DIY // POM POM CUSHION

I know, I know, more pom poms. But following my post on how to make pom poms using a fork my brain has been full to the brim of crafty ways to use them. What with spring supposedly in full swing (it's actually been intermittently sunny, snowing, raining and thundering here in the UK the past week...) I thought it was time to inject some colour into my otherwise completely neutral bedroom and what better way to achieve this than by adding some fun and colourful pom pom cushions!

Primark cushion | 16 x Pom poms | White cotton thread | Scissors

1. Buy or make 16 pom poms in a variety of bright spring colours. For help with making your pom poms, head over to this super easy tutorial. I chose to make mine in three different colours so that I could alternate colours. But why not make multi-coloured pom poms? Or pom poms all in the same colour? The options really are endless!

2. Thread your white cotton through a needle and tie a knot in the end of the cotton. I used a really thin cotton thread and so I needed to tie several knots in exactly the same place to get a knot that was big enough to hold the pom pom.

3. Thread the pom pom on using the needle before pulling it down to the knot(s) and removing any excess cotton below it. When pulling the pom pom down to the knot, be sure to give it a gentle tug to make it will hold. Once you're happy it will, grab your scissors and cut off any visible cotton beneath the pom pom and knot.

4. Secure the pom pom to the cushion using the needle and thread. I chose not to open up the cushion and remove the stuffing for this step as it was just so difficult to get it back in when I decided to wash the cover. So instead, I sewed the pom poms on with the stuffing still inside and just made sure to hide any knots under the pom pom and it actually wasn't too tricky!

5. Repeat these steps so that you have pom poms attached at regular intervals around the cushion. I chose to have 5 pom poms on each side and so spread them out accordingly however it is entirely up to you however many you have - sew on pom poms until your heart is content!

...and that's it!

This has to be one of my favourite DIYs so far. I love how quick and easy it was to get quite a professional result (if I don't say so myself). The cushions I used here are these lovely textured white cushions that I found in Primark and I chose the colours as I really like how turquoise, mint and lemon yellow clash in that 'deliberate and co-ordinated' kind of way.

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

♥

MINIMAL MAP WEDDING INVITATIONS

If you follow this blog, you might remember that back in April 2015, I was asked by a good friend of mine to paint an illustrated map for her wedding invites. After receiving the finished thing, and posting about it on here, another good friend of mine asked me to design and paint her entire wedding invite. I was so privileged to be asked, but it was one of those things that felt so important that I was completely terrified of messing it up. I was so terrified in fact, that it took me quite some time to actually sit down and start it. After some time though, when it really hit home that it wasn't going to paint itself, I did sit down and start painting, and just a few days ago, I received the final invite in the post.

To start, I created some quick sketches based on my friend's brief and started to play with some colours. Once I was happy with the layout (several attempts later!) and I had a good idea of what I wanted to do and where, I measured and marked where the fold of the invite would be and sketched out my design onto two pieces of A4 sized cartridge paper (i.e. one piece for the inside of the invite and one piece for the front and back). On the first draft I used a pencil for this, however after painting I found it really hard to remove the pencil marks and so several experiments later, I swapped over to very lightly sketching everything out with watercolour pencils. This meant that when I started painting, the watercolour pencil marks just dissolved into the watercolour paint.

In some areas I used both watercolour paints and acrylic paint and at times even mixed the two together. This gave some parts of the illustration, such as the roads, trees and buildings, a vibrancy and dimension of depth that I didn't feel I could achieve with watercolours. Inspired by the Norffo Watercolour Font, I then hand lettered all of the details onto the invitation using a variety of black fine liners. 

When I was finally finished, I scanned both pieces into the computer and emailed them to my friend. Thankfully all my initial worry was all over nothing as my friend assured me that her and her fiance were thrilled with them. It was so great to see all my hard work come together and I really loved the colours and quality of the printed invites. 

My partner keeps telling me (if I ever have the time...) I should aim to sell hand painted wedding invites in the future but my inner perfectionist keeps making me question if my paintings and illustrations are actually any good - it's so hard to judge your own work!

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

♥

SPRING THROUGH A MACRO LENS

Spring has sprung!

And I just love it; not only have the daffodils and bluebells started to pop up but the sun has begun to make (albeit) fleeting appearances and everything (and everyone) just seems refreshed and renewed. In my family, spring is a season full of birthdays (including my own!) and family get togethers. Because of that, I've been out and about with the family quite a bit recently and on my last trip, took my Olloclip 4-in-1 Lens with me. As it was the first time I had had the chance to use it outside since getting it, I thought I would attempt to get some macro shots of the spring flowers I came across and then share them with you in the hope that they might inspire you as they did me.

Unfortunately, the photographs are not quite as in focus as I was hoping. It was really windy though, and I did take these without using a tripod. So between the camera moving and the flowers themselves moving, I think the lenses did pretty well to capture anything other than a huge blurry mess. Despite this, I really like how these photographs (as is often the case with macro photography) make you see the subject matter in a completely different way and in some photographs even make the subject unrecognisable.

What inspires you most about spring or macro photography?

Let me know in the comments below!

♥

5 FAVES FRIDAY // DIY GIFTS FOR MUM

1. Citrus Fizz Bath Bombs by Happiness is Homemade

2. Gemstone Soap by Honestly WTF

3. Mini Flower Bouquets by Homey Oh My

4. Faux Healing Crystal Necklace by Isoscella

5. Tinted Mason Jar Candle by Something Turquoise

It was my mums birthday last week, and although I got her something a little more extravagant than usual (it was the big 6-0 after all!), I thought I would share with you some of my favourite DIY's out there that are just perfect as thoughtful little extras! These would be equally great for Mother's Day, which although has already passed here in the UK, is only a few weeks away for many of you in other parts of the world!

What do you think of these ideas?

Have you got any to share?

♥

DIY // POM POMS WITH A FORK

It's not long until my birthday (yipee!) and although very exciting, I typically hadn't given it much thought until Easter Sunday; when the family gathered and everyone started asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I'm pretty useless when it comes to my birthday, I never know what I want and so after a lot of deflecting, my mum finally pinned me down and we went shopping. Whilst out, I stumbled across a jumper covered in pom poms and it got me thinking about making some of my own. On my way home, I popped into a craft shop and bought myself some wool. I wanted something subtle but colourful (contradictory I know!) but found this gorgeous Dolly Mix white wool which has flecks of red, yellow, green and blue in it. I've got lots of ideas for future pom pom-based DIY's and so thought it would be helpful to start with the basics and share with you how I made them.

Wool or Yarn                         Fork                          Sharp scissors

1. Cut off a short length of wool (Wool A). This piece of wool will act as the middle of our pom pom and hold everything together. I have this as the first step as it can be handy to have it ready and waiting for when you need it.

2. Take the end of the wool (that is still attached to the ball; Wool B) and place it in the fork. This wool needs to between the first and second prong of the fork (as above). Hold the fork in your left hand, and use your thumb to hold this end of wool down.

3. Wrap wool B around the fork approximately 50 times. Holding the fork in your left hand and holding wool A down with your thumb, use your right hand to wrap the wool around the fork on top of the end your thumb is holding down. Wrap around approximately 50 times.

4. Cut the wool (Wool B) so that the ball is no longer attached. This should be holding itself in place nicely now so put the fork down and cut wool B so that it is no longer attached to the wool ball.

5. Using wool A wrap a single loose knot around the wrapped wool (wool B). To do this, keep hold of the end of wool B and push the wrapped wool up the fork so that you have some space above and below it. Push the short length of wool (Wool A), through the second and third prongs under the wrapped wool (Wool B) and bring the two ends up and over the wrapped wool to tie a single loose knot.

6. Remove the fork and secure the knot with a second tight knot. Holding on to wool A, pull or push the wrapped wool (wool B) off of the fork. Tighten the knot in wool A and secure it tightly with a second knot.

7. Using the scissors, trim off any excess wool. At this point, you are likely to have 3 pieces of wool that are wider than the radius of the wrapped wool. Trim all of these so that they are the same length as the radius or just slightly longer.

8. Cut through the loops of the wrapped wool (Wool B) to create the pom pom. For this step you need really sharp scissors. Pick up your wrapped wool (which will be something like a flat-ish disc at this point). Holding it in one hand, use your scissors at the edges of the 'disc' to cut through the loops of wool.

9. Shape the pom pom in your hands roughly. Now that all the wool is released, you should have something that looks a bit like a disheveled pom pom. Roll this between the palms of your hands to make it a bit more spherical.

10. Using the scissors, trim the pom pom to make it more uniformly round. This is possibly my favourite step and each and every time makes me question whether I should have been a hairdresser. Use your scissors to give your pom pom a lovely little haircut and make it look as uniformly round as you can.

This is such a simple way of making pom poms and even better, you only need a few materials, 2 of which (the fork and scissors) you've probably already got! Once you've got the hang of it, its quite a cathartic process and one in which it is pretty easy to mindlessly bash out one pom pom after the other. I'm not sure who first came up with this particular method, sadly it wasn't me, but whoever you are, I applaud you! 

Let me know if you guys found this post helpful and be sure to follow me on bloglovin, twitter or instagram to stay up to date!

♥