Quick Photo Enhancement Tutorial

The wonderful thing about Etsy is how supportive people are. There are a lot of helpful forums for generic discussions on selling crafts, supplies and vintage, guides to help newbies get started and loads more. When ever I've encountered a problem on Etsy, be it pricing, pictures, new banner etc, I've always found people on the forums extremely helpful and happy to be of service. I have recieved so much help through the forums I am myself extremely happy if I can pass on any nuggets of info to someone else in need.

Handmade Beaded Necklace

Yesterday I came across a lovely lady, Terri Richard, in one of the forums and we soon engaged in a very lengthy conversation about improving one's photos. Terri lives in Newton, North Carolina and makes wonderful unique jewelry. Due to her disability she is unable to be in the workforce, so her Etsy shop, Havenwood  is a good possible source of income for her and her husband Bill (who judging by the way she talks about him is an angel sent to earth).

After just a few convo's my heart had warmed up to her, she's a true trooper and has overcome a lot! In effort to try help her out with her shop I took one of her pics and thought I'd share how she can improve it in a matter of seconds. As this is as simple as 1-2-3, I thought I'd share this nugget with my dear blog readers too. I'm by no means a pro, but here's a quick tip on how to get your white background even whiter.


Before you start, check if your camera has a "set white balance" function, most cameras do. White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. If you don't and you have a picture you've taken against a white background but that does not look white on your photo here's how you can tweak the picture using pixlr, a free online photo editor.

1) Go to http://pixlr.com/editor/ and open a picture you wish to work on

2) Go to "Adjustment" and select "Curves"

3) Grab the curb and drag it up.

You will see pretty quickly which way to drag it in order to achieve desired effect. Don't over-do it, always make sure that the item you have photographed looks natural. If you can't get the background to desired shade of white without distorting the other colors, go take a better picture and use plenty of natural light!

4) Save.

See the difference? It's a small, but significant change, and all in a matter of seconds.

Handmade Beaded Necklace - before

Handmade Beaded Necklace - after

Handmade Beaded Dangle Earrings - after

Handmade Beaded Dangle Earrings- before

Handmade Peace Sign Earrings - before

Handmade Peace Sign Earrings - after

Hope this helps Terri or anyone else willing to get their white backgrounds look crisp and clear with a flick of the wrist :)

All featured jewelry on this blog post from Terri and Bill's shop at www.havenwood.etsy.com published with their permission.

Pin Cushion Out Of Left-over Materials Tutorial

 First off, my apologies for the horribly yellow poor quality photos. Working in the evenings without any natural light makes taking good pictures near impossible.

Anyways, I have a few felt projects stashed up that didn't turn out the way I wanted, a few rectangular knitted felted pouches that are not very neat around the edges. These date back to time when I was only starting to experiment with felting.

So I came up with a few ideas on how to give a new life to a felted piece using only left over materials I have in my stock anyway.







Here's what I started off with:
- a tartlet tin
- scrap felt and fabric
- little pieces of left-over felt for stuffing the cushion, fiber fill or similar will also do
- thread
- hot glue
- faux pearl necklace for embellishment

My mom is a wizard with thrift stores, she makes such incredible finds and they are always bargains. Unfortunately I haven't inherited that quality, but lucky enough she has donated me loads of her excess stuff, like these old little tin tartlets. I myself am a hoarder and have saved stuff like little pieces of left-over felt from various wet felting projects and they are perfect for stuffing up this little pin cushion. I've also got loads of old costume jewelry and beads saved up and wanted to use some of them on this project too.

I started by cutting out the embroidered piece of the felt patch (and saving it for later, naturally!) and cutting a small circle, just a little bit bigger than the tin.

Then I cut another piece out of scrap fabric to make the bottom of the cushion and sew the pieces together inside out. I left an inch of the seam open and turned it back around.


As the top of the cushion is felted wool, it's thick enough to hold in a rougher stuffing without looking lumpy so left over felt was perfect for this project. I cut the scraps into a fine fluff.


After stuffing the cushion I checked if it still fitted the tin and as it did, finished the seams.

I hot glued the cushion into the tin placing tiny dabs of glue both on the bottom and around the edges.

 And voilá, my pin cushion was ready!

 

 

 But as I have tons of old costume jewelry I decided to slaughter some of them and gave an old necklace a new purpose placing the faux pearls along the edge of the rim. I hot glued them too, just because I'm lazy.

And it turned out wonderful!