Browsing Tag

tutorial

DIY

How to Write a Love Poem

02/24/2011

Expressing strong emotions through poetry will never go out of style, and even if it does, who cares? It’s all about making someone feel as special and beautiful as you see them, as they truly are. Want to know a secret? You don’t need to have any kind of talent to write a poem, just say what you feel! The best poems have come about when someone was feeling something intense, especially the adoration for another person. If you don’t know how to begin, here are a few techniques and hints.

Do Some Free-writing

Put a picture of your loved one in front of you, or just sit somewhere where you won’t be disturbed for a while and think about them. Start writing down everything that pops into your head, without worrying
that it sounds silly. It won’t look or sound like a poem yet, and that’s okay—you’re getting your thoughts and feelings down in words. It also helps to get in “the mood” by lighting a few candles and putting on some music (just be sure you don’t subconsciously copy some of the lyrics to “Need You Now” or something!)

Take Your Time

You may or may not write your love poem in one sitting, so take it easy and don’t push yourself. If you rush, it might not sound as good as if you took a couple of days or weeks to let it come to you. Keep a notebook or your phone on you so you jot or type down whatever pops into your head that might sound good. Remember, this is something you will use to impress the one you adore, so take your time!

Find the “Beat”

You don’t need to write a sonnet full of “thees” and “haths” or even something that rhymes. Most poetry does have a “beat”, however, which is what distinguishes it from prose. Read some good love poems to get a feel for the beat of poetry, and all the different ways it can be written. Here is an example to get you started:

“i carry your heart with me” by E. E. Cummings

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)”

The lines break it up so that there is a subtle rhythm as you read it. The poet also creates a beat inside the lines, and he repeats the main line of the poem to draw it together at the end. You can also distinguish a brief pause in a line with punctuation.

Here is an example of how a poet writes in rhyme and line-groupings called a “stanza”:

“Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air”

~ From “To Earthward” by Robert Frost

Start experimenting and using some of your best lines from your free-writing and see what you can come up with.

Other Poetic Elements

Use some metaphors, similes, alliterations (All ambitious alligators adore alliterations!) and strong adjectives and verbs to paint a picture with your words. There are many other elements of poetry, such as allegories, personification and allusions. You could also just get literal and say what you feel, straight out! The poetic elements are just different tools to use.

This is just an intro to writing a good love poem—just to let you know that this is something anyone can do if they try. A love poem written from the heart is more valuable than a diamond ring and means so much more.

Crafts DIY

Let’s Make Permanent Daisy Chains

02/11/2011

Please excuse Miseducated again for looking a little curious lately, there will be lots of changes occurring over the next few weeks!

I’d love to sit outside along the water and braid delicate clover blossoms and smiling daisies.
Don’t you love daisy chains?
My daisies are gone, they’re under about a foot of snow and ice.
How will we have a relaxing and flowery day in the sunshine?
My best friend suggested we go to the craft store recently and purchase the tiny craft roses for just that purpose!
Why hadn’t I thought of it before?
A permanent daisy chain?
It’s simple!

Pick out a couple of the metal-stemmed flowers at your local craft shop.
(At our craft shop they’re in the wedding section~)
I got two bouquets of contrasting candy colors.

It’s quite easy, just twist them together similarly to the knotting you do on a real daisy chain..
When you have a chain large enough to sit atop your head twist the ends together.




DIY Magazine Clips

Fun With Yo-Yos and Japanese Craft-spirations

01/18/2011

I was flipping through some Japanese craft books lately and found a few cute uses for yo-yos that I thought were super cute for the home.

The lampshade is my favorite and I have to try it. What about you? It’s like a yo-yo chandelier.

I’ve always loved yo-yos for some odd reason, a blanket of yo-yos in an array of candy colors and polkadots really makes me drool like no other. These ideas gave me the same reaction!


Crafts DIY

Kawaii Crafts From Around the Web

01/10/2011


Recycle old magazines to make thrifty canvases.
Create a plush, retro deer similar to Ayumi Uyama style.

Create Hello Kitty cake pops with Bakerella.
Make a sugary sweet felt coin purse.

Merci to each of the authors for your lovely craft tutorials! I’m very happy to feature these blogs because they really excel at creating visual, eye-candy heavy tutorials and I know you Miseducated readers will love them as much as I do!

Now let’s get creating…

DIY

Let’s Do It Ourselves: What do you want to learn/make?

09/22/2010


Remember in the past when I had spoke of tutorials lasting several articles, learning to do things together and tackling more wonderful worlds of expression?

Well..
that time is now and I need *you* to suggest your absolute best and worst ideas for things you’d like us to learn to do together.

Please make suggestions here, by email or on Facebook.

I’ll keep all of your ideas, add my own and soon we’ll be sucking up a whole new rainbow of creativity!

Magazine Clips Visual Splendor

Japanese Magazine Clippings: Decorate Everything

08/27/2010

I’ve been meaning to update things here for quite awhile! I had an extremely long checklist and had to actually go through each and every one of our old entries.

Whew!

As you know the thing I love about Japan and modern Japanese design is that absolutely anything can be decorated and that even the most minute task is done with the utmost care.

After scanning through a collection of Japanese deco books I decided I would clip out my favorite ideas.

Are you inspired?

decos
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2
Crafts DIY

Make Your Own Beads Out of Sand

08/21/2010

This perfect summer craft originates from the Bahamas and other tropical places where they are blessed with beautiful sandy beaches. Die-hard jewelry makers will use just about anything to make jewelry with, even the beach itself! If you are lucky enough to live by the beach and have access to any department store or craft store, then you can make your own sand beads from scratch. It is a bit time-consuming to roll and shape all of your own beads, but its worth it in the end when you have tons of colorful beads to make all the jewelry you want!

IMG_0842

You Need

Fine sand (from the beach or from the store)
All purpose flour or papier-mâché
Elmer’s Glue
Wax paper
Vegetable oil

If you got your sand from the beach, sift it through a cheese cloth or a window screen to separate the larger grains from the fine stuff. Pour the fine sand into a bowl and mix in the flour or papier-mâché and mix it together well. You need to use equal amounts of flour and sand. Coat your hands lightly with vegetable oil so the sticky paste that you’re about to make won’t stick to your hands. Pour in your Elmer’s Glue slowly and knead it with your hands like bread dough. If it starts to harden before you’re done mixing, add more glue. If your hands get too crusty as you work, rinse your hands off and apply more oil. Also, if you are using beach sand and you want to add color, mix in some acrylic paint.

Break off pieces of the sandy dough and roll them into your beads. This is where you use your imagination to create the beads you will use for your jewelry. Make many different colors and sizes, or make a series of the same kind for a long beaded necklace. You can also make short tube-shaped beads, square ones and irregular shaped beads.

Set your beads on a piece of wax paper and let them dry overnight. Use a large sewing needle or any other sharp metal skewer (be careful!) to poke a hole through the middle of each bead. You need to do this while the beads are still slightly tacky, but not so soft that you squish the bead. Let them dry all the way.

Coat them with clear acrylic varnish to make them glossy and protect them, if you want. Now you can make your homemade jewelry for yourself and your loved ones!

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More Ideas

Substitute half of the sand (or less) with fine glitter to make sparkly beads.
Swirl different colors of the sandy dough together to make multi-colored beads.
Make beading kits with your left-over sand beads and give these kits away as gifts.
Add other natural beads like shells and tiny pieces of drift wood to make a real beachy necklace.
Sell your sand bead jewelry to people at the beach.

Crafts DIY

Let’s Start Digital Scrapbooking

07/05/2010

Because I’ve never actually made myself finish a digital scrapbook page this feature gave me a reason to pick up the hobby as well! Why digital? It’s much easier if your photos are digital, you can scan and photograph favorite patterns AND you don’t have to keep a big box of paper and glue handy for scrapbooking~ this is especially important for minimal me.

Colette Month 1
My first digital scrapbooking attempt.

What do you need to get started with digital scrapbooking?

A bunch of patterned paper to scan or a collection (think of a theme!) of digital scrapbooking materials.
A digital camera, scanner or collection of scanned photos.
A photo editing program.
Creativity and patience.

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Which photo editing program should you choose?
Are you a beginner or have you had experience with more challenging programs? If you are a beginner, you may want to purchase a first-time user friendly program such as Adobe Elements or Corel Paint Shop Pro. If you have more experience with more challenging graphics programs, you may want to invest money in a professional program like Adobe Photoshop.

How hard is digital scrapbooking?

It’s not hard at all! With a few design elements and a graphic design program just about anyone can throw together a scrapbook page, even a child. Don’t let it scare you away, it’s easy, entertaining and fun!

Digital Scrapbooking Materials

Kitschy Digitals
Two Peas in a Bucket
Jessica Sprague
Pugly Pixel Freebies
Designer Digitals
DigiScrap Boutique
Scrap Girls
Free Digital Scrapbooking

Your Style

In creating a digital layout from scratch, there are the same basic steps: add background paper, add photos, create photo mats or accent papers, add embellishments (if desired), and finish with text. You can use these steps to create your own personal style, whether it’s clean and streamlined like a magazine layout or contains drop-shadows and a more traditional paper feel. With digital scrapbooking there are about a million ways to go and it’s all up to you to define your own personal style!

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by Nicole LeBlanc

Methods

Instant-Page
You can download or purchase a pre-made layout template for easy scrapbooking. This is a great way to begin if you’d like to learn the ropes and get used to the techniques. Simply add your photos and text for instant pages.

Build it Yourself
Once you’re ready to start designing your own pages using your own embellishments or downloaded embellishments you can follow this tutorial:

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by Jennifer Johner

The Makings of a Digital Layout

The following is an outline of the steps needed to create a basic digital layout from scratch. Don’t get overwhelmed, it’s quite easy to follow along with your own design program.

Create a New (Blank) Image
Determine the size of the layout you would like, such as 8.5” x 11”.
180-225 dpi is a good resolution for inkjet printers; 300 dpi is professional quality.
Enter the settings in your software’s new image dialog box, including a white background, then press OK.
At this point, and frequently throughout the design process, save your layout as a TIF so all the layers remain intact and you can go back and make changes to individual layers whenever you wish. Choose File > Save As and then save as a TIF.

Add Photos
To add a photo to a layout, browse your file system to find photos or drag them into your program (Mac).
Click and drag photos into the layout or use the edit/copy and edit/paste commands to paste them into your new layout.
Move and resize the photos as you desire, there’s no glue involved so you can always change your mind later!

Create Background
Use a paint-fill, pattern or downloaded background.
Creating your own is just as easy as photographing a favorite blanket or piece of paper.

Add Text
Using your text tool, pick the text color, font, and font size. Then click the mouse on the page where your text should be placed and type away. Try different sizes, colors and effects for differentiation between text elements — such as journaling and dates!

Add Ready-made Embellishments
For a punch of detail and splash of color, you can add ready-made embellishments (visit the sites above to download some!) that can be dragged onto your layouts.
While your layout is open, choose File > Open and browse your hard-drive for which embellishment(s) you’d like to add, open them, and then drag them into your layout. You can change their rotation, color, and size, if desired.

Save File for Printing and/or Web Display
Save the final image as a TIF — for a high-resolution print you can print from this file.
If saving to print elsewhere, save as a full-size PDF or JPG file.
To make your file ready for web, save as72 dpi, about 500-600 pixels wide and as JPG.

That’s just a bit of information to get you started, hopefully this sends you into a frenzy of creating your own scrapbook pages digitally. For more help with your graphic program view the instruction manual or search the web for more tutorials. There are many great scrapbooking blogs and forums for you to play around on and get more inspiration~ go explore the world wide wonderland!

Our own Wendy Rose tried her hand at scrapbooking as well and found a new delightful hobby to share.

Strawberries
by Wendy Rose
Escapeland

One Lovely Blog Award

06/28/2010

Miseducated has been bestowed the One Lovely Blog Award by Rachael from Glass of Win.

Of course I had quite a blast rummaging through new and old blogs alike looking for a great list a favorites that you would enjoy. I’m really excited about this award because it gets bloggers communicating with other bloggers and that’s always a great and positive thing! Hurrah for all of the wonderful ladies out there that are creatively blogging. This one’s for you!

Accept the Award

As acceptance of this award, the following criteria should be met
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
Pass the award to 15 other lovely blogs.
Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.


Please take me.

Lovely Blogs

1. Thompson Family Blog
2. Twinkiechan
3. Shrinkle
4. PaperCakes Finds
5. Pugly Pixel
6. Print & Pattern
7. Retro Plants
8. Gnome-N-Birdy
9. Liefgeval
10. Pink Bow
11. Bakerella
12. Smile and Wave
13. Vol.25
14. The Pink Couch
15. Polka Dot Robot

Crafts DIY

Make a Tiny Fawn For Your Flower Pot

05/07/2010

This craft features pictures from Martha Stewart Living — it’s a simple and cute craft for kids. I absolutely love fawns and deer, it just so happens I’ve been lucky enough to live in a place as a child where they often came into our yard to visit.

So how about a few little fawns to top your indoor flower pot soil? Or strewn around your desk? On a cupcake? The possibilities are endless!

All you need are a couple of brown pipe cleaners, a section of a tan pipe cleaner and tiny white spots — just glue on tiny sections of white fabric or ribbon.

Also, you must send all photos of these if you made them for any purpose so I can display them here!

fawn