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Harri's Doodle Tag

Hello Everyone. This is my Doodle Tag. This was created by Chloe, and I thought I should share it. I tagged a few of you, but all of you do it!! It's so fun, I loved drawing my pen.

1. Draw your pen
2. Write your name in a font that expresses you (I used my blog name)
3. Draw your favourite animal
4. Just Doodle
5. Tag 3-5 Bloggers

Hope you Enjoy it xx Harri

Getting Excited to Share Crafts with Printstagram

Photos are always special parts of our lives, that help us remember special moments. Before digital cameras, the only way to see photos was to get them developed and to display around the home or tucked away, in neat rows of photo albums. Now, we live in the 'digital' world these days, and memories are always stored away on black boxes, where they can't be seen (hard drives). 

Since the release of the first iPhone, many things have changed. One of the most drastic changes would be the camera. The latest versions can be up against DSLR cameras now. As well as being good cameras, cell phone photos have become very popular. Whipping out your phone that you always have with you, is easier than lugging around an DSLR (I take that back, since I just got a DSLR, I love it so much, I'll take it everywhere!!). Many apps have been created for effects and sharing but major social network, Instagram, has taken over the world of cell phone photography.

Photos on Instagram are shared, liked, commented on then an another photo is posted and the old one is pushed back into the archives. Lost. Social Print Studio has created a online tool called Printstagram, that lets you print your Instagram photos onto small square prints, little books, calendars, posters and much more (if you have read my blog from the beginning, you might remember this post) All those photos that you shared months ago can be printed and become found. 

So I'm getting really excited to collaborate with Printstagram this month. Together we are using their prints and my craftiness to bring you heaps of fun crafts with your photos that you purchase from Printstagram. . This a dream collaboration, as I admire this company for their work. We (The Team at Social Print Studio + I) hope you join in the fun, and make some great ways to share those memories.

When I was writing this post and started talking to Printstagram, the collaboration & this post was going to be in the eyes of someone who does not own a DSLR camera and uses an iPhone for her photos. I received my very own camera for my birthday and am not one of those people now, so some of my opinions have changed.

Turning 14 + A New Camera

Yesterday I turned 14. It was such a fun birthday. My family and cousins had such a great time. I got spoilt yesterday with cards, presents, texts, facebook messages on my timeline...... I even got a lovely email from Barbora wishing me a Happy Birthday all the way from England. Thank you Barbora.

From left to right......Kikki-K Feature Journal, pencils, typo sticky notes, mt Washi Tape Set, typo book, Kikki-K House Stamp, Clarins Lip Gloss, Kikki-k Gift Card, Kikki-K Stamp Pad, Ciate Manicure Kit.

As you can see, everyone knows that I love Kikki-K!!!

For my birthday, my Mum and Dad gave me something I really wanted. A Real Camera. I got such a surprise when I got it,  I was so excited, since I only use my iPhone camera for photos. Maybe I can say, I'm a real blogger now. If you're interested, it's a Canon EOS 1100D. I love using it for taking photos of almost everything. Below is some of the first photos that I took with it.

My sister and Mum spent yesterday afternoon making this lovely cake.....I just love the decorations. We also had cupcakes on the side, since our family is quite big, and the cake it quite small!!! Hope you enjoyed hearing about my birthday!!!

Tomorrow I've got some really special, exciting news to share with you. See you then. xx Harri.

P.S. I'll post the recipe for the chocolate cake soon!!!

Organize: Blog Post Planning

When I first started blogging, I didn't know how to get ideas and when I had idea spurts (if you can call them that) I had to use them all straight away. I didn't store them anywhere. Then I was reading this post of Elsie's and discovered her binder of ideas..........

1. Sticky Note Binder  I use my blog planning notebook/binder for every post. I have magazine clippings and separate sections for sticky notes in different parts of my blog. Each section has it's own colour of sticky note so I can separate them easily if I misplace half of the ideas.

2. Journals + Sketchbooks My second way of planning posts is to carry journals and sketchbooks around. Once the ideas have been pasted into my binder, I plan them out more in a journal. This journal above, I only got for my birthday, so it's quite new, but I did use other journals to plan instead.

3. Pinterest I use Pinterest to gather DIY and recipe ideas, along with design inspiration

How do you gather thoughts and inspiration. I hope this might inspire you to plan your blog posts more. I find I get more inspiration if I actually look for it. xx Harri

P.S. I'll be back this afternoon, I'm going to share with you some photos that I took on my birthday with my new camera!!!

DIY: Photo Hanging Project

As I said earlier, I am going to scrapbook and fill photo albums with memories so I can remember my teen years. This month to celebrate my new year (turning 14 tomorrow!!!), every week I'm going to share ways to display and keep printed photos for you to remember and treasure forever.This post is a way to hang photos in a room on a small wall that you don't use. It is an easy cheap DIY that you can probably make using items already in your household.

Supplies Needed Wooden Pegs, paint and paint brush, twine (colored or plain). 1. Paint the front of the pegs any color you want. I used white because the contrast is nice with my red and white string (it's christmas string, sshh!!). 2. Hang the string up with a pin where you want the photos to hang. I don't have mine from the roof, so I can see all the photos easily.

Have fun pegging up your photos and sharing your memories. This could be perfect in an office, bedroom or living/kitchen. It's up to you.

Let's Talk about Scrapbooking

When I was little, my Mum and I used to always get our camera film developed and then spend an afternoon inserting them into photo albums. My love of photography definitely started very young, but then things changed and I went to school, our lives got busy, my Mum had my little sister and photo albums were forgotten. Can we do 8 years of photo albums now? I've decided that I want to start photo albums remember my teenage years, even if Mum never continues hers. I'm turning 14 on Saturday, so it's a good time to start. Coincidentally last Sunday, my Mum and I started printing photos of our holiday in Queenstown to stick on the wall of our kitchen (above). It's so much easier these days thanks to technology and home photo printers.

Source: A Beautiful Mess

I'm going to do my scrapbooks with a handmade ring binder (I'll show you how next week) and the layout inside will be inspired by Elsie's Project Life album with other patterned cards amongst the photos (above). I'm not going to buy a binder and photo pockets like most who participate in Project Life, instead I'm just going to glue them onto paper with binding rings so I can be more creative with decorating my albums and collecting other keepsakes to go with it.

I hope I can keep up with my photo albums like Elsie and many others can. I really want to be able to remember special moments. I take enother photos, I've just got to put them to good use. How do you collect your photo memories? This month I'm going to be sharing different ways to share and remember the special photos that you should always be able to see and treasure. xx Harri

Bambina Hot Chocolates

Everyone loves a hot chocolate on a winters day (or any day), but this recipe is different as it's made with real chocolate melts. You will need a steam wand on a coffee machine but heated over a stovetop would work (you wouldn't get the foam though).

Recipe from Bambina Cafe 

Ingredients Needed Chocolate Melts, boiling water and milk. 1. Add 8 chocolate melts to a glass. 2. Add a splash of boiling water to the glass (this helps the chocolate melt) 3. Heat or steam milk and pour over chocolate melts and water. 4. Get a spoon and stir it all up so the chocolate spreads throughout the glass. Enjoy.

How I used my handwriting in a font

I'm so excited to share a fun and easy method to create fonts with my own handwriting! I used an app called iFontMaker on the iPad and made my first font in about 15 minutes. :) It was super fun and self-explanatory. Here's how it works:

There are some standard fonts to choose from. You choose a font and then the app guides you through the entire alphabet (uppercase, lowercase, symbols), you draw each letter using the font as a guide for size and shape. It's so fun, I tried many types, a cursive, standard and block lettered one. 

I played around and came up with some examples to share with you. .........

If you would like the download these three silly fonts I made, just for fun, here they are: Red Velvet + Cupcake Crafty + Tall And Skinny. ♥ Heres some instructions to install them Mac & PC

Mini Magazine Notebooks

I always keep at least two or three notebooks with me. I jot lists on them, keep ideas safe and tear pages out to leave notes for my friends. Notebooks is probably why my school bag is so heavy!! Today I want to share a quick (and cheap) way to make your own pretty journals. You can easily whip up heaps at once and use them in the future.

Supplies Needed:  Pretty magazine pages, paper (graph or lined etc), embroidery thread and a needle, scissors, washi tape (optional). Trim pages to the size of your choice (they will be folded in half) Add as many or as few pages as you wish (7-10 pages folded in half is a good size). 2. Cut a pretty magazine page to size (slightly larger than pages) to create a cover. 3. Fold and stitch through the center of pages to bind them together. 4. Add a piece of pretty washi tape onto the spine to hide the thread. I usually leave mine how it is though.

Meet The Blogger: Emily Jane

Today I've got a interview for you from the lovely Emily from Emily Jane Blog

To give you some background info, Emily had a blog called Crafty Girl* and recently moved to her new blog called Emily Jane to focus on fashion and craft.

1. What inspired you to start your original blog, CraftyGirl?

I was in 6th Grade, my last year of Primary School and I was being homeschooled. My mum had a blog, and I really liked the idea of it. She suggested I start a blog to practice my writing skills. I was just learning all about basic crafts at the time, so I decided to call it CraftyGirl*. At first it was password protected, but I eventually made it public.

2. Where did the name Emily Jane come from?

I wanted a new blog, with a new name that wasn't attached to anything specific. That way I could post about whatever I wanted. I though for months and months, and mum suggested I call it "Emily Jane", because that is my first and middle name.

3. What is your main inspiration for what you wear and share on Emily Jane?

I find most of my inspiration online, or out and about. I try to come up with my own ideas, and think of new post ideas no one has done before! 

4. You are a young blogger like me, what are your dreams and aspirations for your blog as you get older?

I hope to inspire other people to be themselves. So many people try so hard to act or dress like someone else, but I think everyone is beautiful, and everyone should stay true to themselves and who they are, always acting and dressing how they like, and not worrying what anyone else thinks!

5. What clothing brand would you love to collaborate with?

Right now I am working with the brand "The Lost Girls", and I really love it! They're all so nice and I love their clothes. I am not sure what brand I want to work with in future, I will probably just take the opportunity as it comes!

6. If you could design a clothing piece for your favourite brand, what would it be like?

I would design a vintage inspired dress made from floral fabrics. It would have lace trims and a petticoat.

I took this answer and have designed this dress for Emily........

7. Where can my blog readers find you other than your blog?

You can follow me on Instagram, my username is @emilyjaneblog. You can also like my Facebook page and follow me on twitter.

Thank you so much for letting me interview you Emily, please go and follow her blog

Blog Post Dividers

Making post dividers are really easy. I mean really easy. If you have some photoshop/picmonkey (or any over vector drawing application) you can easily make your own post divider, between each post.


To make the image, work out the width of your post area (entire blog px - sidebars px) by 50 px. If my blog post area width is 845px this would be my measurements.

Once you are finished upload it to picasa or any photo hosting service and copy URL address to your clipboard.

Then paste it into this code

.post{
margin 0 0 40px 0;
width: 90%;
background: url(YOUR IMAGE URL HERE)
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-postion: bottom center;
margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
padding-bottom:3.5em;
}

Then paste it into your Custom CSS area in advanced blogger template settings.

Hope you find this easy and will be getting creating very soon. I'm planning on adding one to my blog soon. xx Harri

Marble Cake

There is something about the colours in marble cake that makes me instantly happy. A few years ago, my friend and I made this cake. I was looking through my iPhoto Library and found the photos. I went into my recipe box and there the recipe was, sitting there waiting to be used. So I thought it would be nice to share the recipe with you. The photos aren't the best (lots of mess around), as we went good photographers at that point.

Marble Cake. Makes 1. Recipe from Edmond's cookbook.

Cake

115 g butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence 

2 eggs

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp boiling water

1/4 tsp red food colouring 

Butter Icing

115g butter

2 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

2 tbsp lemon juice

1.2 tsp Vanilla essence

Method

Soften the butter and bring eggs to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350˙F and line a 8 in / 20 cm round tin with baking paper.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla till light and fluffy. Beat the eggs with a fork and add them a little at a time. Sift flour and baking powder. Add sifted ingredients to the mixture in there lots alternately with the milk. 

Divide mixture into three portions. Sift cocas powder and pour on the boiling water, stirring till you have a lump-free paste. Add this to one portion of mixture and colour the third part red/pink.

Now drop spoonfuls of the three mixtures into the prepared tin. Lastly draw a knife or fork firmly through the mixture to create marbled streaks.

Bake the cake for about 60 minutes, rotating the tin after 30 minutes. The cake is cooked when the top is golden or a skewer comes out clean. Decorate with butter icing (see below) and shaved chocolate.

Butter Icing Recipe

Make the butter icing by creaming the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a food processor. In a bowl mix milk and lemon juice then add desired amount to icing. Spread onto cake.

I hope you try this recipe out sometime, it's always very fun to make. xx Harri

Blog Post Tips

Today I've put together tips for writing up blog posts of different types. Note: these tips are not about taking photos, but using the photos with specific text for different types. I've included tips for photos, fonts. Craft post, recipe posts, fashion posts all within one little blog post

Filling entire width with photos - One thing that really annoys me (yes!! fussy me) when I read a blog is the size of the photos. When you write your post and insert the photos, make sure they are original size / X Large (Blogger). This when it is hard to get the whole image in. To always make your photos the right size, go to Template > Customize > adjust widths. Subtract the sidebar width from the entire blog width. This will be the width of your blog post area. For example my entire blog width is 1235 and my sidebar is 390. My blog post area is 845 but I always just have my photos as 800px wide. If you have two sidebars, subtract both widths from entire blog length. Use photoshop or any over editing program to do this. 

Purposeful photos - Don't use photos for no reason. If you have a photo of your cat, but your post is about how to make chocolate cake, it's not really going to work (unless its your cat eating the chocolate cake) Writing on photos is also very cool, and can easily explain something without tonnes of text. You can also use photos for sub headings within blog posts, like my titles throughout this post and other tutorial  posts that I have written.

Naming & labelling - if you haven't already noticed. If you roll over a image lightly you may see the name of the image. Always label your photos to something like "intro_blogpost". Seeing "IMG6578" is not necessary and is easy to fix, in your computers file folders. It's all very helpful if you loose photos, to have a folder for all your different categories, and more folders for each posts. It's a bit like labelling clothing for school!!

My top tip for fonts is don't use too many of them. Of course you have to have a font, but keep it the same and simple throughout the blog. Three fonts I use in my blog are one for my sidebar text/category index, titles (this includes comment, page and post header) and one for the body of my blog posts. Always try and keep these fonts simple and bold looking (as in, easy to read) but writing on photos can be a bit more fun and add some style to you blog. I also use some of my handwriting in my sidebar and header. Size is important no one really wants to squint to read your blog one moment (or any moment) and then see gigantic block writing, if you want to have changes for sub headings and important notes, use bold, italic and underline. Italics is very good when you need to copyright a certain post or part of a post
People can find outfit posts very boring. You have a photo (or two) of yourself in a dress (this can be very interesting, don't get me wrong) but when the text of the post is "I like this dress because its nice" and "I wore this dress today out to lunch" it can be a bit boring. I like to try and tell me readers more. Maybe you could tell them about how/where you found the wall you are standing in front of, or what crazy thing happened while you were there. Give your readers something interesting to read about with the photo.
Don't be fooled by the last sections tips, recipe posts do not need step by step photos. In a recipe book, you don't see photos of them cracking the eggs and you really don't want to be juggling the camera while trying to separate eggs, you could end up with lots of mess to clean ip. Having a nice photo of the finished result at the beginning and end and a photo of the main ingredient is a good balance. For example, if you are using chocolate chips for your cookies, maybe you could have the chocolate Chips spilling out of the bag. Also include a little intro about the recipe. Maybe you found the recipe in your Nana's old cookbook or in an old box in the attic. Plus always state the recipes name, the cookbook/website and the chef before you type the recipe.

If you classify your blog as a DIY blog (I classify my blog as a sweet crafty lifestyle blog)  people do expect you to do some crafts. You don't want to turn up at your favourite craft blog and find the latest news on the royal baby for example (Happy Birthday, prince). It doesn't matter, if you have a spare weekend when you have time to do and take photos of many crafts. You don't have to pretend that you did the craft the day that you share it. My favourite Crafts that I read, are the ones with step my step instructions, followed by clear photos in between. Photos need to be clear, and always have the caption/ text underneath the image (don't know why, it just doesn't seem right to be above the image). "Supplies needed" photos are good too, I like handwriting on my supplies list and labelling everything. But list it below as well as images don't always load, if someone is using an older browser.

Note: All of these tips are my opinion and may not be what you believe is right. These tips have been complied by what I have found out and discovered as a blogger and blog reader

I hope these tips help you, if you have any more questions just email me and I'll be happy to try and help you out. xx Harri.

Pom Poms

Everyone loves pom poms (especially cats) and they are really easy to make, with no special equipment. The top two pom poms were made with one color, then another color on top, and then another. The other one was made using multicolored wool, but you make them the same both types.

All you need is wool, scissors and cardboard discs. We just cut them out using cardboard. The bigger the disc, the bigger the pom pom.

Start by tying the two discs together with the wool, and then continue going around and around the discs, till you have gone around at least 3 times (for a more poof, go around even more)

If you are really confused, you might get the idea from the picture above. It hopefully should look like a giant donut. The next bit is quite confusing. You have to cut between the two cardboard circles. Like below. Make sure you hold the pom pom together so it doesn't fall apart.

Then get a piece of wool between the discs and tie tight. Then remove the two discs and there, your pom pom should puff right up like so.

I hope you enjoyed (and could follow) this DiY of mine. I would love to see your results! Have a great day xx Harri