How to build a photographic studio

Hello my dears,

This post is for all of you who love photographing but only have less Christmas money left although wanting to build a small photographic studio.

Actually you don't need much for it:
* one curtain rail (2-3m long) ca. 9€
* white stage molton (2-3m long and 5m wide) ca. 40€
* two work lights ca. 12€
* if need be a tripod
* screws, ca. 30 roll clamps (I'm not sure if this word is right), 2-3m curtain tape ca. 5€

And that's all you need, probably you already have some things at home and if not it costs you less than 100€, not comparable with the price of the original equipment..
At first you have to find a suitable room, I read everywhere that the light is very important and a lot of other stuff but honestly that isn't necessary if you turn your work lights on, by the way strong desk lamps are as good as these. It's just important that the room is big enough so you can spread the molton on the floor as well while having still space for the tripod. If you found a room, put the curtain rail on the ceiling but don't do this alone, that's too difficult. Then cut the molton in the right length like the rail is and stitch down the tape on the cloth. After this just put the roll clamps in the tape and then in the rail. You probably need several test shots till the light is in the right position.
And after your shooting you can just put the curtain to a side and your studio disappears.
It's really worth, I got mine for about 2 months now and I've already down a few videos and photos. This background is a wonder.
Great fun.

_Marie_
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Word of the month 12/13

Hello my dears,
Luckily everybody knows recycling nowadays and more and more people regard such products when they are shopping. But how about upcycling? Do you know this word? I explain you the difference to recycling with an easy example:

You buy a bottle of water. The glass bottle has to get produced, therefore you need energy and resources. When the bottle is empty, you got two possibilities. You can put it into a bottle bank, your bottle gets a new life after remelt it down. That's a good idea but you again need energy for it. Instead of trashing it, you could decorate it and use it as a vase for example. In both cases your bottle lives a new life but with the second possibility you wouldn't need energy for it, so it's recycling that's even more environment-sparing. That's upcycling. You create something new out of trash. I already deal with this topic for a longer time now because the perfect combination of environment and DIYs is 

Maybe you can remember an old word of the months. I talked about my collection of sunglasses and was looking for a possibility to store them. About one month ago I had an idea and I was busy with this upcycling stuff. The basic shelf is always the same, I'll show you my version step by step. During the following four weeks I'll present you also other upcycled things. This time I used mandarins' boxes, old bonbon papers, old wooden boards and a tiny bit of color from the cellar.

Sunglassesshelf

For four sunglasses you need:
* one empty mandarins' box
* color
* glue
* 'glitter paper' [old bonbon and chewing gum papers]
* three thin wooden boards, ca. 7 x 18cm [you can take the wood from other mandarins boxes]
* 12 small spikes
* thin carton and cellotape

Let's start:
At first clean the mandarins' box, that means remove glue and paper from the sides and wipe it out. Probably there are some small holes in the bottom, so cut circles out of the carton and fill it with the tape into them. Now just choose a pretty color for painting the box' outer face and the wooden boards. If you want, you can of course paint it everywhere. When the color is dry, paste the inside of the box with the glitter paper in a suitable color, I collect these papers for years now because I think it's a pity trashing it. My paper hasn't clung at once so I put glue on several parts after the first drying again. When again everything is dry , mark six points for the spikes, there are always two points at the same height and have a distance from about 7cm, to the next two nails but you can see it better on the picture.

I made three boxes and found the perfect place to look at my favourites all the time. I hope you like this upcycled DIY and you maybe try it on your own. I'd like to see pictures of yours then! If you need any filling, here are the links to my 'bestsellers:
http://buntes-bonbon.blogspot.de/2012/07/brille-selbst-basteln.html
http://colorful-bonbon.blogspot.de/2013/11/glasses-birthday-model.html
_Marie_
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Bag DIY

[13.08.2013]
As I promised you last week I’ll show you today another bag made by myself. Like the last one it’s not complex that much but I don’t want to show you my ‘masterpiece’ already.

The idea for this bag came to my mind about four weeks ago. Once I had a picture in my head when I was en route in the evening. When I came home at 23 o’clock I started immediately of course and researched on the Internet about things I couldn’t find too long. After two hours I had to change Helena Script ES into Courier New and ‚Sweet Symphony‘ into ‚Choose to be me‘. Nevertheless I’m very happy about the outcome and love walking around with it because the lyrics mean a lot for me. The letters above the lyrics are by the way the song’s chords ;)  

Do you like the bag? Do you think it’s a good idea to give someone his favourite song this way?

_Marie_

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Word of the month 08/13

[09.08.2013]
Again the word of the month is a week too late. I'm so sorry :/

At the 1st I passed my driving test and till Saturday I was on vacation, so I couldn't post anything at Friday as well. But now let's start:
[It's 22:31. Yesterday it was the first time for three weeks I was in bed before midnight. I was looking forward to a long night because my eye circles couldn't be bigger and darker. Unfortunately I was awake because of a call in the middle of the night and I asked myself why I didn't stay awake.

Do you know the feeling when you just want to sleep but your head is full of thoughts, you have to think about, full of texts, you have to write and full of ideas you have to implement? That's annoying!
My room resembles an appartment of a compulsive hoarder in the last weeks. Dozens of different cloths, sewing cottons, silk ribbons, textile colours, buttons and drafts are all over the place. All the time I think: 'Just five minutes and the bag is finally ready.' I get a new idea into my mind that catches all my thoughts so that I don't forget a detail.] Effective last week.

Meanwhile my room is clean again and almost all bags are ready. All the sewing did gibe me the idea for the recent Wotm:

There are so many different ways how you can be creativeand I'd like to show you different ways how I'm creative (in my opinion) this month. Today I start with the bags.
Origianally a participation at the contest ‚Nähtalent 2013‘ (sewing talent 2013) of Pfaff was my aim but unfortunately all websites with important information were closed one week before the end of the contest. I don't know if this is my fault or their but after the disappointment at the beginning I see a chance in this. I'll present you the bag some day and I already tell you one thing: It's very specific and I'm sure not everybody will like it. 

Now I show you a bag I made for my little sparrow, my godson from Peru. It's my sweety's birthday soon and so I collected all presents for him in this bag.
Because he likes cars I printed one on a specific foil that I ironed on the selfmade bag, I wrote his name with a casual textile colour.

That's it for today, I'll show you the other bags soon.
Have a great evening.

_Marie­_

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Hairslides

[05.04.2013]
Today I’ll do another DIY, I hope you like them as much as you like my glasses post ;) We’ll beautify our heads again but today we speak about your hair. I think everybody has theses boring brown or silver slides at home. Because of this, I thought about an idea how to change them in real trinkets ;)

You need some nice wrapping paper, a laminator and a transparency, double-faced adhesive tape, foam rubber/ felt, hot glue and the slides.

At first you choose some pretty motives and cut them generously. Then you have to laminate the pictures and put the double-faced adhesive tape at the back. 

Now you have to cut it exactly at the line and put it on foam rubber in a suitable colour. Now you have to tone it. I just made a small edge around it. At the end you only have to put the pictures on the slides. That works best with some hot glue and now you're already ready ;) But make sure you don't glue the whole slide together.

_Marie_
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Glasses - the birthday model

[03.04.2013]
So, today you can read the second part of my birthday week. Because I announced to make a new pair of glasses for you a few weeks ago, I decided to do this for the special cause.
Actually the first glasses were made out of a stupid joke but because it needed so much time to tinker it, I wanted to share it with you. I anticipated with two or three clicks for this post but - I still can't believe it - it's my most read post. I get at least five clicks a week for it, at the beginning it were much more. So tell, what's better for my anniversary week than a remake of my 'bestseller'? (-> http://buntes-bonbon.blogspot.de/2012/07/brille-selbst-basteln.html )
Now we're starting. Underneath you can find a model for normal sized glasses, you only have to print it on a DIN A4 paper, put it on a piece of cardboard and draw around it. Of course you need the earpiece two times. The cutting-out is a bit dodgy but I’m sure you’ll make it. I took a cutter for it and please be careful! It’s not bad if you cut a bit more you have to or a bit less. If you’re ready with the border, take the two earpieces and stick them with duct tape at the left and the right hand side. Now prepare a few paper shavings and some glue for making a film of papier mâché and so you can’t see small irregularities in thickness anymore and all gets solider. If you’ve finished the first film, think of putting the earpieces in the right position, after drying you can’t move them. I’m searching for a possibility to change this for my glasses number three ;)

Drying needs a lot of time, probably the whole night but then you can continue at once.  Now you have to decide how your glasses should look at the end. If you want to bond them with coloured soft tissue (like my first one), you have to make a second film of papier mâché out of white paper, so you can’t see the newspaper anymore. If you want to paint them in different colours, do the same. But if you paint them monochromatically but want some structure just the same, take paper towels for the second film. For this you put the glue on the glasses and wrap it four or five times around and spot at the end a bit glue on the outside. Because you have so many thin films, the surface has some crinkles. 

Now dry it again and look at the right position of the earpieces again! Finally you can paint them and maybe put a bit glitter on it but now you’re phantasy can be boundless. Here you can see my artwork but I’m also very interested in yours. 

Take part at a small competition. Tinker your own glasses, send me a photo of them until the 30th of April at blog.buntes.bonbon@gmail.com send also your address and the link of your blog if you have one. You have to become fan of my facebook page as well. You can take part from everywhere, it doesn’t matter where you live. The winner gets a surprise packet. The winner will be chosen by a jury and of course I’ll post the best glasses here as well. Good luck!

_Marie_

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