TingTingMamMa: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Tutorial (kinda)--Easy Backdrop for Photo Shooting

I have been reading about backdrops for photo shootings. But some required tons of work, and others taping sheets to walls. None would work for me. I am not buddies with the word “work”. Besides, I have a dog and a cat who LOVE to get involved. If I have to tape sheets to the wall, all I would have is a PET STUDIO.

My need for photo shooting is mostly for my crafts that do not take up much space. My lazy crafter’s bulb went on when I look at my backyard.

Natural light, check. Old swing chair, check.

The biggest posters boards I could find, check.

Prop the poster boards on the swing chair.
No crease!

Set my subject on the poster board and shoot!

I used flash, but was happy with the result.

Try different time of the day to get best natural light.

Tried a different color.

Still prefer a warmer tone.

Follow TingTingMamMa

Friday, September 23, 2011

Dress for Joplin

This is the dress I made for the Joplin project.

I had the choice of sewing a dress for 5 year olds, 7 year olds and 10 year olds. From my experience packing shoe boxes for the Operation Christmas Child, most people would choose younger children. Being mindful of this fact, I chose to sew for a 10 year old girl.

I went to the craft night with the floral fabric and without a T-shirt. Unfortunately, when I got there, they were all out of girls’ T. The event coordinator had a few boys’ T for me to choose from. And, fortunately, there was this mustard color T that matched my floral fabric perfectly! Praise the Lord! It all worked out.

One little thing that I did not consider was the amount of gathering for a size 10 3-tier skirt. I was gathering like crazy! At the end, I took the dress home to assemble it. Before the night ended, I thought something was still missing from the dress. So I stenciled a strawberry (to match the floral print of the skirt) on the T with a bit of sparkles.

Really pray to make a young girl smile on her 1^st day of school.

Follow TingTingMamMa

Friday, September 16, 2011

Good Bye and Hello

My trusted iron that had been laboring for the past 14 years had finally breathed its last.

It actually decided to retire 3 weeks ago. But I was not ready to part from it. I borrowed my husband's tools and revived this guy for a short while. When it no longer heat up and snapped, I knew it was time to come out of my denial. This is a tribute to a post-worthy iron. Good-bye!

The timing of my old iron's retirement was not desirable, for I was in the middle of my lunch bag project. (it was a "arrrrr" moment). The urge of finishing the project was so strong, I decided to head to Target around 10:30pm in search of a replacement. My mother-in-law was very gracious to accompany me as my "body guard". Thanks, mom. =) Praise the Lord, there was a sale on irons.
Welcome to my craft room, Steam Master. Thanks in advance for the work you will do in the years to come.

Follow TingTingMamMa

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tutorial--Thread & Ribbon Rack (Real Cheap and Easy!)

You have seen one of these thread rack in the craft store, right? It organizes and displays all your thread spools. Pretty useful I’d say. Though it’s affordable (around 10 dollars a piece), I was reluctant to spend money on something I could make. I’ searched online to see if it’s cheaper and easier to build one myself. Here are some posts I found:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Simple-and-Stylish-Thread-Rack/

http://blogfullofjelly.blogspot.com/2010/02/diy-thread-rack.html

http://www.minitoko.com/wpblog/2011/02/thread-rack-diy/

These posts are inspiring. But being sluggish, I do not feel like running to the hardware store anytime soon. Not to mention that I don’t really drill, saw or sand (I sure am a mutant in the family…sorry, dad.) It's my belief that only the creative ones could afford to be lazy. This is what I came up with:

Thread/Ribbon Rack:

Cost: Absolutely nothing!

Time: 5-10 minutes at most

Materials:

2 pieces of cork boards that my son no longer uses. (can’t believe my luck!) They are rather thin, about 1/4" to 1/2". If yours is thicker, one piece should do.
a handful of 8x2 screws (sand color, found in my husband’s tool box. Thanks, honey. BTW, I am not giving them back…) *Be sure to check if the screw head is small enough for your spool to sit on before using them.
a ruler

A closer look at the screws.

First, I stacked the 2 cork boards to give it depth for the screws to grab on. Then the ruler was used to determine how far apart I want the screws. Once that’s certain, the ruler just laid on the cork board to guide and level the screws in the same row.

Screwed the screws right into the cork boards by hand (slightly at an angle). No tools required. Make sure the screws grabs both layers of cork, yet do not puncture through the bottom layer (if the pointed ends of the screws are showing, you've gone too far).
Could have used the double sided foam tape that came with the cork board to hang it, but I decided to nail this one to the wall. Not going to take any chances to mount this twice.

Like I said, cheap and easy.

I have 12 small spools of assorted color thread hanging around in the craft room crying for a home. Since the board has extra room, I decided to use pins (that's right, just pins) for these light-weight guys. Works like a dream. I used a floral pin for the one odd spool on top. The long pin works just fine.