Black & White photo: Petrol Pumps

Yesterday I shared more photos from Pretty St Mawes and promised to share a black and white shot of the petrol pumps. Aren't they gorgeous? In real life they're red and look great, but somehow in black and white they look even better. I'm not old enough to have used petrol pumps like these but I'm pretty sure there was a garage up the road (now long gone) that had some very similar, not that I probably took much notice to be honest!

I love the "Sorry Sold Out!" text too, and only as I posted this photo here I noticed that Premium and Regular petrol was once on offer, I'm guessing not for a while though!

Cards for Mother's Day

I decided to make cards for Mother's day this year, and well you know how much I like simple cards so you'll not be surprised to learn these have a simple design too. I've made two, one for my mum and one for my MIL and you'll never guess what, but the day I made them MOH came home clutching shop-bought cards. They were ditched though for the home-made ones.

1. First make a template by printing MUM in large capital letters that will fit onto your card blank and glue to some scrap card.

2. Cut these out and you have your templates. I made two Ms so I could see the placement on the card, but you could make one and use it twice if you were short of card.

3. Draw around the MUM template onto scrapbook paper and cut those out too.

4. Stick the letters onto the card and leave to dry under a large, heavy book.

5. When dry decorate with some sparkly gem flowers, or anything else you fancy - some small ribbon bows or sequins would also look good. 

And then I did it all again from step 3 making a pinker version.

These were easy to make and I think both versions look effective; I like the blue and yellow MUM card for how striking it is using one design, but I also like the pink one too for it's mix and matchiness.  Which do you like?

Black & White photo: Market stalls

Today I'm sharing a picture from Petticoat Lane Market, I had a walk down there and Brick Lane this week and it struck me as a really characterful part of London. You can see more pictures from that wander here. 

Petticoat Lane Market and the surrounding areas come alive at the weekend, the market trades on a lesser scale during the week and the unused market stalls remain in the side streets. They looked great in colour, but I like them and all their lines and textures in black and white too.