Inspiring Sugar Paper #10

Teen TV zines. Part 2

So the other week when sorting through my zine drawer I came across a zine my friend Holly made that I had briefly forgotten about!

School is a battlefield for your heart:

It is basically timeline of teen TV. From The Wonder Years and Saved by The Bell to Skins and Glee with everything in between!
It features all the best shows (My So-Called Life, Freaks and geeks, Veronica Mars, Popular, Heartbreak High) and the not so best (Hang Time, USA high, One Tree Hill, Dawson's Creek*) and as I said EVERYTHING else in between.
It's a thick zine that you whizz through so quickly because it's funny. I think she may have made it a couple of years ago and I don't know if she will ever print anymore but she should. It's a good guide for those too young, or those who didn't watch TV growing up (losers!) and want to immerse themselves in Teen TV, it's also good for those oldies or those who did nothing but watch TV growing up!

*That's my personal opinion about Dawson's Creek, I have many friends who enjoy it. I mean I'm the girl who took 15 years to finally start wtaching Buffy because I decided I wasn't too keen on Sarah Michelle geller!

Make a back patch

If you have a denim jacket/hoodie that you feel are a bit dull and some awesome t-shirts that you never really wear then make a back patch from the t-shirts!

You will need:-Hoodie/denim jacket
-T-shirt
-Iron on interfacing *
-Scissors
-Pins
-Sewing machine
*interfacing comes in white, grey and black and different weights, a light-medium weight is needed.

1. Cut out your 'patch' from your t-shirt.
For the denim patch, measure the back panel of your jacket before cutting from the t-shirt, you want the patch to fill this.
Just make sure you cut the patch for your hoodie small enough to fit the back.

2. Cut out some interfacing the same size as the cut piece of t-shirt. Iron on (textured side onto the back of the patch) with a tea towel over the top on a medium heat. The interfacing stops the t-shirt being stretchy.

FOR THE HOODIE:

3. Pin the back patch to the back of the hoodie, then straight stitch along the edge to secure.
Zig-zag stitch all around to stop the edges from fraying.
Voila, one badass hoodie!

FOR THE DENIM JACKET:

3. In each corner of the patch cut a little notch (around 1cm). Fold in each edge around 2cm. Pin to the back of the denim jacket. Straight stitch along each edge, making sure you stitch the raw edge under.
Easy as that, one nuff tuff denim jacket.



Because I want to look super tough (and already have a denim jacket) I cut off my sleeves and will most definitely be adding more patches, like this one I got from Bad Reputation!

Crafty nails...

Here at Sugar Paper we're not total babes who look after our nails, manicure, soften cuticles or any of that jazz. But we do paint our nails and love a good novelty nail effect! It was my birthday at the weekend and inspired by our friend's teenage sister's awesome nails, we decided to get the nail polishes, pens and cocktail stitcks out and get arty...

like sensible babes we practiced on our feet first...looks like I need to catch up on the foot tattoo front!

I went for the half and half with cocktail stick feather icing type effect. My nails just happened to be a perfect match to this necklace that Seleena got me for my birthday, what a photo opp!

Alison went for the nail pen option and did an awesome job of making monster nails!  

Being a knitter, and well into all this nail art business, I decided to see if anyone had done knit themed nails....why of course they have!

I made this photo big so you can see the detail on these that blew my mind! Knitted fabric pattern on the nail!  Here at Sugar Paper though we are about all crafts, these nail transfers by Kate Broughton are pretty much the perfect thing for any crafter...

That's all on the nail art for now, I could go on forwever finding pictures of pretty nails, I will just leave a link to this tumblr instead...oh, and keep your eyes peeled for issue 10!

Teen TV zines. Part 1

The Norseman - A Freaks & Geeks zine
by Alice and Kate

So imagine how excited I was when I heard a zine was being made about one of my favourite teen television programmes, Freaks & Geeks (I was very excited). So imagine how excited I was when said zine landed on my doormat (ridiculously excited) and this zine didn't disappoint!

This zine is recommended for those who have already watched Freaks & Geeks (if you haven't then why haven't you, loser, stop having a social life and get watching this gem!) as it may contain spoilers.
It features a whole host of things, top ten tunes, post F&G career moments, Dungeons & Dragons review, reasons why Bill Haverchuck is the best, an ACTUAL interview with Sarah Hagen who played Millie and much more.

You can buy it from here and when you have exhausted the zine you can get another fix with The Norseman tumblr!!

BIRTHDAY FUUUUUUUN!!

The Taurean quality of stubbornness is also a part of the characteristics profile of a Leo. Both of them have a strong determination and stick to a decision once they have made it. This zodiac match will, most probably, show signs of permanence, firmness and devotion. However, their different personal dispositions and incompatible tastes may lead to some problems. The Lion is a people's person, who loves an audience and its attention. On the other hand, the Bull is a bit reserved and prefers to be only with the few people he is close to. Even the extravagant ways of the former may not go down well with the latter.

In spite of these differences, which may lead to extreme arguments at times, the commitment between the two, will hardly falter. But, they will have to remember not to take each other for granted and try to compromise by turns. The stubbornness will have to be subdued in both of them; otherwise the problems may become too huge. The Lion will bask in the attention showered by the Bull and will in turn charm him with his charisma. Taurus will also let the Lion rule the relationship as well as him to quite an extent, thus boosting his vulnerable ego. Both of them show great compatibility in the area of passion and romance too

My best friend in highschool was a Leo, and now three of my closest and oldest (in longeivity not actual age)friends are all Leo's. I guess we must be pretty compatible (although the passage above makes it sound like we often fight, I never have!!).
And so when August comes along, it's a non stop party for me (and my bank balance!) as I celebrate three awesome folks birthdays in the space of 8 days!! This year was a mountain of fun.

It started last Saturday when Katie and I headed to London for part one of her birthday celebration, which involved us going to see Wicked.

We went for the matinee and had cheap tickets so were sat really far back, but it was sooooooo good. I would tell anyone to go and see it, I don't want to spoil it for anyone that will. I will say that when the male love interest graced the stage, I could make out that his arms were tattooed, I thought this a little odd within musical theatre. I then thought his voice isn't as strong a the rest of the cast, then I noticed he wasn't the best dancer. Then I was sure I recognised his voice, then Katie taps me and says 'is that Matt Willis?'. And it only bloody was, Mattie J from Busted in a musical, good stuff!

We hot footed it south to get ourselves glamoured up to celebrate Bad Reputation's first Birthday.
Bad Reputation is an awesome club night for queers, punx, grrrls and geeks. It was also the eve of my other friends birthday, Holly.
I love Bad Rep normally, but this time I got to guest DJ!!!! I was super excited (and nervous that nobody would dance). But I didn't care because I got to dance in the DJ box, and you know what other people danced too!

We ended the night by doing two shots each (northern girls go wild) before heading home for a cup of tea (northern girls go wild!.
Sunday was actually Holly's birthday. We woke up stupidly early from a night of awesome dancing but it was worth it to watch Holly have an emotional meltdown as I gave her the present I made. which for anyone that cares was a felt rendition of the cover of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

We had a small breakfast as we were due to attend one of Europe's largest all you can eat buffets, Cosmo in Croydon. OH MY GOD this place is amazing, mind blowing. It's hard to know where to start. I only managed three plates of savoury and one plate of sweet, but I need to go back and change my strategy so I can eat MORE. We somehow managed to get back to Holly's without dying due to food and ended the night with a swoony watch of Baz Lhurmans Romeo And Juliet, yes mate!

I managed to recover from the weekend just in time to celebrate Katie's actual birthday on the Thursday. We spent this at Richmond Tea Rooms in Manchester, a place I only discovered a few months ago despite being open for a round a year. This place is really cool. It's got an Alice in wonderland theme, the tea and cake (and food) is tasty, the staff are really nice and it's totally laid back and you can sit there for hours and not get moved on.
Their cocktails are totally worth the money too!

I ended the birthday fun doing something I have never done before. This Sunday, the day before Kandy's birthday. Kandy, Alison and I went to a beginners trapeze workshop. It was sooooo much fun!

It was at Green top circus in Sheffield and the space they use is an old church, so we turned up surrounded by grave stones, goff circus!! The workshop leader was so nice and great at teaching and looked awesome in his purple unitard!
Some of it was hard and scary but totally amazing for the adrenaline rush. Would definitely do it again. I do ache so much today though!

And that ends my (just over a week) of birthday fun, and it wasn't even my birthday, I say that's a win win!

Let's start a Pussy Riot

I'm sure you are all aware of the awful/ridiculous/anger inducing treatment of Russia's Pussy Riot as they face a trial.
Now if I could knit I would be knitting myself a balaclava to start a Pussy Riot. But I can't knit (and Kandy is busy knitting things for something very exciting so she can't knit me one) but for anyone than can knit, I found a great pattern by Liza Eckert on her blog HERE.

For those more used to crafting with one needle rather than two, how about making a FREE PUSSY RIOT patch. All you need is some aida, embroidery thread a needle and this pattern here:

Indietracks 2k12

At the start of July we made a return visit to Indietracks! (I'm clearly writing about this a month later, so some of it may not be accurate)!

It started on the Friday when I was packing all my stuff for the weekend and the weather men, women and maps were still claiming it was going to be a wash out weekend, especially in the Midlands where there was a FLOOD WARNING (just camping at the MIDLAND railway). So Kandy called me and said shall we be wuss' and whimp out of camping and stay at her house. We said yes (I was being thrifty too, less money on camping more on merch and snacks!!).

It turns out the weather wasn't even that bad, but on the plus side it only took about 25minutes to drive there from Kandy's!

We told our fellow festival friends Melanie and Amy we were not getting one with nature and met them down there on the Friday. I'm not sure if we saw any bands on the Friday(we watched The Smittens). Kandy had curry for tea, I had a veggie burger and chips. We found a comfy seat in the stationary train carriage where you could hear the bands from. Plus we got upset that Kandy's momentary confusion of thinkg we meant Darren Hayes (of Savage garden) was playing not Darren Haymen (of Hefner) wasn't true, bit of a let down really.
We did make a new festival friend, the lovely Sarah who had come all the way from Sweden for this Indiepop fest, dedication!

Saturday was the day of Melanie and Amy's workshop. They were on first in the workshop tent so we made our way there for their eco bunting. We didn't want to use up all their resources so said we would come back at the end (plus we didn't want a headache and boy there was some hammer banging). It was loads of fun. You got plants and flowers and pressed them between two pieces of bunting and hammered the pigments out with tiny hammers!

Sarah was making some lovely designs, we just decided to do our initials and what we thought looked like our uterus!

We ate our packed lunch on the mini train and managed to see some bands. Werewandas were pretty good, but missing a little something, still we rocked our tushes on the church pew to their rockabilly riffs.
It was all baout Go sailor though! I think we got super excited about them, I think even the sun came out a little (but it was ok beacuse we had super styling rain wear anyway). I never thought I would get to see Go sailor, but they were awesome, and the great thing, their back catalogue is so small that they play all your favourites!!

We caught bits of other bands, that I can't remember what they are called, but it was all good. I had Curry this night and Kandy had battered haloumi I think.
We got a good post bands disco where we got to shake our tailfeathers!!

Sunday was the day of our workshop so I was doing that thing where I get stressed and nervous and just want it out of the way, so I'm not sure if we saw any bands prior to that ( I was also getting excited about the reunion of Velodrome 2000, right after our workshop).

We were making a bunch of postcards in our workshop, and it seemed to go down really well (indiepop superstars (members of) The Smittens were loving it!) marbling was very popular. We had some people make some rad postacards.

We had to pack up super quick and Kandy offered to take the stuff back to the car as I made my way to the front for Velodrome 2000, who did not disappoint!
Melanie and Amy assumed they must be something good they way I was banging on about them! We all enjoyed it. AMAZING!

For tea this day we both had Burrittos. We hit the merch tent and got all gushy watching Rose Melberg in the chruch.
We ended the night by dancing in the rain to The vaselines, and having a right good dnace to some indiepop and 90s hits.

Something rather funny happened on the Sunday. Amy was wearing an Ace Bushy Striptease t-shirt as was another girl, I pointed out Amy had come double dressed. I was wearing a My Chemical Romance t-shirt, Kandy stated that if she saw someone in my t-shirt she would eat her hat (or something of that effect) when what should happen we are watching The Vaselines and I spot a boy wearing a My Chemical Romance t-shirt!!! Imagine. Sadly I didn't become best friends with this boy. REGRETS!

We did see many other bands, but I just stated the ones we saw full stes of, and depsite the chnageable soggy waether we had a great time. Seeing a band I never thought I would see and one I thought I would never see again. having a laff with some rad notheren folks.
'Appy wi' that!