Woodland Finds

The other day we took the dogs down to the woods for open playtime. There is a really wonderful pond there with all kinds of cool stuff. So we decided to do a bit of foraging. We gathered mosses, pitcher plants and one lone fern who was barely surviving the cold.

We brought it all home and I pulled out some of my milk glass collection and got started:

Beautiful pitcher plants, some unidentified creeping bog plant, sphagnum moss, reindeer moss and some lovely dried flower stems who will be used a little later…

 

Everything needed to create a lovely woodland planting: pea gravel for the bottom of the bowl, moss, creepers, pitcher plants, soil, a small air plant and a crystal for good luck.

Lay about an inch of gravel in the bottom of your bowl (especially if it doesn’t have drainage), then add soil. Plant the pitchers and pack the moss in around it. You’ll want to have a spray bottle handy for watering as well.

 

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett

 

 

DIY Lightbox Tutorial

If you ever have a need to photograph a product or even just a still life composition, you need a lightbox.

Why, you ask?

Because without one, that silly little pop-up flash will do its thing – and you know it has a mind of its own, even on the nicer DSLRs. You’ll end up with uneven lighting, tons of glare and worst of all – shadows. A lightbox solves almost all those problems (because sometimes you just can’t get rid of glare). You’ll also get incredibly even lighting all around.

A store-bought light kit can run you at least $150. The one I’m going to show you today cost me about $30.

So how do you make this ingenious, complicated, very professional contraption?

First, decide how big you want it to be. Mine is 2 feet square and about 3 feet deep – or, roughly the size of those half-sheets of foamcore sold in the school supply section.

Onward!

Materials

• white foamcore, 5 pieces (4 for the sides, one smaller to seal in the back)
• white duct or electrical tape
• straight edge
• x-acto knife
• 4 small clip lamps (mine were the cheapest Lowe’s had to offer)
• 4 full spectrum lightbulbs
• 1 power strip

Have all your stuff together? Now you’re ready for the easiest project ever (apologies in advance for not taking scintillating pictures of myself cutting and taping the foamcore).

1. You are going to make a cube that is open on one end. Start by cutting the sides: 4 identical pieces of foamcore. Again, your size will depend on what you’ve picked, but mine were roughly 24″ x 36″.  Next cut one end piece that will seal the far end of your box.

2. Tape everything together, starting with the sides and ending with the endpiece. The white tape is important because it won’t cast any strange shadows once you light everything up.

3. Assemble your clip lamps and clip them to the sides of the box (see picture). Each lamp should point to its opposite corner – so, the top right lamp will point to the bottom left inside corner.

4. You’re pretty much done! I did make one tiny addition to my box:

Not the vintage salt shakers, but that cut out in the top. You can see it waving at you up there. This allows me to shoot down into the box, instead of just from the front. It’s perfect for anything flat. Just cut it barely larger than your lens, and you are good to go!

This photo also happens to illustrate something of vital importance. No matter what kind of bulbs you buy, even the “white” ones, you have to white balance your camera (assuming you are shooting digital). If you don’t, everything will be yellowy. If you do, you get this:

 

 

See how nice and bright the Humpty’s are after the white balancing?

Now, go forth and create lightboxes!

Smittenday 2, Giveaway Winner and All New Giveaway!

Just  a small selection of smits for you today – I have been absolutely crazed this week with Christmas gifts, leaving little time for falling in smit.

Before we get to that, let me announce the winner of last week’s giveaway, a packet of Asian ephemera!

Do we need a drumroll? Nah…

The winner is Cathy G., who said she’d use the materials in her card making. I can think of few better purposes! Cathy, expect an email from me!

Do you want to win something? Check below the day’s smits to find out what I’m giving away this week!

1. Faces of the Civil War, from the Library of Congress photostream. Haunting, aren’t they?

2. From Neroli Handmade comes one of the most beautiful and interesting necklaces I’ve seen in quite some time. Check out her other stuff, it’s quite unique.

3. I am obsessed with bees lately, which is precisely why this little gem caught my eye. I’m saving up for after Christmas!

4. Edgar Allen Poe, done by my amazing friend Katie. She’s done every last one of my tattoos, and I’m lucky enough to have a couple of her pieces on paper as well. Check out her work and that of her huband Fred on the Salvation website.

Next week I promise to be a little more with it, and have a bigger selection of things for you to crush on.

Now for this week’s giveaway!

It’s just as easy to win as before. This time the prize is one original photograph of mine, professionally printed on archival paper.

All you have to do is hop over to my photo blog and then come back here and leave a comment telling me which photo you like best.

Entries will be accepted until December 18, 2010. The winner will receive one decoratively matted 5×7 print of the photo they’ve chosen.

In case you are wondering, here’s my current favorite:

A Little Something I’ve Been Working On…

At long last, my Etsy shop is populated!

I’ve been trying to finish this painting for about 3 months. It seemed like every time I thought I’d carved out time to work on it, something else laid claim to the moment.

Why did it take so long, you ask? Besides life just generally getting in the way, the painting has so many layers and materials that it sometimes took 3 days just to finish one section. It’s a small piece, just about 4×7 inches, but is loaded with detail. I love it so much I almost didn’t want to list it!

Here she is:

I was inspired by Elbert Hubbard’s quote: “Every saint has a bee in his halo.” (Don’t worry, he’s no relation to crazy old L Ron.) Hubbard was quite influential in the American arts & crafts movement – and, incidentally died in the torpedoing of the Lusitania not long after the start of World War I.

So there’s your Jeopardy fact for the day!

Head over to my Etsy shop if you are interested in buying the piece, and if you aren’t, then just tell me what you think of it!

A Peek at the Family

I realize I don’t talk a whole lot about myself here, so I thought it was time to introduce you to two members of my family. They are arguably the cutest out of all of us. I think you’ll agree:

This is Bronx. He likes running (obvi) and hates having his picture taken. Every photo of him is either like this one or of him charging the camera. Occasionally I’ll catch his butt as he leaves the room. He’s so savvy that he even knows a cell phone pointed in his direction is the camera mode – no joke!

 

And this is little Draya. I call her little, but really she’s a full 60 pounds of dense, pit bull muscle. And tongue, apparently. Her motto is, “I do what I want.” And she does. She’s remarkably well trained and obedient – except for those moments when she is just dead set on something. If she doesn’t want to go out, she does not go out. If she wants to sleep in the bed, she will climb in 26 times (after being told 25 times to get down). At this point we just shake our heads and say, “That’s just Draya.”

And those are the furbabies. We hang out all day (since I work from home), we go to the field (where these were shot), we cuddle, we play and they never fail to make my heart just melt into a puddle of pure gold.

 

While you’re here, have you entered to win my Asian ephemera giveaway? It’s right over here…

Crystalline Snowflakes Tutorial

Thoreau, in all his wisdom, once said:

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”

But Nature isn’t responsible for these gorgeous snowflakes – not directly anyhow.

Nope, these pretty creations are made out of just a few simple things:

• Borax
• Water
• Pipe cleaners
• Twine or wire
• Stick or dowel

That’s it!

Now here’s how you make it all work:

1. Cut 3 equal lengths of pipe cleaner and 6 smaller lengths. (My long pieces were about 5 inches before folding.)
2. Twist the three long pieces together just enough to hold a star shape. Add one little piece to the end of each one to form that peace-sign shape you see.
3. Tie your twine – I used white floral wire in mine – around the end of one spoke. This is your hanger, both in the crystal solution and on the tree (or wherever you choose to use them).
4. Make the solution. 3 tbs. of Borax to every cup of boiling water is the ratio I used. Pour the mixture into a container big enough to hold the snowflake forms.
5. Tie your snowflakes to the dowel and lower them into the hot solution. Let sit overnight and in the morning, you’ll have stunning crystallized snowflakes! The just take them out and hang to dry.

Twists: I made mine with white pipe cleaners and clear solution. But you could always experiment with a couple drops of blue food coloring or even blue or silver pipe cleaners. In fact, I may just do that!

If you don’t have Borax on hand, regular old table salt and even sugar will work. And if you feel like shopping, pick up some alum – it makes way cool crystals.

I’ve decided to use my little flakes as toppers for Christmas gifts, along with fancy poms (more on that to come).

How are you topping your gifts this year? Share a link, especially if you’ve made the snowflakes described here!

Happy Smittenday! (and a giveaway!)

It’s here! The first official Smittenday! The day on which I share with you a small sampling of all the things that have caught my attention this week – things with which I am in smit, if you will.

I hope to do this post every Sunday because, as my husband said, everyone dreads Sundays. It’s the day the real world starts to creep back into our lives…. But, that just isn’t going to work for me. I’d rather have something to look forward to every Sunday, rather than sitting with the knowledge that work and responsibility are sneaking their ways back into my week.

I do reserve the right to become totally besotted mid-week (or anytime, really) with something that I absolutely!must!share! straightaway.

To celebrate this oh-so-very auspicious occasion, I thought a giveaway might be in order. You heard me: giveaway time!

 

Those who know me know that I have always been a collector, a saver, a memorabilia keeper. One thing that has always held my heart is paper – old paper especially, but new pieces as well, especially those that are pretty or interesting in some way. And if it’s something I can use in my art, even just the tiniest scrap of paper, I keep it.

I am in love with Asian ephemera, and so I thought it the perfect thing to give away on a Smittenday!

I have three packets of Asian ephemera to give away, each containing a variety of papers. Some will be vintage, some will be new. Some are vintage magazine pages. There is some killer joss paper to be had as well as a few other treats. And if something extra special should happen to make its way into the package well, lucky you!

Winning is simple! Just leave me a comment telling me how you might use any one of the pieces mentioned above.

Bonus entries can be scored by blogging about the giveaway (1 entry), adding me to your blogroll (1 entry), and following me via email or RSS feed (1 entry). Come back and leave a comment for each extra thing that you do.

The giveaway will end next Saturday, December 11th, so you have plenty of time to enter!

 

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the smittening!