Wednesday is Lensday: A study in ORANGE

September 14, 2010 by Alexa 3 Comments

It’s always fun to do little photographic experiments. Tonight I gathered all things orange and put them on a big orange poster I had. When you look at it, you just see a bunch of similar color items that visually looks nice together, but when you look a bit deeper, you see so much more. It’s a little study into texture, light, form, and abstraction.

Below are a few photos without comment. It was just a little fun photographic investigation to get my Halloween mojo on!

The last two photos were of the glitter ball in focus vs. out of focus. I like how both turned out!

What if we looked at everyday objects in this same way instead of glancing over them? I think we would find a lot to discover about our world!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Wednesday is Lensday: Close Ups!

September 9, 2009 by Alexa 3 Comments

So, I haven’t done a “Wednesday is Lensday” in a while, but tonight while thinking about what I was going to post, my heart just wasn’t in it. I felt like expressing myself through my photos and that’s just what I did. The fact that they are Halloween colors, well, that’s what I have laying around the house right now, so it was an immediate go-to. Go figure.

Glitter paint in my palette.

A new necklace that is made of different types of chain.

This is a close up of an orange foil gift bow. It’s not quite as in focus as I would like, but maybe that makes it cooler? Very abstract, I think.

A detail of my retro reproduction lamp. I purchased it at Deadly Nightshades about 5 or so years ago. Kinda wish I bought the double lamps. Maybe down the road…

And a little detail of my Cider Web Yankee candle.

Admittedly, when I shoot close up for a while, it sometimes strains eyes, so I have a teeny tiny headache right now. Nevertheless, I hope you found these little orange and yellow photos inspiring!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

DIY Dotted Tissue Paper Lantern

March 25, 2009 by Alexa 99 Comments

Looking for a fun way to jazz up regular paper lanterns? Break out the Collage Pauge™ and some tissue paper and you have a totally new, fresh look for your room!

Here’s how you do it. It’s soooo easy!

Dotted Tissue Paper Lanterns

Supplies:
– White paper lantern
– Collage Pauge™ Instant Decopauge (Matte Finish)
– foam brush
– scissors
– several sheets of tissue paper in colors of your choice.

Directions:

1. Fold tissue paper into several layers as shown.

2. Cut circles into your tissue paper. I used a punch at first, but honestly it didn’t work very well. My shapes were irregular, but if you notice, it doesn’t hurt the overall aesthetic of the piece.

3. Use a foam brush or your finger to apply Collage Pauge in little areas at a time (you don’t want to spread it all over cause it will dry before you get to some parts). I chose to have heavy dots at top that tapered down into smaller dots as I went.

Some things to note:

1. Don’t forget to buy your lightbulb and cord to complete the look when you buy your lantern! But, you might just want it hanging on its own without a light. It will illuminate and glow in your room if hit by sunlight!

2. Try this idea on the little medium or mini string lanterns. Using tissue paper in a rainbow of colors would be soooo pretty!

3. This project isn’t too time intensive, but it did take me 3 or so hours to complete. It would be the perfect thing to do while watching the tube!

Hope you enjoyed this project!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Terrorific Tuesday: Cute CD Cupcake Stand

September 23, 2008 by Alexa 9 Comments

Hello Swellions! Today I am presenting to you an idea that I kinda changed last minute. I knew along that I wanted to make a cake stand, but yesterday after looking at an ejected cd in my car, I got the idea that I wanted to use a used CD as a base for adorable project. And it’s the perfect size for a cupcake (in my case, mine is faux and I’ll show you how to make them as well). So onto the show!

Cute CD Cupcake Stand

Supplies for Stand
– 1 used CD
– 1 piece of 12″ x 12″ orange scrapbook paper
– 1 piece of 12″ x 12″ silver polka dotted scrapbook paper
– Xyron runner or self-adhesive spray
– 1 package self-adhesive rhinestones (I got mine at Michael’s in Halloween section)
– 1 small styrofoam cone

Supplies for Cupcake
– Jack o’ Lantern Orange Americana Acrylics paint
– Black Craft Twinkles Writer paint
– jar of Snow-Tex (4 oz.)
– Glamour Dust Glitter by DecoArt
– White jumbo cupcake holders (mine were from Wilton)
– medium sized smooth foam ball
– Orange seed beads (mine were an assorted mix)
– medium sized wooden orange bead

General supplies for both
– Glue gun and glue sticks
– scissors
– palette knife
– paper cutter or ruler and exacto knife with cutting board
– small liner brush
– pencil
– kitchen knife
– skotch tape

For CD cupcake stand

1. Take spray adhesive or Xyron runner and coat back of 12″ x 12″ paper. Wrap paper around cone until tight and secure. Cut off top and bottom of paper around cone.

2. Lay cd on top of adhesive on remaining 12″ x 12″ paper and trace with pencil. Cut out with scissors.

3. From the 12″ x 12″ black paper, cut out two strips 12″ long by 2″ wide. Lay side by side to form one long strip. Place tape in middle to join the two strips.

4. Accordian fold the strips back and forth in approximately 1.5″ segments. When finished, cut diagonally on both sides 1/8″ down from top of folded strip. Unfold to reveal pennant banner design.

5. Carefully glue gun pennant banner around side of CD, and cut off and glue any excess that overlaps.

6. Use glue gun to glue top of styrofoam cone to bottom of CD.

7. Embellish bottom of stand with black and silver self-adhesive rhinestones, and dot in between pennant sections using orange rhinestones.

For cupcake

1. Using liner brush, paint alternating sections fo the cupcake holder Jack O’ Lantern Orange. Let dry.

2. Use Black Craft Twinkles to dot in between these alternating stripes as shown. Set aside and let dry.

3. Cut off the bottom of the foam ball to create a flat surface using kitchen knife or styrofoam cutter.

4. Add a few drops of water to your bottle of Snow-Tex paint. This will give it a creamier consistency for your “frosting”. Frost your cupcake everywhere except for the bottom. While wet sprinkle on beads and gently press into place. Also place wooden ball into place into this wet paint. Sprinkle on Glamour Dust as well over top. Let dry.

5. Once dry, use glue gun to glue cupcake to bottom of paper cupcake holder. Place on top of your finished cupcake stand and admire 🙂

Here’s a detail!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

All content/photos copyright, © Alexa L. Westerfield, 2008

Inspired by Rainbows

August 14, 2008 by Alexa 1 Comment

1. Rainbow T’s, 2. After the rain has fallen…, 3. Eye Candy, 4. Colorful Rainbow Balloons 114/365, 5. Rainbow of Peace, 6. A Vibrant Glow, 7. bookshelf, 8. 222 – Fargay, 9. 100_6449

I love color. I love seeing it together in rainbow shades or just by itself, but especially when it’s bold and intense (this must be why I’m attracted to the neon chunky jewelry I saw at Target tonight). I wanted tonight’s post to be colorful and fun and thought I would share the spectrum of colors from my own personal photos as well. I love looking at photos and illustrations. Sometimes someone’s image or view of the world helps me leap off the page and go out on my own tangent. I love that feeling! Following the ROYGBIV color sequence, here’s my photos:

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

INDIGO

VIOLET

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Terrorific Tuesday: Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath

August 12, 2008 by Alexa 23 Comments

This is the first post in my weekly tribute to Halloween this season. Every week, I intend to share an inspired frightening and fun crafting idea. I noticed today that the project I’m about to share with you was featured on a great new creative site I discovered called One Pretty Thing. I realized that I had never posted this project on this blog (even though I did it last year). I went through a phase there where I only posted certain blogs to my myspace and certain ones to this one, but here lately, I’ve been using this as my central blog and not using myspace as much (is it bad to say I’m kinda over it). Anyway, this is a repost from that Myspace post from October last year. I’m going to keep coming up with some unique ideas and will keep you posted on them (literally), so check back here every Tuesday for a spooky idea! And now…the Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath!

I made this last night (stayed up late to finish it)…I have always wanted to make a feather wreath and I wanted something that was going to make me smile as soon as I see my door. It’s light, airy, fun, funky and I think that’s more my approach to Halloween.

Went to Hobby Lobby two nights in a row…the first night to buy the styrofoam form and the feathers and the next night to buy the ornaments (all from the holiday section-half off baby!). It took me an hour or so to pick out just the right ornaments to get the look I was going for.

I heart glitterville and kinda took a page from that book in creating this. I think there are options out there for crafters to get that high end look, but for a reasonable price (this cost me about $16 bucks to make) rather than paying an arm and a leg for something storebought. It’s worth it…you just have to know what you are looking for and watch out for sales (oh, and 40% off coupons help too).

Here’s how I did it….

Supplies:
Medium sized styrofoam wreath blank
2 long black feather boas
3 small silver glitter plastic ornaments
3 sm/medium purple glitter plastic ornaments
3 large round glass orange ornaments
25-30 small padded protectors (they keep lamp bases, frames, etc. from scuffing hardwood)
Black Americana acrylic writer
Black spray paint
1 sharpie marker
Glue gun with glue sticks

1. Glue gun end of feather boa to styrofoam wreath. Wrap around half of wreath and glue other end in place. Glue gun and wrap second boa around wreath blank until entire wreath is covered in feathers.

2. Spray paint sheet of padded protectors. Once dry, randomly stick on orange ornaments for “flocked” look.

3. Create large swirls on purple sparkle ornaments with black writer. Set upright in small container or on an ornament hanger and let dry.

4. Draw stripes on small silver balls with sharpie marker.

5. Once all ornaments are dry, adhere ornaments to styrofoam part of wreath with glue gun. Fluff feathers around each ornament after glue is applied to make styrofoam area unnoticeable. Let dry.

Helpful hint: Store wreath in an ornament wreath keeper to prevent loose feathers or damage to ornaments. Since the orange ornaments are glass, they should be handled with care and stored accordingly.

Hope you find this project enlightening and it gets you excited about crafting for Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday if you didn’t already know! Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

The Swell Designer

Random musings of a crazy, crafty, pop culture-obsessed girl!

Wednesday is Lensday: A study in ORANGE

Wednesday is Lensday: Close Ups!

DIY Dotted Tissue Paper Lantern

Terrorific Tuesday: Cute CD Cupcake Stand

Inspired by Rainbows

Terrorific Tuesday: Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath