How To Do A Waterfall Braid – Photo Tutorial!
I love this style in Summer, I always get really obsessed with braids in Summer for some reason! So today’s hair tutorial is a little bit of a different braid, it’s a waterfall style!
It looks complicated but all this really means is that some of the top strands fall down to the bottom rather than continuing through the entire braid.
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So let’s get started!  We will be working on the side of the head today but you can do this in any direction once you understand the mechanics.
 To help things along I’m going to colour code it. Take a small piece of hair at the very top front and divide it into 3 pieces as if you are going to start a regular braid.
 Begin braiding, starting from the bottom piece.
 When you are going to move the top piece down, move it and then completely drop it so it hangs loose.
 Continue braiding with the bottom strand as if nothing happened. When you add the next piece of hair in from the bottom you will actually trap the hanging piece down in place.
 Now when you need to take the next section from the top, grab a completely new piece of hair at the top, move it over and then drop it.
 You can see what I mean a bit better here:
 Continue doing this for the entire braid. Here is the complete pattern colour coded:
 When you get to the back you can plait it down and then repeat on the other side or just keep going all the way around the other side. It looks really cool if you do two rows of these braids next to each other.
 Taadaa!
 Dropping pieces of the braid feels very unnatural when you start out doing it but once you understand the movement it’s as quick to do as any other braid!
 It has a really pretty effect though! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and let me know if you give it a try.
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Cable Knit Beanie Finished Project!
The cable knitting obsession continues even further with a hat to match the cardigan I made.
I think the hat actually took longer than the cardigan because it’s such a tighter gauge to work.
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To begin with I cast on 156 stitches. This is a big floppy hat so that’s one of the many reasons it look so damn long! The ribbing at the bottom is k2 p2 continually as I was using circular needles.   I’m not sure how many rows it was but I continued the ribbing for around 25cm long.
 At this point I did one row of decreases so k2, k2tog. I made sure the decreases were on the purled stitches so that the knitted stitches would continue into the cables.
  I then counted the remaining stitches to work out a nice cable pattern which would fit. I had 104 stitches so my cable pattern became:
K3 p3, 2 strand cable with 3 stitches per strand, p2. Repeat this pattern 8 times and you should be at the end of the row.
 I found cables a bit harder to work in the round as it was harder to distinguish where I was in the pattern at a glance. I knit to tune out while I’m watching tv so counting stitches is not something I enjoy doing much.
 I did 8 cable twists which got the hat long enough for my head. Then I began to decrease one stitch in the k3 part of the pattern every row, then the p2 part etc until there was only the cables strands left on my needles and eventually there were to stitches left and I tied off.
 Done and omg so glad it’s over! I always remember knitting beanies fondly until I’m actually doing it and remember what a pain in the butt they are for being such small projects!
  The only thing missing at this point was a thick pom pom for up top.
   Done!
    As much as it wasn’t my favourite project ever, I really love the finished product! I don’t think I’ll be doing any beanies for a long time though… maybe a beret though… No, bad Violet!
   Hope you enjoyed looking at my latest project!
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Polka Dot Daisy Bee Cake Adventures
I’m so obsessed with cake decorating at the moment. The weather has been way too hot to really bake properly without things melting but for whatever reason I just keep doing it anyway >_>
My latest cake creation was this daisy bee cake.
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It uses a technique that I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while: hidden designs. I decided to just go with an easy version for my first time and did polka dots.
I’m not going to do a full recipe but this is basically how I did it. To begin with I made a pink raspberry cake and cooked it.  Raspberry cake!
 I removed the outside and mushed up the middle. It was totally delicious and soft!
 Then I smooshed them into balls. I tried not to press them too hard so the texture of the cake didn’t change too much.
 Next I made the yellow lemon cake batter.
 Once the lemon batter was in the tins I pressed the raspberry balls inside so they were floating as different levels.
 I was using a new cake recipe and they rose far more than expected!
 While the cakes were cooling in the fridge I made the decorations.
 The daisies were pressed out of sugar gum paste.
 Then I painted the centre of each one yellow by hand using food coloring.
 Once the cake was ready for icing I made some green butter cream and coated it.
 It was so hot that day that the butter cream kept melting so I had to put it in the freezer every few minutes to reset. After it was hard enough I covered it completely with daisies. I also made the little bees for the top out of modelling chocolate. Their wings needed to be more solid so they were out of gum paste too.
   Poor bees, they were very melty too! I think it’s not really possible to do good work with modelling chocolate in the Australian Summer if you don’t have air conditioning ;_;
    So anyway the point of this cake is that when you cut into it and you cut through the raspberry balls you will get a cool polkadot pattern.
 Delicious!
 Now I’m a bit more confident with this idea I’d like to branch out more into other designs like leopard print or stars/hearts/whatever.
 Poor decapitated bees XD
  I hope you enjoyed my cake adventures!
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How To Make A Tape Measure Rose Bracelet Tutorial
I think I’ve seen just about every incarnation of the tape measure bracelet but even though I love the concept I never found one that was perfect for me. So obviously it’s time to make my own!
The main points I wanted to include were a stiff bangle base and bunch of roses. I prefer roses grouped in threes so I went with that for a design.
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Let’s get into it! You need:
Let’s make the bangle part to begin with. Measure your wrist and cut the two ends of the tape measure off so together they are long enough to wrap around your wrist.
Hot glue them together in the centre.
Measure out some wire which is 3 times as long as the tape.
Fold it up so it’s the same length as the tap and hot glue it to the bottom.
This will allow the bracelet to move and bend but remain stiff on your wrist. Now cut off a piece of ribbon as long as the tape, fold over the edges and hot glue it over the wire.
This will hold everything in and hide the wire but it will also make sure the metal ends don’t irritate your skin. A good tip when gluing things like this around curves is to bend the bracelet roughly in the finished shape before you glue, this will avoid any bumps in the ribbon at the end. Now we need to make the rose.
These are the same kind of rose that people often make from ribbon. I’ve done a full tutorial for that over here so have a look if any of this is a bit confusing. Take the end of the tape measure and fold it at a right angle. Roll the folded part (the stem) up towards the fold. Fold the tail of the tape backwards again at a right angle. Continue rolling the stem over the fold you made. Keep going with this process, fold backwards and then roll the stem over it. As you keep going it will form petals.
Continue until you think the rose is big enough and then secure the end with some hot glue. I made one big rose and two smaller ones.
Next, snip the stems off the roses and glue them to the centre of the bracelet you made.
Done!
And there you have it, my take on a classic.
I love having jewellery which matches my hobbies! Let me know what you guys think and if you try it out!
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Let’s Paint! Watercolour Walk Through – Choosing Your Materials
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The two most important parts of watercolour painting are the paint and the paper. Even with the best set of paints in the entire world if your paper sucks it’s going to be difficult to get anything done.
I strongly suggest buying watercolour paper. It’s really not that expensive and you will see much better results with it than regular paper or drawing cartridge paper. I have always had decent paints but it wasn’t until I moved to really good paper a few years ago that I was able to get any of the beautiful effects that I had in my head.
This is what I’m using at the moment, it’s not my first choice in paper but it’s reasonably priced (I think I paid $20 for 100 sheets on sale) and it’s decent.
 Look for paper which is at LEAST 200gsm weight. I personally prefer 300gsm but 200 is not bad. The weight of the paper is so important when you’re working with wet paints because thinner paper will curl and buckle with water much more. Thicker paper will hold more colour and stand up better to layered paints. Thicker=infinitely better.
 Make sure your paper is acid free as well. This means the paper won’t degrade as fast over time so your artwork is safer. Seriously though, watercolour paper changed my whole outlook on painting so if you can afford it, get it.
Watercolour paper comes in hot pressed and cold pressed varieties. This is how the paper is made and it will effect how the paint takes to it. You can also get smooth grain or rougher textured paper which I prefer.
 Paint is another thing you don’t want to cheap out on if you can afford it. While cheaper paints are obviously cost effective and not the worst to actually use, you will never get the same results as you will with a decent quality paint.
I used cheap paints for a very long time until my favourite palette was ruined and I happened to have an art voucher during a sale. I scored a Windsor and Newton 12 pan paint kit for $20 and it has made an insane difference to my artwork. These kits can be quite pricy if you don’t get them on sale but even if you just start with 3-4 colours it’s worth buying a good brand.
Keep in mind that each brand has several “grades” of paint too and the difference is usually in things like “will fade after 100 years rather than 200 years”… so if you are just starting out and price conscious then pick the cheaper range from a good brand.
I use Windsor and Newton and the range is Cotman. The pans are a little expensive but the tubes are around $6 each and have a lot of paint in them. They go on sale quite often so keep an eye out for bargains!
 Watercolour paint comes in two forms: liquid in tubes and set in pans.
I prefer working from pans out of personal preference so even when I buy the tube colours, I make my own pans and set them to dry over a few days. When I was branching out to buy tube colours for the first time I had a conversation with an art store attendant who made me feel very stupid when I asked about the difference between pan and tube colours. Turns out contrary to her snotty advice, there’s no real difference, it’s just personal preference.
 With pan colours you can generally tell whether they are good quality or not because when you paint with cheaper ones they feel and look almost grainy. Good quality pans look almost shiny and feel really smooth to use.
 When you are starting out I suggest buying a palette with maybe 12 colours. These are usually the basics you will need until you work out the kind of painting you want to do. Later on you can customise your palette how you like. For example, mine didn’t come with pink or purple so I added them later.
Really so long as you have the primary colours (red, blue, yellow) and a black and white you can mix a lot of other colours you want. That said, watercolours are not like acrylic paints, there are some colours you just can’t mix and diluting colours with white to make pastel colours is much more difficult because white generally just makes the paint more opaque because of it’s chemical consistency.
 This is another thing to keep in mind. Watercolour paints are coloured with pigments which have different properties. So some colours are more opaque and some colours are transparent by nature. For example, the orange in my palette is SUPER opaque and bright, you can never dilute it down too much without distorting the colour. The blue in my palette is the total opposite, getting a bright opaque blue isn’t going to happen with that shade because by nature it is thin and transparent.
As you play around more with your paint you will start to get a real feel of the colours and what you can do within their physical limitations.
 Now brushes! These are the brushes that I use the most.
 From top to bottom…
Big brush: Good for backgrounds and big sweeping strokes
Thin long brush: Good for outlines
2 x Short thin brushes: Good for details and small areas
Standard brush: Good all rounder, this one folds up with a lid for traveling
Aqua brush: Best brush everrrr
 Brushes come made from different materials and have different qualities which are suited for different jobs. My preference is usually for acrylic bristles and a medium brush with a very fine point for details.
 My ultimate brush is the Pentel Aquash brush because it actually holds the water inside the brush. You control the water by squeezing and it’s a very natural way to work. I find constantly washing and dipping my brush for more water irritating so this is perfect for me.
 The tip is flexible but retains it’s point really well. It took me like 20 minutes to unlearn everything from years of brush dipping and fall in love with this brush.
 Pens and pencils next!
 My preference is for fine tip water proof markers. Always go with waterproof for obvious reasons. I prefer to use a mechanical pencil with orange lead. The orange is easy to hide in watercolours so you can’t see all of the sketch lines.
 You can see what they look like with a quick wash of colour over them below. Rather than do white highlights with paint I prefer to use a gel pen because it is totally opaque and gives good precision.
 The last thing you might find yourself wanting to play with is art masking fluid. Basically what this does is mask off areas you can then paint over. When you remove the fluid afterwards you will have a clean area underneath.
 It can be an absolute bitch to paint with though! Never use the same brush you would use for regular painting because masking fluid is really hard to clean out. I have a dedicated fluid brush which I replace every few months when it gets gross.
I had stayed away from masking fluid for a long time because I thought it was very expensive. For this 100ml bottle it only cost around $12 and I have barely used any of it at all in the last year, totally worth it!
 I applied fluid below and painted over it.
 When it’s removed it looks like this:
 So that’s the first edition of Watercolour Walkthrough! Hopefully that will set you on the right course to get your first set of equipment! Let me know what you guys thought of this, if you have any questions leave them in the comments and I’ll cover them in the next edition!
Next time I’ll be going over a lot of basic techniques you will need to know 😀
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Rose Cameo Nail Art Photo Tutorial
Let’s do some nail art! Today I wanted to do some nail art which was inspired by the fabric background that I’m using to shoot these on. Quilting fabric often has really great patterns and designs which work beautifully for nail art so next time you’re in the fabric shop make sure you stop and take a look!
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You will need:
Start by painting a base coat of light pink.  This design is placed randomly all over the nail so I’ll just show you the basic shapes for the first one. Paint a large circle in white.
 Add little semi-circles all around it in white as well so it looks like lace.
You can begin repeating this shape all over the nails at random now.
 Add tiny dots of light pink into each of the semi-circles and then one large pink splotch in the middle
 Add a couple of slightly darker pink dots or “C” shapes to the middle of the splotch. This will give the rose in the middle some definition.
 And now add some hot pink little leaves around the outside. I went with 6 randomly spaced.
 Lastly, once everything is completely dry, top coat it with clear polish to smooth and seal it al in.
 All done!
 Repeating the design randomly and going off the edges of the nails make it look a lot more like an actual fabric pattern.
 Cute! Let me know if you give it a try!
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Want to download this tutorial in one handy file?
