Quick Tip Tuesday - DIY Huge Number Props

 Another post in a fun, weekly series that we hope to keep rolling!  Each Tuesday we'll post a new quick business tip for prop making, marketing, lighting or some other tidbit that might help you out!  Even if you're not a photographer, you might still find something to apply to your field of business that may save you time or money :)

This week's quick tip:

DIY Huge Number Props!

Cardboard is your friend!  Really!  There are so many uses and re-uses for cardboard!  I use cardboard that my lab ships orders in to make big numbers for birthday sessions at my studio!  You can paint it any color you like and they are super easy to make.  I simply picked my favorite font, used my projector to project it onto the cardboard, traced the outline, then cut it out.  Add a coat of paint and done :)

Call the studio at 336.575.7088 or visit our website -

Newborn Photographers Winston Salem Fantasy Photography, LLC

{ Quick Tip Tuesday } No-Sew Newborn Bowtie Props

 Another post in a fun, weekly series that we hope to keep rolling!  Each Tuesday we'll post a new quick business tip for prop making, marketing, lighting or some other tidbit that might help you out!  Even if you're not a photographer, you might still find something to apply to your field of business that may save you time or money :)

This week's quick tip:

Easy No-Sew DIY Newborn Bowties for $1.00 or less!

I love how super easy and custom this DIY prop is!  If you have a client coming in that requests a specific color scheme, you can make one of these the night before!  I'm going to roll through this tutorial to demonstrate how fast and easy it is, and if you go ahead and pre-cut your fabric pieces, you can make several at once without stopping :)  Fabric quarters can be found at fabric stores or the craft/fabric section in Walmart, or you can use fabric scraps that you already have or even upcycle some old clothing.  The possibilities are endless!

Here we go!

1. Supplies - fabric, hot glue gun, glue sticks, measuring tape and scissors.

2. Cut your fabric into two rectangles - large main piece should be around 4.5 inches x 5.5 inches, and your center smaller piece should be around 3 inches x 2 inches.

3. Tri-fold your large piece like you would fold a letter to put in an envelope and run a small bead of glue on the edge to hold in place.

4. Fold edges to meet center and slightly overlap, add a drop of glue to hold in place.

5. Pinch rectangle in middle and add a drop of glue to hold into a bowtie shape.

6. Tri-fold your smaller piece just like you did the larger one and run a small bead of glue along edge to hold in place.

7. Wrap small piece around center of large piece and glue in back.

8.  DONE!

Easy peasy!

Call the studio at 336.575.7088 or visit our website -

Newborn Photographers Winston Salem Fantasy Photography, LLC

Quick Tip Tuesday

 This is the first post in a fun, weekly series that we hope to get started!  Each Tuesday we'll post a new quick business tip for prop making, marketing, lighting or some other tidbit that might help you out!  Even if you're not a photographer, you might still find something to apply to your field of business that may save you time or money :)

This week's quick tip:

Less than a dollar for a new backdrop?  Yes, please!

We are revamping our studio, moving from bright colors to softer, muted colors.  I have a slew of bright colored backdrops, but I don't have $1000 in my marketing budget to spend on ordering brand new backdrops, and let's face it - I love projects.  Or more honestly, I love giving my husband projects.

Stop by your local hardware store and get a small paint sample mixed in any color that you like for less than $3 - it's the perfect amount for a 4ft x 4ft backdrop!  Also, check the rack where the paint mistints are... I got a gorgeous mint sample for $.49 that I'll be using for Spring sessions!

Come back and comment on our post with what awesomeness you find!

And that's how this purple backdrop magically turned into this creamy neutral backdrop...

Call the studio at 336.575.7088 or visit our website -

Newborn Photographers Winston Salem Fantasy Photography, LLC

{ TUTORIAL } DIY super easy Valentine's Day Backdrop under $3.00!

A super easy Valentine's Day backdrop for under $3.00?  Yes, please!

When you buy a 100 year old house, and you begin renovating and updating, you find that you have lots of scrap materials left over.  Baseboards, trim, mouldings, wainscoting, everything.  In an effort to cut our expenses this year (that's one of our 2013 business goals!), we've been looking for ways to switch things up without overspending on expensive backdrops and props, re-use items that we already have at the studio and recycle leftover materials from other projects that we do - which in turn, does require a bit of creativity and craftiness!  But I promise, it's super easy! 

Materials:

Streamers in multiple colors (we chose pink, red & white to fit our theme)

4-10 ft. leftover scrap wood (we had a 9 ft. long 2 in. piece of trim leftover from renovations)

Stapler (and staples!)

Tape Measurer

1. Decide what length you're going for.  99% of our sessions are children 4 feet and under, so we went with 4 feet. 

2. There's two ways to go about measuring - we measured our length on the floor and put a piece of tape to mark it so we wouldn't have to measure every cut, however you could choose to guesstimate and just level them off by cutting the bottom to length (think haircut, haha) once you've finish and got your backdrop hung up.  We wanted different lengths for a layered look, so we cut near the tape mark and left everything uneven in the end.

3. Wrap the edge of streamer over your wood so that it's completely wrapped around the wood, overlapping and staple.  Simple! 

 

4. Space your first color so that you can come in and fill in with your second and third colors. 

5. Once you've got one layer all the way across, come back in and staple a contrasting color in the spaces between your first layer (to fill in the cracks).  We chose to cut this layer a bit shorter for a layered effect.

6. That's it!  We used large clamps and clamped our backdrop (by the wood) to the stand that we already had.  We also used a 3 foot piece of baseboard and twine for a Kissing Booth sign that we had leftover, and some other props that we already had.  Okay, so I went out and bought the cute wooden letters to spell "LOVE" at Michael's, but you can justify that by purchasing an "N" at the same time and they're reusable - you can reuse the "O" and the "E", add the "N" and spell "ONE" for first birthday sessions :)

Here's how our backdrop turned out...super easy, super cute, and under $3.00!



visit our website at: Winston Salem Baby Photographers | Fantasy Photography, LLC