trimmingthesails

Double Trouble ...

I knew it. As my finger hovered over the mouse to click on the Before and After video link, I just knew, with spine-tingling certainty, that it was a mistake. Mmm, over four minutes: I won't have time to watch it all. This must just be a quick and sneaky peek, I told myself ...

Well, it wasn't. I only had to hear the words "How many times have you tried to improve a design by adding things to it? A line, an extra colour, a fancy type-face ... You'll get better results by doing the opposite - by simplifying. " and I was ( as you might have guessed) hooked.

It's a great video for scrapbookers, even if you're not a clean and simple kinda-scrapper. Watch as John takes a magazine cover for photographers and removes the elements one by one, till there is only the photo and a piece of background left. If you do not breathe easier and go 'Ahh..!', then come back, leave me a message  and I will send you a present of some sheets of my best patterned paper.

Even though I had already completed my skinny New 52 Week 4 (to the right), I couldn't resist trying his suggestions:

• take the photo to the edge of the page - no border
• no other embellishments
• use only one typeface - ring the variations through using regular and bold.
• use even margins
• align clearly
• use colours from the photo
• don't be tempted to fill blank space

So I had a go (see below). I'm really not sure which I like best. Do feel free to add your own opinion below - I'd be very happy to hear what you think! But it was instructional and fun to do and, as he pointed out, it was easier and less time-consuming that the original. That's always a bonus, in my book. Especially if it leaves even more time for another close encounter with the ladder, the Windowlene and the spiders ...

 

 

Being naughty and New 52

 I nearly bought a notebook. Right here. Now, buying a notebook really can't count as being noteworthy enough for a New 52 challenge. But it set me off on a train of thought, and here's where it went ...

Can NOT buying a notebook count as being outside one's comfort zone enough to qualify for New 52?

(Oh, and if you like the splashes, they're actually a free font called, gloriously, 'Split Splat Splodge', over at Dafont. Go on. I dare you. Slip it into the midlle of an email to your boss. Be naughty!)

 

 

 

A quartet with some fuzzy thinking ...

Hello! No, we've not gone all musical up here (though a tuneful ditty in praise of Fridays would be welcome): we're a bit more visual today. If you can see clearly, that is ...

One
I promised a photo of how my all-in-one 'This is 2011' is developing. Though the covers are still in progress (that's an optimistic euphemism, by the way), the pages are held in an open spiral for the moment. Book-rings will keep things together once the covers are ready until there are enough pages to bind. I'm not - and I realise this may be heresy for some - using any page protectors, though I may trim some into single sheets and slip them in between pages if I sense any stickiness.

Two
To make the best use of resources, the backs of the double-page fortnightly spreads also hold a layout. Here, a page was glued onto the back after printing the spread but - with careful planning - it will be possible to print onto the back of the spread should this be needed.

Three
The New 52 skinny pages are printed directly onto double-sided white, matt, archival quality A4 art paper. Made especially for fine art and digital art printing, both Fotospeed's High White Smooth Duo and Hahnemuehle's Fine Art Inkjet paper give excellent results with no bleeding through of colour from one side to the other. Additionally, it's slimmer than two lots of card, which is a bonus. When you count the cost of, say, two sheets of Bazzil card plus A4 Photopaper by makers like HP or Epson, then the art papers compare favourably. And it's a whole lot simpler ...

Four
Fuzzy photos. Not having got to grips with the SLR, I snapped these of my little grandson in winter evening indoor light with no flash and a point-and-shoot camera. Naturally, being two, he was not going to stop moving while I fiddled around! Now, I know photos like these are often discarded as not being good enough; my dilemma is that sometimes they're all I have. And so, I'm thinking - albeit a trifle fuzzily - it seems more important to have some kind of record than perhaps none at all. (And - as a protective measure in on-line work - fuzzy or blurry photos make identification harder.)

Oh, and speaking of photos ...
though hers are not at all fuzzy!, then do have a look at Kim's lovely work, tutorials and classes over here. I've just found her site, and if you are beginning in Photoshop/Elements, or would like to try out textures and photos, this looks like a great place to learn. As I am already experimenting with backgrounds, I will be doing Kim's great free class Learn Textures in Ten. (Yes, that's ten minutes!) See you there? Or back here next week? Happy photo-taking and crafting ...

WOYW Wednesday? Well ...

... here's what's on it. Or was, till I photographed it and popped it into a scrapbook page, which is doubling up as my Week 2 for New 52.

These skinny pages for Weeks 1 and 2 have been printed onto double-sided archival-safe art paper. When the light is better in a day or two and we cease to be living at the bottom of what feels like a murky pond, I'll photograph them and show how I'm fitting them in the 'This is 2011' album. However, in the meantime, if there is no progress with said Illustrator (and the ironing), it's going to be Woe On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

And if you'd like to see what else is happening on WOYW Wednesday, do call in over here with Julia ...