Tiger time

I made this tiger yo-yo (by tracing a photo of a tiger with a Sharpie) but now I don't know what to do with it.

I could make it into a hairband...

...or a brooch.

I'm not sure, any ideas?

We built a fort!

Since our final hand in of the year my housemates and I have had some free time on our hands.

So we built a fort!

This is the best photo I have of the whole thing.

We used many blankets (including my Camp Rock one that you can see on the right there) which we pegged to ropes and chairs, and we even made it so that the sofa was inside the fort.

We also added fairy lights on the inside which looked really pretty when it started getting dark.  

We did awesome things in the fort like watch Take Me Out...

...and play Scrabble.



Forts have come along way since I used to drape a blanket over two chairs and call it a den when I was little.

 And they're not just for kids as the following forts show.

from Flickr

from Apartment Therapy

and from Design Sponge which even as a how-to.

What was the last time you built a fort/den?

Colour Me Awesome

My new favourite person on the interwebs is Katie Sokoler from Color Me Katie.

She comes up with fun, colourful projects to brighten up her apartment and her neighbourhood.

Also she's a part of Improv Everywhere which is awesome.

I love these scenes she creates with paper so I decided to make some of my own.

Magic hands that shoot confetti!

It's raining!

(Probably shouldn't have used a white cloud on an almost white wall. I'll know for next time)

It was really fun so I definitely want to do some more soon

Piping tip

Now, I might be a little bit late to the party with this trick but I thought I would share it incase any of you were in a similar position.

I made my butter cream icing pretty!

And it was really simple;

Take a small sandwich bag.

Fill it with icing.

Cut of a corner to make a tiny hole.

Get piping!

No fancy equipment required.  

I don't have a photo though because I only have so many hands!

On the left you will see my usual method for applying butter cream icing, ie, smooshing it on with a fork, and on the right is the much prettier method.

You're welcome.

In related news Mollie over at Wild Olive is hosting a little blog tea party all this week.

There's going to be guest posts and giveaways and all of that good stuff, so be sure to check in at some point. And there'll also be a chance to win something from me!

Exciting stuff.

Getting my draw on

I've been inspired by all the cute drawings/illustrations I've been seeing around the blogs.

Like this one of Kaelah by Saturated Canary.

And even these little drawings that Elsie just posted.

I wanted to have a go myself, but if you've seen my paintings then you'll know I'm realism gal.

So I decided to pick a very simple style and do very minimalist faces. Any more detail and I'd try and make it realistic, which isn't what I was going for.

I drew my housemates. That's me in the pink.

I decided to colour in the drawings with water colour paints which was definitely a good idea.

Remember the time I dressed up as a clown? I drew that too.

And this is what I looked like when I was doing the drawings. Yep, that's a cookie monster shirt.

Spreading the craft

I recently took part in a craft swap hosted by Kelsey over at Artichoke Designs.

I made something for Katie from Sweet Rustic who is from Australia. My little package took 3 weeks to get there!

Based on the aesthetic of her blog name I made Katie this pendant. I (or rather my Dad!) cut the wood and I sanded it to a round shape. Then I painted on the rose and varnished it and added some pretty pink ribbon.

I also sent Katie this pair of simple earrings that I put together.

I think the craft swap is still going on so head over to Kelsey's blog to take part.

Miniature food made with salt dough

Pretty good spread huh?

Shame it's too tiny to be eaten.

That's right; I made some miniature food for my dolls house. Here's how;

Salt dough.

You'll need plain flour, salt and water.

I just got roughly the same amount of flour and salt and added water until it went doughy, but if you want to do things properly then just google a salt dough recipe.

To make everything in that top photo I only used the amount of salt dough you see in my hand there.

I cooked my salt dough on the lowest oven setting - less than Gas Mark 1 - and the smaller pieces only needed about 15 minutes, the larger ones I left in for 30 minutes. You'll be able to tell when they're done as they should go white and hard and not be squishy in the middle. 

To make a batch of hot cross buns roll some salt dough into a ball then flatten it into a rectangle with rounded edges. Mark out six sections and add thin strips of salt dough for the crosses. Dab a bit of water on to make them stick. Then cut out the individual buns.

Once they've been in the oven paint the buns. The crosses and bases will already be the right colour but add some orangey brown to the tops. I also painted on a little varnish to look like the glaze.

Note; the salt dough expands slightly in the oven so flat edges don't come out so flat. To fix this just use some sand paper to file them flat again. This is something I had to do with the bottoms of the hot cross buns.

To make a croissant thinly roll some salt dough into a long triangle. Then roll it up, starting at the wide end, and curve into the right shape. 

Once cooked, paint with a golden brown colour, a little darker on top.

To make donuts roll some salt dough into a ball and then flatten it. Use a kebab skewer or a thin drinking straw to make a hole through the middle.

After they've been in the oven, paint them golden brown and then different colours for the icing.

I also made scones, shortbread fingers, cupcakes, cookies, plaited bread, turnovers and Belgian buns. The possibilities are endless, just have a play around with the dough.

Here are two ladies enjoying a cream tea and a gossip.

Hungry kids waiting for the cake to be cut.

And a family having their continental breakfast of croissants.

I'd love to see what you come up with.

The Forgotten Miniature

I made this miniature scene somewhere between these ones and this one but I never posted it before because I didn't think it was finished.

It's a little back alley with dustbins and a gun.

I was going to add a blood splatter to the back wall and add a fourth wall to the front that would have a peephole in it, but I never got around to it. 

I guess I just lost interest.

Well that interest is back!

Hahaha, I think this little addition makes this piece tonnes better.

Don't let the sunshine spoil your rain, yo!

Hair

In the months leading up to my hair cut I wanted to make the most of my long hair so I tried out some different styles which I thought I would share.

I tried a fishtail plait which is kinda time consuming but looks pretty cool.

There's a tutorial for how to do it here.

I love this super big bun created around a sock. Check out the tutorial here, it's so easy.

And finally a hair bow, made of hair! If you follow srslyliz then you would have seen her rocking this look. I think it's so fun! See her tutorial here.

Craft-Arty Donuts

My friend had the idea for me to make a box to display my felt keyring donuts in. So I did!

I think they look pretty awesome.

And don't forget some of these are available to buy in my Etsy shop here, here, or here.

Also, this month I am sponsoring Wild Olive so go and check out that great blog. Tomorrow she's having a little question time. Fun fun.

The miniature people are back

Last Easter I made little people invade my house, and this year they'd gotten into the garden.

Originally I was going to use these photos for my uni work, but then I decided against it and just had fun with them instead...especially the ones towards the bottom.

I started by using photos from the exhibition of people viewing my miniatures so that I could take them out of context and have them looking at different things.

What's so interesting in the grass?

This is my housemate. He is loving that daffodil.

The lovely Ro taking a photo of a daisy.

And now the silly ones; thumbs up for a shoot!

Chillin' in the garden

And posing. As per usual.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Ok people, I have some news:

I got a haircut.

Now you may not think that this is blog-worthy, and certainly not a whole post, but for me this is an event. A major event. I hadn't had my hair cut in 2 years and 9 months. Not even a trim. 

So let's get straight to it. Here's the before and after.

April 2011

 Pretty drastic right? Well this is something of a theme for me; grow my hair really long for a few years and then cut it all off. 

See:



July 2008



August 2006

(And yes, I've gotten into the habit of wearing the same t-shirt for all my haircuts!)

This time was different as I had decided to donate my hair.

So after I told the hairdresser what style I wanted, I added '...and I want to keep the hair.'

Cos that's not weird at all! 

I was pretty aware of Locks of Love, thanks to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and found a UK based charity which basically does the the same thing, the Little Princess Trust.

They make real hair wigs for children suffering from hair loss due to cancer treatments and alopecia.

Holding your own ponytail when it isn't attached to your head is very odd indeed!



So now I've got to get used to being a short-haired gal again.

Here's an interesting read on the topic.