ¼ inch paintbrush
Paint holder
Ladder

Apply painter’s tape on the ceiling, adjacent walls, and over the floor or floor trims. Also around any shelves, sink, toilet paper holders, light fixtures, mirrors, or windows.
Draw a light outline in pencil of the banana leaves.
Trace the outline with the 15 mm paint marker. Go over it a few times to make it as thick as you like.
Then, use the 4 mm paint marker to draw in the leaf details. These are simply straight-ish horizontal lines.
Pour out the refill paint into the paint holder and touch up the lines with the paintbrush.

How weird is it that I summed up 7 hours of work in 5 steps? Except, I’m sorry that the paint still got past the painter’s tape and it required you to repaint some places white.

Thanks for pitching in and giving me snack breaks. I love that this was a group project and we all got to exercise the creative part of our brains. I also won’t forget the delicious shakshuka, homemade bread, crispy potatoes, smoothie, Bún bò Huế, and Daim cake.

Stay tuned for my next post where I try to recreate the shakshuka!

I hope you like the finished wall, I can’t wait to come back and tag it!

Sincerely,
Syl

Dear Laura,

Hey sis, how’s it going? It’s been such a crazy month of June – some highlights with memories I’ll cherish forever and some bad news as you already know.

Thanks again for having your family help out for my mom’s 60th birthday party. I love that you love the parties I throw and you know that I love helping you plan the biggest party of your life. I think I’ve been pretty good at being patient and waiting for details bit by bit. Yup, my current texting volume about your wedding is on restraint level. But I get it, take your time and enjoy your engagement. Take time to pick and choose everything quickly. I’m not one to rush you since I took two years myself to plan.

I thought I’d dedicate this letter to you since you were the most avid user of this photo backdrop at the party. I love going through the photos from time to time and seeing you pop up with your cheery smile, it’s instantly infectious and makes me happy.

I saw this yellow balloons and leaves centerpiece on Pinterest and saved it to my tropical party board. There were some internal debates as to whether I should make it the centerpiece to go along the buffet or a garland for photos. Eventually I decided on the garland and started working on it a few weeks before the party.

I would come home from half-day Fridays (yay summer hours), put on Netflix (I think I was watching Girlboss at the time), and cut out all these leaves. I eventually got a tiny blister on my thumb because Howard’s large scissors were not a good fit for my small crafty hands. But it looked fantastic all laid out on the dark floor, the leaves really popped.

You can tell I’m such a novice because I built the basic layout of it on the wall. I used some washi tape to secure a thread across my bedroom wall. Tied on the honeycomb pineapples from PartyCity at both ends. Then used a tiny push pin to puncture a hole at the end of each leaf. Pushed a tiny thread through said hole and tied it onto the main string.

You know what have been easier? Building this on the floor!!! For some reason, I thought I needed to see how things would drape and fall, I mean, I guess I did to an extent. But still, this was tough.

I then had all these tiny yellow and teal (robin blue?) balloons that I was tying thread to in order to attach it and cover the ends of the leaves. By this point, the washi tape had reach its’ limit. I had to apply so many more to keep the garland up (I did switch to regular tape for the party, didn’t want this crashing down on a guest).

I’m trying to think if the garland took me longer to make or the pineapple birthday cake. Probably the garland!! Especially if I’m counting the hours it took me to cut out those leaves.

Well, like they say: be a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside.

Hugs and kisses!

Sincerely,
Syl

Category: craft

banana leaf mural

tropical garland