Tutorials

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A place where you can find some little extra ways to make your product all that more unique.

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PICTURE FRAME BACK DROP

So today I came up with this idea of how to reuse an old picture frame for a back drop for taking pictures for my shop.  Its nice and neutral and it has the pretty border/edge that I can drape my necklaces over and such.

All you need is a very short list of materials and tools to make this:

Scissors
Iron
Canvas/Material of your choice
Picture frame
Ruler



So what you want to do first and it take the back off and if there aren't measurements on the frame, to measure the back flap thing.


Then after you do that what you want to do is measure out the same measurement of your fabric (I chose canvas for mine)  and also I added about a half inch extra to my measurements to help secure it into the frame.


After this, if you have any creases in your fabric like I did, you will want to iron them out on a soft surface of some type.  I have a nice ironing board, but you can use a bath towel folded down.




Then what I did is put it in front of the glass in the frame so when you take pictures with your items on it you dont have a reflection or a glare. 



After I had it in the frame with the back on it, I had to undo the corners and pull it snug so there werent any bubbles in my surface. And this is what it looks like with it all done.


ANNNND the end result in the light box and with an item:


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RECYCLED JEWELRY/GIFT BOXES

So I was cleaning house with Ann the other day and she gave me a little bag full of jewelry boxes she didn't need anymore.  And I always could use jewelry boxes to send my stuff to my customers in.  The only problem was they had brand names on them that were not mine.  Well I can't have that for my business.  So I thought of a way to use them to save money and save a little room in a landfill somewhere.  I thought I would share it since the holidays are coming up and thats when people always spend too much time and money on fancy gift wrapping that just gets thrown out after the presents are opened anyway.

So I have taken the jewelry boxes and a paper bag that wasn't being used anymore and came up with a really cute way to make adorable gift wrapping for the holidays and also for any other day you need to give gifts.

So here are the things you start with.  Its a very short list:

Scissors
Glue (I used Elmers Glue All)
Paper Bag (as many as you need for the amount of boxes you have to cover.  I only had 4 boxes)
And of course the jewelry boxes you want to cover.
And if you want to spruce it up a bit at the end, I also used ribbon and scotch tape. Which is not pictured here


Then what I did was put glue on the top of the lid of the box


 Then put that on the paper.  After it was dried a bit, I measured out the piece I needed to cover the entire lid.  Its very much like wrapping any other gift, but a little more complex.


When you have it all measured out, what I did next was cut slits on the sides to fold down over the lip of the lid.

And then glued them down as well.  Let them dry before you go onto the next step otherwise they might come up again.  Also you might have to hold them down with your fingers until they get a good grasp on the glue.

Next you need to fold the four flaps in so the ends are triangles like when you gift wrap a present normally. ( or at least how I would)

Then you glue those down and do the same as you did with the sides where you might have to hold them down to dry.  After that you have this.  This picture you can see the triangles a lot better.


Then you glue those in and this time you definitely need to hold them so they dry.  It is a little time consuming I know, but the end product is a lot better in my opinion.


Then you repeat the process with the bottom part of the box.  And don't forget that you need a little extra paper on all the sides to fit over since the bottom is a little deeper than the lid is.


Then for the optional part, you can tape ribbon around the top.  Just be mindful the more you add to those edges the harder it will be to close and open the box, so try and pick a thinner ribbon if you can.  This is what mine turned out like.

I think it turned out super cute!  And it would work for a birthday, any holiday or even just for the heck of it.

Have fun with it and save the planet at the same time!!!

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TAGS AND EARRING CARDS TUTORIAL

So this tutorial is something I did just so when I ship out my product I had that little something extra to make my stuff all that more unique.

First what you need to start off with is:

Small safety pins
scissors
a "scrapbooking" paper punch (whatever shape and size you choose)
a regular hole punch
a small hole punch
some small ribbon


The rest of the supplies will come into play as we go on.

First what you want to do, is when you figure out what size and shape of tag you want. You will make your design to that.

I picked more of the classic price tag shape and the smallest size I could find.  After I got that I started designing my logo for it.  I wanted it to me square so there was more space on the tag after I punched it out.  I came up with this:


Which also happens to be my logo for my Etsy page to keep it coherent to eachother.

After I had that I had to do some trial and error printing to get it the right size.  After I got the right size, I put them all into one page.  I did 4 X 4 on the sheet to get some leeway room when I punched them out.


Once you get that print out only ONE sheet.  To save some money on ink and paper, I went to my local Staples and had them print them out on some nice cardstock to make it a little more sturdy and just plain paper.  I had 6 printed out, but you can get as many as you want printed.  This is what they look like:


Once I got those, you can start punching them out.  If you have a lever stamp like mine you will have to do it in stages.  Start with the bottom row and punch them out one by one.


As you can see I took this picture and the following one two rows into the page:


Once you are done with that row, you need to chop off the remaining of that row to get to the next row as seen here:


After you get them punched out you will have some tags that look like so:



Once you have them punched out, next you will need your regular hole punch:


And you will punch a hole in the top of the tag as seen here:



Next you will take your ribbon and cut it into strips about 6 to 8 inches long.  I found out that if you aim for 6 inches you can get about 48 strips or so out which was around 3 sheets of tags for me:

Then you will take the strip and the tag and make a loop with ribbon and loop it through the hole and make a knot as seen in these images:




This final step for the tags is adding the safety pin.  I used a safety pin because I like the look, plus that way I can attach it to my wallets and clutches without any hassle.  You can choose to not use the safety pins if you want to save a couple bucks and just tie the ribbon to your product.





I also made some cards that I could use for my earrings and hair pins when I ship them out.

I used the same shape puncher, but I took off the background on my logo for more room to put the earrings and hair pins.  Other than that it is almost the same procedure up until the hole punch.

I started out with a 4 X 4 sheet again, but this is what these looked like:


So I punched them out like the other ones. Then instead of the regular hole punch I grabbed my smaller one to punch out the holes for the earrings in half of them:




Of course this was just a practice run, so my holes don't line up perfectly, but make sure yours do.

Then I put the earrings in for the finished product.


(For hair pins, just don't punch holes and simply slip your hair pins over the card for a simple holder for them when you ship them off.)

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to make your product a little more professional and more unique.  Also a great way for customers to remember your product.



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