How to Make a Signature for your Blog

Want to add a fun, personal touch to your blog posts (or emails)? 

Creating your own signature is easy, no fancy software or know-how needed!  Follow these simple steps, then click over to the tutorial on installing your signature into Blogger.  Have fun!

1.  Right click and save this blank rectangle (below) to your computer.  It might be a little hard to find since it's white, so make sure you name it something you will recognize! 

Right click above this text- this your blank rectangle that you will need to save!

2.  Go to picmonkey.com and click "edit a photo"

3. Open the blank rectangle you just downloaded.  On the right hand menu of picmonkey click the "P" icon.  This is the menu for adding text 

4. As you can see, there are a lot of fonts to play with!  If you want to use a font with a little orange crown icon next to it, you will have to upgrade to a paid Picmonkey account (I love Picmonkey and highly encourage you to pay the $4.99/ a month for access to all its great features!)
 

I decided to use my first and middle name for this, because a four letter name isn't much fun for playing around with fonts :)

As you can see, when you add text, a little toolbox pops up with it.  You can use this to play with the colors, size, and formatting of  your name.

5.  Okay, I found a font I like.  But I still feel like my signature could use a little something.  Right under the "P" on the lefthand menu we clicked before is a little icon with three stamps.  Click on this and you will get a whole new menu of fun stamps to add to your name. 

I like this little leaf, so I'm going to add it right before my name.  Just like when you add text, when you add a stamp a toolbox pops up which allows you to resize, color, and format your stamp.
 
6. So now you should have your text and any embellishments you added just the way you like them.  Now you're just going to crop and resize your image to something a little smaller and more compact.  

Go to the first icon on the lefthand menu- this has all your basic editing tools such as the crop tool.  Crop tightly around your design.  

You are probably going to want to make your signature a little smaller too.

Under the same menu, choose the "resize" option on the bottom.  Make sure the "keep proportions" radio button is checked.  I made mine 250 x 87, but your size will depend on the shape of your signature.  I think somewhere in the 200-300 wide range is good.

See that little red circle in the right-hand corner right there?  Make sure that is checked to 100%...that will be the exact size your signature will be, so you can see if you like it.

Voila!  You have a signature as unique and cool as you now!  All that's left is adding it to your blog.

This tutorial provides really simple, easy-to-follow directions for the code for adding your signature.  I'm just going to link you to it, because they do a great job and I don't think I could add anything else!  It will automatically add your signature to ALL of your posts, even your old ones!

The 4 Things you should be doing to improve your photos...now!

Are you happy with your Etsy shop photos?

Maybe you are frustrated that you have a great product, but feel like potential customers aren't able seeing how awesome it is from your photos?

Are you ready to do something about it? (Hint: answer yes)




Taking good photos of your product can seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. You might think of things like "light box", "tripod", "SLR", etc. that make it seem like some expensive, difficult process. And chances are, unless you're a photographer, you probably would rather be spending your time on your crafty business, not taking a million shots with a cramped back and editing them for hours.

That's how I feel, at least.

BUT, good news. It doesn't have to be a chore, and there are plenty of ways to take good photos that communicate your brand and your product to your customers. And they are wicked cheap and easy.

Ready? Good, let's go!

Before you even pick up a camera, take a moment to think about how you want your product (brand) to come across to your customers. It may help to think about who your customers are, or who you want to attract. Write down at LEAST five descriptive words that communicate how you want to your product to come across. This is what I wrote down for mine:

Romantic
Nostalgic
Simple
Rustic
Airy
Sweet

Ok, you have your words now, good! How are you going to make those words come alive in your product photography? There are four ways:

1. Background
2. Props
3. Light
4. Crop (framing)


Background
1. Let's start with background. Less is almost always more. A clean, simple background provides the best backdrop to show off your awesome product. I went to the craft store and raided their scrap-booking section looking for nice paper to use. Keep your words in mind! Here are the papers I bought using my words:



You certainly don't have to use paper, though. Depending on your words, maybe you could use some lace fabric, or the wood on your porch. If you feel comfortable, try using a couple of different backgrounds throughout your shop to achieve an varied, yet cohesive, look.



Props
2. I think props have the potential to be really intimidating to people (they were for me anyway!), and they also have the potential to go really wrong, really fast. The advice of style icon Coco Chanel comes to mind: "Always take off the last thing you put on". If you find yourself stacking up books, draping them with fabric, propping up a picture frame against them, and sprinkling the whole thing with glitter, Stop!

Take a step back and look at the list of words you made. What is one thing that would match one or more of those words? I had the words "nostalgic" and "rustic" so I found an old, gray, hardback book from the turn of the century and draped my necklace over it. That's it! No glitter needed.



You totally don't need props, but I think they do add some visual interest to a shop page. So try experimenting with a couple of different items and maybe use one for every 1 in 5 photos or so. You can also use them for your secondary photos in your listings.



Light
3. Light. Light. Light. Light can be so tricky. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Have you ever seen those gorgeous, back-lit photos of a bride traipsing through a field with an ethereal glow emanating from her radiant hair? Yeah, I don't know how to do that. BUT, with a little practice I've been able to at least make my photos bright, clear, and I think somewhat pretty. You can too.

I don't want to hear about how you have no room to do this in your house, or you have the worst light in the world in your apartment. Because I have a small apartment that is somehow situated so that the sun never shines here. So if I can do this, I PROMISE you can too.

Find a little space next to a window. Push a table up against it. Bam. You've got all the light you're going to need. I used this stellar little photo shoot tutorial to get me started. You should check it out too, right now. I'll wait.

This is my little set up. All told I spent less than $5 to do it. And most of that was for the tracing paper on the window.




I like to shoot in the mornings, because that is as close as the sun likes to show it's face around here. I also bump up the ISO setting on my camera. (I'm not even going to get into camera settings here, because I am no camera expert, and I have no idea what settings are where on different cameras. I do suggest Googling your camera and finding a tutorial on YouTube.)



Crop
4. Maybe you have an amazing eye for composition, and are able to effortlessly snap off a perfect shot of your product. I can't. Even if that's you, chances are you're going to have to resize your photo for Etsy's parameters. Try cropping your photo in a couple of different ways and comparing them. Where is your eye drawn in the picture? What shows your product off the best? If possible, try to keep the scale of your product consistent across your photos!





After you've got the essentials down, don't be shy about trying out some photo editors. Even with the perfect light conditions and best camera out there, you will probably have to do a little fiddling to get your photo to look just like the real thing. I like Picasa (free to download), and Picmonkey.com (free to use online). Just try not to go overboard with editing; your customers deserve to see an accurate representation of your product.



Phew, that wasn't so bad, right? By no means do I think I have reached the best potential with my photos, but you can definitely see the improvement! Half the battle is just stepping back and making a game plan for your photography.

So what do you think? Do you have any other tips or tricks for taking great photos? I'd love to hear them. If you try out some of these, I hope that you will share your results! Just leave a comment below!

Making a One-of-a-kind keepsake box

So, there's not big secret on how to decoupage. If you've done it you know that it's a pretty straightforward, though time consuming, process. It can be a great beginner's project, but it can also take years to perfect (and I'm far from that end of the spectrum!). But I thought you might like to know the why's and how's of some of my work, so here's a semi-tutorial and explanation!
There are lots of different ways to decoupage, this is just what I've found works best for me:

Materials:
~Foam brushes
~Smoother
~Acrylic paint
~Mod Podge or other decoupage medium
~Scissors
~Varnish
~Wood box
~Screwdriver
~Paper, embellishments


I have a great big stack of vintage and antique sheet music and lithographs in varying conditions of decay. The first thing I do is pull out several pieces that I have been wanting to use and lay them out.

I think I'm going to use one of these:

The one on the right is in better condition, so I'm going to save that one for a bigger project where I can keep more of it together.


First I unscrew all the hardware from the box. You can leave it on, but it will look sloppier to try to paint around it, and decoupaging around it would definitely be a challenge. A little screwdriver from a kit works just fine.


Next it's time to paint the inside. Sometimes I cover the exterior completely in paper, but I think to show off the nice artwork from this piece I'm going to paint the top too.

I decided to use a nice, deep blue because it will really compliment the colors in the artwork.

While that dries, I start to take apart the different elements of the piece I'm going to use. It's very tattered at the edges and the paper is creased and thin, but most of the individual components can be saved and used. Once they're under varnish they'll be preserved for a long, long time.

Once the top is painted and dry, I can experiment with the placement of different elements. Nothing is getting glued down yet so I can play around with how things will look.

I have some nice Victorian style flower pieces I want to use, as well as a cool ad for a violin from some other sheet music. I like to go for an organic, almost naive look, like this is a collection of mementos and memories from someone long ago.

Now that the paint on top is dry and I know what I want to put on there, it's time to start gluing the pieces down. Use a foam brush to evenly and lightly coat the entire surface with Mod Podge (even if you're not covering the whole surface, you want it to be consistent in color and shine). While that dries to tackiness, coat the back of your pieces lightly and place them down on the surface. To help them lay perfectly smoothly, use something to smooth it down tightly as you place it down. I have a plastic smoother, but you can use anything, even your fingers if you're careful.
Once that dries COMPLETELY, cover the entire surface plus the paper again in Mod Podge. If there are any wrinkles they will generally go away on their own. This is the best step to keep them from happening though, so really make sure you smooth down all the way. While that dries I can start to work on the bottom of the box.

Using the same method I use torn up pieces of music (really old, crummy condition music only!) to cover the bottom. Same thing here, coat the wood surface, then individually coat the pieces and smooth them down. Coat with more Mod Podge as each side is completed. This gives it a really nice, smooth look. If the edges of the music stick up past the edges of the box you can either sand them down later or carefully trim with scissors. There's one more cool piece from the sheet I want to use, so once all the music is dry I can add it to the front.

Now while all that dries, I can varnish the top which is dry. The Mod Podge does a good job sealing and adding a little shine to the the box, but varnish is really going to give it a nice finish, plus protect the box. Use a different foam brush and carefully "paint" on a layer of varnish all over the surface and sides. Allow this to dry completely (at least a couple of hours usually). I usually apply at least 4 or 5 coats, but sometimes will do more. You really need at least 3 to get a nice gloss going. If at this point you still have wrinkles, a little trick is to poke a teeny hole or two (best in a dark spot) with an exacto knife and gently press out the air. Continue to layer varnish after that.
If using a non-gloss paint, then I like to give the interior a coat of varnish to seal it as well. Eventually as all the elements on the box dry you can apply varnish to everything.

Once everything is absolutely dry (and between all the different pieces drying at different rates, this can take a couple of days) you can reassemble the box.

This is what this one became:
Voila! http://www.etsy.com/listing/67136084/the-girl-i-loved-in-sunny-tennessee
It's really fun, and there are endless possibilities with different ephemera, colors, and boxes. It's also a great way to put to use old ephemera which is just rotting away or forgotten. These can be used to keep jewelry, love letters, photos, or anything you want to keep in a special place.