Behind the scenes: Work and home

I had been writing about some work-related anxiety on ye olde Tumblr and I think the two photos above are the only two that can legally be shared.  I say "legally" because you can't really see anything concerning the actual shoot - except for two silly camera operators!
Yes, that shoot was fun and super stressful and I'm kinda really glad it's over now.  Geez.  I'm hoping the end product turns out as well as we'd hoped!  More on that as it gets closer to release time...



On to less stressful things!  My old man has decided on a photo series for his blog.  That's right - he has a blog!  You should check it out!  On Saturday night, it stopped raining long enough for us to go on a little nighttime adventure in our neck of the woods.  The downside?  It was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing majorly crazy!!  I got to stay in the comfort of my warm car while the old man got out and took some photos in the cold.  While he was shooting, I decided to join in and experiment with my Hipstamatic app.
I don't know if it's my old 4S or the lack of space on my phone for photos but I'm starting to get more and more disappointed with the performance of the app because it keeps crashing!  It doesn't work as well as it did before, which makes me sad because the Hipstamatic app was my go-to app for all things photo but because it crashes so much, I end up using the default camera instead.  Saturday night, I threw caution into the gale force winds and shot with the Hipstamatic - specifically, the Hongdae Hipstapak.  I even played around with the double exposure feature I keep forgetting about!  I think it turned out nice!

It was fun watching my old man getting all creative this weekend!  He did some new things and I'm so proud of him!  He even had a cup of coffee from Dulce Vegan.  WHAT?!  I'm kinda hoping to win the Currently List Starter Pack Giveaway at Campfire Chic because I would love to keep lists of all the new things my old man has been doing!  I've started him on a self-improvement journey so that he can see what it's like to live a happy and grateful life and after all the fun things we were able to do this weekend, I think he'll keep the momentum going!  Unfortunately, we had to miss out on a few things but I'm hoping we can make those up.  I mean, I have a kind of important birthday gift to deliver, after all!

How was your weekend?

Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt 2014 - Progress!

On Tumblr, I revealed a little snippet of what I'm putting together for the Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt 2014!  I was a little hesitant to post anything about it because I took the "Secret" part of the title literally.  Like, as in ZERO posts about it until it was reveal day.  But I got a happy email from the organizer encouraging (and reminding) all participants to post their progress, so I did!  Here are my little things:



For the first two photos, I attempted calligraphy again and wrote out the recipe for a Colony Cocktail.  According to ProhibitionRepeal.com, the Colony was a speakeasy in New York where the Vanderbilts and Windsors went to dine in a civilized manner, with a cocktail (or two), no questions asked.  I also included two photos I took last year of the Biltmore Estate to bring it together.

The train ticket is a cute little piece of ephemera that I found and filled out with the recipient's information and it'll be tucked away in a little Travelogue I'm putting together.

I've been having so much fun with it and photographing items along the way with my Nikon and I can't wait to share the whole thing on reveal day!  The send date is quickly approaching and I'm hoping I collect all my items this weekend so I can finish assembling items and photographing the whole thing before it gets sent to its wonderful recipient at the end of next week!

I'm also very excited to see what I get in return!  It's so inspiring checking out the #secretpenpalscavengerhunt tag on Tumblr and Instagram!  I've been in a bit of a slump with social media so this might be the thing to perk me back up again :)

And because I'm trying to up my mail game, I'm going to start sending my lovely Californian something every month.  This month, I finally sent him his I Miss You card from Stay Home Club because I was feeling very selfish and I wanted to let him know that I love him and miss him very much.  I already have his Valentine's Day card picked out (with confetti!) and I'm already thinking about what his birthday card will look like for May.  I've also got a couple of ideas floating around for my nieces and their birthdays and some other folks I plan on sending pretty mail to!

Omiyage Blogs, Wreck This Girl and The Love Parcel are big time inspirations for this new project for me and I can't wait to see how many new friends come from it!

Are you doing any mail exchanges?  Send me links to your incoming / outgoing mail!

The SMASH*Book Daily Journaling Adventures Continue

On Monday, I admitted I was doing a daily SMASH*Book journal thing and so far, it has been lots of fun!  At first, I had NO idea about what to post so I did what I see most blogger do: I took photos of my  outfit for that day and wrote a little about it and got stuck - what do I post next?  Well, I definitely saved some blank space so I could maybe glue in some True Blood screen caps the following morning.  And boy, was it hilarious!



Yes - I made a flame for the Eric screen caps I printed out.  WHAT.  Who am I??

So - for Tuesday and Wednesday, it was the same deal: outfit photos with whatever happened that day. But I had a hard time filling in the blanks for Tuesday since it was pretty uneventful.  As I was trying to find a way to fill it, I cut out the cutest folder template from the Wreck This Girl blog and made the design more of my own by laying a base of my cute Washi tape down on some construction paper.



Cute, right?!  I love the roses on the original template and I definitely plan on using it once I can print it onto some sturdy card stock.  So cute!!  Yes, I cut around the outside lines on the original because I wanted my folders to be slightly bigger - but not my much.  The extra bit helped out!

Anyway - it's getting a little tough to fill out pages for this daily journal thing but that's part of the challenge, right?!  Here are some pages from my first week:

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday

     

I still can't get over the silliness of the flame I made for the True Blood screen caps!
Tuesday was a little rough so I decided to fill it out with my footage experiment that I wrote about on Hello Avid and my new favorite blog: Bitchface: The Masterworks.  Check it out!
For Wednesday, as you can see, I dedicated a page to Pinkberry because...it's Pinkberry!  The cherry flavor that's out right now is SO GOOD!!!
Thursday was a bit of a slow day as well but when my friend Carter emailed me that photo of him holding a bunny, I knew it had to go in the book.  That bunny is too cute!

One thing about my book is that when I picked it out, I didn't really pay attention to what the plastic cover had said.  The plastic cover said it was 365 journal - or something like that - but I didn't flip through it at the store - I just bought it.  Me and my impulsiveness, huh?  Once I opened it to start journaling was when I realized that it each page was themed for each month.  Thursday's pages are on a Groundhog Day theme.  Today's is cute because it's a Friday post on Valentine's Day themed pages.  Cute for Friday, right?!  So, to hide my goof, I'm trying to cover up the themes as much as I can.  Like the Tuesday post for National Opposite Day (on January 25th)...Kind of the double challenge of journaling daily AND covering up out-of-date stuff.  Silly me.  Hopefully there will be enough stuff for me to finish the book through the rest of the year and I can start another one on time next year!

Happy Friday!

More SMASH*Book Adventures!

Not gonna lie - I've kinda turned my SMASH*Book-ing adventures into a bit of a joke on the ol' Tumblr.  Here's a sample of my latest pages:



The first one was an experiment with ribbon, found construction paper (I had it in my bookcase upstairs all along!) and Elmer's glue (because the attached glue stick to the pen wouldn't cut it).  I based my bunting experiment on the English flag tutorial at the Wreck This Girl blog here.  So cute and so easy!

The second page was my realization that I didn't have anything from when we all saw "Despicable Me 2".  I think I gave the girls back their ticket stubs for their books and I guess I had thrown mine out or lost it.  Enter more paper crafting!  Since this past weekend was a much-needed chill one, I decided to turn on Ancient Aliens and get to craftin'.  Not bad, eh?

And because I got a comment shout-out from Shaunte over at the Crafts Unleashed post that sold me on SMASH*Books, I decided I'd jump ahead to using a newly purchased SMASH*Book as a daily journal!  In my header page, I called it the "original blog" LOLOLOLLL.  I'm still deciding how it will look and what will be in it but I'm doing it, dammit!  I still can't wait for her daily tutorial, though!  Maybe that will help me feel a little more inspired...

I'm sure I'll be posting a lot of SMASH adventures here!  You have been warned...  :)

Smash*Booking with the kids!

Phew!!  What a crazy couple of days!!  Or I should say: What a crazy couple of weeks!
Sadly, my nieces left yesterday.  Yes, I was able to hold back the tears until I got home.  I blamed it on the most recent episode of True Blood  while we were catching up but seriously, I was missing them so much!
We had a BLAST while they were here and I picked up a couple of Smash*Books for them to make of their time here because I read a GREAT review on them here.  In my hunt for the original blog post that sold me on the books, I found two other great examples of Smash*Books here: the Wreck This Girl Blog and this Memory Works post.
Keeping the Smash*Books in mind, we tried to keep EVERYTHING we could think of to put in their books.  Originally, I had wanted them to start on them the day they arrived and add to the books nightly but we ended up not getting to them until it was closer to the day they left - which actually turned out a bit better since we could reminisce about the earlier things we had all done together.  There were some pockets of downtime since Georgia has been having crazy rain all Summer!  :(  Kind of a downer but it made Smash*Book time more fun.

Here's Amaya's book that she made herself - including a few memorable stories.





The cover with the super-awesome pen+glue / The very first page with a hilarious story about macaroni and cheese. The girls LOVE accents and this one was about them hearing a very Southern accent / The day we went to the movies / The day the grandmas took them to Sky Zone (I wish I had gone!!) / Cotton candy at the fresh.iam pop-up shop with my sister / Adventures at North Point Mall / Adventures at Mall of Georgia / A great story about Amaya's intro to Disney Vinylmations.  Tess at the Disney Store at Mall of Georgia is WONDERFUL and she is the one Amaya is talking about in her story / Photobooth fun and bungee jumping / Medieval Times!!  That was so much fun! / The girls at their fort / Pancakes at IHOP plus some cute images from our Captain Underpants-themed birthday party / It wouldn't be Amaya's book without some Skylanders stuff included (she LOVES them) / Oni got Amaya the coolest 3D puzzle of a swan / We took the kids to Bone Garden, the Cartoon Network store (which will be in another post) and we TRIED to get a ride on the newest addition to ATL: the Sky View ferris wheel but the weather rained us out / Pool time (there was A LOT of it) and our fun night at Ru San's for sushi!

So much fun!!  I highly recommend these books if you're looking to document special events - especially with kids.  I mean, the kits are a little pricey but since they come with tabs, mini journals, a pen / glue stick, tape and a bunch of other things, it's DEFINITELY worth the money because they'll have something they'll remember forever and it's all self-contained!  You don't need to buy anything extra - unless you really want to.  I'm thinking about starting my own to document my time with the girls this Summer so I can not only share with the fun but to experiment for the next time we get to make these!

Chalkboard Fun!

I don't know about you but I really love me some sweet, sweet typography - specifically, this kind of typography.  There's just something really special about font-mixing and I love that old world style and feel.  I felt as thought this was always within my grasp but not always within reach...until one of my walls in my office got the chalkboard paint treatment.
It's mainly for storyboarding but I've been inspired, like everyone else ever, to try my hand at that sweet-but-intimidating chalkboard art trend that's been happening for a while now.

First, it started like this



Simple enough, right?  Basic and not really too intimidating in the art department.  Then, I decided I'd move from the nautical theme that was forming and turn it into a sort of tattoo flash thing.



I tried my best to add some kind of text but my lettering was just NOT happening.  Then yesterday, I saw this post at A Pair and a Spare - AFTER I had started my "Always Watching" eye (you know, from the back of a dollar bill)



And it got me thinking...what if i just tweaked it a little and added elements from various things I've seen - like the, yes, bathroom wall at Cameli's?  So what?!  They have a chalkboard wall in there and they have sweet lettering in the way that I want to do lettering (but I always forget my phone to take a photo...).  And there are other things I see on my Tumblr dashboard that get my creative juices pumping.
So - I took my inspiration a little further with the dollar and added the ribbon underneath it to my chalkboard.



The lettering came from various sources but mostly this beautiful feature on For the Love of Type and The Loop.  Love it!  I especially love the "Meet our baristas" section!  So great!  That partially inspired the lettering inside the word "Video" in my ribbon but the size kept it from being larger.  The skewed / alternating 3D extrusion is something I have been seeing on Tumblr for awhile now and I really liked it so I wanted to try it.  Not bad!  The cursive was because I didn't have enough room to add 3D extruded text for the "Dept." part of it.  Oh well.  I'm thinking in my quiet moment before the chaos starts today, I'll do some scripting above it in the style of the coolest chalkboard artist EVER: Dana Tanamachi.

Her work is MIND-BLOWINGLY AWESOME!!  Check out her time-lapse videos to see how the magic happens!  I was in complete awe!  Her work is incredible and I'm hoping to take a page from her book and make something beautiful.  It makes me want to dedicate a chalkboard wall at home so I can experiment with her style.  So beautiful!!

And you know, this kind of experimentation with typography and illustration has reawakened my creative spirit.  It's making me look at things a little differently now.  I know animation and typography are not exactly the same but experimenting with different styles and actually taking the time to draw something out myself is changing my perspective on motion graphics.  It makes me think about the process a little more and it's helping me be able to fine-tune my key framing for more precise movements.  I never thought those two things would go hand-in-hand but it's a nice change!  Also - if I'm having an animation brain freeze, I'll take that time to sketch on the wall and come up with some ideas.  Definitely an office upgrade!

Photo mash-ups!

Sorry for the lack of updates!  Work has got me really busy with last-minute video preps for our team building weekend starting tomorrow so...I've been stuck.

On another note - I've been making some pretty cool friends via Flickr and one of my favourite collaborators, No More Sideburn Bob, has invited me to do this awesome photo mash-up collab with him.  The idea is we each take a photo, label it with corresponding numbers, email them to each other and see how we mash them up!

Example:

    PLUS    

EQUALS


By No More Sideburn Bob


By me.  I took a cue from his and decided to run it through a few more apps so it wouldn't look like too much of the same thing - since we are using the same blender app.

I brought both photos in to Image Blender (which he told me about), ran the mash-up through Swanko Lab, Lo Mob and finally, through Pic Grunger.  With his street shot and my flowers, I thought it would make a nice post card looking photo so I messed with the colours in Swanko Lab, added the border with Lo Mob and the creases with Pic Grunger.  I think they both turned out really well!
He sent me his #2 & #3 photos (which are totally awesome shots btw) and now I have to think of something that will mash-up nicely with them...

My attempt at the Cinemagraph

I don't know if you you know but there's this new(-ish) craze sweeping the Fashion-O-Sphere.  It's the Cinemagraph.  I'm kidding.  Of course you already know.
Part photo, part gif, the Cinemagraph was developed by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg with amazing results at New York Fashion Week last year.
I first saw this Cinemagraph of Coco Rocha and fell in love


Since then, I've been seeing altered gifs resembling these photo / video hybrids.  Especially at a gif's favourite party place: Tumblr.  I've also read a few articles on them and how to make them.
While the technique seems easy enough, it's harder to come up with actual ideas for them.  My friends and I collaborated and we shot some footage for some but they just turned out as glorified gifs.  Bummer.  We really wanted to create images like this




I think because we were limited with our location, we ended up with this glorified gif:

Nothing too fancy or exciting but dammit, we did it.  I still need to figure out how to make it work properly but until then, this will do.
Naturally, because the Cinemagraph is super hot, there's an app for that.  No seriously, there's an app called Cinemagram.  You KNOW I downloaded that shit too, right?  Here are some of my gems:







This app kind of makes me want to get a nifty tripod / stabilizer for my phone just so I can shoot these ALL THE TIME!  LOL.  But seriously.

They're so pretty!  Once you get a proper idea into place, the results can be amazing!  And with all the lovely Cinemagraphs out there, this one is by far, my ultimate favourite:


Stunning.  I'm not sure of the source since I reblogged it on Tumblr but dammit this is gorgeous!

Have you attempted a Cinemagraph?  I'd love to see it!