Cut, crop & lighten

The before and afters of my photo's.

This blog post is a sneaky peak, behind the scenes kind of post to show the importance of photo's within an online shop and a little message to all other small business sellers that a little editing can go a long way when it comes to sales.

I love other people to make sales in their online shops, because for me, it's just no fun when people don't feel they can get involved with the community as much and it makes me feel happy to see everyone making their fair share, even in this climate.

Although I am no expert or professional at selling and I still have a lot to learn myself the one thing we can all do easily is review our photographs.

I often feel that the one thing that holds sellers back from making their first, second or third sale is their photographs and effectively under-selling themselves and their products.

We have to remember that the challenge to selling online is making that first impression without actually meeting or greeting the customer. We also need to remember that the photographs are the only way the viewer can see the item they might purchase and this is what will get them to stay in our shops for long enough to potentially buy something.

For me, my photo's are vital in continuing my She Draws brand throughout my shop and making my shop look far more professional than just little old me working from home, but I can tell you it took me a long time to get into the swing of my brand and to make photographs that were suitable and caught the eye.

My photo's are in no way fantastic, but for me they tick the right boxes:

1.Clear

2.Simple

3.Eye catching

4.In keeping with She Draws

I am fortunate enough to have editing software such as photoshop and although I am aware not everyone has this, I hear through the grape vine that there are free editing softwares for you to get going with. All I have done with the "before & after" photo examples above are, crop, brightened and altered the contrast and I hope you can see they make a massive difference!

I hope that this sneak peak has given you some inspiration for your own shops and while the sun is coming out i'd get out there and get snapping!

Tutorials: Recycle your old business cards

A good (design) friend sent me a link to someone who loved their Moo cards so much they decided not to give them anyway and recycle them into magnets. And since the swap over of names and shop I naturally had quite a few Glue & glitter cards left and so after seeing this tutorial for the Moo cards I thought I'd make some of my own but this time with my old regular sized business cards. The design of my cards are perfectly formed (with a bit of luck!) for this project as there is a square just dedicate to my illustrations and since all the other details on my business cards are now redundant I was able to just snip them off to leave a the illustrations in their square form. So here we go.

1. All you need is some old (or new) business card, some scissors, some double sided tape and a magnetic strip. Here I am using some magnet paper I had left over from years ago, but you can buy a magnetic strip tape which is already tacky on one side and fairly cheap about £1.50 for 1 metre.

2. Here is me snipping off the redundant part of my business card to leave the pretty illustrations. I'm not sure what I could do with bit I cut off but I am convinced I must be able to do something, especially as one side has "glitter" written across it. Maybe this will be a later tute when i've thought of something.

3. I cut my magnetic paper into small long strips and then taped them up with the double sided tape. If you buy the magnet strip tape then I don't think you need to tape the back as it is already done for you, making them project even more simple!

4. Peel off the tape and stick to the back of your cards. I have used two pieces, one at the top and one at the bottom. And there you have it some nice magnets which are great for taking to craft fairs or giving as free gifts.

As in step 2. I cut off the details but you could leave them on or if you use the moo cards they have the details on the back. These would be very good to give out as business cards as I reckon the receiver would be less likely to throw them away and so hopefully remember you!

This is a super simple project and so obvious. I wish I had thought of it myself, but never the less we can also have a go and do a bit of recycling. I will be giving my new magnets away with all purchases bought from my shop. Enjoy!

Rubber ring Tute

A great little tutorial from cute little distaster. Inspired by a fabulous positive ring by YellowGoat.