The Craft-Arty Kid

Muffin in a Mug

2012-02-10T08:56:00.000Z

Well it's more of a cake in a mug, but for alliteration purposes we'll call it a muffin.

My friend sent me this recipe when I was in first year and I recently found myself with an egg to spare so it was muffin in a mug time all over again.

Here's the deets:

4 tablespoons of self raising flour

4 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons of milk

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a mug.

Add the egg and mix well.

Add the milk and oil and until creamy with no lumpy bits.

Microwave for 3 minutes.

It's pretty cool to watch the cake rise up in the mug!

When the time is up get a knife and stab it through the middle of the muffin. If it comes out clean it's done, if not whack it in the microwave for a bit longer.

I recommend eating it straight away while it's still warm. Perfect for if it's been snowing.

Which it has.

It can be a little bit dry so making up some hot chocolate sauce would be awesome, but I didn't think of that until I'd almost finished eating it.

(Recipe originally from wikiHow)

Surface

2012-02-08T10:18:00.000Z

My parents bought me this book on model making for Christmas and it is the bomb-diggity (people still say that right...?)

It's got a great section on making surfaces and I've been trying out some of the ideas.

Which includes using tea from a used tea bag.

Crushing up egg shell.

And using herbs, which is making my studio space very... fragrant.

To put the materials into practice I made this simple piece.

The tea forms the basis of soil along with some paint and glue, and I added some of the egg shell too.

The mixed herbs, plus a bit of green paint, make the grass.

This piece gave me a chance to practice printing bricks using my brick stamp.

The 5th Housemate

2012-02-06T08:50:00.000Z

This is Skulden, our 5th housemate.

He's been with us since the end of October of our first year of university.

Mostly he just hangs around the house.

Sometimes he plays monopoly. He's not very good.

He likes to have a good time too, but can sometimes get carried away.

But the best thing he does...

is dance.

When I Grow Up

2012-02-03T08:56:00.000Z

On Monday to celebrate handing in our dissertations (yessss!) there was a 'What I Want To Be When I Grow Up' themed party at the SU bar.

Since I go to a university that specialises in art there was a danger that everyone would just turn up as an artist.

But people really got imaginative.

The winner of the best dressed award was a scuba diver.

I went as a country singer, which was really an excuse to wear this lovely vintage dress.

My friends went as Mrs Motivator, the President of America and Miss World.

The night was also a fine art fundraiser as we need money for our degree show publication.

This meant there was a raffle and I won a voucher for Prim, a vintage shop here in Norwich.

Exciting times.

Bonus photo; reading up about my favourite country stars before we went out.

So what do you want to be when you're older?

Can't Quote The Book

2012-02-01T08:40:00.000Z

Here's the final piece from my exhibition which was a collaborative piece between Natalie and I.

I made this chair over Christmas which was a definite challenge but I'm really please with how it turned out.

(Apologies for the less than perfect photos. I still haven't decided on a new camera to buy. Any suggestions?)

There's an open book on the arm of the chair and a pair of glasses on the floor; what's going on??

The glasses were made from twisted jewellery wire and dried PVA glue for the lenses.

I also made a rotary phone which I like almost as much as the chair. You can't see it but I made a tiny plug for it to go in the wall.

This was one of the miniature portraits Natalie painted for the piece.

The girl's got skills.

Denim Bow

2012-01-30T08:52:00.000Z

Just when you think I can't make any more bows; boom. Here's one made out of denim.

Which is a tricky fabric since it's so thick.

But I got it to do what I want.

Usually I attach big elastic hair bands to the bows I make but I didn't have one the right colour so I left it for a long time.

And then I had a lightbulb moment.

I put a regular small hair band through the bow and now I can wear it with a ponytail.

Or with a messy bow.

Voila.

And I can also slip the bow onto an existing metal hairband and wear it that way if I feel so inclinded.

All these possibilities just opening up to me. Whoah.

If I Die Young

2012-01-26T21:46:00.000Z

Here's one of the new pieces that was in my exhibition.

The whole thing was inspired by the music video for If I Die Young by The Band Perry.

The video is a tad random, and the brothers are a little creepy looking but I still can't stop listening to the song or watching the video.

The piece is a boat on water with the bank either side.

For the trees I just took twigs from my garden instead of making new trees which would have taken forever.

I even included the book that's in the boat at the end of the video that says Tennyson Poetry on it.

I think people thought it might have had a deeper meaning to it...but it doesn't!

For the river bank I scrunched up newspaper and covered it in wood filler which I then painted and added bits of green sponge which I had left over from making the tree.

The water is about 4 layers of PVA glue. It was looking really good after layer 3, but layer 4 made it go a bit cloudy. Never mind!

The best portraits I've ever painted ever

2012-01-25T10:10:00.000Z

Before I made tiny things I used to paint. A lot.

You've seen a lot of my landscape paintings but I also used to do a lot of portraits. Infact at A level I did a whole project on portraits which I got full marks for. Boom.

So here are a few of the best portraits I've ever painted ever.

I got this painting professionally framed and it's currently hanging in my house.

I think I like the collar bone best. Is that weird?

Self portrait.

There're quite a few of these but I like this one because it's a bit different.

This is my friend Stef and I think the painting really looks like her.

This is the first version of a few paintings of my Grandma that I did for A level.

This lady lived to be 101.

Legend.

I love this fun painting of my friend Lizzi, and it was a lot of fun taking the photo to paint from.

This painting was done when we were 16/17 and she's got a lot more shoes now so maybe I should do an updated version with her entire collection.

Too Small - Private View

2012-01-23T09:26:00.000Z

Last Thursday we had the private view for our exhibition.

Who likes my new red jeans?

I call them my J-Nett pants.

No private view is complete without a lovely spread and since our exhibition featured miniature art we themed our nibbles accordingly.

We had mini party rings, mini oreos, cocktail sausages, mini chocolate fingers, mini sausage rolls, mini cheddars, mini donuts and baby bells.

And the drinks were served in plastic shot glasses!

People also had a good look at the work, but really, it was all about the food.

Good news; new hairband

2012-01-20T08:58:00.000Z

I made a new hairband.

But what kind of fabric is that?

Let's take a closer look.

It's newspaper print fabric!

I bought some Image Maker and used it to transfer text.

I'm a maverick.

I like that it prints the reverse because it gives the look of news print without having actual readable words, because I wouldn't want people reading my head when I wear the hair band.

Nobody wants that.

The hair band is made the same way as these ones, but with a cute bow for added interest.

Has anyone dabbled with the wonder that is Image Maker?

Too Small

2012-01-18T08:54:00.000Z

Here are some photos from my joint exhibition 'Two Small' which is up this week.

It's in the same space as my Tiny Little Dark Things exhibition last year.

The exhibition also features work by my friend Natalie.

She paints miniature portraits and in addition to presenting them in traditional frames she also painted tiny faces on a stone and a shell that she collected on a recent trip to New Zealand.

I decided to give my pieces titles as I think it adds something extra to them.

And because I can and nobody can stop me, all of my titles are from country songs.

(Which did prompt my tutor to ask me if I also do line dancing. No. No I don't)

Who wants to see if they know which 5 songs the titles came from?

Some are easy and use the song title and others just use a lyric or part of a lyric.

Give it your best shot.

It Won't Be Like This For Long

I Don't Know Why You Gotta Be So Angry All The Time

Can't Quote The Book

A Little Too Used To Being Alone

If I Die Young

I'll show you closer looks at the new pieces soon as I get my new camera today! Yay!

Links

2012-01-16T10:02:00.000Z

Friends, I have nothing new to show you today.

I know, I have let you down.

But between writing my dissertation, working towards my exhibition this week and having no camera with a macro setting; I got nothing - unless you want to see my dissertation. Which you don't.

So instead why don't you go and look at some other blogs that should have awesome stuff for you to see.

I'll take you through some that I look at regularly.

There are blogs that I officially follow, like;

1000 awesome things

I keep this on my blog list for the days when I can say 'Yes!!' in agreement.

Yes and Yes

Because it's just so cool over there and Sarah is the best.

Young House Love

Do I have a house that I'm currently renovating? No.

Do I have a child that I need parenting tips for? No.

So why do I read this blog? No idea, but I do and it's been on my list for a long time.

This photo never fails to make me laugh, and I've had it saved on my computer for years.
From Flickr

Then there are the blogs of my followers that I like to go over and peruse, including;

Niceties

I often have a look at what Alice has been up to. I like seeing what life on the other side of the world is like.

Across the Pond

Megan makes living in the UK look terribly romantic and lovely and I've been loving the conversation confusions she's been posting between her Californian self and her Irish boyfriend.

The Cheese Thief

Rena is incredibly creative and she came up with the best ornament ideas over Christmas.

I took this way back in 2007. Still funny

And then there are the blogs that I haven't committed to officially following but I visit them regularly and read several posts at once.

Love Elycia

I love Elycia's hair and her style and her vlogs.

Skunkboy Creatures

I pop in on all of the Red Velvet girls but Katie has the cutest dresses and I love all of her little creations.

I'm off to put up my exhibition, and I'll be sure to share photos later in the week!

Scenes from the studio

2012-01-13T08:42:00.001Z

My friend Natalie and I are currently working hard preparing for a little joint exhibition at uni next week.

So my studio table looks a lot like this.

(Note the packet of mini party rings - yum!)

And this.

There I am!

And that carpet I was so excited about is now filthy and could do with a good hoovering.

Natalie is currently producing portrait miniatures which is why our artwork will work well together in an exhibition.

The exhibition is called Too Small (or Two Small depending on which poster you're looking at) and will run 16th-20th January (on the paint landing of St.Georges for any NUCA people).

Photo Confetti!

2012-01-11T09:56:00.001Z

A fun way to dress up a table for an event with friends is photo confetti!

All you need is a sheet of printed out photos, some sticky back decorative paper, and a shape punch.

Mine's a butterfly punch that came with a Barbie many years ago. Oh yes.

First attach the sticky back paper to the sheet of photos.

Line up the shape punch with each photo and punch away.

It's so easy to make loads of these and they're fun to look through and discover each tiny memory.

Lavender painting

2012-01-09T08:42:00.001Z

I did this painting, upon my Mum's request, during the summer after we visited the lavender field.

But it took my parents a while to hang it in the house, and even longer for me to share it with y'all.

My parents have a poppy thing going on in the hallway as you may have noticed.

And if you look closely you can see the photo canvas I got from Canvas Dezign.

My work on display...

2012-01-06T08:56:00.000Z

...or is it?

My fellow student Holly (previously mentioned here) currently has an exhibition on at uni entitled Yours?

She invited me to a group crit for it and I didn't really know why until I saw this.

She has taken work by a group of students and outlined where it would go in the space with orange tape.

Then she has given the work a new context and interpretation in the description. And in my case she even gave it a new title.

She did this all in secret and we didn't know about it until the exhibition went up. But none of the artists featured minded, as the only thing she has taken that really belongs to us is our name, and maybe the idea of a piece of art.

I was happy for my work to be included - well, the idea of my work - as it gave it a new way to be read and interpreted, which was very different to my original intention.

The exhibition brings up the question of authorship. My piece has my name on it, which makes it mine, but Holly physically put it there, making it hers.

And this is what art school is all about.

Boom.

New minis

2012-01-04T08:56:00.000Z

Over the Christmas holidays I found some time to make a few miniature items for future pieces.

An armchair, a boat and a couple of ladders.

Notice how I don't follow a set scale, it's just easier that way.

My camera is currently broken (not cool!) so I'm using my parents old one which they kindly let me take back to uni with me. Except it doesn't have a macro setting so I can't show you the details yet.

On a different note, my sister and I are planning a holiday for this year to Nashville, TN, so does anyone have any recommendations of where to go or where to stay?

Roundup

2012-01-01T22:26:00.000Z

I'm gonna do a little look back at the year from the perspective of my blog. This also happens to be my 300th post so that's nice.

Over the year I got quite a few new followers so it'll be a chance for you to see some new stuff if you weren't here to see before.

I've picked out a post from each month of the year.

In January I had my only little solo exhibition at my uni of my miniature work.

In February I put together a sequin shoulder jumper.

In March I had fun making a tiny letterman jacket.

In April I made this awesome Sha necklace, which was the first of a few wire necklaces that I'd go on to make and put in my Etsy shop.

In May I got my hair cut!
Then I donated the hair.

In June a trip to the beach with my friends inspired me to paint.

In July I had a birthday! This was my awesome CSI cake.

In August I tried my hand at silk screen printing and things got better when I added glitter.

In September I made a tree with a tire swing which I went on to sell at the end of the year for a very good looking price.

In October I shared the fireplace I was commissioned to make that I'm very proud of.

In November I showed y'all around my studio space at uni that I share with my friend Natalie.

The best thing about December is Christmas so here are the decorations from my house.

What's your favourite thing about 2011?
Got any major plans for 2012?
Hopefully, I'm going to graduate! Eeep!

Christmas Lights

2011-12-30T10:12:00.001Z

Whilst perusing the internet I found a pattern for crocheted Christmas lights and decided that I needed some of those.

So I asked my Mum nicely and she agreed to make them for me.

(She did crochet a Doctor Who for my sister, so it's only fair)

You can find the pattern here.

The only question now is what shall I do with them?

I did consider sewing them to the front of a red jumper to make an obnoxiously festive sweater, but that might be kind of uncomfortable...

Gingerbread Village

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000Z

On Christmas Eve my sisters and I put together a little ginger bread village.

My Mum bought us a kit so all we had to do was assemble the pieces and then decorate with candy.

Then my sister made it snow over the village!

These were the two buildings that I did.

I think I did a pretty good job, since my degree is pretty much making miniature models.

Did everyone have nice Christmases?

Eat a lot?

What's your favourite Christmas food?

Handmade Christmas

2011-12-23T09:04:00.000Z

My friends and I have a tradition of The Annual Gift Exchange where we exchange our Secret Santa presents. Although it's not very secret as we usually know who's got who within seconds of handing out names, which is usually some time in September.

This year I got my friend Laura who had expressed some interest in my handmade hair bands.

So as part of her present I made her a special bow hair band.

It's cream fabric with white lace over the top.

She loved it and didn't realise it was handmade until I told her.

I received so many glittery and sparkly things from my friend Lizzi!

The afternoon also included putting my camera on self-timer and setting it to take multiple shots, and deciding we should be in different positions for each shot. Hilarity ensued.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Miniature knitting

2011-12-21T09:54:00.000Z

Isn't this incredible!
I haven't actually seen the film Coraline but that is some crazy skill going on there.
After watching this video I decided I wanted to try miniature knitting, and I've finally got round to it.

Only, I haven't done any knitting for a long time, probably since I was in single digits, and my Mum did all the casting on for me.
So first I had to learn how to knit, and youtube helped with that.
Now, it might have been easier to learn on a regular scale and then get smaller, but I jumped straight to miniature and learnt as I went.

Here's attempt 1.

For knitting needles I used pins which are really slippery and the cotton thread I was using as wool kept slipping off .

But I persevered and here's attempt 2.

A little neater but I still kept losing stitches so I gave up on this one too.

Then with attempt 3 it suddenly started to work.

Obviously it took a while if you look at the bottom, but I got there eventually.

It looks like proper knitting!

It really is tiny but I feel like I've mastered a new skill.

Decorating for Christmas

2011-12-19T09:18:00.000Z

The Christmas decorations are up!

Actually, I put them up the evening I came home from uni.

Talk about eager!

I saw this idea for pine cone photo frames on the Martha Stewart website and thought they would look great hanging from the fireplace.

So I started by going through old photo albums looking for photos from past Christmases which is always fun.

The smaller photo is my sister when she was younger and that cutie with the blonde curls in the top photo is me with my Dad.

I cut out circles from a cereal box to stick the photos to.

I removed the pine cone bits with some pliers. Apparently the bits are called scales but that seems weird; they're not fish!

Then I glued the bits to the card with strong glue and added glitter to some of the edges.

I made four in all to hang either side of the fireplace.

I love putting baubles in glass vases ever since I saw it done on Young House Love a few years ago.

The pine cones in that vase are the ones that have fallen off our fake tree over the year.

We've even got a vase full of candy canes. Delicious and decorative.

And of course the tree.

It's looks pretty similar to last year; keeping it tradish with red and gold decorations.

Holy Christmas!

Here it is in the dark.

Merry Christmas!

Re-cover

2011-12-15T22:06:00.001Z

Like my new notebook?

It started life looking like this.

Pretty boring right?

I removed the front and back cover so that I could cover them with brown packing paper that I'd scrunched up to make more textured.

Then I attached a piece of lace for a contrasting texture.

I got a matching piece of leather, which I got here, and stitched on a pair of cowboy boots.

The leather is pretty thick so it was a bit of a struggle but a thimble greatly helped.

Snowman Cookies

2011-12-14T09:36:00.001Z

When I saw the melted snowman cookies on Crazy Domestic I had to make some myself.

I used a general sugar cookie recipe from a random book and then decorated with icing for the snow and a marshmallow for the head. I added the scarf, buttons and arms with tube icing but this wouldn't stick to the marshmallows so for the eyes I dipped a cocktail stick in some black food colouring.

Though it's not a requirement, I suggest decorating the cookies, or any kind of Christmas cookies, whilst wearing Christmas/winter pyjamas. It just adds to the whole experience.

My friends thought it was a bit mean to eat these poor little snowman but they soon came around once they discovered how delicious they were.

Om and nom!

Also, my bottle top Christmas tree project has been featured in a Kids Christmas Craft e-book which you can view here on All Free Holiday Crafts. Exciting!