A cupcake parade!

A cupcake parade!!

Last winter I taught a class about color mixing using frosting...I made up red, yellow and blue frosting for each student and let them mix the colors on a plate and then spread the frosting on to wafer cookies. It was super fun!!

When I got home I had a bunch of left over frosting so I decided to make some cupcakes. And then I had a fun photo shoot!!

Wouldn't these be great for a party?

Here are a few that I added text using Picnik. Feel free to print them on cardstock for a quick and easy card!

Hope you have a great week!
Nellie

Wide Angle in STL

Happy Monday!!

Over the weekend, I had a chance to experiment with a new toy. The 52mm Wide-Angle Lens for Nikon cameras. I thought you might like to see the results in case you have ever considered investing in a wide-angle lens.

I would love to buy a REAL wide-angle lens, but for now, this little cheapo attachment is fun to play around with.

To use this attachment, I simply screwed the little lens on the end of my 18-55mm lens and started shooting. It is light weight, easy to haul around and easy to attach to the camera. Light-weight is important when walking around like a tourist, taking pictures. ;-)

The price is great, very affordable for those of us who want to get a feel for wide-angle before taking the plunge to purchase a REALLY wide digital lens.

I actually like the vignette that is created around the image. Some people on the Amazon reviews did not like that or the fact that it gets a little blurry around the edges, but I actually like it. 

All of the photos were taken in St. Louis. The Moonlight, on Del Mar...I am told is where Lady Gaga stayed when she played in St. Louis recently. She reserved the entire top floor and the rooftop bar. Wow! By the way, I will be seeing Lady Gaga in Kansas City, Missouri tomorrow! I am super excited!!

Hello Death Valley...

Last week, I made a journey to Arizona to visit my brother. After a few days in Lake Havasu, we made a little road trip to Carlsbad California for a couple of nights. Then we drove up to Las Vegas so that I could fly home. On our way to LV, we passed through Death Valley and made a quick pit stop. While fueling up, I saw this old abandoned hotel and I knew it would be perfect for the black and white film I had just loaded into my Holga. I don't have those pictures back yet, but I wanted to share these with you. I snapped them with my Nikon D5000.

Oh, did I mention that it was REALLY hot?? I had a candy bar in the car and I left the door open for a couple of minutes while I was getting my camera out of my suitcase....the Snickers totally melted into a pool of peanuts and nougat. It was still a yummy road trip snack, but wow!

Well, I am going to be home this week so I hope to get some craftiness going to share with you next week!

Antiquing your modern photos!

Hello everyone! I am constantly on the hunt for free online photo editing software that is easy to use. I've told you recently about Big Huge Labs and Picnik but I found another online site that is really cool for antiquing new photos to make them look like old photos.

While browsing Google for 'vintage florals' I came across the blog Little Green Notebook and a post about this website for antiquing your photos.  She said that she was really happy with the results and gave some examples of photos she has manipulated and she said don't be afraid of the Japanese characters--the entire site is in Japanese--and she provides an image in her post that shows where to click in order to upload and convert your photos.

I tried out the site and I am really happy with the results of the photos!!

 Original photo:

Antique style:

Aren't they so cool???  I think they are so cool looking!!  If you decide to try it out, post a link in the comments, I would love to see what you create!

Big Huge Labs--

Have you heard of Big Huge Labs?

It is an awesome site that lets you do some fun things with your photos. (In a recent post, I told you all about Picnik...and I am still a huge fan!) I take hundreds of pictures every week so I am constantly looking for ways to add words or new things to my photos. My favorite thing about this site is that it is completely free! There is also an option to have your creations printed or to share them on Facebook or Flickr. I haven't used the printing yet, but I have used several of the features on my blog. There are many more cool things about the site that I do not mention below, so be sure to check it out for yourself!!

Today, I would like to show you a couple of my favorite things to do with Big Huge Labs!

1. Make a mosaic. I love to make mosaics with my own photos....but I also like to create a mosaic of things that are inspiring me on Fickr. BigHugeLabs lets me create a mosaic of my faves or of a photoset by an artist and share the pictures on my blog....while easily creating a link back to the photo credits!

I have been really inspired by this artist lately:

1. how to fold girls, 2. deer geometry, 3. i have a lot to say moleskine, 4. more aceo friends, 5. aceo friends, 6. good morning to you, 7. for my heartbroken friend, 8. i'm ok, 9. untitled, 10. wishing, 11. he might hear you, 12. ok now, 13. untitled, 14. let's put our heads together, 15. keeping secrets, 16. out on my limbs

2. Filters. I know that most of these things can also be done with a program like Photoshop...but that program is so big that it often bogs down my computer and makes it difficult to run more than one program at a time. Anyway, BigHugeLabs has lots of cool free filters for your photos.

 Here is a really cool filmstrip option:

3. Frames. I absolutely love the frames that are available  for the photos. For free.

The holga 35 MM frame:

ColorCraft Bonus Photo:

Postage stamp frame:

Okay, as I said before there are tons more things you can do with Big Huge Labs.....I used a couple of my favorite photos above, hope you will go check them out! I would love to see what you create! If you make anything, post a link in the comments of this blog post and I will go check it out!

Vive la France!

A week later than promised, an impression of my week in France.

Thrifted Owl Goodness

Happy Monday!!

On my blog, I like to feature a weekly post on Wednesdays with inspirational images based on a theme....So each week I have a different parade of lovely images: flowers, hedgehogs, hearts, whatever happens to be inspiring me at the moment.

I usually feature images from We Heart It. Today, I have decided to share with you a collection of owl images taken while on a thrifting adventure in Cape Girardeau, MO a couple of summers ago. I couldn't really afford to bring home all the sweet little owls that I saw, so I took pictures of them. I hope you like!!

I hope these pictures brighten your day! Have a great week!!