Ask the DT - A question of photography

Several of you have asked for tips to take the perfect photograph of your layouts or cards.

Here are a few ideas from the DT

Always try to use natural daylight

Try to photograph from above or stand directly in front of of your work (blue-tac it to a wall)

Don't be afraid to use photoshop or similar to crop and enhance

Avoid using flash if you can

Make sure you take your layout OUT of the page protector to avoid unnecessary light patches

Unless you intend tightly cropping your photo, take it on a plain background i.e no distracting clutter.

If the background is very dark, you may want to put some white paper or a sheet etc behind the page.

Line up the page squarely in your view finder.

Make sure nothing has fallen off the layout before you photograph it (i.e letters, etc..)  

If taking photographs for your blog, choose areas of interest and take close-ups.

Use the same techniques to photograph cards.

We hope this helps and if any of you have further suggestions or ideas, please leave a comment below.

May Sneak Peek

See below for a little something to whet your appetite for the next challenge.

 Now, what could it be?

Answers on a postcard......

only joking :)

Watch this space......

April Card Challenge Prize

Wow!

 The lucky winner of this challenge will win a £10 voucher to spend

at Elaine's fabulous emporium.

Check out Quixotic Paperie for a vast choice of card making goodies.

Good Luck!

Remember you have to be a blog follower to be in with a chance, prize available to UK residents only.

Your April Challenge Cards

Here are the cards entered for our very first Card challenge.

First up is ....

ANITA

DUSTY FAIRY

LIL' CLO (age 9)

MAY

KARMACRAFT

KRAFTY KAREN

ELAINA

SUSIE

DENISE

SIAN

SANDRA

SHARON O

The challenge will run until the 15th May when Elaine will choose a winner.

Remember you must be a follower to be in with a chance to win.

Check back in a few days when we announce the fantastic prize for this.
Prize available to UK residents only.


Please join in the fun and create a card using the DT examples for inspiration. We hope you will let us share your finished project on this blog.

Please can bloggers leave a comment with a link to the relevant post on their blog. If you don't have a blog - no problem! - Simply drop us an image attached to an EMAIL.

And now for something completely different....

She said in true Monty Python style :)

We were thinking of all you lovely cardmakers out there and decided to give you a challenge too.
Hopefully this is the first of many, some with a lovely prize, others just for fun.

To start us of we have a challenge from Quixotic Paperie who sell the most delectable stamps from Kraftin Kimmie, Stamping Bella & Victoria Case for SACD to name just a few. Pop over to her shop to see the wide range available.

Elaine said......

"Be Charming" - incorporate charms into your card design, either as a focal point or to accent your design.

This is Elaine's example:

Here are the DT entries:
 
                                                                              SUE  

ANITA

LIZ - The newest member of our DT

LINDA

KAREN

LYNN

MARIA

DEIRDRE

The challenge will run until the 15th May when Elaine will choose a winner.

Remember you must be a follower to be in with a chance to win.

Check back in a few days when we announce the fantastic prize for this.

Prize available to UK residents only.

Please join in the fun and create a card using these examples for inspiration. We hope you will let us share your finished project on this blog.

Please make a comment below.

If you create a card after that date, please still share it with us.

Please can bloggers leave a comment with a link to the relevant post on their blog. If you don't have a blog - no problem! - Simply drop us an image attached to an email.

Prize for April Challenge

We have another lovely prize form Jill at Cardinal Colours for the April Scraplift Challenge.

Don't forget to enter to be in with a chance to win, you must also be a follower of the blog.

 Have you booked your space on Cardinal Colours 2011 Retreat yet??

Very limited space left on what will be another fabulous weekend of fun, laughter and crafting.

How I made my April Challenge Page

Here are a few tips for making the April page, if you want to create something similar to my page.

This is the sketch I drew from the original layout by Sarah Youde.

I purchased the papers and stamps from Paper Maze.

The stamps are Technique Tuesday and called 'message in a banner'.

The papers are by Girl's Paperie.

The background is diecut newsprint and is single sided, the other two are vintage patchwork and shabby flower and they are both double sided, giving me five patterns to play with. In fact many more than five as the patchwork sheet has many designs on it, which was great for the purpose of different patterned flags.

I cut the horizontal bad from the blue side of the patchwork piece making sure I was keeping the patterned bit from the other side that I wanted for the flags. It's worth taking a little time with this to get the most from your sheet of paper. I trimmed the edge of this strip with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I cut the tickets using the Tim Holtz Alterations Ticket Strip Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die and decorated each ticket with 'Just the Ticket' stamps produced by Imagine That.

The flags were made by stamping directly onto my layout. I drew a light pencil line first as a guide as to where to place the stamps. Then I stamped the flags again onto the patterned papers on the patchwork paper. They fit beautifully inside the squares. These were cut out minus the frilly edge and attached over the flags on the layout with 3D foam pads to raise them off the surface of the layout. I then added in stitches by hand using DMC embroidery thread.to link the flags together.

There is a brilliant tutorial for making the cabbage roses from paper swirls created by Gabrielle Pollacco and it can be found HERE.