Modern Quilling

Quilling is weird. Rolling up loads of tiny strips of paper and sticking them together? Weird.
But I did do some quilling as a kid. It was basic - leaves and flowers and that was it.

Cut to today: thanks to Yulia Brodskaya, I find out there's a lot more you can do with these coloured strips of paper than just leaves and flowers. This is my first attempt at quilling since I was a child. Not perfect, but striking nonetheless.

Fancy Art Prints

I've seen simple art prints sell in shops for £10, £15, even £20 or more depending on their size. I've always thought this was an outrageous cost for the minimal amount of production effort that has been put into the prints.


So I tried it myself. I bought a 99p canvas, painted it in block colour, transferred a design onto that once dry, painted in the design in a different colour, and outlined the design in gold pen. There you go.

Mini Albums Are Go!

Sometimes there are just a handful of photos you want to group together. Sometimes you can't face the thought of scrapbooking all those full size 12x12 inch pages just for a few photos. Equally you think they deserve a bit more than a simple photo album can offer - some annotation, some mementos, some embellishments...to the rescue comes the mini album! A teeny collection of photos and memories whose shape and layout often draws as much attention as the photos themselves.

Gift Boxes are So Expensive in the Shops

Why not just make your own from a sheet of 12x12 inch paper? Infinitely cheaper, and you can personalise to an extreme - even down to the label. Here is my first one:

Scrapbook Scrapbook!

Time consuming as it is, the results are always so rewarding. My collection of materials still largely consists of things from my mum, either bought as gifts, 'I saw this and thought of you' purchases, or things she doesn't need any more - the best kind of hand-me-down.

So for her I upload this layout first - 'Cheesecake & Cocktails'.

A recently completed layout from Montenegro showcases my fledgling photography - it's titled 'Slide Away'. I took this at just the right time.








A final example for now is something I got out of a winter trip to Gent in Belgium. The colour of the winter sun on the willow leaves made me depart from the usual colours of winter here.

My First Post: No Shoes Poem

Despite my resolution to not buy any this year, I find myself needing some new shoes. What do I do? It doesn't really matter; I don't have the money to spend on them.

Alas! Alack! I cannot shop
For a single slingback
Or flip-flop!

I have not the dosh to be pedally posh
Nor the dough to become well-heeled.
There is not enough green – I just don’t have the means
For my feet to be evenly keeled…

I suffer in grumps this financial slump
And in silence the terrible dread –
This unfortunate lack of trainer or pump;
Buy a wedge? I’m too close to the red!

There is too much heat for my downtrodden feet
And destitution upon which to muse
There are not enough bucks; having old shoes sucks
I’m impoverished, in need of some shoes!