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Thursday 9 February 2017

I interrupt normal scheduling for... Make Up!

Dear Scribblers

On my recent holiday to Las Vegas and Hawaii, I was able to indulge in a little bit of shopping! Always a happy hop and squee moment.

We no longer have Sephora in the UK - who is old enough to remember when it was here? <sound of crickets chripping> Only me then! We had a fabulous one nearby in Southampton. Sigh! Although I hear they might be dipping a toe back into the UK very soon. - so whenever I land in a country where the gorgeous black and white striped frontage lives, I make a bee-line straight for it. Or should I say, a bee-stung-lip-line for it - I wish! That's way I need the make up's.

Talking of lips, one amazing set I picked up on my holiday haul was the Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lip and Liner set.

I've already posted a photo of it on Instagram, but because of the limited characters, I couldn't write the full product name in the comment. So I thought I'd add it here, along with a one sentence review for each. So, here goes:


1. Laura Mercier lip pencil in Naked. Good natural colour, a little flaky.
2. Too Faced melted matte lipstick in Sell Out. Way to pale and drying for my liking.
3. YSL Rouge Pur Couture - No 70 Le Nu. Creamy, good for 'non-makeup' days.
4. Tarte cosmetics Tarteist lip crayon - Mood Ring. Decent deep red, a lip dry, fiddly to turn to get to more product.
5. Marc Jacobs enamored lip lacquer - Pretty Thing. Thick, sticky, almost clear, quite nice to use as a vaguely tinted lip balm.
6. Buxom full on lip cream - Kir Royale. My absolute favourite! Can wear it as a thin veil of colour, or load it for a darker stain. Lasted a lot longer on the lips than I expected. I like the slight tingle, some may not.
7. Benefit cosmetics They're Real Double the Lip - Fuchsia Fever. Their brand new lip range, pay off and double shade works well, as does the lip bullet. Hate the colour! Although see 12.
8. Make Up For Ever artist rouge - M401 Mat. Third favourite lip stick in the set. So rich, creamy, long wearing, and love the colour.
9. Nars velvet matt lip pencil - Cruella. Second favourite lipstick. So easy to use, great coverage in just one swipe. Gorgeous shade.
10. Stila stay all day lipstick- Beso. Pretty impressed with this. Intense colour, didn't fine it too drying. Need to wear it again for final decision.
11. Smashbox always sharp lip liner - Crimson. Best liner of the lot, creamy, easy to use, can be worn as colour on its own.
12. Estee Edit lip flip shade transformer - 02 Turn Down. Quite cool to wear as a dark balm on its own, however meant to be used to tone down shades of other lipsticks. Tried it with horrid no. 7 ⬆️, and it made it more wearable for me. Needs practise to get the right thickness of coverage, better with a lip brush than from the bullet, but pat with a finger to get rid of brush streaks afterwards.
13. Ciate liquid velvet - VooDoo. Intense, gothic, very cool. Amazing coverage and colour.
14. Know cosmetics no bleeding lips lip liner. Clear liner to seal lip edge. I've tried a few like these in the past, this one is a little dry, but does the job.

I hoped you enjoyed this little of something different. Do you have this set? Do you agree with my reviews? Is there any other colours from these lines you'd recommend? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Scribing!

... and make up'ing!

Important Notes
1. Please note that I am not connected to any companies mentioned in this post. I do not receive any products, funding or gifting from these businesses. All products shown have been bought by me, or gifts from family or friends. I mention the items because I like them or have my own private opinion about them. It's just little old me talking about ma stuff! ;-)
2. If you would like to see more of anything in this series, please write a comment below, or 'like' and leave a comment by my latest Instagram photo, letting me know what you would like me to post photos and write about.
3. If you like what you read, don't forget to bookmark this site, and please share it with your friends.
4. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @TheCraftyScribe which I update regularly with all things crafty, scribbling, beauty, fashion, the cats, sci-fi, fantasy, and the ephemera of 42*...................
*42 = Life, The Universe and Everything!

Saturday 4 February 2017

Happy Unexpected Crafting New Year! Aka The CHANEL Hassle. Part 2 of 2

Dear Scribblers

Sorry for the delay. I'm finally starting to feel better. So, here it is... What happens when you have a Louis Vuitton horizontal agenda insert that's too big for the medium agenda Chanel cover? For the backstory of why I was in this position, please read Part 1.

I needed to get this:

Into this:


It only stuck out about 1cm or so, but it looked a mess. I had a few choices open to me. The first was to pinch the metal coils, which were causing the majority of the problem.

I could have used pliers, but I had the fabulous Zutter Bind It All. I put the agenda in place, and gently clamped down, tightening the coils. It helped, but it still hung over! Holy Zutter, Batman! I would have to cut it down.

I looked at cutting a bit off the bottom, but it would have clipped into the days, plus I would have lost the gorgeous silver paper edging, which matched the Chanel CC logo on the front of my agenda so I didn't want to lose that from the longest edge.

I knew exactly what I needed to do, that was to take the whole thing apart and take off the top edge.

I began removing the old coils, and then making sure the silver edges of all the pages were aligned, I then used bull-dog clips to hold them altogether for the next part of the process.

I decided to use my metal ruler and sharp craft knife to cut through the whole thing a little bit at a time. I had a paper trimmer and variety of scissors on standby, in case this first idea didn't work. I needn't have worried as working methodically through the pile, it didn't take very long to get it cut.


I cut just below the original holes which made it a perfect guide for lining up the ruler. Any tiny wavers or slivers of paper left were easily dealt with using a nail file.


So now what? Now, I needed to make new holes to take the Bind It All coils (couldn't use the originals as the spacing didn't align.) I decided I didn't want to completely bind it with wires across the top, therefore I didn't need to punch holes all the way. I settled on 4 each end, but how to make sure I spaced them identically either side and all the way through the pile! I hadn't used the Zutter for a while, so it took a little figuring out. In fact, I found this the most difficult part of the whole process.
Here's what I came up with. (If you have a better/simpler/quicker way, please let me know in the comments, as I'm always up for new tricks and tips.)

First, I took a scrap piece of card and punched out holes all the way across to make a guide.


I then put the card back into the Zutter, hooking a hole into the stop bar tab, so it held the card steady and in place, and counted 4 spaces in from the left (as you look down on the machine.) I made a mark between the 4th and 5th holes. I removed the card again, and drew a line down the sheet, making sure it landed half way between the two. This I hoped would be the correct placement to the edge of the page.


Next came the test! I hooked the guide sheet back in place, and grabbed a piece of paper, lining it up against the guide line and punched out the holes...


And what did you know? It worked!


I tried a few more times with scrap, just to make sure that I was confident with the alignment, and also to make sure I had a steady hand. It was now down to me to get the pages to line up with the ruled line I'd drawn, as long as I did that, all probability meant that it would work.

To begin with, I punched with just 4 or 5 pages at a time. I'd cut out the one side first, before flipping the sheets over to punch the other 4 holes, so that selection was complete. Then I moved onto the next few pages, and over, and over again. As I grew in confidence, I began adding a few extra sheets to the pile, which I finished in no time at all. Here it was at about the half way point.


Next on the agenda... for the agenda!.. was to bind it all back up again.


Problem was I only had fairly large coils, or 'O Wires' as Zutter call it, but I thought I'd give it a go.


I cut the wires down to 4 loops each side, hooked them onto the pages and using the other part of the Bind It All, gently squeezed them into position.


Well. It looked the part, but - but, it still wasn't quite right! After all that, it didn't sit snug enough inside the cover. So disappointed. I knew it was all down to the ring size. They were far too large, plus I noticed they were pressing into the leather inside the cover. No good at all. Then I thought of a great interim idea. Cable ties!

My hubby is a superb handyman with a well stocked tool case. 😜😆😂 He has cable ties (or tie wraps, depending where you come from) of all different sizes and colours. So I knabbed a few different ones to experiment with, and settled on using just 4 of these in the end.


Any more than 2 either end was overkill, and I found that the more you add the more the movement of turning the pages are reduced, and I think they'd be more chance of ripping the paper that way. Trying only 1 cable tie each end made the agenda unstable.

As I said, these were/are only meant to be a stop gap before deciding on whether I'm going to change over smaller wires. However, after using the agenda for about 3 weeks I can say, I'm enjoying using it like this.


In fact, I don't notice the binding, and isn't that the best way? I'd notice it, if it wasn't working, if it was causing problems or I was fighting with it to turn the pages, but honestly I'm not.

It's probably not as perfect as using proper coils, but I don't think they are any less 'pretty', as the original metal wires can't be considered to look that attractive either.

What I'm doing is using the agenda, and generally enjoying using it. Has it been worth the hassle? Well, I would have preferred to have walked - or what did I originally say, 'entered with a skip in my step' - into Chanel and bought the correct insert, which would have saved me a lot of time and effort. However, seeing as I've ended up with an attractive Louis Vuitton weekly planner in the same horizontal layout that now works and fits inside the Chanel medium agenda cover, so yes, I'd say that it was worth the hassle.

Has it all gone to plan? No! 🙀
Am I now pleased with the outcome? A resounding yes! 😃👍
Would I buy another Louis Vuitton agenda? Now, there's a question!!!
If you'd like an answer to that, please leave a comment here, or on the corresponding Instagram picture. I'll follow up with a new post of a full review on the insert, including pen tests, along with further photos of how I'm making it work.

Happy Scribing!

Important Notes
1. Please note that I am not connected to any companies mentioned in this post. I do not receive any products, funding or gifting from these businesses. All products shown have been bought by me, or gifts from family or friends. I mention the items because I like them or have my own private opinion about them. It's just little old me talking about ma stuff! ;-)
2. If you would like to see more of anything in this series, please write a comment below, or 'like' and leave a comment by my latest Instagram photo, letting me know what you would like me to post photos and write about.
3. If you like what you read, don't forget to bookmark this site, and please share it with your friends.
4. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @TheCraftyScribe which I update regularly with all things crafty, scribbling, beauty, fashion, the cats, sci-fi, fantasy, and the ephemera of 42*...................
*42 = Life, The Universe and Everything!

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