DESIGN 11: FRONT
DESIGN 11: INSIDE
Message: “May your new year be filled with everyday miracles. Happy holidays” (The card was signed underneath the family picture.)
DESIGN 11: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — When you are holding the actual card, your brain tells you you’ve got a swatch of suede in your hand! The faux texture on the front, combined with the rich luxurious feel of the archival linen paper leads you to wonder about the “fabric.” You can’t help running your fingers over the card and noticing how wonderful it feels! This contributes to the drawing-in effect of those adorable photographs on the front. For the inside design, I drew from an earlier creation in which I used a large image of the baby measuring a full 5×7. Extended family members who receive this card could frame that portion if they wish to, so for the price of a card design, this family also got to send out frameable 5×7 images. His eyes are so sparkly in that photo and I love the one little tooth poking out of that gorgeous smile! The message was no accident either, given this little boy’s history, and certainly the majority of people who would be receiving this card would have prayed for him, and would appreciate that message all the more, for this little boy truly is a miracle!
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:32 am
DESIGN 10: FRONT
DESIGN 10: INSIDE
Message: “Warm wishes for holidays filled with laughter.” (The card was signed in the lower right corner.)
DESIGN 10: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — I don’t often get the chance to photograph families with older children, because for some strange reason, people seem to think that if their kids are beyond toddler age, they’ve missed the window of opportunity for family lifestyle photography. That’s SO not true! I would love to have photographs of my family back in the days when we were all teenagers and young adults still living at home, playing Frisbee in the street, piling up on each other in a game of tackle-the-man-with-the-ball, helping mom in the kitchen, reading the comics on Sunday afternoon in the big gold chair with dad. That’s what I love about this card — it captures those moments! And I love how COOL the back of the card is with the added texture. It takes this design to a level beyond the typical family holiday cards that show younger children, and that’s the point. These are college kids! They needed a sophisticated card!
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:11 am
Click the picture
— or click here —
and turn up the sound for Eileen and AJ’s slide show. When the show is over, it will automatically jump back here where you can leave a comment and answer a question to win Eileen and AJ an 8×10 print!
A little aside here: I love that picture above! I feel that it represents how my photography has evolved. When I first started, I found it difficult to get parents involved in the shoot because they only wanted pictures of their children. But I’ve come to realize that parents THINK they only want pictures of their children!
Once parents see the pictures of the entire family, and especially the pictures that show mom and dad as a couple — and they see their children’s reactions to those pictures — it becomes obvious that pictures of mom and dad together don’t happen nearly enough.
And I’m not talking about posed shots, but shots like the one above, where all I’ve done is said, “Hold hands. Slow dance. Snuggle. Kiss. Whisper something sexy in her ear.” Wow, things often do take off after that, and I get some great couple shots of mom and dad, the kind that married couples usually only get at the wedding and at a big anniversary now and then. So what’s my point? My point is that my family sessions are not going to be just about the children! Because as much as children love to see pictures of themselves, they also love to see pictures of mom and dad loving each other.
It is so hard to get a family with three children under 3 all looking generally in the direction of the camera. Usually, it’s mom and dad who are not looking because they’re trying so hard to get the kids to look! But Eileen and AJ were great! This picture is so cool in black and white!
Here’s another cool black and white. I can totally see this shot as a large print under a wide white mat and a simple black gallery frame, finished size of 20×26, hanging on the wall in any room in their home. They have such great taste in wall colors! The black and white print would look so cool against it!
Here’s what the wall actually looks like. (I love that father/son shot!)
Here’s another black and white that I love! He’s looking through the bridge of his train set.
We were lucky it wasn’t too cold that day to get outside for a little while!
I heard great stories about all the fun they had in summer on this slide. In full sun all day, the slide would need to be cooled before a child could slide on it, so they got in the habit of turning the hose on it, and putting a little plastic pool at the bottom. Sounds like the kids had a blast sliding into the pool all summer!
I love this shot.
Love this one too!
Cheers!
LOVE the reflection!
That bowl of fresh lemons looks beautiful, doesn’t it? But what makes the picture interesting is the curious little girl checking me out!
How cute is that? I love how the m&m’s are blurred from the motion of the pouring!
This picture is what my new camera is ALL ABOUT! LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY! It was a cloudy day. There are two windows on the far side of the room. The wood blinds were drawn shut for nap time. It was dark in there! But I was able to get this shot with no flash thanks to my fantastic new Nikon D3 using manual settings of super high ISO and a slow shutter speed. It was so dark in there in reality that I couldn’t see if his eyes were open or closed. (Upon close inspection in the editing room, they were open!)
To win Eileen and AJ an 8×10 print in your name, be the first person to leave a comment correctly guessing either the ISO setting of the picture above, or the shutter speed. (For hints, there are lots of photos in other posts (here’s one and here’s another one) that list the camera’s settings for each shot. Have fun and thanks for playing!)
Thanks Eileen and AJ! I really had a great time with your family in your beautiful home!
Until next time, be on the lookout for more Christmas card designs in the winter contest coming soon!
jules
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:42 am
DESIGN 9: FRONT
DESIGN 9: INSIDE
Message: “Happiness and cheer from our family to yours.”
DESIGN 9: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — You know, sometimes an image speaks louder than words and in this case, I almost don’t know what to say. The children are so photogenic! I have this card design as my screen saver — does that tell you how much I love it? Plus, I’m really into red right now so when the red scarf and hat came out during our shoot, I was in heaven!
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:53 am
DESIGN 8: FRONT
DESIGN 8: INSIDE
Message: “May everyday miracles fill your heart with warmth.”
DESIGN 8: BACK
Specs: Horizontal 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread vertically, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — the old tin and faded wallpaper make me think of scraps from an old house, like a true scrapbook from the days when my mom was a child. Did you figure out yet that this is the third card design featured in this space from one session? It was a photo shoot concentrating on six boys, all cousins around the same age. Their grandmother asked if I could do a design for her featuring all six boys. The only specifications were that it should be simple in design and through captioning, somehow, it should be easy to identify who each boy is. No problem! Under each boy’s inside picture: his name!
The reason I chose to design a card with a distinctive scrapbook feel was because the grandparents moved into a new home recently, and I thought it would be fun to give the card the look of having been thrown together from stuff out of the old house. Of course, all of it is fake, from my own head, and not actually from their house. (That would have been fun!) Still, I love the look of the old scrapheap frame on the cover, the rustic swirls like an old found Christmas card from the 50s, and my favorite part — the back, where it says, “Our grandsons” atop an old silver tin. How sweet is that?
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:54 am
DESIGN 7: FRONT
DESIGN 7: INSIDE
Message: “May the joy of our love for children bless us at Christmas and everyday.”
DESIGN 7: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — I love the front! Love everything about it — the vines, the swirls, the colors, the textures and of course the images of the girls. But what I love most about this card is the fact that it so clearly represents what this family’s photo session was supposed to be about. The mom wanted nothing more than to celebrate her life with her family in this moment by doing the sorts of things they routinely do, like going down to that duck pond (background image in the center). She specifically told me she wanted a simple card design. When I sent her this design, I wasn’t sure it would be simple enough, but I truly loved the fact that I was able to work the duck pond into the card. I purposefully kept it understated, adding a faux linen texture to the image itself so that when it was printed on linen paper, the image would almost disappear into the fabric for a very subtle effect. It’s one of my all-time favorite card designs.
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:55 am
DESIGN 6: FRONT
DESIGN 6: INSIDE
Message: “Peace. Hope. Happiness. Health,” signed in the empty space on the right side.
DESIGN 6: BACK
Specs: Horizontal wide format 5×7 card on archival linen, folded in the middle. The card opens on the short end resulting in a unique wide format card that opens to a full 5×14 spread.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — the bright colors and patina texture remind me of the ocean and sand, where we took the pictures. I especially love the inside spread with the natural smiles of the boys as they play on the beach. The “film scratches” were added in Photoshop simply because something about these photos reminds me of an age gone by, and that reminds all of us to save and cherish our childhood memories. And who can resist smiling back at those beautiful eyes and bright smiles on the front of the card? I love it! Love the back, too, with the shot of the boys running off to play.
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:40 am
DESIGN 5: FRONT
DESIGN 5: INSIDE
Message: “Brightest days and warmest nights/may your holidays be filled with joy.”
DESIGN 5: BACK
Specs: Horizontal 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread vertically, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — I had SO much fun working with this family! The picture on the back of the card is one of my all-time favorite images, a spontaneous family hug with mom and dad’s faces showing natural, unposed smiles as they gaze into the eyes of their adolescent children. Who wouldn’t want to memorialize a picture like that by putting it on a Christmas card? It’s perfect! Even so, I didn’t want it to compete too heavily with the front of the card, so I gave it a washed texture to make it just a bit more subtle than the front. When I went to this family’s home to deliver prints (including that picture on the back as a 16×20!) their home and yard were decorated to the nines with lights and beautiful ornaments. I wanted to bring that out in the card by giving the front an all-decked-out-for-Christmas theme. I kept the inside simple to balance the decked-out front, again, mimicking the family’s style of a fun exterior with one simple theme: family is everything.
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:55 am
DESIGN 4: FRONT
DESIGN 4: INSIDE
Message: “Wishing you a Christmas touched with wonder. Happy Holidays”
DESIGN 4: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — the sweet image on the front of the baby in focus and the out-of-focus parents gazing adoringly at him is beautiful, for one thing. I love the three-dimensional effect of the baby popping out of the scene! And I love the inside design, with the large image of the baby with sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks measuring a full 5×7. Extended family members who receive this card could frame that portion if they wish to, so for the price of a card design, this family also got to send out frameable 5×7 images to all the aunts and uncles and grandmas on their list. The overall theme of the card was designed to compliment the family’s wardrobe of soft leather textures and rich brown colors.
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:50 am
DESIGN 3: FRONT
DESIGN 3: FRONT FLAP
Message: “A beautiful Christmas of joy, peace and wonder.”
DESIGN 3: INSIDE SPREAD
Overall size: 15×5. The card was signed underneath the family picture.
DESIGN 3: BACK
Specs: Horizontal 5×5 tri-fold card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in thirds.Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!
What I love about this design — I designed this card with a clear blue background because I dream of blue skies for this family. The clean lines compliment their minimalist style, and the snowflakes compliment stenciling created by the children’s grandmother in their rooms. I especially love the front design of this card with just a picture of hand-holding. To me, that’s what the holidays are all about, hand-holding being the simplest way to show affection, especially between mother and child when part of the reason for hand-holding is to guide and protect.
Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!
Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:33 am
