Hippity Hop

This past Easter I decided to create some fun crafts for my family dinner: Bunny Ear headpieces, rabbit pins, some paper crafts for the "kids" and, instead of an Easter basket for my little cousin, a personalized cinch bag for his Easter egg hunt findings.

The head pieces were made out of felt and pink construction paper. The ears were simply cut, positioned then hot glued into place.

The rabbit pins (which reminded me of The White Rabbit) were made from white pipe cleaner and construction paper. The pipe cleaner was twisted into the outline of a rabbit head and ears and the paper was cut into circles and hot glued to the back of each outline. After, I glued pins to the back of each so that the family could wear them during dinner. I left each of the pins blank so that each family member could decorate the face of their own pin.


My pin...which I outlined after this picture was taken.

I had two paper crafts planned for the evening, but forgot the white paint, so creating bunnies on black paper by dipping our thumbs and forefingers into white paint and finger printing was out of the question.

Instead, my little cousin and I made paper chicks. You start with yellow construction paper, cut out an egg shape for the chick's body and trace a child's hands on paper. After tracing, cut the hands out and they become the chick's wings. Let the child decorate the chick with markers, feathers, and boggle eyes for a funny face. My little cousin opted for scribbling on the chick with pen...he did, however, get to use a glue stick...and, by some miracle, didn't stick it in his mouth. :)




My last Easter project was a personalized cinch bag for my little cousin. I was disappointed that there were no "boy" themed Easter baskets at the craft store. Instead, all that was available were pink baskets with butterflies or something glittered. So I bought a plain canvas cinch bag for $2 at Michaels and painted it my self.

I drew three different animated bunnies and eggs on the bag, with my cousin's name and the date at the bottom. I'm sure all the crafts I make for him will be piled in his closet only to be looked and awed at by my aunt when he's much older. At least my family will have fond memories of my going overboard for holidays.

Thanks for reading.

-Becky

The Photographer's Assistant: Part II

As some of you may have read, my brother is a budding photographer. He's in independent photo at his high school and as part of his curriculum, he's able to design whatever shots he'd like to take.


My last post was about his Dante's Inferno photo shoot.

Today is about his Dr.Jekell/Mrs. Hyde project.

The model: one of my sister's best friends, Alicia.

Location: Our hallway.

Make-up: Sammie and Alicia.

Hair: Alicia.

Wardrobe: Sammie.

Props: Provided by our garage.

Photographer's Assistant: Me.

My brother's intentions were to do two projects simultaneously. A contrast of personality and character as captured on film and a 3-D project to be discussed later.

As always, Lawrence had everything drawn out in his sketch book with notes on lighting and framing. I was in the background, helping with lighting and using my digital camera to document his photo shoots.

The following are my shots:

His shots to follow in a future post. :)

The Photographer's Assistant

My brother is graduating high school this year and has been in photography for the past three years. It's an activity he really likes and is creative at. This year he's in independent study and has asked me to help out at his photo shoots.

For one of his photo projects, Lawrence recreated a scene from Dante's Inferno, where an angel comes down from heaven to meet Virgil in hell. He didn't want to portray an angel as typically being white, winged or facially distinguished (hence his hair in front of his face).

As he was the model in his own photo shoot, I painted his body in black and white paint, accenting muscle and bone curvature which made for a great contrast (as my brother photographs in only black and white).













And so began the photo shoot...

Lawrence had each and every shot planned out in a sketch book- what each shot portrays, how the subject will be posed, what lighting will be used and whether or not he needs a close up or wide shot of the subject and scenery. Very prepared.

He gathered indudstrial lighting, tiki lanterns and lincoln logs for flame effects and shadow lighting. I was his stand-in while he prepped each shot prior to take.

After a couple hours of being told what to do and where to go, not to mention smoke inhalation, my brother accomplished what he had set out to do...recreate Dante's Inferno. His pictures to follow in a future post. :)

Down the Rabbit Hole

This past March, my family and friend attended the midnight premiere of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

To commemorate the event (and as a surprise to all the girls in our large party), I made crowns for all...10 total.

I purchased precut foam crown, glittered heart stickets, and sticky red and black felt at Michaels. I then cut extra hearts, diamonds and spades from the felt and decorated the crowns as can be seen below.

Starting my sister's crown. She's the Alice in Wonderland enthusiast, so she got a white crown instead of silver.

One of the ten crowns created.

My friend Kasey's crown. She loves pink and recieved an all pink and white "Queen of Hearts" crown.

My crown.

My friends and I at the premiere.

My sister and I after the movie.

Please look forward to a post on Easter crafts that I'll be doing with my 20 month old cousin come this Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

-Becky