A FREE Playroom Print for those BORED kiddos!

I saw the cutest Pin on Pinterest... a snap shot some witty mom must have taken.  I loved her little whiteboard 'suggestions' so much, I had to make it up into a print!  Thank you mystery mom with a camera for this oh-so-cute idea!

This shows the print framed and matted... but will look like this straight from your local print lab :)

 

This print was created to be an 11X14 print or an 8X10 print.  To download the two different files, just click HERE!

Are you in search of the perfect print for a playroom, kids room or nursery and just can't find what you want?  I do custom prints as well.  Shoot me a message via email or facebook and I would be happy to give you a quote :)  I also have some things up on my Etsy page... you can find the link to all three places at the top right of my blog page.

Thanks for stopping in!

A Giraffe Nursery.... a perfect Chevron Yellow & Grey set of Prints

Have you seen an ever so sweet yellow and grey nursery combined with giraffes??  I have and fell in love.  The grey and yellow giraffe nursery was my inspiration for these sweet giraffes combined with the words of C.G. Jung, "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakens."

 Thanks for stopping and and taking a look at my latest creation!!

Looking to purchase these prints?  Visit my Etsy Shop!

Hot Air Balloon & Somewhere Over the Rainbow Watercolor Children's Room Prints!

I have combined a handful of my passions to take a swing at creating some beautiful art pieces for children's rooms or nurseries.  I love the idea of combining quotes with beautiful pieces of art or graphics.  This is one of my first pieces, combining Hot Air Balloons, rainbows and the ever so famous "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" song quote from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

How did I create this?  I started with a basic concept of the quote and the general image.  After sketching the image out over three sheets of paper, I water colored in the color.  Once it was dry the images were scanned into the computer where I used Photoshop to add the famous quote.

I'd love to hear what you think or your favorite quotes for children's rooms!  I am compiling a list of others that I would love to create pieces for.

Interested in buying these printable 8X10 files, visit my Etsy Shop!

A 'Retro Kinda' Girls Bowling Birthday Party

Big sis just turned 5- WOW how time flies!!!  She requested a bowling birthday party which was GREAT since her party is in February and we froze our behinds off last year trying to do a Superhero Obstacle course outside.  Here are a few shots from the shin-dig :)

Colors: teal and a soft pinkish red
Cupcakes: Strawberry with double choclate chunck brownie mix on the bottom half, topped off with a teal cream cheese frosting= YUM!
Favors: Cute little Ice Cream Sundae bubbles from Dollar Tree
Invitations and Party Decor: Christy's Customs (yours truly!)

Thanks for stopping in to take a peak!

A Printable Subway Art {With Chevron Option!} for St. Patrick's Day

My partner in crime has a little thing for St. Patty's Day... in fact, she sends out cards for St. Patrick's Day instead of Christmas- very cute idea!!  Since I have been playing around in the custom cards and invitations arena, she's letting me put together her card this year {so fun!}.  Her request was subway art {also fun!}.  So I have been playing with just the right St. Patrick's Day subway art, with a little cute, a little sassy, and little bit of those Irish blessings!

Since I already had the subway art created, might as well throw it up on Etsy as a printable, frameable piece, no?

Want one of these for yourself?  Just visit my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/ChristysCustomsBlog ! I have them with and without the chevron background in 5X7, 8X10 and letter sized (8 1/2X11).

{Ptssss... If you follow me on facebook and send me a private message there, I just may throw one your way for free! Cheers!}

Fancy camera!? Now what? My lessons learned with my DSLR...

When you upgrade from your point an shoot camera to your first DSLR camera, it can be a little intimidating for sure!  There are so many settings.  What do you do with them all!?  Luckily, they all come with an "Auto" mode, right?  But doesn't that defeat the purpose... at least just a little?  When my hubby bought our camera, I wasn't sold on the whole idea.... until I started playing with it.  Now I am addicted!  Now that we have several family and friends upgrading to, I wanted to share a few of my lessons learned along the way.... from a complete amateurs point of view!  Keep in mind, I am no professional :)

Don't be scared of Manual Mode!
I know it seems like a lot of confusing numbers, acronyms, and purposes, but I promise, learning how to shoot in Manual Mode is not all that hard!  Once you stat doing it, it becomes second nature... really!  Here are two guides that I found super helpful:

(1) The blog kevin & amanda has an amazing step by step guide on how to shoot in Manual called, Photography Tutorial: A Quick Guide to Understanding Your DSLR Camera
This guide is so easy to follow and will have you shooting manual in no time!

(2) Totally Rad has this phenomenal {very visual!} guide to help you understand the various manual settings!  Love this as a quick reference guide once you have already learned some of the basics! Get the full size version on their website here: http://www.gettotallyrad.com/blog/your-guide-to-m-mode/

 

Look for the Light- Love the Light!

Taking pictures is all about finding the right light... or the right shade, or the right lighted shade!  You want to try and avoid harsh shadows and once your subject is in the shade, the lighting is consistent.  However, you don't want it to be too dark, you want that sunlight to be close by to give you that great natural light (artificial light is no-bueno apparently?!) without having direct light hitting you.  Some examples of my experimentations with different lights...

In the shade:

 In overcast weather...

 In the "Golden Hour"... the last hour before sunset...

 

 Oops!!  Lighting bummers... notice the harsh lines left by being partially shaded with some direct light!

The Rule of Thirds... Maybe?!
So there is this rule of thirds... it is suppose to help you when composing a picture.  The idea being that you chop the picture into thirds making the focus of your picture at those third marks {which also in effect makes the picture off balance}.  At first I wasn't so sure... but as I started shooting more and looking at more professional shots, I started to like this concept more and more... take a look!

 I kind of like the empty space you get when moving the focus over to that "third" mark, but at the same time my OCD kicks in a little bit wanting to re-center it all!  Yikes!

Bokeh!?!?!  
When you take pictures with you aperture "wide open" you can get this dreamy bokeh effect... meaning lots of blurring before and after your main focus.  It is dreamy and gives your picture that professional feel BUT beware!  If you are shooting with your aperture at f1.8, wide open (for example) it means that it is more likely that what you want to be in focus could very well get blurred into that beautiful bokeh background!  I love shooting with a wide open f, while my hubby just shudders (making it kind of hard to share the camera, lol!).  He wants to make sure everything is sharp and focused which is more difficult to do the more "wide open" you shoot!  Here are some tips from photoble, How to: 7 Quick Tips to Create Bokeh with Your Digital Camera.

Here are some of my attempts on this one, but you may want to refer to some professional shots for this, lol!

Get Inspired!!
The more pictures I take, the more inspiration I want for new styles, compositions, and view points.  I follow many of my favorite professional photographers through facebook for their brilliant eye and ideas.  I am also a self proclaimed Pinterest Junkie!!  I made a board, Memory Making {& Everything Camera!}, so that I can save inspirations, tutorials and all the brilliant ideas I come across!  Get inspired and shoot from there!

Are you an amateur photographer with some great "aha" moments?  I'd love to hear them!

A great teacher gift {A SIMPLE INFINITY SCARF} for an infinite amount of thank yous!

Let me just start out by making a disclaimer.... I am a teacher.  I have been teacher for 10 years now {oh yes, I am to that point where adults run up to me in public yelling, "You were my 6th grade teacher!!"}.  Any-who, with that said, now that I have my own littlens with teachers of their own, I like to try to make teachers' gifts usable, special, and a little unique.  This year my daughter is in preschool and between all of her "teachers" there are 12 usable, special, and unique gifts to come up with AND since I am a teacher as mentioned before, I am on a budget!

So I saw these adorable, soft, cozy infinity scarfs the other day- price tag, $12.  Not too shabby.  In fact, I thought that was a great price... then math kicked in 12 X 12... I am pretty sure I am suppose to know this math fact and it is way to close to $150, which I don't have just lying on the nightstand.  SO my wheels started turning and I thought- how hard could one of these suckers be to make- simple I am sure!  And- another disclaimer- I sew... when I need to, and I don't necessarily know what I am doing.  AND, it was even pretty simple for me.  In fact, I spent 3 hours one morning {while watching a 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old at the same time} and got all 12 done!  And my total: $27!

Basically you need 1 cut yard of fabric for every 2 scarfs.  Since all of our teachers have different personalities, I just went through the sale bin (with an additional 40% off coupon in hand) cuddling with fabrics and since I need one cut yard, I got 6 different fabrics to try to match the different personalities... and let the CUT COUNTER do the cutting- woo-hoo!  {I hate cutting fabric!}  I snapped pictures once I had the kinks worked out to share with you- I hope they help!!

(Click HERE to see this tutorial in Google Drive- you can zoom in to see each step clearly there :)

 So 12 scarfs for just under $30, not to shabby!

I made up these little tags to go with them and had them printed at Costco.  You can download the tag HERE if you are in need!

And there you have it- cute, cheap, cuddley scarves for the teachers- hope they enjoy!!

OH- and added bonus... I got the best Photo bomb ever while trying to get my hubby to snap a few pictures of the scarves... isn't she a cutie!?!  Love this picture :)