Let's all become better at: Photo Placement

Hi aLL.

So I think photo placement is one of our issues and I have thought up of a couple of mini challenges to help us get better at photo placement. I think this is a VITAl part of creating a layout. Having the correct placement ensures your photos are being looked at and your story is being told properly.

That being said, the first mini challenge is to go on the world wide web and find 3 multi-photo layouts {preferably 3 pics or more} that you love, adore, that you dream about creating yourself! In the comments to this post, insert the links to this layout along with your name {aka log in to make the comment}. After this is done, we'll do the second mini-challenge. Hopefully everyone who wants to participate can do so before tomorrow afternoon. These layouts are probably in your bookmarks or in your favorites.

I think this will be fun and I hope you think so too!

Weekly Challenge #8: Double Trouble!!

Participants in last week's challenge (may want to put on your glasses as the list is very tiny):

Katie
K
Erica

As always, will update if needed.

Since some (most) of you were too chicken to let your S.O. into your SB nether regions… I guess I will have to go there myself!! (I fear I will be twice as harsh!) Oh, and I wasn't chicken for your information, just really lazy.

Scrap the word: “Trouble”… using as many photos as you’d like along with:

Black CS
3PPs
3 eyelets/brads
1 chipboard letter
Torn vellum (for something other than journaling)
3 tags
Fibers

Of course, you can always add, but all of the elements listed above must appear somewhere on your page(s)! Ha! There’s no escape!

Sorry, no examples this week… you’re flying blind so spread your wings!

*Warning*
Anyone who wants to participate in challenge #10 will need to dump out their purse and take a picture of it’s contents (and no cleaning it out first!). This gives you two weeks to get the prints!

SHCG Artist Trading Card (ATC) SWAP!!!

Lucinda's darling little cards were the soul inspiration behind our next proposed swap. I wanted to do something small, cost effective and not quite as time consuming (hopefully) as our Roll Call Swap. This seems like the perfect solution! I think these would make great mementos to include in our SHCG Girlz albums.

Think of an ATC as a tiny scrapbook page or a tag. They are 2.5" x 3.5". You can use any type of A/L free media on the card, but the foundation of the card itself should be made of heavy CS. It is up to you to design the card, but most swaps of this nature have a theme to narrow things down a bit. The theme for this swap will be: "I enjoy being a girl".

Not all trading card enthusiasts subscribe to the A/L free policy, but for our purposes I would ask that you adhere to it. I think Lucinda mentioned covering her finished cards in Mod Podge as a sealant, which would work. If that's not the route you choose then please use quality adhesive. Also note that smoke/odor free products are important, as always, so please be considerate of others in this respect.

Some people make protective paper envies or sleeves for their cards... not necessary, but a nice touch. Some people alter tins to store them in and others use segmented baseball card inserts (the kind that you keep in a binder, like a photo album). I am personally going to make 2 new pages for my Roll Call album with individual paper pockets to store them in (I'll show you guys when I'm done).

Can they be digital? yes, as long as they are printable, obviously.

Can they be 3-D? yes, as long as you use the proper adhesives and A/L free product.

Can they be laminated? I don't see why not.

Can they include a signature or a picture? Again, design elements are totally up to you.

You will be making one card for everyone who participates plus yourself. Send ALL of the cards to me and I will distribute them and ship them out. You will get yours back with the rest!

Another plus... these should cost next-to-nothing to ship. Don't worry about sending me an SASE or anything. Just send me the cards and two first class ($.39) stamps. I'll handle the rest. (K and Sarah, just send me a dollar or whatever...)

The DD for shipping will be 3/31/07. I would expect to have all in-hand by 4/9/07. Please keep this mind when you sign up!

Participants should PM me by Friday, 2/23. I would love to have 100% participation! I will post the list on Monday, 2/26.

Below are some links with examples and great tips, tricks and suggestions.

Lucinda's Gallery:
http://scrapbook.com/galleries/105832.html

http://www.tracyroos.com/ATC.htm

Excellent Article with tons of technique suggestion and lots of examples:
http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html

All of the links on this page are pretty useful:
http://www.littlebit.com/links/otherlink/atc.htm

One specific example with step-by-step instructions:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art14192.asp

Sarah's very useful link with many examples:

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/atc3nov3.html

More examples within the same link:

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/atc2nov03.html

If all goes well and you guys are into this swap then we can always do additional ATC swaps with different themes... there is a whole online community devoted to them, as you'll see if you explore the links above.