Workin' It

I've been so busy taking photographs!  Here is a recent project I did where I collaborated with the beautiful and talented Alyson, her roommate Scott, and my super awesome boyfriend Brian.  This is for a contest.  I wanted it to have a magazine booze ad vibe.  I hope you like it :)

Art Direction:  Danielle
Theme Concept: Alyson
Photo Assistant:  Scott
Photographer:  Brian

Side note:  As it turns out, it is really hard to make two people look good in a photo at the same time.  You just can't control it.  One person may be blinking while the other person looks fabulous, or one person may be doing something weird with their mouth while another person can be having a wardrobe malfunction...Really, anything can happen. This was the case for this photo shoot.  This is actually two different photos 'shopped together.  Aly looked great, but I just didn't have the right look, so I sifted through the other photos in hopes that I could find one of myself giving off the same vibe that Aly was, and at the same time not looking too shabby.  Lo and behold I found it!  

Another problem with the photo was that the hot dog that I was holding in the "good" picture of myself wasn't hot-doggie enough.  You could only see part of the sad small bun, so I found another photo where I was holding the dog with all of it's mustard and ketchupy goodness, and I used a layer mask to throw it into the photo.  Hopefully you can't tell that any of this was actually photoshopped ;)

Before photos (pre Photoshop)- Notice the sad sad hotdog in my hand

Old Film!

I just scanned some of my film photography on my website.  Check it out!

http://cargocollective.com/dkphotography/Film-35mm

Here are some pics that were posted.  (Remember Lucky's supermarkets! Blast from the past:))

Friday Favorites #1

Here are some links that I thought were notable this week.  What did you love this week?

I think this is a great idea.  It enables people to reach out to others in a creative way. You might make a friend that you never would have made otherwise :) http://selflessportraits.com/

Here is a plethora of cocktail recipes from all 50 states!
Cocktails from Every State

I was clicking on this website for 30 minutes straight (and laughing)
http://dubgif.com/

I thought this idea was beautiful
http://weburbanist.com/2013/03/10/hunt-peck-paint-chromatic-typewriter-prints-landscapes/

This was a neat "Time Lapse" Gotta love Google

Any fan of The Simpsons can appreciate this real life intro

Designers and beer drinkers alike can appreciate this :) "Beertone"

Brian and I are going to do  THIS in our bathroom.  Living art!

Here is an interesting art concept- Reverse Graffiti

And here is an adorable Panda!  HAPPY FRIDAY!

Moving :)

I'm moving!  Don't worry, it isn't far, just downstairs from where I live now.  Many of the people in this complex end up living here for years and years, but strangely in the past couple of months I have noticed about 6 units move.  I have lived in the complex for about three now years going on four.

The cool and exciting thing about this move is that the handyman crew hadn't started to work on my new unit yet, so Brian and I asked the complex manager if we could put some of our own finishing touches into the unit before we moved in.

 All of the units are carpeted, but we asked them leave the bare subfloor.  We were told it would be cement, but to our surprise, it happened to be plywood!

We kind of freaked out a little when we discovered it was plywood because we had our hearts set on staining and polishing cement. But after researching You Tube and the internet, we found out that refinishing plywood wasn't an uncommon endeavor, and it can even look downright awesome if done properly.


Here is a time lapse video of Brian and I polishing and staining our new apartment!  It took over two hours to sand, clean, puddy, tape off, and stain everything, but here is a portion of the work in
12 seconds!!!

 

Mini Party Hat, for You, Your Boyfriend, and Cat!

Once upon a time I posted a tutorial on how to make an owl ornament with a toilet paper roll,

and a long LONG ago on Twitter I said...

So it turned out that "More on this soon" happened to be a year later, but in any case, I'm presenting you today (better late than never), another crafty idea made from the humble cardboard of a toilet paper roll.


Step 1.  Cut the roll down the middle on one side.

Step 2.  "Unroll" the cardboard and draw the following shape on the the side that rolls up toward you.

Step 3.  Cut out the shape that you drew. (Keep the piece that is filled in like above).  Pinch the 90 degree corner a bit to make it easier to roll.  Now,  roll it like you would a blue crab hand roll (yum!).

Step 4.  Tape the edges with a non sticky tape (like Artist's Tape) to hold the cone shape in place.

Step 5.  Place a stronger tape like masking tape or duct tape on the inside seams.  Cut off the excess.  You can then take off the Artist's Tape on the outside and the shape will hold!  After that if you want, you can put some sticky tape on the outside for more support.

Step 6.  Take your hole puncher and punch a hole on two opposite sides of the bottom of the hat.  This is where you will put your string!

Step 7.   Paint!  You can use any kind of paint and any color.  I had a ginormous bucket of light pink paint that was supposed to be used to paint my bathroom walls, but I never got around to it.  Wall paint actually works quite well for this project!

Step 8.  Use GLUE (I used Mod Podge, but any glue would work) to add sparkles to the rim of the hat.  I painted the glue on with a brush, added the sparkles, and then used a q-tip to even out the lines.

Step 9.  I used half inch diameter styrofoam balltz to make the top of the hat even more cute.  I poked a hole in one of the balltz with the edge of my paintbrush. I put some glue inside the hole and stuck it on top of the hat.  I wiped away excess glue with a q-tip.

Step 10.  I didn't have any other paint beside my bathroom wall bucket,  and I didn't have a printer handy, so I traced circles from a round object I had lying around (a magnet, actually), and I colored them in with my PrismaColor markers.  

These circles are about a half inch in diameter, but you can make them bigger or smaller.  You can even do rectangles, stars, hearts, clovers or diamonds!  This party hat can be whatever you want it to be.  (It's your party).  I used the classic party hat shape of a circle.

Cut the circles out with your scissors.

Step 11.  GLUE (I used Mod Podge again) the circles onto the hat in whatever design you like.  

Step 12.  Glue on the string or rubberband.  It will take a couple of hours to dry.  Hold with adorable mini clothes pins.  

I used a rubber band because I made the hat to put on my cat, but for a human mini party hat you may want to use string so you can fit it under your chin.

ENJOY!

**No kitties were harmed in the making of this blog post.