Christiana Childers Photography Blog

This weekend we took a little trip down to Portland to visit my cousin Ruthie.  Isn’t she the cutest?!We had a big time.  Portland is too cool!  Here’s a sampling from the weekend -

Also Ruth taught me a new way to dye eggs and you know how much I love eggs!  Here are some photos of the process -

First you peel some onion skins off of purple and yellow onions and then soak them in water.  We also did purple cabbage but it didn’t work too well so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Then you wrap the egg in skins -

You then roll up the eggs in some clean scrap cloth.

Bind the whole thing up in rubber bands and boil like you would hard boiled eggs-

And the result! -

Cool, huh?!

I love doing Ukrainian eggs at Easter.  I haven’t pulled all my stuff out for this year but I wanted to display mine and the girls eggs from previous years but I’m running out of ways to display them.  Whenever we find real bird’s nests I keep them for this reason but I still don’t have enough nests!  So I got the idea to make some out of shredding some books.  It was really easy and worked better than I hoped!

I started by shredding up an old book (one that I’ve been using for some of my other projects).  I found some bowls I thought would make nice nest shapes and then covered them with plastic wrap.

I just used a little bit of flour and water and started adding strips to the flour mixture and then placed them over the bowls.

It was about here that I thought, “Yeah, this is never going to work…”  But it did!  I just left them to dry and they popped right off and made beautiful nests.  Here are some photos of my eggs…

I found these sand blasted glass eggs at a garden store.  I thought they looked cute in a couple of the real nests that we had found.

I’m sure I’ll be posting more about eggs soon!  Happy Easter everyone!

I thought I’d do a quick post on taking photo craft to a new level – check out this cool suit made by Jane Waggoner Deschner by stitching together old photographs!

Look at the buttons!  I think it’s actual photos too and not just copies.  Don’t know if I’d wear it but still… impressive!  Can you tell I’m in a really crafty stage right now?

I’ve been a crafting fool the last couple of weeks.  My friend Amy’s mom sent me some great fabrics from her online quilting store so I’ve been a bit on a sewing binge until my machine started causing me some trouble!  It’s fixed now so I hope to get back on the sewing projects but I thought I’d share with you another photo project I was working on as well.

Remember how I told you about the last project (Record Clock) where it was easier than I thought it’d be?  Well, this project lays (lies?…Mom’s always on me for not using this word correctly…I never can remember the rules), as most of my projects do, solidly in the “That’ll be a piece o’ cake!” and hours later….I’m swearing “Krauss!“  It shouldn’t be hard.  I was just wrestling with my printer…grrr.  ANYWAY, the project is this – Lora found me this super cool tray and our favorite boutique (aka Value Village). 

I wanted to take one of my photos and glue it to the bottom.  I’m trying to add a bit more color to my life so I picked a photo with a lot of blue.  It’s the bottom of a small boat that I took while living in Ireland.  I love the rusty stain and the crackley paint.

I found this free software that takes a photo and chops it up for you so you can print it out on your printer.  It’s called PosteRazor.  It’s pretty cool and easy.  My problems came when I wanted to print it on thick paper and my printer refused.  It also printed different colors for each piece and much darker than the actual photo (which I don’t know if that is a printer issue, software issue or a monitor issue) so that it doesn’t go very seamlessly together.  So I haven’t glued it down ’cause I’m not a 100% satisfied.  I might try printing it as one poster at somewhere like Kinkos but I don’t know.  What do you think?  Like it or try again?

Meanwhile, the tray looks kind of cool as is under my candles on my table…

I’ve had the idea for this project in my head for years and I can’t believe it took me so long to finally do it because it was so freaking easy!!  I’m not kidding.  You know how you have a project in mind and you think “that’ll be pretty easy” and it always takes longer than you think it’s going to – this one was one of the few that was actually easier than I thought it’d be!  Once I bought all the supplies, the whole project took me about 20 mins start to finish including taking the photo for the project.

Here’s the project – I bought a record and a clock at Value Village yesterday.  I think the record was a couple of bucks and the clock was $2.99.  Some of them where even cheaper but I liked this clock’s hands….

I took the clock apart in a minute while I was talking to my sis on the phone.  Then I took a few pictures of R listening to music and picked the one I liked best -

I then printed out the photo onto a CD label and stuck it onto the clock leaving the middle part of the label.

Next I took an exacto knife and cut the middle hole out, stuck the motor through the back and attached the hands…and that was it!

Here it is hanging in my kitchen -

I ended up putting double stick puffy tape that I had in between the motor and record just so it didn’t slip around.  The first time I put it together I put the hands on upside down so they were going back in time so I’d recommend either noting how its going together when you take your clock apart or put it together and watch it a minute before sticking it to the record.  I might add numbers someday too….  Try it and send me photos of your clock!

Last year, my family decided that instead of buying presents for each other, we’d either make, buy handmade or buy used things.  We do an exchange between families and just make something for the kids or the family as a whole.  I have to tell you that I was dreading it a little.  I do like to make stuff but at Christmas I just want to get it over with!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the act of giving so much more when I put some time into the gifts.  So this year, I was more excited about making stuff!  I wanted to share one of my projects because I’m pretty darn pleased with how it turned out!

I have a friend who spray painted those laminate samples you get at the hardware store with chalkboard spray paint and gave them as gift with a little thing of chalk. So you tie the mini chalkboard to your napkin with a name written on it as a place card!  I thought it was the coolest thing and ever since have wanted to do something with those laminate samples!  So I had the idea to do a calendar and then it turned into an Advent calendar.  Here’s the process -

First I made a sketch and then transferred it to a blank rubber stamp (they have them at art stores with the wood block/linoleum block stuff) and then carved my image out with a linoleum carving tool. 

Then I painted the laminate samples, added numbers with a paint pen and then extra paint over that to soften it up.

Then I taped the numbers all together and modpoged some sheet music on the other side, added extra paint until I got the background the way I wanted it.

Then it was ready to print -

I painted the frame my brother made for me (yes, my brother that I’m making the gift for made the frame for me!) and then put brads in where the holes were.

I didn’t get it done for the 1st, as was the plan.  So I’m pretending this is a photo from their house of what it’d look like today, had they had it on the 1st.

Baby Jesus is on the 25th!  If I had it to do over (besides starting earlier! …Yeah right!) I’d not make it so tight fitting but have a smidge of space between the samples.

Merry Christmas!

OK.  Here is attempt two at getting this post up!  Here we go -

Now that you know what Trading Graces is all about, I get to talk a little more specifically about this project.  So as I mentioned before, this family has two kids with special needs so getting their house “put together” was not really a priority.  Their priority was/is their kids.  When the design team (Lora, Debbie and Lauren) asked what she liked she said she that orange was her favorite color and they really liked warm colors. They had her collect photos from books and magazines of things she liked but other than that, the family didn’t know what all was going on in their house.

Most of these pictures aren’t mine because I wasn’t there for the beginning of the project and I left before the family came home so didn’t really get the finished pictures.  I compiled these photos from emails and Lora’s camera so sorry that some of them are a bit grainy.

Here is a before picture of the kitchen -

And the after -

I want you to know that the cabinets came from all over.  None of them matched.  Lots were from Craig’s List and some from salvage places.  Lora fit them together like a puzzle and volunteers painted them all cream to make them match.  Don’t they look amazing!  Look at all the extra cabinets she has now!!

On the opposite side of that little half wall, they had a dining room so the half wall was ripped out so the kitchen could use the whole space and then they put a built in with shelves and a desk and moved the dining room into what was originally intended for the dining room but was being used for an office.

Desk wall before -

Desk wall after -

They had blank wall and came up with this fun idea…

Before -

After -

Now here is an view of where the office was and is now the dining room..

Before -

After -

Now here are some finished shots of the living room done by Lauren Neal – www.laureninterior.ueuo.com.  (She also designed the dining room)

It takes a lot of talent to design but I think it takes even more talent to design with few resources compiling donations, found items from salvage yards or Craig’s List.  Didn’t they do an amazing job?!

And now I need to show you what Lauren did with my portraits of the family.  So cool!  It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the house.

Cool huh!!  There is so much more here to show and tell but it’d be too long.  I just wanted to give you and idea of some of the finishing touches.  And I love this photo of the family seeing their new kitchen for the first time -

And of them seeing the photo wall when they walked in -

The whole thing makes me so happy!!

Here’s one of Lora and me.  The thing that makes me laugh is all the people in the background trying to fix an issue in the pantry which sort of sums up Trading Graces – people are just excited to help…

There were so many many people that helped make this such a successful project but there are a few poeple who need special mention.  Steve Higgins (www.higginsbuildingco.com) – contractor extraordinaire – was there from dawn until well after dusk and sometime unto the wee hours pouring himself into this project.  He was always happy and helpful even when people were slowing him down.

Professional Organizer Elisa Adams put in many hours helping the family organize and purge before the project as well as being on site to help during the project and then helped move the family back in to their new space.  She gave a little seminar about organizing that I was able to go to and am so motivated to do some purging and reorganizing myself! www.how2organize.net.

Well, I feel like there is so much I’m leaving out as well as so many people I’m leaving out but I just need to stop. Thank you to all involved for a truly enriching and blessed time.

I love Summer!  If you could tell by several of my posts where I whine about the rain and cold and no sun.  I’m so happy that we had such nice weather this weekend.  It changes my whole outlook.  I decided to decorate my mantle to reflect the season.  I’ve had this idea floating around in my head of taking an old book cover and use it t build a vintagey looking frame and use it for sepia photos or something.  Here is kind of what I was thinking…

But when I found my book, I fell in love with all the illustrations…

…so decided to make it more of a sea theme collage with a photo and illustrations from the book.

I cut the cover off the book and then cut some pieces of book board (really thick card board available at art stores) to fit the inside of the book as well as the binding -

I then flipped the piece above over and decoupaged photos and illustrations that I cut out of pages from the book.  It all looked a bit stark so I painted it a little.  OK, a lot.  I think I over did it a bit. Ah well.  Then I glued the book board piece to the book cover and put it on my mantle.

The photo is of the girls taking in the sunset in Northern Ireland.  It was such a beautiful evening and wonderful memory so I love this photo for all the feeling it evokes.  I also through some shells up on the mantle from Dublin which made me happy to use those in a fun way.

I saw a photo in Martha a few months back where she had illustrations of birds in the inside of  jars so I thought I could do the same with more of the illustrations from this book to add to my Summer themed mantle.

So that’s it!  What do you think?

Here’s a fun photo project if you have a bit of sewing know-how.  The girls and I made one of these for my nephew and my sister-in-law liked it so much she asked me to make on for a friend of her’s who just had a baby.  I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

If you want to try this yourself here are a couple of tips;

1. I used iron-on transfer paper which worked OK but for the book I made for my nephew, I used a special fabric that you can print right onto.  This worked so much better since you have to iron the pages over and over again when making the pages and with the iron-on transfers, you have to be really careful not to put a hot iron right on the page.  The only reason it didn’t do that this time is I felt like they really sucked up the printer ink so thought it’d save my ink.  If I do this again,  I think I’d go back to that printer paper(fabric). It saves a lot of time because your not ironing and then sewing, it’s just there for you.  Pretty cool.

2. If you use the iron-on transfer, you have to print it backwards!  Big tip!!

3. It worked well for me to make this book so each finished page was sewed together to three other pages (foursided pages) and then I sewed those finished pages altogether to make the finished book.  The middle page was a stand alone so I sewed the ribbon on there to finish it.  I had to make up a mock book out of paper in order to make sure I got all the pages together right.  It made my brain hurt to try to figure this out until I made up a mock.  So the front and back pages are sewn together but, as you look at it the front is on the right, and then back on the left so that when you fold it, it opens the right way.  Then I sewed that together with the first page and the last page and so on.  Does that make sense?  It’s hard to explain but if you do a mock up, it’s easy to figure out.

If anyone tries this, send me a photo!!  I want to see it!

We’ve started a tradition with my friends where when one of our girls turns 13, we have a little weekend away to honor this transition from girl to young woman.  My friend Michelle came up with the idea feeling that we don’t do enough in our culture to recognize this stage in kids’ lives.  I think she’s right.  In a culture that tries to ignore teenagers (i’m not saying I don’t get why!), I think it is important to say “Hey! We’re behind you and we love you.”

So Jade recently turned 13.  Jade is my good friend Kari’s neice who now is Jade’s guardian.  She is a sweet and massively cute girl who is a regular (and very popular) babysitter for my girls.  We all went away for an overnighter at a cabin and had enough food to last for weeks, chatted, laughed, painted and just enjoyed each other.  It is good for the soul to just be with other women!

One of the things we did and have done in the past to commemerate the event is to do a group art project.  This always falls to me to organize.  Usually we take a photograph and chop it up into smaller squares and have each person paint a square and then put it all back together.  It always makes me laugh when I hear from almost everyone, “Oh, I can’t paint/draw”, or “I’m not creative” or simply “Do I have to?!” and I say “yes, you have to and it’ll be great.  Trust me.”  I’m happy to report that it always is great and it seems to suprise people that they can actually do this!  For Jade’s art we didn’t have a picture but did individual tiles and put them all together.

Look how good it turned out!