DIY Fantastic: Lightning bolt t-shirt

Sorry for the radio silence folks, we've been a gallivanting of late,but are back in Blighty (worst luck!), but lucky for your it means more fun-filled diys. All together now...."yipee'! Alright alright, I'll calm down. Please excuse this excessive enthusiasm, I'm just excited to be back on the diy band-wagon! 

So on to today's diy, Ben's lightning bolt tee. After dancing our socks off till the wee hours in Amnesia last summer, Mr Fantastic determined he needed a new clubbing tee. And who am I to deny him this little treat? So rather than spend a small fortune in Amnesia's store, I jumped to it and whipped up this neon little number perfect for popping on before a party night!

These are all the ingredients you need:

The only special ingredient you need is the textile medium fixative that will set the acrylic paint. You should be able to find this in your nearest arts and craft store. The steps for this are truly simple and best of all can be tailored to whatever shape or image you fancy! I opted for a fluro lightning bolt to make this a party tee of the sort that glows under UV lights! :) Once you've decided on your design, then the steps are:

1. Create your desired shape on the front (not being restrictive here, you can do the back too if you wish!!) using the masking tape. I went a bit OTT and used quite a LOT of masking tape as I was worried about the paint running or seeping out, but with the consistency of my paint this didn't seem to happen (bonus!).

2. Then follow the instructions on your textile medium to combine it with your acrylic paint (mine said equal parts of medium to paint) combining colours to get that perfect shade.  

3. Next start filling in your design. Depending on your colour choices it may be handy to do a plain white undercoat, think this would have helped in my case for sure! I wanted the yellow to really pop so I had to put in a few layers to get the desired effect. With the layers I kept them as thin and smooth as possible and allowed a fair few hours between coats. (Does this sounds like a Dulux guide to you?!!) 

4. Allow your final coat to dry thoroughly and then gently peel off your masking tape to reveal your design. I was chuffed with the really clean cut lines I achieved, go masking tape! 

5. And super important the last bit - iron your design thoroughly before letting it anywhere near the washing machine! In fact I'd stick with hand-washing, just to be on the safe side. I ironed it over baking paper and a tea towel to avoid stickage, but make sure it really sets!

Then pop it on and party!

And finally, because you know we can't resist ending on an out-take or a truly ridiculous gif. Plus, this one is just too good not to be shared!

Fabulous darling! :) xx

Knicker Elastic in the Big Apple

Hi guys, sorry for the radio silence. I got abducted by Mr Fantastic and whisked to the other side of the pond for a lovely mini-break! :) New York City was JUST as cool as I'd always imagined. Like a bigger, brighter, badder London...but with friendly people that actually talk to you! :p

As you can imagine I snapped away constantly! Those of you on Instagram (@knickerelasticfantastic) may have seen a few prime peeks already, but as well as those here are my favourites!

Our first view of NYC in the bright light of morning. This was our street in East Village, just perfect!

Straight off we started exploring for a legendary all American breakfast. Maybe the infamous Katz's between the monster trucks?! Apparently the spot where Meg Ryan once got a little overexcited in a certain famous film! ;) Nah, we eschewed this in favour of the tiny Shopsin's in Essex Street Market for their quirky macaroni cheese pancakes, surprisingly yum!

A lovely stroll around Central Park. We grabbed a prezel, hot dog and a GIANT iced coffee and stopped to watch the local softball team kick up a storm in the dirt! You go gals! (p.s. LOVE the pink helmets!)

Skyscrapers through the trees in Central Park! The light was gorgeous everyday. And what a lovely spot for a romantic picnic.....or a snooze!

I was keen to check out Brooklyn flea market and despite a disastrous cab ride all over Williamsburg and ending up further away than we started(!) I'm super glad we made the effort! The stalls was fantastic, full to the the brim with of all sorts of weird and wonderful vintage gear and trinkets. I could have filled 10 suitcases with unique treasures from that place. Too bad we only had hand luggage!! :(

A few more city snaps from the big apple: The Meat Packing district, Mr Fantastic amidst the fast moving crowds in Grand Central Station (...hmmm where to next..?!), skyscrapers and a frenzy of yellow cabs in theatre land.

Nope, too right, I couldn't cut down a whole long day to a mere few frames, so there may indeed be a second instalment to look forward to too...watch this space! :)

The Mini-Diana Lomography Experiment Part II

You may remember this, the first part of The Great Lomography Experiment! The results were awesome, but a little limited (only about 10 photos tops!). So undeterred we have soldiered on and shot another roll of film on the gorgeous Mini Diana. Want to see the results?! Well they are coming right up! Here are some of my favourites, completely pure, unadulterated by photoshop or any other filters!

First off a fantastic view of South London from Josie's flat. What a view! And lucky to catch it at the golden hour on a sunny London day - a rarity!!

The big old 30th birthday! I am a very lucky girl - that cake was EPIC! It will live in legend - my kids will one day hear ALL about it. And if they don't already think I'm ancient then the 70s feel of these shots will definitely confirm it! This is all thanks to the coloured, lime green flash!

Christmas angels decorating the tree! :) Best thing about getting a film developed old school style is that i spans such a wide time frame. Not used to that these days! This second shot above includes two exposures (at least) - one from my birthday and a second at Christmas over 6 weeks later. So basically this whole post is like a round up of the best bits of the last 6 months. Yeay!

Head on a plate, haha! Anyone fancy a nibble of Vanessa? Hanging out in Brixton and Mango Landings. Mostly dancing and flexing our muscles!

One of the best NYEs ever! Nothing can beat a good ol' knees up in the living room with yer buddies. Well, until you bust out your whole collection of hats and sunnies to deck out the team and up the ante another notch! :)

Finally a spot more fancy dress as Claire's hen. I LOVE the effect on this last photo - it must have been the first exposure on the whole film. This is the best thing about lomography, I could never have created that effect with the dslr or photoshop even if i'd tried! Anyone else experimenting with toy cameras? I've love to check out the result...and pick up a few tips! :)

DIY Fantastic: Wedding Sock Monsters

You may remember this teaser post from many moons ago? Well probably not! But, this illustrates just how long this project has been in the mix. It is undoubtably my most long-running diy project yet! But, don't let this put you off, it's more a reflection on my lack of concentration than the complexity of the diy!

The full sock monster instructions and diy post can be seen here so we shan't run the whole thing once more. But all you need is some fun coloured socks, stuffing, needle and thread and whatever decorations you fancy, from buttons, gems, ribbons, net etc! You can get creative and make them in all different shapes and sizes.

I find the facial features the hardest and the most critical as they convey the little monster's character! In these I was particularly please with the bride's beautiful long lashes (soooo Lisa!) and the groom's bright green eyes.

These little cuties were made for a friend's wedding gift, to go with the album you've already seen! They were personalised to match the lovely couple and I tried to incorporate as many of their features as possible and even include some items from the actual wedding. The groom's bow-tie was made with ribbon from my bridesmaid dress and the gems on the bride's tiara were made with the decorative gems from our table on the big day!

So given we are gearing up for wedding season why not make a pair of fabulous sock monsters for the special couple? I love how personal they are and how easy to adapt to any occasion. Do you know anyone celebrating something special this year that these would make a lovely pressie for? Then get to it!

DIY Fantastic: Quartz Pear Drop Necklace

I've been wanting to create a fun, bold modern necklace using real materials for a while. After a little perusing on the ol' world wide web I stumbled across these gorgeous honey coloured quartz beads in a tear drop shape and some super cute neon ones too. Don't they look like pear drops? Almost good enough to eat! Erm, I wouldn't recommend it, so lets get right down to work...

These are the ingredients I pulled together:

1. Beading wire
2. Silver plated belcher chain
3. Silver plated lobster clasp
4. Silver plated jump rings
5. Honey quartz pear drop beads, that I found here
6. Green neon dyed beads, also from here
7. Pliers

The best thing about this necklace is that it looks complicated, but is actually super simple! I loved combining the natural colour of the quartz with the neon green colour of the separator beads, but you can go with any colour combo you fancy and then just follow these few steps:

1. Cut the beading wire into two six inch pieces and string on your beads. I opted to make the second strand slightly longer than the first one so that it'd hang slightly lower and created the layered effect I was after.

2. Once you are happy with your stringing knot off the ends and snip the ends off. I knotted the wire strands directly onto the jump ring and used a tiny dot of glue to ensure it didn't come undone!

3. For step three use the pliers to gently open the jump rings. Take your belcher chain and divide into two equal pieces. Try it out for size on yourself regularly so that it hangs just where you want it to!

4. Attach one end of each strand of chain to the two wire strands and gently prise the jump ring closed. Then repeat on the other side.

5. Finally, attach the lobster clasp to each loose strand of chain with the last two jump rings.

6. and tah-dah! You're beautiful necklace is complete! :)

And finally a sneaky little out-take. (You know how I like to end all my posts!) This is what most of our shots look like when Izzy and I get together to take a few photos... :)

Thank you for modelling Izzy, you're gorgeous!

DIY Fantastic: Wedding Album

This is a very special diy that I've been working on for a very special couple. Last year I had the honour of being a bridesmaid for a dear old school friend and I was determined to ensure their wedding gift was as memorable as the day itself. I worked on an 'alternative' wedding album - incorporating all those important days and dates in the lead up to the wedding day that weren't captured by the official photographer and all those silly snaps that might not have made the cut into the official album!

The ingredients I gathered together for the job:

1. Printed photos and any other materials you've collected (I had the wedding invitation and the order of service that I'd saved especially, but things such as ticket stubs, travel tickets etc would be perfect)
2. Album (I chose a very simple plain album with thick cream card pages)
3. Craft knife and ruler for trimming
3. Ribbons, sequins, gems, washi tape and any other pretty bits and pieces for decoration
4. Glue stick/spray mount
5. Black ink pen for commentary, illustrations etc!

The best thing about this album is that you can make it to remember any special day, holiday, birthday,  celebration - it's not just for weddings! But having had our first wedding of the year yesterday I'm in full on wedding mode so the time seemed right!

The actual steps to put this together are very simple, trim all the photos to the desired size using the ruler and craft knife. I mixed it up with lots of photos of different shapes and sizes and some with borders and some without as I wanted it to feel more relaxed and eclectic. But you could also trip them to all the same sizes and shape if you want it more co-herent.

I also drew some little illustrations to add some labels and commentary to the photos, these were simple black ink sketches on white card such as those you can see below:

Finally it just came down to arranging the composition of the material within the album. Sounds simple right? Trust me it's not!!! :p I opted for a loosely chronological order starting with a girly visit to the venue, invitation making, hen do and then on to the big day!

Here are some sneaky peaks of some key spreads:

Illustrated rosette and washi tape add some interest to this spread from our visit to Royal Ascot! 

A small amount of editing prior to printing meant I could add some fun captions to the photos, I love 'The Slow Dance' and 'The Kiss' with the inflatable parrot! 

The original invitation was a little bulky, I was tempted to leave it out but very pleased I worked with it in the end.

Some simple white pearly sequins used to decorate the final preparations of the bride!

I love the interactive 'book-within-a-book' feel of including the invitation and order of service!

And finally, you know you can't resist a fun gif to round things off, so here you go:

You can play with this in so many different ways to add character and interest, go experiment!

The only tip I'd add is if you're planning a similar project is to be prepared - collect as much as you can from the actual events so that you can add those personal touches that are easily discarded but when collated together like this can mean so much more than the sum of their parts!

Congratulations Lisa and Steve and thank you for waiting patiently for your gift! :)