Bookstagram

Inexpensive Items For Your Bookstagram ‘Toolkit’

alisoninbookland7 Comments

Bookstagram can be a money pit if you let it. Flowers. Bookish merch. Special edition books. It’s easy to feel like an outsider if you’re not spending big money. This is your reminder that you don’t need to spend any money (or even ‘big’ money) to make your account look fabulous.

Here are a few super cheap items to make your account look great.

Rubber Bands

The above set up is a popular one. It’s easy to do but if you’ve tried it, you’ve likely struggled to keep the books standing long enough for the photo. If you’re using hardback books, you might be able to get them to balance. Oversized paperback books? Forget about it.

Enter the rubber band. Place one around your bundle of books away from the spines. Now your stack is solid and won’t move! Make sure the rubber band isn’t twisted and lays flat against the book. It should be easy enough to take an overhead shot without it appearing in the photo.

Book Pages

I can hear your shocked gasps from here. Working in a library, I’ve seen a lot of books. I can tell you that a lot of books aren’t worth saving or donating. I’m not going to tell you to tear apart a beloved book or one that has sentimental value. In the US (and likely other places), there are a lot of places to find books for cheap that you can take apart. Dollar store, thrift store, library sale, garage sale, Little Free Library. Any of those places should have books for under $1.

You can take pages out of the book as they are. Here is a great tutorial on how to ‘age’ book pages. Roll the pages up and tie them with some twine. Any of those will make inexpensive accents for photos.

Example of rolled pages

If you want to try your hand at something more difficult, give book flowers a try.

Look at how pretty they are!

Poster Board

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a stack on books in bed? Sometimes your bed can swallow the bottom books because of the weight. Put a board or two under your comforter/blanket and then stack the books on top. If you use your floor for photo space but only have carpet, the board can also make a flat surface for photos.

Can also be used as reflector.

Great Lighting

Natural light is the best if you can make it work. Open up your curtains & blinds to let the light shine in!

Work weird hours? Have no windows in your photo area?

What cheap items are in your toolkit?

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