DIY Pink Slumber Party Decor and FUN!

My little baby girl has turned 8. Awe, so sad for mama, but I have one happy girl. We planned a slumber party for this beautiful girl. And of course she wanted a PINK Party! I was well... tickled pink, lol.

Anyway, so I did what I always do and searched Pinterest for some ideas. Ahh, I just love them. I really am a "Pinterest Addict"!

Here are some pictures...

The Pink Punch

Homemade Pink Popcorn

Handmade tissue paper pom poms

DIY Photo backdrop, with handmade Banner. You can learn how to make the banner here.

I edited them and then made them into photo booth strips on pixlr.com

She was so excited to get her laptop (mini-lap top that is)
and loved her new bag for it from her Aunt Ra-Ra

I'll post individual recipes and how to's in case anyone wants to know how to do them, and then I'll put the links on this blog post. I'll hopefully be able to do that very soon!

Now that her party/planning is over, time to concentrate on back to school!

Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to follow  me.

How to make Tissue Paper Pom Poms/Flowers

Oopsie, sorry guys. Last night I did an impromptu Drive-in movie night with my friend Terri, her kiddos and my kiddos.

It was super fun, we saw Smurf's 2 and Turbo. Two movies my kiddos have been wanting to see. So yes, guilty as charged, I wasn't able to post the project I promised. Please, pretty please forgive me.

Ok, enough mushiness. Onto the good stuff. How to make tissue paper pom poms/flowers.

I used the pink dyed tissue paper to make these, and made several, some large and some small.

So what you need:

Tissue Paper

Yarn or string

Scissors

Step 1 you'll need about 8 to 10 sheets tissue paper. The more paper the fuller it will be.

Step 2 bend the sheets back and forth like a fan.

Step 3 tie a piece or yarn or string in the middle.

Step 4 Cut a rounded tip on each side.

 

Step 5 Fan it out.

Step 6 peel each layer up, until it is all fluffed up.

Keep on fluffing until you get a ball, like below.

 I love how they turned out, now all I have to do is attach some clear string, and hang them from the ceiling. These were decorations for my daughter's slumber party. 

Thanks for tuning guys! Until Next time...

To see how I made the tissue paper pink, click here.

How to dye tissue paper

I know what you're thinking... Why on earth would anyone want to dye tissue paper? Well there are a couple of good reasons, one might want to.

1. You need a specific color and can't find that color in stores.
2. You only have white, and don't want to spend the money on purchasing more.
3. You have a lot of RIT dye, and lot of white tissue paper.

Ok, so in my case. I had a lot of RIT dye and a lot of white tissue paper, and not a lot of money to spend on purchasing more. I mean come on have you seen how many sheets you get in a package. I mean even if you shop at the Dollar Tree, you will still spend $1 on about 10 sheets, and well for the project I was going to do, I was gonna need a lot of tissue paper.

So this is what you will need

1. RIT Dye (its the cheapest and comes in a lot of colors, plus it comes in liquid) I used Petal Pink

2. A spray bottle ( you can get them at the dollor store)

3. White tissue paper

Fill your sprayer with 1 cup of hot water to one cap full of RIT Dye. I filled up my whole bottle. Using 24 ounces and 3 caps full. Unless your're only planning on doing  20 or less sheets, I say fill the whole bottle up.

I have a roll of white tissue paper, so I rolled it all out long sections at a time, and began spraying away.

It's kind of hard to tell by the pictures. But as it soaks into the paper it becomes a beautiful pink color. Best of all it tends to collect in certain spots, and dries pinker in that spot. It sort of looks tie dyed, which you would think would look strange. But it actually looks really pretty.

It took a little while but then again I made probably 160 sheets (by the time I cut them).

My back was getting a little tired from bending over to spray it. But the good news is I think I may have killed some ants. If I didn't then they are really pink now, lol.

Here is the outcome when it dries. As you can see, it will dry wrinkled, but I like it that way.

Stay tuned tomorrow! I will show the project I am working on, hence why I wanted the tissue paper pink.

Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Click here,to see project I used the pink tissue paper on.

Photoshop fixes... How to fix under the eye darkness

If your are like me, you get a great photo than needs little adjustments, you fix it in your editing software but then you notice a small detail that just seems to throw off the whole picture. In this case, it was my daughter's eyes. The picture itself was almost perfect, but I increased my contrast, and bam was pretty much done. I even went as far as posting on Facebook, oh wait and on my blog here, when I was talking about the chair re-do.

But of course like all other times I do editing and posting, I'm tired and don't always see any additional problems. Well, I got a lot of likes on FB, and then when showing the picture to my husband, I then saw the eye flaw.

This can happen when you increase the contrast. Plus the sun was perfect in all the other areas, but like most of the time harsh on the eyes. A reflector probably could have been used to avoid that, but this was a real quick, hey get dressed, and drag her and the chair outside kinda of thing. I was trying to get the picture done before sunset.

But its ok, it can be fixed. Now... a lot of software programs have airbrush, which by the way is one of my favorite tools. But in this case it would make her whole face to soft. I didn't want that look for this picture. And also airbrush doesn't always correct dark spots. You can try the Spot healing on Photoshop, but its hard to get it just right.  So what do you do?

Photoshop Elements 11 is the editing software I use for now. I will one day upgrade to CS6, but for now this software has a lot of the same features. This can be used in a lot of programs. It just may not be as easy. I found it did work slightly the same in Pixlr adavanced. Which was the program  used before PSE 11.

Step 1:

Click on blank layer

Step 2:

Click on the eye dropper

Step 3: 

Click on an area near by the eyes that is the correct color that the under eye color should be. I clicked on below the eye but closer to the nose to achieve the color I needed.

Step 4: 

Click on the brush, and slightly zooming in, (not to much or you'll over do it on the brush and brush away the eye lashes and affect the eye shape). And carefully brush the darkness away.

Step 5: 

If it seems to be obvious, then decrease the opacity to your liking. If its too dark or too light, go back to step 3 and click on another part of the skin nearby to see if that skin color matches up better.

And Whaaa-laa your're done! Easy Peasy, Mac and Cheesy!

I love this picture of my daughter, it would have been nicer if she smiled a little, but hey that's the model in her right? Look serious and glamorous!

Hope this helped. I love learning new tricks. I am still trying to get the hang of PSE, but the best thing to do is look on pinterest and look and search photography tricks. You can find tons of tips, actions, and freebies. I have a lot of on my pinterest board, titled photography tricks. If anyone wants to follow me on that board, simply click on the link.

Thanks for tuning in. If you haven't already please follow me here on my blog!

DIY Chalkboard

As some of you may or may not already know, I am a photographer. I am getting ready for a 1 year old photo shoot, and I had lots of props I wanted to incorporate, but not enough money to buy them all. But the fun is making it if you have the time right?

So here is my first prop....

Haha, I know huh? But just wait as I magically turn this $1 frame from the Dollar Tree into a chalkboard.

I already had pink paint and chalkboard paint by Folk Art.

You can also buy the spray paint by Rustoleum . Its so much easier and it applies so smooth and more evenly.

Ok, so step one...

paint the glass with the chalk board paint.

Step two...

paint the frame

If you buy a plastic frame like I did, it will take about 3 coats.

Step 3 apply another coat (after the first coat has dried) to the chalkboard.

Then after it is all dried, put the glass back into the frame and put the cardboard backer back on as well, and waa-laa you have yourself a chalkboard. I'll post some pics of it when I do my photo shoot.

Apparently I should have the mom write the I'm 1, lol.

Thanks for tuning in, stay tuned for some more DIY photoprops this week :)

Revamped Bench from Drabby to Shabby (Chic) to Photography Prop Bench, using homemade chalk paint

I purchased this plain jane bench on Friday at a garage sale for only $2.

Eeek! When he told me how much it was, I couldn't get my money out fast enough to buy it!

I was so excited to turn it into a photography prop!

How cute will that be??? I knew I would want to paint in chalk paint!

I went out Saturday, bought some paint, wax, and Plaster of Paris. Amazon sells it the cheapest so far that I've seen.

Mix 2 1/2 tablespoons of Plaster of Paris with 2 tablespoons of water. Mix it with a plastic fork to make it a nice consistency.  Then add it to 8 oz of paint.

I love samplers! I buy mine at Home Depot for only $3. They are perfect for small furniture projects. They come in 8 oz containers. You pick the color out an they mix it for you. This color is called Surfer. However, I wanted it to be more Turquoise, so after realizing it was lighter than I wanted I added some blue paint to make it darker and richer.

So, my advice is if you like the end result of the bench, then I would go with a shade darker than Surfer.

  I first added some wood filler glue, to the seating part. It had a rusted nail poking through, which is Nooo Bueno! I let that dry over a 6 hour period. Then I began painting it with just a plain ole sponge brush. The great thing about chalk paint is it doesn't leave streaks. I don't know why, but it doesn't. I painted the first coat on Saturday night, and then another coat Sunday night. 

Then today I lightly sanded it.

 After sanding it I then began rubbing on this wax by MiniWax.

I rubbed it on with an old t shirt, however if you have a fancy waxing brush or machine, by all means go with the good stuff. I am too frugal to buy the nice stuff, lol.

Maybe one day I will find one at a thrift store or Goodwill. Ha, highly unlikely!

I rubbed it all over the bench except on the edges. On the edges I drizzled of blackish brown paint (that I already have for a future project) and mixed it with about a table spoon of wax.

By the way these little mixing tray you keep seeing are Lean Cuisine frozen dinner tray. I wash mine out after I am done and use them for everything from painting, to mixing stuff to holding decoupage. They work great! And I am not having to waste a paper plate or plastic cup., and they are better because its more like a bowl.

Then, you rub it on the edges or anywhere you want it to become darker. It just really brings out the depth and makes it look more antiqued. 

I am not in love with the final product :( I really wished I would have put Vaseline around certain spots of the bench before I painted it, so it would just chip instead of me having to sand it. I feel like it doesn't look naturally shabby chic. 

But... I still think it will be Super Cute in my kid photo shoots!

Thanks for tuning in!

Vintage chair made beautiful! (How to Redye a Chair)

I love, love redo's. I mean if you haven't already picked up on that from my blog. And will continue to do more I promise!

 When I found this chair it was a hot mess. I mean an off white/cream, color stained, mess. I saw the beauty in it, and... fell in love with its $2 price tag!

Oh yeah baby, you read that right. If you haven't already visited your county's Goodwill Discount Center, then by God, hop up right Now and GO! Just wait till its open, or not, I am sure they have campers. You can be like the old Mervyn's commercial... "Open, Open", with your nose pressed against the window. 

They sell everything by the pound usually $1, but their furniture is anywhere fro $2 to $10. I see a lot of furniture redo projects in my future!

Oh, and Tuesday's are the best day. They get a lot of stuff donated over the weekend and they process it all on Monday, and put it out Monday night for Tuesday :)

Ok, enough of all that clearance stuff. I could do a whole post on that, bargains are a high for me!

Onto the good stuff! 

I read a lot of posts before doing this. I really, really wanted to do the fabric spray paint (Simply Spray Fabric Upholstery Spray), but that stuff is like $12 a can. I mean it could be worse... but I read you have to usually do about 3 coats, and 1 coat is 1 can. Now its still so much cheaper to go that route than having it professionally recovered, but I am a frugal gal. I got this for $2 and I want to be able to say to myself "Hey this only costs $20 or less to redo" I couldn't say that with the spray. So I did some more research, and some more, and some more. Then I found this tutorial on dying furniture with Rit at Vivaciously Vintage, and I was like ok, lets try it!

So I got Scarlet Red liquid Rit.

Mix one cap full to 1 1/2 cup water.

I at first used a paint brush as I read to do in another blog, but after about 45 minutes of doing that, I was like screw this, and got out the spray bottle to test it out. And it worked so much better. I mean very quick!

This is the after one coat, but unfortunately after it dried it looked a mauve color. So I did it all over again, once it was completely dried. And at first it wouldn't stain darker, so I used less water and more dye. And it finally worked.

I then spray painted the legs a flat black. Don't you just love my tape job? Hey it worked!

Here it is all vibrant and RED, and I LOVE IT!

And all for Only $6!

$2 Chair

$2.85 for the Rit

$1 for the spray paint

add a couple more cents in there for tax :)

It will be great for my photography!

Thanks for tuning in! 

By the way, if you would like to see my photography Face Book page, here it is...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andylizzy-Photography/146300828872310