Happy Lei Day!

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Happy Lei Day everyone! 

The first of May is celebrated as Lei Day in Hawaii and I am super excited to get to be a part of this years celebration! With lots of beautiful music, hula dancing and parades I'm certain it's going to be a blast. I may even try making my very own Lei with real flowers!

I thought I would share a few facts that I've just discovered about the beautiful garlands... today's the perfect day after all :D I've always had a soft spot for these fresh 'floral necklaces' but I never knew much about their origin or what they're actually about.

Lei are a universal language in Hawaii and can signify many different things. Each island has it's very own special Lei. According to Hawaiian legend, the very first lei was made of lehua flowers and given by Hi'iaka, goddess of healing to her sister Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanos.

Despite what we all think, you should never wear a lei hanging directly downwards around your neck. The correct way is to wear them so they are hanging equal lengths over your front and back. And you shouldn't wear a lei intended for someone else, no matter how tempting! It will bring you bad luck... especially if they find out ;)

Finally, my favourite fact of all:

When your finished wearing your lei, don't throw it in the trash. You're supposed to untie the string and return the lei's natural elements to the earth (eg scatter flowers and burry seeds etc).

On O'ahu it's believed that if passengers throw their lei into the sea as their departing ship passes Diamond Head, and they flowers of their lei float back toward the beach, they'll be guaranteed to return to Hawaii someday. I'm definitely going to try this :D

Here's a little video to bring some Hawaiian spirit into your day :) It's no "Single Lady" by Beyonce, but it's certainly a catchy tune!

Happy Lei Day lovelies!

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DIY: How To Make Washi Tape Flowers

This week in our washi tape diy series, we've decided to share a special project that shows you how to  make your own Hawaiian inspired floral garlands :D Make your own Lei or use them for bunting or wrapping... they're so pretty you'll want to have them everywhere! Are you ready? Bring on the adorable washi tape pom pom flowers! 

What I love about this project is that you can make use of those old plastic bags you've got kicking about. Reuse & recycle them to bring a little eco friendly fun into your home... Hooray! 

So, you will need:

a plastic bag

washi tape (also known as MT Tape; it's a pretty patterned paper masking tape)

sharp scissors

thread (embroidery thread is easier to work with as it's thicker)

Start by cutting your bag into strips. Ditch the old worn out handle and the base part; they're done for.

The wider you cut your stirps, the bigger your flowers are going to be. I've cut up a mixture but use a ruler or paper template if you want them all the same size.

Roll strips of tape down all sides...

... front and back 

Then accordion fold the whole strip.

Using your sharp scissors, cut the ends on both sides into semi-circles. These will be your petals :)

Using your thread, tie a double knot in the middle of the plastic as tightly as you can. It'll look like a pretty bow.

Gently pull out and twist each of the 'petals' till the bow takes on a lovely pom pom ball shape. This part can be a little fiddly, but it's totally worth it :)

*Ta*Da*

Your first ever washi tape flower! Isn't it a beauty?

Make a whole bunch in as many different shapes and sizes as you can and before you know it you'll have a beautiful bouquet! Bunch them together and use them to finish off gift wrapping or tie each one onto a long piece of string to create some adorable bunting!

 These decorations are so perfect for spring & summer you'll never run out of excuses to use them. In fact, if you're having a Hawaiian celebration at home, you'll defo need some of these for tomorrow! Pop back and view our next blog post to see why...

Happy Making!
xox

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Sweet Treat Of The Month...

April shower? Lemon Drizzle more like! This month we're nominating the Lemon Drizzle cake for our sweet treat of the month :) If you're missing out on the sunshine, bake this yummy cirtrus cake and you'll feel like summer is just around the corner... bring on the parasols and freshly squeezed lemonade!

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Style Me Friday... What's In My Bag!

 vintage mermaid

If I wasn't a human, I swear I would be a mermaid. Swimming is one of my favorite pastimes as it's a lot of fun and it's a great alternative to going to the gym (eep!) As I plan to be a total water baby on my travels, I thought you might like a sneak peek at what I've packed in my swimming bag. Being a massive fan of 50s fashion, it's no surprise that my little bag rocks it vintage style! 

My bag has been made from a vintage towel and is a 'one of a kind' Cath Kidson. I found it in the Edinburgh store (I don't think they sell these bags online) and fell in love with the print straight away.It really is the perfect bag for my vintage swimwear!

My bathing suit is designed by Esther Williams, a famous synchronized swimmer who made a lot of movies back in the day. I own a couple of these as they are so well made and they look super flattering  on. For a girl with curves, finding a really well engineered suit that looks cute and will stay on when swimming is a big challenge. They aren't massively cheap, but you'll never look back with this investment piece in your wardrobe.

If swimming or sunbathing outside, you'll always find a really high sunscreen in my bag. I'm more interested in being wrinkle free than on the orange side of tanned... and the idea of getting burnt gives me the heebies! My latest crush in the sunscreen department is a tattoo protecter called Ink Shield by Forever Ink. I love my tattoos and the idea of the ink fading brings a tear to my eye! I take this stuff everywhere. A tattoo is for life after all...

Finally, you can't lounge by the pool on holiday without a good read, something sweet to nibble on and of course, a cracking pair of sunglasses. My retro specs are actually prescription sunnies from specsavers and a timeless classic. For a taste of home, I'll be reading The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, a 1930s story based in my hometown Edinburgh (and one of my favorites!) And I'll be nibbling on my favorite American candy- Sweedish Fish! Perfect ;)

Ready? Lets go to the beach!

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Alfred Shaheen & Hawaiian Fashion From The 50s

One thing I know I'll be keeping a keen eye out for is some killer vintage Hawaiian shirts and dresses! You might not have heard of Alfred Saheen before, but you certainly know his work; he's the inventor of the infamous floral shirts! 

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Alfred Shaheen was the most creative and prolific Hawaiian manufacturer in the heyday of post-WWII fashion. He pioneered Hawaii's vital garment manufacturing industry by stretching beyond the limits imposed by the isolation of the Hawaiian Islands. 

During pre-statehood Hawaii, a critical time in Hawaii's economic development, Shaheen built the most comprehensive textile printing, garment manufacturing, and retail company Hawaii would ever see. Shaheen accomplished this feat through his vision, inventiveness, engineering brilliance, and unreserved commitment to authenticity and excellence.

Like other Hawaiian manufacturers of his day, Shaheen's 'aloha wear' was originally made with textiles imported from the mainland. However, using these imported textiles had serious drawbacks and Shaheen soon realized that if he wanted to survive, he must find a way to create his own fabrics. 

Shaheen set up Surf 'n Sand Hand Prints, his first print plant and began scouring Honolulu's junkyards for parts to use in building his equipment. With two inexperienced local workers, Shaheen began building his machinery. 

By 1950, Shaheen had engineered and built his own machinery to print, dye, and finish his fabrics. By 1952, Shaheen was printing more than 60,000 yards of fabric per month and in 1956, Shaheen built an $8,000,000 factory, showroom, and office complex. By 1959 he had employed 400 people, sold garments worldwide, owned his own chain of retail stores in Hawaii, and grossed more than $4,000,000 annually. . . that's a lot of shirts!

Alfred Shaheen's textile designs and fabrics were inspired by Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Asia. He studied the native designs of these countries and adapted them to textiles, producing such classics as the Pua Lani Pareau, Antique Tapa, and Joss Sticks hand prints. His philosophy was to celebrate Hawaii's ethnic diversity and remain true to authentic cultural art forms.

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Elvis's red shirt on the cover of Blue Hawaii is on of Alfred's!

Fingers crossed we can spy some of these beautiful garments whist on our travels. If I spot any of those 1950s dresses I'll be hocking all of my stuff to get it!

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Elvis - Blue Hawaii

 

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It's not possible to visit Hawaii without paying homage to Elvis! 

 

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Elvis filmed the classic film Blue Hawaii in the start of the 1960s and it quickly became his most popular film and soundtrack made throughout his career. 

 

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With its beautiful scenery its no wonder he fell in love with this place! In fact, Elvis loved Hawaii so much he visited the state many times throughout his lifetime and even decorated a room in his house with its classic tiki style. I've been lucky enough to visit the Jungle Room myself and it is still phenominal! 

 

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For those of you location lovers, Blue Hawaii was filmed in Waikiki Beach, Ala Moana Park, Lydgate Park, and the Coco Palms Resort Hotel ... oh, and lets not forget, the Honolulu jail too!

 

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When Elvis arrived in Honolulu for filming, thousands of fans nearly broke down the barricades before the singer was whisked to his hotel. Since mobs waited around his hotel daily, security guards were on duty around the clock. Going by these rare behind the scenes photos from the time, it's not hard to see why people found him so appealing!

 

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I'm hoping to have a little Elvis fun myself whilst I'm out on the islands... or at the very least I hope someone will serenade me with this song... such a charmer!

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DIY: How To Make A Stylish Washi Tape Notebook

Happy National Stationery Week!

Like most of you lovely crafters, there's nothing I love more than japanese washi tape. So many pretty colours and patterns - the joys are endless! We thought we would share a little series of washi tape DIY projects to celebrate of our favourite holiday... And our first one has come in particularly handy for keeping note of our adventures!

I don't know about you, but I love a good sketchbook. Big ones, small ones, some as wide as your head... and then there's the ones that cost more money than sense! Here's how you can to turn a boring (but super cheap!) notebook into one you'll be in love with forever :)

All you'll need is some washi tape, scissors, a marker pen, a bulldog clip and some letter stickers. You can always improvise if you don't have the stickers too - anything's possible here!

Start by using your bulldog clip to hold your notebook closed. You want the pages of your book to be tightly bound together but not warping. This will prevent your pen from slipping and ink going all over the paper inside.

*I absolutely adore books that have coloured or gold leaves on the outside. A metallic gold marker is an excellent cheap substitute for the latter!*

Using your marker pen, slowly and gently colour in all around the paper edges. 

Don't worry if the ink seeps into the pages a little here that as gives your custom notebook more character! 

Once you're done, give the book 5 minutes to dry. The pages won't stick together, but you don't want to get ink everywhere in the next stage...

To get our lovely polkadot cover I used Washi tape (surprise!) 

The easiest way to do this is to stick down lengths of tape that are longer than your book. Make sure each line of tape is straight and matches up - you don't want to leave any gaps.

When you're done, trim all the way around your book using sharp scissors. Leave a few millimetres of tape all the way around. Finally, fold down all the tape inside the sketchbook to protect your corners and neaten it up. 

If you trim the tape flush to the cover, the tape will catch and peel more easily and wear quicker with time.

Ooooh! Pretty! Pretty!

No notebook is ready until it has a title on the cover! 

We've used some adorable glitter letter stickers to finish ours off, but if you don't have these you could always make a label. Why not use a cute stamp on a piece of paper and glue it on? Or even stick down your favourite photo? Either way it is going to look  awesome... see for yourself:

Hello indeed!

 *Ta*Da*
Isn't this new notebook just amazing? And to think it was all buff and boring but half an hour ago...

With so many different coloured and patterned tapes, stickers and marker pens available you'll never run out of ways to decorate your notebooks again. Say farewell to ordinary notebooks and having the same as everyone else; Viva La Washi Tape Revolution!

We hope you've enjoyed our DIY! We'd love to hear what you'd add to our Hello Sweetie book to make it pop a little more...

Happy Making

xox

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Escape From Alcatraz! San Francisco In A Nutshell

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Unfortunately, Hawaii is soooo far away from Scotland we've had to make a short pitstop on our travels. Boo hoo, right? Hee hee! We get to stop over in San Francisco for the next couple of days before we complete our journey. Having both been there when we're little, we have some fond memories of this beautiful city!

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Our top picks for our mini break here includes:
A trip to the incredibly famous Alcatraz prison, renowned for the 3 men who escaped thanks to paper mache and were never discovered...
A visit to Haight-Ashbury to reminisce of the hippy trippy 60s and 70s where I hope to buy some flowers for my hair (wink) and over to the The Mission district to check out some of San Fran's hottest arty hangs and amazing vintage shops!
And if we have time, we're going to visit Chinatown as it's the largest one outside of Asia.

Finally, I can't wait to take a ride on the old cable cars!
woot woot!

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We're off To Hawaii!

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Aloha!

As you know we've been planning a secret trip and today's the day we finally go! What have we been planing? A jam packed trip to Hawaii!    Hooray!

We'll still be posting on our lovely blog, but it'll be a little different to our usual routine. We hope you enjoy what we have in store for you... I know we're excited about it!

As for our shop, we've got a selection of our most popular items which will still be available for purchase. One of our trained elves will post all orders on Saturdays to make sure everyone is taken good care of :) We wrote all about it here.

We're going to have lots of awesomely inspirational stuff to share with you when we're back... not to mention a whole bunch of new ideas and projects too of course! How fun :D 

Don't miss us too much whilst we're away - we'll be back before you know it!

Vicky & David

xox 

Wordless Wednesday

We're hanging out on Claireabellemakes's blog today!

Click here to check out the interview...

Bottled History - The Tale Of The Ship In A Bottle

Bottled History from Smith Journal on Vimeo.

Because we love a good ship in a bottle...
So pretty.

DIY: How To Dye T-shirts With Bleach

The sun is out and holidays are near! This week I thought I would show you how to dye your old t-shirts with bleach to get a new look for the summer without having to spend a penny. Although working with bleach may sound a little daunting, it's actually really quick and easy. You'll kick yourself for not trying it sooner!

You'll need:

a dark tshirt (it needs to be cotton)

some cardboard and newspaper 

an old jar 

a brush 

and some bleach! You'll find that in your bathroom, ready to take on the world ;)

Before you begin, make sure you wash and dry your old tee and cover the floor with newspaper or cardboard so you don't ruin it. Insert a thick piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt so the bleach doesn't go all the way through and dye the back too. 

You might want to wear disposable gloves (or marigolds) to protect your hands too.

Fill a small jar with some bleach and get your paint brush ready to work with. The bleach will probably weaken the brush bristles, so it's best to use a cheap brush that you can throw out if it gets wrecked. Bleach is a little hardcore!

As you can see, I've used a template stencil for my design as it's quite specific. Check out our previous DIY on how to make your own. Can't be bothered? No worries, this tutorial works great freehand too; I've made a polkadot version without one, but you could do absolutely anything. Chevron print? Lovely! Aztec design? No problem ;) You could even try this project with different objects to see how the marks work out. The more creative you get the better!

Test a little piece of the material before you start to see how quickly the bleach gets to work and to see how it's going to effect the fabric. Do this somewhere hidden as it'll be there forever! Different fabrics will react differently to the bleach. Thinner ones will react faster than thicker, but it might also bleed (spread) more. It might effect your pattern if it's intricate so be sure to test first.

When you're ready, start applying the bleach onto the t-shirt.

It'll only take a couple of minutes to start changing the colour of the fabric. 

When you're done, let it dry for a few minutes. 

If you find it's not bleached enough, go over it again. You can also flip your T-shirt over and do the back once it's dried.

You need to work fairly quickly when working with bleach; if you leave it on for too long it could corrode the material (and wreck your tee). Try to finish it under 20 minutes.

When you're done, chuck it into the washing machine and give it a good clean. Once it's dried you're good to go...

*Ta*Da*

What do you think? 

I have to admit I love my new t-shirt much more than before, plus I saved money for my holiday. What a winner! It's pretty darn close to the one I would have bought too - check out my t-shirt inspiration here. Disney never looked more rock n roll!

We'd love to hear what designs you'd create when bleaching your clothes! Got any tips? Please share them below :)

Happy Making!

xox