Shortly after the birth of our first daughter, my husband gifted me a Canon Rebel and my lifelong passion for photography sort of took over from there. I have always loved setting up little vignettes and photo shoots for my kiddos but with 4 of them it can get pricey! Luckily, I’m pretty crafty and am always thrifting or crafting props to make my photos looks great without breaking the bank!
Today’s project(s) are no different! I wanted to offer Valentine’s Day mini shoots to my clients and for my own kids. I loved the idea of Cupid and his arrows so I set off to make my own. Now, my husband laughs and shakes his head at me often for how (and when!) my brain works. We have a gorgeous 5 month old baby who keeps me up to all hours of night. For this particular project she was sleeping and I was too until of course the idea for how to make the prop shot me out of the bed like a rocket! Here’s what you’ll need:
Quiver:
Arrows:
Bow:
First step, hide in your closet and eat all of the Pringles without sharing. Ahem. Just kidding. But seriously take your empty Pringles can and wipe the inside out with a slightly damp paper towel so it’s nice and clean. Take it outside to your freezing gold garage and go crazy on it with some red spray paint. I just used Valspar in Ruby because I had it on hand from other projects. I did several light coats in the outside so you couldn’t see the Pringles logo and even sprayed a little down the inside of the can.
While that’s drying, start on your arrows.
I began by cutting my 48″ long dowels down to 16″ each. This is pretty easy with just a regular hand saw. No need to pull out the heavy machinery. You may want to sand the rough ends a bit so little fingers don’t get poked.
Next I took a sticker and placed it pointy side out on my counter, covered it with hot glue and carefully lined up one end of my dowel onto it. This is your arrow head. Try to make it as straight as possible.
Working quickly I placed an identical heart on the other side making a heart-dowel-heart sammich. Hold it in place a few seconds so the glue can dry. Admire your little arrow head.
Next I raided my ribbon scraps box for pinks and reds, cut it to size and hot glued it onto my dowel, covering the feather/dowel transition. Feel free to embellish how you wish. Washi tape would be awesome here.
Find where your two year old has hidden your craft feathers and pick out two that are approximately the same size and shape. Place a bead of hot glue and carefully put your feather down onto said glue without losing fingerprints in the process. I let mine overhang the back of my dowel a bit. Flip down over and do the same thing with your second feather so the end of the dowel is no longer visible.
Finally, I got the kids bundled up and we went on a stick hunt in the backyard. Find a sturdy stick that has a slight curve in it if you can. We got lucky and found this pretty easily. Then, I got a piece of yarn and just wrapped it around the ends of my stick securing with a dot of hot glue.
Once your paint is dry and your arrows all decorated its photo time!
The frame backdrop was also a DIY project by Erin!! Maybe we can coerce her into writing a tutorial for it as well! ;)
More.. http://thriftytogblog.com/2015/01/22/diy-bow-and-arrow-prop-for-valentines-day-by-erin-barkel-photography/
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