Friday, September 7, 2012

Crapty Fridays- DIY photo filters

You probably saw this post and wondered, "Um, was that a typo?"

The answer:  No.

I've decided to try crapting something once a week.  Crapting is when I take a piece of junk (any worthless piece of crap) and try to make something from it.  The resulting item could be really neat or weird or really... well... crappy.  Whatever the result may be, I'm hoping that this crapty (hee hee) exercise will work out my brain, hands, and creative juices.

Here's my first crapt (hee hee):  A DIY photo filter.

After seeing the super talented ladies at A Beautiful Mess create photo filters using transparencies and permanent markers, I thought I could go crapty and use a disposable plastic snack container instead of a transparency: 
Ahh, sharpie marker on crap.


Here's what it looked like when I placed my crapty filter in front of my lens:
Ooh- Cheesy horror movie  effect




Here's what it looked like when I placed the filter in front of my flash:
Left:  Without filter                                                       Right:  With filter



With a night's worth of fun under our belts I was all set to toss out the filter.  But I changed my mind after realizing that nail polish remover could remove sharpie marker.   Ooh!  With a couple wipes and a doodles, I had a new filter to use.  (Cha-ching.  Double crapting points):


The next day I played around with this new filter.  Here are some of my better photos:


Thanks for joining me on my first crapty adventure!
What would you make out of a disposable plastic cover?
What should I crapt with next?

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Messy memories

Currently Baby Chuck creates messes.... I mean "memories" everywhere.  Right now he's creating a lot of memories in the kitchen.  I guess that should come as no surprise as he likes things that are sharp, shiny, dirty, or dangerous.  When I see him climbing on something or grabbing at something I'm amazed at his dexterity and persistence.  Wow!  This little guy is growing up.  But then my happy feeling quickly passes when I realize that he's about to eat a magnet.

I finally got it.

Ooh! Let me bang this on the floor.

Yikes!  Mom's coming over.  I better make a quick getaway.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Lovely Central Jersey

During the long weekend hubby, Baby Chuck, and I visited Princeton, NJ.  We had a really nice time.  The college campus and surrounding towns were beautiful.  Here are a couple of photos from our trip:







Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Hungry caterpillar party prep- Crepe paper caterpillar

Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking.  This post looks like a Hungry Caterpillar craft and didn't I announce in my last post that I was no longer going to do anymore caterpillar crafts?  Well, yes, that's true.  But in my defense, I just wanted to post up this photo of a welcome sign that Tita Tina made  for the party.  Isn't it adorable?  I love his little feet.  I just want to tickle them. 


I have no idea how she made it (and if anyone out there wants to know, just leave a comment below and I'm sure she would explain everything.) 

(By the way, she isn't just a sign maker.  She also makes a-mazing cakes.)

I love how a child's birthday party can encourage us to create and craft things.    

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY birthday banner

Ok, this will be the last of the party DIYs, I promise!  With the party only a couple of days away, we round off our DIY series with a Hungry Caterpillar birthday banner:


It was really simple and fun to make.  I cut out various shapes from cereal boxes.  Then, I just painted them with craft paint "Eric Carle" style and used Sharpie markers to write the letters.    

To see all the items we made for the party, click here