Diary DIY

Hi All

Just back from a lovely leave out weekend at home. It was great to just chill after the last few manic weeks of revision and exam. The exam in case you are wondering went well. Cross fingers I get a good enough mark though!

It was so nice to be able to scrap the last few days without being interupted with work! I also had a lovely new box of scrapbook supplies waiting!

I have been wanting a diary for some time now. One, to keep me on track and two as a place to keep those important pieces of paper. However hard I searched though, there were never any nice ones. So, I bit the bullet and decided to create my own. It actually was very straightforward, with the added bonus that I could make my diary how I wanted it to be ! I started it with February (yes it would have been a better project for the new year!) all the way up to the end of the school year.

So.. How to make it.

1. Take your choice of notebook. I found this lovely square black one in my local craft store. It has nice thick pages and a hard cover. I  guess for added craftiness you could make your own!

I then covered the front with a mini patchwork. Very simple. Cut squares and rectangles out of material and sew them together so they fit the cover. Neaten the patchwork quilt with bias binding and then stick on with very strong glue. I also added letter stickers to mine.

Sorry, the colours have turned out a bit strange! I wanted the cover to be soft but also strong and wearable.

2. Decide what your page layout is going to be. I decided on the days monday to saturday with three per page. I also created a side column  so I could write a bible verse or note.

I wanted my diary to be nice and neat so drew in the lines for each day but printed out the days and then cut and stuck them in. Fiddly but worth it!

3.I wanted my diary to have a bit of scrappy loveliness so I left a blank page at the start of every month so I could have a nice header.

You can decorate this anyway you want. My only rule was not to use too many bulky embellishments as then it is difficult to write.

4. I wanted my diary to serve more than just the purpose of keeping track of the days. I created this note section at the back with blank pages so I can jot down things wherever I am.

5.Right at the back I added two small bull dog clips which hold lots of mini photos.

6.Finally, I decorated the inside covers with strips of my lomo contact sheet. I think it adds a little quirky touch!

All in all it was very simple to make and really good fun. Almost too nice to write in now! ha ha!

Hope you have all had a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Loves xxxx

Crafty room

Hi

I'm sorry, I went a bit AWOL! Start of term is always manic and getting back into a routine takes some getting used to after wakes up at 10am in the holidays!

So the term started pretty well. Thrown back into work with a vengance! I have an exam in 9 days time so am revising for that. It is an A2 rather than a re-sit so hopefully if I get a good enough mark that is one less to do in the summer. Cross fingers!

My favourite sport rowing has started this term which is fab! It has rained non stop since we have been back though so the river is very very high. Not much chance of actually coxing then! Instead I help with coaching new rowers, practicing calls on ergo tests and basically being miss motivator!

So... I thought I would post a few pictures of my home touches in my room. Some I made at home, some I made at school. When you are boarding its really important to try and make school feel as homely as possible. As I can't do much crafting at school, I figured I could just fill my room with pretty crafty stuff...

At the end of last term I got really into making these origami peace cranes. They are very easy and very addictive. They would probably look better in pretty scrapbook paper but that was not on hand! i strung them together with cotton and hang them up to float in the breeze by my window. There is a great tutorial here.

I showed these flowers a few posts back. They are so simple to make by layering up circles of paper and then scrunching them. I put a brad through each one and then twisted them around this beautiful twill measuring tape. They hang off my bookshelf.

My creative outlet at school is knitting, This chunky wool is so lovely. I am trying to make a cowl to wear as the weather stays cool. Its knitted on huge needles so should be finished reasonably quickly!

Little touches that make my room mine! I thought just briefly I would also share my latest purchase..

They were a bargin at £10! I bought them for my spring ball (which isn't actually in the spring!) to go with this which was also in the sale...

That is as much as a clue as I am giving now! You will have to wait for the night to see full pictures of the boy and I all dressed in our finery!

Hope you have all had a lovely week. Thanks for stopping by!

Loves xxxx

Lomo Fish eye

Hi

Back to school today so just a quick post. The other day my photos I took on my new lomo camera came back. Rather than buy them as prints, I bought them on a CD. That way I can edit them, resize them and most importantly post them on here!

There is a tool on the camera where you can multiple expose to get crazy things like this!

They came out great-some really strange- but all with that cool lomo effect. Awesome

Got to go pack now. Grrr...Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxx

Snow Layouts

Hi all

I know there haven't been many posts recently but I have been at the boys house. It was epic. Three days of no internet ( he lives in the middle of nowhere!), laughs, smiles and plenty of cuddles. Lush to just enjoy each others company outside of the school mahem.

 So.. this holiday my mojo really came back and with some lovely new supplies and I I have made several layouts. I'm going to share two of my favourites. Both have pictures of us in the snow but I tried to move away from the typical "snow" colours and christmas. As a result, they document the fun we had rather than the fact that there was snow. So...

This picture was so cute so I edited it in Picnik to get a vintage feel to it. That was really the basis for my layout. I stuck to a fairly neutal pallette starting with the lovely embossed cardstock. I don't often use large pieces of patterned paper so this was a fun challenge for me taken from a sketch. I loved the checked paper from October afternoon but wanted to grunge it up so I sanded the edges, punched holes down one side and then cut into it to make it look like notepaper.

I have been wanting to use the large tag for ages and it looked great poking up from the picture. I then added a collection of embellishments on the right, with handmade flowers, cut outs, chipboard and ribbon. I also found in my stash a lovely hambly lace overlay which I think I have falled in love with. It gave just another detail on the vertical paper.

This has turned out to be my favourite layout for a long time. I decided to really let the picture stand out so kept the layout minimal. The patchwork idea I took directly from a sketch. It was very easy to do as I chose double sided paper from the same company so they coordinated. This was a layout where the sewing machine really got a work out! I stiched all the patchwork together, the border and the butterflies.

The large letters pull the design from being too linear. At this stage the layout looked good but not finished. I therefore cut out several butterflies and circled the title. I then had the mad idea of using small circles as a border. Sticking them on took forever! A few strips of patterned paper and ribbons complete the layout.

I loved making these two so hopefully a few more layouts will come soon. Back to school on sunday. grrrr a few more posts till then though including some of my lomo shots that came back from the printer today! epic!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxxxx

Favourite photos of 2010-part 3

Happy New Year!

Wow! 2011. This is going to be a big year for me. I finish school, start my gap year, get my A2 results and figure out where I am going to go to uni! scary but very exciting!

So...this is the last part of my run through of the pictures of the year. Hope you have enjoyed it.

The end of a school year and cooking week. I am proud to say I made this cake on my own including the rose! Not so sure if i would still be able to make it now though!

Another candid picture. Love snapping these and I like the angle on this one.

Shimelle's class. LYPLYP. I met so many people, had fun taking loads of photos and really relaxed after a lot of exams!

Over the summer we went to a history live day. The littlest loved playing with a collection of weapons! I really like the depth of field on this picture.

More pictures from Shimelle's class. This was the hardest challenge for me. Shooting out of my comfort zone. I decided to therefore shoot in black and white and try and not take pictures of people.  So hard!

Our amazing summer holiday to Washington D.C. I have literally hundreds of pictures of this amazing and very hot place but thought I would just share two.

Outside our rented house. Houses in America are huge!

A highlight of the holidays. Soul survivor. 5 days of camping, worshiping and praising God. Epic. Photo credit to the boys dad!

Start of a new school year and the biggest change of all. Head girl and a wealth of responsibility! It was so weird going back to school and knowing it was the last year. So far it has been great fun, very tiring but so rewarding as well.

I can't remember when I took this picture but it is one of my favourites from a great photo shoot!

Autumn fast approached and this is a favourite of my parents together.

Another favourite that for a while became my blog header. The Autumn light just can't be beaten.

We found a rope swing quite near our house and I have a whole folder of pictures of us swinging on it! Great fun!

And so we got to December, frost snow and christmas.

Can't wait to do this in a years time and see what pictures come up! Thanks for stopping by.

Loves xxxxx

Favourite photos of 2010- part 2

Happy Friday

Sorry there was no post yesterday. We had a little shopping trip into Oxford. Managed to purchase the longed for boots! he he! Will share pictures at a later date! Back to the photos!

One of my all time favourite pictures of my Mama. Taken at Easter last year. So candid and beautiful.

Love this girl to pieces. My mini-me. She was in her first year of secondary school and we struck up such a close friendship when she was a tad homesick. We are still so close and its lovely to see her growing up as I am about to leave school.

So many pictures of me and this lovely lady! This is one of my favs, mainly because the height difference makes me laugh!

Rowing camp in France over the easter holiday. It was such a laugh and so tiring. We had so much fun though rowing on an amazing river and spending time with amazing people! This picture makes me smile so much. Love the expressions.

The boy and an f-stop of 1.4 = dreamy eyes and soft focus! LOVE.

I laugh out loud when I see this picture. I gave the boy my camera to play around with. It had a fized 50mm lens with manual focus. Claiming his pictures would be fantastic he proceeded to take this photo focusing on the hedge rather than the intended car. I think it was slightly harder than he imagined! he still however claims this picture is "artistic"! ha ha!

The littlest brother on his birthday photo shoot I insisted he had! One of my all time favourites of him.

I treasure this picture because it captures such a special week. This is Rasha my lebanese exchange friend. She is a beautiful women living in a part of the world that isn't very safe. We had so much in common and she introduced me to so many lebanese traditions. One day I hope we can meet again.

The trip to Cambridge uni. The application didn't happen in the end but it was a fab day out visiting a lovely place.

Finishing with the boy and my favourite picture of the two of us. Leavers ball 2010. photo credit to our medical sister who takes incredible pictures!

Final installment tomorrow. New years day!

Hope everyone has a fab new years eve. Bring on 2011!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxxxx

Favourite photos of 2010- part 1

Hi This post is something I did last year and really enjoyed! I want to share some of my favourite photos of 2010 over the next few posts! Its so nice to just look back at the last year!

Got to start with the boy! This was taken in the first few days of January last year. I know its badly focused and seriously grainy, but the eyes, the smile....the guitar! Enough said!

Last January we got a lot of snow. I used this picture in my photography AS portfolio. It was a spur of the moment picture where I decided to get lower on the ground and it turned out fab!

This isn't a fantastic picture. It was taken on a trip to london. I just love the concept through. The photos are fab, the colours and the layout with the heart. Still waiting to use this on a LO.

A visit to the royal opera house. We got to try on lots of hats and parts of costumes! It was such fun! Love this picture of the littlest. He looks very dapper!

The hardest but most rewarding photo of 2010! I wanted to capture flying water for my photography portfolio! After countless rubbish shots, one broken glass and very wet trousers i finally got this one. In the final edited version I edited out the football!

I love these photos of this beautiful young lady. It was a perfect day to snap some shots and work out my new lens.

THE funniest photo of 2010! The facial expression says it all!

A rare shot of the boys together.

So... before your computer crashes with an excess of photos, I will stop! Thanks for stopping by. Pop back tomorrow for the next installment!

Loves xxx