Jean Paul Gaultier Does Amy Winehouse

Check out these beautiful Jean Paul Gaultier creations!

Inspired by the iconic Amy Winehouse, we are itching to get our sticky fingers on some cheaper versions of these cracking clothes (sorry JPG!) With bright colours, sequins and structured designs, we are in love with JPG's take on 50's style and have a serious soft spot for that pink hair!

Although JPG has been criticised for revealing his tribute too soon after Amy's passing, we think it is great to see her iconic style live on and personally find it incredibly inspiring too.

Thanks to JPG Amy's unique style will be rocking the fashion world for the forseeable future and we can back-comb till the cows come home!

Builders brew?

It's all quiet at Vivid HQ as we have the builders in. They keep calling us Pal so at least we've made some solid life long friendships during our time off ;) fear not, we hope to be back to normal in the next day or two... Fingers crossed!

We Love New Girl

If you've been watching New Girl, we bet you were expecting an appreication post coming. For those of you who aren't, there is something fundimentally wrong with your TV programme choices. You want to get that looked at!

Anyhow, today we thought we would share a couple of reasons (besides hilarity) why we love this show with you. First of all, check out the strap line on that poster.... "Simply Adorkable"

Adorkable bag

Yeah, that's right, we are all over that already! Perhaps it's a head's up to Vivid?

We can dream hee hee! New Girl is the embodiment of Adorkable; cute and funny and a little bit wrong. They have done us proud!

Geek Glasses

We are all about spectacular specs and are embracing the geek glasses look. These make every gal look super cute and should never be frowned upon! Although ours are prescription, you can pick up some cheap pretend ones in loads of high street shops at the moment. They are an investment piece as they can make any outfit look more arty in a flash. Thanks for underlining our point, New Girl!

Cute Bedroom

The loft apartment used in the show is awesome. Check out Jess's bedroom; miss-matched art, furniture and cushions, bold colours and giant prints... it's an inspiration if you ask us. Most of our stuff is miss-matched and a bit wild, but this prooves that we are doing interior right. Score! We love looking for home, gift and diy ideas and found some real treats in this show...

Our favourite being the Douche Bag jar!

Outfit Appreciation.

We love the fashion in this show. Especially when our eyes are treated to gem's like this turkey number! We could go on for days about the cute cardi's, pj's and dresses. Jess is all about bold colours, crazy patterns and cute shoes. We feel like we need a wardrobe revamp day!

So, to sum it up, there is nothing not to like. Awesome look aside, it's charming and funny enough to get your boyfriend tuning in... perhaps it'll even help him understand why we're crazy sometimes? Nah!

So next time you're in on a friday night, don't feel like a looser. Thank tv-land for making a show that, like, totally gets you. And understands why you watch Dirty Dancing.

Wordless Wednesday

DIY: How To Make Love Hate Brooches

Hello!

Today we thought we would share a little diy on how to make your very own Love Hate brooches. They're just as awesome as tattoo's, but slightly less permanent. Your mother will be proud!

These are really simple to make and you can have a lot of fun with what you write on them. So, without further adieu, lets crack on!

We are going to make these using our little hands and red, white and black Sculpey. That's pretty much the same as Fimo if you can't get hold of it. You could also make these out of clay and paint them if you are really stuck... and we think they would be the best cupcake toppers ever if you had time to make them out of icing!

So, take enough red Sculpey to make a ball in your palm. Surprise! This is going to make the heart. All you need to do is pinch it in the middle to create a wide v shape. Then using your pointing finger, push down all the edges until the top is rounded. Make sure to do this on something flat as you will need to glue the brooch back on. We recommend working on a piece of paper as it is easier to pick up and it wont wreck the furniture too! Once rounded, squidge the top part together until you get a nice fat heart...

Done!

Next, take a wee ball (a little larger than a pea) of the white sculpey. Roll it out and gently press it down so it makes a long flat rectangle. This is going to be your scroll, so make sure there is enough of it to cover the heart with a little left over on each side of it. As you can see from above it doesn't need to be too wide in depth, just enough to put words on it.

Slowly take it off the paper (you don't want it to stretch out) and place on top of your heart. Gently press it down - it doesn't need much to stay in place...

Then roll up the excess to create a lovely scroll effect!

For the words, take a smaller ball from the black sculpey (less than a pea) and roll it out so it is really thin. Then simply cut lengths from it and bend them into whatever letters you need. You may need to attach separate pieces for letters like t and k. This part is the fiddliest so take your time and make a few attempts before you pop them on. You may want to use a pair of tweezers if you are struggling. Remember to make each small enough to fit within the scroll too!

Hooray!

Once you are happy with the letters, take them from the paper and gently press them onto the scroll. Again, you really don't need to put much pressure on to make these stay in place. Done!

Now you are ready to harden them.

Check the packet and pop them in the oven. Sculpey should take about 15-20 mins at 130 degrees celsius to bake.

Once cooled, just glue on the backs!

We have used a glue gun here, but super glue is great too. We used small brooch backs from our local bead store, but are planning to make some rings later on; these hearts are really versatile and even easier to put on everything. Let the glue harden and get ready to put on anything you can get your hands on!

*Ta*Da*

We hope you enjoyed our little Love Hate diy and we'd love to hear how you got on!

We're taking ours out on the town to celebrate. A job well done afterall!

Enjoy...

Happy Chinese New Year!

via

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012 brings the year of the Dragon which is good news for all of us.

After doing a little research, this is what we learned that the year of the Dragon is the year for great deeds, innovative ideas and big projects. It will also give happiness and success to all good and honest people, and those who have great talents... How exciting is that?!

So Happy New Year everyone and we wish you lots of luck for all your new big projects!

Happy Birthday Vivid!

Hooray!

Its our second birthday here on the Vivid blog and we are super pleased with ourselves. We have been working hard to post more and share our DIYs and we have spent the past few months working on our Etsy shop bringing it from 1 item to nearly 60 in a matter of months. Not too shabby, right? We have so many ideas for the coming year that we cannot wait to share with you too. The more the merrier we'd say!

Thanks to everyone for all their support and encouragement, it has been massively appreciated during this time.

As for the viewers, thanks for coming back! We would love to hear what you think of the blog and what you would like to see more of :D

To say thanks we are offering a 20% discount on everything in our shop today so everyone can celebrate with us. Simply enter WEARE2 at the checkout. Enjoy!

The Boat Project

Whoa! Check out this boat!

Hanger, check. Wooden spanner, check. Toothpick, check. Hockey stick, check...

Built using over 1200 wooden objects donated by the public, this boat will be sailing around the south of England to celebrate the Olympics. Isn't it cool?

That there is a guitar played by Jimi Hendrix! Yup, this boat isn't just made up of any old wooden thing, it has been built using some really amazing things. It also has a piece of the Mary Rose! Having people donate the wood used for this beautiful boat's construction means that every inch of it has a lovely story. I think that makes the boat have magic powers too.

Conceived by artists Gregg Whelan and Gary Winters, The Boat will be named through a public competition which will be launched in May. We would love to read those entries!

To read more about this whimsical vessel, click here

We are delighted to see that when asked, the public love to get involved with projects like this. Let's hope for more collaborative wonders in 2012!

Well done to everyone involved, you will be going down in history...

Wordless Wednesday

DIY: How To Make Tiny Pom Poms With A Fork!

Tiny pom pom's. What more could you ask for in life?

This week we thought we would show you how to make these adorable little balls of happiness with just a fork and some wool. Cute, basic and ready to be glued onto everything; now that is my kind of tutorial!

Itching to get started? Ok, lets go:

1) you will need some wool and a prong-y fork.

2) wrap the wool around the outer two prongs until it gets really fat.

3) once you are ready, cut the end of the wool and using a new small piece or a little thread, bunch the wool together and tie really tightly so it is secure. Do this in the middle of the pom pom in between the prongs to make sure it's central and not squinty...

4) take your wool off the fork and cut all the loops. Be sure to get them all; they can be cheeky!

5) trim all the extra long straggly bits so it is big, round and beautiful..

*Ta*Da*

Cute and simple and ready for anything!

We like to use these little bad boys to flourish gifts for our nearest and dearist. All you need to do is wrap some wool round your gift and use a glue dot to hold it into place. Beautiful!

Enjoy...

Top 5 Crushes: Amazing Cakes!

Classic Cakes And Confections

Mmmmmm...

Hungry? Well you will be after this Top 5 Crushes!

We have a very special birthday coming up and have been looking at all kinds of cakes for inspiration. We thought we would share the ones that looked so good it would be a real shame to eat them (I know, imagine!)

First up is the most amazing UP! cake. See, you couldn't eat that, now could you?

via Cake Central

This ice-cream inspired cake is just incredible. Where would you begin to start cutting a masterpiece like that? Can you imagine all the amazing photos you could take of your mates holding it? A cake everyone can get involved in... that is a revolutionary idea!

Celebra

This Nightmare Before Christmas cake is another whopper. I mean you could put that on your mantlepiece and no one would question you. Maybe its not a real cake? No, no it is. Ouch!

Kakes NYC

I bet you Starbucks is working on a rival to this cake.

We want one too!

Cake Shop Of San Jose

Finally! A cake that we may even be able to pull off at home?

It's pretty inspiring, isn't it? And you would be able to make your first ever decent Etch-A-Sketch picture whilst you were at it too... nothing is impossible, right?

Well, it's back to the drawing board for us...

Happy baking everyone!

New Products: Lovely Biscuits!

You're So My Type

Check out our new line of illustrated prints!

We have been working super hard this month and have just added our first 5 prints into our little Etsy boutique. We've been wanting to add more prints in for some time so seeing our dreams come true and getting our drawings out there is super exciting!

Mr Owl

Lovely Biscuits

Home Is Where The Mac 'N Cheese Is

WHER Radio Microphone

Each print is A3 in size, printed on 230gsm matt paper and comes signed, numbered and ready to grace your cute little home!

We have lots of other exciting illustrations and new products in the works too so keep your eyes peeled for updates and sneak peeks...

We hope you likey!

Detroit Soup: Creative Funding By Dinner Lovers!

Love soup?

And salad and bread and pie and helping out creative projects?

Well, Detroit Soup is the place to go!

This idea is so simple we can't believe it's not happening globally already. For only $5 you can get yourself one healthy dinner and the money raised from the evening will go to a creative project. Amazing, right? Not only do you get to eat with some awesome people, you'll get to hear a few people talk about a project they would love to do. Then you get to choose which project you think is the best and deserves to be funded. The creative with the most vote wins.... all the money raised from the dinner!

We think this is a fantastic way to fund creative projects and fully support the idea. We all gotta eat, honey! Well done to team Soup for their brilliant idea of bringing people together to share their ideas and get help from the people who matter.

For all the lucky beans who live in Detroit, you can get yourself a slice of the pie by submitting your proposal here. Hungry people can get involved at the next Soup dinner and get try some of Soup's pie here. Just want to know more? Then click here. Hooray for supporting the arts!