Return to painting

I did a painting for the first time in like a year!

Very exciting.

Based on a photo from when I went to the beach last week, and very similar to a painting I did last year after last year's beach trip.

I've only got one more of these long canvases left though.

Save it for next years beach trip? Haha.

Dolls House

After the Petersiks on Young House Love shared the dolls house they made for their daughter Clara, I wanted to share the dolls house my Granddad made me and and my sisters.

 My Granddad has mad skills!

It was made back in 1993, when I was 3.

'Joluli' is the first two letters of each of our names.

The house has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, and a hallway and landing.

All the furniture was made from scratch.

The rooms have received a bit of customisation over the years.

Now the inhabitants can watch ER instead of The Little Mermaid, and read Heat magazine.

The salt dough food I made last year is still going strong.

I also made all the books on the bookshelf.

The dolls house has working lights which is awesome.

Here's my sisters when we were given the dolls house.

I'm the blonde one in the middle clambering on to the table.

Celebratory beach trip!

It's done!

The degree show is installed and ready for marking.

Remember how the base of the tree warped? Well in the end I had to screw it directly to the plinth. I say 'I', Steve the wood workshop guy did it for me. Thanks Steve!

So that was annoying, but not as annoying as when I found that the driveway of house had warped. After trying to fix the problem with wishful thinking I had to glue it to the plinth.

Oh wells.

To celebrate our final assessment hand-in I went to the beach with some of my friends like we did last year.

The weather was much better this year.

You have not seen excited until you've seen me at the beach. Especially if I've just drunk Fanta.

I ran all over that beach!

I also get far too excited at the 2p machines. 

Natalie and I successfully shifted two Disney notebooks on one machine but they got stuck coming out. So we got the man who opened up the machine to get them out, and he gave us a third one as well! Boom!

Then we moved to a different machine and got a keyring.

2p machines are the bomb-diggity. Anyone agree?

The boys decided to brave the sea, regardless of whether they had suitable swimwear.

Crazy fools.

House progress: It's all in the details

All that's left to show you of my model house are the finishing touches.

Like the scattered leaves (mixed herbs) around the drain pipes.

The pink umbrella in the porch.

The slate house number and the doormat.

The concrete passageway down the side of the house.

Note the handy mirror in the background that makes the house look like it's part of a neighbourhood.

Here's hoping the examiners like what I've made.

Goodbye studio

Two weeks ago we had to take down our studio spaces so that they could be turned into the exhibition spaces for our degree show.

So I had to say goodbye to my studio space.

My lovely, lovely studio space that had almost become a second home.

To see what it looked like back in October click here.

After taking down all the pictures, dismantling the shelves and bagging up our belongings, the only thing left for me and Natalie to do was remove the carpet and throw it in the skip.

Sad times.

Speaking of bagging up all of our belongings, these are mine.

And that's not even all of it, as I had already taken away a few bags in the days leading up to this one.

So much stuff!

Once I move back home for good I'll have to find somewhere to put it all.

My sister is moving out soon.....who thinks my Dad should let me turn her old room into my studio?

*Raises hand*

In the week before the studios got completely dismantled I took some photos of the room I was in.

This is Will's stuff. You can view his paintings here.

House progress: The back bedroom

 It's about time I show you the back bedroom of my miniature house.

Bed, books, fancy picture.

Nothing weird here...except shouldn't there be a duvet?

Purse, pens, jewellery box.

Wait, are those fleck of blood on the drawers?

Oh, it must just be a nose bleed.

Dude, stop looking in the bin. You guys are gross.

Erm...I think it might be a bit more than a nosebleed...

Holy cowbags!!

The next day this happened.

No relation!

I just got a little too confident with the craft knife.

(Sorry if real blood makes you squeamish, but I had to live it! And I'm kind of a medical lightweight so I had to just sit very still for a while until I stopped feeling funny)

"But Lisa, if you had cut yourself the day before then you could have used real blood for your piece."

No! You're sick.

Geez.

Bring out the bleach

I bought this crop top from New Look in the January sales for £1. Bargain!

I won't tell you what size it is.

Ok, it's age 9.

I blame the fact its meant to be loosely fitting and cropped as to why it fits me.

Because this top is 12 years my junior!

Anyway, because the top is kinda boring, and only £1, I wanted to customise it.

I started by going crazy with fabric pens/paints/crayons with hopes that it would look cool and graffiti-y.

That did not happen.

So I tried to wash out the paint but that didn't happen either.

Then I thought back to loads of tutorials I've seen floating around that use bleach on t-shirts.

(And at this point I didn't care if I messed up the shirt because it was pretty far gone already, and was only £1. Did I mention that?)

So I taped out a diamond shape and filled up a spray bottle with some water and bleach.

The diamond image didn't come out as crisp as I thought it might, but I think it looks cool this way. My sisters think it looks like the Superman logo, rather than a diamond. I guess they're right.

I got a little spray happy/impatient, because when I didn't see instant results from the bleach I just sprayed on more instead of waiting.

My favourite part is the shoulders where you can really see the spray of the bleach against the original colour.

Now it's just a case of what to wear with it!

House progress: Roof

The house has a roof!

Took long enough!

The roof panels start out like this.

Lots of 1x1cm square piece of card.

I got very excited the other day when my friend lent me a War-gaming making book and they'd used the same method for roof tiles. It means I'm doing it right.

Each roof tile is then glued to a piece of mount board which I measured out horizontal lines on.

That's the part that took a long time.

For example, when working on one panel I got through the last Harry Potter film, A Town Called Panic, an episode of The Voice and an episode of Casualty.

But, in my defence, A Town Called Panic has subtitles so I had to keep stopping to read. 

Once all the titles were stuck I went over them with chalk and charcoal to make them look weathered and added some 'moss'.

I made guttering and drainpipes out of drinking straws.

Cutting straws so that they're straight is hard, so just don't look too closely.

They really help the piece look like a proper house.

I also made lead flashing out of paper that I painted a silvery grey.

I didn't know that it was called lead flashing before this, so it's nice to see that I'm learning something.

Being Elmo

Last week I went to see this great documentary.

If you grew up with Sesame Street then you've got to see Being Elmo, especially if you're into behind the scenes stuff. Kevin Clash, the man behind Elmo, is a legend.

I went to the cinema by myself.

I'm sure there must be a life list where 'go to the cinema on your own' is one of the things.

Well, tick! Done that.

There were only about 12 people at the screening and we all laughed together.

Good times.

And here's an interview with Elmo on Rove a few years ago, just for the lols.

Were you a Sesame Street kid?

I am not ashamed to tell you that own Elmo in Grouchland and Elmo's Christmas Countdown (so good!) on dvd.

House progress: Rubbish bin

For the narrative side of my house I had to make a rubbish bin.

For this I had to be the crazy girl in the street taking photos of her own wheelie bins.

The whole thing is made of paper and card. Oh and a paper clip may have been involved.

The bin has been knocked over (the tyre marks in the background may have had something to do with it) and all the rubbish bags are spilling out.

I loved making this bin.

Is that weird? It's like when I made this toaster.

It was nice to make one small object from beginning to end in one sitting, and try really hard to make it really detailed.

I love it so much I'm tempted to exhibit it on it's own for the degree show!

Kidding. I haven't spent three months making the rest of the house for nothing.

Magnetic plate

I got this great idea from The Mother Huddle.

Take one pretty little plate.

My sister found this one for me in a charity shop for £1.

Glue some magnets to the bottom.

Add some felt over the top.

And hey presto; magnetic hair grip holder.

The Mother Huddle used hers to keep pins on (and make sure you check out the original tutorial) but I'm always finding my hair clips everywhere so I thought this might help keep them in one place.

Oh internet, you come up with the best ideas.