Kiehl's Brand

I absolutely love Kiehl's and if I'm honest was probably initially sucked in my their stylish packaging which is much more sophisticated that a lot of FMCG crap you see around, these guys have got it nailed, plus it's a great product! However I have no idea who designed their logo? Can't find diddly squat on the web and it seems to imply this was created a longtime ago by a mystical Japanese calligrapher. Either way the Kiehl's brand is a brand that I'd have loved to design so well oh mystical one.

Humble potato print

Now I know this is probably a little childish and reminiscent of being at school and aged four, but I think there is nothing wrong with reliving your childhood experiences and getting your print on! Sometimes you just need to grab what you've got available to get crafty and the humble potato is always a good one. Fry it, boil it, bake it, roast it or use it to print with, such a versatile veg :0)

This is pretty self explanatory, so just cut away to your hearts content, shape those potatoes how you want, grab some paint, paper and what do you know, you have yourself a ready made print factory! When you look close up it creates some pretty amazing textures too.

Here's some I did earlier. I think these patterns/colour combo's would look great on fabric... maybe for next time.

Kitenge Textiles

If you head down to Brixton market you will find many fabric shops selling these amazing kitenge style textiles. They are so vivid in colour and graphic in style its hard to resist them when they are all piled up together.

Kitenge is an East African fabric which serves an inexpensive, informal piece of clothing that is often decorated with a huge variety of colour and pattern. Traditionally many of the designs have meanings from traditional tribal patterns to religious and political slogans.

Images found via Pinterest

Horniman Museum

The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, London is one of those museums that if you grew up in London and any surrounding suburb you more than likely visited on a primary school visit. The stuffed walrus in the main hall has been etched on my brain ever since!

Popular for it's anthropology, taxidermy and tribal artefacts it's a very cool free museum that if you're down that neck of the woods is worth a visit. Nestled in beautifully landscaped gardens with views over the city, the museum itself was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Arts and Craft style popular at the time, and is quite unusual and there's even a cedar wood totem pole at the entrance. This museum is a real secret gem of a place.

Yarn Numbers

I created these yarn table numbers for my own wedding back in October last year. What with it being an autumn wedding I liked the idea of using yarn to create the numbers as a nod to the cooler weather and a good excuse to play around with creating fab woolly table numbers.

It is a very simple idea and an easy thing to do if you want to create something a bit different. And I don't think they have to be limited to table decorations!

Materials that you need: card, scissors or scalpel, yarn (colour of your choice), glue (I used a glue gun), tape, pen (if you're hand drawing your number), wooden skewers

Start by setting out your numbers, I roughly sized them to be 10cm high. Either draw freehand on the card or print out a number in a font of your choice. I choose a bolder sans font as you want them to be quite chunky. Cut out a pair, stick the two together leaving a gap at the base for the skewer to slide into place. Then you can start to bind the yarn around the number. Using tape to help stick the yarn in place, slowly wind the yarn around. It can be a bit fiddly and don't worry if it starts to look a bit messy, you can smooth the yarn out as you go. When you get to the very end weave the remaining yarn through the back, pull tight and snip off. Then slide the skewer into the gap at the base of the number and you're done!

DIY Marble Paper

Following on from the image I found the other day I decided that I'd give marbling a go!

I found inspiration from a few other blogs out there with the suggestion of using nail varnishes, weird huh, but it actually works a treat and if you have old varnishes lying around then why not make better use of them. It's actually super simple to do this, a tad messy, but then isn't art suppose to be!

Materials that you'll need: Tray, water, nail varnishes, paper, nail polish remover (it gets messy!) and something to swirl the paint about, I used some cocktail sticks.

Then get ready to work fast as the varnishes can set quite quickly when you drop them into the water. I also found that some varnishes contained a plastic content so it would leave a film on the water, but you can scrap this off in between marbling.

Drizzle the varnishes into the water and using the stick, or just gently shake the tray, create your paint patterns and merge the colours together, then lower your paper into the tray, lightly tap it down and slowly peel it off the water to reveal your marbling!

Marbles!

Found this beaut via Pinterest. I've never tried to make marble paper, hmmm I feel another craft day coming on!