Canal Boat Tiles

Hello all, sorry I haven't posted for a while, been super busy. Well I have found a style at the moment, and am sticking to it. I have been out buying old things to paint up and sell on, hopefully, I am considering looking up a craft fair in Bristol and trying my luck there. So if anyone sees any enamel, ceramics or pretty much anything metal really in a charity shop, that they want to send me to paint, feel free.

It's a bit scary actually because while I'm sure potentially the things I am creating at the moment could be sold at a profit, all the time I am spending and not selling, I am just essentially draining my student loan, for example I just spent £15 on tiles. ahhh! But it's all good, I'm enjoying doing it. So here's what I've done to them.

If anyone is interested in buying, either come along to a Bristol craft fair, or equally email me, (liliangrist@googlemail.com), they cost £4.80 per tile, and I have 30 of them available, roll on you buyers. 

Work in progress sketching

Decided to draw this picture rather than do my revision which is fairly typical of me. If you recognise the original, i'm sorry I stole it from you on line, also yay, because it means there is a likeness.
I took photos every 10 minutes, it is still a work in progress, and I continue to post as I do it.

Enamel teapot Canal boat style

This year my mum, sisters and I proposed doing homemade christmas presents to each other, which was a rule adhered to in varying degrees. Was good for me though because the three presents I made cost me just £1.40 in total (not including paint, which cost me £6, but I still have loads left). This teapot I bought for 50p from a carboot and painted with canal boat style roses, I'm sure this has a proper name but I don't know it. I would recommend this form of present giving to you all, because on top of the fact that your giving nice gifts, I also got commissioned by my cousin to paint her bucket-barbecue in a similar way, there is potential for me to make money for my christmas presents this year! My sisters presents will follow, but I am yet to take a decent photo of them. watch this space.

I bought the enamel paint from a model shop, but you can also get them in some art shops too. They are the really tiny pots, but the paint goes a lot further then you might think. Also the colours mix very effectively so you don't have to buy hundreds of different colours. I went for a Canal boast blue, red and green, and a creamy colour, basically prime colours which gave me enough to produce many colours but essentially all in the same limited tone, which was what I wanted. So little tip for you there, buy few, mix more. Oh and second tip, buy low odour white spirit to clean your brushes and as a paint thinner, I didn't and my room with no windows has been smelling of the stuff for months!

Wedding cake...sort of

My sister and I attempted to create a sort-of wedding cake for our friend's hen party weekend, we started at 8 in the evening, the night before, slightly too late in my opinion, except that it was just a chocolate sponge and wound't save for much longer. Here is the final result...

don't all start queuing up to put in your orders at once! So the end result was...well you can see, but the process was fun, and for a first attempt we were unashamedly proud. Why the hey anyone pays a grand for these things is anyone's guess, with a few more practise runs, fruit cake and a few more days I reckon I could achieve some pretty cool ones for under £40!

survey

sorry I know this is pretty unrelated to my blog, but I'd still be really grateful if you could follow this link and answer these few questions. Cheers, lily xxx

www.surveymonkey.com/s/WBFRL2L

wet snail

what more needs to be said?

@ The Well is a'commin'

Know what I'm talking about? Check this out: at-the-well-blog.blogspot.com/
Don't know what I'm talking about? Go there anyway!

Ipad Drawings

Well I've been doing some doodling recently, thought I'd share...

If anyone happens to have a company called abc furniture suppliers, and wants a free logo, you are more than welcome. 

This is a picture of a fed up chap, frustrated that the film UP didn't give a true representation of balloon transportation.

This choppy is either sky diving, or has just hit a pane of glass, I like to think, from the expression on his face, that it is the latter. 

This is my most recent sketch, of a tree stump, that I used to know as a tree, which is now a nifty flower pot, at a wonderful place, called Muller house in Bristol. 

Knitting Cupcakes and Teacups

Ok well my knitting is usually quite shocking, especially if I have a break and come back to it, but a little while ago I had a go at knitting some cupcakes, as one does, they are yet unfinished, but I will share what I have, lest I suddenly loose everything in a fire/ loose my memory, records must be kept. If anyone has the inclination to finish these for me, they will be in the post this afternoon.

Colouring pencils

You know when I first started this blog during my long summer I was sorting and colour co-ordinating my colour pencils? Well, I'm not sure I ever showed you the finished result. It was so worth doing, never mind what my mother says!

Whether it will actually have been worth me bringing them to uni is another matter, I haven't used them thus far, but no doubt I will, along with the paint samples, knitting, fabric, spray paint, and wallpaper samples (to name but a few) that are lining my creative cupboard. 

The bucket says flowers, but hey it only cost me 10p from a jumble sale, so how far can you go wrong? I reduced my collection by at least 1/3, and now only have good quality colouring pencils. 

Oh and I forget to mention, for you music lovers out there who are missing my desperate attempts to plug my friends' music, this is the part for you. Check out the beautiful voice of Sally Schofield here www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAOAVNk9TQI

and comment if you love it, I do!

I just did this nice picture of the cookie monster, marvel please and my creative genius. Proof enough me thinks of my major lack of motivation to read the books I have to for next week. I also just made bread, burnt it, but hey none the less. 

My uni room

Well I'm here, maybe not entirely settled, I've managed to loose a housemate this evening, potentially having to call security. Fun times, I get the impression this with just be a day in the life. But I have managed to create some cool stuff in my room. Ok well, before I show you the photos I have to prepare you for the poor quality, I have not yet managed to buy myself a digital camera, and these photos have been taken with my computer webcam and kinda enhanced, so it's now it probably hard to tell what they look like, never before have captions been so important.

This is sort of a washing line of pictures, done with fishing wire and mini wooden pegs so it kinda looks like the pictures are floating. There all old vintage and retro pictures of family or New York city skyline, well I like them. I'll give you an example closer up,

I also brought my screen clothes hanging thing, from my room at home, all the reps laughed at me when I arrived, especially with the vast number of olden hangers that I brought (thank you aunty Juliet) but I certainly wouldn't have been able to hang all my clothes on the 2 foot of rail the wardrobe provided. Plus the wardrobe has now become my creative cupboard, so I can continue to pointlessly blog about the crafts I attempt.   

Paper roses

I saw a similar design to these online at some point, and adapted it to make my own, much improved roses. Remind me, why does anyone pay for flowers for their wedding, these you can have in any colour under the sun, and in my opinion are much more attractive, as well as being free. One page makes one rose, so work it out folks a 287 page book, gives you 285 roses, costing you a grand total of 30p if your at a jumble sale or £2.99 at a charity shop.

I used pages of Harry potter 4 as I had already read the book out of it's cover, but I've seen them made from maps, and even a good quality wrapping paper or wallpaper would do the trick (hint: wallpaper samples are free!) 

Ok, disadvantages are that it takes a great deal of time and patience, it took me about 3 hours to make twelve, but having made just one in an hour from scratch, the next 2 hours making 11 meant I was defiantly quicker, I managed to set up a little production line for myself, and I reckon a team of 5 and a sea shanty later could produce 1000 in 4 hours at a push.

 (Now I've worked out how to add videos to my blog, you may be seeing a few more of them!)

cue APP-rentice jokes!

I felt it to be an APP-ropriate time to move away from the cupcakes, vintage lace and typewriters side of me, towards my more gadgety side. I APP-arantly like setting myself seeming impossible tasks, but this was a fun one. I'm considering making these, less than 1 inch squares, into some sort of finished thing, maybe framing them in the correct positions, in a black frame or turning them into a cushion, or some cool hanging/mobile, not sure yet, you're a worldly bunch, comments APP-reciated (for anyone who remains confused at my sudden capitalisation, laugh at this video with me....

).

 I think it would make an awesome quilt if you made each square 10 inch, get onto it beavers. 

Sorry you'll have to scroll down a considerable way, so I compiled what they look like together for you.

Here they all are separately if you wish...