An Artful Adventure

Week 4 Photo Challenge: Old Books

For this weeks photo challenge I grabbed a quick photo of old books today at the Fancy Flea.  I will be posting more on my booth soon.

 

 

Week 3 Photo Challenge: Rust and Ruffles

1/1250 F22 ISO 1250 AD light Normal

Well, one thing I got goin for me is there's LOTS of rust around here!  My father n law restores old cars, so between our 5 car garage, 6 car ports, a barn and random cars otherwise sitting around, LOTs of rust.  Some days it bothers me, but most days I don't mind all the rusty cars.  They are really old and often neat to look at.  Once again I wish I had a little girl around to throw a tutu on and plop up on the car, but, not possible.  Instead I just took one of my favorite ruffle dresses to each rusty car.

All three of these photos where taken on the same setting.  It was a manual A setting on my camera.  I had fun playing around with the white balance setting on these.  After I took them I realized I had my ISO setting pretty high from last time I took pictures and forgot to adjust it.  I think they turned out good though!

Next weeks challenge is "old books"

I am now off to work some more on my stuff for the Fancy Flea in Lakeland FL next weekend.  Here's a little peek of something I made.

 

 

Egg Carton Swap Goodies

I know I am a bit behind, but I wanted to share with you some of the goodies I got for the Easter Egg Carton Swap I hosted.  My partners where Debi from Life in my Studio, and Bryanna.  I have received my carton from Debi and wanted to share it.  Bryanna was under the weather and so I will post here's a bit later.  Unfortunatly I was in a hurry to mail my carton out and forgot to get photos.  But Debi did a great post on what you made and received HERE.

Look at all these lovely goodies Debi sent!  Here carton was so pretty!

She sent me lovely millinery, and beautiful jewels, rhinestone buttons, and other sweet goodies!

I LOVE everything!  Thanks so much Debi!!

 

 

Week 2 Photo Challenge: Wild Flowers

1/800 F8 ISO 200 with AD light on Low setting

Hello everyone!  It has been a crazy week!  I wanted to really quick post for you the photos I got of wildflowers.  They have been growing in large clusters on the side of the road!  I wish I had a pretty little girl to sit in them lol.  But no such luck. 

Both photos where taken with my standard lens that came with the camera.  I have not got a macro lens yet but hope to in the next couple months.  I was very pleased with these photos.  I love how  you can see the yellow in the center!  They were very very slightly edited.  All I did was slightly lighten the background.  It's kind of funny I wanted to play around editing them, but everything I tried took away from their natural beauty.  So I let them be as is.

My hubby also took me to the fair for my Birthday last Saturday night.  I was excited to play around with my settings at night with all the pretty lights!  At first I played with the Automatic mode, but quickly realized the photos where not what I was picturing.  Above is a photo of the ferris wheel on auto.

And this is with me playing with the manual settings.  This is much more like how I was picturing it!  It made everything come to life!

Here are a few more photos.

Next weeks challenge is "Rust and Ruffles" this should be a FUN ONE!

 

Week 1 Photo Challenge: Eggs

On Auto Setting 1/320 F9 ISO 500

I can tell I am going to really enjoy this!  The truth....I waited until last minute to do this.  Over the last few days I pondered and thought trying to come up with some brilliant idea, but then I realized .. It's about learning my camera.  So I said the heck with it and grabbed a couple eggs, dyed them simple blue with no frills, grabbed some stuff off the counter and went outside.  I was in the process of tea dying seam binding, so I just grabbed some of that with a silver dish I had sitting out.

Same photo before Photoshop

The first couple photos where on auto with no flash.  WAY too dark.  This is the same photo as above, but before I played with it in photoshop.  I am happy with how it turned out AFTER editing, but I really want to learn how to have my photos turn out close as possible to how I am picturing them by understanding my camera.  I have been reading a lot on ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.  I played around a little more and thought I had some photos I liked, but realized they appeared much brighter on my computer screen than they did my camera.  So I will need to perhaps adjust that.

Manual Setting 1/125 F5 ISO 800

After playing around a bit I took this photo above.  I was VERY happy with it.  This photo is unedited.  Granted there are not pretty spring flowers, or anything much of interest, BUT I feel like I reached my goal with this.  I was able to start with a setting, and make adjustments according to what I felt that the photo needed.  lol we'll just have to see if I can manage it next time too.

So in the end this was my favorite photo.  It's the same one as above, but because I just can't help myself, I did edit it a bit in Photoshop.  I am also happy because it was not achieved on auto.

If you are joining me in this challenge leave a comment with your link to your photo in this post!  Next challenge will be posted on April 14th the theme is Wildflowers.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

 

10 Week Photo Challenge

In my excitement of my new camera.  I thought it might be fun to post a little photo challenge.

Here's how it works.... SIMPLE each week take one photo according to that theme.  Come back to this blog and post your link to the appropriate post for that week. 

For example we will start out with "eggs".  I will do the post each Saturday.  Here is an example of how I will title each post "Week 1 Photo Challenge:  Eggs".  So on Saturday April 7th I will post "Week 1 Photo Challenge:  Eggs", if you are interested in sharing for this week, either do a blog post sharing your photo, or upload your photo to Flickr.  Then come to the post for that week and leave a comment to the appropriate thread with a link to your photo.  If possible I prefer the links to be coming from either your blog or Flickr.  To avoid confusion, any links posted to the wrong thread will be deleted.

It is not necessary to share your information if you do not wish, BUT if you would like to we would love to read about your inspiration for the photo, what camera you used, settings, lens, and any information on lighting.  You do not have to join every week.  Your photo does not have to include 100% of just the theme.  BUT the theme must be obvious in your photo with a key part. Also please feel free to share multiple photos in your post relating to that weeks theme HOWEVER if using Flickr please only post ONE link in the comment area.  If possible arrange your photos in an album if you are not posting them on a blog.

THE CHALLENGES

Week 1:  Eggs

Week 2:  Wild flowers

Week 3: Rust and Ruffles

Week 4:  Old Books

Week 5:  Today I ate

Week 6:  Clouds

Week 7:  Pink and Blue

Week 8:  Balloons

Week 9:  Water

Week 10:  Old Fence

Please pass this a long!  I hope to see others enjoy this with me.

 

Easter Craft and a Camera

I am excited to share a few things!  First.... I have a few art friends that I have swapped some Christmas, Valentine's, and now Easter ornaments with. With everything going on I was unable to share the Valentine's ornaments, but I hoped to share the Easter ones with you.

I wanted to play with paper clay again so I decided to make these little cuties above!  EEEEKK I love them!

I also put together these little nut cup baskets. 

Lastly I found these cute wooden frames at Micheal's.  I painted and glittered them for a quick and cute little ornament.  I hope my partners will be happy with what I made.  I will post on the ornaments I receive once they all arrive.

In other exciting news I will be setting up a booth this month at The Fancy Flea in Lakeland FL.  I AM SO EXCITED!  For those of you in FL you HAVE to come check it out!  Karen Hillman is going to be joining me at the show and she will be selling some of her treasures at my booth as well!  I attended the Fancy Flea this past November and it was so lovely running into so many old and new friends.  I am really really excited!  If you plan on coming LET ME KNOW and I will hope to see you there!!!

AAAANNNNNDDD........ in other EXTREMELY REALLY REALLY EXCITING NEWS, I GET MY CAMERA TODAY!

I am sure my friends are really tired of hearing me talk about it, AND will be really glad I FINALLY made a decision!  For a long while now I have wanted to get a digital slr camera.  We almost got one a long while ago, but we got a Sony Cybershot instead.  I am really loved my Sony, but I have hope of learning and doing more photography.  Over the last 4 months I have thought, and researched, asked questions, and thought some more! 

Originally I was going to go with a Canon Rebel.  But with more research I was considering starting out with a Canon 60D.  Regardless I was SURE I wanted a Canon.  But then one day on one of my regular Best Buy research trips I ran in to TWO Wedding Photographers in one day!  AND since my long term goal is doing Weddings I spent a great deal of time questioning them.  Gladly they where happy to oblige. 

SO. Long story short I decided on a Nikon.  At first I was against buying one used, but once again after lots and lots of research I decided it wasn't a bad way to go.  I think the Nikon D5000 will be a great camera for me to start out on, and since you must have two cameras for Wedding photography, when that day comes I can get the next step up.  I don't want to get too much camera for my current skill level though.

Today I am meeting the lady I am buying the camera from.  I actually had trouble sleeping last night I am THAT excited!  And YES I know I should probably wait until things play out to ramble on and on in case the deal falls through, BUT I am just too anxious so ....oh well.  I have been very thorough, including checking the serial number.  WISH ME LUCK!

 

 

It's Been Awhile

I can not believe how long it has been since I have posted!!  I've been around.  Over the last few weeks I have been dealing with a little of this and a little of that, and LOTS on my mind.  A couple weeks ago we had to finally decide to have Dylan diagnosed.  For those of you that have read my prior post on this, you will know the situation I am referring to.  I won't go into details right now, but I was on the right track with my suspicions.  He was diagnosed and will go in for further testing the end of the summer.  Until then they are getting us help with Speech and Occupational therapy.  Later he most likely will need social therapy as well.  The diagnosis was actually slightly worse than I thought it would be, but nothing we can't work through.

Attached are photos from a recent custom order request I had.  I was commissioned to make all of the bridal flowers for a wedding in fabric.  This was A LOT of work!  All the flowers where created from yards of fabric, and the leaves where lovely french wired ombre ribbon.  Despite the work, honestly this was the perfect project for me at the time.

It allowed me to just zone out, sit, stitch, and think.

The color palette was a little out of my comfort zone, but I am super happy with how they turned out!

Her colors where shades of purple such as eggplant, plum, raisin, with a bright bright green.

I really enjoyed this.  I am actually hoping to make more wedding flowers in the future!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

 

Swap Closed

Thanks so much everyone for joining!  I will be working on arranging groups and be in contact soon.

Easter Treats Egg Carton Swap

I know I have one more post I want to do regarding the last day of Queen's of Art, BUT some times you have to go where inspiration leads you!  So I thought I would go ahead and post about a swap I would like to host!  This way everyone has plenty of time to join and get creating!

I would like to invite you to join my Easter Treats Egg Carton Swap!

Here's how it will work, everyone will be placed in groups of three.  Each person will create a Easter Treats Egg Carton for the other two members in their group.  So everyone will receive 2 cartons when the swap completes.

Your treat cartons will be made of a HALF DOZEN paper egg carton.  NOT styrofoam!  Above is an example of what they look like.  You will want to buy the HALF DOZEN not the full dozen.  Buying a full dozen and cutting it in half will not work due to the top no longer having a finished lid if it is cut.  I got mine right at the grocery store.  I gave the sample I made a little color with some acrylic paint in a light blue.

You will need to embellish your carton inside and out.

Then you will fill each carton with Easter and Vintage inspired items.

Here are a few examples:  vintage millinery, trims, lace, ribbon, seam binding, beads, vintage buttons, vintage wallpaper, figurines, hand crafted items, tags, paper flowers, chandelier crystals, unique candies, unique or specialty chocolates, glitter, cupcake toppers, small eggs, Easter ornaments, pretty headpins, embellished cloths pins, magnets, vintage ledger paper, unique quality brands of decorative paper or embellishments etc.

Not all your items need to be vintage, but they all should be considered unique or vintage inspired.  For example please do not fill your carton with items all from the dollar store.  For this swap I am asking everyone take care, and careful consideration to what they send.  Let's reward one another with special little treats.

Once your cartons are embellished and filled you will have to have them securely tied shut to keep anything from escaping.  I found that tulle or wide lace does a good job of securing the sides.

Try to be sure it covers the open side so that it acts like a screen keeping everything inside. Once it is secure, wrap it nicely and pack it in an appropriate sized box.

TO JOIN:

Please send an email to cdvcreations at yahoo.com by MARCH 6TH answering the following questions:

1.  Your name and address:

2.  Your blog, flickr, website, or other link where your art can be seem:

3.  Which interest you most:

*  Shabby Pastels

* Nature inspired neutrals

*  Whimsical and Retro brights

4.  What are some of your favorite vintage things:

5.  Have you fully read this post and understand the requirements regarding what type of egg cartons?

6.  Have you fully read and understand the emphases on quality for this swap?

After sign ups close on the 6th I will notify everyone of their group members within a few days.  You will need to mail your partners their egg cartons by APRIL 1ST.  We would like everyone to have their cartons in time for easter.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask! :)