shop setup: photography part 1

In high school, I was the historian for the Spanish club. Dorky, yes. But it was the only way to insure that I was taking the photos and didn’t have to be in the photos. Plus, I got to be in charge of making the scrapbook. I was terrible at it. The photos, that is. I rocked that scrapbook:

See? I painted an awesome cover. Then I took an awful picture of it: flash fail.

I can spot a good photo, sure, but take one? Goodness no. Long ago I resigned myself to having a crappy point-and-shoot camera and taking crappy pictures because, hey, it never really mattered.

I love it when decisions like that come back to laugh in my face.

So, now I need to know how to take good photos. To its credit, Etsy supports an amazing community of people genuinely interested in helping each other out. And thankfully, some of them are rockstar photographers. Like bomobob, who seems to be some kind of celebrity in the forums — and for good reason. He’s been busy posting very, very helpful information on product photography lately, and he’s been kind enough to compile the various threads over on his blog. (He also provides links to the forum threads, if you’re interested in reading the hundreds of pages — yes, hundreds! — of posts.)

But before I get into all the superbly awesome bomobob info, I need to back up a bit — because all the information in the world does me no good if I have no idea how to put it into practice. And all the advice I found came down to this: Read the manual.

Wait, what? Seriously?

Yes. Read the manual.

Ugh.

You know, just some light summer reading.

Now, folks, in real life, I’m an editor. This means I get paid to read, and I fancy myself pretty good at it. But here’s a true story: It took me over a month to get through the 60 or so relevant pages of my camera manual. Why? Because I am busy taking notes and experimenting with the camera settings? No. Because that crap is boring. Boring and sleep-inducing.

But — sigh — it’s important. So here’s my advice, if you’re thinking maybe you need to pull out the manual (and if you’re still reading this, there’s a good chance you do):

  1. Do take notes and experiment with the camera settings while going through the manual. It helps.
  2. Don’t attempt to read the camera manual while
    1. sitting in bed late at night.
    2. curled up on your boyfriend’s comfy couch under the softest blanket ever with a cup of hot tea.

Now then. Even before I started reading my camera manual and the forums for photography tips, I decided to build myself a light box. (Is anyone else wondering why I seem to be writing this post in reverse?) Bomobob proves that lightboxes aren’t really necessary, but since I’m not exactly good at this photography thing, I figure it doesn’t hurt to give myself as much help as possible. I used the instructions over at Drawings in Motion for a simple, “dove-tailed,” collapsible box of foam core. Pretty genius, if you ask me. Add some fabric for a backdrop, commandeer a perfectly sized base from Brandon’s making adventures, and slap on a couple clamp lights, and you’re in business.

Coffee table, rendered useless.

It’s not the most elegant thing, and it does prohibit the use of my coffee table, but I never really go in my living room anyway. Here’s hoping it works. Next time, I’ll attempt to compile all the great photo tips I’ve collected, and we’ll see how close I come to getting some decent pictures.

Meanwhile: I know a bunch of you people are photographer-types. Have any tips for a hopeless amateur?

Posted in craft space, etsy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

shop setup: intro

So, I said I was working on opening an Etsy shop. No lie! But let me tell you this: Setting up a shop on Etsy is easy. Setting up a good shop on Etsy is HARD.

If you don’t believe me, take one look at the Etsy seller handbook. Pretty sure anyone who is toying with the idea of opening a shop should be required to look at that page for about 30 seconds and then decide if they want to continue. That, my friend, is a terrifying list of links — the kind that brings up questions you didn’t even know you needed to ask. Yikes.

Anyway, since I’m working on setting up shop, I’ve had less time for crafting (with the minor exception of making products… I’ll get back to that in a future post). So I figured I’d share all the trials and tribulations of the Etsy thing with you guys in a series of posts. By no means is this series meant to be a how-to, because if I knew enough about Etsy to write a series on that, we wouldn’t be here.

As far as I can tell, every good shop on Etsy has three things: gorgeous photos, effective copy, and great products. Oh, and positive feedback. Four things. (I’ll come in again…) I’m going to break it down as best I can into comprehensible bits. And to be perfectly honest, it’s not just for you. Some of this stuff is so overwhelming that I feel like I need to write it out to get it straight in my head.

So, in the next few posts, I’ll be doing just that — starting with what will likely become the bane of my existence: product photography.

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more proof of the kitten obsession

Earlier this month, kk reminded me about foil engravings and the terrifying reality that little kids everywhere are entrusted with those tiny “scraper tools.” Does anyone else remember these and how awesome they were?

Framed and everything!

Yeah, I definitely dabbled in the finer arts of foil engraving as a kid. And by “as a kid,” I mean that it’s possible I was working on one of these when I was 16. No lie. If only I had been working on my own design, that could have been cool…

Kittens have a thing for water creatures, it seems.

Here’s what’s even less cool: I displayed these in my first college apartment. Many thanks to then-roommate Stephanie for putting up with me and my dorky antics (and so very many other things).

This is 16-year-old Sarah's work. Can't you see the advanced techniques?

Anyway: kittens. I told you I was obsessed, and I was not kidding. I’m pretty much over decorating with kittens now. I am still very fond of actual kittens.

Stay tuned for updates on my latest critter-decor.

Posted in pre-blog craft adventures | Leave a comment

inspiration wall and etsy beginnings

Yep, you read that right. I’m working on setting up an Etsy shop! And the more I get going, the more I realize… This is some serious business. I have a lot — and I mean, a LOT — to learn. More on that later.

But let me back up to the first part of that title, and forgive me a moment (or maybe a whole post) of sappiness: Brandon inspires me. This is a guy whose mind is rarely idle, and I admire it. He’s full of ideas and, more importantly, he acts on them.

And when he’s not working on secret projects, he’s busy drawing me pictures and making cards and hiding notes for me to find. I display these drawings, cards, and notes on magnetic strips on the wall directly across from my desk. And you know what? It’s impossible for me to sit at my desk and be grumpy. All I have to do is look up, and there are all these happy memories to make me smile. And when I’m smiling, creativity comes so much easier.

The most recent addition to my inspiration wall isn’t from Brandon, though— it’s from 11-year-old me. I grew up (ok, I still am) obsessed with kittens, mostly because I couldn’t have one. So crafty 11-year-old Sarah spent her time doing kitten paint-by-numbers, and 25-year-old Sarah found one of them recently when she was cleaning out her closet.

It’s funny how brains work in this way, but I’d totally forgotten about this little artwork, which was actually one of a pair. I’d been working on these when my grandparents were visiting, and being the perfectionist that I am, I was painstakingly going over every little detail, trying to get it just right. At some point, my grandpa came over and told me what I great job I was doing. My grandpa was something of a craft celebrity to me; he did a lot of woodworking stuff, and I loved it. Getting that compliment from him meant a lot, and I ended up giving him the second painting.

As I sat on my closet floor looking at this hilarious paint-by-number (could someone please explain that yellow background?) and noticing all the glaring mistakes I’d made, I remembered the intense surge of pride I had as a kid giving my grandpa that painting. He was so happy with it, and that was something I hadn’t expected because I knew it wasn’t perfect.

I decided to hang my paint-by-number on my inspiration wall as a little reminder: no matter how meticulous my efforts, it’s not going to be perfect — and that’s the beauty of handmade. What really matters is taking pride in what you do and the effort you put in it. And if I can translate that to my upcoming Etsy shop, I’ll be off to a good start.

Posted in craft space, etsy, pre-blog craft adventures | 4 Comments

mother’s day: paper flower bouquets

I’ve recently decided I don’t like the idea of buying things I can make (or at least attempt to make) myself. In light of that, I wanted to do something fun and homemade for Mother’s Day and thought a paper flower bouquet might be a fun twist on the standard Mother’s Day gift.

I made one of these for Brandon’s mom and one for my mom. Both seemed pleased. I think moms will always appreciate handmade gifts from their kids, even when their kids are 25. Though I must say that drawing a couple disproportionate crayon stick figures and writing “I LOVE MY MOM” would have taken considerably less time.

Since these were my first attempts, I decided not to go too overboard and stuck with a small grouping of smallish flowers. You could really do just about any size, depending on how much time (and patience!) you have.

I started with the basic kusudama shape I wrote about previously. The great thing about the kusudama method is that you can vary several factors to get different looks with the same basic technique: the number of petals, the size of the paper (and the final size of the flower), the number of visible colors, etc. For these bouquets, I used three-, four-, and five-petalled flowers, just to mix it up.

For some more variety, I looked up origami flowers and decided to use these. I won’t try to explain how to fold these here; to be honest, it took me awhile to figure out the instructions, and I’m still not convinced I’m doing it right. But hey, it worked!

Finally, inspired by CRAFT, I came up with another method of flower-making. I guess you could call it a rose, though I wasn’t specifically out to make one. The instructions for that will be another post.

Pro tip: Be patient. Seriously. These bouquets take awhile, but I think they’re well worth it. Once you’ve got the folds down, this would also make a good watching-a-movie project.

Materials:
Paper in various colors, shapes, sizes*
Scissors/paper cutter
Ruler
Hot glue
Floral tape
Floral wire
Ribbon
*I forgot green paper, so I had to make some by attacking white computer paper with green colored pencil. That’s almost like crayon stick figures, right?

Here we go:
Make a plan (even if it’s a vague one) about the number of flowers you want in the bouquet and their general sizes. I found it was easier to do this and then cut all the paper at the same time, before I started folding.

Cut the paper according to the number/type of flowers you want. The kusudama require one square sheet per petal; the origami bell flowers are just one square sheet each.

Fold away! Don’t glue anything yet. (Again, I found it easier to do all the gluing at the same time.)

Cut the floral wire to the desired stem length, one for each flower.

The gluing process will depend on the individual flowers you’re using, but in cases with fewer petals, I found it easier to glue the petals directly to the stem (with the stem about halfway up the length of the petal), rather than gluing them to each other. That way, I could make sure they’d be nice and centered, and I wouldn’t have to worry about jamming the stem up between the petals later.

For the kusudama flowers with more petals, I glued the petals to each other except for the last one. Before attaching that one, I glued the stem in the inner circle (again, about halfway up the petal).

You can just make out the tiny hole in the bottom.

I used two different methods on the bell flowers, and neither was really better than the other (both require “covering up” the glue later). For some, I cut a tiny hole in the bottom of the flower, inserted the stem, then secured with hot glue on the inside of the flower. For others, I glued the stem into one of the flaps on the outside.

At this point, the flowers are basically built. However, I was unhappy with how some of them looked – the glue was visible. Not cool. So, I devised a way to cover it up:

Fold a small piece of paper in half, then in half again. Cut an arch (to form a circle when the paper is unfolded). On the arch, cut many small incisions pretty close together, then unfold and cut the circle in half. Each half can be rolled up and glued inside the center of a flower to cover up the ugly glue mess.

Now for the leaves. Cut out some leaf shapes and basically glue them wherever you want. I used them sparingly, mostly to cover up gluey areas (on the bell flowers, in particular).

Once you’ve got each flower looking good, you’re ready to assemble the bouquet. I recommend starting with the flower you want to be in the center and working outward. Otherwise, I don’t have many tips – I just played around with arrangements until I had something I liked.

Gather all the stems into one thicker stem – I twisted mine together to make sure they were secure. Cut the stems to the same length, then cover in floral tape. (At this point, let me just stop and say that floral tape is weird stuff. It sticks to itself, so there’s no need to secure it.)

Anyway, hold the tape in one hand and roll the stems in the other. I found that to be the most effective method, rather than trying to wrap the stems by moving the tape around.

Spiff up your bouquet with some ribbon and handmade gift tags in coordinating colors, and you’re done!

Posted in papercraft, tutorial | 2 Comments

spring pick-me-up: kusudama flowers

Paper flowers, now saving blooms everywhere.

If you’ve known me since… oh, high school, you know that I’m not much the flowery type. In fact, I wrote a speech my senior year decrying the murder of plants for silly uses like home decor and anniversary gifts. The thing is, I actually do like the way flowers look. I just don’t think we should go around chopping them up for their prettiness. And fake flowers? Preposterous.

So, what’s a girl to do?

I decided to make my own and turned to the Internet, where I discovered kusudama (Japanese models composed of paper flowers). Perfect!

There are several different variations of the kusudama flower. I liked this one, but I ended up changing a few things to make it easier on myself. Once you get the hang of it, these flowers are super easy to make and, in my opinion, not nearly as infuriating as other types of origami can be.

Pro tip: It might seem obvious, but you’re going to be folding this paper several times. The thicker the paper, the harder (and uglier) this project is going to be. Some might say using origami paper works best, but I can’t vouch for that.

Materials:
5-6 sheets of square paper (The size depends on how big you want your flower to be — mine were 4-inch squares)
Glue/clear tape (I used both)
Helpful: Something to press the paper folds (I used my bamboo pointer/creaser, meant for sewing)

Here we go:
We’ll make each petal first individually. Fold the paper in half diagonally (“right” side out, if you’re using two-sided paper).

Fold in half diagonally

I really love that bamboo thing.

Unfold, then fold in half to form rectangles. Unfold again, then fold in half perpendicular to the last fold.

Unfold. You should have something like this:

Pretty easy so far, yes?

Three folds!

Fold along the diagonal, then fold the two corners toward the middle along the existing creases, creating two flaps. (You’ll probably need to re-press all the folds to make everything lay nice and flat.)

So far, this reminds me of whoppers. Does anyone else remember those?

Fold the inside edge of one flap to its outside edge. Repeat on the other side.

Open up the folds you just created, then flatten them to create a diamond. (Apparently I didn’t take a photo of this step, but you can get it from the next one, I think.)

Now you’ve got some options. If you’re using two-sided paper and don’t want your flower to have any color variation, fold the tops of the diamonds away from you and tuck the flap inside the diamond. (If your paper is the same color on both sides, it won’t matter which way you do this step.)

The triangles on the sides were diamonds, before the fold/tuck happened.

If you’re using two-sided paper and do want some variation, make the folds toward you, like so:

This might be confusing: on this petal, the white is the correct side.

Fold the flaps in half lengthwise along the existing creases.

At this point, you should be back to (basically) a square.

Bring the flap edges together (don’t make any folds!) and secure with tape, glue, etc. I used clear tape, since it won’t be visible and it’s faster than waiting for glue to dry. Ta-da! Your first petal.

Petals galore!

Repeat the above and make 4 or 5 more petals. (I think 5 petals total works better than 6, personally.)

Once you’ve got all your petals done, you’re ready to glue them together. I used hot glue, again, mostly because I didn’t want to wait for regular glue to dry.

Add a bit of glue along the edge of one petal and attach another petal. From here, it’s pretty simple — just repeat this step until all the petals are attached. You’ll want to line them up so that a small circle is formed on the inside.

That's almost a circle, there.

And, this is not even close.

Look! Aren’t they cute? I think I’ll glue in some wire and stick a couple in a vase. Take that, florists!

Brandon got me the fancy bowl in Costa Rica!

Posted in papercraft, tutorial | 1 Comment

pro tip: make your own sale at Michaels

Looks like April 5-10 is customer appreciation week at Michaels… Get your coupon for 50% off one regular price item while the getting’s good.

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craft space teaser: cigar boxes

My craft space, at long last, is looking a lot better. However, I’m too lazy to clean up enough for photos, so I’m not going to show you the whole thing just yet.

My secret weapon in getting it together was a stash of cigar boxes I picked up from craigslist for $2 each (er, Amy picked them up while I was wallowing in bed, hopped up on pain meds… thanks Amy).

Here we go:*

I started with the top drawer in my most-excellent mid century desk, which I use for sewing. I wanted to have all my notions, thread, and the like easily accessible from the machine, and the top drawer was the closest spot. Before the cigar boxes, I had bobbins, scissors, pins, and all kinds of things just floating around. Now, they’re all contained!

topdrawer.jpg

notionsopen.jpg
My notions box holds the essentials: scissors, pins, tape measure, etc. The handy thing is that I can leave the top drawer and the cigar box open while I’m sewing, making these easy to get to without cluttering up my work surface or having to move the box around.

fasteners-machine.jpg I’ve also got cigar boxes dedicated to fasteners and machine care things I need less often but still need to keep around.

sharpthingsopen.jpg The desk’s second drawer is dedicated to the “sharp things” cigar box: craft scissors (not for sewing!), box cutters, extra blades for my small paper cutter, X-acto knives, all things dangerous. Having these things organized by function is really helpful, especially when I know I need some sort of slice’n’dicer but I’m not sure what the best tool for the job is.

expos.jpg What you see here is easily my favorite use of a cigar box. This one lives just below my dry erase board, which I use for lists, inspiration, you name it. I mean, come on — Expos never had it so good.

*Please excuse the ridiculous photos… one of these days I’ll remember to take photos sometime before midnight so that I’ll actually have natural light.

Posted in craft space, organize | 2 Comments

quick and easy diy desk organizer

I love the circles!

DIY desk organizer

Confession: I have been known to wander around craft stores and snatch up random objects that I like and/or think will be a fun project someday. This is part of the reason my craft space needs organizing. It’s getting there, honestly.

Anyway. On a recent trip, I bought a few little craft wood frame-type things. I think they are meant to be painted and hung. I wanted to use them as desk drawer organizers, as the drawers in my desk are too shallow to fit normal-sized organizers. (Yes, I learned that the hard way.)

Pro tip: Even though this is a quick and easy project, it is not a good idea to start when you are tired and about to go to bed.

Materials

Materials

Materials:
wood frame/tray thing
paper (large enough to fit the inside of your frame)
ruler
sharp object for cutting
paint
ModPodge
paintbrush

Here we go:
Get the dimensions of the inside of the wood frame, then cut your paper to fit. Be mindful of any patterns or designs so it’ll look nice when you get it all cut out.

Yeah, going to look hot

Look how nicely that paper fits!

Make sure your paper fits nicely inside the frame. Think to yourself, Yeah, this is gonna look hot.

Remove the paper and paint the frame. I did a couple coats (except on the inside of the frame – just painted that once to make sure the wood wouldn’t show underneath the paper).

This is my paint drying!

Patience.

Let the paint dry. No, seriously. Let it dry. I told you not to start when you were getting sleepy.

With the paintbrush, apply a layer of ModPodge to the inside of the frame. If you have thinner paper, don’t overdo it.

Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies!

ModPodge is so fancy.

Lay the paper inside and ModPodge over the paper, being sure to get the corners/edges down. Then do the same for the rest of the frame. I did a couple coats, letting it dry thoroughly between applications. (And by “letting it dry,” I mean I took a blowdryer to it.)

What are those stickies doing in there?

Perfect fit!

Tada! Celebrate. My organizer holds a couple writing utensils and my macbook remote, but the possibilities are endless. I could also see a few of these grouped together as cheap, cute wall art.

Posted in craft space, fun with paint, papercraft, tutorial | 1 Comment

craft space disaster

stuff everywhere

Last month’s Make Space for Crafting series over at Craft: inspired shamed me into thinking about my own craft area, which doubles as an ‘office’ and is the first thing you see when you enter my apartment.

OK: it’s a disaster. In general, I’m a fairly neat and organized person, so this is driving me crazy. I’ve been focusing on obtaining suitable storage and workspace (thank you, craigslist). But all the unused storage does me no good when I trip over the iron/ironing board that have been living on the floor for about three weeks.

more stuff, everywhere

So, I’m posting the embarrassing photos in all their glory to motivate myself to deal with this. Actually, I’ve already started… slowly… getting things organized. (This has consisted of pulling everything out of drawers and cupboards, creating a more hilarious warzone.)

Posted in craft space | 4 Comments