Envelope Art

I am into snail mail in a big way. There are few things better than sitting down with a pile of magazines to snip up, a pile of news to dish out, and a cup of tea to sip on.

Throughout secondary school my friends and I would write each other letters in class, tear out pictures of punks from old copies of NME and slip the sticker-decorated envelopes into each other's schoolbags (we weren't punks- we were writing each other letters for gods sake- but we did fancy them).

Once we all split up for college, letter-writing became a great way to keep in touch and update each other on our latest escapades (few and far between in my case; "I went to a party this weekend! It was my Mom's birthday! We had a nice cake, and then I went to bed early because I had a lecture in the morning")

After a while, the letters petered out, on both sides. We drifted apart, I found friends who were happy to sit in with a bucket of chips and talk about TV shows, rather than going clubbing and shifting.
When college finished, and my close friend also drifted away to her side of the country to continue with her life, the letter-writing resumed.

But it wasn't enough, goddammit! I missed having a couple of letters a week to write, and so I started writing to my two closest friends, who live in the same town as me.
We didn't write lengthy letters describing our days, seeing as we meet up every week and chat for hours, but instead we chop up magazines and fill envelopes with pictures of interiors we admire, dresses we covet, and articles that piqued our interests, along with recipes, photographs and nice sweet wrappers.

And while waiting for those letters to arrive, I joined the Letter Writers' Alliance, on the insistence of my pal Laura (you can check out this awesome service here). Here I was matched with two other women who enjoy a good fountain pen and pretty writing paper, and we share stories from our corners of the globe.

At the moment, I have 5 ladies who I write to on a semi-regular basis (Have you heard of a letter-writing man, in this day and age? Introduce me to him, I have some spaceman stickers I'd like to use).

Decorating the envelopes I send off into the world is a hobby of mine, one I'm about to share with you. I like finding pretty envelopes in stationary shops, but I much prefer putting something together myself, with scraps from magazines, prit-stik and coloured pens.
Here are a bunch of envelopes I've sent over the past year or so, for your nerdy amusement.

 

I tried out my budding watercolour skills on this one. Turns out it's extra tricky when you don't use actual watercolour paper...

 I like the effect you get from tearing out colourful bits of pictures, and leaving the ripped edges

Sometimes I go all out and throw a CD in there too. That's when I'm feeling WILD. 

Also, washi tape is the easiest way to jazz up anything and I love it. Even if I did spend most of my adult life calling it Washti tape, like a derp.

Okay, this one is not an envelope, but a card I saw and then re-made at home. I stuck it in here to show a new trick of mine that I like. I use those little pads you stick to the end of chair legs to stop them scratching the ground, to raise parts of the picture! Cheaper than the purpose made stuff!

 I used a butterfly clip to make a cheery waving envelope (that's me, there!) Butterfly clips are THE BEST. In an ideal world, even envelopes containing angry letters from the bank would include a butterfly clip (maybe an angry bank manager wagging his finger...)

It's quite fun looking back over my old envelopes and remembering the things that filled them. Between these two letters here, Shauna got married!

Please excuse the crummy photo quality. I included these because I wanted to show that decorating the backs of the envelopes is just as much craic! (Providing you find decorating the front of envelopes any craic at all)

 ~

Sometimes I find myself huddled amongst stamps and scissors and stickers and stuff and I think "What am I doing? Seriously, does a beautifully decorated letter really make any difference to the world at all?"
And then I remember a birthday card that was made for me by a child in my pre-school class... 

...And I get back to cutting and sticking.

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Pre-school Mural

In the pre-school where I work, there is a great big yard. It's perfect for running around, playing soccer and cycling bikes. The kids love being outside, and so we tend to wander out there often.

But it's grey. It's all grey. From the concrete ground (seemingly less dangerous than grass in terms of cross-contamination. Thanks for that, Health Board, that's really using your noggins), to the bare block walls, it's stoney, dull grey.

And so, this summer, armed with a whole tonne of paint and some very willing volunteers, I painted a mural!

To start with, we painted the wall white. This was to cover the children's attempt at painting a mural. I'm sorry children! But remember when we planned out what you'd like to paint, like dinosaurs, your little brother, flowers and the moon? And remember when you then simply painted brown squares on the wall? Loads of brown squares, forming one giant dark brown square? Yeah.
We painted it white.

And then, I started to draw on the outline. (Well there was the whole other thing, where we got caught in a freak storm and we were trapped inside for two hours and all the paint got blasted off the walls and we had to start all over again but THAT'S IN THE PAST)

Drawing the outline was extremely daunting. I also decided not to pencil it in first, because that would take a long time, and would be boring, and I get bored easily. Once I got started, it wasn't so bad!

I decided on a fairly simple theme of 'the seasons' and I drew a picture across the wall of the change in nature from Autumn to Summertime.

And as I drew, Laura and Leighanne (and one day, for a small while, my boyfriend Stephen) coloured it in behind me! It looked great, and we had such a laugh as we worked away, stopping every 15 seconds for Cake Breaks.

I joined in, colouring bits and bobs, but soon it was time to go back to work for a new term. And so I went back inside the classroom. But Laura and Leigh, the legends that they are, sat out in the sunshine painting away, while I occasionally passed them out cups of tea and offered them crackers and raisins (they politely declined)

And then it was done!

And we were so proud.

The bunnies are my favourite. Also, please excuse my stupid thumb in the duckling picture, but I couldn't not include them because they're awesome.

The kiddies love it, and it certainly brightens my day every time I pull in to work. And then someone I knew walked past and took our photo. HOORAY!

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The Game of Game of Thrones

When I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones on the insistence of my friends, I thought "This show is everything that is wrong with humanity. It is gratuitous, gruesome, trying to shock- it's horrible and I'm never watching it again"

Now I love it and I gobble it up like so many cakes. What does that say about my iron will and sticking to my guns, eh? Doesn't matter, because we're not here to talk about that.

I have made a board game based on Game of Thrones, and quite wittily (*rolls eyes*) called it the Game of Game of Thrones.

I made it for my brother, who celebrated his 20^th birthday a few days ago. Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake loves Game of Thrones more than me and more than you, and he also likes board games. We have spent many the night playing Uno for too long, or replaying 30 Seconds with our friends over and over. One summer, Jake and I sat down and recreated the Game of Life, with harder objectives and dirty jokes. So I thought this present was only fitting.

Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Supplies

It would have been much cheaper to just buy him a bloody board game. But where's the fun in that, heh? The fact is I am anal retentive, and enjoyed immensely putting all the bits together.

The most important thing to find was an old board game to suit my needs. I found one in my local second hand shop (a DVD board game missing the DVD) and began by recovering the board (excuse the crappy photo quality, I got a new camera in the middle of this project...)

I just stuck white paper on top, because I was planning on layering later.

I scoured pound shops, art shops and a baking supply shop, until I had found all I needed.

Step 2: The Cards

I decided that each player should pick a character card, and so I set about making Top Trumps of sorts. I downloaded 12 pictures of characters from online, then cut out cards from watercolour paper. (Watercolour paper is your best friend for this game- it is relatively cheap compared to card, easy to cut out and paint on, and it's nice and sturdy with a lovely finish). When I'd filled in the details, I covered them in sticky-back plastic so they might stand the test of time.

The character card was made using gold paint, and a free label template I found on Pinterest. Each character is given points, for Fighting Skills (FS) and Honour Points (HP). They each also have a Special Skill and a Weakness. As you go through the game, these effect your progress. You get into fights with people bigger and smaller than you; your FS determines whether you win the fight and proceed, or whether you lose and must relinquish some of your gold or your HP...

The next type of card I made were the Partner Cards. You pick these up after a short time, and they tell you who will be accompanying you on your journey. Your partner can be a help or a hindrance. For example, if your partner is Melisandre, then you gain a little FS, lose some gold, but you also get to take half the gold of whoever is playing as Stannis Baratheon! Fun.

Finally, I made a Pet Card, for the craic. You spend some gold to buy a pet, but then they also improve your FS, which is nice. Also, there's Ser Pounce, who is of no benefit to you, but who is just lovely.

Step 3: GOLD

I went to the pound shop and bought three games of Connect Four. Then I threw everything away bar the chips and painted them all gold. Stephen, my boyfriend, helped me with this and Thank God, because it took forever.  At first I put them all into a pot, squirted in a big blob of gold paint and mixed it all around. Despite making my hands look more awesome than they ever have before...

  

... It did not in fact cover all the coins in gold and so Stephen helped me to paint them by hand.

I like the finished effect though!

I originally wanted to use poker chips, and paint them gold, but they were nowhere to be found. I'm sure there's an easier way to do this, proabably gold coins in a toy shop somewhere... Keep your eyes peeled, beacuse one day you'll find a bag of gold coins and say "... I must make a Game of Thrones board game"

Step : The Board

This was obviously the very hardest part. I wanted to recreate the map as accurately as I could, but in a playable way, where you didn't have to keep revisiting the same places. So I eventually decided that....

- You start in Winterfell

- You go to Castle Black, over and Beyond the Wall

- Back over the Wall and towards the King's Road

- Across the Narrow Sea, and to the Dothraki Sea

- Through the Red Waste, and then to Braavos

- Back across the Narrow Sea, and up towards the Eyrie and the Vale

- Down again, with the option of visiting Dorne

- Through Highgarden, and ending at King's Landing

Next step was to draw on the squares, paint them grey (like a stone path, I guess?) and fill them in. (Look how I just threw that in there -"fill them in"- !! In reality, I spent hours chewing my pen and trying to think of fun and interesting things to put in each square to impact each players game. "Fill them in" indeed!)

Then, the decorating of the rest!

The Narrow Sea was easiest, because I very lazily just painted it blue with watercolours.

For Winterfell and the Wall, I mushed up cotton wool and PVA glue and slathered it around the path, to create snow. The finished effect was nice and lumpy and still a bit soft.

For Essos, I cut sandpaper to fit around the path, glued it on and painted it shades of yellow, in an attempt to make it look like a coarse, unforgiving desert.

Then Highgarden, Dorne, the Eyrie and King's Landing were all the same because they were so close together. I had a sheet of fake grass that my brother had used for a model-making project back in school. I glued that down, and my God does it make a huge mess. That stuff sheds like crazy.

Waste not want not; I gathered up the shedding bits and mixed them into a greeny-brown paint, and used it for the King's Road. I was pretty pleased with the finished thing.

Step 5: The Throne!

This was surplus to requirements, but be quiet, I HAD to make a little Iron Throne.

I bought some clay, silver paint and spear-shaped toothpicks (couldn't find those little sword ones anywhere!) and set to work.

The Iron Throne sits in King's Landing, as the prize for winning the game!

Step 6: HODOR

I decided to add something extra to this tactical game of blood and guts- charades!

If you land on a square that says HODOR then you must chose a charade from the bag, get up and act it out! (Fun Fact: If your character is Jon Snow, then your Weakness is that 'you know nothing', and you cannot partake in the Hodor game. I had a little laugh to myself when I thought of that one.) The actor and the guesser both win a gold coin, so hooray!

Step 7: Embellishments

I hadn't originally planned on this step, but once the rest was all done I felt it lacked something. So I decided to create little images of the locations you visit around the board, and have them propped up in their places. I just did some quick pen and watercolour drawings and stood them up using card (see the photo below)

I felt they added that last touch the game needed.

And that was that! I covered the old board game box in white paper, splattered some red paint on it, and stuck on the logo (I also covered it with that sticky-back plastic stuff to keep it from getting scratched etc)

I wrapped it up, and gave it to my brother who loved it (as you can see from his ridiculous face)

We played it last night, with some ale and crisps (cos we didn't have roast boar), and thank goodness, it's actually playable. 

Each character ended up with completely different points at the end, which was determined by the choices they made, the battles they fought and the skills they began with. 

Whoever reaches the Iron Throne first gets a load of extra points, but all the characters who follow after must add up their points and the player with the most seizes the Throne!

Success!!

(post script: I know there is already a Game of Thrones board game available to buy. 
Be quiet.)

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Ice-Cream Painting!

Can you believe it? We're back again, chatting away to each other like no time has passed at all.

This time, I have something to talk about. Joy of joys, I hear you cry! Well don't get too excited, this time we're here to talk about puffy paint. I've never before discovered puffy paint, but now that I have, boy do I enjoy it.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a summer camp with my kiddos. It was a lovely week, very laid back while still managing to be full of fun. Anyway, I decided that a good idea would be to have an Ice-Cream Day. I think you'll agree that was one of my better moments.

In the afternoon we set up an ice-cream station, where the children chose flavours and toppings and syrup and gobbled up as much as they could. In the morning, we made ice-cream pictures using puffy paint. The kids loved it, but as testament to its all-inclusive brilliance, I brought home the leftovers and me and my 21 year old pal, Miss Laura Anne, had an absolute blast with it.

It's very simple, with lovely results. Here's the recipe so you may try it at home yourself.

4 tablespoons of self-raising flour

4 tablespoons of salt

2 tablespoons of water

A few drops of food colouring

You mix and mix until it forms a gloopy, drippy paste.

Then you paint away with it, but make sure to paint onto cardboard. This is important.

Once you're happy with your picture, you put a bowl in the microwave, pop your picture on top, and turn it on for about 20-25 seconds. You may find it needs a little more time, and if it does, keep a close eye on it swirling around your microwave- you don't want it to burn, or explode or something.

It comes out warm, but cools and hardens pretty fast (this is great for the little ones).

Laura and I painted ice-cream shapes onto white card. Then we drew cones onto brown card, and cut them out and stuck them on after the paint had dried.

We had a delightful afternoon and now we have some lovely summery decorations. Now for you!

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Off We Go

Here you go- exactly what you've been looking for; a blog about various things, written by a 24 year old girl who doesn't know what she's at.

Let's have a little introduction, because I enjoy those, and it seems like the appropriate thing to do.

My name is Rebecca, and my internet presence consists of this blog, another old one about my first year at work, and some (loads of) photos I've laid out nicely on instagram.

Like I said, I'm 24, which is a fun and interesting time of my life; growing up to be an adult, but farting around like a little child while doing it.

I live with my boyfriend, Steve, in our small bright flat. We've been together for almost 7 years. Steve's great, he makes music and cooks dinners and comes exploring with me.

I'm a preschool teacher in a small village a long drive away from my house. I like driving, a lot, so this works well for me. My job is the bees knees, I have my own room and I do crafts and dress up and eat crackers for money. (There are also children present)

I have dreams you know! Ah sure, don't we all. I'd love to write a book, and then a children's book, to be brave enough to travel around the world (preferably in a campervan), and I want to be a mommy to some children. I also want a dog, a mangy old dog with nobody to love it, but that's not happening anytime soon, because I have no garden to put it in.

Oh yes, another cliche- I want to live in a lovely house with a lovely garden, beside the lovely sea. The sea! And to get up and stand outside with a lovely cup of tea (wearing a lovely cardigan) and feel the sea breeze and stare out into the lovely sea, that's what I want to do.

So enough random rubbish, where I just say whatever I want, I can hear you roaring "YEAH BUT WHAT'S THIS BLOG ABOUT MISSUS?!"

I'll tell you what. It's about absolutely nothing at all.

There'll be bits about things I like to make (crafts, and mostly crafts I do at work with my kiddos). There'll be bits about my (very mild) adventures, in which I drive around the country with Steve and my pals and we find places to walk and sit and eat. There'll be bits about my beliefs. That's right, I'm going to ram them down your throat! No, don't worry, they'll be few and far between and you can skip them if you like.

That's about it now. I've had my fun, typing away.

Have you had enough? Alright so, that'll do for a first post! x

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