Thursday, September 29, 2011

It's Fall Ya'll... Fall Printable and Wooden Pumpkins

Fall is in the air. I really never have liked decorating with orange, so this year I made pumpkins to fit my already established color scheme. My inspiration came from Michelle at Delicate Construction. My "Fall Mantle"... okay so I don't actually have a mantle but I built these shelves just to pretend. Finally a space to display my "flower balls."
Who doesn't love Fall Subway art??? The links are below.

Mellow Yellow...

Burnt Orange...
Leaf Green...Poop Brown...Cornflower Blue...

The How to on Eye Sparkle

I have an obsession with eye popping photos. I was babysitting my cousins little girl the other day and couldn't stop staring at her eyes. They are so blue and beautiful. I just HAD to photograph her so I could play around in my photo editor. I love making the eyes sparkle in photographs and only recently found out it was a photoshop technique. (Plus I never really got too excited because all of my children have such brown eyes that the sparkle techinque isn't that obvious....blue eyed children are much more fun and worthwile to edit)
Thanks to that darn time-waster called Pinterest I have found endless tutorials on photo editing. The post by Ree at the Pioneer Woman was super helpful for photoshop users.

Above it pretty little Olivia... below is after adjusting the curves and levels and of course Ree's technique of sparkling eyes.


If you don't have photoshop but do have some sort of photo editing software that you don't know how to use (lol, still not sure I know how to use mine) You can go to YouTube and search eye sparkle tutorial for Paintshop Pro (or whatever software you have)... good luck!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Don't be offended...

I never would have guessed that my life might come to this… blogging about removing your freakin' shoes at my back door. For some people this post is going to seem a tad ridiculous but I am who I am and I really don't care! Who am I? I like clean, neat, and tidy! Is it pathetic that a cute and clever way to display a simple reminder at my back door makes me happy? …probably a little. Never-the-less I like what I created and that’s a good thing!

I had to share this blooper of a photo...I love the pull-up wedgie!
So below is the before photo.
and tah dah... super clever way to leave a simple reminder to your house guest's that you are freakishly OCD!
Just a few tips for shooting the feet. In the shade works best. Put the sun at your back and take as many pictures as the kids will let you because it beats the heck out of trying to do more than one photo shoot... oh and watch out for pull-up wedgies.
Thanks for visiting Ladycrafter14... I would love for newbie's to follow me on Pinterest or
check out some of my other Tutorials.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Baby Girl Nebraska Outfit.... Skirt and Appliqued Onesie Tutorial

Last weekend the Huskers were struggling to dominate Washington's Football team. Saturday morning I woke up and decided to make the baby something to show her team spirit... because if you live in Nebraska, your mood is determined by the success of the Nebraska Cornhusker Football team. This is no Joke! We have no other major sport's team to follow... there isn't a single pro team in the state... and the stadium in Lincoln on game days would be the third largest town in the state... It is a BIG deal here.... anyhow, the baby needed her first Husker outfit and so I began. I was gonna save this little number until we actually had somewhere to go, but since the first half looked awful I had to put it on her, and it worked. We (the Huskers, there is tremendous ownership to this team in this state) really picked it up a notch in the second half and looked much better!
There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel or anything... a few others had amazing tutorials on appliqueing and this simple skirt. So if you are needing some team spirit or feel like creating... click the tutorials at the bottom of the page.

For a great Applique Tutorial click HERE.
For the easiest DIY skirt tutorial click HERE.
Thanks for visiting Ladycrafter14... I would love for newbie's to follow me on Pinterest or
check out some of my other Tutorials... and one last thing...
GO HUSKERS!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

So Ugly it is Cute?

If I don't get some things done around my yard and office I'm going to have one sorry winter and my hubby might ground me from the computer, which is most definitely justified. I feel like if I get everything done outside, then I can have an enjoyable and relaxing winter. The problem is that I actually have to do the work. I can't just sit around and gaze into blogland or Pinterest... and let's not forget the children... who is actually watching them or better yet, taking care of their needs? Not sure, I'm on the *%$# computer. (on a side note... the best part of posting on this blog is that it cleans up my language a little... fortunate for the reader I guess, although most are probably adults... haha okay, all of my 12 readers are probably adults.) Anyhow, I do have one of the biggest potty mouths, but that is my one and only flaw....lmao! Uh oh, now I got myself started... okay okay I'm rambling and I promise to keep this blog G rated from now on.
This lovely little wreath pictured below is the first one I have ever made. Not sure I like it but I did make it myself, and sometimes that is all that matters. I got the basic design style from K.I.S.S and that can be seen HERE. I think burlap is a great material for fall. I'm still staring at the picture trying to decide if its cute or ugly? Stylish? I don't know... I didn't want to use traditional fall colors because that is so last season... hahaha... You can't sense my sarcasm via text but I'm quite the smart alick... and I shouldn't even be allowed to use the phrase, "so last season," considering I still have clothes hanging in my closet from high school... oh, and I wear them!
Ugly or cute, doesn't really matter... I like it! I made the entire thing out of recycled or upcycled items. The flowers used to be maternity shirts and centers were old earrings. The yellow and gold embellishment was on a hair comb that I painted. The burlap I had on hand and I covered up an old ugly wreath that had seen better days. Happy Fall Ya'll!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Me and My Friend PaintShop Pro...

If it isn't bad enough that I'm already addicted to blogging... now I'm addicted to Pinterest. Last week while wasting massive amounts of time I found great camera and Photoshop techniques. Most of the things I looked at can be found HERE. After sorta kinda maybe figuring a few things out on my camera I switched gears and started looking for ways to improve my editing. I have a program called PaintShop Pro and it is very similar to Photoshop only better. After wasting yet another afternoon on youtube searching tutorials... I learned a ton, so I decided to test drive my new finds on my friend Carrie's poor little guinea pig children. I ended up taking 346 pictures and editing around 35 of them. Here is a preview... I just love the feet... oldest to youngest left to right.
I'm not yet a master at making the eyes sparkle, but I can make them change colors:)
Isn't he the cutest! Great thrift store prop and it was already blue:)


Saw this technique of slowing down the shutter speed and thought it turned out pretty cool... those are her brothers on the merry-go-round in the background moving.


Tried to make the eyes pop... maybe too much? I think they are beautiful.


Loving the frame... still haven't mastered the vignette thing but I'm getting there.


Now the above photo was a fluke... this was the very first pic I took of the evening... I applied a glamour technique and wah lah... beautiful and innocent.


Monday, September 5, 2011

Coconut and Lime Salt Scrub Tutorial

Thanks to the Lovely Laura at Live.Laugh.Photograph I was inspired to create some salt scrubs of my very own to gift to friends and teachers and what not. Her post is very good and I wanted to give her credit for the inspiration even though I kinda made up my own recipe. Just a dollop of this stuff scrubbed into your hands or feet and then rinsed leaves them silky smooth and smells so yummy! To begin you'll need EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), lime or lemon juice, coarse salt, some fragrance oil.
The recipe I have found works good is... 5 cups coarse sea salt, 1 cup lime juice, 1 cup EVOO, and 3 tsp of coconut-lime fragrance oil (plus more in the jars)


(Purchased the oil below at Walmart) Combine the ingredients in a large bowl. If it isn't your desired consistency then add a little more EVOO.

Smells so good..... I lastly spooned the mixture into jelly jars, then added about 1/2 tsp of fragrance oil to top off each jar. I added a little twine and label which you can print HERE. I printed on cardstock and attached to the jar. So charming and so easy! Perfect homemade gift for any occasion and so easy! This recipe filled 9 jelly jars.


Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and recipe. For a few other crazy little tutorials click HERE or to follow me on Pinterest click HERE.