Painswick Fashion Competition 2014

In January I decided to enter the Painswick Fashion Competition. It is a competition in which entrants must design there own costume within a certain theme and parade through Painswick wearing it. I entered with absolutely no clue what I was going to create. I chose the theme Legends. After not much thinking it through I decided to just get on with it and ordered a few bits off eBay and began. I was aiming to create a dress based of Mother Earth, I had several different plans but none of them seemed to work when i came to actually making it. I used natural felts for the base of the skirt which was very useful because the felt gave it a nice meadowy look. I handmade little flowers and sewed them on, i also purchased a few to fill in the small gaps. It was very time consuming and at times I really felt like giving up. On the day you get there at 9am and leave at 5pm, which is a very tiring day if your walking up and down the streets the whole time. Luckily I had alot of support from friends otherwise I doubt I would've lasted the whole day. Towards the end of the day they have the catwalk. This is where all the contestants walk down the catwalk showing of there outfits to the judges and the huge crowd of over 500 people. It was very nerve-racking for everyone and my main tip to everyone was to not fall over. After being so nervous all day about the catwalk I came off having enjoyed it so much and actually wanting to do it again! The day was so much fun and there was stalls and plenty of Cotswold style gifts and food. I definitely hope to enter again next year and well done to all the winners it was a very tough competition but they definitely deserved it! If you are thinking of entering next year my tips to you are to: Plan everything through before you begin making anything, i definitely regret not planning it enough as I had to start again a couple of times! If I had planned it would have saved me alot more time. Start early, as soon as you can! This gives you more time so you wont have to rush at the end Make sure you have alot of support from your friends and family because its a very long day! And finally make sure you do it for fun and remember winning is a bonus! It's not easy, but well worth it! Thank you for reading and sorry I havent posted for a while but I have more posts coming up :)

Dynamic View // Blogger

Hello!

I have changed my blog layout lots during the time I have owned it. But recently I was reading about dynamic view own blogger. It makes your blog easier to navigate for readers and makes older posts easily accessible. What's not to like?

Unfortunately there isn't much you can customize in dynamic view, so in my opinion it makes it look boring compared to other blogs with big bright titles.

I decided I would try out this new dynamic view, to see how good it is, and yes it is alot easier to navigate but doesn't look as good. However I have got alot more page views since changing it so hopefully it should improve my blog for the future!

Do you like the dynamic view? Would you use if for your blog?

~HS

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Sorry I forgot the password to my original bloglovin' :/

How to: Create a header for your blog or YouTube FREE AND EASILY

Hello!:)

I am no expert at creating headers at all, but I would like to share with you how I make my headers if you are thinking of beginning a new blog and have no clue how to make a header. 

If you don't make headers regularly you won't want to spend money on expensive software to help you make headers so I use paint. Paint comes free on all windows computers, there are other types of software available for mac that do the same thing. Using paint does take a long time to get it exactly how you want with the tools it provides but the good thing is it's very simple to use and doesn't take a long time to work out, unlike other software's like Fireworks, which may be confusing and expensive for first time users. 

If you are starting your blog up on Blogger, which I recommend you do as it is extremely easy to use and works perfectly, then you will need to set the size of your page to exactly 951x295 for it to fit, i spent a while trying to get this right but there's nothing worst than completing your header and realising it doesn't fit.

This is what it should look like, you may need to zoom out to be able to shrink the page, the zoom bit I have cropped out to fit but it is in the corner. 

Once you have this shape you are free to add what you want to your header. The only real big fault with paint is that once text is written and you have clicked off the text box you cannot move the text box if you need to later on, this is why I find the select tool (next to the paste button in the top left) very useful as you just highlight over your text and you can move it.

Paint is very simple to use and does not create complex headers, but if you are a new time blogger I'd really recommend this as it's free and the tools are easy to use.

YouTube

YouTube headers as I found are considerably harder to make, as you usually find that the writing is not centered in the middle and gets cropped out. It took me a while to get my writing centered into the middle so it didn't crop out. For YouTube I used a canvas of 2048x1152. It took me a while, mainly through the process of trial and error to keep adjusting the writing to get it centered and not cut off. Try your best to centre the writing in the middle of your canvas then upload it to your YouTube header and check if it is cropped off, if it is use the 'select' tool to drag over the writing and move along a bit. It shouldn't take long until you have it in the right spot.

Thanks for reading! Hope this could help you.

Any more questions you can contacts me at the bottom of the page.

Hannah xoxo

Witch Face Wash And Blemish Sticks Review!

Witch Naturally Clear face wash/spot cream review!

Hello there! Today I'm doing a review on three of the witch products. 

Starting off with the blemish stick on the left, now this one is the same as the middle blemish pen except its a stick. You use it like a lip balm, just push up from underneath and it's ready to use. They both also have different textures, the blemish STICK is like a lip balm texture and the blemish PEN is wet and gooey.

But which one works best?

I would say the blemish  stick works best, it does have a slight burning sensation when I apply it to my face but that may just be the type of skin I have (very dry.) But that does mean it's working to fight off the bacteria that causes the spots. The blemish pen has a brush on the end of it so you just squeeze the tube and then brush it on. This one doesn't hurt when I put it on at all, but I do have to rub it in using my finger after which you don't have to do with the blemish stick.

So I would say my favorite is the Blemish Stick.

Foam Face wash

The face wash is obviously very different to the blemish pen/stick but it does the same thing. It comes in quite a big pot and has a nozzle at the top, which you press down and foam comes out. I think it smells very fresh, perfect to wake you up in the morning and to clear your face at night. The foam doesn't hurt my dry skin and is very easy and quick to wash off. It claims that it 'combats shine' and 'works from first use' and I wouldn't disagree with either, after putting it on at night it does make your face smoother by morning.

 I think it's a very good face wash as are the blemish sticks and I recommend them if you are having trouble with dry skin or spots. If you are interesting in buying these then click HERE.

~Hannah~

Soap & Glory HAND FOOD Review!

Soap & Glory Hand Cream Review!

Hey there! Today I thought i'd review the soap and glory hand cream as they seem to think its the best hand cream ever, but is it? Probably.

Soap & Glory's 'Hand Food' is supposed to soothe dry or chapped hands, soften them and make them non-greasy. It is made with shea butter, macadamia oil and marshmallow, although it mostly smells of shea butter, not marshmallow, unfortunately:(.

As my hands are very dry and chapped I thought this would be a handy little tube to have around and seeing as Soap & Glory are well recommended I thought i'd give it a shot. I have been using it for a while now and my hands have definitely got smoother and the dryness is slowly going but I do have to use it often. I find as I use anti-bacterial soap daily my hands have been getting more and more chapped so i'm having to use the Hand Food more often. 

For a small tube like the picture above it costs £2.50 or for a larger tube £5.00. I've had my tube for a long time now and it's not running out so I would recommend getting the smaller tube especially if your trying it out. It's great to take out as it well sealed so you can just chuck it into your bag easily. 

The smell could be worked on as it smells like a normal hand cream would, i'm not sure if that's because i've had it a long time though and the smells worn off, if that's possible? But apart from that it does it's job and its a very, very good hand cream. Well done Soap & Glory!

How to: Get Inspired!

Being Inspired

I enjoy doing art everyday and love learning new techniques, but I tend to stick to the usual drawing and painting. But I've been getting inspired and decided to do some other types of art!

I've started off by gathering lots of little images and pictures from a huge pile of magazines and making a college on my wall. I tried to get a variety of images so that I would be able to try lots of new things. My hope was that I would be able to interpret these pictures into art and change them to fit my ideas. 

I sorted out buttons and fabrics into colour order so that I could find things easily and quicker. I made a special tray for anything that I liked, weather it was a button or a bit of fluff shaped funny, so that I could use it to inspire me. 

I made sure I used only materials I'd never used before to create images I had in my head. Anything I liked the shape of, I would sketch out, and create. I hope that by becoming more organised I can be able to become inspired easier and start improving new skills!

Hope you can become inspired by this post! WHAT DO YOU DO TO INSPIRE YOURSELF? ♥ 

Thanks for reading! Join my blog via Google, and I will give you + your blog a shoutout!

~Hannah~

♥