*Giveaway Time*

You might have seen my post Let’s Make A Zine a few weeks ago? Well I’ve finished illustrating one of the A6 sized Zines with 6 pages each filled with a face (see picture below for an example) and it’s time for a bit of fun and my very first mini giveaway.

How To Enter:

It couldn’t be simpler to get hold of this little one-off handmade Zine:

Follow alphawham on Twitter AND tweet the following:

I’ve entered the @alphawham giveaway to win a one-off handmade A6 Zine full of illustrations. Have you? Details here: http://www.alphawham.com/zine-giveaway

Could it be any simpler? Follow, Copy, Paste, Tweet, Done.

Winner will receive:

The Zine pictured above.

Terms:

- You must follow alphawham on Twitter
- Genuine followers only
- Tweets must include the phrase above to be counted
- Enter as many times as you like, each tweet counts as an entry
- Accounts used just to enter giveaways will not be counted
- Entries open to people from wherever you may be

The competition ends next Sunday, the 28th of April, and a winner will be picked at random and notified via Twitter by the end of the month.

Good luck!

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

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It’s that time of year again when I quite literally blow the dust off my bike and hit the hills. In 2011 a friend introduced myself and another friend Mark to the joys, when it’s flat, of cycling. In 2011 we cycled on behalf of The Big Issue from London to Paris to raise money for the homeless, a total of 230 miles in 3 days. It was challenging yet rewarding.

I’m fortunate enough that after a couple of minutes on the bike I can be out in the countryside enjoying the views, in particular Croxden Abbey, and it’s a great way to spend a Spring morning if not for the health benefits but for the banter and a catch up.

We’re certainly not in the same league as Mr. Wiggins and have no desire to race but you can cover great distances and the calories you burn soon add up. After all, this belly needs sorting out. Myself and Mark covered 30 miles today which for the first ride of the year was pleasing. I bloody ache now and only intend on tackling the stairs if nature calls.

Photos courtesy of Mark / 5XVT

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

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Having arrived in the late afternoon on Saturday we dumped our bags and were off. We unintentionally stumbled across the Arc de Triomf before heading off to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc which is illuminated and accompanied by music each night. It turned out that there was a Comic Book festival at the nearby Montjuic exhibition centre and found ourselves surrounded by people’s best efforts to dress like their comic book heroes, a very surreal start to the stay.

Near our hotel we could see the cranes and towers of La Sagrada Familia peeking over the top of various buildings. As we strolled through the streets we turned the corner and wow! It’s there reaching skywards, Gaudi’s incredible structure. For me I was breath taken and overawed by it’s beauty – it isn’t even finished. I decided to create a post all about this incredible piece of architecture, La Sagrada Familia where you can see more photos.

Continuing with Gaudi we headed over to Park Guell. What better way to spend the afternoon in the sunshine? The views of Barcelona were stunning. We came across a part of fencing covered in personalised padlocks and ribbons, make sure you take one to add to the collection.

To finish the afternoon we relaxed down by the harbour with an iced coffee. Above is a picture of the Maremagnum building which sits alongside the Port and reflects the shoppers and it’s environment.

Peeling ourselves from the sun drenched decking we walked up Las Ramblas, saw the street performers and sat in Catalunya square. It was an enjoyable Sunday and as you’ll find in most Cities, Pigeons were present. Neighbouring children rushed at a large group causing them to take to the air, I pointed my phone to the sky and shot the picture below. There’s a certain quality about unexpected and fortunate photographs.

A few beers later, a nice meal and we were into Day 3 and off to Camp Nou. A must for fans of football. Walking alongside the pitch was a great experience and I’m looking forward to returning one day to see Messi play. We spent the afternoon sampling the Gothic Quarter and local markets.

During our stay I noticed a lot of Street Art as we wandered around and after taking several photos of the paintings I’ve decided to also create a post on the topic. Take a look at Street Art.

Barcelona was a fantastic experience and very affordable at this time of year. Certainly one of my favourite Cities. The weather was perfect, around 20 degrees, and I couldn’t imagine having to get around to see the sights in the temperatures at the height of summer. If you have any questions then fire away…

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

The post Barcelona appeared first on alphawham.

After the Metro we wandered around looking for our hotel and for some reason I felt the need to photograph the image above. Comparing this with other ‘shutter paintings’ I was to find, it’s nothing special; a few tags scrawled across a black metal shutter. Perhaps it was the boldness of the text and the fact it’s black and white that drew my attention. You’ve got to start somewhere I guess.

As we explored Barcelona I found many more paintings, some were obviously far more elaborate than others. I have collected a selection of photos and created a slideshow as you will have seen at the beginning of this post. Included in the ‘shutter paintings’ slideshow are photos of stickers, doodles and objects that have been given a personal touch. After all, I couldn’t leave them out.

A few of my favourites are below and I hope this gives you an insight into Barcelona that you might not have known about.

This was on a tree near the Picasso Museum and apparently it reads:

If you walk around here and you see a tree,
then you have not really seen a tree

Super Mario was on a wall near Park Guell. Can’t beat a bit of retro gaming can you?

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

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Firstly La Sagrada Familia translates to The Holy Family and building work started in 1882 but Gaudí didn’t get involved until 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his style which I was later to find out was heavily influenced by nature. Gaudi died aged 73 in 1926 with less than a quarter of the structure complete. It is anticipated that work will finish in 2026, the centennial of Gaudi’s death, and we thought UK builders took their time!

The tortoise at the base of a column is a quirky touch and the sculptures that decorate the face of the building are fascinating and almost modern looking given the fact they were designed over a 100 years ago.

The stained glass windows were stunning and we were fortunate enough that the sun shone brightly and splashed the columns and people inside with colour. As you can see they reach high up into the Basilica and allow light to pass through the space.

The views from the towers were special and I advise anyone who visits to ensure they pay that extra bit to go up. They’re a bit narrow but you can see parts of La Sagrada Familia that you wouldn’t from the ground.

There’s so much to talk about and see but if this snippet has interested you I highly recommend you place La Sagrada Familia on your list of things to do. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

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The lovely people at Paper Mill Direct were kind enough to send me a special sample pack recently and it was bursting with various types of A4 textured paper. The packaging was superb and ensured that the paper arrived undamaged, after all no one wants bent corners or creases in their paper.

The inside of the cardboard lid has interesting excerpts about the company that help give you an idea of what Paper Mill Direct are all about and where your paper derives from. It’s these extra details and information that informs me that great care and pride has been taken in the making of their products.

There’s many natural colours, textures and paper weights to experiment with and I was fortunate enough to receive a few sheets of each. I’m looking forward to doodling away and can’t wait to see the results.

Thanks again to Paper Mill Direct for their kindness and you can also find them on Twitter @papermilldirect and you can keep up to date with useful papercrafting tools and tips by reading the Paper Mill Direct Blog.

This will probably be my last post before my trip to Barcelona at the weekend so I’ll take this chance to apologise to people on Twitter, Instagram and anyone who reads my Journal for the forthcoming bombardment of photos and posts.

♥ alphawham / Paul Clay

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