Moon Phases Bookmark

Just a short and sweet craftspiration for you today. This is perfect for when you want to spend a few minutes crafting something you can actually use, or slip a little something into a letter for a friend. (Did I tell you I have pen-friends again? It makes me very happy.)

Some very simple watercolour bookmarks!

Watercolours lend themselves perfectly to moon-like things, so here's how to do it in 5 easy steps.

1. Draw 5 circles of the same size in a line on watercolour paper, with a compass if you have one, or just draw around something.
2. With water, paint the moon phases using your circles as a guide.
3. While the paper is still wet, dab a few splodges of your chosen colour into the shapes, being careful not to use too much paint.
4. Add more colour as required and then leave the paint to dry. You can use a dry tissue to dab off paint while it's still wet if needed.
5. Draw on any details with a pen if you like. I couldn't decide if I liked it more with or without the pen, but it definitely looks neater.

So there it is. Make just one for yourself or loads at once to give to everyone you know!

Limpet x

Goal 40: Watch a Meteor Shower

On the 11th of August, I went on a spontaneous shooting star hunt with friends to try and see the Perseid meteor shower. It happens every year between July and August, but this year was supposed to be an extra good one. It's caused by our planet crossing the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The rubble and dust from the comet crash into our upper atmosphere and set alight as we pass through, creating shooting stars.

While the meteors shoot around all over the place, they all come from the same point in the sky. This is called the radiant of the meteor shower. With the Perseids, it's up and left a bit of the Perseus constellation (seen as three bright vertical stars) and underneath Cassiopeia (W shape of stars.) Thanks to this I now recognise the Perseus constellation too, which goes a way towards goal number 46 on the big list.

I was planning on using the 60 second exposure setting on my camera to photograph the sky, but this is the best I got! I don't have a fancy camera or anything, just a little digital one. Each star in the image here is only a few pixels, and I had to turn the brightness and contrast way up to see anything at all.