Create a light box for your layouts

Ok - So, it's not REALLY a light box - because it has no top and no bottom. But - this method works great for me and I thought I would share. I hear so many people say they are 'waiting for sun' to snap a pic. I had that problem too, along with a gammut of trees and mountains that block the sun and only give me a span of a couple hours to get good pictures. So I gave up and came up with a way to do it indoors - rain (snow lately) or shine, I don't have to wait!

And, to top it off... it's fairly cheap (and easy - no tools required) to assemble. :)


What you will need is:


1 - a large display board. Depending on the material this can run around $5 (I recycled one from my elementary teaching days).


2 - some clear photo corners. About $3 a box if you don't have some stashed away waiting to be used.


Here are a couple things for me to point out:


* I am exceptionally lucky to have a big fat flourescent light in my ceiling where I photograph my layouts, which helps me tremendously in photographing them (not so much for actually scrapping though). However, the same effect can easily be achieved depending on where you place your board versus your lights.


* I have a wide & tall table (thanks to my husband!) and drafting chair where I can easily sit to shoot the picture with the flash off. If your space doesn't allow you the extra room, I think a dining/kitchen table & chair would produce the same effect.


If you haven't already figured it out, you simply put your page corners on the board. LOL! I told you - no tools required! The easiest way I discovered to do this is by putting the corners on my layout and then lining it up on the board. The page corners stay put and you just continue to use them over and over.


One of the reasons this works so well is because it is a huge white space for your camera to set the white balance. And, if it doesn't - it's still a large enough space for your photo editing software to do it easily with a couple clicks.


And here's for my visual friends:

set up for a 1 page layout

set up for a 2 page layout

close-up of the photo corners :)