Sneak peak of 2015

Tomorrow is New Years Eve! I hope everyone is ready for 2015 and even if your not, it's coming... coming fast. 2015 is going to be a bigger and better year for all of us and definitely for this blog right here. I wanted to let you guys know what I have in mind for next year regarding the blog.

At exactly January 1st my blog will be turning a year old! Whoop! I've been blogging for a year now and I'm amazed and the progress I've made... I'm now beyond 13,300 views and that is a massive achievement to me. I will celebrate this by doing a series of posts related to that. 

I decided that 2015 would be my year of Visual progress. I'm sure many of you know that I have a youtube account but at the moment it is so very dry and not well maintained so I thought i'd build it up this year and clean up the quality of my videos and make narrated tutorials for you guys as well. Please list any tutorials you'd like below in the comments so I can include those in my plan.

If you'd like to look at any of my youtube videos so far there are some below:

To see my speed draws follow me on instagram @efyalaurenxox or @fashionartbylauren

I've given you guys the two biggest clues and that's all your getting in your sneak peak..! 

There might be a few giveaways too...

Bye!

New illustration: Donald Duck + Derwent Academy Watercolor Pencils Review

My second new illustration is on Donald Duck. I've had a focus on Disney for quite a while, it's a really fun topic to focus on when it comes to art because it's full of so much to draw and you can get millions of ideas from just one character. 

Here I drew Donald Duck, He turned 80 years old this year and is the most famous Disney character, more than Mickey. He's sold way more merchandise than Mickey too. I drew him using a picture reference and then used Derwent Watercolor pencils to colour him in. 

Donald's feathers are very white So I decided to blend the white paper and some blue watercolor to make his feathers and that went quite well. 

The pencil are really good quality. Derwent is a Quality brand and all their products are made in the UK and they are all artist quality. I Love them and haven't stopped drawing with them! They were 7.99 at Rymans which is reasonably priced I think

I'm thinking of doing two new videos a week - a tutorial and a normal one. So if you guys have any ideas for tutorials comment down below and if you read till the end comment Quack! 

Love you all, toodles x

New illustration: Elsa

Hi guys, over the time of Christmas I drew some new things because I got new materials and i'm just going to show you what I drew and how I drew them.

My first illustration is Elsa (I hope you guys knew that from the picture). I started off by drawing her using a picture reference from google. When I was happy with my pencil sketch I finelined the drawing and lastly I used my promarker skin tones to colour it in. Someone requested that I show you guys how to colour with promarkers the way I do. I'll show you this in a real time video on Youtube in the new year. Below i'll take you through some brief steps:

1. Fineline ALL of your drawing (promarker over pencil doesn't look too good)

2. Colour areas of her face that require blush (mainly her cheeks) 

3. Colour the whole face with an even skin tone, for Elsa this has to be a white skin tone - preferably Ivory or Satin. 

4. Optional: To get a more realistic look use lavender to colour in places in the face that cave in... such as near the bottom of the nose and corners of the inner eye. 

5. Finally use any of the skin colour pinks - I use Dusky Pink which is really good. Colour areas like the nose, the space from your nose to mouth then your all done! 

Thank you guys so much for reading this blog post, stick around today to see some other new illustrations.

Boxing Day Haul

Boxing day was one of the most busiest days I had ever seen this year and my local shopping destination (Stratford Westfield) was bound to be packed with people cramming into shops like sardines so me and my mum took a trip on the bus to Ilford Exchange. 

I actually went to no other shop than Primark because I was so astonished at their sales and reductions and if you live in the UK and haven't been yet, GO BEFORE THE NEW YEAR BECAUSE THE SALES ARE MAD!!!

These are now my two favourite leggings, I just love both of them. I'm looking for a tartan crop top to match my leggings. These two awesome leggings only cost me £3 each from Primark - TOLD YOU THE REDUCTIONS WERE CRAZY... GET IN THERE!

Tartan leggings and partially Fake leather leggings - £6
all together. 

Secondly I bought 3 pairs of Jeans for a fiver each. I was looking for acid wash jeans for ages and I absolutely went crazy when I found them in Primark. Love all these jeans. 

Later I realised I had bought so much bottoms and no tops! Well I only managed to buy two but I like them. 

Black Peplum top, partly mesh - £5 (Nottinghill - Romford)

£3 (Primark)

I'm really happy with the stuff I got and if anyone wants any ideas on where to go about sales drop me a comment below!

What I got for Christmas

Hey everyone! In this post I'm showing you guys what I got for Christmas. No bragging intended... its just a nice post to do.

I got £80 and a Hobbycraft gift card so I didn't get much to open on Christmas day.

• Body Shop Cream, Gel and Perfume 

I really like this present and it was my secret Santa at school, I love it. It smells so good! It's a cream, Shower gel and perfume. Thanks a lot Aysha! ... I mean Santa ... Lol.

• These really cute Boots that go with almost everything! 

I don't know where they're from if I did, I would tell you guys but I absolutely love them. Ask anyone who's seen me this holiday... I wear them everywhere and i'm already a tall person so these boots make me look really tall. 

• A nice little Black and Gold Bag 

• The Hobbycraft giftcard 

This was my favourite present because I knew I was going there and spending someone else's is always fun lol :). 

I also got a fatface cream and purse but I don't know where that is at the moment lol. That's what I got for Christmas, I'd love to know what you guys got for Christmas too. Comment down below x

My next post today will be on the Boxing day sales! 

Art Materials Haul

Hey everyone, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is ready for 2015! I got some money over Christmas and bought some art materials and in this post I'll be showing you guys what I got.

Disclaimer: In no way am I trying to show off, I'm just showing my artistic viewers and giving you guys ideas.

I bought art materials from two shops. The first was Rymans. I looked in WHSmith and didn't find anything I liked so I then went to Rymans. They had a bit of sale on.


The first Item from Rymans was their own A4 Sketchpad. I checked out the quality of the paper and it was actually quite good. It only cost me £1.79 and I'm yet to use it.
I bought a new sketchbook because I wanted to label 2015 as my painting year and get used to using paints.

The second item is these Derwent Academy Watercolor pencils, as some of you may know I love the brand Derwent. I already have there studio colouring pencils and I really like them. These pencils were £5.99. I'm also yet to try these out because I want to follow a few tutorials and get the hang of using them and when I'm free with them I'll make a post about them for you guys to see.

The third and last thing is these unipin fineliners which are not new to me, I just had to buy more because the ones I had were running out and my drawings can't really function without them, especially the ones that are coloured by promarkers. These were the most expensive thing from Rymans and they cost me £7.99 however to me it was worth it. That was what I bought from Rymans!

The next shop I went to is my all time favourite however over priced art shop - HobbyCraft. I could've gone to my nearest one (Chingford) but I went to the one in Romford just because I like it more and I had other stuff also to do in Romford. Do you guys think i'm crazy? Some people certainly do think I am and that's perfectly okay with me because I spend all my money buying pens LOL!

Onto what I bought in hobbycraft:

I love this sketchbook! Probably my favourite one of all the ones I have. It's all black and the make is Daler Rowney which is a really good art make. I peeled the label off and I'm starting to personalize it and make it my own. This sketchbook cost me £6 in Hobbycraft and they had the same make and same size for £11 without the ring binder but I preferred this one because if I want to rip anything out I can. The paper is amazing quality and if I've sworn to myself that only important drawings will go in this sketchbook because I wouldn't want to waste the pages.

My usual blog readers will already know about my obsession with promarkers and how I collect them. I added three new ones to go into my collection. I picked these very carefully because I needed these colours to render fabrics when drawing them with other colours. The colours are Mulberry, Lilac and Cardinal red. This is the overpriced part of Hobbycraft - each one is £2.50. Therefore just these three pens were £7.50... ikr? But I couldn't leave the shop without buying some.

Again with the brand Derwent.... I bought there Graphic pencils that range from B - 2B. I didn't want the thicker ones because I already had those in a different Faber Castell sketch set. I've used them for sketching Elsa and Olaf in the past few days and I can say that they're aren't bad. All 4 pencils cost me £6.00 which isn't bad. The next thing are these hobbycraft value paper/pencil stumps whatever they're called lol.I bought these because I've seen them in youtube videos and they really smoothen out lines especially different tones. I have used them and they do help.

 The final thing I bought in my art haul was 5... yes just 5 Faber Castell polychromos. I've always wanted to hold one and this was the closest in hobbycraft to Prismacolours. I've tried them out and I absolutely love them. I'm hoping I can afford the full set in 2015. They cost me £1.80 each so I bought some important skin colours.

That's my art haul. Thank you guys so much for sticking around with me for the whole of 2014 and I hope you stay. If you liked this post comment below what you liked about your winter holiday or some of the things you bought.

Stay around today guys because I'll also be showing you guys what I got for Christmas and What I bought in the boxing day sales.

Bye Love you guys! Happy New year in advance!

Merry Christmas

Hey guys, I haven't been able to post recently but I'll be posting tomorrow and the 27th. Firstly, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY BEAUTIFUL BLOG READERS! LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH AND I WISH YOU AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS AND MAY YOU GET ALL YOUR HEARTS DESIRES!

With my first year doing Blogmas, I sucked at it and couldn't keep up. I decided that next year I won't be doing blogmas but still do Holiday themed posts.

To everyone who was promised personalized drawings:

They're being delayed because I also needed a day off to have Christmas with my family, same with tomorrow and the next few days but I will get them to you asap!

I love you Guys, have an awesome Christmas!

Quick reminder

Hi guys, this is just a quick reminder. To all of you that requested personalised art will take a little while. If I told you it would be done by Christmas Eve it might be a few days delayed because I'm really taking my time on them so bear with me. 

I also got some requests but I wasn't told how you want them so I'm not sure what to draw. Please get those to me asap. Anymore requested from now will be done by New Years. 

Blogmas day 19: My Favourite past gift

I thought this would be a fun post for me to do because it's interesting.

• Nintendo DS Lite in Blue with Brain Training 

When I received this present, I was the most happiest child alive. It was the latest and everyone had one and I actually couldn't believe that I got one, it was in the colour turquoise and it was amazing. I remember her telling me about how I and my brother had to share it but I planned on making it mine. It came with the game Brain Training and the whole thing was around £100. This wouldn't be a good gift idea now because now they're old and barely worth £10 but for 7-11 year olds the new DS's and PS Vita's are a good gift idea if your willing to splash out some dough. 

Blogmas Day 18: What I love about the Holidays

We all love chilling at home, just doing nothing, watching the Christmas movies but there are certain reasons why I love the winter holidays. 

So, In the school year in the UK you either wear pretty basic clothes or a school uniform. The winter holiday is a time to explore fashion and just look good, it's Christmas... so Christmas jumpers and theme of red and green come out! It's just so lovely. 

It's a time to relax. I don't know about you, but the feeling on a Sunday evening around 6pm knowing that you're going to school tomorrow is terrible. It's nice not to have that feeling for a few weeks! 

The summer holidays are not quite the same as the winter ones, everyone is excited for the winter one because it's Christmas - the time for giving and receiving, Eating food, being with family and of course remembering the birth of Christ. 

It's cold. In the summer holidays, because it's so hot you always want to be out and about with friends (or is that just me?) In the winter, you don't want to step out or go anywhere so you stay in bed, or indoors at least and just watch loads of TV. 

You see people you don't see often. Christmas is a time that families get together. Nobody can do the ''I'm busy today'' excuse because it's Christmas! Families have got to be together for Christmas, even if it's just two people. 

Thanks for reading x 

Disney illustration: Stitch

Hey guys, this post is just about another addition to my Disney collection and it's Stitch from Disney's Lilo and Stitch.

I think Stitch is so cute and adorable and as well as my Disney princesses I like to draw some other cute characters too.

I used promarkers and my unipin fineliner. Hope you guys like this illustration! 

Blogmas day 17: Christmas presents to all my blog readers!

Hey everyone, if your wondering why my blogmas posts are in funny number order  it's because I have missed quite a lot of posts and I'm just filling them in so I'm currently filling in number 17. 

Today I wanted to give gifts from me to you because your my blog readers and I love you guys a lot. 

My first gift from me to you guys is illustrations! I am offering free personalised illustrations for you guys this Christmas. All you need to do is comment below or email me and tell me what you want. Here are some ideas: 

• Blog logo's 

• Facebook and Twitter headers 

• Something for your Instagram 

I'd love to do some, so comment below and I'll get that to you asap. They will be photographed and sent to you so that you are happy with it and you can tell me if any changes should be made. Then they will be edited and sent to you. It will have my watermark so people can't steal my drawings. If you want the original drawing that I've done on paper I'll only charge you 80p for Postage, however this option is only available in the UK. If I do post anything to you I'll include a free illustration, Christmas Card and Chocolate as well as the illustration you asked for. I am doing these all year round but specialised ones at Christmas. Here are some of the special ones that I'm doing: 

• Bauble Illustrations 

These are special festive illustrations in a bauble and they can be whatever you like. These are really cute to hang up on your room. You can also transfer them to bauble creators online and get a custom personalised bauble made just for you. 

• Christmas Cards 

Yes, there is moonlight but I'm doing this for free. I design personalised cards free of charge but postage will cost depending on how far you live from me. 

The list is endless but I can literally do anything you want me to lol. 

I hope you guys really do take up this opportunity because when drawing for people I really do put in effort because it's for someone and I believe if your doing something it should be from the heart and you should do it well. 

This is an illustration I did yesterday for someone: 

Merry Christmas to you! 

Lauren x

Disney Illustrations

I made a promise to myself. If I can't finish any collections at all I should at least finish the Disney collection! I'm so determined to get all my Disney illustrations completed by the time the year ends.

Today I'll be showing you two additions to my collection.

1. Mickey Mouse

Time: 30 Mins 

Equipment: Promarkers and Faber Castell Classic Colour pencils

2. Minnie Mouse 

Time: 45 mins 

Equipment was the same as Mickey's 

Blogmas day 16: Izzy and Lauren's Christmas Criticize (TAG)

Hello everyone! It is my pleasure to bring to you a post I thought of myself the Christmas Criticize! It does sound harsh but it's not that bad. I am very happy to be doing this with the one and only Izzy Knight from izzyk1998.blogspot.co.uk. I've decided to turn this into a tag so others can do it too.

Rules of the tag:

• Must be done with two or more people 
• Must refer back to the owner of the tag (moi) 
• Must tag two or more blogs
• It's not just for Christmas, it can be done with anything 
• I am tagging all Beau Bloggers, because your all lovely. 

How it works: 

Pick two or more Christmas movies and Christmas songs or Christmas anything really, and speak your mind about it, the truth is very much appreciated because that's what makes it fun to do and fun for viewers to read. Lets get started! 

The first song that was chosen was All I want for Christmas is you - Mariah Carey 

Click here to see my cover of the song x

Click here to see me talk about the song

Izzy:

I cant believe this song is 20 years old now! I mean I wasn't alive when it came out, but it still seems to be played loads every year! If you ask me it might be played a little too much. I can guarantee when you turn the radio or music channel on at any point in December it will be this song playing. Nevertheless its still a classic and if anyone says they don't know all the lyrics off by heart they're lying. 

Lauren:

It's a classic so I know it will be played every single Christmas however a new generation of Christmas songs needs to come and kill that tradition because I've heard it so much and it's just like a ringing bell sounding in my ears but the weird thing about it is that you can't help singing along when you hear it!

Do they know it's Christmas: 

Izzy: 

I think its really cool how they re-do this song to keep it up to date with current pop stars. The one from 1984 is the one I am most familiar with. The video is interesting as 80s fashion is quite questionable... However in the 2014 version I can basically feel the awkwardness in the room when they're all singing together. Who thought it would be a good idea to put Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Niall Horan in the same room together after all the rumors that went round this year?

Lauren:

I like the way this song has been updated to modern artists but I'm going to say the truth of what I think. I generally don't like the tune lol, it just annoys me. I like to get up and dance, so that's not exactly my type lol. 

The Grinch: 

Izzy: 

When I watch this film now it makes me laugh so much and I appreciate it a lot more now that I'm older. I must admit that when I was younger it used to scare me quite a bit. That's probably just me isn't it? I know its a children's film and everything but I still find the Grinch costume and the way he behaves quite creepy. And I always felt sorry for poor Cindy Lou for having to put up with him haha!

Lauren:

The Grinch is a great Christmas movie, hilarious family entertainment but confession to make... I've always been scared of the Grinch. If you did not know the Grinch was the Grinch in a famous Christmas movie and he turned up in your house at midnight wouldn't you be pooping bricks?

Frozen:

Izzy: 

Don't get me wrong I'm obsessed with the film Frozen. I find it absolutely hilarious and the soundtrack is my jam. But still, compared to other Disney movies, it is still fairly overrated. I mean I love it, but why didn't Brave and Tangled get as much recognition? They were just as good in my opinion. Its a great film to watch at Christmas but do I think there are better films? Yes!

Lauren: 

Frozen is probably the most amazing Disney movie that'll ever exist and I still haven't seen it lol. I love all the characters though, especially Elsa and Olaf. The soundtrack was lovely until every 3-92 year old wouldn't stop singing it!!! Even the producer and the person who wrote the soundtrack apologized to all parents for creating the song because it has become very annoying.

Thanks so much for reading, do follow me and Izzy on GFC (Google friend connect) for a guaranteed follow back

A quick overview of 2014 - Blogmas day 14 (Delayed)

A lot of things happened in 2014 and it was a very interesting year. We saw some of the worlds greatest people pass away such as Nelson Mandela however I can say it wasn't such a bad year for me. 

With regards to fashion illustrations 2013 was a year of progressing and just sorting myself out, nothing was organised because all I was doing was learning, that's also when I discovered my most used colouring tool - Letraset Promarkers. 2014 was the year that some of my best artwork really revealed itself and I could finally call myself a professional fashion illustratior. 

January: Straight after Christmas, I decided to start my Blog. I thought to myself I needed somewhere to express myself and showcase my art work and talents. The building of an actual website just takes long and I suck at html coding so I thought a blog is just right. So January 2014 my blog will be one year old! I was so hooked on finding viewers and followers so January is probably where some of my most interesting posts are. 

February and March: 

February is my little brothers birthday month and this year he turned 11. February was also the year me and my friend Centainne applied for the national teen singing competition teen star, we're very proud of ourselves for getting all the way to regional finals. It was a scary experience but it gave me the chance to perform in front of people I had never seen and radio one DJ's. So that was an interesting experience for me. 

March was also my birthday and this year I really enjoyed it, I went to a Chinese buffet with about 11 friends, totally annoyed the staff and took a million selfies later and the sun came out a lot for my birthday on that day. I got great gifts from all my friends. 

May

If I'm skipping months it means nothing interesting happened in that month for me. May was my mothers birthday and we did a lovely birthday bash for her in the house and had enough food to last a year but sadly lasted a week. 

August

I had a great summer in August, started off with going to my yearly event for Ghanaians - Ghana party in the park absolutely love it. Then followed by a week of activities with my dad including the beach, central London, bowling and all sorts. I also visited my Aunty who lives in Luton and stayed the weekend. 

September 

September was a month of memorising loads of things for my confirmation. In the end I did it and I got confirmed and it was a lovely church service. 

November 

I reached 10,000 + blog views and I was super happy and proud. Thanks again to everyone! 

Thanks for reading till the end and if you've read till the end comment your favourite thing that happened in 2014.  

Bye, love you guys!

Blogmas catchup

Hey everyone, I finished school yesterday so now I can finally catch up with you guys and update the blog, sorry for not being here and I'm going to start updating from day 14. 

Lauren x

Apologies...

Hi guys, December is an incredibly busy time for me and the time just isn't enough to blog everyday. I'm proud of the achievements that I've made so far (all my posts up till now). 

I've decided to continue doing Blogmas however whenever I can. This can be every day or every 2-3 days. I promise you guys I will never be away for more than 3 days though. 

Please bear with me, I'm sorry guys but please have patience because things are very hectic at the moment. 

Lauren x

Blogmas day 15: Doing my Christmas tree.

14 days into December! Isn't time going fast this month, just what we need leading up to probably the most exciting and definitely one of the most magical days of the year.

My Christmas tree was supposed to be done on Saturday but we went into our workshop to find the decorations and all of a sudden we couldn't find them. So my mum came home today and had bought baubles, tinsel and some other decorative stuff. So, we thought why not!

I have a tree that you have to assemble and its not a real fir tree. I did the assembling myself on Saturday. Here are the pictures:

I decorated my tree entirely in golden baubles. 

Chilling with a bauble 

The plain tree

My little brother Miles...

So, we did the lights and ended up with a hole in the center. LOL.

Then mum had to try and fix it lol.

My collection of hair illustrations

Hey guys, I didn't post yesterday because I was very busy and was occupied the whole day but I will be doing yesterdays post sometime soon. I hope you're all good and today's post will be about my collection of artwork related to hair. 

1. These are some blue curly locks I did. I used Derwent studio pencils - 12 set Mostly blues and I think a hint of purple. I also used promarker for the skin.

2. Blue Bun - This is a blue bun and I drew this not too long ago with other hairstyles I was practicing at the time. I used Derwent colours and a 0.1 Unipin fineliner. 

3. Dutch braid and flower bun  - This is my most recent illustration and I am very pleased with it, it came out pretty well. I used my Faber Castell sketch set.

4. Ocean Blue shell braid - Here I used watercolour pencils but I forgot the brand! 

Please comment down below if you would like me to do any tutorials on how to do any of these and if you read to the end comment "hair!"

Lauren 

Blogmas Day 13: Why am I doing blogmas this year?

This year I am doing Blogmas because it's my first year blogging and I think I should try and many things as I can and see how I like them to see if I'll do them next year. I am also doing Blogmas this year because thanks to you guys I reached 10,000 blog views and I'm currently at 12,000+ so I thought why not?

Thanks to everybody who reads my blog posts, it means a lot to me.

I'm doing Blogmas this year because it's generally fun (however a lot of work) and at the end of December I can say - wow, I blogged everyday in December.

Those are my reasons for doing Blogmas!

Blogmas day 12: The Christmas Tag

I've done a tag 2 days in a row now and I promise this is my last one! It's very hard thinking up new things everyday and things like this are really useful. So here we go!

• Do you like being in your Pj's or dressing up for Christmas?

I like being in my pj's, Its comfortable and I feel relaxed in them. 

• If you could only buy one person a present this year who would you pick?

Bae. Lol.

• Do you open your presents on Christmas eve or Christmas morning?

Defo, Christmas morning..

• Have you ever built a gingerbread house?

Nope, but I'd like to! 

• What's your favourite christmas meal or treat?

STUFFING ALL THE WAY. 

• What is your favourite holiday movie?

Elf! 

• Candycanes or gingerbread mean?

Gingerbread men <3

• Have you ever made a snowman?

Yes

• Which do you like better? Christmas eve or Christmas day? 

Christmas day - love it

• White lights or coloured lights?

I like both, they're both bright!

Anyone is welcome to do the tag, so do try it! x

Love you guys xo 

New Drawing: Hair

Hi everyone, this is a post on a drawing i've just finished and I''m actually really proud of it because I have never drawn something with this much depth and I think it's really pretty.

Disclaimer: I do edit my drawings, to make them look as professional as possible but I do not go over the top, I simply clean them up and then add filter to enhance it.

I was actually motivated by a bad art lesson I had at school today to draw this piece. My Art teacher took in our sketchbooks and said that mine wasn't up to his standards and as much as I didn't want to agree with him, I had to because I had been slacking lately and hadn't had time to complete stuff in there. I decided that I'd go home and make my sketchbook better... so I was going through some pages and I did a really scruffy last minute drawing of a messy bun and it wasn't gradable lol. So I rubbed that out and started drawing hair and I came up with this flower bun and then went on Instagram for inspiration and came across an account called @thebraidgals and I found that a plait would also look nice, therefore I did that too and I'm proud of it and I really, really like it.

The photo below was taken on snapchat a minute after finishing it. I post a lot of drawings and the making of drawings on there so you may add me there at: lilmiss_laurenx

Later edited using my favourite photo editor: Photo wonder 

Thank you guys a million for reading my new post and stay online for a great Blogmas day 11! 

A list of reasons why you should join Beau Bloggers

Quick overview: Beau Bloggers is an online blogging Google+ community set up by myself to unite bloggers in my age group with similar interests. Join now by Clicking the Beau Bloggers tab in the navigation bar.

Beau Bloggers is a special community put together by myself with the help of Izzy to unite bloggers and people who aren't bloggers to have fun and talk and communicate. It's turned out really well, I love being part of it, the support is tremendous and everyone there is really talented to the core and its great because you learn new things too. A special thanks to the girls who have made it a wonderful place to be.


Onto what the post is about, reasons! 

1. You make new friends 

The people there are lovely, they care and they support you in all things you do. 

2. You learn new things

The girls there are all talented in some way and they all have their interests, they make blog posts about what they're interested in and then you get to see it! You can learn loads. We have brilliant artists, makeup Know it alls and Fashionista's there who can definitely teach you a thing or two.

3. You boost your blog traffic/stats/followers

There are currently 21 members in Beau Bloggers. Whenever I blog, I can rest assured that someone from Beau Bloggers will read it because they are just all so supportive and active - we also comment, talk to you and give you great feedback.

4. We host events, competitions and regular talks

Recently we had member appreciation week and we posted certain posts and it was really nice, so that's an example of what we do. The more members that join, the better - we have a wider audience and we can do more things!

What i've enjoyed the most so far... 

• Reading new blogs
• Getting to know new people 
• Seeing others do what they're good at 
• Looking at new youtube videos 

You can be a part of an amazing blogger community, join today and you seriously won't regret it, its really really fun.

1. What do we do? 

We talk about the things we love and our daily lives! I'll have 3 people coordinating the group including myself. I'll be throwing great things in such as: 

•  latest trends and fashion news 
• Convo's and forums about fashion, beauty, art, music and everything! 
• Regular chats using whatever platform everyone has (google)
• Guest posts with some of you 
• Much more!

    2. Who do we want?

• Bloggers who can describe their interests (At least one of them). E.g: Mine are Fashion, Art and Beauty
• People who read this blog 
• People who would like to do blog posts for this blog 
• People who would like people featured in blog posts 
• People who want blogger friends 
• PEOPLE IN GENERAL LOL! 

    3. How do you join? 

• Just Click the link: Beau Bloggers

Please join, the more members, the more fun we can have! 

Click here to join!

Blogmas Day 11: Fifteen favourites tag!

Hey everyone! Welcome to day 11 of Blogmas! I hope everyone is having an awesome December, I have to say that Blogmas has been really tiring so far and it's almost impossible to blog everyday because there just isn't enough time and also I can't really think up new Christmas themed posts every single day. If you have any suggestions comment below and I'll try my best to do them. Hopefully when I get round to doing my emails, guest posts will start lol.

Today I am going to be doing the Fifteen favourites tag and I was nominated by the lovely Bria Lou owner of a really cool blog - louleecutie.blogspot.co.uk

I nominate anyone who would like to do the tag, now lets start

What is your favourite Christmas food?

Mine is part of the roast - stuffing. I cannot get enough of stuffing (sage and onion) it is so beautiful and I could eat loads of it, I love it,

My favourite reindeer?

Dasher - his/her name is awesome

Favourite Days of Christmas?

The first day and I actually don't know why.

Favourite Christmas song(s)?

Boys II Men - Let it snow
Chris Brown - This Christmas
Destiny's child - 8 Days of Christmas

Favourite Christmas Film?

ELF ALL THE WAY

Favourite Christmas Cracker toy?

I don't know lol...

Favourite decoration?

Tinsel and all things shiny!

Candle scent?

I don't have candles in my house #storyforanothertime

Christmas advert?

The KFC advert because they think people want fried chicken on christmas. LOL.

Festive tradition?

A rotation in the family of who gets to put the star on top of the tree every year

Place to spend Christmas?

Home

Snowman accessory?

Stone buttons

Thanks so much for reading my tag and I love you guys all so much! If you read till the end comment your favourite thing about Christmas :)

Come back tomorrow for day 12!

Blogmas Day 10: Christmas movies I can't do without

What would Christmas be without you snuggling up on your sofa watching a good old Christmas movie? Today I'll take you through what I love to watch through Christmas.

1. Home Alone 1,2,3 and 4

I love this whole set, the movie is for families and it's hilarious and really makes you think? Could I do all those Booby traps Kevin/Mccauley did? I'd like to try lol. I watch all of them one after the other on Virgin media demand and it's awesome. Pure laughter.

2. Nativity

This is also a really funny movie to watch and a new one came out recently and It's just hilarious. 

3. Elf 

Elf is really funny but also emotional because he thinks he's an elf but he's not and he goes off to find his real dad who's ashamed of him because he is an elf  he thinks he's an elf. 

Blogmas Day 8: Hate to break the Christmas spirit but...

But I am having a good rant today! A Christmas rant!

Do you guys know the classic...

All I want for Christmas is you - Mariah Carey?

I don't want a lot for Christmas....

YEAH WELL IT'S GETTING ON MY NERVES AND IT'S NOT EVEN CHRISTMAS DAY YET!

I sang it on one of my blogmas posts because it's a classic and people needed to hear it. No disrespect to Mariah but it is overplayed and seriously way too annoying at the moment! Every year we hear the same old tune, same old tune, same old tune and lately I've been getting absolutely annoyed with hearing it because it's replayed and overplayed everywhere you go.

So that's my rant over. Needed to get it off my chest.

Bye bye!

Blogmas Day 7: Christmas with the Williams' family

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is well today! For Blogmas Day 7 I wanted to tell you guys about some family traditions that we have at Christmas!

Like most people at Christmas we are getting ready for it by buying Christmas presents and food bit by bit. I'll take you through Christmas being me!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve is a very busy time for me. No time to sit down and no free time. I wake up early on Christmas Eve because there is a lot of cooking to be done. There is also last minute vegetable shopping, delivering last minute presents and making sure the next day is going to go superb.

My family is of Ghanaian decent so as well as a British Christmas dinner we also cook traditional Ghanaian dishes. Usually this consists of Jollof (Orange rice), waakye (Rice and beans), Kenkey and fish (Boiled corn dough), fufu and soup.This is a lot of cooking and we do it in bulk so there is enough for all family visits and the whole two weeks were at home.

After all the cooking on Christmas eve I like to sit back, finally check my social life and watch a Christmas movie on Sky movies. I love Christmas Eve and don't get to sleep until morning. The excitement is way too much and no matter how old I am I'll always love Christmas.

CHRISTMAS DAY

On this magical day by eyes automatically open at 6am and rush to the bathroom before anyone gets in there, a few years running its been me and my brother getting there at the same time so we share the bathroom (to brush our teeth, we have a separate toilet). After this I'm in my pj's and head to the living room where the tree is and we wake mum up - she usually doesn't like being woken up that early. She prays over the presents and then we dive in and open them. This is followed by a one hour church service and then coming home to explore the presents and eat the lovely food.

BOXING DAY

Another early start to the day (6am). I have leftovers for breakfast and we head out to Boxing day sales. In the past we have been to Westfield and found that incredibly stressful so this year we agreed we 'd do it this year in Romford (Awesome shopping centre). In the evening my Grandma hosts an annual Christmas dinner and every year that's when I see my whole family and we all chat, exchange gifts and eat my Grandma's awesome food.

So that's my Christmas! Thanks a million for reading guys, i'll be showing you all the pictures from these three days later.

Lauren x

Blogmas Day 6 - Top 5 Christmas tunes

Here are my top 3 always on repeat Christmas songs:

1. This Christmas - Chris Brown 
2. 8 days of Christmas - Destinys Child
3. Let it snow - Boys II men

Blogmas day 5 - Recent Arts materials

Hey guys, so I took out all my art materials today and I was actually proud of the collection I had gathered this year because I didn't think that over the year I'd get this many things. Some of these things are unused. In my art materials I have:

• Assorted paintbrushes 
• Promarker Limited edition - Summer 2012
• Promarker 5 set - Hues 
• Promarker 5 set - Product concepts 
• A random set of I think 40 - 45 promarkers 
• Derwent studio 12 set 
• Reeves Soft pastels (Unused)
• 12 Berol oil pastels (Unused)
• Reeves watercolours 
• Hobbycraft 12 set Watercolours 
• Coloured pencils set; Faber Castell Classic Colour 24 set and Koh - I - Noor 12 set and Faber Castell Graphite sketch pencils. 

I'm really proud of my little collection and I think that it's a good starter pack. I've been practising fashion illustration for two years now and this is a very good starter pack. It's quite costly for a starter pack but it does do the job your looking for. For starters I'd recommend a promarker skin tones pack and blending set, Faber Castell Classic colours and 12 watercolours.

Blogmas day 3 - Delayed but so sorry!

I did say I was going to sing for you guys and here it is. The classic all I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey. Now i'm no Ariana and you'll notice at all the parts that Mariah Carey did whistle tones I lowered them to my own level, Hope you guys like it anyway, please comment below on any song requests for the next Christmas /cover posts and all types on feedback on my singing! Love you guys!

Blogmas Day 4: DIY with my sketchbooks + HobbyCraft Haul.

Hey everyone, first of all I have a big apology to make because I didn't do Blogmas Day 3. I was incredibly busy and didn't have a good day yesterday so after homework it was straight to bed. I'm going to do two posts today and make up for it. I'm really sorry guys and hopefully something like this won't ever happen again.

Today's post is about how I've organised my school sketchbook and my personal sketchbook and a little Hobbycraft haul.

A few weeks ago I went to HobbyCraft with my dad and he told me to buy whatever I wanted because he'd pay for it and I literally went mad.

Not all things I bought are in this picture. I just couldn't find the other stuff Lol. I bought two big A3 sketchbooks and a bunch of promarkers and a white ink gel pen - The basic things I need to make fashion illustrations. The sketchbook is for drawing and planning drawings, Letraset promarkers are for adding colour and depth to things and the White ink Gel pen is for creating a reflection of light.
Sketchbook £3
Promarkers £2.50 each
Gel Pen - £1.50 each

I did buy other things and i'll show you now:

I stocked up on my fineliners and each one was £1.80.

I also bought HobbyCraft value watercolours and they're in tubes and I have to say that they aren't bad for HobbyCraft quality and they're actually really good. They only cost me £6 and compared to Windsor and Newton watercolour prices that's amazing. My HobbyCraft haul is over!

DIY WITH MY SKETCHBOOK.

Welcome to the second part of this post guys! I basically was bored one day and I cut all my designs out and made loads of collages in one of the sketchbooks I bought from HobbyCraft. It took ages but it was fun.

From left to right: Beyonce's 2014 on the run tour, 2014 Ready wear and the hand.

 EVENING GOWN 
COLLECTION 2014

From Left to right: Blue and Purple Halterneck, Blue and Red Strappless evening fitted dress, Red and Black shock maxi, Purple and Blue evening dress, Nude Cut out  dress, Orange cheetah print  Halterneck gown, Green bow halterneck, Blue one shoulder inspired by Zuhair Murad, Vibrant yellow and Caribbean blue dress, Blue T-shirt evening dress and finally Yellow Empress dress.

COSTUMES AND PART WEAR COLLECTION 2014

From left to right: Fussy Pink frock, Futuristic Metallic Fashion, Cheetah Print corset, Reflectional shapes corset, Grey futuristic mesh crop top and skirt, scene shock dress, the mermaid, Stage corset and Ballerina corset and skirt.

 LADY IN RED AND CASUAL

I'M SO NOT BOTHERED WITH CAPTIONS ANYMORE THEY TAKE AGES :'(

 FASHION ARTVENTURES - YOUTUBE

Thanks for reading lovelies!