DESIGN 16: FRONT
(The text at the bottom actually showed the boy’s name, replaced with fake type here, but I LOVE his name there!)
DESIGN 16: INSIDE
Message: “Happy holidays” was written in script at the bottom right corner.
DESIGN 16: 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 feel a sense of peace just thinking about this card, and a card that gives me a moment of peace during the hectic holidays is one worth keeping out all year long. I love the richness of the front with the browns and textures and the boy’s natural smile. Love the inside with the subtle pulling back of color in that unusual but playful photo choice for a holiday card. The addition of a faux linen texture on the image enhances the actual linen texture of the paper on which it was printed. It’s the whole card design, the flow of it, that gives me that much-desired peacefulness, but the back is my favorite panel. It’s just — *sigh* — a sweet layout for a beautiful family.
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posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 9:30 am
A new edition of Metuchen Musings is coming out! Click the book cover above
— or click here —
and turn up the sound for a little slide show of the writers doing what they do best — writing!
This will be the fourth anthology created by the Writers of Metuchen. It includes extraordinary poems by Marcia Holtzman, director of the Writers’ Room at Edgar School, poignant prose by Jennifer Jolly and Joni Scanlon, charming illustrations by Mickey Waring (who provided the painting on the beautiful cover), memoirs of everyday life by Leah Kane
(from her charming Raising Kane blog), poetry contributions from young writers Jamie Zwiebel and Lauren Hooghuis, and many more. We’re all so excited to be publishing another book! Check back for more information as the book moves along in the publication process, or, if you’d like to pre-order your copy, books will be available for $10 if purchased through a member of the group, and will eventually be available for purchase on Lulu.com. (But with shipping, you’ll save by ordering through one of us.) Email me if you’d like to pre-order your copy!
The back cover
More information on book availability and Writers of Metuchen events coming soon!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:56 am
DESIGN 15: FRONT
DESIGN 15: INSIDE
Message: “Have an awesome new year!” (The card was signed within the framed photograph in white ink.)
DESIGN 15: 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 — FUN FUN FUN!!! I love this one for how colorful it is, showing off the beauty of this mom/daughter team! Non-stop energy with these two during our shoot and they were so sweet together, I wanted to make sure all their friends and family would see it and feel the love as much as I did. The inside is designed like a movie poster, complete with a pretty white-ink autograph (not shown here) within the bottom of the framed image. They both talked about what a good time they have sitting on the couch watching movies so I wanted to give their card a distinct MOVIE feel. I love it!
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 7:31 am
DESIGN 14: FRONT
DESIGN 14: INSIDE
Message: “Let our children’s joy surround us all throughout the year” (The card was signed bottom right.)
DESIGN 14: 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 all the different colors on the front, in particular, the hats, but more than that, I love how the faces show so many different expressions. I think it’s cool that mom and dad made it on the front of the card as well. I get so many comments from people who have been a recipient of one of my cards saying how much they loved seeing the entire family in the presentation. I really like the inside design too though. The string of lights drapes through the design, giving it a nice Christmassy feeling, and when combined with that adorable photograph of the children smiling at each other, it’s just priceless. The family photo on the back is one of my faves too. (See it big in the “family” gallery of my
main photography site.)
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posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:15 am
DESIGN 12: FRONT
DESIGN 12: FRONT FLAP
Message: “Warm wishes for safe and peaceful travel this holiday season.”
DESIGN 12: INSIDE SPREAD
Overall size: 15×5.
DESIGN 12: 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 — The travel theme that is built into this card is timeless! That picture on the front inside flap is one of my all-time favorite pictures. Why? What is it about kids in the car that we can all relate to? I guess it’s a ritual of childhood to be loaded in a vehicle of some sort, sitting dangerously close to your siblings, on a trek over the proverbial river and through the woods to grandma’s house. It just EEKS family, and that’s why I LOVE this card! The family travel theme is echoed on the outside of the card, with images that resemble standard travel snapshots. Then open the card to its full 15×5 spread and you are invited, literally, inside. Oh sure, the texture is nice, and if you study the actual card carefully, you might notice a very subtle post-mark motif and hand-writing, like a postcard. And truly, the background image of the children wrestling on the couch (yet another timeless childhood ritual) is charming, but it’s THEIR EYES that really draws us into their world.
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!
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posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 10:02 am
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
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!
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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?
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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!
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posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:55 am
