Decoupage

I have recently been given my summer work from university (less than a month now before I go!!!), and one of the things is to collect images, artefacts, general inspirational bits and bobs, and to put them together in either a file or a box. I have been collecting things like this for years so no hardship there, and I went with the box idea to keep it all in.
Having spotted an old shoe box lying around the kitchen, I thought I would give decoupage a go and use up some of the images I have been collecting to decorate the box as well. It makes it an original storage box and has my personality and interests stuck all over it!!

The definition of decoupage is: 'The technique, art or process of decorating a surface with shapes or illustrations cut from paper, card etc'

And it is literally just that! Dead simple.
Before I show you my own attempt, here are some other objects that can be decoupaged!

You can literally do anything you like- just make sure you are sticking your images on a clean surface and that they are well stuck down with glue.

Here is my attempt:

The paper from some of the thinner magazines has wrinkled a little bit but I kind of like that as it adds texture. Hopefully my university will like it too

The Orchid House

Orchids are one of my favourite flowers (along with waterlilies!) and my Mum was recently given one which she has passed on to me for fear of killing it within in a week. To be honest, they aren't that hard to look after, keep out of full sunlight and water every few days- how can you go wrong?! Still, it reminded me of all the orchids I had seen in Kew Gardens (I know I have already posted about the bark and the waterlilies, but the orchids were pretty cool too), so I thought I would share my photos with you all!

Aren't they lovely? And they come in such fantastic colours! 



Felt Flowers

A bit more of the Mollie Makes patterns here- the kit from the second (?) magazine was of a felt flower which could be used on a variety of things: bags, brooches, headbands etc. My Mum wouldn't let me have the actual kit so I had to choose my own felt and just use the pattern.
It was surprisingly easy and quick to make although, in the instructions, they don't actually tell you how to put all of the components together. I think they would have used glue but it's quicker to just stitch it all together (no waiting around for it to dry!). I started with the centre, stitching through the bottom of the rolled up felt, then stitched through all of the layers of the flower petals. Finally (and Mollie Makes doesnt tell you to do this) I added some beads to the top layer of petals, and stitched a felt circle to the back of the flower to hide the stitches. Here is what it looked like!

 

I wanted to make other flowers, but not all the same shape so I designed my own flower and had a go at making that...

The shapes and possibilities are endless! Think of different colourways, add in another layer, add beads or fake stamens, change the petal shapes....
You can also use them for different things, here is my idea for a brooch:

Beautiful Bark

Another thing I was photographing throughout my London getaway was bark. Not just ordinary looking bark but the ones that are a bit peculiar or a different colour. Here are some of my photos:

And there were also these fab spiky trees which I really liked.

The Waterlily House

I haven't written on here for a while because I have just spent a week in London with my aunt and two cousins, visiting a load of museums (Natural History, Science and British), Kew Gardens and wandering around Trafalgar Square, The Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace- a lot of exhausting walking and bus rides!
My favourite day out was at Kew Gardens, wandering around the frankly spectacular greenhouses (beautiful in themselves) full of bizarre and wonderful plants. My favourite house was the waterlily house and I am particularly proud of my lily photos!!

Aren't they gorgeous?!

Mollie Makes Magazine

My lovely mother and I have discovered a fab mag called Mollie Makes and we are completely hooked! A monthly publication, it has lots of crafty ideas to fill your home with and a cute kit to get you started!

So far there have been 4 magazines published, and they are sold in WH Smiths, Sainsburys, Asda and other big supermarket chains or craft shops.

I have already started making the kits- the first one was an iPod sock made from felt (they have a bit of an obsession with felt)...

I did find that they didn't put in enough white felt- there is supposed to be a white border underneath the folded top edge but other than that, it was the simplest pattern in the world to follow and the felt is of a really nice compressed quality.
I was on holiday in London at the time of making so had limited thread colours with me- mainly black and a very pale duck egg blue- which has resulted in my style of stitching (the example photo on the kit shows stitching in matching colours for each section in a neat running stitch). I am still really proud of my new iPod holder and use it all the time!
The template for this can also be found on their website along with many other templates from across their magazines (although I really recommend buying the mag itself as the quality is lovely and it's always nice to have something to hold and refer to quickly!)

My Mum has also been very inspired by a pattern for jammy dodgers made from felt!

Tea and biscuits anyone?