For Amy & A Tour

Amy left a comment asking how I take photos of my cards. We live in a VERY dark house, lovely, but dark with almost no natural light that allows for good indoor photos. I’ve tried lots of things, but have been reluctant to invest in a light box for photographing my cards. Recently, however, almost by accident I’ve come upon a system that is working quite well. My husband bought the wrong florescent light bulbs for our son’s room. They were “daylight” bulbs, and Matt hated them. So I switched with him, and it took a bit of getting used to but for indoor and nighttime photography they have been great. I also use a piece of white foamcore board that I bought at Michaels. I cut it about halfway through so it bends in half and use it as the background. Sometimes I put a piece of coordinated cardstock on the back of it, but often I leave it as is. The white board makes color cast correction in PSE really easy. It looks like this:

And I get a photo like this:

While I was at it, I decided to take some photos of my study. It’s a small room which I have crammed with as much stuff as it possible. I’m in desperate need of a major purge again, but I think it will have to wait until after the holidays.

My desk is an L-shaped desk I bought at Staples ten years ago. It has held up really well and has a good amount of work space. To the right is a stamp cabinet Tracy built for me nearly 15 years ago. Each shelf holds an acyrlic picture frame with stamps organized by theme.

The bookcases came from Target seven or eight years ago when Sarah moved out and I took over this room. The CD holder is from IKEA and houses my acrylic stamp sets as well as CDs.

I love my chair from LL Bean. It flips out into a single bed when we need extra space for company.

Last year I found this printer’s drawer in our garage and refinished it to hold my most used rubber stamps. The table underneath pulls up to counter height when I want to work on a project standing up. I paid $20 for it at IKEA several years ago. It was a great solution for a tiny room. I can’t get into my closet when it’s pulled up, but it hasn’t been a major problem.

The closet is small but hold a ton of stuff. The racks on the door and the hanging drawers are both from The Container Store. The two units of drawers underneath came from one of the office supply stores. I have to say I love this space. Until I moved into this room, I shared space with the rest of the family. It was fine, but this is great. It’s not big, but we’ve managed to utilize the space pretty effectively. I do have to admit, however, when I’m in the middle of a big project I end up with stuff all over the floor as well. Usually I’m really neat and organized, but I’m not a neat crafter!