Neal & Wolf : Natural Curl Styling Routine

I apologise for the lack of posts lately, once again life has taken over and unfortunately blogging had to take a backseat. But I'm back and fingers crossed there are lots of posts coming your way!

My hair has really done everything over the last few years -  colours, lengths, styles... I've literally done it all!
At the beginning of this year I made a conscience effort to try and get my hair back into a good condition. After trying ombre for a few months I thought it was time to dye my hair all over and get it cut into a bob... therefore starting over completely with my hair.
 Since then I have tried to keep it in the best condition I can and have only used heat on it a handful of times and it's already feeling a million times better!

Blogging Behind The Scenes : How I Make My Collages

This is a question I have been asked so many times over the last couple of years - 'how do you make those collages?"
I'm talking about my wishlists, my 'I'm Loving' posts, my 'Dress Like Disney' posts etc etc. It's always kind of hard to explain over Twitter or on Facebook so I thought what better than to do a quick and easy 'How To' blog post for you all!

First up I use picmonkey.com (my ultimate blogging weapon!). 
These posts normally don't take me too long as most of the time I get all my content prepped before I start making the collage itself.

I head to PicMonkey and to get started I click edit, choose computer and find a previous collage I have done or a good sized photo.
Once the picture had uploaded I then go straight to 'Canvas Colour' and change it to plain white (colour code ffffff) to give me a fresh base to work on.

Once this is done I click the butterfly symbol tab on the side bar which is for overlays (pictures) and then go to the top option which is 'Your Own'.

Previous to this I normally have found all the pictures that I want to be included in the collage. Depending on what sort of post I am doing depends on where I get the pictures from but I near enough always go for a picture with a plain white background as it is easier to work with and well.... they look better!
I find the picture I want online (e.g. Stitch cushion) and save it to my computer.

Once I've found the image I want when I've clicked on 'Your Own' overlay I just double click and upload it to the picture.

I carry on doing this with all my pictures for the collage and then it's time for the fun part - to re-size, organise and make them into a pretty collage.

This part is normally pretty straight forward, sometimes I just need to eraser bits here and there if photos are laying on top of each other/blocking each other.
For this all I do is click on the photo in question and choose 'Eraser' - I usually whack my eraser size up to fairly large to make things quicker and  I just get rid of that white background from the picture that I don't need or that is in the way!

Another way I get around photos blocking each other is sending them to the front or back, which is when I send the photo chosen to be bought forward and lay on top of another photo or to be send behind.

After all the fiddling around and once I'm happy with the finished result I click combine all making the collage into one solid picture.

It's then time to save! I just hit the save button at the top which then gives you options as to how you would like to save your photo.
 ALWAYS save in PNG form, this ensures that the backdrop to your photo is bright white when uploading it to your blog, normally if you save it in JPG form it is a little grey and doesn't look as good.

And..... TA DA! Here's the finished project! (Everything pictured from the Disney Store UK)

I hope you guys found this helpful, let me know in the comments below and let me know if you'd like anymore 'How To' posts!

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Blogging Behind The Scenes : How I Take My Blog Photos

Photography is a huge part of blogging. No matter what anyone else says - photography can make or break a blog in my opinion.

I've been very conscious of my blog photos since starting A Yellow Brick Blog and I'm sure I'm not the only person who has felt this way.
Looking at other bloggers, their amazing set-ups (crisp white, gorgeous lighting, pretty flower arrangements... you know the drill) and their awesome camera skills I've not felt great about my own work alot of the time! (Silly I know but comparison just comes naturally to me!)

It's only been the last few months or so that I've started to feel 'okay' about my photos and that's all down to my new little set up I've put together.

A few people who I know in 'real life' have said to me "your flat looks so lovely, so white and pretty" - to this I cannot help but laugh. It is incredible how much influence one photo can give.... as you can see above all it is is a cheeky bit of thick white card.

That's right - it cost me £5 and has lasted me for MONTHS! All I do is pop this onto my ottoman in my lounge, push it up against the wall and - Bobs your uncle, the perfect backdrop to pop anything onto!

I use a soft box light alongside this as lighting truly is key when it comes to blog photography - it really does transform a picture. 

Normally the light is facing the wall not to the side as the photo above shows. (I just wanted to show you it all in one photo)

 This light was from Amazon but I actually bought it off of a lovely blogger who had two but really only needed one - so it was a total bargain and has totally changed the way I do my photos! One of the best things now is that I don't have to wait for daylight - I can take photos whenever I want - which is great as I am at work 5 days a week adn evenings most of the time are more practical! 

With this plain backdrop I really can transform it into anything - I've used everything from books to candles to hairbands to help create an aesthetically pleasing backdrop for the products (or whatever it may be) that I am photographing and I really do try to mix it up!

The camera I use is the Canon 700D which is a DSLR and I LOVE it! One of the best investments I've ever made, I'm still learning constantly with it though as I'm no professional ha!

A few of my photos with my new set up....

So there we have it, there's your sneak peek into my blog photos and what goes into making them..... I'm sorry if the illusion has been ruined for some of you!

Let me know what you thought of this post - I'd love to do some more 'behind the scenes' type posts!

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