WITCH CRAFT!!!! best knits EVER

So Kandy has made, in my opinion her best knits EVER

The new Knit and Destroy range of spooky inspired witch knits is sooo good, all my favourites plus, THEY GLOW IN THE DARK!!
there's also some non glow in the dark stuff, I mean who doesn't want an eyeball cushion?!?

Check out the full range HERE!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

When Sugar Paper went to Hogwarts....

This lesser heard from half of Sugar Paper (Kandy) is a MASSIVE fan of the Harry Potter books and films ...as are a few of our friends. As soon as I heard that the studio tour was opening I knew we would have to go, and of course, the more of our friends we could get to come along the better! We booked 6 tickets and I started counting down the days.

I was excited before we went but had been super-busy so the fact we were going didn't really sink in until the drive down there. Not wanting to spoil the surprise I didn't look into the details of the studio tour before we went, so when Nickie mentioned that they serve butterbeer my excitement reached whole new levels.

After a tricky drive round Watford centre, we met up with Holly, Nick and Leesey and headed for the transfer bus to take us over to the studio tour. It wasn't the knight bus, but it was exciting!

 

Before we knew it the bus was outside the studio tour and there was screeching, we poured off the bus and proceeded to take photos of us outside the bus...there was a lot of this happening throughout the day! We hung outside for a bit, waiting for our time to go in, then it came and in we went...to the entrance bit, and our minds were blown. HUGE photos of all the cast around the walls as well as movie prop bits, and the window of the gift shop done up like honeydukes, so good!
 

 

We saw a lady handing out small booklets to children and we thought they looked fun, so we bagged us one each (they were only supposed to be for children but she liked us), turned out they were 'passports' that you could get stamped as you went round the studio tour, amaaazing. Time to queue up, then the tour started...
 
An introductory talk that got us even MORE excited and then we go in, met by the breathtaking sight of the great hall. This was one of my favourite bits, the full great hall, the actual floor that they flmed every great hall scene on, MIND BLOWN. Especially when I got to sit at one of the tables with my best grrrlz!
 

 
 From here we went on into a huge room filled with props, costumes, sets, artwork and more! The studio tour was really well laid out and you could spend as long as you liked staring at the contents of your favourite classroom or taking in the awesome detail on the accessories and costumes.
 

 

 

 

 



 
I could have stayed here all day, all week in fact, they had all the best rooms set up from dumbledore's office to the burrow. On top of this there was a room of requirement display and some parts of the ministry of magic where we went exploring.
 

 
At the end of the first room was a display cabinet with lots of paper based props, letters, books and magical packaging! We really liked seeing all these bits up close, the attention to detail was amazing and they had SO many good pieces on display.
 

 

 
That was just the first room, from here we moved outside...to things you could get in and on...and a refreshing drink of butterbeer which was WELL tasty!!!
 

 
It's a good job they had this area with seats and butterbeer, I think we all needed a sit down after seeing so much amazing movie stuff, even the muggles among us were enjoying the studio tour.
After the cold and tasty butterbeer (tasted exactly how I'd imagined) we got up close and personal with the famous vehicles from the films...
 

 

 

In this outdoor area there were a couple of buildings from the film too, we spent a while out here taking it all in before moving onto the 3rd and final section of the tour. Something I didn't mention, is once you've finished in one section you can't go back to it, so we had to make sure we'd all peeked in the knight bus and knocked on at Privet Drive for Harry before we made our way to the special effects room. This bit was freaky but fascinating, the craftsmanship that had gone into all the pieces in here was amazing but the models of the actors used for death scenes were scarily realistic! This was great to see in real life.  

 

 

This room of wonders was followed by the bit I was most excited about...diagon alley. Like stepping through the wall behind the leaky cauldron, this bit was fantastic, pure magic. The weasley's wizard wheezes shop was my favourite.

 

 

This was followed by a big surprise...the castle! I hadn't even thought about how they get exterior shots of the castle in the films then there it was, Hogwarts, perfect and grand just scaled down.

 

 

Happy faces at the end of a super ace studio tour. I was really impressed with the whole thing. So much thought had gone into this and the staff were all lovely, it worked really well and had all the best bits from the films, everything a Harry Potter fan could wish for..and more!  

I love Zombina more than I love you!

Yes It's usually this time of year that I start clogging this blog with Halloween related songs and the band Zombina and the Skeletones feature highly. They are one of my favourite bands. But ZATS aren't just for Halloween they are FOR LIFE!

Back in may I got commissioned to make the front cover of their album, Death Valley High, one of my top three concept albums of all time. I WAS STOKED! It ended up looking like this....

I have spent many a Halloween watching this band live and I bloody love them (no pun intended!). I'm glad they exist....

ONE WEEK 'TIL HALLOWEEN!!!!

yeah you know it!and I've been busy making my costume and sewing other bits. I've been ploughing my way through Buffy, so I sew whilst I watch Buffy (I was watching Season 4 Halloween episode the other day, always love a themed episode!).
So, all this Buffy watching means I now find the theme tune strangely comforting. I'm not sure if it's because I'm proper enjoying Buffy, because the theme is super 90s or because it sounds like this....
(it's probably all of the above!)

I think a while ago I read a quote where Gerard said someone he knew once told him Honey... sounds like the Buffy theme and it does. See....

So yeah almost Halloween. This blog has no point, Buffy is kinda creepy, so yeah HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN!

The best fictional bands EVER!!!

We like bands, we like fiction, we especially like fictional bands!!! so here is a top ten list of the best fictional bands EVER!

10. DINGOES ATE MY BABY  (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
I only just started watching Buffy (after resisting for 17 years on the grounds that I found Sarah Michelle Gellar annoying. Always been a fan of Seth Green though!

9. CREATION (AKA Mission Control! Freaks and Geeks)
you would have thought a fictional band that boasts members like James Franco would feature higher, but then I'm not that into psychedelic rock

8. MYSTIK SPIRAL (Daria)
Two words (well three) Trent. Lane. SWOON!

7. THE QUADRATICS (Welcome To The Dollhouse)
The band formed by Dawn Weiner's nerdy older brother that happens to have bad boy Steve front them (Steve needs tutoring so he can graduate or something!)

6. ORANGE ORGANICS (Pugwall)
Forget Busted, it's all about teen sensation Peter Unwin George Wall and his mates!

5. HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
Six inches forward and five inches back, I got an angry inch!!!!

4. FROZEN EMBRYOS (My So-Called Life)
Two words (well three). Jordan. Catalano. SWOON!

3. SEX BOB-OMB (Scott Pilgrim series/film)
Named after a Mario baddy, nuff said.

2. JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (Josie and the Pussycats)
Still deciding if they should be number one as the Josie and the Pussycats album is sooooo good (Du jour aren't too shabby either!)

1. THE STAINS (Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains)
They get the number one spot because they are an all girl teenage punk band WHO actually inspired some of my real life favourite bands (notably within the Riot Grrrl movement). SO GOOD!


And we can't end without mentioning the worst ever fictional band....
'If you like blues, you'll love Blues Hammer.....'

Camille Smithwick: WLTM

So we were hanging out at Another Common Affair on Sunday, selling our wares, eating snacks and chatting to friends.
Our favourite stall had to be the one from Camille Smithwick.
Camille has a piece in the Has Anyone Seen Tino zine I compiled, and she once made this awesome Dolly Parton tote I bought for a friend.
Anyway Camille's stall consisted of her latest work. A big pink, velvet covered book (that she made) full of illustrations, prints and paintings of personal ads.
She has taken some of her favourite personal ads and made them visual! SOOOOOO GOOD!
WLTM... *

She also had some souvenirs form the WLTM book, prints, a tote bag AND some transfer tattoos (and you thought it couldn't get any better!).
You can see more here!

*for those not in the know, WLTM is would like to meet!

Vegas in Visuals Part 2...

 

Missing page from #9!!

So the other day I was stapling some zines together when I realised that there is a BIG misprint in issue 9!
SORRY!
When we got this printed we had MAJOR issues with the cover, so obviously once we got that sorted were too tired to check the rest, we seemed to have stapled a whole lot together and then sold them before we noticed, again SORRY!
We don't want you to miss out on crafting that embroidered passport holder AND we certainly want the rest of the zodiac to know what crafts suit them, so here is the missing page, next time we will double check everything!

If you want the pdf, email us sugarpaperzine@hotmail.com

Pumpkin Pasties

So it's October which means it's ALMOST HALLOWEEN!!!!!!! Our favourite holiday of the year. it is the best ever.
We also like eating, so here is a recipe for pumpkin* pasties that featured in Sugar paper #8...

You will need:
For the pastry;
-8oz/250g Self raising flour
-4oz/125g butter/margarine
-TBSP pumpkin seeds
-Pinch of salt
-2 tsp turmeric
-few drops of water

For the filling;
-2 small sweet potatoes
-Handful spinach
-1/2 red onion
-2 tsp ground cumin
-1 tsp ground coriander
-salt and pepper

 

1-  Weigh out the flour and add in the salt and turmeric. Finely chop the pumpkin seeds and add to the dry mix, then add to the margarine.
2-  Rub in the margarine (do this method by rubbing the fat in with the flour using your fingertips) until you have a well-combined crumbly mixture.
3-  Mix into a stiff dough by adding a few drops of water and mixing with a spoon.
4-  Roll into a ball, put in cling film, and place in the fridge whilst you prepare the filling.
 
Filling.
1-  Peel and dice the sweet potatoes, boil in a pan until soft.
2-  Finely chop onion, fry off with the cumin until soft.
3-  Mash the potatoes, adding coriander, salt and pepper. Stir in spinach and onions.

To make the pasties
1-  Roll out the pastry, onto a lightly floured surface. Cut out 3-4” circles.
2-  Place onto a baking tray, spoon enough filling to fill the centre of the circle, fold over the pastry and seal the edges by pressing down with a fork.
3-  Brush the top of the pasties with a little milk.
4-  Bake for 20minutes (until golden and crisp) on gas mark 5/175 C (on the middle shelf).

*conatains a very small percentage of actual pumpkin!!

Vegas in Visuals. Part 1

 

Another Common Affair!

What are you doing next Sunday? We are doing this...

I Don't Bruise Easy

Kandy has written a new zine.....

It's a roller derby zine for any past present or future derby gal. It features interviews, recipes, make do's and MORE.
Email her at dontbruiseeasy@hotmail.co.uk to get a copy!

Viva Las Vegas!

I just got back from Las Vegas yesterday and this past weekend was probably one of the most life changing ones I have had since Ladyfest Glasgow in 2001, I spent that weekend with my good friend Holly. 11 years later we decided to hot foot away again, granted this time was a lot further, but oh my god, it was good.

Here follows the edited version (if I talk about it too much it wont stop) and if you want the full version, just ask me!

The time we went mental in the desert!