Making Things Archives

How to Make A Media Kit: Content

posted on April 22, 2014

So, media kits. Media kits are a convenient, handy file used to showcase the sponsorship options, site stats and services you can offer businesses and bloggers if they choose to collaborate with you. You generally send these out to companies you want to work with, potential sponsors, PR people, fellow bloggers and generally anyone who wants to give you money. Or things. Or just a cool opportunity, whatever, I know we’re not all Parker feel-a-likes here. Or living below the poverty line.

Anyway! We also don’t all have design skills or the cash to shell out for someone else to use their skills, time, knowledge and software/equipment to design stuff for us, so in the interest of being a sweetheart and also surreptitiously promoting my work*, I thought I’d give anyone wanting to get a media kit — or have one made; I can’t pick your interests and sponsorship options for you! — a place to start with a handy infographic (and the text version of it for accessibility purposes and also SEO. I care more about accessibility).

HOW TO MAKE A MEDIA KIT: CONTENT

INFORMATION
(include as many or as few as you’re comfortable with)

1. Who are you? What’s your name? How old are you? Where do you live, generally? What’s important to you? What are you passionate about? This can be a line, a paragraph, a list, a word soup, whatever. Just tell the your potential ~~money-giver~~ collaborator a little bit about you and what makes you tick.

2. What do you do? Are you a writer? Photographer? Designer? Coach? Doctor? Activist? Politician? Professional athlete? Stay-at-home mom? What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at? What do you specialize in?

3. What do you blog about? If you have a niche, by all means showcase it. If you don’t — and you don’t have to — let your potential collaborator know what you usually talk about on your blog. Be honest and as brief or not as you’d like. You can mention any series you do, your blogging schedule, anything that’s drawn a lot of readers to your blog, or any time you took an interesting angle to talk about something.

If your blog is particularly conservative or scandalous, or you’ve got very strong feelings about something, this is a good time to mention that, too. That way it won’t come off as too much of a shock if someone asks you if you’ll post content about Valentine’s Day that relies heavily on gender stereotypes and you tell them, “I’m sorry, but that goes against my entire worldview.” Hell, maybe they’ll even notice before they ask.

4. Where do you dwell online? Link your blog, your homepage, your portfolio, your social media presence. You’ve probably done this before for a network or for sidebar, so it shouldn’t be too hard! And if it’s relevant — e.g., if you’re seeking to collaborate with people in person, or your location plays a role in your blog, or you just feel like mentioning it — include where you live (country, city, probably not your snail mail address) and what your travel availability is. If you’ve been on TV or had articles featured on big websites or magazines, you can throw that in, too. And —

IMPORTANT: Include your e-mail address!

5. Who reads you? Yep, that’s the stats part. Some people keep it vaguer than others; some people include reader demographics (age, gender, location). You can toss in any or all of: your monthly pageviews, monthly unique visitors, average daily views, followers on various platforms, followers across all platforms, newsletter subscribers, average like count on Instagram selfies, whatever you think is cool.

6. How do you work with brands? Sponsorship options! What do you offer brands? Do you do sponsored posts, product reviews, giveaways, sidebar ads, social media shoutouts? Say so.

7. How much do you charge for it? “It” is your sponsorship options, and the rest is self-explanatory.

8. Who have you worked with before? Make a list, talk about it, sprinkle their logos across the page. Experience begets experience.

9. What have you done for them? “Them” being the brands or people you’ve worked with before. If you doubled someone’s sales, say so! If you did a super awesome shoot with a professional photographer (cough), toss in a picture. If you created a whole recipe to showcase somebody’s oven mitt, link it! Give potential collaborators an idea of what you do for the people who work with you.

10. What do they have to say about it? And this is where testimonials come in. Apparently a good closing argument! I wouldn’t know, but I listen to people who do.

PICTURES AND GRAPHICS
(sprinkle freely around your information)

Media kits, just like blogs, usually make liberal use of visuals, plus text is generally easier to swallow when there’s pretty around it, so don’t be shy about including images along with your information — from piecharts to headshots, it’s all cool. Here’s a brief list of things you can include:

Your logo — or failing that, your header
A look at your blog, e.g. a screenshot
Pictures of you and anyone and anything adjacent to you that makes appearances on your blog, be that your pet, your human baby, your apartment, your food, your outfits or your workspace
Examples of your work and behind-the-scenes photos of you doing that work
Logos of past collaborators

DON’T FORGET:

to include your blog URL/link, your name, and a valid e-mail address! Otherwise it’ll be hard for people to get in touch with you.

I think you’ve got plenty to go on now, so get working!

* DISCLAIMER/SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: I design media kits. It’s something I decided to offer on a whim and I fell in love with it. It turns out print design is my favorite, and I didn’t even know until January. Figures.

I mention this for two reasons:

1. Everything I know about media kits I learned from designing them.
2. Design work is my main source of income, so by hiring me you’d not only have some extra time to pamper yourself and pester your ~~cat~~ choice of baby, you’d also be contributing to my livelihood and that of my cat.

Thank you for reading this disclaimer!

—

I don’t get paid to write these posts. Please consider supporting my work on Gittip.

Budgeting Diaries Expat Wannabe Making Things Oxford the Cat Things I'm Thinking

10 Things: Life + Cat, Lately

posted on April 13, 2014

1. I renewed my ID, and it only took about half an hour! (Plus another half hour of walking to the police station, give or take ten minutes.) I missed my appointment on Thursday last week and when I went to book another one on Monday, the next available date was last Thursday. I was really worried they’d mail the thing to me and it would take 15-20 days and I wouldn’t have it in time to fly to London on April 28… but I do. Phew! And the pictures I took in my patio were fine, suck it, lady at the photo store around the corner from my street. You keep on being a money-hungry elitist jerk and I’ll keep on printing all of my stuff at the shop that’s five times further away from my house than yours.

(Seriously, that woman is — I have no words for the way she treats people unless they’re looking for, like, a massive wedding photography package. It’s absolutely appalling. I only went there because they have a public machine that prints semi-matte 4x6s on the spot. Suck on my seventy-five cents, lady.)

My old ID was so old it’s actually been to England with me. My old ID was so old I had my pre-trich eyebrows on it. My old ID was so old it was made before they switched to electronic IDs. My old ID was older than my library card. My old ID was so old it had been expired since April 2012.

So it really was about time I got a new one. Ahem.

2. Then on Friday I went to check my balance on Paypal and I got a page warning me that I’d hit the amount of money received where they send out a warning to verify your identity via ID and proof of address before you reach their non-verified account limit. I submitted the necessary documentation and the limits were lifted by the time I woke up this morning, but I’ve been doing some soul-searching because, like, the limit last reset in what, October? Since then, I’ve managed to receive 1,800€ on my account, and I only have 615€ left. (I had 620€, actually, but then I got a Paypal prepaid card with my legal name on it. That one will be mailed to me, so I really hope it gets here by April 27. It says within 10 working days, so it should. It better.)

That means I’ve somehow managed to spend 1,200€ in six months. I don’t know about you, but that freaked me out. What the hell? Then I did some searching and I realized that 200€ had been client-gets-cold-feet refunds, 200€+ had been phone bills, 200€ was direct business expenses (fabric, patterns, printing), a little under 100€ was work-related office-refurbishing (tripod, table, dollar-store baskets — my great aunt bought the 45€ chair), and of course there was the 175€ of the tablet I bought. That’s 975€, 800€ of which was entirely unavoidable. Etsy bills were also unavoidable, unfortunately. The rest of it is made up of clothes (144€), snacks, cat food, human food, and of course the 76€ plane ticket my bank, without warning, charged me 10€ for using my debit card to buy. Thanks, bank!

So anyway, that made me realize two things: one, that if I added up my expenses when I’m listing them on my expense table, I’d probably have been less surprised; and two, that buying clothes adds up, but a splurge on a coat and a splurge on a 174€ tablet that’s been used by multiple people every day since I bought it in six months probably isn’t a sign that I’m on a slippery slope towards complete financial irresponsibility.

I hope. Food and bills are still my number one priority. The third is saving up for the move, deposit, rent. I think I’m fine? On the right track. Let’s keep making money this month, people. Bug me about getting shit done.

3. I do need to buy a train ticket to Madrid and a cabin suitcase though. Not sure whether to go really cheap (20€) or invest in something halfway decent (40-60€). I’m not going to splurge, obviously. It probably depends on what I find. I want something that’s not too bulky to carry along with my laptop/camera bag and that doesn’t take up too much of the 10 kg allowance. I’d ask for recommendations, but given the space those things take up and the timeframe I’m working with, I’m going to have to shop local.

PRs feel free to send me something though. If you’re in Europe and you send it within the coming week, there’s a good 90% chance it’ll get to me in time! And then you’ll see your suitcase everywhere. I’m traveling with my own DSLR and a friend who has her own DSLR, so really, I’m not exaggerating. I’m planning to document the entire packing process, too. You know you want in on that. #prrequest

4. I just came across a post on Facebook asking people to leave a word (only one word) if they read the person’s updates, and then repost so that person could leave a word (only one word) back. “Please don’t leave a word and not repost.”

What?

As annoying as it is that people are constantly gauging whether Facebook is delivering their posts to their “likers” by posting graphics that range from standard to oh god my eyes, at least that makes a modicum of sense. This makes none. And then it makes none internally. And then people don’t owe you engagement, and what’s wrong with likes? Why are people so entitled on the Internet? It’s almost like those people who sometimes pop up (or used to pop up) in the Etsy forums clamoring for forcing people who favorited things to buy those things. Are you out of your goddamn mind, and I ask as someone who is? What the balls were you fed as a child?

5. On the topic of ranting, look out for a post entitled “Corollary to Marketing Advice: You Don’t Have To Get The Name Right (Though You Should) But You Should Definitely Use The Right Name.” Or maybe, “What’s In A Name? A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet, But It Might Well Stab You With A Thorn.” It will come with its very own pinnable vertical infographic, because I think it’s very important to make a distinction between fake name/pseudonym/alias, real name, and legal name, and then draw a lot of circles around real name with an arrow pointing to it that says THIS ONE! YOU USE THIS ONE!

Hi, my name is Lix and I chose it for myself. What’s up.

6. Something I really like about the tablet is that it allows me to sit on my bed before getting on my laptop every morning, cat on my lap and coffee on the sewing table, and instagram a picture of Oxford and me.

7. Oxford on his own showcases spring beautifully:

I’m enamored with these — the open windows and Oxford coming in and out at his leisure, and Oxford laid out along my legs while a storm was raging outside, a lovely, wonderful-smelling April downpour. The Instagram picture is captioned “Reading in bed with my cat on my knees (one of a few of my favorite things),” and it’d be amiss not to say that I completely rewrote My Favorite Things the next morning while I was drying my hair (and stretching, I’m still doing that) to customize it to Oxford and me.

8. I keep coming up with things that I should/could do that aren’t pressing or necessary but that I still should/could do, like a blog sale. Like making a collage of every photograph I have 4×6 prints of and listing it up on Etsy and instructing people to pick 3, choose between “print” and “greeting card,” and basically get rid of the envelopes that my top drawer keeps getting stuck on when I close it. Like taking pictures of the gadget covers I made that are too small for their intended devices, measuring what they will fit, and selling them. Possibly as part of the blog sale. Who really knows.

Like write up a commenting and social media engagement policy.

9. I’m a little tired. I’ve been applying to a lot of things on Elance and Gumtree and Problogger and whatnot. I’m considering pulling my membership from Oh My Handmade, which is something I think about nearly every week. Weekends are odd because you don’t get replies to things, but then you rarely get replies to things either way, do you? Maybe you do. I may be PMSing. Or maybe I’m just hungry.

10. The difference between the campaign I ran last year and the one I’m running now, besides the fact that I really want this one to be funded by in-person photography work, is that back then I was desperate and this time I’m desperate to not spiral, which means I haven’t been working as hard on it as I probably should. Strategizing is hard and I don’t want to book up my time with Annemari either, but I do want to have some bookings ahead of time. I want to run a giveaway and I do want to collaborate with bloggers to promote myself, but there’s no point in collaborating if I can’t stay there, is there?

In other words,

How about you?

Advice Making Things Read This

Read This: Link Love Love And Sewing Link (Bags and Home) Dump

posted on April 5, 2014

I always meant to make “Read This” a regular feature, but then I didn’t. So to begin with, I’m going to recommend two bloggers who curate link love posts consistently, and who do such a fantastic job of it that I pretty much always find half a dozen things I want to read from them:

» Bobbi from Today I’m Bobbi does This and That (nearly) every Friday, which covers everything from politics to events to design to random funny and charming things to brighten your day. I’m in it primarily for the “important” stuff, which I don’t get a lot of elsewhere, but I loved this Sarah Jessica Parker interview she linked on March 21. So sweet.

» Sarah from XO Sarah does Blog Love every Saturday. She focuses on articles about small business, entrepreneurship and design. I really needed this post about fear of failure that she linked last week. I just realized I also have this post she wrote bookmarked, which runs along the same lines. Super worth a read.

» Angel from Studio 404 does Links I Love every Friday, showcasing inspiring design work and sharing small business articles as well.

And now, because I’m too lazy to figure out how to transfer my Chrome bookmarks to my tablet and I always find myself wishing I had my sewing bookmarks handy on there, all the non-clothing sewing-related stuff I’ve got in my bookmarks:

The Importance of Pressing from Caila Made | Interfacing Guide from Amy Butler on Sew Mama Sew

PATTERNS AND TUTORIALS

Clutches: Bow Clutch from Elm Street Life | Leather Scalloped Zipper Clutch from Sewbon | Sequin Zipper Clutch from See Kate Sew | Oversized Foldover Clutch from Oh Sweet Joy | Foldover Doily Clutch from Skirt As Top

Protective Cases: Earbud Pouch from Erin Erickson | Sunglasses Case from Thread Riding Hood | Sketchy Glasses Case from Flamingo Toes | Gadget Sleeve (Four Options) from The Joy Cottage | Gadget Sleeve from The Green Wife

Makeup Pouches: See Kate Sew (Zipper & Bow) | See Kate Sew (Three Loop Buttons) | See Kate Sew (Bow & Velcro) | Sew Like My Mom | Noodlehead

Misc: Shoe Bags from Fabric Paper Glue | Drawstring Bag from Caila Made | Drawstring Bag from Bee of Design | Lunch Bag with Handles from Craft Buds | Tissue Holder from Notes From the Patch

Bags: Madeleine Bag from Imagine Gnats | Let’s Go to the Park Bag from Delia Creates

Pillows: Envelope Pillow Case (Buttons / No Buttons) from Delia Creates | Envelope Pillow Case from Designs by Sessa | Zippered Pillow Cover from My Poppet | Pleated Bundt Pillow from Skirt As Top

Baskets: Scrappy Fabric Basket from Threading My Way | Collapsible Storage Bins from Peekaboo Pattern Shop Blog | Quilted Sewing Machine Cover from Sew Delicious

I hope someone else finds this useful, but if not, at least I will! Happy sewing to me!

Making Things

A Sewing Update & Task Breakdown While I Catch Up On Reading Blogs

posted on March 15, 2014

I’ve got some things done this week, so I won’t write it off as a bust, but I’ve noticed that my motivation — especially my willpower to get out of bed in the morning — has been MIA. I had a weird emotional meltdown Thursday night, took yesterday easy (though certain comments certain people left on a certain post didn’t help) and I’m dedicating today to catching up on reading blogs. If I can get some design work done while I’m at it, all the better, but Monday’s the start of a new week and all my clothes are dry for the first time in months — I’ll get there.

What I was hoping to do today was buy some lining fabric for some of the things I have to sew, mainly tablet and e-reader covers. I need white and I need contrasting colors for certain photographs as well. I was all ready to cut everything I needed on Thursday and remembered that I’d yet to buy some of the materials. Still got a lot of fabric cut — a lot. Padding and interfacing and photo-printed fabric I’d yet to cut and lining for a couple of things, and while I was at it, I cut an envelope clutch shape out of my yard of Seaside Sunrise kona cotton and lining for that, and pressed the interfacing to that and another envelope clutch shape I had, this one with my Water Kisses photograph. (I named that last one picture after a line in a Jewel song.)

The design work on my to-do list is more pressing right now than the sewing, which has been waiting, what, nine months since my campaign ended? I’m going to have to confirm that my contributors haven’t moved again, so what’s another two weeks, right? But anyway, this is what I don’t need any extra fabric to make, for my own personal reference and for your nosing pleasure:

Envelope clutch, Water Kisses (for L)
Envelope clutch, Seaside Sunrise (because)
Cosmetics pouch, Seaside Sunrise (for K)
Pillow cover, Days of Romance (for M)
Pillow cover, Days of Romance (for S) (I was going to do Seaside Sunrise for this, but I don’t think I have enough fabric left over after the clutch)
Business card holder, Blurred (for M)
Tablet cover for my Samsung Galaxy with lining made up from the white edge scraps of Spoonflower fabric (I’m using left over Days of Romance fabric as the outer fabric)

I can also:

Research magnetic closures for clutches — doing it myself vs. having it done at a shop
Read up on sergers and overlocks and match English terms to Spanish
Get my mom to
- a) teach me how to use the overlock function on her machine
- b) put in the zipper foot and teach me how to do it
Shoot the lavender sachets I made
Get the lavender sachets I made ready to mail
Make more lavender sachets for no one in particular, just to list as ready to ship (unless one of you wants some!)
Match buttons to tablet covers

This is what I can try to do without extra fabric but am frankly terrified of and am saving for after I get a bit more comfortable sewing again:

Crop top, Puzzle Pieces (mine)
Crop top, solid gray (prototype)
Skirt, such small hands (mine)
Skirt, solid red (prototype)

This is what I can’t do until I buy more fabric:

Tablet cover, iPad, Settled In (for J)
Tablet cover, Kindle Paperwhite, Lost At Sea (for K)
Tablet cover, Kobo Glo, Adrift (for RJ)
Tablet cover, Kindle Fire, Days of Romance (for A)
Phone cover, Samsung Galaxy Ace, Days of Romance (for S)
Phone cover, iPod Touch 4th Gen, Waking Up (for A)
Eyeglasses case, Brand New Day (for M)
Cosmetics pouch, Come On Through (for S)
Foldover clutch, Waking Up (for T)
Those other pillow covers
A prom dress, but I should try to make that with an old sheet or something first

That’s what I’m focusing on at the moment — it all has a home already, and I want to launch the accessories line on its own because otherwise we’ll be here till next century. But I’d be really interested in collaborating with fellow bloggers (or just people, whoever!) on getting some clothing pieces made as well. I’d require payment to cover the materials and postage, and would trade the cost of labor and my profit for taking a chance on me and exposure. Spoonflower fabric is just ridiculously expensive; I can’t afford to buy three yards of cotton knit or cotton voile (panties!) hoping the finished products will sell, you know? They need to have sold already. So if you’re interested in that, give me a shout!

…and if you contributed to my campaign and I owe you a reward that’s not listed above, not to worry, I’ll get to you. I’m starting small and working my way up, but I really am working. Finally.

Making Things

Lessons Learned From Sewing My First Silk Scarf

posted on March 12, 2014

Or, more specifically, lessons learned from the mistakes I made while sewing my first cotton silk scarf. I believe in paying it forward.

1. Colors print beautifully on cotton silk — at least via Spoonflower they do. I’ve printed several photographs on basic combed cotton, quilting weight cotton, cotton poplin, linen/cotton canvas and silky faille (that last one was a swatch), and this cotton silk has by far the most vivid, lovingly printed colors of all of them. Absolutely enamored with it. (Might as well be, given the price.)

2. If you’re working with a lightweight, drapey fabric like satin, be careful how you bunch it up as you feed it into the machine. If you’re not careful, it may fold under itself and you’ll feed the fold into the needle and it will show. Forever. No matter how carefully you undo it.

3. Hand-rolling a hem takes a really long time and it’s tricky, especially when the fabric is slippery, but it does get faster as you go on, it’s absolutely worth the time spent on it, and it’s actually pretty relaxing. I listened to Pop Culture Happy Hour the whole time I was sewing this and it was the best.

4. That said, at first, the 36″ x 42″ dimensions that had seemed small at the time of buying and receiving the fabric will feel like three hundred and sixty four miles instead when you baste-stitch it… and when you stitch it… and when you hem it. Jesus Christ.

5. Lessons learned from making a cotton silk scarf for someone who knows about silk scarves and with my mom around to dole out some advice: iron on low heat and preferably with something between the silk and the iron. If you wrap up fabric in color tissue paper, there’s a chance the tissue paper will bleed. Use the thinnest needle you have because seriously, every single stitch you don’t roll into hiding will show on the fabric.

6. Finally, cotton silk scarves can be worn a myriad of ways, according to the Internet! My favorite is by far the neck tie, but I showcased another four ways in this post and there is so much more out there. This cotton silk scarf was too heavy for certain tie styles, and my hair was too short for some others, but the possibilities are endless.

7. If you sew a scarf with cotton silk printed with an original photograph you took, and you sew it by hand and it takes you three days, you will feel ridiculously proud when you’re done. Like, so proud you could burst. Good thing to remember.

Have you ever sewn with silk or similar fabrics before? Got any tips to share with me? I’m happy to learn from anyone’s mistakes, not just mine! And also from anyone’s experiences and successes, of course. Those, too, are good teachers. Either way, feel free to share them in the comments!

Diaries Making Things

Collage: 2014 Vision Board (CREATE.2014 Course + Creative Collective)

posted on February 19, 2014

There are two things I do with the skill and know-how of a four-year-old child. These two things are:

Drawing
Wrapping up packages

Now we can add “3. Collaging” to the list. In my defense, I was working with a bunch of gossip mags my grandma left behind and a supermarket travel points brochure with appalling print quality. Also no collage experience whatsoever.

But hey, look at Taylor Swift. You don’t have to look at anything else really. Well, maybe Zoe Saldana’s beautiful face. You may also glimpse Captain America’s uniform in there somewhere. Everything else is not worth looking away from those things. So says the law of the universe, and I agree.

I made this thing as part of the CREATE.2014 e-course, which issued the task of creating a vision board for 2014 on, like, a while back. January 16, whatever. In fact, on January 15, making a collage based around your word of the year was also the prompt for Melyssa’s Creative Collective link-up — which I’m linking this up with today because it’s Anything Goes day, and I know how to take advantage of an amnesty day. Ask my fanfic folders.

Originally, my word of the year, which by the way I never got around to blogging about or making much of a deal out of, look I’m not here to dwell in my delays let’s move on from this, was DO. I like simple things. I overcomplicate and overthink everything so whenever something simple presents itself, I seize it. And come on, I’ve been tossing Heath- no- whatever, the “Do it now” mantra/life goal/thing from Whatshername’s The Happiness Project (Gretchen Rubin! That’s her name. Not Heather. My bad) around in my head since I read that book (and Happier At Home) in 2012.

I have a massive motivation problem, and one of the things I’ve learned about myself and my working patterns along the past few years is that whenever I take on a project or have an idea, I’ll have a big burst of interest and enthusiasm for it, and unless I tackle it during that window of time, the interest and enthusiasm will slowly turn into “will I do it justice?” putting it off, which will then turn into “have I missed my window?” putting it off, which will then turn into total and utter apathy. At various points during my procrastination, I will consider picking up the project and feel actual dread.

Hence: “DO.” But the truth is, a lot of time “DO” feels really daunting. Like it requires more energy than I’m running on. So, while I’m still holding onto it for this year — I’ve got so much to accomplish — I decided to frame things differently. If last year I had ideas and I raised money for my clothing line and I set up my blog and my business, this year, I am making it happen. My move to London, my dream of financial stability, my sewn collection, my getting out.

2014 will be pretty and caffeinated, will travel, will have confidence and strength, and — this is just a fact of my life — will involve me breaking into Taylor Swift songs whenever someone says anything that could even remotely sound like one of her lyrics, like the other day when my friend Annemari said “I don’t know what I want.” (So don’t ask me…)

Maybe I’ll even pick up my guitar at some point? I’m definitely bringing more color into my wardrobe, and more organization and more breaks. More making (things) and more words (happen).

So that was the idea behind this collage. Actually that’s a lie, the idea behind this collage was “I managed to find a bunch of Taylor Swift pics in my grandma’s Spanish tabloids and by god I am going to use them,” and was informed by the way I pinterest, which is to say: a lot of interiors and some wanderlust. Low expectations made for a really enjoyable, laidback afternoon of getting paste from the stick on my fingers.

It was great. Let’s make more of that happen.

Advice Making Things

Tutorial: DIY Photo Note Cards

posted on September 29, 2013

This tutorial was originally posted on my wordpress.com blog.

A while ago I was getting frustrated because I wanted to sell cards with my photographs on them in my Etsy shop, but I couldn’t afford a printer and none of the photo labs in town were up for printing cards for me. I could order cards online, but it had to be in batches, and the shipping costs were higher than the price of the cards.

So one day I was talking about this in the FPOE (Female Photographers of Etsy) group, and someone told me she just made her own – with double-sided tape, the kind people use for scrapbooking. I’ve been making my cards that way since, and this post is me passing along that idea. The tutorial is just a formality.

Tutorial: DIY 2×2 Folded Photo Note Cards

Keep in mind that you can use this tutorial to make cards of any size, but I’ll take you through my 2″ x 2″ (5 x 5 cm.) folded note card process because that’s the kind I make the most of. These are great to include a handwritten thank-you note with your orders if you have an online business – I include one in all of mine! You can also use them as little notes for lunchboxes, or punch a hole in a corner and attach it to a gift. The best part is you can use any photo you have, including the kind you take for Instagram! If my sister took a lunchbox to school, I’d probably put notes in it with ridiculous pictures of our cat.

It’s cute and useful, is what I’m saying. And very easy and inexpensive to make.

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Books Making Things

A Book Cover I Love (So Much That I Sketched It)

posted on September 12, 2013

I saw this book chat link-up over at Life With a Side of Coffee and I thought I’d pitch in with a small post. I don’t have thoughts to share on covers — not at this particular moment, anyway — or an absolute favorite book cover — some I like, some I dislike, some I love — but the first one that popped into my head was the UK cover of Malinda Lo’s Ash, the one on the left:

Not that the one on the right isn’t pretty — it’s quite lovely — but it was the UK version my library bought on my request, and it was the UK version I read and, when I was done reading, decided to sketch. If you’ve known me for a while, you know drawing is very much not a talent I possess, and I’m fairly self-conscious about it. That’s why I don’t draw properly. When I do draw, it’s by black pen on a scrap of paper, something that doesn’t make me feel like I need to make an effort at all because hey, it’s just a doodle.

But I like how this doodle came out, so I kept it and now I’m showing it to you all. It seemed appropriate.

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