Portraits of a man

It's good to set yourself some photography challenges.
I like little targets. Little markers. I like challenges.
I challenged myself to shoot in black and white in camera. Not changing the colour afterwards.

Shooting. without. colour.

I have tried this before and it still amazes me how when the colour goes, the whole tone of the photo changes. Suddenly. It is one man and the details of his face and a whole lot of photos that I can't get enough of!

I enjoyed my little challenge. Can't say that the boy did as much!

What photography challenge will you/have you taken up? How about trying black and white? Black and white is perfect for low light settings too. Give it a go!

Thanks for stopping by.

Tutorial- Handbag book

Hi

Another post from my little series- Hope you are enjoying it!

Today I am going to share how to make a little notebook to put in your handbag. I always find I need a piece of paper or a pen when I am out and about and can never find one. I resort to scribbling on the backs of crumpled receipts. This little book fits neatly in the zip pocket and comes with a pencil! Win, win!

Disclaimer: This is NOT a bookbinding tutorial. I am not that clever. If you want to see some fab bookbinding visit my dear friend Lizzie. 

Supplies:
2 free printable chevron journaling spots from here printed on card.
1 piece of coloured card stock
5 or so sheets of plain white A4 paper.
Sewing machine (although you could sew by hand)
2 eyelets.
1 small elastic hair tie (one without the metal bit!)

Approx cost:
Most of the stuff you will probably have to hand. At most £3.

1. Print off the beautiful chevron journaling spots onto A4 paper. The journaling spots need to be touching so you can cut them out as one long piece like this.

2. Back your chevron with coloured card stock.

3. This isn't compulsory but I think it looks nice. Zig-zag stitch the edge of your chevron card. It helps to have the foot half on and half off the card so the zig-zags go around the edge holding the card together.

4. Cut your white paper into strips. The strips need to be approx half an inch smaller each side than the chevron cover. It is totally up to you how many strips to put in. Remember they will be folded in half so each strip is two pages. It really depends how much you think your sewing machine can cope with!

5. Fold your chevron cover in half and your white paper stack in half. Open up the cover again and place your white paper inside holding it in place with two pegs.

6. Turn the book over so the chevrons are one top. Zig zag stitch down the middle crease you made. Do this a few times to secure the pages to the book.

7. Fold the whole book in half again. You should now have a little spine.

8. Set an eyelet in the front and back of the covers of the book so they line up.

9. Decorate your front cover as you wish! I kept mine simple with just a small sticker.

10. Now, this is the fun bit. You were wondering about that elastic band weren't you!? Cut the hair tie so it is no longer in a loop. Thread it through the front eyelet and then the back. This holds the book closed. Make a loose knot at the BACK of the book to hold it shut.

11. The front of your book should now have some elastic showing. This should be big enough to push a small pencil through and hold it in place. I know. Genius! I was amazed at my own brilliance I can tell you! (Joking.)

There you have it. One small book ready to hold all those shopping lists!

Thanks for stopping by

Ten on the tenth

Hi

Today I am joining in with Shimelle's ten things.

For my ten things this month I took my camera for a walk around my house at my favourite time of day. I was looking for any picture with great shadow or light/dark contrast. It is so fun to do a little photo walk like this with a theme.

It didn't take me long to find these ten shots as the sun sank lower and the shadows grew longer...

Do pop over to Shimelles blog to find more collections of ten!
Thanks for stopping by.

Tutorial- Knitted Cowl

Hi

Today's post is again from my Student Makes series- creating on a budget!

I am shortly going to be heading way up north (and by north I mean miles and miles, practically scotland). Therefore I figured I needed to invest in some winter woolies.

Anyway back to the point. I decided to knit myself up a cowl and want to share with you how I did it because it is a great accessory and didn't cost much...

*I am a very basic knitter so please take my feeble instructions with a pinch of salt!*

Supplies: 
100g  DK cream/ivory/white wool
100g DK flecked wool (any colour- it doesn't have to be flecked either, a solid would look good too).
4.5mm needles.

Approx. cost:
£3.00 for wool
Knitting needles already to hand.

A cowl, simply put, is a scarf where both ends are joined together to make a loop. In my opinion far easier to tuck into a coat and with none of that annoyance that comes with dangly and unwinding scarfs.

The cowl is knit with two strands of yarn at all times. Just hold your cream and coloured yarns together and pretend they are one. MAKE SURE the needle goes under both when you are knitting. The cream and coloured held together will create this lovely flecked, natural effect.

1. Cast on 36 stitches.

2. The whole cowl is done in garter stitch. Knit every row. This creates that lovely wavy pattern. It's also very easy to sit in front of the tv with. Nothing too complicated over here!

3. Keep knitting until you reached the desired length. At this stage it looks like a scarf I know but you will join up the ends eventually. A good way to check the length is to wrap the cowl around your neck. It shouldn't be too tight. Loose enough to pull over your head but snug enough to keep your neck warm.

4. When you are happy with the length cast off. Grab a darning needle and using ladder stitch (or something similar) sew the casted-on end and the casted-off ends together to create a loop. Sew in any loose yarns.

5. Turn your cowl inside out so the stitching up is on the inside.

6. To wear,grab each side of your cowl, give it a few twists and pop on over your head.

NB: this could be knitted on circular needles to save the sewing up. I am not skilled enough for this! 

Enjoy!

Golden September afternoon

I love this time of year when Summer is drawing to a close, when the lazy mellow days turn into the frantic busy ones as school starts up again. When there is a bite in the air and an expectancy for new things. Mostly I love those september afternoons when even after a day of rain the sun dips and bleeds across the sky.

My desk faces the west and each evening I enjoy an hour or so where my walls are striped in purple, the shadows lengthen and the darkness starts to seep into the room. September is a truly magical month.

Tutorial- Instagram wall art

Hi friends

Today's post is part of my student makes series.

If you are a regular around here you will know that Instagram is a favourite of mine.
I love the photo sharing, I love the filters but I don't love having my pictures stuck on my phone.

I wanted to display them in some way but knew that they weren't the best quality to print out big. Therefore I printed them small and made a quick wall display...

Supplies needed: 
Instagram photos (As many as you like)
2 pieces of white A3 mount board or similar

Approx. Cost:
£4.00 to get 64 instagram photos (incl. postage)
£1.50 for 2 pieces of mount board.

1.To get my instagrams to a good size to print I started by creating some mini collages. I used pic monkey for this and simply used a four square grid and plugged my photos in.

I saved each collage I made into a separate folder.

2.To keep costs down I always order my photos online. The photos are great quality. There are some good deals out there if you keep your eyes peeled. I use photobox. I think I am right in saying that if you are a new customer they will give you free prints.

I uploaded each collage to the photo box site and selected the 4x6 prints. It is really important that you select the button scale to fit. It will centre the collage in the middle, so you will have some white space, but it does mean that your instagrams will be nice and square!

Because there are four instagrams on one photo as it were, the cost is very little. I think I only ordered 16 photos but that came to 64 instagrams. Bargain!

3. Once the photos arrived I trimmed them to their respective size, leaving a white border on each.

I wanted something clean and simple to display them on so picked up two A3 sheets of mount board. mount board is thicker than card but quite light so brilliant for taking to uni. It was also cheap!

4. I arranged the instagram photos into a grid. This is totally down to preference. I like this graphic way of displaying them but arranged in clusters could look really nice as well.

5. Once I was happy with the design I carefully glued each down with a dab of pritt-stick, making sure each photo was flush with the next. I wanted my design to run from one page to the next so made sure the photos all lined up.

6. Because I am a scrapper and because I can't bear not to include some pretty paper I added a strip to each page! I then added a simple caption to each side.

Simple and easy and cheap! The mount board is sturdy enough to stand up against a bookshelf but light enough to be blue tacked to a wall!

Enjoy!

The Student Makes- creating on a budget

Hi

Drum roll please, I am excited to start a new little blogging series....

I thought it would be fun to share four or so tutorials over the course of the next few weeks which can be made on a budget.

One of the things I have been battling with before I head off to uni is how to decorate and create things for my new place with a small amount of money. Crafting can be expensive but compared to buying things new it is comparatively cheap.

I thought it would be fun to share a few of the things I have made with very few resources in the hope that it may give you some inspiration! Maybe you don't have extra pennies to spend on craft stuff, maybe you know someone heading off to college or starting a new home who would appreciate a handmade item. Or maybe you just want a quick tutorial!

If so stop by tomorrow for my first tutorial with some instagram magic!