Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts

5/22/16

Chalkboard Tutorial

Dust off a frame

Ready to start

Super easy chalkboard and my attempt at a tutorial. Please let me know if any instructions are unclear.

Need:
  • Picture frame or document frame WITH glass
  • Chalkboard Tape 
  • Chalk (duh)
  • Scissors or other cutting tool
So you might have an old frame laying around, like I found. Awe, President of Junior Optimists, he won't mind his frame going to a good cause. And I hung the certificate on a bulletin board with some other empty nest kid paraphernalia. 
The Chalkboard tape that I found is Scotch brand, and was at my local grocery store in the school supply section. I happened to go to Joann's today and looked at their variety of Duct tapes, but none of those are chalkboard.
This tape has it's own backing, and it is easily removable as it says.



Measuring tape

Five pieces of tape

Start in the center



Cut Chunk Picture

Back ready

Front ready

Done!


















Since the tape has a backing, it's super easy to cut the pieces you need and lay them out to see how much you need before you stick the tape. I needed five pieces for the 8 x 10 1/2 frame I was using. Cut the tape a bit longer than the glass, about 1/4 inch on each side.

When you've measured and cut your tape, you're ready to start applying it to the glass. Start by putting the middle piece on, I eyeballed it, but you could draw whatever lines you need right on the glass because you'll be covering it up.

After the center piece is in place, add the next piece, with a slight overlap-1/8-1/4". Again, eyeballing is fine, and resticking is easy. Work out the air bubbles as you go along, and leave the edges 'till last.

When you have all the strips down, and readjusted as much as needed, press it all down more. A magazine or book is a good flat hard surface to smooth with.

Time for the edges! Do the sides with multiple edges first, from center out, like the front. For each edge, I stood the glass up on end, and kinda folded the tape around the side.

The side edges done, cut a chunk off the corner, the part where the tape would overlap. See Cut Chunk Picture. Then fold the other edges. I'm sure there's lots of other good ways to do the corners.

That's basically it. Now we have a piece of glass, covered with chalkboard tape. And just put the glass back in the frame.

I've drawn on it with the regular Crayola chalk and sidewalk chalk. It does seem that the regular chalk scratched the tape somewhat, but it's not so bad to make me want to redo it. The colors don't seem as bright as they show on the package, but I don't know if that is the tape or the chalk.

The tape says to clean with a tissue or dry wipe and sometimes use a wet wipe. I tried both. Dry leaves a ghost of the previous drawing, but baby wipes clean it wonderfully well.

OK. That's my tut.
Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for the comments, I'll update/correct things as they come up.






















5/7/16

Rehearsing



Our Wonderful Choir Director provides us with recordings of each individual part, as well the whole song.
Here are a few helpful hints that I have come up with:

  • Listen. Remind yourself of the tempo and feel of the song. Gotta nail the beginning!
  • Rehearse your part with the recording for your part, then when you think you've got your part down, sing your part along with a recording of a different part
  • Focus on the individual things you can work on, remember we'll form one voice when we are singing together
  • Do the hard parts first, and start again if you mess it up
  • If a song especially moves you to tears, get the tears out in rehearsal
  • For UUs: write in a lower case g when needed, or find alternate meanings if your heart needs them. "Spirit" to me is the music itself.

4/28/16

Playing with iPhone

I was disappointed to learn that there is no longer a Blogger app in the Apple Store. Searching online led me to this app called BlogGo  for ninety nine cents. 
So far so good. 
This photo is old mod podge and glitter drying on the glass end table I work on. I experimented with the time lapse to see if I could capture the drying process, but no. 


 

 

3/17/16

See Shell's Big Plan

Countdown Painting on Wall
THE BIG PLAN
I have always wanted to make my living using only my own creativity, in other words, to not have a real job. Because I work for the State, I have the option to retire at age 55, and that is what I plan to do. Let me put some quotes in there to clarify.
I am going to "retire" from my "real" job in about four years. 
That means I have about four years to figure out how to do it. I have many ideas of how to do this. Some are huge and scary, like maybe I could invest in some combo of store/studio/house/rental space to live and work, and possibly rent out. Other ideas are easily obtainable, an Etsy store is in my near future, we'll see how far that can go. I also have plenty of creative ideas that I want to do, that won't necessarily be monetizable, like stop frame animation, tutorials, and recipes.
This is scary. Scary exciting. I feel like I'm at the top of a roller coaster right now. And I do love a good roller coaster!
In the process of deciding to pursue this Big Plan, I looked into the future to see when my 55th birthday was, exactly. Discovering it conveniently falls on a Friday, the beginning of the Big Plan was born. As long as I was playing with calendars, I counted the working days from the beginning of this year until December 20, 2019, and found it to be 991. Less than one thousand days, that's do-able.
However 991 is kinda big for a countdown, and I really want to have a feeling of where I'm at in the process. Four years with four seasons each is a much more reasonable countdown of sixteen. That is what you see in this photo, my countdown until "retirement." I will mark off each season as it happens, so I will be able to see at a glance where I am in my timeline. Maybe a little crazy, but it works for my brain.
I will share how my process is going here on this little blog. Please join me on my little adventure. Let me know what you think, I'm still in my giant ideas stage, nothing's too crazy to think about.
And join the Scheme Team

3/7/16

See Shell's Show & Tell


If you didn't see it on Instagram, here's my Show & Tell for today.

It's a first attempt at air brushing, and experimenting with stencils.

3/2/16

Thrift Store Gold

Thrift Treasures



























Here's the latest thrift store finds. Sea shell beads, plastic purple beads, and cool striped beads. There's two stores on the same block, so one trip can hit both. Under Five Bucks for the trip!

2/25/16

Lucy as Three Wise Monkeys



A photo posted by Shelly Fowler (@seeshells64) on



I finally got on Instagram!
So check out my silly pictures. 

I was watching Face Off, and on the third round of the gauntlet challenge, they had to create three make-ups, one each for Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil. That reminded me of a set of toys I thrifted, so I thought I'd share them. 
Three Lucy dolls, with moving arms, shoulders, and heads. Got them for under five bucks.
I arranged them in the same three, you'll have to squint your brain a little to get my jokes.
Hear No Evil, first Lucy, is making a face like she just heard some horrible gossip and she's thinking 'why did you say that?'
See No Evil, middle Lucy, has a devilish grin, because what she shouldn't have seen made her blush, probably when someone's pants fell down. 
And Speak No Evil Lucy, well, that's probably Usual Lucy, that's clenched fist and jaw trying not to say a bad word. She's just a kid, she needs to keep it clean. ;p

2/20/16

Deep Dreamin'

Sorry that I sometimes just post a photo or a link without much info. I just get excited to share!
;p
Here is more info:
This is a cool, weird, artsy website that my fella found online and turned me on to. You upload your own photo (and it doesn't have to be a good one!), click a few buttons to make it into a piece of surreal art, which you can download,* publicly or privately.*
There is also a Mac program that does a bunch more stuff (he purchased his in a bundle so we don't know the exact price). I've had fun playing with the free online part!
*You do need to make a profile and log in to be able to do some things, I didn't play with it without a profile.

Here's the link: Deep Dream Generator
Here's my gallery: seeshellsdreams
Go have fun!

Deep Dream'ed Photo
Original Photo (for comparison, it's a crappy photo)





2/19/16

I'm such a NERD!

Keychain I made for Brian Posehn

Keychain in Tin

Me and my second favorite Brian
One of my favorite podcasts is Nerd Poker, hosted by one of my favorite comedians, Brian Posehn. In addition to being in a few of my all-time favorite shows, Mission Hill, The Sarah Silverman Show, and bunches of movies, he also writes comics.
I bought a couple Dead Pool issues that he and fellow Nerd Pokerian, Gerry Duggan wrote on, to have him sign.
But, I am such a Nerd that I had to make a Dangle just for him, thanks for all the laughs.

2/10/16

Fun with Index Cards

I'm working on organizing with index cards for a while now, and I've recently been looking for more ways to use them. Checking around, I found something fun to try.

1/27/16

Almost Finished Treasure Box

Found this in progress project while organizing recently. I'm going to have to make a section for "waiting to be finished" projects. lol
This came from a set, I think, of little paper boxes, round, square, rectangle, and this oval one. I painted, and poked holes, and strung cool beads onto the pieces.
Next step is in the thinking process. I want to secure the strings, and maybe line them, but not sure.
Oooohhh!
Just had a good idea, this one might be getting finished sooner rather than later.

1/21/16

Business Card Stamp



Stampin'

I thought I would make a straight stamp, and I'm glad I stopped and measured, because the letters were just a bit wider than this stamp can hold.
Serendipity again, I like it better round, but I never would have guessed.





1/19/16

See Shells

A few See Shells amongst the Seashells
Here's my new favorite photograph!
I wanted to update some online profile pages, and thought of this shot.

1/17/16

Next

Stamp kit found at the thrift store for under $3!



























In thinking about what kind of a business card I might want, I knew it would need to be something different, a little weird, memorable, something to represent me, my ideas, my art, my photographs. Something that the card itself will remind you of me.
One of my favorite ideas was to use something upcycled as the card itself, and collecting old board game bits led to the idea of using board game money.
Eventually, I will have a customized rubber stamp made to look like a business card, with my blog address, and store(s), stamp it on the back of old board game money, and cute, unique business card.
But until I actually have all the addresses, and get all my stuff figured out, I'm not going to NOT hand out cards, right?
I found this rubber stamp kit at one of my favorite thrift stores for $2.98! It seems to have come from a set, everything goes together, though there was no box or instructions, and it appears to be almost complete. There are two trays with lids with two font sets, one all caps; two rounded and two rectangular stamps to put the letters in; a stamp pad and a plastic tweezers thing.
Until I get the letters sorted out and the stamp made, I've hand written a few business cards. So...
NEXT is sorting out a bunch of tiny, tiny letters. Good thing I have a good light!

Museum Pieces

Mother & Child
Family vacation in the summer of 2012 took us to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was awesome!
Too much to see, pennies to smash, cousins to keep up with, I only had time for a few photos. Most were of this wonderful artwork.

The sign says:

Junk Art Figure of Mother & Child

Created by renowned "junk" artist Leo Sewell of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Believe It or Not!, these people are made from common kitchen utensils, plumbing supplies, auto parts, toys and rubbish.

Spoiler: I believe it.

"Child" has a Fisher Price mom in his face