Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts
Mini Make it: Paper straw letter art
Makers Month: Rag Rug letters with Ragged Life
Continuing with our Makers Month, we have a you tube treat for you today by the lovely Elsie from Ragged Life. We have known Elsie for a while and have had the pleasure of taking one of her classes, which was very fun indeed. She made this tutorial to help promote her book, more on that later and so we thought we would share it with you for that Friday feeling!
Monogram Gifts
Nothing says 'I bought this just for you' like a gift embellished with the recipients initial. Monograms are a great way to make a gift really personal. These are my pick of the best options around this Christmas. Of course I had to slip in cheeky DIY in there, but adding an initial to an existing gift is also easy to do with a tag or a motif.
How are you getting on with your Christmas gift buying? Are you all done and wrapped or are you just beginning? I'm looking forward to finishing mine off this week, then the wrapping will commence!
Have a great weekend
Sammy xxx
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Paper Cut Something Special
After a week off last week, I was back in work on Saturday to do an adult Paper cutting workshop. There were a few people I knew on the course and so this made me a little more nervous, but once I got into it, I think it went pretty well! The picture below was one of my samples, a woodland theme of course with an owl! - of course.
Everyone came away with at least one cut and some even managed a few to take home, with ideas of how to frame it and what tools they would need to use to carry on. Most of the difficulty with paper cutting is knowing which part to cut out, whether you want to leave the negative or positive part.
Depending on your picture and what you want to achieve, will of course depend on whether you want to leave the space around and between the image (negative space) like above, or take away the image (positive space) like you would do to do text perhaps, so that it doesn't have to link together.
Some of the paper cuts were traced from pictures I had taken from books or the Internet, whilst others made their own designs or modified the pictures I had given them.
All in all though, they all did very well and no cuts to fingers or anything. Good result.
What I love about paper cutting is that it's so simple to do but can look so effective for only an hour or so's effort. Some of the participants were saying they were going to give them as presents or have a go at more complicated designs as they now had the confidence to go for it, which is great feedback to have.
If you fancy having a go, all you will need is a cutting mat, scalpel or craft knife, card (I went with thin card, about 150-180 gsm, but some people prefer paper), a design and tracing paper or draw your own, pencil and a rubber. All quite easy things to get and not too expensive to buy aswell which is always nice.
Use one side of your paper to do all your sketching etc and then you can flip it over to reveal your cut, then you don't have to worry about pencil lines. Just remember that you will need to draw the picture as a mirror image to get it the right way around when you flip it over.
You can also take a class if you like, one my friends is doing a paper cutting workshop in London at Tea and Crafting in Camden on the 22nd October if you are around the area and fancy having a go. Or I am sure there are plenty of places to have a go, no other paper cutting workshops planned again at The Lightbox, but look out for other adult workshops to have a go at in the near future.
Of course for the more textile fans out there, there are also our workshops at Norden Farm in Maidenhead, check out the post here for further info.
H
Letters to our teenage selves
Whist I was going through some of my Grandpa's things the other day with my Mum and came across a book I gave him for Christmas a few years ago, you may have heard of it
It is filled with letters written by a lot of celebrities and people of note to their past selves, some giving advice, guidance and the occasional telling off.
They are fascinating to read and I was glad I re-discovered it.
One of my favourites is this one by Alan Carr.
I was telling H about it when we were on holiday and we thought it would be fun to write letters of our own, so here they are...
Sammy's letter
To Sam, (aged 16)
Knowing you like I do, if you knew where I was writing to you from you would tell me to go get a Tequila!
I want to tell you so much, mostly I want you to know that it is OK to be exactly who you are. You were right to make 'No fear no regrets' your mantra, it will serve you well... that being said I want to talk about boys!
The one your with, you can do better. The one you want to be with, get over him, trust me it's never going to happen and it's stopping you from being happy. On a side note - Alcohol- it's not going to run out so calm down.
Spend more time with Grandpa, you will miss him when he is gone, stop fighting with Mum, she is cooler than you think and Dad, dispute what you think ( you are so alike) he is proud of you -always.
Pay more attention in business studies - seriously.
I want to leave you with some certainties... you are so loved, you will be deliriously happy and you will deserve it.
All My Love
Sammy (aged 31)
H's letter
To Heather,
You will never guess where I am writing to you from... It's your very own 'Back to the Future' moment!
I wanted to tell you a few things that should help you get through the next few years.
1. Be yourself - you are pretty cool as you are and trying to be someone else just doesn't work for you.
2. Forget the people who don't give you their time or appreciate you - you will find more amazing friends than you ever thought you could.
3. Don't worry about that Art GCSE result, you really will get to a place where you can be creative everyday.
4. Try not to plan everything - sometimes going in the moment is ok.
5. Everything you do and Everything you are is a reflection from your amazing family and friends.
This all sounds very serious I know, but I think every year until now will teach you these things so it's always good to have a little hindsight.
Oh and one last thing, some people for some unknown reason just sometimes say stupid stuff - not worth your time thinking and overthinking it.
Love of love
Me, xxx
We definitely found it harder than we thought to write these, probably because it is quite a long time since we were 16! but it was a really fun exercise to do.
Have you read the book?
What would you tell your sixteen year old self?
Sammy and H xxx
Make it: D.I.Y Letter Love
I am loving all the cool D.I.Y. initials and letters out here at the moment, Pinterest is bursting with them. I have collected together some of my favourites this week I will definitely be having a go at those penny covered letters this weekend, how about you?
What D.I.Y projects are you having a try at this weekend? let us know in the comments.
Sammy xxx
Love it: Our Childhood Storybooks
This week is National Storytelling week and as the website tells us: Storytelling can be found enriching lives everywhere: from nurseries to schools, from bereavement aids in hospitals to strengthening communication in the business sphere, from reminiscence centres to support groups for those with special needs, and in theatrical performances. The sharing between teller and listener empowers, feeding the imagination from one generation to the next.
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