For today I have a fun tutorial for all you Photoshop lovers out there. I was inspired by Instagram actually (do you Instagram?) and their tilt-shift feature. What is tilt-shift photography? It is a selective focus photography where pictures have a shallow depth-of-field...meaning there is a small part of the image in focus and the rest is out of focus or blurry. Tilt-shift can produce some very dreamy images and I like how Instagram has added that feature into their app. It is fun to play around with. There are tilt-shift lenses you can buy but I looked around online to find a way to fake it in Photoshop. I followed this guide on Tilt Shift Photography but I've included my own steps here.

I found a few favorite pictures that I took in Capri, Italy. They were perfect for experimenting and now I'm going to show you how to tilt-shift your own images in Photoshop. The above image is the 'before.'

First, open up your image in Photoshop. I have version CS2 so depending on your version, your screen might look different. These steps are pretty simple though so regardless of version, you should be able to follow along.  

Next you want to enter into Quick Mask mode. Just hit 'Q' on the keyboard. Or click on the icon I've pointed out in the image above which is the Quick Mask icon. 

Then select the Gradient icon (or press 'G' on the keyboard). At the top you have a few options for different gradients, choose Reflected Gradient. Then in Gradient mode you will want to draw a straight line on part of your image. I drew a vertical line in the center of the image which I represented with the black line above. The location of your line will be the in-focus area of your image. Once you draw the line, this red mask will appear which also represents the in-focus area.

Then you will want to exit out of Quick Mask mode. Just hit 'Q' again to exit. You will then have parts of your image that are selected. The areas with the little lines around them (selected areas) will be the out-of focus parts of your image. Above I depicted the in-focus area in white and the out-of focus area in blue.

Next go up to the top menus to Filter, then Blur, and then Lens Blur. You will enter into this dialogue box that you see above. The default settings are pretty good so I usually just adjust the 'Radius' button. Adjust buttons yourself and see what you like. When done, just click 'ok' at the top to apply the blur. Then just deselect your selected areas and your image is complete.

And you should get something like this! A really nice tilt-shift blur don't you think? You can go back and adjust the gradient to vary the placement of the in-focus area and tweak different settings until you get the right blur for you. But with just a few steps, you can transform your normal pictures into tilt-shift photographs quick and easily.

Instagram also has the option to do a radial (circle) tilt-shift and you can create that same effect in Photoshop too.  When you're in the Quick Mask Mode, make a circle with the Elliptical Marquee Tool and then apply the gradient just within that circle. Follow the steps the same as above and you will get something like this:

The before.

And the after.

This is a pretty quick and nifty Photoshop feature, one which I'll be experimenting with on all different kinds of images. Have you made tilt-shift pictures in Photoshop before? Do you like the look of tilt-shift? Let me know if you start experimenting. I'd love to see your results. 

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Today I'm going to share my February DIY that I created for Whisker Graphics. If you don't know, I do a monthly project for them which highlights their wonderful products. We've been collaborating since July so this is my eighth project. See my past projects here. For February I decided to spice up some regular pencils using Bitty Bags. I must admit I was inspired by these lokta pencils which are carried by Anthropologie. I have a set of them myself and they are so fun. I wanted to recreate that look using the Bitty Bag material.

The Bitty Bags are lightweight, made from glassine-like material so I knew they wouldn't need much to stick them to the pencils. Modge Podge turned out to be the perfect adhesive. It is sticky enough and it dries clear so I didn't worry about applying it carefully. It got everywhere but it didn't matter. 

I used the new vertical-stripe bags but Whisker Graphics has a handful of cool patterns which would work just as well. I think I want to try some other materials next. Maybe tissue paper or wrapping paper so that I can get different patterns and textures. 

Visit the Whisker Graphics blog to see the full materials list and my write-up. I think I will put together a full tutorial with pictures soon so that everyone can get a better visual of what I did. Check back for that.

These would make for great party favors, don't you think? I would wrap them up with a little pad of paper for easy gifting. And I think they work for kids and adults too. I would love to receive them. I don't write with regular pencils too often (I usually opt for mechanical pencils) but these frilly ones will definitely encourage me to jot more notes. And the colors are so cheerful, it would be hard to ignore them.

I hope you enjoyed this DIY today. Happy crafting friends! 

I have already added a few DIYs and pictures from the blog but I'll be doing more updating this week. I want to create a gallery of all my DIYs with links for easy viewing and sharing. My Twitter & Instagram feed will be showing up there and I'll be sharing links to my blog posts as well. So it will be a nice central hub for all things Lauren Elise Crafted and all the latest happenings. 

Check out the right sidebar to 'like' me and follow the link to see the Lauren Elise Crafted page. I definitely want to connect with fellow readers, bloggers, and creatives so don't be afraid to say hello.

Have a great Monday! 

Here is what the seventh week of 2012 looked like for me...

Sunday: I got to go to Unique LA for the first time for their Local Love event with my brother and friends. I shared some pictures on Wednesday. It was a great show and I can't wait for the next one. I should start saving up some money now.

Monday: I spent part of the day working on a custom burlap banner for a bride I've been working with. Her bridal shower is today actually and I hope she has a fantastic time. I'll share pictures of the entire banner soon.

Tuesday: Tuesday was Valentine's Day! I packaged up this card for my Mom with a pretty doily and red heart.

Wednesday: On Wednesday night I got to watch my brother and his band Mojo Stone perform live. They always give an amazing performance. They are releasing a new album soon and hearing some of their new stuff got me super excited for what they have coming up. 

Thursday: I finished up another role of film on my Diana Mini. Excited to send it in and see how my pictures turned out. I love the anticipation factor in waiting for film.

Friday: I started working on a sewing project on Friday. It felt good to use my sewing machine again. Danni from Oh, Hello Friend gave me these cute mini scissors and they were perfect to have nearby for snipping threads. Mini things are the cutest.

Saturday: Spending more time working with my sewing machine. I love the underside of sewing and embroidery projects. The threads get all twisted together and it's kind of a mess but there is something beautiful about it.

How was your week?

Follow me on instagram if you like. My username is laurenelisecrafted. Or see all of my pictures on the computer through Followgram. Happy weekend! 

Learning Curve was designed by Blue Vinyl Fonts. The designer Jess Latham is also responsible for another one of my favorites Print Clearly which I use all the time. I think both are a great duo for any designer to have in their arsenal of fonts.

If you want to see more font picks, check out the blogs of my other type lovin' friends:

Alexandra ♥  The Aerialist Press 

Alison ♥ Alison Owen Design

Anna ♥ And Everything Nice

Jen ♥ Blush Printables

Sofia ♥ Brancoprata

Steph ♥ Bubblerock

Vicki + Barb ♥ Curly Willow DIY

Catherine ♥ Design Editor

Chelsey ♥ Fourth & Folded

Laurel ♥ Go Against the Grain

Jenny ♥ Hank & Hunt

Allie ♥ Honey Bee Invites

Alison ♥ The Knotty Bride

Jenna + Elizabeth ♥ Little Bit Heart

Lauren ♥ Palm Papers

Kerry ♥ Super Swoon

Wendy ♥ WesWen Design

I hope everyone has a great weekend. What are your plans? I have some family out for a few days so that should keep me pretty occupied. Looking forward to catching up and sharing family meals with loved ones that I don't see too often. Hopefully I can get a few fun side projects done too.

I find that natural light is really the key. I always want to shoot in it. Pictures just look better (in my opinion). Like I said, it was very dark yesterday and all the ambient light was streaming in through this large window. I knew I wanted to shoot on this desk because it was near the light. In my experience light-colored surfaces photograph better too so that was another reason for picking the desk. Finally, I propped up two foamcore boards to bounce light from the window back onto the subject, my craft I was styling. Without the foamcore to reflect light, the subject would have a really bright side (the side closest to the window) and a heavily shadowed side. Sometimes you want a moody picture with that harsh contrast between light and dark but that was not my vision for this shot. The foamcore boards bounce the light and eliminate shadow.

The Key to Better Product Shots:

{1} natural light

{2} white foamcore to bounce light & eliminate shadow -

could also use a white sheet or large white posterboard, anything large & white

{3} light-colored surface - helps in bouncing the light

These are the three keys to my product photography and I implement each one in every shoot. I am still learning and with each picture I take I learn a bit more about lighting and styling and photography. I find these work the best for me. They are also cheap options. Foamcore is super inexpensive and you can use the same boards over and over again. Natural light is free! And light colored surfaces aren't too hard to find either. I have a few favorite go-tos in my home.

Do you setup mini studios for your product shots? What are some of your techniques for capturing light and making your subject look great? I would love to hear tricks of the trade that other photographers have picked up. 

Unique is held inside, in a loft-warehouse space. It is on the 13th floor with windows all around the perimeter so you get a great view of Downtown LA. Similar to Renegade, the rows of vendor booths are the main focus but Unique also had a DIY station, a photobooth, lounge areas with chairs, a DJ, and plenty of food vendors offering free samples. The food and wine samples were quite the treat. My brother came along, his first LA craft fair experience, and each time I looked up he was at a different vendor partaking in the tasty samples. He came hungry.

It was a cloudy day in LA but we still enjoyed the Downtown views.

David checking out Pocket Square bowties. They had a beautiful collection with a great mix of fabrics and textures. On the right is a sampling of the vintage-inspired, pocket watch necklaces by Love Nail Tree. I've seen them at Renegade before. They have some watches where you can see the gears and internal mechanisms moving. Very cool! Kind of steampunk. I like it.

A wide array of posters from The Poster List. I've bought things from them before at Renegade. I love all the color.

The tins on the right are all candles from the Topanga Candle Company. This company repurposes vintage tins, containers, boxes, crates, kitchen accessories (anything really) into new candles. I'm a big fan of finding new uses for old things so this booth was fascinating.

There were cute decals up all over the walls, including this pink one in the elevator.

It was such a fun show and I was so glad to make it. Sadly I got called away sooner than planned so I didn't spend as much time there as I wanted. But I think they do another show in the spring so hopefully I don't have to wait too long to return. I purchased a really cute scarf that I'll share in a Crafted Fashion post soon. It was such a good find.

I still love Renegade but Unique is a fabulous show too. They are different but I think there is a place for both shows in LA. I look forward to future craft and handmade fairs, including Unique and Renegade and any other new ones that happen to pop up! 

Today I wanted to reblog some pictures I shared last year at Valentines. I styled a love shoot for friends Brancoprata as a guest post and I couldn't help revisiting those images today. I can't believe a year has flown by! For this project I defined keywords for what love is like: fun, heartfelt, friendship, and sweetness. I then represented those words with small gifts. Fun was heart confetti, sweetness was candy hearts, and heartfelt was a little stuffed heart I made.

The idea behind the project was to focus on the things that really matter at Valentines, love and friendship and not just gift giving. It was fun coming up with the little trinkets that would represent the words. And of course I love the pink, red, and white colors. Getting something heartfelt and handmade like this would be my ideal Valentine's present. I could skip the heart-shaped box of chocolates and roses.

To each and every one of you: have a day filled with love!

See the post on Brancoprata and my original post last year for more pictures.

I have made a few little stamps in the past with my stamp carving kit but this was my first larger stamp with finer details. It was fun carving away and I hope to make a few more prints in the future. This is such a quick and easy solution for cards. Carve the stamp ahead of time and then just stamp away whenever you need a handmade greeting for someone. 

I particularly love the texture and imperfections of rubber stamps. No two prints can be exactly the same and to me that definitely adds to the appeal. Stamp pads come in all kinds of colors so possibilities are pretty endless. If you would like to carve this stamp for yourself, you'll need a stamp kit and this template. Remember to mirror the template for carving.

But if you don't have the time to carve your own stamp, I have also included free printables with these four colors. They are scans of my own prints. They are pre-sized for an A2 envelope. Print them out on cardstock and use them like a postcard to write your love message on the back.

{ yellow l purple l pink l blue }

I paired these stamps with beautiful Besotted Brand products. Tristan, the lovely designer behind Besotted, has curated such a great shop and I am so impressed by the quality of everything. I stamped on her Ultra Luxe Cardstock and I am in love with it. Your stamps will never look better. The paper is so thick and fine. I also used her True Kraft Envelopes and Kindly Deliver To Hand Stamp. Everything in her shop is simple design but she gives extra attention to those little details we all love. I definitely recommend browsing through Besotted if you're a lover of paper goods.

Does anyone have any special plans for Valentine's Day? Do these free cards help in your last minute scramble? Enjoy the freebie and have a happy love day tomorrow! 

Sunday: I got to see some gorgeous, billowy, white clouds on my way out of work.

Monday: Packaging for a Valentines Etsy order.

Tuesday: I started a new feature on my blog called Styling Vignettes. This time I cataloged some natural elements from my backyard plus a beautiful feather print from Carolyn Suzuki.

Wednesday: I wasn't feeling super great on Wednesday so I spent extra time in bed resting. I started watching Downton Abbey. I'm all caught up now and must admit I'm pretty hooked. I captured a picture of the talented Maggie Smith. Love her!

Thursday: After a day of clouds and potential rain, the sky cleared up and we had 80 degree SoCal weather. Typical.

Friday: I ran an errand and took Scout with me. She likes sitting in reverse in the back seat of the car. So weird. It looks like I put her in 'car time out.'

Saturday: I worked on some stamping today. I get to share the results on Monday.

So that was my week six. What did yours look like?

Follow me on instagram if you like. My username is laurenelisecrafted. Or see all of my pictures on the computer through Followgram. Happy weekend!