Monday, December 20
by Karen Robert
A clever idea can make or break a holiday card photo shoot. From giving children building blocks to play with, or angle wings, props can be a useful tool to getting that perfect holiday picture. In my experience, we parents only have about 5 minutes to shoot a decent photo, after that the children have lost interest and are in danger of being uncooperative at best, at worst, of having a complete meltdown. The best way to get around this is to give them an activity or a prop to get them to cooperate. Lets face it, unless we’re super models, it’s tough for ANYBODY to pose comfortably in front of the camera with somebody saying “smile”. The photo is always much better if they’re smiling already, right? The following photos use props in a variety of ways and get that fabulous shot worthy of any Christmas mantle.
Let it Snow
I know I’ve shown this photo before, but for me, Marc Battaglia’s picture of his kid on a sled with the dog in a harness is one of the best examples of using props that I’ve seen. The caption is great as well. And how much do you love the V of the Geese up in the sky?
This child has building blocks spelling the word “JOY”. I love the Christmas message being already in the photo.
Found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8739266@N02/2060973466
Thsi is an adorable shot of a newborn baby wrapped up like a coccoon with pinecones around him. Very sweet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamique/3018867818
This is a beautiful picture of kids with wings for their Christmas card like Raphael’s painting
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luke05olivia/3085953710
Amanda at AC Photography did this great picture of kids asleep in front of the Christmas tree.
Cute kids with antlers and red noses looking just like reindeers.
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/naomifrost/3005183436
And the children were all nestled all snug in thier beds. This is a cute idea for taking pictures of kids reading holiday books in bed.
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_juleeln/2104975449
A cute photo of children’s bottoms and the words “As we leave 2009 behind.”
Taken by Sharyn Peavey
Cute picture of a baby in the tub with words spelled out behind him in plastic letters. I think this is a very clever idea for a Christmas card… or any card for that matter. You could spell all sorts of things with these letters, from “Happy Birthday Daddy” to “Please Come to my Party”
I love the Santa legs in this photo shoot, the kid is, of course, going to look up engagingly and all the photographer has to do it shoot. What better prop than Santa?
This photo is taken by Robin Winkles
Cute photo of a little boy with a sign saying “believe” for his family Christmas card photo, the sign takes this card from good to great.
Taken by Robin Winkles
This is a fun idea for props for a holiday shoot, throw a bunch of candy canes on the floor and let the children play
Taken by Robin Winkles
This is a fun card where the kids have tape on their mouths with the Caption, “Silent Night”, it’s a clever idea if your kids are up for it.
Found at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150315070990#ht_8962wt_1141
This is a cute idea for a Christmas card shoot with props of a baby in a tub with a teddy bear and a washboard.
Friday, September 3
by Karen Robert
My apologies for being away for so long…I started my break when my son went unexpectedly into the hospital. But what started as a good excuse became vacation-itus I’m afraid. Anyway, while I was gone, my friend Jill Sorensen at LiveLikeYou.com did a blog posting showing lots of yummy purple interiors. One of the images I like most on this posting is of an interior by another friend, decorator Amanda Nisbit. The room is quite neutral except for purple curtains in crunchy linen; it looks so sophisticated. It got me thinking about my 7 year old daughter’s new bedroom, we decided that we will design it with dark purple/ aubergine walls, with a pink fur headboard and white furniture. Pretty snazzy for a 7 year old. My daughter loves the book “Purplicious”, about a girl who loves only the color purple. Like many 7 year olds, my daughter has switched from liking pink and moved on to purple just like the character in the book. Suddenly I realized I am becoming as purplicious as my daughter. I realize that purple is wonderful in that it can be girly and feminine, yet modern and bold at the same time. In fact it can be extremely dramatic. I looked through all of the cards that I’d designed and realized that I hadn’t designed many purple cards at all. Impossible. So, I am suddenly on a craze designing a series of bold, fun, dramatic purple cards. Here is what I’ve come up with so far.
This bright purple design is for a save the date card hoping that there are brides out there designing a wedding around yummy purple. In fact, it could also be a wedding invitation as well.
And I also did this save the date card.
I know this isn’t just purple, but I couldn’t resist putting the Purple elephant against a Turquoise Background. And since this color combination was making me so happy, I made this purple and turquoise invitation with a Dragonfly. Of course this could be for any type of party, this particular one I pretended was a rehearsal dinner. (I am in love with this font which looks like it is handwritten).
And since I was toying with color combinations with purple, I made this one with a purple and red pattern for a rehearsal dinner:
Since I hadn’t been to many purple themed weddings, I thought it may be interesting to see if anyone else had thought of it. I googled “purple weddings” to see what I could find. In fact, there are quite a few amazing images of exotic and dramatic purple weddings. Here is a design board I found at bridalbuds.com.
So, now I needed to design a wedding invitation.
And an invitaton for a wedding shower:
But weddings aren’t the only potential purple parties. I found this image of a purple party which I love. How exotic and dramatic is this?
So I designed this invitation for a party. I imagined that it could be used for an opening of a store or chic event. I love the graphic hexagonal pattern, I think it’s quite cool looking.
But I didn’t want to do just serious parties. My great friend asked me to do her 50th birthday party invitation, and she isn’t serious at all. But she is sophisticated; she wanted it purple. This is what we came up with.
But sometimes one needs to have a party celebrating babies as well. And since I was thinking of babies and children it got me thinking about one of my son’s favorite books when he was little, “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. With that in my head I came up with this.
I also did a version of this for a baby announcement.
So now I’ve come full circle in my musings, I started out thinking of one children’s book and I’ve ended up with another one. I guess my purple musings are at a close…turquoise may be next.
Monday, May 10
by Karen Robert
I designed this card and sent it to my mother this year.
I chose this saying because, as I raise my 4 children I understand and appreciate my mother more and more every day. As they say, being a mom is the hardest job you’ll ever love. With motherhood comes fear, anxiety , angst, but more than anything, deep and profound love. And it’s the love that gets you through, because, God knows, why else would anyone put up with it? Mother Nature has a way of equipping us to actually enjoy all of the horrendous stuff. Think about it. Pregnancy is horrible. We get moody, depressed, fat, we can’t sleep and then, to top it all off, we give birth. We suffer horrible indignities through the process yet STILL most mothers will say that the day they gave birth to their first child was the best day of their lives. That smell of a baby’s head makes all the rest of it disappear. And then, crazily enough, most of us turn around and do it all over again. And again.
As we raise these little guys for the first 5 years we are on a never ending treadmill of changing diapers, doing laundry, wiping noses, picking up, cooking and cleaning. And don’t even start me on how little we sleep. But the trusting eyes of an infant and the tight hugs of a toddler are worth every second of work
For the next 10 years we help these kids learn to read, ride a bike, and cross the street. We teach them manners and help them navigate their way around cliques and bullies all with the idea of getting them independent and ready to take on the world. Finally, after all of that work, we are rewarded with rejection and ridicule from snidely teenagers. Yet, how does Mother Nature help us cope with this? We are bursting with pride that they are becoming independent and growing into young adults. Are we martyrs? slaves? idiots? No, we’re just typical mothers, strong enough to take it. How do we get that strength? From love. Crazy, blind, foolish, adoring love. Mother Nature has it all figured out. That’s why it’s called MOTHER nature, she knows what she’s doing. And I, for one, thank God my mother loved me enough to put up with it all.
Thanks Mom. I get it…and I love you back.
Monday, December 21
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/518463702/
Sunday, December 13
Saturday, December 12
From Cheeky Magpie.com
This is one of those projects that is a true glimpse in to the depths of my creative insanity. I see something and then I ponder it until I resolve whatever design dilemmas it involves. (And I’ve had a lot of time to ponder.)Then I create.
Cards are always a bit of a struggle for me and Christmas cards are even harder. Why on Earth would I think this might be easy, I don’t know. I’ll have the boys make all the presents in the sled once they get past the initial humiliation of the card. I’ll probably have to lie to them about who I am sending it to or I won’t get any help. And I’ll only make five of them. I am notorious for making crazy, over-the-top cards and never sending them. I am a bad crafter.
Let me preface this project by noting my *ever so slight* interest in pop-up books. Nay, I confess that I bow to the designers of those dimensional pieces of art. If I had my druthers, I’d make them myself. For this is the paper world I live in…the fact that it fits nicely in an envelope is a bonus.
Saturday, December 12
http://www.flickr.com/people/stephenpoff/
Saturday, December 12
Designed by Beth Lewis
Photo by Scott Munn (http://photomunn.com/)
Friday, December 11
http://www.flickr.com/photos/-vie-
Friday, December 11
