Yangon, Myanmar—On 17 and 18 June 2017, a photo craft workshop was held at the Dagon Centre Shopping Mall in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar where economic development is happening at a frenetic pace. Let’s take a look at what happened during the workshop. (Edited by Etica)

 

Creating cards with photos printed with SELPHY photo printers

Held in the event space of the Canon showroom at Yangon’s Dagon Centre, a popular mall that attracts many families on weekends, the photo craft workshops were taught by Ms. Naomi Yajima, editor for a camera magazine in Japan, who also runs a photography school, the “Tanoshii Camera School”. In these workshop, participants learnt photo crafts that would help them to decorate their photos in wonderful ways, completing two different photo craft projects along the way.

On 17 June (Saturday) afternoon, following a lesson held for the Canon showroom staff in the morning, high school students attending a local art school participated in a workshop where they learnt how to create the 4-panel, accordion-shaped ‘Bellows Photo Card’, which can stand on its own. On 18 June (Sunday), local university students studying culture learnt how to make both the Bellows Photo Card and another photo card project, a garland-style photo card entitled ‘Flag Photo Card’.

 

Step 1: Photographing and printing portraits

The first step for participants was to photograph portraits of each other. One camera was loaned to each team, who took photos of each other either within the garden-style photo booth set up by the Canon showroom staff, or outside at the shopping mall itself.

The photos were then printed onto 4x6-inch (postcard-sized) photo paper using the SELPHY CP1200 compact photo printer. The Bellows Photo Card was printed in ‘2-up/Bordered’ layout, whereas the Flag Photo Card was printed in ‘1-up/Borderless’ layout.

Some quick instructions on printing with the SELPHY CP1200

Once the photos were printed, participants could proceed to the next step—photo craft.

 

Step 2: Pasting photos and decorating around them with stickers

Once the photos were printed, participants proceeded to do photo craft. It actually is quite easy, as long as you have some construction paper, decorative tape, stickers and any other thing you want to use to decorate around your photos. Here are the steps, so that you, too can try it out on your own!

Steps for making the accordion-style Bellows Photo Card
1) Fold a 15×42cm card into four panels, accordion-style. Use a valley-fold for the centre fold, and mountain folds for the 2 folds on the side. This is your backing paper.
2) Print your photos onto a 4x6 card, using the ‘2-up’ and ‘Bordered’ settings on your SELPHY photo printer.
3) Paste the printed photos onto your backing paper. Decorate it with decorative tape, stickers and anything you wish. Your Bellows Photo Card is complete!

 

Steps for making the garland-style Flag Photo Card
1) Choose 3 pieces of cloth (they can be scrap cloth) that are around 110cm each. Braid them. This will be the rope for your garland.
2) Print your photos onto a 4x6 card, using the ‘1-up’ and ‘Borderless’ settings on your SELPHY photo printer.
3) Clip the printed photos to the rope with clothes pegs. Decorate the whole thing with decorative tape, stickers, and anything else you can think of. Your Flag Photo Card is now complete!

Everyone had lots of fun coming up with ideas to decorate their photo card. Studying the sample carefully, they cut decorative tape into hearts and circles, and wrote and drew pictures to come up with a work that was uniquely them.

 

Some participants with their masterpieces

The participants seem to have had lots of fun at the workshop. Here are some of the comments received:

- “This was my first time joining such a workshop. It was very inspiring.”
- “I learnt a lot trying to come up with my own design.”
- “I would join again.”
- “I was really glad to learn how to make a collage.”
- “I was really happy I managed to make something so nice.”
- “I found out how fun it was to work as a group.”
- “The staff were really patient and nice, and it was fun.”

There was even one participant who joined to make a Father’s Day present, and gave their creation to their father, who happened to drop in, on the spot! Indeed, the two projects don’t just make wonderful home decorations, they are also great as gifts to someone important. Do try them out!

The organizers would like to thank all participants for joining in and making the event such a blast.

 

For more reports and fun photo craft tips, check out:
What We Learnt At A Child Photography & Photo Craft Workshop
Getting Great Photos of Your Child’s Sunny Smile

 

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