Do you love to make cards? Would you like to share your work online but your not sure where to start? Perhaps you already share pics but not many people seem to see them. Join our Facebook group and share your makes with CraftStash for a chance to win prizes and get your work featured. In this post we show you

  • How to take better pictures of your handmade cards
  • Where to share your pics
  • How to make sure your pics get seen
  • How to enter hashtag challenges to win prizes and grow your following

If you're already social media savvy and you're just wanting to know how to get featured by CraftStash, just make sure you share pics of cards made using our exclusive brands and use the hashtag #craftstash and tag us on Facebook and Instagram so we can share and feature your work!

If you are interested in earning 10% commission on sales when you share our exclusive product links please contact [email protected] and we can give you details of how to apply to our programme.

How to take pictures of your cards

A gorgeous pic by Lou Collns taken from our CraftStash Group - a great place to share your cards and also chat with our designers

You need to take clear, in focus pics of your cards and all you need is the camera on your smartphone, you don't need any expensive equipment to take great shots but you should understand a few settings on your phone camera and a few photography basics

Lighting

Whichever way you choose to photograph your cards (flat or upright) lighting is crucial. Daylight will always give the best results but be careful of harsh shadows when it's sunny. Don't just point and shoot, tap the screen to make sure the correct area of the card is in focus and lit correctly. Most phones let you adjust the exposure on pics with a slider on the screen.

Turn off the flash which causes harsh shadows - if you need flash you're probably not in a bright enough lit room. Natural lighting from the right direction will bring the card to life by creating shine on any accents or a little shadow to bring textures and dimension to life.

If you're taking pictures of your cards flat on the table try lifting them up a little using a roll of tape or something similar, this can reduce unwanted shadows.

Card ,ade by Cristena Concialloni-Bagne shared in our Simply Cards & Papercraft Group

Background & Styling

When you browse through pics from your favourite cardmakers you will always see that they use a simple background with a few props around the card to help bring the image to life. Using some of the materials you have used to make the card really works well. Remember that the card should be the main focus! Head to Instagram and look for your favourite cardmakers get inspired by the way they lay out their cards and the little props they use.

You can buy fairly inexpensive backgrounds to mimic marble, brick or real wood which can really enhance your pictures. Plain white backgrounds often look a bit stark and the white can either look too bright or off white.

Tracey Bantoft posted this pic in the Craftstash facebook Group - the background is simple and not destracting.

Consistency

If you have a consistent approach to photographing your cards with a quick and easy set up, you can start to create a consistent look. People will begin to recognise your style and that really helps with getting your work seen.

Videos

Bring your images to life by making a mini video of your card. It's easy to trim your video clips by clicking 'Edit' on a video and using the sliders to trim off the beginning and end of the video so you're just showing the best bits.

Videos can really help bring out the shine and dimension of a card, they're great for kinetic cards too like in the really quick Tik Tok / Reel that Lou has created above.

Storage

Being organised with your cardmaking pictures will be really useful as you build up your portfolio of pictures. You want to be able to easily access a picture when there might be the perfect opportunity for sharing it, in a challenge or competition for example. Scrolling for ages through all your other pics can make sharing pics feel time-consuming. Create albums on your phone and make sure your images are backed up so you never lose them.

Where to share your handmade cards

First of all we'll look at the social media sites and then we'll take a look at how to make the pictures you share more engaging.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are a great place to share your work, it's easy to join a group you just need a personal Facebook account and start searching for relevant groups to join

Get started by joining the CraftStash Chat Facebook Group and the Simply Cards & Papercraft Group both of these groups are run by the team at CraftStash and we often look out for cardmakers to feature and post challenges, sometimes with the chance of being featured in our magazines!

Facebook Page

If you want to consistently share your work and build up a following, creating a simple Facebook page will give you the opportunity to share your work without spamming friends on your personal Facebook feed. You don't need to be a business to have a Facebook page - learn more about setting up a page

Instagram

It's so easy to share pics on Instagram, just download the app onto your phone and you can share pics to Instagram and you get the choice to share to Facebook too to save you time!

Instagram have some fun features like Reels where you can create simple videos and add music to bring your cards and the cardmaking process to life.

@loucollinscrafts #crafthack #crafttip #hack #tip #papercraft #crafting #diecutting #cardmaking ♬ Good Day - Nappy Roots

TikTok

Don't assume you're too old for Tik Tok or it's only about silly dances! Cardmaking is big on Tik Tok, you just need to take a little time to learn how to create little videos of your cards to share and add a bit of fun music to bring them to life. You can also make videos with static images. If you have more time you could make some videos showing how you make your cards and all the materials you use. TikTok is a really creative channel that you can have lots of fun with you can also make the same videos for both Instagram and TikTok and share them at the same time, saving you time and getting your cards and cardmaking ideas to more people.

How to get your cards noticed!

If you're sharing pictures of your work it can be quite disheartening if no one adds a like or comment, but don't take this personally! Try a few of these way to increase the number of people who will see your cards.

Use Hashtags

With all of the channels mentioned above you should add hashtags. A hashtag is a way for people who are not following you directly to see your work. For example if you have used a Made to Surprise add the tag #madetosurprise and #craftstash When you click on the tags it will take you to others who have shared the same kind of cards or brands and you'll find new people to follow and posts to comment on, all of which will help with getting your own cards seen.

This is a great website for finding hashtags to use in your posts - IQHashtags

Quality not Quantity

Not many of us have hours and hours to spend on social media, we want to spend our spare time crafting! So don't spread yourself too thinly. For example, instead of sharing one picture to 20 groups, pick a few Facebook Groups that suit your style and really engage with the members of the group.

Engage with Other People

Here are a few ways to engage with people on social channels and grow your engagement and following

  • add likes/reactions to posts
  • add comments and ask genuine questions
  • reply to comments on your own posts
  • ask questions when you post to encourage responses
  • share other people's work
  • join in with challenges/swaps
  • use hashtags to find like-minded people to follow
  • post consistently

Tag brands and people

When you post on Facebook & Instagram you will be given the opportunity to tag other accounts. When you do this that person will be notified that you have tagged them and is more likely to then see and share your post. Don't overuse this feature but if there is a good reason to tag someone, eg you were inspired by their tutorial or you have used one of their products then be sure to add a tag - brands love being tagged!

How to enter hashtag challenges

Hashtags are a great way to find like-minded people to follow, but many companies also use them to encourage people to share their pics, often with a chance to win a prize.

Simple Hashtag Challenges

At CraftStash we often run challenges where we ask people to share a picture of the work they have made and use a hashtag so we can find their work. It's very easy to take part you just need to use the hashtag in the description that the company are asking for and also @ tag them. Often they will ask you to mention in the description that you are entering your picture into the challenge to help them raise awareness.

Daily Hashtag Challenges

These kinds of challenges are a little different as the point of them is to inspire you to be creative. The challenge will have a theme for each day it is live encouraging people to share a card based on that theme. For example, we could run 12 days of Christmas Challenge where the theme on day 1 was 'snow', the theme on Day 2 was 'Baubles' and so on. All you have to do is upload your image and use the hashtag.

Daily challenges really help grow follower numbers and increase engagement as they bring groups of like-minded people together over a period of time where you'll each be looking through other people's interpretations of the theme and liking and commenting.

Why not start your own hashtag challenges?

We hope that you enjoy starting to share your handmade cards more online and using hashtags to help get your work seen. Each morning we scroll through all the posts we are tagged in to choose cardmakers to feature on our channels so do be sure to get tagging us and any cards you make with our exclusive brands.