17 July 2025

I LOVE DIY (love it I say, love it!)

Dig this DIY photography board I made with cheap wood and homemade stain. The stain is a combination of wet coffee, tea and chocolate powder. Brush it on and let it dry. I repeated those steps a bunch of times until I liked where I ended. Once fully dried, I applied a clear matte topcoat. 

Including tax, the timber was 9 bucks. 

9 bucks. 

Crazy good deal. 

For those interested, at the end of this post, I've included details on shadow, light, fill and bounce.

In other news, this week I went over the food budget for the first time in a long time. I'm okay with it. Funny thing is, last week I was under. In the end, it all washes out. I'm not fussed about it because it's the overall progress and improvement that matters.

One week or two over, no big thang. 

In other, other news, tomorrow is Friday and me and a friend are going on a photo walk. Not sure where yet. Maybe a graveyard, those are always fun. Maybe along the water, that's cool too. Either way, I'll bring my pancake lens and have a good time.

Also, I love saying pancake lens. 

Pancake lens. 

For those wondering if it's as fun to type pancake lens as it is to say ... why yes, yes it is. 

And that my Boogerbutts, is all that's fit to print. 

Talk again soon. 

Huggs and Bugs, Me.




Photo One: The light spills across the photography board.

Photo Two & Three: The white card stops the flash (coming from the left), and bounces light back into the scene PLUS helps fill in some of the shadow along the front facing right side of the magazine. 

Note the placement of the bounce card in photo two and three and how we can change the shadow along the edge of the magazine. 

Pretty freakin' cool. 

And, and, and, black cards to help create shadow, drama, mood and remove hot spots. My gosh, playing with light and shadow is crazy fun. Crazy fun I say, crazy fun.

46 comments:

  1. Pretty cool you stained it yourself. What's the recipe for that?
    Have fun on your photo shoot.

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    1. Hi Alex. For my homemade stains I don't use a formula or have one that I've written. I do this because each table I stain, I want to be slightly different than the last table I stained. However, I can do an upcoming post showing you how I go about making my stain from start to finish. It's quite fun. I also made beet stain and cherry stain recently. Crazy fun.

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  2. Your DIY stain is so beautifully rich! Light and shadow is what art is all avout. Glad you're having so much fun! I assume that a pancake lens is good with syrup.

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    1. Thank you, Debra! It's a lot of fun to make stain.

      I agree about art, the light and the dark are important and WILDLY fun to play with, paint with and learn.

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  3. Love the look of the wood. Way to go on doing that with a homemade stain. You've been having a lot of fun with the photography. I need to get back into trying to learn new things. I haven't pulled my camera out in a long time.

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    1. Much thanks, Ann! I've done this a few times on home projects and it always makes me smile to make stain. I also made a beet stain and a cherry stain. Crazy fun.

      Would love to see your photography. Do you think you'll break out the camera this summer?

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  4. I love the look of the wood. It's gorgeous and so smart of you to use a homemade stain.
    I hope you have a ton of fun today.

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    1. Hi Lori! Much, much thanks. I like the homemade stains. I have done them on other projects and it always makes me smile.

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  5. Loving the Wood shot!! SO pretty!
    Well done!
    hugs
    Donna

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  6. The wood is beautiful! Well done!

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  7. I really like the color of the wood. Whodda thought you can make stain that way? Not me. Fantastic job and price.

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    1. Hey Sandra! It's great fun. Thank you. Yes, and I've done beets and today, cherry. The topcoat goes on later and helps the stain stay in place.

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  8. I am so impressed with your knowledge in photography. You really are good at it! Can't wait to see some things you capture on your photo walk. It is so easy now days to go over budget on groceries...glad it washed itself out with the under you had the week before. Happy Weekend....

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    1. Thanks, Shug. It's fun to learn light and dark. The photo walk was a HUGE graveyard. Headed back there another day only this time with the macro. Yes, washed itself out. Really, I don't like to keep a lot of food in the house anymore. Just what we need, eat it and keep things more on the empty side. Last week though, I went hungry. Duh!

      How goes your camera shopping?

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  9. Your photos are SO MUCH more professional than anything I can do.

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    1. You can do these too, Kathy. Light is light. And it behaves the same way all the time and for everyone. You can sooooooo shoot these. I tell ya. It's true.

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  10. I hope you had a lovely day. Our weather today is so perfect I wish I could bottle it.
    Cathy

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    1. Hey Cathy. Today was a peaceful day. Got some more painting and staining in.
      How went your day?

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  11. Well now I need to know what is a pancake lens? Not that I'll ever buy one, but I am wondering. Very nice colour on that board.

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    1. Hey River. A pancake lens is a wide angle lens that allows us to capture a larger image of sorts. It's also thin and light. Easy for street photography. Easy to carry around without screaming, I'm a photographer because the lens is so small. Lovingly nicknamed, the pancake lens.

      There's also the Oreo Cookie lens and that looks like an Oreo Cookie. More of a play around and have fun sorta vibe.

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  12. The homemade stain worked so well, Ivy, and njce that no chemicals were needed for the great result. Maybe you can do a future post about the pancake lens?

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    1. Thanks, Beatrice! This is my fave kinda stain, the ones we make at home. I can take a few pictures with the pancake lens to show you. A pancake lens is a wide angle lens that allows us to capture a larger image of sorts. It's also thin and light. Good for street photography. Easy to carry around without screaming, I'm a photographer because the lens is so small. Lovingly nicknamed, the pancake lens.

      There's also an Oreo Cookie lens that looks like an Oreo Cookie. More of a play around and have fun sorta vibe.

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  13. I admire your abilities but would have no clue how to do some of the projects your manage.

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    1. I don't know often either, Granny Annie. I just get in there and learn through play. Anyone can play! It's fun.

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  14. This is a really great set-up. Thanks for showing the step-outs. And well done!

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  15. You are having such fun and clearly enjoying it, which is brilliant.
    I really like the look of the wood, and fantastic how you made the stain.
    Hope you enjoyed your photo-walk ... have a great weekend.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thanks, Jan. Yes, I've enjoyed this last chunk of time, learning all I can about light, shadow, camera settings. Crazy fun.

      Thanks about the stain. This is one of my fave ways to stain a project.

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  16. Brilliant idea with your homemade stain for the photo board. Great to see you having so much fun with your camera and I hope you enjoyed the photo walk with your friend wherever you went.

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    1. Thank you! We did yes, was a nice walk. HUGE graveyard. Going back again with my macro lens.

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  17. You are very clever and creative Ivy! I enjoyed this, thank you so much!

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    1. Thanks, Denise. I like to play! Thank you for reading and the nice words.

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  18. I'm impressed with your photography board and intrigued with the coffee tea and hot cocoa as the stain!! You are truly creative . Have fun taking photos wherever you end up. Looking forward to seeing some of them.

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    1. I'll do a post on it one day. Very easy and fun to make. I've done it a few times now and each board comes out fun. Wishing you a yummy weekend. Thanks for dropping by.

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  19. Hello dear Ivy, I am just stopping by to let you know I am thinking of you. I hope you are enjoying your summer so far. Take good care of yourself.

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    1. Hi Linda! I've been offline snapping my little heart out. Hope you're enjoying summer as well. Thank you for stopping by today.

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    2. Oh, yes, me, too! Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Montreal and I took a lot of photos! I will share them on my blog posts after the Expo 67 series. The heat and humidity are going to return tomorrow and is said to last a good week. So I just had to get out when it was comfortable and take a long walk and some photos. I am glad you are doing well, Ivy, take good care of yourself, and enjoy your summer! :)

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    3. Sounds like a wonderful photography day for you! That's the best. Happy Summer to you. Me? I'm sooooo over summer and ready for fall. Leaves already changing here. Happy New Week to you, Linda.

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