Book Review: Blood Truth (Black Dagger Legacy #4) By J.R. Ward

Blood Truth by J.R. Ward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ms. Ward had done it again!

I loved this and could not put it down.

Having been binge reading the BDB and BDB Legacy books to get to this point, it occurred to me that until reading this, we know practically nothing about Boone’s character and family dynamic; and I think that made this book a particularly gripping page turner. Prologue aside, this picks up right off the tail end of The Saviour (BDB 17) and shows us some of the fallout that wouldn’t really have a place in the main BDB series.

I also liked that we get to see Butch going back to his roots as it were with there being a murder so solve. I also believe that this is the first time that we see Butch reflect on that partnership he had with Jose De La Cruz, and his feeling on no longer having that part of his human life.

Blood Truth also starts to set up for The Sinner with a bit on an insight into Syn’s past.

Great characters. Good plot line. Can’t wait for more!!

View all my reviews

Well, Colour Me Amazed!

The Vintage Black and White is gorgeous. But the Classic Colours kit is also stunning.

Inspired my visits to many English heritage homes where these colours are often seen in damask wallpapers.

Penny Dreadfuls - Damask Classic Colours now in my Etsy store.

Get your kit here.  

Book Review: Moonlight Scandals by Jennifer L Armentrout (de Vincent #3)

Moonlight Scandals by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've really enjoyed this series of books.

This book was particularly interesting as we finally get to know and understand the the Devil himself; Devlin de Vincent. The previous two books paint Dev as a cold harsh and unlikable character, so I was more than intrigued to read his story and discover what has shaped his character. This is a hard review to write without giving away spoilers so what I will say is this:

Do we find out why he was with Sabrina for so long in this book?: Yes we do.
Do we find out once and for all if Dev killed his Father in this book?: Yes we do.
Do we finally find out what Lawrence had been up to to make him so evil?: Yes we do.
Do we discover who Gabe and Dev's real father is: Yes we do.

I like that Rosie, Nikki's friend in the previous book, is the leading lady in this one. Especially as it overlaps and sort of continues on a little bit of Nikki and Gabe's relationship. You get to finally see what was going on between Dev and Rosie while Gabe comforts Nikki in Rosie's apartment, which was quite entertaining. I found Rosie to be a interesting character particularly as she does not help me finally come to a conclusion as to whether there is a supernatural element to this series or not. Seriously, just when I think I've decided one way or the other, something else crops that makes me think other wise.

There were a couple of twists in this book. One that I kind of guessed, and a couple more that I totally didn't see coming at all.

I really loved this series and given the revelation at the end I hope that there may be more to come from the de Vincent family.

View all my reviews

Penny For Your Thoughts?

 

New in my Etsy Shop.

Penny Dreadfuls - Damask Vintage Black and White

Check this beautiful kit out here.

Book review: Moonlight Seduction by Jennifer L Armentrout (de Vincent #2)

Moonlight Seduction by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As soon as I had finished Moonlight Sins (book one) I just knew that I had to get my hands on the rest of the series.

I loved this book. I enjoyed seeing the slightly different dynamic between Nikki and Gabe than we had with Julia and Lucien, what with Nikki having known the de Vincent brothers since she was a child.

One thing that I really love about these books is that is is never quite clear whether there is a supernatural element to them or not. It's stated that the de Vincent Mansion is suppose to be haunted and just like in the first book just when you start to believe its something supernatural, something happens to explain it all away.

The plot line in this book keeps you guessing all the way through. It also sets up the next book quite nicely.

Once you start reading this you will not want to put it down. Loved it.

View all my reviews

Stand By Please Ladies and Gentlemen of the Company

 At the end of October I become redundant from my job on the Mary Poppins Musical in London.

September 23rd marked marked a whole year since our first day of fit up. It also marked a whole year since I completed my apprenticeship in technical theatre. I haven't been to work since the 23rd  of March, and won't be returning to work until next year at the earliest. 

I've known about my redundancy since July. It didn't come as a surprise; in fact I probably would have been more shocked if I wasn't to be made redundant. On July 29th I went back into London for the first time since lockdown started. For a city in the middle of summer I couldn't believe how quiet it was. There was so few people around and so little traffic on the roads. The walk from Embankment to Soho is usually a busy one, but I swear that it took half the time it normally would to do that walk. I'm pretty certain that the only people in Soho were delivery drivers for the recently reopened bars and restaurants and other theatre workers like my self going back into the theatres for the same reason I was; to get their personal belonging and tools from their lockers and offices.

I was pretty sad to walk past the main door of the Prince Edward Theatre (current home to Poppins) and see it all boarded up. It was a bit of a harsh reminded that this isn't something that is going to be over quickly, that we were going to be Dark for a while. I think we all had it our heads when this started that the country would be on lockdown for 12 weeks and then we would be back; that by the time July rolled around we would be back stepping in time and flying kites.

This is unfortunately the case for so many people in the arts and entertainment industry. So many people are out of work and many don't even qualify for any financial support. Do you know what I find most frustrating? The number of people that don't work in the entertainment and live arts industry that are of the opinion that what we do isn't a real job, isn't important enough to get government support. It's frustrating and also hilarious. It's hilarious because while they are of that opinion, they are more than happy to spend their days in lockdown bingeing Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus etc. Who do they think made those TV show and films? In a normal world they are quite happy to spend date night at the theatre with their significant other. I wonder how they'll all feel if the industry that provides relief from their boredom and enjoyable evenings out was to disappear? I suppose its that classic thing of you don't know what you've got until it's gone, but that doesn't help those of us being put out of work now. 

There are some good things that have come out of lockdown. I've probably spoken to my best friend more in the last six months than I have in the last two or three years. I know it sounds bad when put like that but we have that kind of friendship that accepts that we are both busy adults and it gives us more to talk about when we do catch up. (She was also my Press Night Guest when Poppins opened, so she can't say I don't get her anything 😜). I caught up on a lot of TV that I hadn't gotten around to watching, spent more time with my mum, and most importantly have been able to eat my dinner of an actual plate rather than out of Tupperware (it's the little things that count). All that aside I really do miss going to work. I know that I complain at times about the long hours, the six day week, the always working of Bank Holiday weekends, but I genuinely love my job. I love the good days, the long days, the days where anything that can go wrong goes wrong in the most spectacular of fashions. I love my job even though the hours don't really allow for a social life, don't allow for free time, and don't allow for you to forget to do your laundry on your one day off if you want to wear clean socks the following week.

Like so many in the arts that have lost their jobs and have had to turn to other means of income, I have started to do more with my Etsy shop. Although if you have read any of my recent posts you probably would have figured that much out by now. 

 I've got some new kits coming out imminently and I'm also going to do some Christmas stuff. Probably a papers kit and printable gift tags. 

Also if you spend £10 or more in my Etsy shop you can get 20% off your order with the code EMPORIUM10 at the checkout.

I've started a Facebook page for the store as well. Give it a like and or a follow here. 

So keep your eyes peeled for new newness coming soon!!

How I Made My Disc Journal

News Flash!! Disc binding is the new ring bound.

So I have recently discovered the disc binding system, and I have to say that I really love it. For a start it solves one of I the main issues that I have with my first art journal; the issue cause by the fact that I like to collect things and like to add in acetate pages. This was a problem because it was one of those Kraft Card Spiral Bound scrapbooks from Hobbycraft, so adding pages meant having to unearth the Zutter Punch from the Safe Place Void Of The Universe, and then try to remember how to use it, line all the holes up, Punch the page and then go along and snip into each of the holes. In short, it was a hassle.

Disc binding fixes all of this. Admittedly to get going is a bit of an investment. There's buying the punch, your set of disc, if you're into using planners then that's something else to purchase. (I actually originally heard about Disc binding on a Planner hour on the Hochanda shopping channel.) Planners are not really my thing but I thought that this could be a way to make a really custom art journal. Basically I had been shopping around and couldn't find anything that I liked so I decided to make my own.

This was the result:

Things I Used:

Tools:

Me and My BIG Ideas Create 365 The Happy Planner Punch  I got this on Amazon for £29.95

X Cut curved Corner punch  I already had this in the house but you can get one on Amazon for £8.50 

Discs I also got these on Amazon for £6.93 They ship from China so I had to wait for them.

For the Covers:

2 A3 Sheets of 2mm Greyboard (may also be called Chipboard, who knows anymore?) It's best to shop around for this - Prices may vary.

2 A3 Sheets of 160gsm heavy paper

2 A4 Sheets of 160gsm paper

Book Corners  I got these on eBay. They are £6.93 for 4 and I used 8.

1 sheet of Acetate

Black Construction tape (It's basically really nice black masking tape)

Aleene's Premium Glue Original Tacky Craft Glue  Also got this on Amazon £6.49 for an 8oz Bottle

Strong Double sided tape. (The super sticky red one.)

Tarot Cards These are on a site called Scribd. You'll need to sign up. It comes with a 30 day cancel anytime free trial. I signed up did the whole hand over your Paypal info, downloaded the PDF, and then immediately canceled the subscription. If you forget to cancel it's £9.99 per month. 

(Note: The Tower card on the front cover is from Pinterest. It's originally cream. I put it through some photo software: Affinity Photo to be exact and changed it to black and white.) 

For the Pages:

Pad of A4 Bristol Board airbrush paper £6.01 on Amazon. This is also my normal sketch pad of choice.

Mixed Paper Block This is from The Range and costs £1

So first things firsts I made the cover designs. I do all of my designing on Affinity Designer from Serif.

I set up four Artboards (pages) in my document. Two at 306mm by 202mm and two at the standard A4 size. (The A4 designs will become the inside covers.)

Front Cover. 

Inside Front Cover.

Inside Back Cover.

And Back Cover.

I used the snapshot tool that comes in the Adobe PDF read to cut out the Tarot Cards and paste them into Affinity. Them I faffed around arranging them all into the collage. I found it was useful to pick out my favourite ones that I wanted to see on the top and position them where I wanted them and then it was just a matter of using the rest to fill the gaps underneath. 

I cropped the excess off any of the cards on the spine edges of the Front (left hand side) and Back (right hand side) covers flush to the artboard edge. This is because this edge will line up to the edge of the Greyboard and will not wrap around like on the other 3 edges.

Since the pages of my book are A4 I wanted my cover to be ever so slightly bigger. (This is where I start to waffle a bit, but bare with me)

I opened a new Affinity doc. and created 2 A3 Artboards (pages) one for the Front Cover and one for the Back. I copy and pasted the respective designs onto the artboards. I also added a rectangle (with no fill colour and very light border) over the top that was 25mm wider and 50mm taller than a sheet of A4 that lined up with the spine edge of the design, creating a 25mm border on 3 sides of the design. This was just to be a guide to trim away some of the excess white space once I had printed it out, but still leave enough to wrap the edges of the Greyboard and to glue down. I then printed these on the A3 160gsm heavy paper and printed the Inside Cover designs on the A4 160gsm paper and trimmed the excess away.

With the design sheets to one side, I cut the Greyboard to size. Two pieces 306mm high and 202mm wide.

I then glued the Front cover design to one of the pieces and the Back cover design to the other. 

I found that the best way to do this was to put the glue on the Greyboard and then line up the spine side edge of the printed design sheet to the edge of the board and smooth down. I then cut the corners out of the design sheet so that when the edges are folded over the corner areas don't become bulky. It also helps to keep the corners neat.

Using a pencil I marked 10mm in from the spine edge of the cover. This was what I lined the construction tape up to. I used the tape to wrap the spine edge and create a nice border. I did this on both covers.

Now for the bit that lets us attach our covers to the discs. 

I cut the acetate (comes as an A4 sheet) into 4 long strips. 2 were 30mm wide and 2 were 40mm wide. I then punched these 4 strips with the Happy Planner Punch. 

The punch I have is the same as the one linked further up this post. This is the 9 hole punch and is designed for the Happy Planner Classic size which is 9.25 inches high. and that is what the guide line on the punch are set to line up to. 

Basically to put the holes centrally on the edge of an A4 page you have to do a bit of math and get creative. The math will tell you that you need to measure in from the top or bottom edge 30.half a dozen random numbers but since I don't have laser measure in my eyes I rounded it up to 31mm. This 31mm mark will line up with the guide lines printed on the punch. This does also mean that you the gap at one end is ever so slightly longer/shorter by less than a millimetre. But that is fine as long as you are consistent with what end you measured in 31mm from. So if you measured from the top always measure from the top. The difference may be less than a millimetre but it does notice if you try and put the page in the wrong way up. 

I made a guide out of the spare acetate that I stick (with masking tape) on my punch that I line my paper up to.  

I then cut 15mm off both ends of the 40mm wide strips. This is because these are the pieces that are stuck to the covers and if they stayed the A4 length then I wouldn't have been able to attach the book corners (which are 15mm by 15mm).   

When it came to attaching the acetate to the cover I found and marked where the centre was on both the inside of the cover and on the non-punched edge of the acetate. It was then a bit of trial and error in lining things up so that the where straight. I tacked the acetate down with making tape at first to check the position before committing to sticking it down with Strong Double Sided (red) tape. I repeated on the back cover remembering that there was a top and a bottom to the strip due to all the punch related shenanigans.  

Next it was just a case of gluing the inside cover sheets onto their respective covers. I used the Tacky glue for this. After that I attached the book corners. I had to open up the back clips on the corners a little with a pair of scissors as it was a bit of a squeeze. The scissors, or the flat of the blades at least, were helpful when crimping the corners closed. The backs shown below on the right, curl round on the inside edge, so when you push down hard on them they bite into the covers and that's how they stay attached. 

That's the covers made, now just to punch the paper that will make the pages and start putting everything on the discs. 

I used all of the white sheets from The Range Mixed Block. and half of the Bristol Board Airbrush paper for the white pages. The Mixed Block has White, Kraft and Black sheets in a couple of different paper weight. I used a sheet of the Black card from the mixed block at the front and back of my journal, so all of the other pages sit between these.

This is also where we come back to the two 30mm wide strips of acetate. Where the acetate on the cover was cut down at either end it leaves the corners of the pages exposed. Therefore I added these strips between the covers and the black pages at the front and back; and just for fun I raided my stash of Washi tape to decorate the edges. This was a 20mm wide Washi that I folded around the edge of the acetate.

And that my friends, is how I made my art journal. I hope I haven't waffled to much and that all that actually makes some kind of sense. 

Got any questions or thoughts? I'd love to see them in the comments!

Until next time... Happy crafting!

In Our Town of Halloween...

I can't believe that it's September already!

Now anyone that knows me will tell you exactly how much I hate winter. I hate the cold. I hate the rain; and I especially hate snow because it is both of those things put together. But I quite like Autumn. Fall. Whatever you want to call it. 

I like the cooler air in the mornings and the colours of the leave changing. I like the hazy sunshine and the way that the days are still quite warm even if they are airy.

Anyway... After I posted the Modern Gothic kit I had a little light bulb moment that the Baddest Witch In Town papers would look great in black and orange as well as black and white. I then decided to play on the whole Witch angle, hence the Hat and Broomstick patterns. But, of course, I could launch a kit in Halloween season without incorporating pumpkins now could I!? If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen my post with a little behind the scenes designing of the scroll work on the Pumpkin Patch designs.

I hope you like them, and check them out on my Etsy store.

Until next time.... Happy Crafting!

The Hallow Eve digital paper pack is available here. 

Modern Gothic

New Etsy Product Alert!!

So I've been working on a few projects lately; some of them have been intentional and some have kind of just happened. This was one that kind of just happened.

I had been in the process of designing some printable planner packs that you could print off and would work with most of your favourite planner brands, and as part of those pack was including six background papers that co-ordinate with the six divider designs. 

However once I started designing the sheets for the Modern Gothic planner I was on a roll, and next thing you know I had fourteen designs. So what else was I to do than put them all in a bundle.

The Modern Gothic Paper kit  no in the Etsy Shop. 

Book Review: Consumed by J.R.Ward

Consumed by J.R. Ward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is fantastic.

I would recommend that you read the 2 novellas that come before this (The Wedding for Hell parts 1 and 2) as they give you a bit more of a background and history on the relationships between the characters and, in my opinion helps make sense of the reasoning behind some of the events of this book.

It was interesting to see the dynamic of a woman in a predominantly male work environment, especially given her disability, (now if it was set in a theatre it would be my life!). J.R Ward has worked wonders as always in getting a good balance between the relationship stuff and the plot; the love lives of the characters never over powered the storyline or felt out of place.

The ending was totally unexpected. After seeing how this close knit group of characters work together, and are practically family to one another I was taken completely by surprise.

I really hope that there are more books planned for this series as I think that there are may more stories to tells about these characters.

View all my reviews

Going back to the Basics

So I guess that I'm still not great at the whole consistent posting thing. I'm going to try to get better; try being the key word....On the other hand I'm pretty sure that I said that last time....Oh well.

Speaking of that last time that I posted, if memory serves (yes I'm too lazy to go back and look at what I wrote, sue me.) I mentioned that I was going to work on some paper crafting kits that would cover that basic patterns. Well... I did. Whats more these kits are available in my Etsy Shop. (Click the link in the menu bar up top, the E under the search bar, or on the big Enigmas Emporium Logo over on the right to get there)

5 Patterns. 9 Colour ways. 27 Kits. All designed to colour match with the enormously popular Graphic 45 papers as well as Santoro's Goujuss.

Stripes, Spots and Dots, and Harlequin and Honeycomb kits in the following colours:

Vintage Black and White.  Mayan Blue.  French Navy.  Pear Green.  Burnt Orange.  Dusky Peach.  Wild Rose.  Vintage Red.  Tuscan Yellow.

 

COVID, Netflix and Crafts, Oh My!

Well Hello!

Long time no see. In fact it's been more than a year since I last posted anything here. Life and work has a habit of getting in the way of these things. Working in theatre doesn't leave a lot of room for free time and when you do have it you don't particularly want to spend it looking at another computer monitor.

However, the Coronavirus Pandemic has bought work to a screeching halt. A lot of us working in the West End are facing redundancy, even if just for a short while, since we can not do shows with social distancing measures in place. There is very little in the way of financial support for the arts and entertainment industry at the moment and petitions are popping up all over the place asking the government for more support. The only one that matters is this one on the official government site. If you are a UK resident please consider signing as it only take a minute of your time.

So, having been furloughed from work since the middle of March when lockdown started, and probably not going back to work until the new year, what am I doing to occupy myself? I'll confess, the first six weeks or so of lockdown I spent in front of the TV, becoming very good friends with Netflix and Amazon Prime. It was actually really nice to just sit, relax and catch up on all the shows that I don't normally get the time to sit and watch, as well as re-watch some old favourites! I watched all five series of Merlin in just over a week and have just started on Doctor Who. On the subject of Merlin, I'm really looking forward to Cursed which is coming to Netflix at the end of July and the second season of The Umbrella Academy. 

I haven't only been watching TV. Honest. I've read a ton too. It's been a very long time since I've been able to read a book in a day! I reread everything by Ilona Andrews; all of the Kate Daniels series, the Hidden Legacy series, (I'm super excited for Emerald Blaze to be released in August), finally caught up with the Innkeeper Chronicles. Now I should probably move on from books before I start to gush over how much I love Ilona Andrew's writing; once I start I won't stop!

I've given the blog here a bit of a make over and want to be more active on here. The part of blogging that I've always found the hardest is knowing what to write about; (She says after waffling on...) But now, with all this free time suddenly on my hands, I've been getting back to doing more arty things, that I haven't had time for lately. I've already added a Scrapbook kit to my Etsy shop, the first in a long time. 

My mum (a crafter) suggested doing some more basic paper kits. Lately she has been making a lot of pocket book albums with Graphic 45 pads and keeps saying how she wishes she could get a pad of just the striped paper. So that's what I've done. I've created kits of Stripes, Spots and Dots and also Harlequin and Honeycomb patterns that coordinate with Graphic 45, Santoro Gorjuss (another of mum's favourites). They're really the colours and designs that you can use for just about everything. There's 27 kits all in all, so you can tell how much fun I've had uploading everything to Etsy.

Left to right:
Dusky Peach Dot, Wild Rose Dot, Mayan Blue Stripe, Dusky Peach Stripe and French Navy Stripe.

I'm thinking of release a colour way a week, but maybe more, we'll see I guess. Mum has already been playing with these and using them in her projects; which is also something else I hope to be posting on here. Mum has been writing up How To guides for the pocket book albums she's been making, after improving on what she has learned from YouTube videos. She's done the trial and error so you don't have to.  

  

I've also just discovered Disc bound planners. Now as much as I'm not into planners I like the idea of how this system works. I've been shopping around for a new art journal since I'm reaching the end  of my current one and couldn't really find anything that I liked or suited how I like to do my journalling. So I've bought a Punch, papers and a set of Discs, which I'm still waiting for. So hopefully Some posts on that in the future to.

So, see you soon for some crafty goodness!