Through the view finder

I've wanted to try this for soooooooooo long. I bought a Kodak Duaflex almost a year ago from Ebay for an absolute bargain price of about £5 but I just hadn't got round to having a play. 
Through the view finder photography is basically when you take a digital photo through the viewfinder of a old analog camera. This gives the look of an old photo without any Photoshop tricks.
So eventually, one evening last week I got out some black card and started to freestyle and make a collar to marque off the viewfinder on the top of the camera.

This turned out to be a little complicated but was basically trial and error. I still have a little work to do but I couldn't wait to test it out. This was the first shot I took. As you can see it was very murky, this was down to the fact that I hadn't cleaned the camera since I got it incase it lost the 'vintage effect'. I took a risk and gave the viewfinder a clean which I admit has lost some of the charm but it still gives the desired effect. The results are the image at the top of the russian dolls and image bellow of my pet goldfish who was being a little camera shy!

The Book Dance

I love this video, it makes me smile every time I watch it. I'm a real sucker for stop frame animation and organisation!

Tying the knot

Tying the knot
Originally uploaded by DuckDownDesigns

Here’s a card I’ve made for a friend who are getting married on Saturday. I’m quite short on time at the moment so I wanted to do something quick but not too serious. Mission accomplished me thinks!

Sunny Sunday

This is a photo i took back in the autumn. As I said before I've been playing around in photoshop and wanted to see if I could turn an otherwise slightly dull photo into something a little more interesting. I think it has a very dreamy quality to it which is what I wanted to achieve. I love the light this time of year and wanted to see if I could replicate that with a little photoshop magic. 

Be my Valentine

I have just finished making these ready to post to a few friends. I've been looking for some small knitting projects which would push me to learn/ understand more about knitting patterns. I was looking for something that wasn't very complicated or very long so I didn't get confused and bored. Mission accomplished with these babies. I was even able to knit the hearts without looking at the pattern after the third one! Plus they are really cute which doesn't hurt.

Tilt shifting tricks in Photoshop

I recently went on a photoshop course and now I have to admit I'm addicted. I've been using photoshop for years but I'm pretty much self taught. This has led to some bad habits of doing things the long/ wrong way round!
However, I am now going to redeem myself by trying to learn as much as possible. I've got myself a great book and found pleanty of tutorials on line and so it is now my mission to learn as much as possible.
I've wanted to play with tilt shifting for a while now and it was a lot easier then I thought. Check out this tutorial here . I found it very easy to follow and I'm quite happy with my first attempt.

Here is the original for you to compare.

I've struck gold!

I think I’ve struck gold. I went to my local car book sale at Cheltenham racecourse with the hope of fining an interesting tin for my dress making pins (I currently have them in a very tatty cardboard box at the moment). I saw this blue tin and fell in love with it especially the colours, sky blue and red. The fact it was a tin for dressmaking pin just assured me it was meant to be. As I searched a little further I found a whole host of gems on this stall, it was like my birthday and Christmas had all come at once.

The next thing that caught my eye was this Darn it, Mend it kit. This was from the era for make do and mend where you had to fix your tights or stocking if they got a hole. You could just go and buy a new pair like we have the luxury of doing today.

---- The back.----

Now I never need to get my knickers in a twist ever again thanks to durAble knickers elastic, brilliant!

---- A full card of snap fastners (Front)----

----(Back)----

----Needles ----

Some lovely clear glass buttons which catch the light fantastically and some interesting pillar box red plastic buttons. I’m going to have to think of a great project for those as I’ve never come across buttons like this before.

Lots more mother of pearl buttons (I don’t think I will ever have enough)

And lastly some lovely vintage clear glass beads that are a kind of square tube shape. I can’t wait to do something with them. I think I have done amazing well with my purchases but I did have a little bit of shopper guilt which soon faded. Now I have start using all my goodies in my next project to justify my splurge.