Things I’ve Done
Today…
Tonight I saw this film and it was as good as I’d hoped! I had a sneaking feeling it would be good coz films starring Michael Cera usually are. I love this kind of film coz boys like them too, much less painful than all the energy put into persuading your boyfriend to watch a chick flick! When it comes to films I’m not gonna lie, I am so into my chick flicks, but I also love smaller British films, there’s always something so nice about the way they’re filmed and it’s like they really concentrate on making the way it’s filmed different and interesting coz they don’t have the huge Hollywood budgets for all those special effects.
Charlotte Jane x
Home Is Where The <3 Is
Over the Christmas holidays we were set a photography project called ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ and we had to take pictures to do with home…I took pictures of all the random bits and pieces that are around my home, after all it’s these little things that make it ‘home’!
Oh, and baby me…
Charlotte Jane x
Polyvore
For those of you who’ve not yet discovered Polyvore you really should! They have a ton of pictures of cute clothes and stuff and you can make sets like this (this is my first attempt!) I wish I had all these clothes, I’d wear them tomorrow and it would make getting out of bed a lot easier! Uni in the morning so I’m off to sleep now.
Sweet dreams, Charlotte Jane x
Wonderland <3
I am loving these adorable ‘Alice In Wonderland’ themed photoshoots…here are a couple of my attempts from a project I did last year.
The movie is out Friday 5th March (UK), how excited is everyone?! Pretty damn excited I expect!
New York, New York!
New York was amazing, like 100% amazing, I wish I could go back already (except I spent ALL my money there!)
Lush cupcakes! The chocolate one was from Babycakes (248 Broome St, New York, NY 10002, USA) which is the most adorable little cupcake shop, so I almost feel bad to say the Red Velvet on from Starbucks tasted better, the frosting was so yummy.
Eating pancakes for breakfast everyday was the best, I’m sure gonna miss Aunt Jemima’s syrup!
Shopping in NY is awesome, shame the exchange rate ain’t what it used to be but oh well! When I get round to unpacking my wonderful purchases I’m sure some photos of them will find their way onto my blog!
The cutest little display inside Forever 21 (I officially LOVE this store!) this photo doesn’t show it off to the best, but all the butterflies are made from book pages…it’s so pretty! I would have taken photos of more but the big, scary security guard told my friend off for taking photos and I didn’t want him to make me delete the one I already had.
Me and the boy on top of the world <3 (well the Rockefeller at least!) I don’t know what I would have done without him to hold my hand on the plane, I am so scared of flying!
Anywho, that’s all for now, I’m off to sleep off the jet lag!
Charlotte Jane x
Illustration Workshop
Yesterday we had an illustration workshop at uni, it was all just taking it in turns to ‘model’ and doing quick one min sketches of the person. I used a technique I’d not used before which was to ink up the paper with quink ink then using a dip pen in bleach draw with the bleach, I love the effect of this! I then used a black felt pen to get the darker bits on the jeans and hat- not bad for a minute’s work! It’s not really what I’d call my ‘usual style’ when it comes to illustration, but it’s fun experimenting.
x
Polka Dot Nails
I gave myself a cute little polka dot manicure last night using Barry M 66 (white) & 296 (coral). I think Barry M nail polish is amazing, it always has a really vibrant colour after just one coat and it only costs £2.95 a bottle!
The collection of Barry M so far, I really want to buy a pale blue/ turquoise one soon for spring time. I might be going to Egypt at Easter, I’m mega excited, I really hope I do!
Today has got off to a good start after my early night and the fact I didn’t have to wake up until 10 (really not a morning person!) also I made a simply lush cuppa this morning, love it when that happens! Hope everyone has a great day.
Charlotte Jane x
A weekend with the fam <3
I had a lovely time this weekend, went back home to see Cinderella pantomime (starring my stepdad as the Baron!) and spent some time with my family. It’s so nice being in a house where I get fed and don’t have to wash up, oh, and a house which is nice and warm throughout the winter, amazing!
(Nan’s knitting needles)
On Friday night my friend Abby came over and we attempted to learn to crochet so we could make some cute hair bows I saw on this blog. My Nan gave me an old book with lots of crochet instructions in, I’m sure my boyfriend would be thrilled with this lovely crochet tie!
Saturday morning I made some yummy lemon cupcakes so we could have tea and cake when all the family arrived. I don’t tend to use recipes for my cupcakes, I just use a basic sponge recipe my Nan taught me years ago…weigh the eggs first then make sure everything else weighs the same, easy! For this batch I used 3 large eggs which made 20 cupcakes. To make them lemony I added the zest of 1 lemon into the mix and a few drops of the juice, then a few more drops of juice to the icing.
I had a horrible journey back to my University house, but this lovely little package put a smile on my face once I was home…
My new Lazy Oaf sail boat tee, only cost me a tenner in the sale, bargain! I was extremely tempted by the lovely sailor sweatshirt too but thought I better save my pennies, off to The Big Apple at the end of the month.
Oh, and if you’re going to do one thing today (other than read my blog) download Elviin’s new single ‘Good Books’ from iTunes, it’s immense…I currently have it on repeat!
Hope everyone has a lovely week,
Charlotte Jane x
Badges
My Mum found these little beauts I made when I was a kid…you can tell I was always destined for great things in the art world!
Some of my badges in a dish…I like this photo.
<3
Also, I massively want a badge maker now but good ones are so pricey!
Making paper in 10 steps…
I’ve been home for a few days over reading week and while I was back home Mummy taught me how to make paper/ recycle paper…we took photos of each stage as she needs to make a handout for her Foundation Art & Design class, so I thought I’d do a little tutorial on here. Never made paper before so I won’t be using any technical terms, hopefully will be nice and easy for everyone to understand.
Have fun
x
You will need:
Paper (duh!) this will be the base colour
Sieve (can be easily handmade from a wooden frame with a net curtain stretched over it)- The size of the frame will be the maximum size your paper will be.
Trough for water (it will need to be able to easily fit the sieve in)
Food processor
J cloths
Iron
Magazines & Newspapers (if desired)
***If you’d like to view the pictures to go with the steps they’re on my flickr page, they’re in the ‘Making Paper’ set***
Step 1.
Tear up the paper into pieces roughly the size of a postage stamp. (They don’t have to be neat!)
Step 2.
Put the paper into your average household food processor and fill it about 1/3 with water.
Step 3.
Blend it until it’s all mushy- you can play around with different consistencies to get slightly different textures with the same paper.
Step 4.
Pour into a ‘trough’ of water…basically it needs to be fairly shallow and a bit bigger than your average washing up bowl, I suppose you could use a bath or kitchen sink as long as you don’t wash the unused paper down the plughole (and I’m not paying the plumbers bill if you block your drain!)
Step 5.
Mix it all up a bit and use the sieve to fish the paper out, the more paper you catch the thicker your made paper will be.
Step 6.
Put the sieve paper side down onto a j cloth and use a dry j cloth to rub over the sieve and soak up water, then peel the sieve off. If pieces have stayed on the sieve it might be because your cloth was a bit too damp, so wring it out and rub over that area again.
Step 7.
Here’s where you can play around with different colours and pictures, you can get some nice two tone effects by repeating the steps 1-5 with another colour and then putting over the base sheet of paper in a pattern, stripes are always nice. You can also tear pages from magazines etc and press them gently onto the wet sheet of paper (you’ll need to put a light coating of paper mush around the edges of these pictures using the sieve to make them stay one once it’s all dry).
Step 8.
Leave to dry for a couple of hours. A good way to dispose of the trough of water is to pour in through the sieve so the water goes down the plughole and go can throw the paper that’s left into the bin.
Step 9.
Make sure the paper had j cloth either side of it and use a fairly hot iron to flatten and make the paper thoroughly dry.
Step 10.
CAREFULLY peel the paper off the j cloth et voila! If you’d like it to be really flat you can always press it in a heavy book, maybe ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’ seeing as every creative seems to own that!
This is one of my finished pieces…
