Scrabble Tile Photo Charm!

 Awhile back I got these cool scrabble tiles from my Aunt... It was my much appreciated Christmas present, along with Mod Podge 3d Magic. Both of which I'll be using today to make these. What are they you ask? Well, they are sort of complicated - but SUPER easy to make! They are scrabble tiles, with tiny printed pictures on the flipside it makes a super cool charm in the end!

Firstly, get some scrabble tiles!

When you turn all of the ones I used over, they spell PHOTO. 10 pts!

Then open some pictures into photoshop. Make sure they have a pretty dominant subject though because its going to be shrunk down. I used a big structure that says art at CCAD the art college downtown.

Use the cropping tool and set the Width and Height to 2cm. It is about how big the scrabble tile is.

Now arrange your cropped pictures into some sort of document like this.

Now print it out. I even printed it out on label paper so it would be extra super easy. You can read more about the type of paper I used in this post.

After you cut it out stick it onto the backside of the scrabble tiles.

Here is about what they should look like.

Front of tile.

Back of tile.

After I took these pictures, I went inside and busted out my Mod Podge 3d magic. Coated them generously and....

Now they look like they were printed on photo paper! Love them!

I might just have to take a whole bunch of pretty pictures of flowers (even though flowers aren't really my thing) I love the yellow flower one!

Whether you make them into magnets, keychains, necklaces, or good luck charms (I might do all of them) they are sooooo special and great. I feel like I'm braggy, but I'm just extra excited because of how these turned out. I would love to see your results too so send them in!

DIY Mustache Necklaces!

Ok so this week I made some awesome mustache necklaces. I realize this trend is sort of fading from the craft and blogging world but I still love the shape and coolness of mustaches. I used Fimo Soft and Fimo effect clay. Both in which I talked about extensively in my first clay review here. Its an amazing type of clay, and well you can read the rest there but it is really fun and easy to work with. You can actually make this necklace very, very easily. First roll out your clay...

Cut two mustaches out of the clay if you're not good at freehand cutting lay then try drawing one one paper.. Cut it out and then cut around it on the clay. Now roll two small balls that will be proportioned so they will fit like this in the mustache.

Put your second mustache on top of the other mustache and two balls. The balls give it some shape.

Your mustache should look something like this.

You can see there is a seam usually. Sometimes it is worse than other but if its noticeable than just smooth it with a sculpting tool or your finger. Here is what they should look like (drawn)

Here is the real version of them.

So there you have it! Its a real fun way to add charm to your neck. Man that just sounds horrible but yes, add charm to your neck. They are really easy to make though so its totally worth it. And now a picture of what you're really supposed to make these necklaces for...

So yes once you make these you can walk around like me (looking like a complete idiot) but still feeling amazing because who doesn't want to flaunt a blue mustache? Theres your tutorial! Have a good weekend!

Clay Review: Fimo!

So this is the first time ever that i've done a clay review. In my head I of course try to remember my liking of each type of clay I use but sometimes I end up buying clay that I don't like. Today, I'm reviewing Fimo Effect and Fimo soft. To make this short... I love them both. The colors I chose look great on camera and are pretty true to what they  actually look like. Both types are soft and doesn't need much kneading before it is workable. Practically no kneading actually, but I always do so it is as soft as it can be. Although its on the higher end of clay, it's totally worth it. I was soo eager to use this clay that I ripped open the package before taking nice pictures of the perfect and neat packages. Here were the two fimo effects that I used:

Sorry I didn't get a picture of the fimo soft alone, but it is that pretty purple colored one on the bottom.

Now for the fun part! The results! I made two things that were completely different. A unicorn named Kevin (necklace):

And a snail named Earl... also a necklace:

So the snail was pretty simple but still turned out cute... and small (so doubly cute). The unicorn is a little more complicated. Or a lot for that matter. I started making the unicorn by roughly shaping it out of aluminum foil and reinforcing the horn with some basic wire. I love them both for different reasons but its the clay that really makes these charms awesome. The colors are vibrant and its just overall a great product. Trust me! I'm not being paid to say this... actually, I haven't earned a $1 since I started this thing. Although I am thinking of starting a sponsoring program on here.

 (if you're interested just e-mail me!).  So there you have it folks! Fimo clay is highly, highly recommended (by me).

Photography Class

    This week I was enrolled in a photography class at my local arts college, CCAD. Its a whole bunch of fun getting to experiment with things like the black room. We also did photoshop which was nothing new to me but still fun. We were assigned a little homework every night but nothing major. Since this week I also had company until thursday, I had many people I could photograph. I photographed one person. Here were some of my results...

Did I mention I got a new kitty? If you follow me on Instagram (link in sidebar) you have probably noticed with my like bajillion pictures of him. His names Burton Guster, Gus for short.

I started playing outside with the hose on jet setting so it looked almost like it was raining!

Just a little color splash.

The next picture has three versions...

(Unedited) I still like it though.

Edited, I like it even more, although I still can't decide if I like the blue lips! This was one of the things that I developed in the black room. You can see the scan below (since were just doing black and white her lips turned out a darker shade). It probably could have used another second or two under the light...

I actually never used this next picture for the class but i think it is a mild shade of awesome so I had to put it on.

Funny face! I experimented with throwing this satin-y fabric all around and I think it turned out pretty cool. We did some 8x10 prints and I also printed this picture:

That is one of my all time favorite photos. I mean besides the fact that her face is saying: Yeah hey I'm awesome, it is just a cool picture. Magical, you could say.

It seems like I shot in mainly black and white but here is a little burst of color for you.

 Its interesting to hear what other people shoot and get inspired by. There were only 11 other kids in my class so its pretty nice and personal.

Thanks, especially to Kaitlyn, my cousin (and model) for a multitude of photo shoots, flashes, and getting hit by bundles of fabric.

Stop Motion Part Two!

My more extensive stop motion video is done! It used just about 1000 pictures, after much, much, planning, I was able to shoot it over three days. Enjoy!

To see it bigger click here.

Another Use for Paint Chips!

So I thought that I needed some more exciting colors to photograph my little jewelry charms on. I also visited Lowe's and found a paint chip I really liked. I eventually lost that chip, but I went to Lowe's again and found some more. Like, a lot more. But I did find that it worked perfectly for the purpose! Here were some of my results!

Remember to contrast the colors (above) rather than matching the color (below)!

For a simple set up, make it look like this. For even lighting, you can make your own lightbox. I use my lightbox for just about everything so its totally worth it!

For a more complicated (but still simple) setup this works too. I used a darker color for the back.

I photographed some of my other charms too!

And here were some of the paint chips that I think I'll use in the future. The codes are color codes that work in photoshop. The colors look a little and in some cases a lot different in person though.

Thanks and I hope that this will inspire you to photograph some things now!