Time Lapse Trance

  There is something about speeding up regular things such as the sky or daily movements that is super mesmerizing. I have been making Time Lapse Videos for awhile now and I thought I should share them and how to make them. To start off, here is a video (in progress) that I am making. I'll give my readers an exclusive look at my video.

Well the key to making a time lapse is to speed it up (duh). To do this I am using iMovie. It came preloaded on our mac but you can also buy it on the Mac app store for a (whoppingly amazing) $14! That is way cheaper than say, Final Cut Pro and it has the basic features you need to make some pretty good videos. I decided to make another video so you can see how I do it and then do it yourself.

Open up iMovie and start a new project.

Put your newly recorded videos in!

When you hover a clip there will be a gear with an arrow that pops up. Click that and up pops the settings.

Hit clip adjustments and then convert the clip. iMovie needs to convert a clip before you can speed up or slow down the clip.

If you drag the little arrow pointer all the way to the bunny (faster) it will go up to 800% but the highest you can go is 2000% which you have to type in.

Because it is so fast, the audio is super high pitched and ugly sounding. 

To prevent that, just go to audio and reduce the volume to 0%.

Do this to each clip to speed them all up. Now your done! Of course the professional time-lapsers have fancy moving devices and things that make your camera shoot every 15 seconds this is not the absolute best way to make a timelapse. But its pretty darn good! Here is my other video...

Now here are some tips for making a time lapse. 

LARGE SCALE... such as the sunset video

1// It is important to have many different angles. One angle or one view will get boring. All shown in the video were close to where I live, but you can't tell.

2// Use the Ken Burns effect in iMovie to create movement. 

3// Set your white balance to daylight even if its sunset because it will give it more color. It doesn't matter if its yellow because Sunsets are colorful anyway.

SMALL SCALE... like the drawing video

1// Different angles (again) are very important to make a more interesting video.

2// If you are doing a solely pencil sketch, it may be hard to see on camera, especially from a distance. My video got darker and darker, until I reached the finished product.

3// Film from the opposite side of the hand you draw with. It is not very exciting to watch a time lapse video of someone drawing and just seeing the back of their hand. I shot mainly from the right or top using my tripod sitting on the table.


Hope this helps! Now go make a time-lapse and let me see! I love to see the things people make after they are inspired by my blog :).

Yay! I won an award!

Award/ Blogging Chain! That is a picture of a slinky if you were wondering...

Ok so recently I got a comment on my Blog saying I got an award. I was pretty excited even though I had no idea what it even meant. I mean it sounds pretty exciting right? Well upon further research I found out that it is this whole chain of questions and answers and what not going on in the bloggersphere. When someone tagged me, that someone being Emma-Lee from In Real Life. Here  are the rules...

1 // Each person must list 11 things about themselves.
2 // Answer the 11 questions that the tagger has set for you PLUS you MUST create 11 questions of your own for the 11 people you will nominate with this award.
3 // Choose up to 11 bloggers linking them to your post.
4 // Go to their page and inform them of the nomination.
5 // Absolutely NO tag backs.6 // Remember to ONLY tag bloggers with less than 200 followers 

Here are my 11 things about myself:

1// I have two dogs, Josie and Sophie, Two cats, Agatha and Gus, and 3 fish who have been living way too long for a normal fish. (Extra Terrestrial Fish perhaps?)
2// I have brown eyes.
3// I am lefthanded.
4// My favorite shows are 30 Rock, Community, and The Office
5// I usually vacation in Bethany Beach, Delaware with my whole family.
6// I like getting my pajamas on pretty early (random much...)
7// I really like collecting small little things like beads, small plastic animal/whatnot.
8// I really like looking through old pictures of my parents/grandparents.
9// I am close to reaching 100 posts on this blog!
10// I am pretty much a perfectionist, especially about the silliest little things.
11// I wonder about weird things like: how come the person that started this chain ended at 11 instead of 10? 10 is a nice even number...

Ok so I bet you now now that I am not too interesting and was running out of things to say :). The next part is to answer Emma-Lee's 11 questions...

1// What's your favourite colour?
I really like chartrousse and teal right now.
2// If you could go anywhere right now. Where would it be?
I would love to go to California. I have always liked it there and I have some cool family over there too.
3 // What time is it right now?
It is 8:20.
4// How tall are you?
Last time I checked I was 5'8''.
5// Do you prefer a thrift store or a retail store?
Thrift stores are so much more interesting and fun, although Target is very good for a retail :).
6// What is your favourite movie?
I really like the movie "Hot Rod" and "Napoleon Dynamite".
7// Board games or card games?
I really like Scrabble and Jotto. I would have to say Board Games.
8// What's your favourite scripture verse?
I can't say I have one.
9// Who is your favourite artist/band?
I am in love with the "Astroids Galaxy Tour"
10// Coffee or tea?
Haha I have never had more than a sip of either so you are not asking the right person ;).
11// How old were you when you went on your first roller coaster ride? (well, that was completely random)
Besides the fact I have no memory of what ride, I was 5.

Then I had to tag up to 11 bloggers to do this too! I am only blog friends with about four others so I had no problem staying under the limit :).  I tagged:

Monica from The First Lime
Hannah from Let it Rain Love
Alianne from The Metric Child
and the first person I EVER talked to in the Blogosphere,
Margo from Don't MIS it

I think it would be really cool if we could keep this going! Here are my 11 questions for Monica, Hannah, Alianne, and Margo.

1// What is your favorite color?
2// How old were you when you started blogging?
3// Do you have any pets?
4// What's your favorite movie?
5// How tall are you?
6// What languages do you speak? (more than one?)
7// Your favorite band/artist?
8// Your favorite store?
9// What is your favorite memory?
10// Do you collect anything?
11// Do you have a favorite song?

Okay so I'm pretty sure thats all I have to do! I'm now passing the burden on :). Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Free Wallpapers!

This week I just have a small little post to show some wallpapers I've been working on. I havent found many wallpapers that I really like so I decied to make my own. If you have ever searched for a new wallpaper you have probably found things called app shelves or app skins. They fit to your apps icon and I think its really cool. I wanted to have the coolness of the "app shelves" wallpapers but not with the cheesy backgrounds they usually have. Here is what I came up with. Click the links below them to download/save it.

For Ipad...

CLICK HERE FOR THAT ONE

CLICK HERE FOR THIS ONE

Those two will only work for Ipad but the following ones will work for any device...

CLICK HERE FOR THAT ONE

AND HERE FOR THIS ONE

Thats it! I like to have options and they are all just a little different :). Have fun!

*If you would like a customized wallpaper but don't like any of these designs, its as easy as taking a screenshot of your device, putting it in a nice drawing app (such as Sketchbook Express) and drawing over it on anopther layer. This is how you can make little shelves that will fit perfectly!

Change is a good thing.

 
   Hey everyone! I'd like to let you know that some BIG changes are coming to Know and Tell Crafts by the end of this Summer. I'm talking new fonts, tabs, headers, designs. I'm here today to give you a sneak peek. I've been wanting some changes ever since I realized the exclamation marks (!) in this font look like the letter L. That just set me off to change because I deeply love exclamation marks. Here is the sneak peek of my color palette. It may change from here to then but I love all the colors there.

 What do you think? Yes or No? Leave a comment or contact me about what you'd like to see in the update :).

Faux Taxidermy Deer Diy!

Make your own deer head! I've been wanting to make a fake deer head like this for an unreasonable amount of time. Well I got around to it today! First of all you'll need to print these out.  They are templates, cut them out and they will piece into each other to make the deer/moose head you see above! It will only take two pieces of paper, and will make a cute-sized head. Oh and most importantly... PRINT ON CARDSTOCK.   

Here are the printables once more...

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE NUMBER ONE

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE NUMBER TWO

Note: The so called "Noggin" is actually apart of the neck. Now you can make it in just three easy steps.

Thats all! Print, Cut, Create. Once you print it out its pretty self explanatory how it goes together. But if it isn't here are all the different parts labeled and put in place.

Antlers

Snout

Main Part 1

Neck

Neck 2. Please note that I made a mistake in calling it a noggin on the printable, oops!

Main Part 2.

Ok well I think these would look cool pretty much anywhere, plus they are so light that you can just tape or tack them up on the wall. I folded the back strips that stick out to be plat and then taped it up that way. Here is the sideview.

I am super stoked about this and I might just go make some more ;). Will you make one? (or more?) Leave a comment below.

Thanks as always :),

P.S. I have to give the credit where credit is due to Christina Loff from Chronicle Books Blog whose template was modified to create the free printable I have today. Thanks Christina! 

Photo Effect + Contest!

This weeks DIY is a photo effect that I have been using a lot lately. Firstly, download the free actions pack. I found it through this great post on Shrimp Salad Circus.  The actual pack is via Pioneer Woman.

Click Here to Download the FREE Actions Pack

Download it, and before you open it go into Photoshop > Window > and Select "Actions" So that it is checked. It will show up on the screen. 

Now click the tiny button to the right in the light grey bar.

Make sure "Button Mode" is checked, and open the downloaded file. It should open up right into photoshop and look like this. I accidentally downloaded it twice which is why it doubled.

Now for the fun! Bring a good photo up to edit on photoshop. I'm using a picture I took when a hot air balloon flew over our house.

Click on the button that says "Seventies". It will become its own layer and will look like this.

It now looks like this.

I like this effect a whole lot except I wish it was more vibrant. Well it can be. Just go to Image > Adjustments > Vibrance. 

It will bring up this menu. Set the Vibrance all the way to +100

I've found that this is my new favorite photo effect. Here are the results :).

Pretty cool right? Here are some more of the results.

Gus dozing off :).

From our day trip to Young's Dairy.

Well you get the point. I love the kind of film-y look to it. Looking back at my grandma's old pictures from the seventies its pretty accurate too :).  Now for another thing, I entered a cool photo contest and I would really appreciate if you could go vote for these pictures :). I worked super hard to make this little series so enjoy :)

*Below each photo is a link if you would like to go vote for the photo. You just rate it from

1 (stinks) to 5 (awesome). Good votes would be greatly appreciated :).

Click here to vote for this photo.

First Version. Concept: The Shoes get higher and "fly". I wanted there to be no body for the shoes to draw the attention to the Converse.

Click here to vote for this Photo

Version two. Concept: Converse Jump Shot! I actually like this one a lot. I used the highest shutter speed on my camera so what you see is the sequence of the shoes being thrown and then falling. I used photoshop to put the three shots together.

Third Version. Concept: Shoes walk towards you. I don't really love this one so I didn't enter it in the contest. 

Click here to vote for this photo

Fourth (and final) Version. Concept: My shoes grow on trees. I saved my favorite for last. I got the picture at just the right time that evening. I love how it glows and I really like how to cloning effect turned out here.  

Thanks :).