Google’s Picasa 3 beta was released earlier this month, but I didn’t hear about it until I saw the cool collage over at Filipina Sakura’s blog. “Ooooh, cool collage!” I said, and ran straight over to Google to get my own download. The earlier version of Picasa had a collage feature too, but the new one’s got more options — 6 collage types to be specific, and more options for toying with each of them.

From Google:

• For ‘Picture Pile’ collages, click an image to drag it to a new location or use the wheel to rotate and resize it. Add or delete images to your collage as you go.
• Grid spacing: Use the slider to precisely control the space between images.
• More background options: Select an image as background or select any color you’d like.

Print your collage in high resolution, and choose from 10 different display dimensions.

So, I made this neat little collage of some of my fabric swatches. So tidy!

But I could have made this crazy “Picture Pile” collage, which I added white borders AND a watermark to:

Or one of these fun Mosaic collages, with no spacing on the left and slight spacing on the right:

Or perhaps if I had been feeling a little more professional I could have gone with this Contact Sheet collage, to which I added the Polaroid effect:

The options are endless! Okay not really endless, but much more bountiful than before! Sorry Mac users, I guess Picasa 3 isn’t available for you just yet (although I’m guessing Apple gives you plenty of cool software to use yourself).

I also love the easy watermarking feature that allows you to add text to your photos when you either export them or upload them to a web album. It’s so fast and easy! And weeee liiiiike fast and easy. =] There are a slew of other things I like about Picasa — their basic photo editing and effects features for instance, which are great when you can’t stand to wait for your Photoshop app to load on your slow-*ss laptop —but for now these are my top two.

I made a bunch of small changes to the site over the weekend, starting of course with the new navigation column over on the right hand side! My whole adventure started with wanting to add a section on craft books to the site, and this was soon followed by adding a couple other nice-to-haves that have been on my website to-do list. So after several hours of toying around, these are some of the new goodies I’ve ended up with!

Amazon.com aStore widget
First is the Amazon.com aStore widget, which allows members of the Amazon.com Associates affiliate program, which I’ve been an inactive member of since 2006, to create a mini store with book selections of their choosing. My aStore contains craft and small business-related books that I actually have — and use! — in my own library. So not only do I get to share some of my faves with you, but if you decide to order any of them through a link that you’ve clicked on my site, well then I get a little 4% referral fee from Amazon at no cost (but a lot of thanks =P) to you!

Add to Any Subscribe Button
Then there’s the Wordpress plugin I added to replace some of the outdated feed links I had in my left column. This one’s called the Add to Any Subscribe Button plugin, and it gives readers an easy way to quickly subscribe to the blog with whatever feed reader(s) they use like Google Reader, which I’ve grown to love.

Google AdSense for Search
Finally, I decided to make use of the Google AdSense account I’ve again had but not used since 2005 and set up Google AdSense for Search. The new Google Custom Search tool will search this site and my Etsy shop and spit out a page with a few targeted ads atop and below the list of search results.

Eventually I’d like to do more with both the Amazon.com Associates and Google AdSense programs to try earning a few extra cents here and there, but for now…this is what I’ve got!

Wow. I gotta say, I didn’t think I had it in me. But I did! Well, sorta. I added a third column to my Wordpress theme and even figured out how to make the dang thing match, but I haven’t figured out how to shift everything over to the left. Darnit. Maybe tomorrow when Jimmy wakes up. =}

Adding the new column — a second sidebar, to be specific — wasn’t actually that difficult. Especially since I followed these easy peasy instructions on…Adding an Extra Sidebar to Your Wordpress Theme. Ha ha ha.

I modified the header a bit to throw a few product images on up in there, but I dunno…is it too busy? Maybe I should extend the blue background all the way right so it still feels like part of the header? Hmm…will sleep on it since I’m getting that woozy lack-of-sleep feeling. But if anything’s amiss, it’s because I messed with the layout and didn’t realize it! Oooh that reminds me, the interior pages are probably screwy. Yup they sure are. Guess I’ll be doing that tomorrow then…woohoo!

I’m lucky to be surrounded by a ton of friends and family who are WAY into photography, so now that Jimmy’s got some new equipment, said friends & family have started hearing from us. =]

While they’re definitely far from perfect, I started working more on my own product photos about the beginning of summer this year. My goal was to take better photos at the outset so that I wouldn’t have to spend as much time fussing with the file in Photoshop, since my bag of Photoshop tricks is quite small and the whole experience can be plenty time-consuming and frustrating.

For example, at one time I shot photos against a red towel and used the magic wand in Photoshop to get rid of the background, and after a couple of hours for the set of photos, this is the kind of less-than-stellar result I ended up with:

Ack! The edges are ugly and you can even see a red glow on the fabric. Woops! I used the red towel because I thought that the color contrast would be easier to select using the magic wand in Photoshop, but obviously this was not quite the right approach. I’ve since switched to a white background and skipped the whole step of trying to delete the background. The result, while not perfect, is still clean and saves me a WHOOOOLE lot of time. Both shots below are taken against a sheet of white craft foam. The one on the left is taken with our Canon PowerShot SD800 point-and-shoot, and the one on the right with Jimmy’s Nikon D60 DSLR.

I don’t get the perfectly white background I originally wanted, but again, I sure do save a ton of time. I’ve got  a ways to go, but hopefully the new photographer in the family, along with help from brother-in-law, will be able to help me out! =D

In my initial research, I found a bunch of articles that were really helpful in terms of giving me ideas about lighting, backdrops and styling, among other things. I thought I’d dig these up again, which is actually a great thing for me because there are a bunch of neat tips that I totally forgot about!

TableTop Studio has a whole index of product photography articles, broken into different product type categories. I checked out the one on Clothing Photography Techniques, which offers a bunch of great examples illustrated with plenty of setup and before-and-after photos. In it, they stress the importance and value of finding photos that you like of items in your category and studying what makes the photo/styling appeal to you. That sounds obvious but I get caught up and forget to do my homework there. They also demonstrate the technique of laying your item flat on the floor, steamed and stuffed with cotton batting and/or tissue paper for added dimension, and photographing it from above. I haven’t quite gotten there with this technique, but these are a couple of my attempts (flat and minimally stuffed on left, not flat but stuffed on right):

TableTop Studio also has a blog with more how-to articles.

Then there’s Photojojo’s article on Shoot to Sell: Taking Better Photos for eBay, Etsy & Instructables. Although perhaps better suited for small objects, I really liked the section about playing with different backdrops like wood, fabric, metal. There are a couple of neat examples of jewelry photos, one set against blue leather or vinyl, and the other atop a page of a book. The tip I did try out was to recruit a cute friend to model my products! We only did this once so I need to work this back into the mix, but here she is!

Finally, Etsy had a couple articles of its own on getting better product photos:

• Shop Makeover Series: Photographing for Success
• Give Props: How to Style Your Photos

…not to mention a fun video!

Well, I look forward to making my way towards better and better product photos. Actually I have to admit, I look forward more to the end result of better product photos, not as much the path to getting there! <=P After all, my main goal is bags, baby. BAGS! =D

My stickers are here! My stickers are here! I am now the proud new owner of 250 sheets of 2″ circle labels and 250 sheets of weatherproof shipping labels! My little inkjet’s got its work cut out for it!

I’m a huge fan of OnlineLabels.com, where these packs of stick-on labels obviously came from. They’ve been really responsive to product and order questions, they offer good prices and have a super-speedy turnaround.

My first order with OnlineLabels.com was a pack of weatherproof lip balm labels, and I came back this time around because of the good experience, but also because of a $5 off coupon they offered for writing up some feedback about the type of label software I’ve used! I respond well to bribes. Mine’s at the bottom dated 9/18, though actually it’s really not even worth looking at.

I’m not so crazy about OnlineLabel.com’s Maestro Label Designer software, which I tried today to make my first sheet of packaging stickers. Once I finally realized that it doesn’t matter if the image on the screen looks pixelated because it won’t actually print out that way, I ended up wasting half a sheet of stickers because the image printed higher up on the sticker towards the bottom half of the sheet which left me with not so cute excess white space.

But, the software is free for customers for a certain length of time after your purchase so it’s not that big of a deal anyway. I wouldn’t pay to use it again when my trial period expires though. Besides, they provide a bunch of templates for each product to allow you to use plenty of other software to print your labels so you’re plenty covered.

With any luck, I’ll run through these packs of sheets like there’s no tomorrow…and then I’ll be back for more! =D

Our friends Kevin and Olivia are getting married tomorrow in Carmel, and I have the pleasure of supplying the wedding couple with a pair of ring pillows for their two little ring bearers. Ever the procrastinator, I started thinking about this weeks ago, have had the materials for a couple of weeks now, but I just finished the first one this morning…and here it is!

It’s a relatively simple design inspired by a floral element on the bride’s lovely gown from the Amsale Bridal Collection, along with her colors, lavender and green.

image from Amsale Bridal Collection

The pillow is made with ivory dupioni silk trimmed with ivory satin ribbon. The flower is reconstructed from a cream white faux magnolia from Beverly’s, and I topped it off with a 7/8″ flat button that I covered with matching silk. The ring is a faux silver wedding ring also from Beverly’s that was sold in a $2 pack for a whole bunch. I used a flat pearl bead on the back of the pillow to hide the ivory thread used to secure all the stuff on the top. A few more views!

I always get a little paranoid about whether my projects really turn out as good as I hope they are, but I really hope she likes them! The magnolia petals are a bit more creamy in color than I was originally looking for, but I’m hoping that it’s actually a good thing because they look vibrant and alive even though they’re not an exact match to the flowers on Olivia’s gown. I’d love to hear what you think!

UPDATE 3:48pm: Phew, they’re done! Here’s the 2nd of the pair. I decided to move the velvet ribbons around, as well as use a green one on this one and the lavender on the other.

Time to pack - Jimmy’s there already playing a round of golf with the boys!

It’s been such an action-packed week already. I hit my self-imposed deadline of finishing a set of 8 Little Lugs by yesterday…and 3 of them have already been spoken for! Thanks to you fine ladies who’ve swooped them up — you’ve made me one happy camper indeed! =D

Here’s how the Little Lug - Honeycomb in Blue edition turned out:

And this here’s how the Little Lug - Modern Bud in Blue edition worked herself out:

Next to their big sister, these cuties seem miniature indeed. BUT…the Little Lugs are sizable totes in and of themselves, measuring in at 12″w across the top x 13″h. And they’re packed with 3 slip pockets inside to help you stay organized, not to mention a key tether — complete with swivel hook — aaaaaand the ever essential lip balm holster!

Check ‘em out, friends and neighbors!

One of the to-do’s coming out of my meeting with StitchCraft’s Nicole Vasbinder was for me to consider investing in manufactured labels for my bags. I currently hand make each and every label, so outsourcing this piece will help me streamline the process and take a few minutes out of the time it takes to make each bag.

I’d thought about this awhile ago after seeing Fashion Incubator’s post on How to order labels pt.1, but I’d put it on the back burner and kind of forgotten about it. Prompted by Nicole, I requested a quote from ClothingLabels4U.com. I also dug up Kathleen’s aforementioned post for the source mentioned there, Laven Industries, and got a quote from them as well. Both companies got back to me within the same day which I really appreciated, and now the ball’s in my court to figure out what kind of label I want.

ClothingLabels4U.com mailed me a bunch of samples, including these (woven labels on left, fusible labels on right):

…and these, which are the ones I like the best (front view on left, back view of same set on right):

Laven Industries sent me a PDF with photos of labels across different categories. Considering price, so far I like their printed twill labels the best:

This is my first label order and I’m pretty undecided, so I kind of wish the companies had a quick ‘n easy chart of the types of labels they offer and their corresponding prices so I wouldn’t have to go back and forth with “How much for this one? Oh wait, how about this one? Or maybe…what about…”. Maybe there are just too many variations to list, and/or they want customers to contact them, and/or perhaps it’s a competitor/privacy thing…? I dunno.

At any rate, here’s what my options currently look like:

Laven Industries

• Minimum order: 100 labels
• Prices at 250 labels:
  • Printed satin (cheapest): $90 + $50 setup
  • Printed twill: $120 + $75 setup
  • Woven label: $250 for 100 labels, or $275 for 500 labels (no setup fee, no option for 250 qty)
• Turnaround: 1-2 weeks depending on type of label
• Shipping costs: not sure

ClothingLabels4U.com

• Minimum order: 250 labels
• Prices at 250 labels: not sure, but 500 labels are between $270 and $380
• Turnaround: within 2-4 weeks or sooner after payment and approval of final proof
• Shipping costs: 15.00 for all US orders via FedX Ground (5-7 business days)

Custom Couture Label Company (an Etsy shop!)
Of course I had to check Etsy, and this seller has some great values on woven labels!

• Minimum order: 100 labels (the smallest quantity available on their site)
• Prices: $90 for 200 text-only woven labels (they also have other options on their site)
• Turnaround: 3 weeks
• Shipping costs: $4.95 via USPS Priority Mail

So…decisions, decisions. I know I want a horizontal layout. And text-only. One color for the text, one color for the background. Aaaand, that’s about it. Do I want it folded? How do I want it attached? I know it’s either sewn on around all four borders like I currently have, but then now that I have the option, maybe I want to sew it into one of my seams! Well hopefully I figure it out soon so I can cross this off my list of things to do. Wish me luck! =]