Collapsible Lightbox Tutorial: Link

–Why should I make a lightbox?
Taking good pictures is a key for an internet based business. Each shot needs to focus on the details that make an item unique and desirable. Your pictures need to provide the potential buyer with as much visual information as possible.

Remember that the only sense that is stimulated through internet shopping is the vision. Unlike at the store where the buyers can grab the item, feel it, smell it and turn it inside out!
The only way to give your customers an idea of the texture of your handmade items is to take macro pictures and this can only be done with a good lighting, a white environment and a tripod or something stable to rest your camera on (A pile of books?).

–The light

The idea is to use indirect light, so you have to point the light on the sides of the box. Direct light exposure tends to flatten the volumes by reducing the shadows. The amount and intensity of light needs to be sufficient enough so you do not have to use the flash. Basically what you want to reproduce is: A daylight environment.

I didn’t invest in good lights for the longest time and had to deal with a fluorescent light bulb and a halogen light. Fluorescent is just not working for this, I have to adjust the camera settings to balance the greenish tone it gives to every picture and fix them in an image editing program. What you need is a good old fashion lightbulb at least 100W and the best would be to use 2 light domes, this is the advice my photograph friend gave me.

So let’s do this!
So far the foam core panels (4) cost me $13.

It made a world of difference and it inspired me to retake pictures that were not doing any justice to some of my creations.

Here is an example of what I obtained, these earrings are really shiny and previous test with direct light never showed the creases in the wings. While now it shows the earrings just like I want!

I live in Washignton state, famous for its rain and therefore its cloudy days. If I wait for a nicer day to come around so I can take pictures, I might never take any^^
But it can also be a good alternative for the night owls from all over the planet and in general I find it to be a very easy way to take shots of your items.

Here is a picture of my new awesome macro studio and my old ghetto lightbox.

Funny thing: My dear cat tried to “rest” on top of my old crappy cardboard wannabe macro studio and fell through it. At least that box brought me a good laugh ^^

The good thing with frames thrifted at the good will is their price but you might not be able to find a lot of frames with the same tint of varnish or wood. With a little bit of work you can turn random and ugly into wonderfulness for cheap!

I framed pictures of Paris and prints of Mark Ryden.

What do you need?
-Frames
-Spray paint primer
-Foam paint brushes
-Acrylic paint
-Very fine paint brushes to outline the creases of the frames.
-A damp rag

Prepare your frames:
-First you need to clean your frames with a damp clothe and let them dry before you do anything else. Then sand them with a fine grain sand paper. Wipe the dust off with a dry rag.

- Coat the frames with primer. I used gray here because I wanted to paint my frames black, if you want to paint your frames with a lighter color you can use white primer. I recommend to use spray bottles more than cans, is is easier and the coats are more regular. Plus it is also really affordable.

Make sure to do this outside or in a well ventilated area away from pets and kids and proceed to the spraying fun! Allow the paint to dry as recommend by the merchant.

Paint the frames:
-It might take two coats of acrylic craft paint depending on the kind you use. It is an average $1.5 per 2 fl. oz bottle.
For this project, I bought one pure black as the main color, one metallic pure gold and one metallic silver sterling to outline the creases of the frames.

Outline the creases:
-Your frames might have creases in the wood work and because an all black frame is kinda dull, you can outline them with gold, silver or hot pink or whatever color you’d like.
To do so you need to use extra fine paint brushes size 00 or 000.

Wipe any excess of paint while still wet with a rag.

Tadda!

When I moved to my new place a year ago, the post office offered me free magazine subscriptions. Hooray! Free stuff!!! I was excited to open the first one and read it, I then just opened the second and left it on the coffee table shelf and the third one ended up unwrapped until today!

In the mean time I started collecting Coke caps to redeem rewards on mycokerewards.com and I ended up getting more magazine subscriptions!!! You’d think I learned my lesson! Not to mention that I also buy some at the store once in a while.

My coffee table shelf was so crowded I couldn’t add anymore magazines so I went through them and picked up the pages that inspired me to make envelopes and cards.
Some will go to my Etsy shop, some will be sent to my friends for the new year. But with Halloween coming up you might as well try to make some spooky ones!!!

So take all these magazines and let’s start! You can also go through your posters, illustration books, children books, even your junk mail!

What do you need?
-Magazines
-An X-Acto knife or a pair of scissors
-An envelope you take apart or a template you made in illustrator, photoshop or that you draw.
-A fine point or ultra fine point sharpie
-A ruler and/or a triangle. Triangles are neat to mare square edges.
-Glue
-Craft paper, card stock, Scrap booking supplies, stamps, you name it!
-Optional: Lick & Stick Envelope Glue 1.5 Oz. Remoistenable or scrapbook/photo mounting tape You might consider getting some if you sell them or if you give them as a gift

Note:
-I use 3 different size templates that I lay on the illustrations I preselected and use the one that covers the picture the best.

The Envelopes

For this tutorial I’ve selected a painting from the magazine Antique, one of my favorite source for making those fancy envelopes of mine.

1.Lay your template on the picture and outline with a pencil.

I personally prefer to cut paper with an X-Acto knife as it makes the edges perfectly straight but if you don’t have one, scissors work fine.

It should look like this

3.Fold the flaps.

It should look like this.

4.Line the inside. (Optional) You can line the whole envelope or just the flap, it’s up to you. Just note that lining the envelope makes a thicker material that would not rip easily. It can be a good idea if you consider mailing it.

First, make a template of the desired size. I copied the envelope template and cut it.

Glue your flap.

5. Glue the side flap and the verso of the envelope.

Recto

Verso

You can make tons and tons of them!

The cards

Depending on your selection you can make one that opens like a check book or one that opens like a regular book or a single sheet one. Here are a few examples.

For this tutorial, I chose 3 pictures that I thought were matching the style of the envelope and decided to make a “tryptich” card. It is up to you and what you have to work with. I find it easier to make the card with preselected images rather than make the card and illustrate it afterward.

1. Make the card 1/8″ smaller than your envelope all the way around. It is very important to do so or your card will not fit the envelope!!!

2 Outline your picture with colored paper or card stock.

3.Glue the pictures on the card and voilà!

Please come back and share the cards you made