Post-event: Red and Black Week

So Red and Black week is over. VictorianKitty, who runs the great blog Sophistique Noir, hosted a wonderful event, and I already have a couple of ideas for next year. Hello to my new followers as well, and thank you for looking in on my posts.

The past week almost makes me want to paint my room black with deep blood red bookcases, but after finding and turfing out three spiders in the last 10 minutes, (one of them was the size of my palm) that is not an option. I seem to have a sixth sense for spotting spiders in obscure corners, but that's not going to happen if they blend in too much.

Edit: Maybe I'm just having a creepy evening. A shadow just passed in front of the light, but there's nothing behind me.

This summer I'm going to, time and circumstances permitting, redecorate my room. As you may be able to see slightly from previous photos, the walls are currently pink courtesy of the previous owner. I moved in to this house 5 years ago, and the year after headed off to uni so it's never been corrected.

All the red and black creativeness has given me some inspiration, even if the colours will be different. I don't mind cold colours, as my posters will cover a significant part of the walls anyway, so I was thinking a blue or purple shade? My only requirement is that I can still spot spiders creeping up on me.

I'd also like to sand down and repaint my bookcases. I'd love to paint them black on the outside and a rich colour to coordinate with the walls on the inside. What do you think? If I do that, I'll definitely write a post about it.

On the downside, my books will have to be packed away. I think I may gradually and subtly clear space on the landing bookshelves in order to keep some aside for reading.

Red and Black Week: Printing on Ribbon

Welcome to my final post for Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week.

Firstly, I have used two different tutorials from around the web to help me create my ribbons: Scrap 'n Doodle's post and this tutorial from As The Card Rack Turns.

This post is my attempt to follow the above instructions and produce something for myself (which of course will be red and black themed).


I used:

• White card (sturdier than paper so it won't buckle under your ribbon)
• Double-sided sticky tape
• Normal tape
• Sewing scissors and scissors you don't mind getting sticky (mine need regular de-gunking due to card-making)
• Cheap white cotton ribbon (30p/metre) for testing and red satin (45p/metre) for the actual printing. A metre is sufficient for one printed ribbon.
• According to the tutorials, cotton is better, but my local haberdashery didn't have much choice, and I wanted red ribbon.

I decided to find a quotation from Wuthering Heights to print onto my ribbon; I used wuthering-heights.co.uk to find a quotation about the moors, which I'd love to visit one day.


"There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness : not a light gleamed from any house, far or near"

Wuthering Heights by Emilie Bronte

 
The text font is Monotype Corsica, and the size is 16. I also rotated it 90 degrees to the right in order to fit more words on the page.

(Or as I realised afterwards it might have been easier to switch to landscape. I prefer to just adjust the size so it matches the actual paper to give more accuracy)

I also created a reocurring star pattern for fun. If anyone else would like to use it, I would love to give you the word document, but I have no idea how to put it on my blog. Does anyone know if I can do this?

I first printed it onto my piece of white card to test it, plus it gave me the exact position the ribbon should be on the paper, and mark with a pencil which way up it goes.

(As you can see from my photo, I forgot to mark which way it came through the printer the first time.)

I placed the double-sided tape along the pattern, then the test ribbon (white cotton) on top, with a small piece of normal tape at either end to stop the ribbon ends snagging.


Make sure for your nice ribbon that the double-sided tape is slightly wider than the actual ribbon so the ink doesn't catch on the edge of the ribbon.


Once you're happy with the result, repeat with your final ribbon. If you'd like extra length, cut double the length of the paper and wrap one end of the ribbon neatly round the end of the paper, and tape the remaining ribbon to the back of the paper, again ending with a bit of tape to 'seal' the end of the ribbon.

 

Leave to dry so nothing smudges, then carefully peel it off.



Also, you can stick it down again and repeat the above steps if you want to print along the next length of the ribbon.



(Though the ribbon cannot overlap on the edge of the paper that goes into the printer first; my printer thought there was no paper and wouldn't print on it. Or alternatively as I've just discovered, print on a normal piece of paper and feed your ribboned paper into the printer before it closes.)



I'd also recommend printing your red ribbon and black onto white seperately, to avoid what happened to me (above right photo). Hopefully when I use the ribbon this won't be visible, but at least I'll know for next time :)

After I'd printed the first strip of stars, and the black writing on red ribbon, I changed the writing to red with a black background to print onto the white cotton.

You may also want to quickly sew the ends of the ribbon to stop fraying.

The black printing onto white ribbon turned out to be slightly grey, and it also smudged the edge of my red ribbon.

Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the result.

Please comment if something's unclear. If anyone decides to print their own ribbon, I'd love to see photos.

Red and Black Week: Diamonds and spades

My fourth entry for Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week. I bought a dress last week, though I haven't had chance to wear it yet, and I thought the playing cards would fit well into the theme.

I saw this dress last week, and it was one of those "I have to own that" moments, when something just stays with you. Now I just need to find a time to wear it! I love playing cards and board games in general, so this is the perfect dress for me. I'm also on the lookout for accessories to match. I'd love to have earrings of all four suits to mix and match.


















I have various card games, but these are the three red and black ones in my collection. The black one is a game where you roll two mini pigs and score points depending on how they land. (I don't know the English name as it was bought in Belgium - Jeu de Cochons, or Het Biggenspel in Dutch so I guess "The Pig game").

I'm looking forward to the last day tomorrow, I have a crafty post planned. Looking forward to reading everyone else's entries!

Red and Black Week: Dalek

Welcome to my third contribution to Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week. This was going to be a different post, but life got in the way, so instead you are treated to a photo of my red and black dalek, attacking a glue stick to give a sense of scale. He doesn't have a name yet, though I've had him since christmas, and he regularly trundles round my desk saying exterminate when turning a corner.

And to finish, here is a part of my Doctor Who book collection. There's a lot of black and the barest hint of red in there. (Apologies for the quality; it was either fuzziness or glare so I went for the former)

Red and Black week: Bookworm outfit

Did anyone else spot Stevie Wonder's black outfit with red and white during the jubilee concert last night? Even his glasses were black with what looked like red bats on the side.

Here's the only picture I could find (sourced from the Liverpool Echo website) where you can barely see the red bat. If you're in the UK, you can watch it on BBC iplayer.

So this is my second post for the Red and Black Week. I've decided to show one of my favourite tops.

This isn't a fashion blog and I'm afraid my sense of style doesn't match up to the great outfits I've seen while browsing the other blogs partaking in Sophistique Noir's event. This is just to show you the top.

I bought the bookworm top online from pindippy, a website of web series and 'stuff' run by Jessie Cave who is better known as Lavender from the Harry Potter films. It describes me perfectly, as you can see a little in the background. (There's also two rows of dvds but space is tight) It has a lovely feel, is ethically made according to the label, and as it's one-size fits all I didn't have the usual 'will it be the right size?' worry when ordering it.

Red and Black Week

I came across a post for Red and Black week on Stripy Tights and Dark Delights and thought I'd add my own contribution to the week-long event organised and led by Sophistique Noir.

So on a book-themed blog, what better way to pay homage to this lovely combination of colours than a red and black bookshelf. I own over 300 books, but in order not to subject you to an entire shelf of Stephenie Meyer whose covers are among my favourites due to their striking nature (a couple of her books still made it onto the shelf; one of them is the french version of Twilight) I hunted around for a variety.

I've included a photo below  in which most of the books are a little clearer; blame the unusually sunny weather here in Wales for the glare. I may pop down to the beach in a little while.

(The little red book is the Harry Potter book: Fantastic beasts and where to find them, and the slanted book is Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book)

Are any of these books on your shelf?