Wooden You Know It--A Colouring Challenge

G'day, crafty peeps.

As many ouf you know, my bestee (Joudi A.) has been here visiting with me all week. Sadly, this mourning she returned houme tou Coloradou.

Doun't get me started our I'll start blubbering.

Again.

I will poust moure about our escapades oun anouther post. For nouw, I'm pousting a challenge I just entered ouver at Make It Crafty's colouring challenge. (NO, I haven't gone all oddly British on you. I know it's spelled "COLORING" in the U.S., but this challenge is based out of Australia, so I thought I'd get in the proverbial spirit and start adding "U"s everywhere...and I got carried away. But adding a U after the O makes things look...classier somehow.
 
Jodi and I stayed up ALL NIGHT (as her plane left at the unholy hour of 6 a.m. this morning). We were on the road to the airport at 4 a.m. MANY thanks to my DH for driving. MANY.

I digress. Where was I?

Oh yes, Australia.

SOooooooo, at Make It Crafty, they're hosting a coloring challenge. The official name of this challenge is:

Make it Colourful - Challenge #7 - Spring is in the air

They have 2 competitions: an easy one (Spring is in the air) and a hard one (wood). Of course I bit off more than I can chew and picked the hard one. In fact, I picked the wonderfully-detailed "Big Steampunk Treehouse"  digi stamp.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

In preparation for this challenge I spent all day looking at tree trunks.

ALL DAY.

Jodi, my mom, my DH, and I spent a whole day at the lovely Dallas Arboretum last week (pics to follow in another post). Does Torrey look at the multitudes of GORGEOUS tulips, daffodils, pansies, hyacinths, etc. flowers? NO. She looks at the gnarled bark of still-dormant trees. Ok, so I did take a "few" pictures (178) of the flowers...but I STUDIED the tree trunks.

Go figure. 

Guess what? I learned that tree trunks aren't brown. They're more a soft, warm grey with about a thousand other colors splashed around. For this challenge, I chose a wonderfully-detailed image of a steampunk treehouse sitting atop a marvelously gnarled old tree...which I decided needed to look like it was covered in moss. Because it's old. And gnarly.

 I kid you not...there are 23 colors in this tree trunk. 

23...and that's just in the tree trunk.

 Ready for the list?

1. 10% French Grey (PC1068)
2. 50% French Grey (PC1072)
3. 70% French Grey (PC1074)
4. Dark Umber (PC947)
5. Dark Brown (PC946)
6. Dark Purple (PC931)
7. Sepia (PC948)
8. Burnt Ochre (PC943)
9. Sienna Brown (PC945)
10. Chestnut (PC1081)
11. Henna (PC1031)
12. Beige Sienna (PC1080)
13. Goldenrod (PC1034)
14. Cream (PC914)
15. Bronze (PC1028)
16. Green Ochre (PC1091)
17. Celadon Green (PC1020)
18. Jade Green (PC1021)
19. Limepeel (PC1005)
20. Olive Green (PC911)
21. Dark Green (PC908)
22. Kelp Green (PC1090)
23. Black (PC935)

I do believe this picture wins my own personal "there-is-no-such-thing-as-plain-brown" award.

It was fun...but don't EVEN get me started on how many colors I used for the "copper" treehouse.

Oy.

Flash Dance...a Photography tutorial

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

Today I was trying to figure out how to make the pop-up flash on my camera (Canon Rebel EOS) more subject-friendly. I HATE using my  built-in flash because the lighting is SO harsh. Using a diffuser can really make a HUMONGO difference in softening the light from your flash, and makes your subject look SOooooo much more appealing...and natural.

It's a simple idea...imagine a lamp with its lampshade on. The light it gives off is nice and soft and it doesn't cast harsh shadows or create raging glare. Remove the shade and you get a bare bulb which casts light that is more suited for interrogation and torture sessions. So, basically, a diffuser is a lampshade for your flash.

It can be made out of anything semi-opaque and white (cloth, paper, plastic)...as long as SOME light can pass through it. I read somewhere how to make a VERY simple light diffuser using a Post It note. It works ok...but it kept falling off, even with tape. I also saw a video about making one out of a white plastic film canister (like any of us have film canisters laying around anymore). So, today, I went searching the internet for places to buy a diffuser. Some of those suckers were like $50. Can you believe it????

They ain't cheap.

And, I am.

So...after getting all disgusted with the prices for a "store bought" diffuser, I set out to make my own. I watched several videos on Youtube and finally landed on combining a couple of techniques I saw. I made mine out of an empty coffee creamer bottle like this one below. I removed the plastic covering to reveal the white container underneath (it just peels right off)

Guess what?

It actually worked!

Whadaya know.

I'll explain how to make your own later in this post. For now, here are examples of the same shot without and with my homemade diffuser.  I put my camera in auto mode and shot the same test subject in the same lighting. These pictures are not retouched or altered in any way...they're as they came straight out of my camera.

TEST 1 

WITHOUT the diffuser

Notice the harsh glare and washed-out colors of the card. That cardstock looks grey, not black. And look at that hard shadow on the right. Yuck.

WITH the diffuser

 

The improvement in color and the lessening of that harsh shadow is very noticeable. AND, that glare is GREATLY reduced.

Test 2 

WITHOUT the diffuser

Washed out, glarefest.

WITH the diffuser

Much better. Warmer light, truer colors, decreased glare.

So you can see...the simple addition of a diffuser over your flash makes a HUGE difference! This will really save time when it comes to "correcting" everything in Photoshop afterwards!

As promised, here is how I made mine. 

I drew this pattern in Photoshop. The measurements of this pattern are for my Canon EOS. If you want to make your own for a different type of camera, I suggest you print out the pattern on paper, cut it out, and see if it fits. You'll probably have to make some minor adjustments so that it fits your camera.  Once you've finalized your pattern:

• Just use the pattern to cut out a piece of BENDABLE white plastic (or you could use heavy cardstock)
• fold up along the fold line so that diffuser is covering front of flash (you want a couple of inches space between the diffuser and your flash)
• Insert tab into the hot shoe under flash

Here is what it looks like mounted on the camera (photo taken with my phone). Since I made mine from a coffee creamer bottle, it has a natural curve to it. I actually like that feature...it makes it look like a sailboat. And, like a curved lampshade, it diffuses the light very evenly.

Here is the pattern! 

It's 6.25 inches long from the top of the diffuser to the bottom of its tab, and 5 inches wide at the main part (if you need specific dimensions of all the parts, contact me).

TIPS for customizing pattern to fit YOUR camera: 

1. The tab at the bottom should fit snugly in the hot shoe assembly under your flash. The little "wings" on the bottom of the tab prevent it from sliding back out and should be slightly wider than the shoe.
2. The fold line should rest on the lip of the flash housing (where the flash goes when it's not popped up). 
3. The material you choose to make your diffuser should still allow light to glow through it. Test it by holding whatever you want to use up to a bare light bulb...if you can still see the bulb itself, you need heavier material. If you can just see a soft, general light...you're good to go.

Thank you for visiting Left Field Studio today!

May your life be filled with photo ops!

Bombshell Sketch Time

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

I'm not actively on the design team for Bombshell Stamps anymore, although I still dabble in some digital stuff for them. But, in my heart, I will ALWAYS be a Bombshell Girl. Always. This month, they came up a little short on design team projects for their monthly sketch challenge, so I volunteered to make a card. Part of the reason they fell shy this month is that one of the beloved Bombshell Girls is laid up in the hospital. So, join me in sending up good thoughts and well wishes to Miss Katie!!

Here is the sketch for this month's challenge...brought to us by El Capitain Kathi. Please join us with your OWN version of this sketch for a chance to win some Bombshell stamps!! Yippee!! Just go on over to the Bombshell blog, leave a comment, and go create a card or layout, or whatever...using this sketch (and your Bombshell Stamps).

 

I decided to use one of my very favorite (okay...2 of my very favorite) stamp sets from Bombshell...Koi Tattoo and Lotus Garden. I pretty much followed the sketch. 

Pretty much. 

OKAY, people...for me, this is following the sketch!

I stamped the images onto black cardstock using Versamark ink, then I heat embossed them with detail gold embossing powder. I added a few Versamark/embossed stamped coins to complete the sketch...and one extra in the upper right corner to balance it all out.

Thanks for stopping by! Your comments are, as always, REALLY appreciated. Truly.

Ingredients:
Koi Tattoo stamp set (Bombshell Stamps)
Lotus Garden stamp set (Bombshell Stamps)
Chinese coin stamp (A Stamp in the Hand)
Circle nesting dies (Spellbinders)
Edge punch (Martha Stewart)
Ultra Detail gold embossing powder (Stampendous)
Versamark Ink (Tsukineko)
Japanese Washi paper
gold rafia
cardstock
 

Up, Up and Away!

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

Ok...I'm exhausted. Who knew creating and crafting could be such hard work?  I'm here again with another installment of my "Sample Stampede". Today I'm offering up 2 cards I made using (what else) Karen Burniston dies!!!! No surprise there, right?

The first card I'm sharing I made using the Lucy Label Pop Up die set. I made this one especially for Maria. See, Maria (the owner of ItsCheaperThanTherapy.com) also owns and operates a hot air balloon touring company called 

A Balloon Adventure

I know Maria loves hot air balloons, so I decided to make a card honoring one of her passions. It's pretty unassuming on the outside...

But, open it up and VOILA!!!!

Before you ask...the strings on the balloon are real...they are made from embroidery floss. The "net" covering the balloon is something I created years ago in Photoshop. I print it out on transparency then cut out a balloon from whatever patterned paper I desire at the moment. The balloon is suspended above the basket using a piece of clear plastic that I saved from some packaging (I hardly EVER throw anything out). The tree and clouds are dies from Karen's All Season Tree die set.

So, thank you, Maria, for believing in me and my art.

The next card I did for her upcoming show is just a fun St. Patty's card. I decided I would send her 2 "seasonal" cards for her spring shows. For this one I used the Katie Label Pivot Card die. I gotta tell you, I love these Pivot cards. Leave it to Karen to come up with an easy-peasy way to make a 3-D interactive card. Here is me li'l bit o' Ireland card...from the outside

 And here it be, from the inside by begora! (I have no idea what that means, but it sounded Irishy). Look! There's even a pot o' gold at the end of that rainbow!!!

Well, that's all the samples for now. Now, I have to clean up my studio after Hurricane Torrey hit. Then, all next week I'm preparing for our garage sale by sorting through junk in the garage (what a novel idea). Next weekend is garage sale time...then the NEXT weekend after that is when JODI WILL BE HERE!!!

Jodi's coming out to play!!! She and I are attending a coloring retreat while she's here. Just think...an entire WEEKEND doing nothing but coloring. I know that the vast majority of the women that will be there are Copic gals...but who knows, maybe I can convert a couple to the Prismacolor Pencil side.

Who knows?

Ingredients:
Lucy Label Pop Up Dies by Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Crafts)
All Seasons Tree Dies by Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Crafts)
Katie Label Pivot Card Dies by Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Crafts)
Edge punch (Martha Stewart)
Leprechaun image by Dulemba
Pot of gold image (public domain)
Spots and Dots embossing folder by ProvoCraft
Basket stamp (Sunday International)
Prismacolor Pencils
Patterned paper (DCWV Green Stack for balloon card)
cardstock
transparency
ribbon
embroidery floss

The Easter Bunny Cometh

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

So, when is Easter this year anyway? I have to look at a calendar, because I don't do the whole Lenten season thing, and Easter candy has been available in the store since Feb. 15...so I am clueless.

But that does remind me of a funny story, which I will now share with you...whether you want to read it or not.

I attended a Catholic university for my undergrad studies (and graduate school too, come to think of it). And, although they couldn't FORCE us to participate in the Catholic traditions, we were "highly encouraged" to attend Mass regularly. I mean, when 90% of the nursing-school staff were nuns or ex-nuns it was just one of those unspoken and not required but "expected" things. Know what I mean?

The nursing school was run by the iron fist of Sister Mary Jeremy Buckman. And let me tell you, she was the quintessential nun--right down to her orthopedic hose and sensible black shoes.

So, there it was, about this time of year...my junior year of nursing school. In fact, it was Ash Wednesday, to be exact. I (being the non-Catholic person I am), didn't want to spend my precious free time attending Mass, let alone Mass in Latin that I couldn't understand, to receive ashes that I didn't particularly want. But, I knew, if I showed up to class without that telltale smudge on my forehead, I would be the target of scornful nun-looks burning straight to my very soul, and be subjected to seeing pursed nun-lips frowning at me in disapproval (you Catholic school people know EXACTLY what I'm talking about). I'm certain (if it had been allowed) there would probably have been a wooden ruler and several Hail Marys involved in my rebuking, somehow.

I could not let that happen.

So, as I was hurrying to class, I stopped off at the nearest cigarette ashtray receptacle thing, and proceeded to smear my forehead with the ashes of a butt I retrieved out of the sand.

WHAT?

Like nobody's EVER done that.

WHAT?

Ok...enough reminiscing before I condemn myself to life in purgatory.

Too late.

Here is another sample I created for It's Cheaper Than Therapy using the new Accordion Oval die and matching border dies by Karen Burniston. Sure, it's all pretty and frou-frou on the outside. But you know me better.

On the inside it has CHOCOLATE (or a reasonable facsimile of chocolate) along with a good dash of Torrey-esque humor.

I reinforced all the hinges with tape, so that Maria can show it over and over at her next show without them ripping (in all hopes). I think next time, I'll just coat one side of the hinges with clear lacquer. That will fortify them!

I made the chocolate bunnies in Photoshop and printed them out on chocolate brown cardstock. I added shadowing with my Prismacolor pencils and then coated them with clear lacquer to make them shiny...like chocolate.

It's a simple card, but one that I think showcases Karen's dies well. The next card I'm making for Maria involves a hot air balloon...stay tuned.

Ingredients:
Pop It Up Accordion Oval Die by Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft)
Oval Frame Edge dies by Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft)
Patterned paper
ribbon
clear lacquer
Prismacolor Pencils
cardstock
stamping ink

And so the samples begin

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

As some of you know, I am one of the artists that makes samples for It's Cheaper Than Therapy. I recently convinced Maria (the owner) she needed to hire Jodi too. So she did. Together, Jodi and I are gonna be the sample designers for Maria's store. Maria carries the full line of Karen Burniston's new dies (which I adore). For those of you who are not in the know, Karen parted ways with Sizzix and is now working with Elizabeth Craft. Even though Maria is "the Sizzix Lady", she is still carrying Karen's dies, because 1) They're awesome, and 2) She loves Karen (who doesn't?).

Maria travels pretty much all the time going all over the country to scrapbook shows/conventions. Her booth is amazing. It's 40 ft. long and houses floor to ceiling dies and die-cutting accessories. Here is a pic of her booth from the recent Scrapbook Expo in Grapevine, TX. Maria, Julie and I set up the booth. I inventoried everything and the 3 of us arranged it all on the display racks. It took an entire day.

(The booth has 2 more sections at either end that I couldn't fit in with my camera.)

Maria sent me home with some of Karen's dies to create some samples. This first one I created, I used 6 of Karen's dies (I combined them all). I used the Pop It Up Accordion Circle and Accordion Fancy Label dies (along with their coordinating Circle frame, and Fancy frame dies) to create the following piece which I used as my "lure" to get people to stop by my demo table...and it TOTALLY worked. It was terrific eye candy. 

(yes, I was at the expo demoing all weekend).

I alternated using the circle then label dies to create my..."Create" banner. Since the tabs didn't line up for the middle sections...I cut them off completely and fashioned my own tabs using clear plastic (from some leftover packaging). I snapped this photo with my phone, so yeah...that explains the "quality".

Here is another sample I made using Karen's new Pop It Up Garden Bench die and the Agatha Edge die. The bench die is SO ornate! Here is the card both open and closed. I used the edge die to create the top "flap" of the card. It also acts as a support for the string of floating hearts and allows the hearts to dangle freely.

 

 

My final sample for today is one of Stephanie Barnard's new Flip-Its dies. I love her Flip-Its cards... a LOT. They make creating an interactive/3-D card SUPER easy...like it literally takes less than 30 seconds to make the base for one of her cards (I had people time me). Here is a card I made for the show. One really cool feature of these dies, is that it comes as a kit with dies that cut out all the parts to perfectly fit the spaces of the card...like the orange polkadot section, the blue background...etc. Each kit comes with like 9 or more dies! 

(Forgive the quality of the photos, I took them with my phone)

card mostly closed

and here it is open

More samples are coming. Maria needs them for her next show in a couple of weeks. So, as I get them done, I'll share them here. Thank you for stopping by! 

Happy Crafting, y'all!

Ingredients:

Karen Burniston dies (Elizabeth Craft): 

     Pop It Up Accordion Circle

     Pop It Up Accordion Fancy Label

     Pop It Up Circle Frame Edge

     Pop It Up Fancy Frame Edge

     Pop It Up Garden Bench

     Pop It Up Agatha Edge

Sizzix dies:

     Stephanie Barnard Flip Its Triple Square set

     Stephanie Barnard Framelits Birthday Cake set

     Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Mini Cat & Raven

End of Summer Digital stamp - Mo Manning

Patterned Paper/elements (Little Yellow Bicycle, DCWV, misc)

Ribbon

Brads

Embroidery floss

stamping ink

Prismacolor pencils

cardstock

Attack of the Baby Shower Cards

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

As promised...here are the cards I made for my cousin's daughter's baby shower.

Before I unveil the cards, I want you to know that my mom and I figured out how this kiddo is related to me. This baby will be my first cousin twice removed. I get it now. when a cousin is "removed" that is a generational (vertical) reference. When you talk about 2nd and 3rd cousins...it's a horizontal reference (my 1st cousin's  1st cousin would be my 2nd cousin). I figure everyone on this planet is some sort of cousin.

Okay...on with the show!!

The first card I made is from me. It goes along with the "monster" theme of my gifts.

 

 The monster is of my own design/creation. I actually drew him (and all his component parts) in Photoshop to make the pattern. And, because I'm nice...I included the pattern at the end of this post!

 Inside of Monster card

Guess what? There is NO coloring on this card (except for the freckles which I did with my Prismacolor pencils and that doesn't count). Fear not! As you'll see in a minute, the second card has PLENTY of mad coloring skillz. 

MAD, I tell ya!

The second card is for my mom to give--I offered to make one for her to give (I'm a good daughter).  When I asked her what she wanted on it...she requested it have a frog. Now, I was not about to put some cutesy-wootsy frog on there. But I did find this wonderful guy in my digi stamp cache. I colored him up with my Prismacolor pencils (note the mad skillz). And yes, those papers look familiar...because I used the same papers on both cards. I figured why not? I already had them out. 

This card is made with a Stephanie Barnard Flip-Its card die. I love these cards. I love their 3-D interactiveness. When you open it, the middle section (where the frog is sitting) magically flips over. See?

Here is a closeup of the inside of the card

So YAY! I'm done...and in time to take a shower and get ready for the party. Did I mention they're having a chocolate fountain?

I am SO there.

Ingredients:
Majestic Flip-it die (Sizzix)
Crown Oval Nestability die (Spellbinders)
Loopy edge punch (Martha Stewart)
Bubble edge punch (Martha Stewart)
Drippy edge punch (Martha Stewart)
Carl the Frog stamp (Scribbles by Sandy)
Prismacolor Pencils
Patterned paper (various)
Googly eyes
Clear Lacquer
Ribbon
Foam spacers
cardstock