Feeling Green

In celebration of St Patricks day this fortnights challenge over at the Octopode Factory is green. For this I decided to do a simple tag using The Mad Hatter digi for my Irish fellow.

In true green and Irish spirit for the background I cut out a stencil of a shamrock and used crushed olive to make it noticeable.

The tag is very green and very St Patricks day and I hope you enjoy it.

After created this I had to do an ATC for a swap I joined and because I was in such a green mood even the themed wizard of oz atc ended up having this theme to.

Go check out the other inspirations from other DT Members and go enter her your green themed card it doesn't have to have the theme of St Patricks day just as long as it features green. To enter go visit Lilys' blog and the lucky winner will receive 3 digis free from her etsy shop. Have fun everyone!

ATC's

Here is just a couple of atcs I have made over the past few days

Alice in Wondeland Atc

I decided to join a swap through ukscrappers with the theme of Alice in Wonderland and obviously I couldn't resist. So here is my design for the group I am in

Hope people like them.

Wizard of Oz atcs and printing

This week has just been hecktic. I have being planning what paper to print my final images on for the summer show and hand in along with making some atcs for a private swap while still trying to find time in the day for myself. Firstly my atcs. Because my partner likes wizard of oz and loved my last wizard of oz atc she asked to see if I could send her four atcs in a similar style. Obviously they had to be Octopode images so here is the four I have sent her.

I really love my tinman and the lion is just too cute! Plus here is the ones she sent me. A little dark and creepy but I love them! I love weird and wonderful things.

Aswell as making atcs this week I have been busy planning what paper to print on getting buisness cards sorted etc and I finally have everything figured out. Here is just some test strips I have been doing

Sadly in the pictured they all look the same but trust me in person they are all different. I finally stuck with my original printing technique and they printed big! And I mean big well 24'x24' but that is still pretty big to me! I forgot to take a picture of them before mounting but when they do I will have a picture uploaded to the web of them in the art space I have been given. I have also forgotten to mention that tomorrow I have a one hour trial working at a cafe which then might lead into a job so fingers crossed and I will hopefully remember to blog tomorrow to tell people what it was like. It is only a saturday job but at the moment it is something and with Georges wages on there own they can easily pay for a flat and bills and I can spend my wages on food for us. That is something I have also forgotten to mention. Me and George have been flat hunting around Hereford. So far we have seen a couple of places and we are now waiting to view another property that is yet to be ready.

Sorry this is such a quick post. I can't remember if I posted but my new website is now live at and I would love to get peoples opinions.

Emails, emails and more emails!

I have been making a lot of phone calls along with emailing places today trying to plan locations for my vintage inspired photoshoot I have planned. I did ring the Black Country Museum today which would have been perfect however it costed a little bit too much after adding on petrol cost and time. Owell at least I have a few other places I can look into photographing around such as Ascot Farm and maybe even Ironbridge if I feel it is the right venue. Enough about university work I have been constantly thinking about it all day as I have a shoot planned this saturday and I am just hoping the weather will hold out. *fingers crossed* Time for a break from the uni work by letting you know what I have been up to. I have been trying to crafting into my busy schedule this past weekend and I made at atc for a swap I joined through swapbot.

This is a stamp designed my The Octopode Factory of Dorothy. At first I didn't like it as the yellow brick road and the sky wasn't working plus my white gel pen decided to be a bit of a pain. But I keep looking at it and have been given a few compliments about it and I am falling in love with it! It makes me want to watch the film again as well. About 4 years ago I used to have a pair of red sparkly shoes they I constantly wore to secondary school and the amount of times I got called Dorothy because of them. It was heartbreaking to throw them in the bin.

This weekend as well has had a few more birthday surprises to. They just keep coming and it is now May! Anyway from my housemates I got a book on how to make some cakepops which I will be attempting in the next fortnight. It has to be done and I will remember to blog about them.

I also received some silicon heart shaped cupcake moulds and some lolly sticks for the cakepops. When I visited my mates house on Saturday I also received a couple more gifts which was this lovely box in which I need to find somewere for in my uni room as I am running out of space. I also received a lovely ceramic thermal mug saying my favourite saying and the title of my final photographic work 'Keep Calm and Carry On'

Have you ever received presents a couple of weeks after your brithday? I must admit I loved it personally.

Pixar atcs

This weekend I have been busy making some Pixar themed ATCs. I would have drawn the characters but I didn't really have time sadly but I hope my partner will like these





Since Saturday I have been a little bit busy what with trying to get my dissertation as seen as it is due in 3 weeks and I have another 2,400 words to write before I hit the minimum so I better get working on it. Sorry for short post everyone.

Weekend Plans 17/02- 18/02

I got this idea off of One Sheepish girl and thought it was a good idea. So here it goes my plans for the weekend

Basically it is a lot of work. I saw the Alice through the visual arts book at the Tate when I went to London. And I'm so glad they had it in my uni library. However, I am tempted to buy the book now it is so good. I highly recommend for any Alice In Wonderland fan out there. I will also be reading the bloody chamber recommended by my tutor as to help me out with my next and final photographic project fingers crossed.

During breaks from the work I will also be trying to do some posting of recent atcs like my next woodland creatures one along with making some more atcs and having a go at doing altered dominoes.

Although my dominos are slightly smaller than normal so will be making a couple instead of just the one. Of course the dominos have an alice in wonderland theme. I've gone alice mad again just like I did this time last year I believe. It must just be this month.

Before I forget my boyfriend hasn't been feeling well so I have been trying to make him feel better and being the lovely girlfriend I am. Well even though he still isn't 100% he came round today with some flowers. My Favourite ones!

So may bright colours in that photo! The roses in the glass are from valentines day. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, I better get back to my reading and writing.

London and Swaps

Wow! last week was such a busy week. I took a trip down to London with uni to see a few exhibitions. The V&A had some pretty good work. I didn't take many photographs apart from on my Diana f+ which I still haven't used up the film but I only have some night time pictures from mine and Georges walk down southbank.



While I was in London I decided to stop at my nans for a bit as well as it is always nice to see her and my uncle and see how they are getting on. Because I didn't get back till Thursday I had lots of things to do. I had a few atcs I needed to make and post.


They are not the best I've made I must admit but it was tricky and I think I probably won't do something like these again. I also decided to be part of a Wonderland Tea Party Swap which just screamed at me! We had a budget of £5 to create a Alice in wonderland themed box. I actually spent a little bit more on my partner but here is the things she will be receiving

Tea Cup
2 Notebooks
Some cupcake cases
3 types of fruit tea
Mushroom sharpener/eraser (I have one of these in blue)
Handmade necklace and bracelet

I hope she enjoys them. I enjoyed putting them together. Each wrapped with its own little Alice in Wonderland saying. I was wrapping these while watching the Disney animation.


Apart from swaps and London I have just been trying to get my dissertation done. Sadly I'm only just over 2000 words and its a 6000-8000 word essay due in 4 weeks! But I did have to start again.

Excuses

As usual my reason for my late blogging (2 weeks to be precise) is because of getting work done. Especially as my deadline was on Thursday last week and these past couple of days I have just been resting up.

My photographic work I have been doing recently has been looking at how forests are used within fairytales as forests could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. As well as handing in the 8 images I had I also decided to add in a book as well to go with my work the day before hand in. Trust me and overall I feel the book worked better than the series of images as there was far too many and lacked a narrative were as the book did.


I tried to make it look like it was my fairies by raiding the garden for some leaves etc plus it gave me a chance to experiment with the new distress stains and distress inks I have received recently.

After finally getting my work done I have been making quite a few atcs and entering a couple of swaps so here is the variety of atcs I have made



The cupcake drawing on the atc was something I designed myself but did have a little help from the octopode factorys version of her 'Eat Me' Cupcake design. I don't really have a favourite out of these three but I am enjoying the racoon as he was a new stamp I received for xmas.

Here is also a couple of birthday cards I've made since the beginning of this month. The robots is my dads and the cupcake one is my mate Cottias card.


Fingers crossed I will keep blogging regularly.

Atcs, Birmingham and photo shoot

On friday I went to Birmingham with my friend Cottia and it was great! We went first down to the cow vintage warehouse so she could get some clothes for her photography shoot. It was fun looking at all the wacky dresses and at such good prices. I picked up this dress from there for £4 originally from America.

I didn't realize till after I brought it it had the tag 'all that jazz' which I thought was pretty ironic. While in Birmingham we also did some generalized shopping. I picked up this lovely jumper from forever 21 which I always avoided because I thought it was expensive when it actually isn't. This jumper only cost me £13 and its really good quality.

We also took a visit to Yo!Sushi which both of us haven't been to before and we both had some lovely vegetarian meals then for afters a Krispe Kreame doughnut. I don't know were they have been all my life as I have never had one before until that friday. YUM!

Apart from Birmingham I have been busy going on photographic shoots while also making some atcs for a recent swap I'm in. We had to make 2 atcs for one partner one featuring a vintage mickey another the more modern mickey. I must admit I was a little stuck on it but I think they turned out all right in the end.


On Monday cottia need some help in the studio and I was her substitute model to practice with. I tried on the 60s dress and the 80s and well here is just the 80s picture.

I loved the shoot and as much as I didn't think the dress would suit me, it actually does! I know I'm not very 80s apart from the dress but it was only a practice shoot.

Sorry for the quick post but I have to get back to doing some of my dissertation work =( its hard to juggle life and uni work together.

Vintage, Autumn and Halloween

Just as the title states I'm going to chat about these catagories starting with Vintage

Vintage

As read in previous posts I went to a Hereford Vintage Festival a couple of weeks back. It was very small but everything was really resonably priced. There was a few dresses that I was tempted to buy but I thought I better not as I have an issue with vintage dresses not fitting me so didn't want to waste my money. However I did buy 2 lovely scarves that I can wear in my hair


They are planning on doing another one in April and fingers crossed I will still be in Hereford as I break up around then for the easter holidays.

Also last week when I went to York there was another vintage fair. I'm sure they are following me which is a good thing for me but not for my bank account. Anyways from there I brought a up-cycled skirt and my boyfriend George brought me this very cute compass ring which sadly doesn't work but it is still such a cute item.



Autumn

I previously was part of an autumnal swap and I received back my packages and both of them was lovely. Americans love autumn and Halloween and you can just tell by these lovely gifts.






Everytime I kept pulling out a new item more fabric and glitter leaves would come with it. It was like autumn in doors for me. I'm hoping to make the leaves into a little garland or something just to show more of my love for autumn.

Halloween

Again more swaps I've been part of this time a halloween atc swap and here is my one with a very cute little mort.


I love this stamp! I should really buy my own though instead of stealing my mums every now and again.

Other
Next week a lot will be happening and I will try and do some pre planned blog posts tomorrow. Its Georges birthday on wednesday so I will be out celebrating that but I will also try and have a halloween themed week of blog posts. Friday I am hoping to start a craze called folksy friday so if anyone has any spooky halloween items please let me know.