Featured: Blog & Buy Sale's Back To School "Top 10 Essentials"

on Thursday, August 30, 2012

Earlier this week we got featured in Blog & Buy Sale's Top 10 Back To School Essentials!
With so many awesome goodies we couldn't resist posting the whole collection. Ahhh, to see our stationery beside Tatty Devine and Lazy Oaf - what a dream :) 
Hands up who wants one of those paper plane pencil cases!!
Good times and happy days... visit Blog & Buy here and click here for our Spectacular Geek stationery. Happy scribbling! 
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Word(less) Wednesday: Leeds Festival!

on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Foo Fighters

This week we have an extra special photo post for you with a few photos from our adventure at Leeds Music Festival! We saw hundreds of bands, have over a hundred photos, ate loads of junk food and got covered in mud - exactly what you want from a rock festival! 

Foo Fighters

Our highlight was (of course) rocking out to my favorite band the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl made out with a blow up doll and tanked a bottle of beer before the encore. Never fails to please!! They even showered the audience with Foo Fighter dollar bill confetti - so cool!  I'm trying to get my hands on one of these notes for my wall so if anyone has one I will swap you one of our A4 prints for it. Drop me an email and spread the word :D


Still clean here! Haha


Inside the Jager ice bar. This was the coolest place to drink; being full of ice blocks and in a giant refrigerated unit, you can't argue that it wasn't! You even got goodies if you made it in - jager bandanas, binoculars and I even saw a few jager ponchos. Perhaps the only way to make a plastic poncho rock n roll!

The Hives

We had a total blast at The Hives gig - they came on in top hats and tails, sang the awesome anthem Hate To Say I Told You So, and even did a freeze frame pose for this shot! The last time they played here was 8 years ago, but you would never have guessed as they were one of the best live acts :) Looking forward to hearing more from them now they're back!!


The Big Tent*


The Wrecked Wellies*

*wouldn't be a festival without either!

The Cure

Hooray for The Cure! After an epic set of 31 songs (31!!!!!) We finally got to hear Love Cats in the flesh :D I am one happy lady! Needless to say, I did dance about in a cat like manner, which you can only really do at a festival where people have dressed up as variety packs of cereal (no joke!) On that note, there was also a Mighty Mouse, and a girl dressed as Where's Wally... You have to love that kind of effort! 


We could not see Vivid HQ from here!

Florence & The Machine

Ahhhhhhhhhhh Florence! What a great stage set, right? I have to admit I was a little disappointed by this gig as they didn't play that many of their big songs. We've seen them before at a smaller venue and Florence blew our socks off, so I guess I was spoiled by the intimacy. Don't get me wrong, they were still great, just not great enough for my expectations!


Home time!
I don't know what it is about the end of a festival, but you get the most amazing calm feeling on the way home. After all the excitement over the past few days, it's nice to finally sit down in a real seat. Looking forward to our next big adventure already!

We'd love to see everyone else's photos from the festival so be sure to post your links below :D

And remember to get in touch if you have any of those Foo Fighters dollars - you will make my day!

Happy Bathtime Everyone!

DIY: How To Customise Canvas Shoes

on Monday, August 27, 2012






Killer kicks, right?!


Today I thought I would share with you how I up-cycled my canvas shoes into the coolest runners around, as it is super easy to do and the results are crazy good! I've seen many tutorials to custom footwear using Sharpies and fabric paints, but using Sharpies on these is asking for trouble in a rainy place like Scotland (they need to be lacquered if you're doing that ), and although I'm keen on fabric paint, I wanted to do something a little more adventurous for this project... So we're going to stitch them!










Pick yourself up a cheap pair of canvas shoes. I want to use mine like a sketchbook, so I've picked a pair with a big white canvas. You can use Vans or Convers or Toms... pretty much anything that's not leather as that will be harder to work with. You will also need a pencil, a needle, some thread and a thimble if you are weak in the thumbs :)










Start out by lightly marking out your pattern using the pencil. I've decided to have a paper plane flying across mine (I love to draw these!) so I'm going to have two different feet :) If you want to have two the same, I suggest drawing out your pattern and using tracing paper to get them to match. If you are struggling to trace onto the shoe, you can pierce through the paper with your pencil to use as guidance. It's better to draw directly on the shoe if you can because they aren't flat and you want your stitch work to look right when it's done. You can always change it if its not going as planned as it's just pencil and a threaded needle; you can rub out and unpick if you need to - take that inky projects!


Bear in mind that you will have to get your hand in the shoe to push the needle through, so don't go too close to the toes and edges as it gets tricky down there!










Next, using your pin (and with help of the thimble if you need it), pierce holes into the canvas where you want to stitch through. This will make it that little bit easier to get your needle and thread through. If you are finding it hard to use a normal sized needle, use a thicker one (like an embroidery needle), to make the holes. 










When you have everything marked out, thread your needle and tie a few knots at the end of the thread. Start your pattern at the very first hole and work from the inside of the shoe - you don't want the knot to be visible when they are on. Then carefully stitch through your marked holes and watch the magic shoes come to life!










Hooray! Look at that!


As you can see, I've taken the shoe laces out as it gave me more room for fitting my hand in there. All is well and we are half way there already :) Tea break and back to work!










So, once you are finished with that thread or changing to another colour, you're going to need to knot the end. As before, leave your last stitch on the inside of the shoe as you don't want it to be seen. Make sure you have plenty of thread left over as making a knott in such limited space can be tricky. It may be easier to tie the knot around your pencil and slide it down the thread so it is closer to the canvas before you tie it off. As you're only going to have your feet go in and out, it will be fine if the thread is a little longer than usual :)







*Ta*Da*
Awesome, right? Now whenever you're looking at your feet, you're going to have something amazing looking right back at you :D And if you're feeling really special, you can add some beads to bling them up too! Come rain or shine, you won't need to worry about these custom shoes. Winner!!




We'd love to hear what you think of this tutorial - or see you're creation if you give it a go :D
What would you doodle?
Happy Stitching!
xox
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Off To Leeds Music Festival!

on Thursday, August 23, 2012



It's here.
We've done our packing.
We've organised our travel.
We've even updated our shop status so everyone knows their purchases will be sent out on Tuesday the 28th of August.
That means one thing; the time has come for us to go camp in a field and listen to some of our favorite bands! LEEDS FESTIVAL HERE WE COME!


As we're heading off to rock out and get mucky, I thought I would leave you with 3 songs we'll be singing along to...








If you sing loud enough we may even be able to hear you :D






The Foo Fighters, The Cure and Florence & The Machine... it's going to be AWESOME!


Enjoy the videos and we hope you have a great weekend too! 


See you on Monday :D


xox





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Mollie Makes Feature! Tiny Pom Poms diy...

on Tuesday, August 21, 2012


Today we are celebrating our second feature on the Mollie Makes blog!
Our cheeky little pom pom tutorial has been really popular recently and we were super excited to have been asked to share it on our favorite craft magazine's blog :) It will forever sit beside our envelope clutch bag tutorial and the little easter garland bunting which got shown for inspiration during the holidays earlier in the year. Phew! What an honour! We really hope this is the start of great things as it's one of our dreams to get a tutorial in print :)

High fives all round and happy pom pom-ing peeps!
xox

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DIY: Glitter Sunglasses For Music Festival!

on Monday, August 20, 2012


Hooray!
We're getting ready to go to Leeds Music Festival this week and CANNOT WAIT!
So much packing and planning to do, not to mention we still need to practice putting up and taking down our little tent! Needless to say, we cant go to this event without some fun accessories for the sun, so today I thought I would share a quick little diy to turn some cheep sunnies into some killer ones :D


All you need to bling up your sunglasses is:
masking tape
glitter
mod podge (or pva glue)
an old brush
clear nail varnish


First up, carefully tape up your lenses. You want to ensure you can still see through them when you're done! Be sure to go right to the edges and be careful not to overlap onto the frames as it will peel off the glue when you're done.


You're going to be wearing these bad boys in the sun for the best part of the day, so to make sure they are comfortable also tape up the parts that sit on your wee nose. Glitter can be a little scratchy!


All good? Get your glue out and cover it all over. Mmmmm. Pretty sexy, right?


Give your specs a good sprinkle with your glitter! The more the merrier - we don't want any gaps...


Once dried, paint over with your glue again and give it a second coat. This will make sure you don't have any spaces and will ensure if any of your top layer of glitter comes off it will still have some coverage underneath. Clever!


Give them a good shake and once they are dry, carefully peel off your tape. Gently touch up any gaps if you've accidentally peeled off some of that glittery goodness. Wait till it is fully dry and add a coat of clear nail varnish to seal in all the sprinkles... 


*Ta*Da*
Pretty fun, right? Now I can rest assured that no matter what I'll be wearing, these will bring a little bit of rock and roll wherever I go :)

 Bring on the music we say!


Hope you enjoyed this weeks tutorial and bringing a little bling into your wardrobe :) 
Can't wait to share snaps from our little music festival adventure - seeing the world through these killer sunnies is going to be spectacular!

Happy Making...
xox

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Style Me Friday...

on Friday, August 17, 2012
{new girl} 
a date in paris 
                      dress: new look                                         cardigan: romwe
                      glasses: asos                                              lip gloss: nars
                      apple brooch: penelope's pearls                 handbag: lulu guiness
                      shoes: dune
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Our First Magazine Feature - Pencils In BIBA Magazine!

on Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hooray!!
We are SUPER excited to share with you news of our first ever magazine feature :D 


Featured this month in the awesome French publication BIBA, our geeky pencils came 3rd in their top 15 "Tout ca pour moi!" section! How brilliant is that?!


We can't even begin to explain how proud we are to see our work in print. We've known that we were going to be featured for a few weeks now, but didn't want to jinx it by letting the cat out of the bag too early. We simply can't believe our eyes!


BIBA is a really cool magazine full of beautiful fashion pictures, beauty tips and lifestyle treasures, not to mention it has some absolutely awesome products in amongst it all too :) We got contacted and asked if we would be happy to be a part of this issue - as if we could refuse! We now have some very well traveled pencils who went all the way to Paris and back for the shoot, and two massive smiles on our faces :D What an honour! 


A big thank you to BIBA magazine for supporting us and giving us such an incredible opportunity! 

We'd also like to thank our readers by sharing a discount of 10% off our etsy shop till Sunday the 19th of August to celebrate :D  Simply enter HOORAY4BIBA at the checkout...

We'd love to know what the whole feature says, so if anyone is able to translate French to English we'd love to hear from you :) My French can order me a baguette and ask where the bank is... it's a start at least! Hee hee

Enjoy lovelies!
xox
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