I've been reading some articles about taking better pictures.  I just don't think it is helping me much because I'm clueless about how this works.  I tried some free online photo editing tools to try to adjust the pictures, but I just can't seem to get it.  The photos never come out quite like I want them to.  I just want a plain white background with the pictures popping out of the screen.  I've made so many adjustments I just want to scream, because it still doesn't look the way I want it to. 

I'm trying this new vinette filter to focus the eye on the subject, but it just seems like it is making the photo darker not bringhter.  If I ever figure it out, I let you know.  In the meantime, you can have a peek at some of the hairclips that I've been making.  Have a great week.

My darling husband has been one of the biggest promoters for my shop.  Recently he wanted to go to Wonder Con---a comic book convention in Anaheim.  He told his friends he couldn't afford it because I wasn't working.  His friends asked him how many shirts would they have to buy so that he could go.  He told them they'd have to buy 5 shirts.  So they did.  They sent me some .jpeg files and I cut the designs out of heat transfer vinyl and they are now the proud owners of some shirts I made for them.  The first picture is of a Samurai and I used 2 colors for the picture.  The bottom shirt is some Chinese lettering that they said means dragon--not sure if it is right or not, but they seemed to like it.

I never would have came up with these designs on my own, but I think they turned out cool.  I just wish I would have took pictures of the other shirts.   Next time.  Have a great afternoon.

One of the ladies saw the wedding favor boxes I made and wanted them for her friend's bridal shower.  She just wanted the colors changed to white with a pink ribbon on half and a black ribbon on the other half.  She wanted it done on sparkly white paper, but they didn't have enough of that kind of paper at the store.  I told her that I could emboss a design on white card stock and the result is so cool.  The embossing file was a little bit too short, but it worked out because it looks like it was intentional.  The embossing stops right at the waist line so it looks like I actually did it on purpose.  With the ribbon there it covers the crease.  I had fun using my epic 6 to emboss this with 2 cricut embossing folders.  I cut out he image out with the make the cut software on my cricut machine.  I had to use the blackout feature to get the program to stop double cutting the image and cutting off the tabs.  After cutting out the image, I embossed it, then folded it and taped the tabs up and used a glue gun to attach the ribbon.  I think it turned out super cute and so did my customer.

Have a great week and remember to keep it crafty.

Happy Thursday to you.  Just found out yesterday that I got the job as a behavior therapist.  It's part time, so I will still have time to do my crafts...yea!!! 

I just had to share this word book with you.  One of my customers saw the wordbook on Etsy and wanted one, but was kinda bummed because the name she wanted was only 4 letters.  I did some brain storming with her and this is what we came up with.  The family likes monkeys, so I added a monkey to the word book,  I incoroprated the family's last name on the book, and I added an extra page to give the book a more finished look.  I love the way it came out.  I've always liked how the browns and the blues go together.  Surprisingly, she contacted me on Tuesday and I had it finished this morning and mailed it off this afternoon.  I thought it was going to take a lot longer...especially since the design studio software conked out on me and I had to cut some of it out by hand---grrrrr.   But all is well and I think she is really going to enjoy this and it will make a really nice keepsake. 

Have a great afternoon and remember to make lasting impressions through crafts!!!

Today I decided to build a photo box.  I thought I could take better pictures of all my items if I had a place to display them better.  I ended up learning a lot more about taking pictures in the process.

Basically I had a big box that was about 18x22 and 3 inches deep.  I lined it with white paper.  I had some flood lights that I used on my tent display at night an attached it to the box. 

I took a couple of pictures.  They came out better than some of my other pictures, but I didn't like the yellowish tint.  I googled how to improve the pictures.  The sight I went to said that you need to adjust the white balance on the camera.  I tried to figure it out, but these digital cameras are hard to figure out where anything is.  So I ended up just using a clothes pin to pin a piece over white paper over the light so it would filter out the yellow light.

The pictures are much better than they were.  The best ones are the ones I took in natural light when I'm at the actual craft show.  I guess I'm just going to have to take my box outside.  But this set up will work when it is raining or when the sun goes down.  Check out some of the photos I took when I was playing around with this new Photo Box thina-a-ma-bopper.