Working with brides

Seems like a lot of the brides I have been working with on Etsy are getting their bridesmaid dresses at J.Crew. This makes it great for sending them a little collage that shows the dress they already picked along side my fabric recommendations for clutches. If you make other wedding related items, like the gorgeous brooch bouquet by LionsgateDesigns shown in my collage, I think you can use the collage feature on Picnik the same way I do. Just right click the photo of the dresses they are wearing, and save it to your computer. Do the same for any fabric swatch photos or other accessories you want to recommend. Upload those photos to Picnik. Click on collage, choose your layout, and drag and drop the photos into the layout. Click "done." Save the collage as a photo and email it or attach to an Etsy convo. I think it is a very impressive way to communicate with your potential customers.

Hello teachers and scrapbook enthusiasts

School starts tomorrow for us, so I wanted to pass this along. Picnik has some great ideas for teachers. It really is fun to play with their frames and collages. Almost enough fun to make me want to start scrapbooking. If you already love scrapbooking, you will probably flip over all of the easy page options on Picnik. If you have been wanting an easier way than physical cutting and pasting to create great mementos for your students, here is your answer. They show the new back to school features, like my blog banner sample below, and student desk name tags, on the Picnik blog. Imagine your kindergarten teacher in the photo above holding a book and introducing herself to you in her first newsletter... all I did was add the Polaroid frame to my photo and then added the text, all in Picnik.

Luggage tags for instrument cases! The fifth grade parents don't even know about band yet, so it is not too late to promote these - cool! My J-I-T marketing plan is so crazy, it just might work!

before and after

Before and after
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

I thought the first photo shoot was okay. I have to say I was a little disappointed because the bags are each so beautiful. I think that was lost when we piled them atop one another. I had the idea yesterday to take them to our new favorite staircase (where we shot the slipcovered chair for One-Yard Wonders 2) and try some angles. The light was too full for us yesterday, so we had to head back there this morning before Rory went to work. We were able to get really creative in showing off the 5 bags. More shots on flickr, click on the photo to go there. This was my first time trying out the collage at Picnik I wanted to show the before and after side by side.

I just lost photoshop because it looks like the guy we bought it from did not have the license to it. I tried contacting the actual license owner to see if he would transfer it to me since I paid for it, but have not heard back yet. So for now, Picnik is my friend - and I do love it. If you need photo editing software but don't want to spend the money for photoshop, Picnik is great.