7 Tips for Photographing Your Craft

When it comes to photographing your craft, the photography is a whole new craft of its own. Sure you can take a quick snap on your phone and share it on instagram but taking a photo that can compete with the pros is another story altogether. I have been blogging about craft for nearly a year now and I have learnt a whole heap about craft photography. So today I am going to share some of my tips to help your pics look better too.

1. Finding the Light is the Most Important Step

I know I've said this before, but I will say it again, finding the light for your photograph is the most important step. You need plenty of it. Shoot in the day time and preferably outside. If its really sunny though find a shady spot or you'll end up with harsh shadows. If you need to shoot indoors then pull back the curtains and let as much light into the room as possible. If you would like to read more about finding the light, check out this post here.

2. Set Up the Scene

Clear a space and declutter, people will notice if you have lots of rubbish in the background so move it out the way. Your scene might be indoors if you want your item to be photographed in its new home and thats ok, just pull back the curtains. If you need to, hang up some fabric as a background or pop a chopping board on the ground to make a simple surface. Then put your finished craft in your scene. You want this to be the focus of your photo so make it the focus.

3. Take a look down the lens of your camera

Once you have set up your scene, peek down the camera and check its all in the shot. You might need to adjust your background to make sure you can fit everything in in one go. Equally leaving some blank space can really help your photo pop, but make sure that your empty space really is empty and not all cluttered.

4. Set Your Camera to Aperture mode

This mode on your camera allows you to control your depth of field. You can read more about it here but the important thing to remember is the smaller the f-stop number the greater the aperture and the shallower the depth of field. Experiment with this mode a little (you might need your camera manual to find out how) to figure out what I mean.

5. Take some shots of the whole item with a medium aperture. 

With a medium aperture you will have the whole item in focus so you can really show off your finished craft. Take a few from different angles to capture every part of it. Also don't be afraid to take more than you think you will need, you can always delete the not so good ones later.

6. Take some shots of the details with a large aperture (small f-stop)

Zoom in and take some pictures with a large aperture. This will blur the back ground and give focus to the details. Show off the areas where you have learnt a new skill, improved an old one and the parts that look extra pretty.

7. Don't worry if it doesn't work out the way you planned

I was so proud when I finished my octagons quilt that I was even more excited to photograph it than usual. We took it outside and starting taking pictures. But the wind was super strong that day and I just couldn't get a good shot. I decided to use the photograph any way because it was funny and made it real. Don't be afraid to use these silly shots sometimes, I think they add character.

Do you have anything to add? Feel free to chip in by adding a comment and you can help us all get better too! Thanks, Zoe x

Q&A With Sally Lewis: Opening an Etsy Shop

 

Today we are hosting our very first Q&A session with the talented Sally Lewis, you can find Sally over at her blog Sally Makes Art. She recently opened an Etsy Shop and we are going to find out from her how she did it and what she learned.

So first of all Sally why don’t you say a bit about yourself and introduce your blog to us.

I am a 23 year old tea drinking, craft enthusiast living in the midlands, UK who graduated back in 2012 from Sheffield Hallam with a Degree in Creative Art Practice. I started my blog ‘Sally Makes Art’ in May 2013 when I felt myself getting stuck in a rut. I was determined to continue to make art and not let it take a back seat to my distinctly uncreative job. My blog became my place to try out ideas, give me a purpose to make things again and be inspired by amazing bloggers around the world.

And what about your Etsy shop, when did you open it and what are you selling?

The idea to open an Etsy shop was again a way of pushing myself to do something new. I got the idea back in the summer of 2013 after making a wedding present for a friend and being told that I should start selling my work. I worked on my ideas, products and graphics for months before finally opening on 7^th January 2014. One of my passions is paper and paper craft. My whole body of degree work and dissertation was centred around books and paper and my interest has since expanded into stationary, handmade books, origami….anything made from paper! So it seemed only natural that I would be selling handmade products crafted from paper.

 I must say your shop looks lovely and very professional. Can you tell us a brief checklist of what you needed to do before you opened your shop?

You should always start with a list – get all of your ideas or concerns out onto paper and work through them. Mine were anything from how much I could afford to spend on materials out of my own money right through to thinking how I wanted to package and ship my items.

A mini checklist of essentials would be to ask yourself these questions:

What am I going to sell?

How am I going to make it and how much will I sell it for?

What will my shop be called?

How do I want my shop to look?

Are there any technical things I can’t do myself e.g. banners and graphics?

What am I hoping to achieve?

What about the legal stuff, did you have to think about tax, terms and conditions and the like? Or was this more or less covered in Etsy's start up guide?

Yes, this one of the things that took the most time for me. I spent a lot of time reading the Etsy start up guide which is really helpful but I also spent time reading the forums and learning from those who had successful shops. Things like tax can seem scary but you just need to do your research first. For things like terms and conditions and shop policies it is quite straight forward. Again, I looked at my favourite shops for ideas. Just be realistic and honest and you can’t really go wrong.

If you could give only one piece of advise to some one considering starting their own handmade business what would it be?

Just do it! I was scared that my products wouldn’t be good enough or I would never sell anything and have wasted money but if you start small and build up as you go along then there’s not really anything to lose. I’ve learnt a lot and I feel like I’ve really achieved something.

What have you got planned next for your blog and shop, or do we just have to wait and see?

I would love to do more collaborations and talk to more bloggers so that is my new blog goal for 2014. As for my shop, you will have to wait and see what products I am working on next!

Thanks so much Sally for sharing with us what you have learned so far and good luck with the shop! Don't forget to have a look at Sally's Blog too! Zoe 

Homemade Wall Hangings Part I

I recently shared with you our decorated bedroom. One of the projects I did for the room was to make some homemade wall hangings and this is the first of the two projects. I really wanted to have this photo, taken by the lovely Rebekah Cox, up on display. The origional photo was actually in colour:

But I felt that the room had a lot of colour coming from the quilt so I wanted something a little more 'grown up' and went with black and white, one day I might redo it in colour though because I do love this version. I prefer the look of a photo to a photo on canvas but I didn't really fancy having a large photo frame up. I decided to have a poster size photo printed and mount it on foam board to hang on the wall. This isn't exactly a tutorial because its so simple I am sure you could figure it out but I will tell you what I did any way.

I used my print in the largest size I could buy that kept the quality high, some foam board, a long ruler, some double sided tape and an old rotary cutter and some scissors (not shown). If you don't have an old rotary cutter you could just as easily use a stanley knife. Using the double sided tape a carefully stuck the photo into the corner of the foam board.

I then used my ruler and old rotary cutter to cut through the top layer of the foam board along the edge of the photograph. You can then bend the foam board back and the bottom layer snaps too.

And you can use your scissors to cut and parts that didnt make a clean break. You may need so trim some of the foam too.

Then thats it, you now just need to hang it up. It is so light that all I did was hot glued some string to the back to hang over my hook and you have a lovely hanging photo without needing to buy a large frame too.

Have you got some photos you've been meaning to hang for a while? I quite fancy doing some mini ones and making a wall collage since it was so easy. You can see the second of the two wall hanging projects soon. Zoe x

Make a Chalkboard Pinboard

I have already shared with you about the Nearly Christmas Mini Craft Fair and I mentioned this board we used to display our prices (I removed the prices for the blog because these may change). It isn't just a chalk board though, oh no, it's much more than just a chalk board. Its a pinboard too! Well OK I know its not a surprise now because you read it in the title but still.

You could easily make one of these yourself out of a pin board and some chalkboard paint and use any where and for any purpose but I always had the craft fair in mind. That didn't stop me letting my daughter Romilly go wild with a chalk on it before we needed it though.

When we no longer need it for craft fairs I may put it up in her room to display her 'craft' and draw pictures on. Such fun! Zoe xx

Make a Quick Infinity Scarf

With the weather getting colder by the day around here I found myself needing a few extra scarfs so naturally I made one and it was SO easy. If you have a sewing machine sitting around and have never used it but really want to learn, then this project is for you. Or if you have a metre of fabric left over from something else and just want it to go to good use, then this is a good project for you too. I fell into the second category, my fabric was leftover form making this tunic dress and I liked it so much I wanted to use it. It took me about 15 minutes to make because it's very easy and doesn't require any measuring. All you need is 1m (approx) of fabric, some fabric scissors and a sewing machine.

Take your fabric and cut it in half carefully but it doesn't need to be too precise.

Then put these two pieces right sides together and straight stitch along one of the short sides. Then open out, no need to press, it will have a little more volume if you just leave it as it is.

Then fold it in half lengthways and right sides together and then stitch along the long open edge to make a very long thin tube.

Now you need to turn the tube right side out:

And turn it round to make a circle shape and tuck one end into the other. Try to get them to lie flat together and then you carefully turn over the outside piece to hide the cut end and make a hem. You can pin this if you have pins.

Then you simply stitch along this edge, turn it over, tuck the other side in a stitch again. Its not the neatest finish but its quick and simple and you can hide this round the back any way.

All you need to do now is trim your threads and put it on. Put it over your head, twist it and put it over your head again. You can puff it out a little and your set to take your own infinity scarf selfie:

I need to work on my selfie skills apparently! If you've thinking of starting sewing then why not try this super simple scarf? Zoe xx

Nearly Christmas Mini Craft Fair

Last week we had a really fun evening having our very first taste at selling our own goods at our Nearly Christmas Mini Craft Fair. It was a good evening with some friends and we learned a lot. Here are a few pictures of the things we were selling and a little list. I have removed the prices from the pictures because some of these may change.

We made a chalkboard to display all our prices (I'll share about this soon too) and we had lots of cake including rocky road and squidgey apple cake, no pictures of these sorry. We also confused the kids by getting the christmas decorations out, they thought it must be time to start hanging stocking and waiting for Father Christmas too.

We will be attending a couple of local craft fairs too and we will keep you posted about those if you are interested. Happy Nearly Christmas. Zoe and Cassie. xx

Nearly Christmas Mini Craft Fair, A Sneak Peek

This year for the first time ever my sister Cassie and I are hoping to sell some of our makes at a few Christmas craft fairs. We are pretty excited about this and at the moment VERY busy. Next week we are hosting a few friends at her house to have a look at our makes and give us a bit of feedback on what they think, whether they are priced fairly and if they'd be interested in buying them. Basically we are doing some market research on a very small and fun scale. I thought I would share with you a few pictures of our progress so far.

So there you have the first few pics of what we have been up to. We will share some pics of the sale and the final products when we have finished. In the mean time can you guess what they all are? Zoe and Cassie xx

Making Bunting

Obviously this is not a new idea. In fact sometimes it feels like there is so much bunting around that you might get all tangled up in it. That said, I do normally love it. I made this bunting a while ago for my daughters room. It's slightly different to traditional bunting because each flag is a separate flag. I wanted to be able to use it in one place, then maybe make it longer or shorter for somewhere else. Or maybe mix it up with other fabrics to make mismatching bunting (like this). So I made each flag separately and tied them together.

I simply cut two triangles of my fabric and pinned them right sides together. I machine stitched along the two long sides of the triangles. After turning it out the right way I pressed it flat. Then I pinned the open edges in the centre of 1m of pre-made bias binding and stitched it shut.

One flag is so easy to make and can be made with leftovers from other projects so its a fun way to start a bunting collection. Zoe xx

Sharpie Flower Pot

 The Sharpie mug. They've been all over Pinterest and the crafting blogosphere for some time. So I had a thought, what about a Sharpie flower pot? I had this plain white flower pot:

I decided to give it a make over. I drew triangles with my Sharpie all over it:

Then I popped it in the oven at the hottest temp it would go and cooked for 30 minutes. I turned the oven off and left it in until it cooled.

That's it. This is great because some people have been complaining about the pen coming off in the dishwasher but I don't put my flower pots in the dishwasher all that often so it'll stay on. Yey! Zoe xx

Upcycle: Blue Bureau

I've been decluttering and redecorating my downstairs over the last year or so. To do a proper job I needed to buy a few new peices of furniture (ironic when I'm trying to get rid of things). When I say new, I mean new to me. I found a sweet old bureau to go near my entrance but wanted to make it my sweet old bureau. So I decided to paint it and distress it to make it my own. 

This is what I used:

1. A sweet old bureau 2. Sugar soap solution 3. White emulsion 4. Blue emulsion 5. Fine and coarse sand paper 6. Clear varnish 7. Two large paintbrushes  8. A drill 9. New drawer handles 

This is what I did:

I started by removing the original drawer handles and hinges and then I cleaned the furniture with sugar soap solution and used the find sand paper to lightly sand down the wood. I then painted it with a thick coat of white paint. When dry I painted it with the blue paint. I needed two coats of the blue to cover the white but if you can do it with one that's even better. 

I then sanded down the corners and areas where natural wear and test would occur with the coarse sand paper. This allowed the white paint to show through and created a 'shabby chic' appearance which I hope looks as though over a period of time it has received several paint makeovers. It's tricky to know how much to sand but I would really go for it because I wish I had sanded more. 

When I was happy with the look I used the second paintbrush to varnish it. This needed two coats. Then I screwed back in the hinges and drilled new holes for my new drawer handles. I bought these on eBay and LOVE them. 

Once the new drawer handles were screwed it it was finished and ready to go. 

I'm so pleased with this transformation and I'm looking forward to lining the drawers and inside. Ill show you that when I'm finished too. I hope you have some old furniture you can revive too. Zoe x