A Bird's Leap: June 2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

DIY Photo Wall Art: Live Laugh Photograph

DIY Photo Wall Art: Live Laugh Photograph has been made possible by Shutterfly and Looksi Square.

A bunch of us bloggers were offered some free prints by Shutterfly and Looksi Square in exchange for coming up with ways to display the photos. I had a series of photos I took at a studio, so I was thrilled to get a chance to display them.

For the longest time I wanted to make this Live Laugh Photograph text, making out the letters with several photos. That would have required more photos AND more wall space, to I was agonizing over what to do. A couple days ago I found this pin with a collage from blackandwhitedelight.com, and thought "Of course! I'll make the photos into letters!". Black and White Delight doesn't seem to exist anymore, but I'm glad I found the pin. So I finally got to work:

How to:

I cut out letters from parchment paper, which I then tried on top of different photos so I could see which photos would fit which letters the best.

I cut out the photos according to my parchment paper models.

I attached the photos on the wall with some mounting putty.

Done!

PS: You can see the photos from the shoot with Lizzie in my photo blog.

Looksi and Shutterfly have invited me to participate in a creative brand collaboration. I have been provided with product compensation for this post, but all opinions are my own.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

DIY Bohemian Pearl Crown Headpiece

Hi guys! I've been really bad at getting DIY projects done since my sister has been here for the past two months, but now I'm back in the game!

This weekend the midsummer festivities were in full gear in Finland.I didn't even realize how much I missed everyone and everything back home until I started seeing friends' posts about midsummer on Facebook. It's the start of summer, everyone celebrates in their own way (being outside is usually a key ingredient!) and you can even do some midsummer magic! Flower hairpieces are popular to make, but it's so hot&dry out here that finding wild flowers wasn't too easy.

Well today I just felt super inspired to make a pearl crown, using stuff I already had from previous projects. You might remember the bridal accessories I made for a friend for her New Year's Eve wedding?

So I wanted to continue on that series to make a more lasting midsummer's hairpiece, which will be a perfect addition to my photography prop pile, too.

How to:

Make a loop using a pretty strong wire. I did three rounds, twisting both the ends around the other loops for half a loop per end. Don't make it too tight! You want it to be big enough to just place on top of your hairdo, not so tight you'll go nuts wearing it.

Pick out your pearls. I recommend using a few basic pretty neutral ones (small and big silver ones), some clear "crystally" ones, some sparkly ones and maybe pick one that really stands out (like my dark blue-silverish ones). You also need a thin wire that fits through the pearls.

Start looping the wire around your crown, adding pearls as you go. Leave a bit of the starting end of the wire undone; I'll explain why in a sec.

Go all the way around! You can use shortish pieces so they don't get too tangled up.

Always remember to put the ends of the wire inside pearls so they don't poke out (uncomfortable!). So after you've twisted for a while, you can put the ends you've left out inside pearls that are already attached to the crown.

When you've come all the way around, start a new way of putting pearls onto the crown; add a few pearls to your wire, twist them around themselves and then continue to twist the wire around the main wire (so the clump of pearls is coming a bit out from the crown instead of just being all around the main wire).

When you've done a layer of those, you can start to just build up the amount of pearls until you're happy with the result.

Pair with some beachy waves and you're good to go!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Take me to Paris!

As you guys might have noticed already, I'm SO READY to take a trip. I really wish I could. But daydreaming is all I have right now, so I'm putting together collages about what I'd pack to different destinations. I've been to Paris once, and I seemed to stick with black and white/light outfits that time. I wish I had had a pop of color, though, and I have been looking for a red leather bag for ages, so this collage came to me pretty easily.

This is what I would pack with me to Paris:

Take me to Paris! by abirdsleap featuring graphic shirts

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Lisa's Glittery Lace Mask

I've had tons of people contact me about getting the template for the DIY Lace Mask me and a friend did for New Year's. About a month ago Lisa asked me to send the template to her, and this is what she came up with:

"I used fabric glue to trace the template and then sprinkled glitter on it, once it was dry I stuck it to some beige netting and then glued a ribbon on the side. Was very happy with the result, so again, thank you so much for your idea and your help!!"

Thank you so much Lisa for the photos,

I'd love to see more of what you guys come up with!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Photo Shoot with Bri

Hi guys, a couple weeks ago me and Nina got the chance to shoot the gorgeous Bri Chronicles, so head on over to my photo blog to see more shots!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Take me to Barcelona!

I've been feeling very very very travel sick lately. I want to go back to Finland and visit friends and family. I want to be able to wander around the streets of Helsinki and have sangria by the river in Turku. Looks like we can't make it though just yet. I feel a need to go somewhere, anywhere, but for now I'll just have to day dream.

This is what I would want to pack with me to the always lovely Barcelona, aka

How to style a yellow maxi skirt:

Viva Barcelona! by abirdsleap featuring a canvas knapsack