Wednesday, March 19, 2014

DIY Newborn Photography Props


A week or so ago I decided to drive up to Provo to help my little brother and his wife with their brand new baby girl. I brought my camera to hopefully get some pictures of her while she was still in the newborn stages. They have a little bitty one bedroom apartment but the lighting was amazing! They may never invite me back over though because I made a disaster of the apartment moving stuff around to get the pictures we wanted.
This is me hanging out the window to get a better shot. Whatever it takes to get a good picture, right?

We were really unprepared. We didn't have much to make our pictures cute. I brought a basket, a blanket and a few bows. Knowing we needed more, we headed to D.I. to find a little inspiration. Every prop we used in the photo session was either from D.I. or a garage sale. BUT before I show you what we found I have to show you this ADORABLE baby! This is my niece Lilliamae. I LOVE HER!

  I bought the long brown basket and cream textured blanket at a garage sale. The basket was $3 dollars and the blanket was $5. We made the green cocoon that Lilli is wearing from an old sweater we bought for $5 at D.I.

 This basket and the floral sheet inside were bought at D.I. The sheet was $3. We also used it as a back drop in several other pictures. The basket was $2 dollars. We threw some white paint on it when we got home. Here is the before...  

The green fabric in this basket was found in the place mat section at D.I. We paid $3 for it. The brown pin wheels in the background of the picture were made from a roll of paper my sister-in-law bought at a garage sale.

And you will never guess where this cute little lace skirt came from!!!!!!
It's literally the lace sleeves off one of the shirts we bought! 
Here is what we did with the rest of the shirt.
We also bought this shirt for $5.


To make our cocoon for baby Lilli, we literally just laid out the sweater, laid her on top of it, stretched her legs out, traced around her and cut it out. My sister-in-law hand stitched it because we were afraid the fabric wouldn't work well with a sewing machine  
You can use any shirt you find at D.I. for newborn photo sessions! When you are shopping look for cool textures and you will probably want to shop in the plus size to make sure you have enough fabric on the t-shirt to make something out of. For a wrap like the cream one, all you have to do is cut the sleeves and the neckline out, get the baby asleep in a cute little ball, place the fabric on top and start to tuck the fabric under her!(Sounds easy enough right??) There are lots of awesome videos on Youtube that show you how to do this! I really like the videos by Ana Brandt.

Here is a better picture of the pinwheels 

I LOVE what my sister-in-law did with these!!! They cover the entire wall above her couch. She made ALL of these with this roll of paper she found at a garage sale for .25 cents! 
Here is her explanation on how she made them: You start out by folding a long piece of paper back and forth, just like you were making a paper fan. The width of the paper will be the radius (I think that's the right term... distance from the center to the edge?) of your pinwheel. It is also important to note that the bigger the pinwheel, the longer your paper will have to be. Then you cut a circle out of card stock that is smaller than your pinwheel will be. (For large pinwheels 5 inches across is pretty good.) Then take each end of your folded paper peice and glue them together. You'll end up with a long tube of folded paper. Now gently push one end down until you have a flat pinwheel. Apply hot glue liberally to one side of the cardstock you cut out earlier and place in the center of the back of your pinwheel. A button in the front center is optional. Apply to wall individually or arrange and connect as desired. I have also attached a tutorial If you're a visual learner like me. (CLICK HERE)







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12 comments:

  1. Wow, you really did a fantastic job. I love all the props you created and recreated. You've given me some ideas for sure.

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  2. Oh my goodness you are so talented. I am totally pinning this.

    I am seven months pregnant and already thinking about hiring a photographer for our little one so we can have some nice shots of him. I wish I could take photos like this, but I just know it would be disastrous!

    I found your post through the Simply Designing linkup party and have just had a peek at your blog ~ very cool. Keep up the great work.

    Leah The Crafty Rabbit

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  3. What a little doll!! I love those pinwheels!!

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  4. Love it!!! Now I really wish I we did some really good newborn pics of Haylee. Oh well. Glad Justin has a sister like you to come up & do this for them!

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  5. Great ideas, found this post from Diana Rambles. I share it with my daughters.
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