Ruffled Camera Strap Cover {Tutorial}

I made myself a ruffled camera strap a couple of years ago, but never took a picture of it because...well...it's on my camera. I love it. When my sis-in-law got a brand new camera for her birthday, she wanted a girly and fun camera strap too! 

Here's how I put hers together. 

*each camera strap is different. I don't include measurements. This is just a general guide to making a ruffled camera strap.

Materials:

Outer strap fabric (will show the ruffle)

Bottom fabric (will be against your neck)

batting or padding material (mine is pink fleece)

ribbon

sewing things

Cut a strip of your top fabric twice as long as the camera strap (measuring only the middle, leather or vinyl part)

Make your strip about 3" wider than your camera strap width. You will trim extra width later.

Set your sewing machine to its longest stitch length, and sew a line down the middle of the length of your top strap piece. 

Grab the bobbin thread (the one on bottom) and gently pull, ruffling your fabric. 

Continue ruffling until your fabric is 1" longer than the camera strap section you will be covering.

Iron your ruffles down to make them nice and flat.

Cut your batting and bottom fabric the length of your camera strap + 1". It will be the same length as your ruffle fabric piece now.

Lay the batting and bottom fabric right sides together, and sew a few stitches to hold them together. You can sew them long ways, width ways, or get fancy and do some swirls. Just as long as the two pieces are now one.

Cut a piece of ribbon a couple of inches longer than your ruffle piece. Sew down both sides of the ribbon, covering your gathering stitch, down the middle of the ruffle piece.

Lay your bottom piece on the ruffled piece, right sides together.

Sew down ONE long side of the strap cover. Use pinking shears to trim off extra fabric from the seam allowance.

Open your strap cover up, and it's time to finish the edges. Fold the end in 1/4" towards the wrong side, then fold again 1/4". Pin and sew across, hiding the raw edges. Do this for both ends.

Now, fold your strap cover right sides together, and sew the other long side closed. Use pinking shears to trim extra seam allowance. Make sure first that you have a wide enough opening for your strap to go through!

Now the fun part. Using a turning tool, a knitting needle, chopstick, etc., turn the strap right side out. This can take patience. 

Once it's turned, it's time to insert your camera strap! Use a tool, ribbon, or other method to feed your strap through. This can also take patience. 

Now throw it back on your camera and take some pictures! 

*I will say, while these strap covers are adorable and comfy, it does make the camera harder to fit into more compact cases and bags. It's never really bothered me, but it's something to think about if you carry your camera around a lot!

The Head Swap {Tutorial}

If any of you have ever tried to photograph your children, especially more than one at the same time...you know that by the end of the session you usually are ready to scream or pull your hair out. (or BOTH).

 

Taking pictures of one kid isn't so bad, as long as they're in a good mood. Two or more, however, is almost impossible when they're young.

 

If one is smiling, the other isn't looking. If both are looking, one is picking their nose. Sometimes both are crying...you know, the usual.

 

The magic tool to help combat this photography woe, other than using fake, always smiling children, is to use Photoshop. Specifically, doing a head swap. After doing lots of research and reading, I had a really hard time finding an easy-to-use tutorial for doing a head swap. Most of them either used more modern and fancy versions of the program, or used tools I didn't have.

 

I have a super-old version, Photoshop Elements 6. It suits all of my needs and is a great program, but most helpful websites have forgotten about the old programs. So I sat down, powered my way through trying to do a head swap, and decided to document my steps to hopefully help others in my shoes get at least ONE good picture of their kids! Since I do have such an old version, hopefully the tools I use are very standard on all of the newer versions.

Here we go:

After taking 100 pictures of my kids, I found that NONE of them were completely usable. I decided to work with these 2:

 

Both decent pictures, with one kid not looking in each. Time for the head swap.

 

Note: Do your head swap before doing ANY editing with the pictures. Adjust lighting, color, sharpening, etc. after doing the head swap.

 

Add both of your photos to your bin. Select the one you want to remove the head from first. I will be taking the head off of my boy in this picture.

 

You will use your "Lasso" tool to select the head you are using.

 

 

Draw around the head using the lasso tool. I like to leave a pretty large border to leave me room for correcting later. Once you draw your circle, it will look like little marching ants around the head.

 

Copy the selection you've made.

 

 

Now open the picture you want to ADD the head to. Create a new layer for this image.

 

Then paste the head onto your new layer.

It will look a little creepy. Or cool, depending on how you look at it.

 

Lower the opacity on your new layer to help you see through the head a little bit. Move it to align it with the appropriate position on your background picture. Lining up the chin is easiest for me, but play with it to see what works.

 

Use your eraser at a low opacity and begin to "erase" the harsh lines around the head where you moved to the new background. Keep erasing until you have a nice blend between your backgrounds and can no longer see where you moved the head!

 

Flatten your image once you are happy with the head swap.

 

Now you can edit your image as you please, adjusting lighting, sharpness, or playing with the color.

 

Your finished image will make you very happy, now that you have a picture worthy of framing!

 

 

I hope this helps you get pictures you love of your babies. Hopefully as they get bigger it will get a little bit easier!

 

 

6 Months Old-Baby Boy

My tiniest human is growing entirely too fast for me. He is 6 months old now.

When the heck did THAT happen??

 

Not only is he getting older too fast, he's also growing, growing, growing fast too! He is the same size now at 6 months that his sister was at almost 18 months...and he was a pound smaller at birth!

 

He'll be bigger than her in no time. He's crawling and sitting up, loves to eat, and LOVES to play with his sister. Fortunately, she loves to play with him too.

I've been working on my "mom-tography" and just love taking pictures of my babies. I've still got to get some shots of them together, but that's for another day.

 

He's got his Papa's eyes, (and his scowl!) , and his Daddy's cuddly personality. This little boys wants to be held by anyone who is willing. Much different than his independent-spirited sister.

Little boys start to look like little men so quickly.

 

But for now he's my baby. My tiny, cuddly, beautiful baby boy. Seriously, how can you not melt looking into those blue-green eyes.

Stay tiny baby boy...for at least a little while longer.

 

Newborn Photoshoot

Since my cousin had her baby, I can't get enough of that sweet baby girl's face! It seems like yesterday, and forever ago since Gray was a newborn, so being around a tiny baby again has been wonderful.

I asked if she would let me try my hand at taking some newborn pictures of her. I wanted to practice photographing a newborn, editing the photos, and getting the shots I wanted. I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities for practice soon, but having the energy might be another story!

Baby girl was soooo good during our session. Once she had a full belly and was in a milk coma, it was easy to get some nice sleepy shots! She woke up in the middle, and I could get a few with her pretty eyes open.

I used one of my favorite new actions from The Coffee Shop Blog to edit her baby skin. I used the original Baby Powder Room to remove a little redness and get her skin beautifully smooth, without looking too plastic.

Is there anything cuter than baby feet? I didn't think so either.

Her mommy and daddy don't love headbands, so most of them are without. I snuck a few in there though, because after having Gray, my life is consumed with bows and beadbands.

This is my favorite picture. A perfectly sleeping baby.

And of course...it IS my family. So there is Tigers gear already. 

Sticking out that little baby tongue. So cute.

Melts my heart. 

Gray loves her little cousin. We're working on her being more gentl, but can you blame her for wanting to have her hands all over that sweet little girl? Poor baby boy is in for it when he gets here. 

There's those eyes!! 

A BIG thanks again to my cousin for letting me "experiment" with her baby girl. I love how the pictures turned out. I can't wait to get some pictures of both tiny babies together. I wonder if they'll both cooperate at the same time....

34 Weeks

At 34 weeks, we decided it was time to squeeze in one last belly photo shoot because you never know when babies will decide to make their appearance! I've told little man to keep cooking a few more weeks, but we all know how kids listen.

 

Of course, we had to get a couple of family shots and some of just goldilocks too! Isn't this one gorgeous?

His name was almost too long for this shot. Either that, or I don't have a long enough belly.

I was glad we had enough blocks to spell it out!

This is hands-down my favorite picture. I love that her little face is squished right into my belly. She's going to be the BEST big sister.

This picture is a close second on my favorites. She always tells me

"I have a baby in my belly too!"...so I told her to show me!

Our family of three will be growing by two feet soon!

Now that's a BIG round belly. Little man is running out of room in there.

I'm a little sad that this is the last time I'll be pregnant and feel those little miracle kicks, jabs, rolls and hiccups. I am thrilled though to know that our little family will be complete with our little girl and boy.

 

The nursery is done (pics to come soon) and we're waiting....hopefully just a few more weeks and we'll get to hold that sweet little boy.