A Month of Sunrays: Return of the Sun

Hello, hello.

Today's Month of Sunrays post is a beautifully shot, poignant, short [approx 4mins] documentary by Glen Milner and Ben Hilton about the dawning of the first sun in Greenland after 40 days of winter darkness. 

I found the film while browsing Nowness.com which, if you haven't heard of it, describes itself as ... and I quote: "the digital leader in luxury storytelling." Mmmmmm. Which, interpreted into normal-flk-speech basically means is it's home to arty films, photographs and interesting ideas ... and is a nice place to spend a tea break!

Note: before you press play, you might want to be careful about the volume levels on the device you're watching it on. The video comes up quite loud on my computer and has no volume adjuster - only a mute button and I'd hate for your boss to overhear you watching movies at work, or for you to wake the baby, or to make that woman/cat/dog sat next to you jump when it begins.

Enjoy the film:

 
Return of the Sun on Nowness.com.

If you click through to the site to read more details about the film you'll see some great 'making of' statistics which you can use as inspiration for your next Month in Numbers post!

I'll be back tomorrow with something appropriately romantic for the 14th February.

Julie

A Month of Sunrays: Wearing yellow + grey

Hola.

Yellow and grey is an absolute classic colour combination and a quick search for it on Pinterest returns an absolute deluge of beautiful images.

Me, freezing my fingers off in my back garden ... in January however is not one of them, yet here I am just the same. The lengths I'll go to to tempt you over to the sunnyside ...

Cardigan: Miss Selfridge ¦¦ Dress: Bench ¦¦ T-shirt: TopShop ¦¦ Scarf: Republic

On a cold colourless day,  like the one I took these photos on, my cosy knitted yellow cardigan not only keeps me warm, it brightens the scenery too!

If you're still not sure how to fit yellow into your wardrobe then a cardigan could be one way in as:

• they don't have to be worn in solid block across your body [unlike a jumper, dress or t-shirt]
• leave it unbuttoned for a less extreme band of colour;
• depending on the style you can still have lots of safe shades of grey, cream, white and beige poking out beneath.
• And if you're looking for a brainless-yet-smart super-speedy outfit you can't go far wrong with a white shirt, pair of jeans and yellow cardigan. There's somethign about the yellow that sharpens up a very simple outfit.

I don't know if yellow cardigans ever used to appear on those 'capsule wardrobe' type lists, but I think they're starting to. And they honestly serve me pretty well.

The one I'm wearing above is Yellow Cardigan Number 3 in my wardrobe and is a close cousin to Yellow Jumper and Yellow, Cream, Brown + Black Striped Jumper so clearly I have a thing for yellow clothes that keep me warm. It must be a sun thing! Again.

But if all this still feels like too much yellow to consider wearing, hold on until next weekend where my 'wearing yellow' post will consider it in smaller doses!

Have a happy bright weekend, whatever the waether and whatever you're wearing!

Julie :-)

A Month of Sunrays: Quick, bright card

Hi, hi.

If anyone remembers my 'Purple Phase' series last year, you might remember the nugget of advice I kept repeating to those frightened of using purple in their crafting: combine it with kraft card and the problem's solved! Because ...

Kraft is the denim of the crafting world. It goes with everything.

[Just don't get those two mixed up. While denim on a card would probably work quite nicely ... kraft trousers? Not so much.] Anyhoooo ...

... for those who are feeling a bit yellow-bellied about using yellow here's a very simple idea involving kraft as a base:

So, the yellow is restrained by the neutral shades behind it, meanwhile the kraft is brightened up with some wonky, layered circle flowers handcut from patterned papers. And it's a simple, speedy card too [the brief for the set of cards this was part of was that they had to be quick to make, hence the hadcutting and minimal background.]

This week I've been pinning other people's 'cardmaking with yellow' inspiration to the Month of Sunrays Pinterest board, so have a browse around there for more ideas on incorporating papery sunshine into your cards.

Maybe you'll find time over the weekend to wear, create with or photograph yellow so, if you do remember to let me know. You can either ...

• leave a comment below;
• send me the link on Twitter; OR
• leave the link on my Facebook page.

Then, once I know where it is, I'll pin it to the board for you [please squeeze in with a v.quick link to this series first]. I know there's been a lot of 'repinning' going on over there, so if your work is already on the board I hope you've been getting lots of blog traffic and admiration as a result! 

I'll be back tomorrow with another outfit post. And yes ... there will be yellow involved. You didn't think I was going to give up that easily did you?

Julie :-)

A Month of Sunrays: sunny day Plundered Pages

Hello, hello.

I'm always trying to think up new and interesting themes for my Plundered Pages packs and so I couldn't resist making one to fit in with 'A Month of Sunrays'. And here it is:

Whenever I'm putting a pack together I bear several things in mind and I guess the first is most obvious:

• the general theme I'm trying to curate: so in the case of this pack the theme was anythign to do with sunshine, warmth, light and yellowness!
• But while there's definitely a thread of similar ideas running through a whole pack ... I want to leave room for interpretation too.
• So I try to include a good mix of pages which a customer can translate into their own specific project.

So all the while I'm thinking about a theme, I'm also bearing in mind:

• the kinds of things someone could do with it: because I really want them to be loved and used once they find a new home.
• So I try to think what kinds of scrapbook layouts, art journal pages, mini books, collages, greetings cards etc etc could be made from each theme ... and I get really excited at the infinite options for this.
• eg. this pack could be turned into lots of 'happy mail', Get Well cards, meaningful journal pages, summer holiday layouts or motvational mini quote books ... and more.

I get enjoyment from compiling packs to inspire someone to create, while saving them the effort of finding the varied items original resources for themselves. 

And I know how inspiring it is to work with unique, original vinatge papers ... because it's what I love to do myself and it's what led to my collecting the old books and ephemera, which I now incorporate into my packs, in the first place!

Which is where the idea for 'Plundering Pages' a new blog feature, starting next month, came from:

I'm going to be sharing projects made using the kinds of items which make their way into my paper packs and I'm hoping it's going to appeal to you if ...

•  you've bought a pack of Plundered Pages and are looking for a few ideas on how to use them; OR ...
• you've been thinking about buying a pack but were unsure as you haven't much experience in using non-traditional crafting supplies + ephemera; OR ...
• you have your own existing collection of ehphemera and vintage paper and would like some inspiration for using it.
• [If, like one of my friends, you break out in a cold sweat at the thought of using anything recycled, reclaimed or hacked from an old book ... you can just sit at a safe distance and enjoy the pretty projects.]

I'm aiming to show that there's more ways to use vintage papers and ephemera in bright, modern and fresh crafting than you might think ...

But that's all starting next month, until then ...

Here's a few quick reminders:



• There's a chance to win a ribbon and embellishment kit from The Ribbon Girl ribbon kit - here, you just need to leave a comment to enter.

And don't forget:

• If you'd like to join in with the theme of the series simply blog your own sunny, warm, bright or positive project / photo / story etc etc - add in a brief link to this series in your post somewhere - let me know about it and I'll pin it to the Pinterest board. Speaking of which ...
• The Month of Sunrays board is here - and is constantly expanding with cheery images, links and inspiration.

Thanks to everyone who's joined me in spreading the sunshine already!

Julie x

A Month of Sunrays: A sun-filled printer's tray

Hi again.

Today's project is something I made back in November when I was on a weekend crafting break with friends where we each decorated our own Tando Creative Mini Printer's Tray in our own style:

If I tell you that everyone else made a Christmas themed tray you'd be right in thinking that:

1. I don't much care for Christmas crafting ... [especially after having worked on festive projects from June onwards for various magazines]. And also ...
2. I really will take any opportunity to make a yellow and/or sunshine themed project given the chance [it's definitely not somethign I'm acting out for this series!].

It was one of those projects where I used things that could be considered as 'Best', those special things which you're never entirely sure you should glue down anywhere ... just in case you need them for something else!

But here they are anyway:

They included the original vintage cigarette card and the cute bear cut from a 1970s children's annual [above].  [Which are also the kind of things which end up in my Plundered Pages packs].

And there were the lovely flowers and cabochon another friend sent me in a recent stash swap [thanks Sharmaine!]:

 The stamped banner above is from my current favourite stamp set - the My Mind's Eye 'Happy Days' set from the Kraft Funday range and was stamped onto yellow patterned paper.

This particular chipboard tray actually came with a cover you could attach to create more of a bookish feel to it, but as I want mine to hang on the wall I left that off and added a hanging loop made from a tiny tape measure.

And finally ...

... there's nothing even remotely grim or macabre about a skull & crossbones when it's a yellow one! [Edited to add: Louise asked about where I got the skull from, it's a chipboard button from Such Sweet Tierney]

I like my little tray. A lot. It was a great way to capture all those items and papers which make me happy in one 15cm square space!

Julie :-)
-------------------------------------------------------

p.s: As well as being part of this:

... my project today is also my Design Team project for the 3DJean shop blog this month [the blog's called Scattered Scarlet and can be found here].

The printer tray I used and other similar board frames and trays can be found at 3DJean here.