treasury feature, August EBW Challenge piece, light box up and running

I think that this week I've set a record for the number of new treasuries that I'm included in during one week!  Chris Maj (beadn4fun) included my green button embellished right angle bracelet in her "Bead" the Heat treasury tonight.  16 beautiful EBW items that are on sale for Christmas in July.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

As promised, I listed my August EBW Challenge Gold and Silver piece tonight.  It's my gold and silver wrapped skinny peyote cuff.  I've had this idea for quite a while.  This challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally make it happen.  It also pushed me to create my skinny wrapped peyote cuff pattern that I'll be listing tomorrow.

I really love the button on this cuff.  My mom gave me a stash of vintage buttons for Christmas that she'd purchased in bulk from a fabric store, which included a large number of metal buttons.  This is only the second one that I've used so far.  There will be more of them in my pieces in the future.  You can search "ebwc" on Etsy for more challenge entries that have already come in.  I'll post more about the challenge as voting approaches.

I got my light box up and running today.  I'm really pleased of how well everything is working so far!  I  followed the instructions from this DIY tutorial on the digital-photography-school.com web site.  The only things that I did differently are that are used two lights instead of one (on the recommendations of many Etsy blogs/forum posts about light boxes) and that I used Ott lightbulbs (on the recommendation from this Etsy forum post).  For those who are interested in doing this themselves, here's my breakdown of the materials/costs:
-1 large cardboard box (I had this at home because I don't throw out boxes when we'll almost definitely be moving within the next 2 years, otherwise you can probably get one from work)
-white poster board (I already had this at home from my craft fair sign project, but poster board is less than $1 a sheet at Wal-Mart or Target)
-white fabric (I spent $2 on a 100% cotton fat quarter at Jo-Ann Fabrics, but I know that many of you probably have this already...FYI the fat quarter was almost the perfect amount for my box)
-2 desk lamps (I got mine for $10 each at Target, make sure that you get lamps that will accommodate 60W bulbs...a lot of desk lamps are only 40W)
-2 Ott bulbs (I got this kind of bulb at Lowe's for $5 each)
I also used scissors (both paper and fabric), masking tape, and a ruler, all of which I already had at home.  I did not use a knife or glue like the web site tutorial suggests, but you can certainly use these materials if you choose.  The only other thing that I purchased is my tripod, which was this tripod from Target for $15.  It had by far the best reviews out of all of the cheap tripods (under $30) that I browsed this week.  No, it would not be conducive for professional shooting or extended outdoor shooting, particular in areas with uneven footing, but for limited indoor shooting, it's great.

So as you can see, the costs were pretty minimal.  Here it is all set up.  I ran a power strip over to the desk so the desk lamps could reach.  I weighed the bases of the lamps down so that they could angle down this far.  Jake has pretty much moved his main painting area to the living room so I should be able to leave my box set up on this desk in our second bedroom.

I did a small shooting session when I got everything up and running to make sure that it works.  I used a single page from a version of Fur Elise that I got free from Dover online last year.  It doesn't look as classy as my Chopin book, but until I run off some single pages from Chopin (the large book doesn't fit when it's open in the box), it will work.  You get a sneak preview of my newest button bracelet here.

I shot a handful of of pictures with white backgrounds, too.  It doesn't really feel like me haha, but I am pleased with how it looks.  Maybe I'll get used to it as I get more comfortable with the box and the tripod.  As I wrote earlier today, I'm definitely not giving up the music background, but I might experiment with 1-2 white background shots for a listing.

Jake got excited about the light box and had me photograph a few of his Warhammer models.  I had the lights aimed more directly overhead when I started, then switched to the side angle that you see above.  These couple shots are from the side angle.  The detail is much better.  The top of the models, especially the faces, got lost in the dark (even with editing), when the light came from overhead.

My crafty work also inspired Jake to work on his next storage box for his models that he's had the materials for for quite a while.  This was another great DIY tutorial that we found online a few years ago.  This is Jake's third DIY box.