Adding Colour With...

Welcome, dear readers, to Craft Hacker Plus - OK, it may all look exactly the same to you, but I'm now "comin' at ya" from my brand-new swanky mac and hopefully (once O2 bother to actually connect my line), my new iPhone too! Meaning I should be able to post much more now that I'm not having to rely on archaicly slow equipment. Bear with me for the next couple of weeks whilst I figure out how to actually use the thing, though - the old one was sooo old it was little more than a glorified typewriter, so I now feel like I'm at the helm of the Starship Enterprise or something. So, let's get back to some craft, shall we?

I thought the timing quite apt to post a few more pics from my recent shoot with photographer Max Attenborough, after receiving a tip-off from Mise at Pretty Far West about a post on the fabulous Desire to Inspire blog featuring some of his work, including some styling from little ol' me! Hugely exciting to be out there in inter-web-land so thought I'd surf off the coattails of his success and post some more of our work for any straying DTI readers (welcome, if this is you!)

Well here goes - this is shoot one - think I'll feature shoot two in a coupla days time to tease it out a bit, a la the reality tv show presenter's dramatic pause before finally revealing the winner/loser/victim's name. This shoot is entitled Adding Colour With... , the premise being the colour in each shot only comes from one source. Here goes!

1. Adding Colour With... Wallpaper

A great way to use up old wallpaper scraps and a good (and somewhat less labour-intensive!) alternative to an entire patchwork wall. Hunt down an old room divider or get crafty and concertina fasten three sheets of wood together with some piano hinges. The vase is also covered in wallpaper, simply taped round an old vase and cut flush at the bottom whilst tucked in round the top - surprisingly resilient, though watch out for water splashes!

2. Adding Colour With... Fabric

As featured on Queens of Vintage and referenced further down this blog. Think outside the throw when it comes to fabric - decoupage is a fantastic way to completely transform any old furniture and is also a great way to use up small offcuts of fabric, plus you don't need any specialist skills to do it - a pot of PVA glue and a bit of patience are your weapons of choice here. 

3. Adding Colour With... Paint

Turn a dowdy old darkwood table into a neon popping colour riot - more on this little project to appear in a how-to feature soon so stay tuned...

4. Adding Colour With... Flowers

Shun formal flower arrangements and huge bouquets in favour of lots of little blooms in an array of vessels. This shot was inspired by an earlier test shoot I did featuring different ways to display flowers in non-vases - think vintage bottles, shot glasses, milk jugs, teacups...

Hope you like. Keep posted for shoot two - a riot of retro inspired by Abigail's Party - see you there!

RIP Ailing Technology...

Just a little note dear readers to say I'm still here but after a series of technical malfunctions, both my desktop mac and the boyf's iBook have independently died all in the same week. We also had a powercut one night which didn't help. Plus builders are currently tearing the house to shreds (that's not actually anything to do with lack of bloggage, just trying to add to the portrait of woe I'm currently painting). Anyhoo, am currently in exile at the folks place, using t'internet on their doddery old PC to rinse my credit card and get some new kit ordered ASAP. Which is actually hugely exciting as I'll be able to make the blog bigger and better once I've got myself a super-fast 'pooter, fancy new cam and iPhone. Except I'll probably have to take on so much extra work to pay for it all that I probably won't have time to use any of it. Errrr.....

See y'all once I'm back in the 21st century!