This is Tyra and I'm here to host the SEI Inspiration Challenge! Are you excited? I am, so let's get started.
I found inspiration in an object I use almost daily: a grocery bag. Not just any grocery bag but this beautiful reusable bag from one of my favorite grocers:
There are so many directions you can go when using this bag as inspiration. I choose to focus on the composition of the bag; the layers and placement of colors, the circles, and other decorative elements. The other source of my inspiration is the fall season. We are still enjoying the warmth and sun outside as the leaves are slowly changing colors. SEI's Vogue collection, featured in one of SEI's past scrapbooking kits, is perfect for this time of year. The best way to describe this collection is that it is like the warmth of summer extending into the colors of fall. The Yesteryear Collection of foil accented paper, sundries, stickers and die-cut accents would also work very well with the following projects.
First, I created this card by layering in various papers and embellishments all from the Vogue collection. The well coordinated collection feathers, sundries, vellum sentiment and ribbon all came perfectly together.
Next I created mini banners using SEI's banner kit. I painted the corrugated banner in a creamy white and layered it with elements from the Vogue collection. I die cut words from coordinating paper and created a mini banner, perfect as a note of encouragement to a friend, colleague or loved one. I'm going to hang mine in my office.
What will you create?
Challenge Rules:
Use the inspiration image to create a new layout, card, or mixed media design.
Use the linky tool below to add your project. Please post a direct link to your project from your blog or photo sharing site.
Mention the SEI Design Inspiration Challenge and link back to our site. Encourage your friends to participate!
You may combine this challenge with other challenges
Use of SEI products is not required
Please leave a link no later than November 25th
Have FUN!!!!!
One project will be featured during the next monthly challenge and the winner will receive a $25 gift code from SEI.
Tyra
Wedding season is here again! … and family vacation season, and take cute photos of your family season. Many of my friends have recently been asking how they can better control the images they are taking. They have ideas of images in their mind, but when they take the image it doesn’t seem to translate like they had hoped. It seems everyone is trying to take better photos during this season of fun. While I can’t share everything I know in this post, hopefully I can get the juices flowing and inspire everyone to go take photos.
This instruction won’t really work if you have a point and shoot camera that operates only on automatic, but it will still be useful because you can better communicate the image you want to a professional photographer.
With manual cameras you can control the ISO or ASA, the shutter speed, and the aperture or f/stops. I want to focus more on the aperture. F/stops can be tricky, but they don’t have to be. Basically like your eye the aperture lets light in. The larger the opening, the more light that is let in. For a bright day you want to limit the amount of light that is captured to avoid an image of pure white; and vice versa for a night or an overcast day. To know what the lens opening looks like for each f-stop here is a diagram.
Those f/stops aren't just for controlling your exposure. If you want an image where everything in the frame of the image is in focus you will want to use f/16.
If you are taking a photo of your child and want your child to be the only thing in focus with the background objects all out of focus you will want to use an f-stop somewhere between f/4- f/1.8. This is also a good way to compose your image. Sometimes the objects in the front can be the ones in focus; while other times the objects in the background can be the ones in focus. Now, go out and create those photos.
Leave a comment to enter the giveaway for a club SEI June kit. For up to 4 extra entries, leave a comment each day this week.
This week we are shaking things up a bit with special guest posts from none other than the SEI Art Studio! We are excited for you to meet the "new gals" and also get to know us "oldies" a little better too. Each of us has unique interests to share throughout the week.
We are starting with Mandi. She is our fashion expert. We love seeing the outfits she puts together. They inspire us and sometimes our paper collections inspire our fashion choices too!
Mandi told us what she had in mind to share today. But since she went on maternity leave before she could put it together, we snuck on her Pinterest and whipped these outfit/layout inspirations up for her.
Outfits can inspire the patterns you choose to add and mix to your layout. Why not throw a little black and white stripe in with a colorful layout (or outfit)?
If you don't have a paper that matches a cool multi-colored pattern (like that amazing skirt), why not layer several different papers and embellishments to create a similar effect or color palette?
The textures and materials used in an outfit can inspire your layout too. Maybe a layout will inspire you to add lace, gold, ruffles, pleats or pearls to a layout. However you do it, we hope Mandi's great fashion sense will inspire you to create something pretty.
Leave a comment to enter the giveaway for a club SEI June kit. For up to 4 extra entries, leave a comment each day this week.
What inspires me? So many things. Most of all the great fore-photography-fathers inspire me. Irving Penn, Joel Meyerowitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Patrick Demarchelier.
Irving Penn: I’ve always wanted to do a photo shoot with live Elephants, wouldn’t that be amazing!
Joel Meyerowitz: My bragging rights, I met him, and actually had dinner with him. Great photographer, we have him to thank for 9-11 documentation.
Posing Tips for Photos: There are so many photographers that can inspire our photos; regardless of the type of photos we hope to take. We can all create images like Irving Penn. Replace the model with our own child or niece or nephew and replace the live elephants with our prized pets and you’ve created your own Irving Penn. The great images of all time can be re-made into our own masterpieces for our enjoyment. Here are some ideas for posing that can not only help you look glamorous for your upcoming wedding but can also give you tips on how to pose for family photos.
I love this idea with the heart-shaped maps. It would be so much fun to make heart-shaped maps for a wedding gift of where the couple met, where they were married, and where they are going to live. I have a lot of friends that are military brats; maybe I’ll make them a collage of all the places throughout the world that they have lived.
What about you?? What inspires you?
(We have each enjoyed sharing what inspires us! If you have enjoyed the Art Studio Picks series, leave a comment and tell us. So we know whether to continue doing it.)
Hi there. I’m back again to share with you something that you are probably familiar with already and if you’re like me, you might be a little addicted to it. I’m talking about Pinterest. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a social bookmarking site that allows you to pin just about anything you see on the Internet.
So let’s get started...you can create your own pinboards and name them whatever you want. I’m going to share some projects from a few of my boards. Disclaimer: I haven’t tried each and every one of these items but I plan to soon. You can see all of my boards and/or follow me on Pinterest to see more of my favorite goodies.
Baked cream cheese spaghetti casserole
I made this dish last week. It was super easy and the entire family loved it; sadly there were no leftovers for lunch the next day
Photography / Photoshop Board
Every time we take family photos, I always struggle with what colors to wear and what patterns to mix.
This photographer eliminiates the guess work.
For the Home Board
I have frames sitting on the floor by my walls and staircase and struggled with the best arrangement without putting nails in the wall until I knew I’d like the arrangement. This is next on my honey-do list thanks to this inspiration.
Those are just a few of the thousands of things I have pinned and the countless pins others have posted. If you’ve never tried Pinterest, you need to be invited to join. I have yet to figure out why but it is what it is. If you’d like an invite, leave me a comment on my blog and I’ll send you an invite. Happy Pinning!
SOUP
warms the heart and soul....(and is good for many days in many ways)
BEAUTIFUL QUILTS (warms the feet and sole):
RANDOM VINTAGE (inspired our catalog cover which I love so much I want a poster of it! - great job Mandi & Maria) SEI COVER
and CLEAN GRAPHIC QUILT (even better in my favorite colors)
THINGS I WANT TO MAKE (cause I can't afford to buy them): MIRROR TILE
OLIVE GREEN:
in a SOFT COMBO with light coral and gray
or BOLD COMBO with fruit punch and yellow
and in these necklaces from 31 bits. They do good around the globe...love it! (Maybe I could make some myself too?)
and always, always, always... CHARLEY HARPER (never get enough, can look at his illustrations for days and days and days...simply brilliant!) SERENGETTI AND BITTERN BIRDS
Ever get in pinch for a title or journaling on a layout? Sometimes when I do, I hop over to Pinterest and get some great ideas. Here are few to help you.
