Flash Diffuser

I am by no means a photography expert, but I discovered a cool trick the other day.  I was taking final pictures of this project and it was a bit too dark to take the pictures without the flash, but the flash was way too bright.  It was quite a dilemma, let me tell you! Ha!

Well, I was standing next to my printer and I suddenly had an idea.  What if I tried to diffuse the light by putting a piece of paper over the flash?? Well after folding the paper in half a couple times, it did the trick!  Check it out:

I normally edit my pictures a bit before posting them on here (again, no expert), but these are just as the came straight off my camera except for the words that I added.  I am not a fan of the look of pictures taken with a flash, so I think this is a going to be a handy trick for me in the future!

Jewelry Design: Wire Wrapping

So in my final semester of college, I pretty much was only lacking elective credits... so what class did I choose?? Metal and Jewelry Design of course!  So be prepared to see a lot of pictures of my projects in the next few months!

Today was our first class and we made a matching set including:

A bracelet . . .

A pair of earrings (with hand made earring hangers) . . .

And a ring!

I was surprised at how much we did in just one class!  They taught us a technique called wire wrapping where we took a thick gauge wire and literally wrapped it around the beads.  It was a lot easier than I expected, and a lot of fun!

I can't wait to see what's in store for us next week!

Glass Marble Cross

On Wednesday, my best friend and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby in honor of the end of Summer and the new school year.  We were looking around in the aisle with all the wooden frames and such that you can paint. Well I found this wooden cross and had the idea to put some of those flat clear marbles around the center.

I stained the cross portion and then decided it would be better to paint the base.  Next I attached the
marbles with tacky glue.  I had to let them dry for a while with the cross laying down because when I stood it up the marbles started to slid off.  But once it was dry the marbles stayed on just fine.

I used this cool stain marker on this project.  I found it a while ago at Michael's I believe.  Anyway, it has lasted a long time and worked on so many projects, I love it!!  I need to find more of them in other colors, they are soooo much easier than regular stain!

Finally I decided it still looked to plain so I added some paint details.  And Ta-Da!  What do you think?

P.S.  I apologize in advance if my posting is kind of hit and miss for a while... the semester is starting to get into full swing and I will unfortunately be busy with homework a lot in the near future.  It is my last semester so things will be busy, however I will still do my best to keep up with you all in the blogging world!

"Love Cakes"

My main squeeze and I celebrated the first anniversary of our first date on Sunday! Eeek! Exciting, right??  Neither of us are in much of a positon to give extravagant gifts or anything, so my man got creative. . . and super sweet!

He kind of made up his own cupcake recipe for me, what a genius!  He used a white cake mix, strawberries... and the best part. . . strawberry soda, that's right, soda.  I admit, I was a bit skeptical at first but they turned out great!  And I ate far too many. . . too quickly. . . but that's totally what special occasions are for, duh!

He decided to call them our "Love Cakes," sort of on the cheesy side, I know, but how incredibly sweet!  Gotta love him!  I think we just might have to make these strawberry love cakes a yearly tradition... :)

Coat Rack Re-vamp

A long while ago, my mom gave me this old accordion style coat rack.  It is quite rickety, so I used to use it to keep my necklaces on.  I just recently took it from my room at home in my parents house to my dorm room. But it didn't quite fit in here, because this is what it used to look like:

Cute, but kind of boring, right?  Well it is amazing what a coat of paint can do!! I had some leftover turquoise paint from a bookshelf I painted awhile back, and it was perfect for this project!

Here is the finished product, minus the scarfs from above:

Much better!  I love giving old items a new life, and it was super easy!