Happy Birthday Lori...Memory Card Tutorial

Hello everyone
I am in Ottawa right now for my sisters birthday trip and have just given her the card I made so now I can share it with you. I had this post ready to go so I just had to publish it so here it goes.

The process I go through when making a memory card is usually the same for each one I make and it goes kind of like this:

• Choose the picture - I always start with the picture and rarely (if ever) make the card first. If I have access to lots of pictures of my subject...like my sister (since she was first born there are OODLES of her), I search through my stash for just the right one. It has to be clear and I like the picture to be closer into the face rather than a long distance shot. I like to be able to see the person's face clearly but that is not always possible. I love to use old pictures like with my sister's card but not everyone has them. With Anna's card it was a recent picture but I changed it to black and white which I think works really well.

• Photoshop -  next I digitally edit the picture and decide on if I will print it in black and white or colour. I more often then not choose black and white but for this card I chose to keep the colour of the original since I  had an idea of a colour scheme from the picture. I crop the picture and play around with brushes and borders until I have the picture the way  I want it. Sometimes I put words on the picture like this one. I then print the picture out on hp satin photo paper....for some reason I do not like glossy. It just doesn't look how I want it to and you can sometimes see streaks.

  

• Choose colour scheme - I dig through my stash of paper to find just the right ones to use. Then I hunt through my piles of ribbon and embellishments for ones that will work with my idea. With this card I was thinking shabby chic meets french provincial and this is what I came up with. Probably nothing like either one of those styles but still works in the end.

• Assemble -  then I start to assemble and play around with composition etc. and work out any printing I need to do on my computer. When I am putting it together I often change the material and or paper used. If you look at the finished card and the picture of materials used there are a few changes....I didn't use the wider, pinker ribbon and replaced the thin off white satin ribbon with a hemp string. Also the paper is from the same series but the flowers are smaller. These ones were too big so they took away from the picture. In the end the look is what I was going for.

• Take pictures - I take lots of them as you may have noticed from reading my blog. My favourite place to take them is on my mantle. I have a cute little wooden bird house there and the mantle is white so it is a good neutral for the shots.  I always take a straight on shot then sideways and close ups....it has been working for me so far I think.

and the process is all worth it when you  give a special, handmade card and especially so if it has their picture on it. Thanks for checking out my post today
Cheryl