Lots of new posts coming up!

I've been trying to sort out a lot of stuff with work lately which has impacted on my blogging, which I really want to try and keep up with as a little log of all the things I have been working on... Seemingly quite a lot...

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment so expect some updates over the next few days, including updates on the fairy outfit and pressing flowers!

Fairytale Ball

I have a convention coming up soon and the costume theme for the Saturday night party is 'fairytale ball.'  I hadn't really felt like going so hadn't planned any elaborate cosplays or anything but since I've decided to go I am now suddenly caught with the arduous task (yeah right!) of creating myself a costume.  The Friday and Sunday themes don't really grab me because I prefer the challenge of a costume, as opposed to wearing normal clothes that make you look like a character.  Just my personal preference!

Anyway, I am not going to be a specific fairy (no Tinkerbell here thank you very much) but more just 'a fairy.'  I like fantasy art and ballet fairies - like the lovely ladies and beautiful costumes below.  Yes that's from Ballet West's Cinderella, yes I loved Breaking Pointe - what of it?

Obviously, above is beautiful and incredible and oh god turnout!  I could never dream of anything that amazing for my outfit.  I have collected a few things on a Pinterest inspiration board below and think I have a reasonable idea of what I am after.

Follow Lauren's board Fairy ideas on Pinterest.

I then visited my favourite shop ever, Fabricland, to pick up some fabric.  Their website is full on nineties Geocities and I love it for that.  I think I picked up most of the base material for around £14.  I then had to get a few extra cottons and will probably need trimmings as well when I have done a little more construction.

This is a rough sketch I did yesterday whilst having a coffee; my friend Katie has already remarked that she can't read my doctor handwriting.

And this is all the material I have bought so far... And some fake flowers. No doubt I will be back at my favourite place in no time for more. I actually went twice in one day as I had to buy myself some pinking shears.

I think I'll be working on it most of today so they'll be plenty of progress pictures on Instagram.

Attempting Flower Pressing

Another post-wedding crafting! Though this was my second time as a bridesmaid, I've not had a fresh bouquet before.  My sister went off on her honeymoon and the house was full of the beautiful flowers.

Unfortunately, but obviously, they all started to fade away and have now all had to be thrown out (I do still have my bouquet though, hanging up in the airing cupboard as a little experiment... more in another post!).  Luckily, I did salvage a few fairly fresh blooms and a bit of foliage to attempt to press.

Now, I haven't pressed flowers since I had a tiny little press as a child so I did a little bit of research until I thought... "Whatever, it's just flattening them right?"  I bought some blotting paper from Ryman and sliced up lots of old newspaper.

I'm not really much of an expert on flowers or plants (outside the house anyway!) so I'm not sure of the names of any of the bits I chose to try and press; there was definitely a rose in there though!

I read a few things on the internet, after giving up on my mum's rather 70s flower pressing book, about pressing before getting started.  A particularly interesting nugget was separating the petals and the head of the flower before pressing. I'm pretty sure 'head' isn't the correct term, but after Google image searching flower anatomy I was none the wiser; I also didn't really want to write 'flower ovary' either. Hence I did a whole purple flower and separate one.  I also did the same with some roses and other flowers.  I even did individual stamens from some (I knew that one!).

I put the flowers between two sheets of blotting paper and used sheets of newspaper between these.  For the 'pressing' part I managed to salvage two old dictionaries from my parents' garage before they went to the charity shop which are not as heavy as I remember but I'm hoping they do the job.  It's all stacked in the corner of my room now and I have managed to not look at what is happening for ten days!

Here's hoping for good results in a few weeks when I see how they have got on!

Sophie and Andy's Wedding Card

My lovely younger sister, Sophie, got married to my now brother-in-law, Andy, last week.

It was a beautiful day in April and everything went perfectly! Well, if you exclude our dad forgetting to toast the happy couple in his speech.

Due to the 'life upset' I've had recently (understatement of the year! lol) a lot of my crafting supplies have ended up in storage.  This includes the majority of my papercraft supplies and art materials... disaster!

I also haven't been as on the ball as I would like to be with cards and presents for any occasion.

It's a few days before the wedding and I haven't got a card... panic stations, especially as I felt I wanted to do something nice for Soph.

In the end I bought a ready made A5 card and envelope from Paperchase and also some handmade paper with leaves and petals.  In the supplies that aren't in storage I found some white and ivory lace.  I used this with some fine silver glitter I happened to also have.  I finished it off with some pencil shading on the lace and a few hand drawn silver gel pen hearts.

The phone camera photo doesn't quite show all the details but I was really pleased with the overall effect and look forward to using the rest of the handmade paper for future projects!

The first post

This is my first post so I can see how things look on the older bloggeroni