DIY Felt Flowers - Easy Craft

Last updated on 21 April 2016

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Hello Monday! So yesterday I showed you some St Patrick’s Day nails that I did (though they weren’t very good), and I mentioned that I had taken the pictures in the light box that I made. I’d been meaning to make one for a while, but didn’t have a good sized box, and I couldn’t find any white tissue paper. But that all changed over the last week, so I was finally able to make one! I thought I’d share it with you, so you too, can make one.

But just before I do, in case you don’t know what a light box is: It’s a box…that lets lots of light in. Surprise surprise. Ever wonder how people get awesome pictures with super white, clean backgrounds? They probably use a light box. It’s great for things like jewellery and crafts, especially if you have an Etsy shop, or a website where you sell things. It allows lots of light in, so you have a sharp, clean and clear snap of your product/thing.

It’s super easy to make, and it barely costs anything. Let’s go!

What you’ll need:

When picking a box, you need to think about what kinds of things you want to be photography inside the light box. I have a reasonably small box (about A4 sized all around), but I think that’s mostly because all my other options were ginormous. I may make another one at some stage, that is slightly bigger. But for now, this is good.

You also need white tissue paper. It needs to be because white reflects light, and it’s also see-through enough that light will come right on in!

1. Decide which way you want your box to be (horizontal or vertical). Next grab your craft knife (or scissors, if you don’t have one) and carefully cut out the top, the front and the two sides. Make sure you leave the back of the box, and also the bottom of the box intact. When you’re cutting, leave a border/edge around all the sides, like in this picture. This is so you actually still have sides when it comes to sticking the tissue paper on.

2. Once you’ve cut out the sides, grab your tissue paper and cut it out so it sits nicely over the hollow sides you just made. Make sure it overlaps the edges a bit; you don’t want gaps. If you have thin tissue paper, you may want to use several layers. I suggest doing it one layer at a time and then see what you think. I ended up using three layers, and I think that that’s pretty good. If your tissue paper is thicker, two layers will do it…even one perhaps. Have a play, see what you think. Take your tape and tape the tissue paper to the box, one side at a time.

It will look a bit like this on the inside when you’ve stuck it all on:

3. Next you want to grab your piece of white card. If you need to cut it so it’s the right width, do that. You also want it to be the right length. I made mine a little too short…which is super annoying now, but I’ll deal with that another day when I can be bothered. Slide the piece of card in and secure it at the with some tape. You want to make a sort of slope with the card, so when you take a picture you don’t have a hard line where the two edges of the box meet. Make sense?

4. You may find that the bottom edge of the card is too long, even when you have a nice slope going on in there. If it’s too long, I suggest securing it with a bit of tape to the bottom edge, and then chopping off the end bit that’s too long. I made the mistake of chopping it too soon and then it was too short. Hence why you can see a line where I’ve stuck some extra card underneath. So be aware of that!

And then you’re done!

When you’re taking pictures, there are two ways you can do it. 1) grab some lamps, turn them on and point them to the sides of the box. You can play around with the light levels, and whether you have one, two or even three lights shining through the tissue paper. Option 2) Take the box to a light place in your home/work/studio and have the light coming from behind, that way the light will come in all sides.

Whatever way you do it, you may need to play with the brightness on the computer, and perhaps the contrast too. I’ve taken a few example pictures for you, so you can see.

So the one on the left is just on the floor in my foyer (it was the lightest place in the house at the time), and then the one on the right is in the light box with light coming from the glass in the door in our foyer. I upped the brightness just a little…and, well, you can see the difference. It’s cleaner and crisper, and you can see more details. And the background doesn’t distract from the actual focus.

This one is the same. I took a picture of this little fellow (it’s actually a musical instrument from Chile. But that’s another story…) on our stairs (yes, that’s our carpet…gross isn’t it?), and then also in the box. So.Much.Better!

So now you know how to make a light box and take some clearer, crisper photos of your things. Snap snap snap away!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate!!

Also, if you make a light box and take some pictures, I would love to see them! Don’t feel like you can’t leave a link in the comments – I will come and check them out!