Dayton Daily News
The holiday greeting card is just as important in 2011 as it has been in more financially robust times, according to area designers and retailers. After all, as Joe Bohardt of the Mulberry Tree in Oakwood points out, a beautiful holiday card is a gift … MORE
While some store fronts stand empty in town center, a new cottage industry has sprung up in Wellesley this fall, and it’s run by sixth-grade social entrepreneurs. Their product is recyclable greeting cards, and their manufacturing center is a couple of classrooms in Wellesley Middle School that constitute “House R.” Read more:
These 4-inch chainette tassels will dress up your bookmarks in the latest in fall colors. The Pantone fashion color report for Fall 2011 highlights top fashion designers’ color picks and is a great resource for anyone who wants to keep up with current color trends.
Here’s how our bookmark tassel color selections compare with the Pantone picks. Bamboo-Antique Gold, Emberglow-Orange, Honeysuckle-Rose Blossom, Phlox-Very Violet, Cedar-Moss Green, Deep Teal-Deep Turquoise, Coffee Liqueur-Chocolate, Nougat-Cookie Dough, Orchid Hush-Lilac, Quarry-Silver Blue. Pantone’s fall 2011 designer colors are just a few of the over 40 tassle colors available in the Oak Creek Printworks store.
You may discover other uses for these multi-colored tassels. Glue them to greeting cards to add dimension to your designs using tassels to represent a myriad of items, from inanimate objects like trees and broomsticks to creatures large and small. Combine with pen and ink of other media to create unique composition. Attach tassels to small baronial cards, gift cards or gift packages to give them an added touch of elegance.
Click here to add a Fall 2011 tassel set to your shopping cart.
Graydon McKoy is a nine-year-old boy finishing third grade, and is in his first year of home schooling. He lives with his parents on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina, a very rural island with a farm rich history located in Charleston County. Graydon’s father, one of the few farmers left on the island, grew up farming with his father. Graydon’s mother has an advanced degree in biology but is now using her knowledge to home school the budding artist. With the background both of his parents have to offer, it is no surprise that Graydon loves the outdoors and every creature that inhabits it.
Since he was very little Graydon has loved books about nature and enjoyed taking walks to observe God’s creatures, no matter where, or how slimy they were.
In addition to searching for wildlife, Graydon cares for three horses, one German Shepherd and a cat, but what he really wants is a snake. His mother has not yet consented to that request, but they have spent the last three summers documenting the snakes they find on their farm. To date they have spotted over 13 species of snakes and look forward to participating in the annual springtime snake round-up that the local serpentarium conducts.
Graydon’s art began at the young age of four, and highlighted the favorites of all little boys: sharks, alligators, dinosaurs and snakes. Thanks to a great art teacher from first grade, his talent was cultivated and his horizons expanded with the love for animals remaining as the main theme in all of his work.
In a span of just three years, Graydon has developed quite a portfolio, which his mother has saved, and scanned onto computer discs. His talent was put to use this year when Graydon’s family decided to go on a mission trip with their church to Costa Rica. They did not have all of the funding needed to pay their way, so his mother had an idea to use Graydon’s art work as a fund raiser.
She took some of his pieces that had been scanned and then put them on her computer and converted them into note cards. The cards sold really well, and not only raised enough money to pay for all of them to go to Costa Rica, but, also raised enough to pay for a home school trip afterwards.
As a result of this success, Graydon now has his very own business and calls it “Graydon’s Critters”. He is working on two new series; one focusing on Charleston and one highlighting the fish served at a local seafood restaurant. He continues to practice with mediums such as chalk, watercolors and oil pastels, but is expanding to acrylics and looks forward to learning how to mat his own work.
To see Graydon’s portfolio, visit his website – www.graydonscritters.com. You’ll also find Graydon’s Critters on Facebook.
Graphic designers have lots of problems. With every job we accept we’re presented with problems that are begging for solutions. Recently I was presented with a problem…a purple and green flower for a business card for a massage therapist in the middle of winter…in Southern California. No sweat.
This is the full frame of the image that became the foundation for the business card.
When I took a series of digital photos on the macro setting, I was thinking about colors (purple and green) and holding still enough to focus the camera on a target that was swaying in the breeze. I wasn’t worrying about composition. Just keep the flowers in the frame before the wind catches them.
I had no idea if these Lily of the Nile would have any chance of working on a business card. I had taken the photos weeks before, and when it came time to buckle down and create the image that would carry the business card, I found my answer by looking at the flowers, not as a whole, but for their “parts.” Perhaps there is just a small part of the image that contains the necessary elements to play a supporting role to the typography?
In order to isolate just the right section of the image, I worked in Adobe Photoshop, but most image editing software has a cropping tool or a selection tool with the ability to crop to a selection. In Photoshop, I fixed the width, height and resolution of the cropping tool to 3.75 inches by 2.25 inches, 300 pixels per inch, adding one eighth of an inch to all four sides to allow for a bleed. When fixing a cropping area, the size of the area can change, but the correct proportions remain constant.
Photoshop's cropping tool can isolate a precise area, resize and resample the pixels to the desired resolution in a single step.
Once a specific area of the image is isolated and cropped, that segment of the photo now stands alone at the correct size and resolution to become a unique background for the business card. The same image could just as easily be cropped and sized for greeting cards, postcards or bookmarks.
Typography is always a challenge. When white type is reversed out of a background, in this case, a moderately busy background, it begins to get lost. It’s almost gobbled up by the very background that’s intended to support the type.
To prevent the white type from becoming too difficult to read as it moves over alternating light and dark leaves or purple petals, a dark green is sampled from the background and used to give it an “outer glow” effect. If reverse type is placed over a purple petal, sample a slightly darker purple for the outer glow to allow it to “pop” off the background.
type before outer glow
type after outer glow is applied
Because we designers are never satisfied with just one version of our layout, I used two different photos with a variety of type alignments before sharing them with the client.
OLMCS - Student art cards for sale in 2010 fundraiser
Our clients have great ideas. The mom’s at Our Lady of Malibu Catholic School decided to sell the children’s artwork as card sets for this year’s fundraiser. They printed up the cards, but were not sure how to package them. Following a little internet research, one of the moms visited us, wanting to see our clear plastic boxes. After trying a few different sizes to fit both the envelopes and cards in the same package, the result was a professional product for sale, worthy of any store or boutique. And economic too! In addition, the clear packaging allowed them to print a page to insert in the bottom of the box, profiling the artist and showing the prints enclosed.
Congratulations to all the budding artists at OLMCS, who now have the distinction of having sold their artwork. They are off to a great start.
Past clients include public and private schools, and Sister Cities International, which features artwork from children around the world. Take a look at some of their artwork. Perhaps it will inspire you. To check out packaging options, see recent blog article “Greeting card sets – a great marketing idea!” by David Heyman.
"Great Harvest" - ©2008, Sister Cities
"Quilt" - Weathersfield School
"Lions" - Montgomery High School
A friend recently asked me to try out the Ultimate Crafter’s Companion (UCC), the latest in cardmaking accessories from Crafter’s Companion, but frankly I was skeptical. What could this “little pink suitcase” do for me that I couldn’t accomplish with a ruler, paper cutter and scissors? While I usually jump at the chance to acquire new crafting tools, I wasn’t convinced that this was really anything different from what I already had. Boy, was I wrong. Actually, I was blown away.
Easy Folding
My first discovery was a simple but important one—the ease of folding cardstock. Anyone who has tried making their own cards knows the frustration of folding the cardstock, only to discover it is slightly uneven. Refolding looks awful. I was amazed to discover that the Ultimate Crafter’s Companion provided a way to fold any size card in half in seconds, with perfect, professional results every time. No measuring, no guessing, and no mistakes. I’m a fan of saving time, so this was a good introduction to this new product. And it only got better.
Envelopes
After watching the instructional DVD I couldn’t wait to get started making the unique cards, envelopes and boxes I saw demonstrated. They even have what they call an “envelobox” for extra thick cards. I love the idea of being able to make a perfectly sized envelope for any size card, add a contrasting liner and even emboss the flap. I had never been able to master the art of making envelopes, but it will never be a problem again. The creative possibilities are endless.
Make your own gift boxes
Once I tried boxes I couldn’t stop making beautiful gift boxes. Just in time for the holidays! The lids fit perfectly – no measuring on my part. This system is fabulous. Just like the envelopes, the UCC folks have done all the thinking and measuring for you.
Speaking of holidays, this winter I’ll be sending out some stunning cards—without the stunningly high price tag. Join me in tackling some fun holiday projects.
