Valentine's Photoshoot Prep

The recent photo session was a lot of fun and photos turned out wonderful.  I got the idea to do a kissing booth theme while browsing through Pinterest awhile ago.  A lot of people were using these wooden crates for the booth and I just happened to have a few that I bought for my office renovation, so it worked out good.  You can find these crates at many different places--I got mine at Michaels and Home Depot.  Price was slightly cheaper at Michaels using their 40% coupon, but I thought the quality was a bit better with the ones from Home Depot.  The only thing is, they don't stock them in store so you'll have to place the order online and go pick them up later.  It took about 5 days for me, which isn't bad if you're not in a rush.  I paid about $10/crate. I also picked up 2 skinny strips of wood and 1 wide plank to complete the structure for about $5.

You can get as fancy and creative as you'd like in decorating the kissing booth.  I decided to keep mine pretty simple and added just the sign and a row of hearts.  Since I had to reuse my crate for the office, I opted against using nails or screws, but instead used heavy duty double-sided adhesive strips and duct tape.  It held well enough for the photoshoot, but one side did come apart couple days later, so my advice would be to secure it firmly with proper hardware, especially if you plan on using this to take photos of little ones.  Here are a few photos of the steps outlined:

gather all pieces: crate, 2 side sticks, and one wide board

assemble the pieces--I strongly recommend nails or screws.  I also made the mistake of putting the board facing the wrong side initially.

I added vinyl letters for the sign

I didn't have red paper on hand so I had to get creative and do a quick stencil job.

I taped a row of hearts and that's it!

All in all, it was a pretty simple project and well worth my time and effort.  It took a little longer than anticipated since I had to paint the red hearts.  Yes, it would've been a lot faster and simpler to just use red paper, but we were stuck in snow and I had to do with what I had in the house.  Oh, and I added the mason jar for the tips, and we were ready for some smooches! You can see the actual photos from the session here.

Thanksgiving Photoshoot Prep

I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the background preparation that goes into each photoshoot in my new project--if nothing else, it's a good way for me to document each step.  So, here are some details to last week's Thanksgiving session.

Once I decided on the theme, I set out to buy the pilgrims costumes online, but quickly realized that they're not that easy to come by and also quite costly.  I did however find a whole bunch of tutorials on how to make paper pilgrim's hat and bonnet for kids and that gave me an idea to make my own.  I knew that i wanted to substitute paper with fabric or something a bit more realistic and also more durable, so I had to get a little creative.  For Jasper's hat, I looked around the house for a suitable "top" and at the end decided on an empty cup ramen container.

what shall we use...

styrofoam cup was too small...

old Ikea pencil holder was a good size but a bit heavy...

ramen cup was the perfect size and weight!

I was tempted to eat the ramen first, but thought it best to keep it clean, so I put away the noodles in a ziplock bag for a later consumption.  For the brim of the hat, I simply used a cardboard box and cut out a circle in the middle about the same diameter as the ramen cup.

At this point, I took a trip to a local craft store and picked up a sheets of black, white and yellow felt. The rest of the project involved a lot of cutting and gluing of the felt onto the cup ramen and the cardboard template and then joining the two pieces together.  I used my hot gun for the job, but staples or double sided tape will probably work as well, and they also sell the felt sheets with the adhesive backing which I considered (but was too cheap to pay the additional $0.50).  The last step involved sewing on some spare black shoestrings I had lying around (why, I have no idea).  I didn't spend a whole lot of time or effort into making it all pretty and perfect since it's for a photoshoot, but I think it turned out pretty good and I definitely think it's better than using paper.

For Misty's bonnet, I thought about sewing together a real bonnet out of fabric, but I couldn't really find a template that was simple enough for me to even consider attempting on my limited sewing skills, and I really didn't want to make one out of paper, fearing it'll end up ripping and not lasting through the photoshoot.  Then, I found this tutorial which used a thin foam sheet (also found at a craft store) and that was perfect for my needs.  I followed the tutorial exactly and only had to modify it a bit (cutting it a little more in the back) to make it a better fit for a dog's head.  The foam material makes it more rigid but it keeps it's shape better, I thought.

All in all, this project only cost me $6 and couple hours of my time--not too bad!  Now onto the photos--you can see the actual photoshoot pictures in here.