22 portraits

Oh god, I really need to be more organised with my blogging! Sorry guys! If I didn't have enough projects going on I've decided to tackle a new one! Recently I've been really inspired by the artist Emanuel De Souza ( @emanuelartist if you are on instagram) and his portraits. He does so many amazing ones and when they were all grouped together they had a really nice overall look and his style and personality really came through. I decided as I keep saying I wanted to practice portraits, a similar project would be perfect! Now, I previously ordered 22 canvas's to do some colour studies on, the colour study hype is over and I've decided to rework the canvas's into 22 portraits of musicians that inspire me. 
It's going to be a massive challenge and definitely NOT one that will be completed anytime soon with a trip home, mini trip to Budapest and Christmas but I may give myself a target of April. It's also going to be really hard because theres quite a few men I'd like to paint and I've never tried painting a beard before PLUS I still need to work on my style, colours and technique but I think it's going to be such an amazing challenge and I can't wait to get brainstorming for it! I already know a lot of people I want to paint like the lads from Bastille, Lapsley, Jack Garratt to name a few! I think I may use my time home to get sketching and brainstorming. I may do a timelapse video for some or even some prints of the painting or sketches if they come out decent! Of course I will be doing some posts inside my sketchbook and little updates as well!!
Are you guys working on any projects at the moment? 
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The A->Z of Laura.

Not to long ago Jemma did a post about the A-z of her and I really loved it! Admittedly I had to sing myself the alphabet to get all the letters in order - surely I can't be the only one to do this?!
A- Abu Dhabi - My childhood home, I spent 10 years here but it feels like so much longer! I miss it everyday and it's my favourite place to recharge. When we first moved there we didn't even have malls and my first school was horrendous ( it had barbed wire..to stop students escaping.) but I wouldn't change it for the world!
B- Beanie Babies!I had over 200 of these!! I was obsessed as a child. I've sold a few at carboots recently but I'm still keeping all my favourites! 
C- CATS. I don't think I need to expand too much on this but I really am Bridget Jones with cats!
D- Dalmatians - my favourite animal in the world! As much of a cat lady I am, dalmatians will always hold that no. 1 spot in my heart. 
E-  Eating clean and plant based. I am really trying to eat as healthy as I can to see if it helps my symptoms. ( she says after stuffing herself with a chicken kebab and god knows what...) I'm also making anti inflammatory shakes to see if they help as well. 
F- Festivals - I freakin LOVE them! I really want to do more different ones around the world, my dream before I'm 30 would be able to festival hop from April - Sept and just try them ALL. 
G- Golf, I used to play golf every weekend when I first moved out! My bestie in grade 4 got me into it and we had to go to Emirates Golf Course in Dubai every weekend to play as Abu Dhabi didn't have a course yet.
H- Harry, my cat! Named after Mr Potter himself as he has a little lightening bolt above his eye.( I'm not kidding!) I love this little idiot even if he hates me and never wants to cuddle unless it's night he's the best! Even my patronus was a black and white cat! I also seriously love HP anyway, Hufflepuff and proud!
I- ILL. I've been ill since the end of May, it's undiagnosed and doing my head in! :(
J- Jokes - I love jokes, especially crappy jokes. A particular childhood favourite was ' what's brown and sticky? - a stick'..... enough said there.
K- Kayla Itsines, I started her plan this year and it has made such a difference to me, body wise and mentally.You can read about my progress here. I haven't been able to repeat the plan since being ill as it was too intense and I was getting too dizzy but I am going to try and push through and restart the plan this month. 
L- Luanna - who is currently one of my girl crushes - her haaaaair. oh my gawd. it's beautiful! She is so stylish. LIFE GOAL. 
M- Mcfly, my favourite band growing up! I got to see them last month and it was AMAZING. ( yes I went to all 3 nights!) I finally got to hear sorry's not good enough for the first time!
N- Needle and thread - I am SO obsessed and inspired by this brand at the moment! I wish I had the money for like 3 of there dresses and I want a fiance just to buy one of their wedding dresses! ahahaha!
O- Originality, I'm always tough on myself when it comes to art and I always feel like I'm not original enough especially when I see so many amazing artists out there. I know I shouldn't compare but I do sometimes..a lot, I've got quite a few ideas which I hope are original and I just need to keep working, taking inspiration and using it with my own ideas.
P-Painting, I love to paint and this year I started to go back to oils, I have so much to learn and I really need to get my arse into gear and practice and get some work made but I love it! I would love to do this full time. 
Q- QUEEN. I love calling people this! Also I recently got the lipstick from Charlotte Tilbury of the same name and it is GORGEOUS.
R- Reading - one of my all time favourite pastimes, espcially on holiday. I have so many books and so many more I want to read! My trip home next month is the perfect excuse to buy some and I have my eye on at least 3!
S- Short. I am very short, so short that people frequently like to remind me how short I am. As if I hadn't known my whole life... 
T- Travelling, I LOVE to travel. Experience different foods, ways of life, cultures. I just love it, I wish I could travel more but I know I am fortunate to have travelled how much I have so far. Next year I get to tick L.A and Bali off the list!
U- Urmston - Where I was born and where I live now! 
V- Violin - I used to play one as a child, I think I got to like grade 2 but I always wanted to play guitar and never really put much effort in. I'm debating trying to learn again, I had the most beautiful Violin as a child and let's be honest I haven't grown much since.
W- Weird, I'm a weird person, I accept it.
X- Xbox, I didn't really have anything to put here aha! So I went for X-box as I used to work in GAME for like 2 years!
Y- Yoga, a pastime I love but really need to put more time aside for.
Z- Zombieland - I'm watching it right now, it's alright so far! I'm not a mahoosive fan of Jessie Eisenberg though. ( he did grow on me slightly by the end) 
Geez, this was a lot harder than I thought!! Some letters I had like 3-4 words I could have used and surprisingly struggled on E, N and O! I kept wanting to write elephant! Even though I have like no associations with them!!   Ciao x
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DIY Harry potter boxes

At the beginning of September my Auntie asked me to make some DIY boxes for her and my cousin and I couldn't wait, she had seen some in a market in London but they were quite pricey! I had been given  picture of the third year potions on one side of a box as the only guide and pretty much got to do what I want with the rest! I knew straight away I wanted to do the other box as if it came from a wizarding shop in Diagon Alley.

To make the boxes you need:
- Plain pinewood box
- Wood dye (  I bought the georgian medium oak - from B&Q)
- sandpaper
- some paint ( I mixed brown and black to get this shade)
- thin paint brushes

Depending on how you want to put the words on.... you can draw them on, but I used
- tracing paper, oil pastel covered plain paper.

Firstly, you need to sand the boxes down to help the dye stick and it'll take two coats of the dye. ( the third pic down is the difference between the two coats! and the second pic is the difference between the original box and first coat) Then cover a piece of paper with a dark oil pastel, trace  your design onto it and then trace it on and paint! I used a really thin brush and just take your time,you can add any accents on that you want!  ( if you make any serious mistakes you can wipe them off with a watered down cloth - just be verrrryy careful) 

First the first box I went for the hogwarts school and third year potions my aunt had sent me a picture of and on the side I decided to add what any 3rd year may need - a cauldron, phials and of course - ingredients! Like I said for the second box  I wanted to do a shop from Diagon Alley, so I researched and found the name and then found some apothecary stickers on pinterest and adapted them to the design I wanted which was the dragon claws.

         Pretty simple and they look amazing! I really loved doing these and I may have to do a few                                                                    more for myself, I'm already brewing ideas!

                                                                            x
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