From Craft Critique: Paper Crafting with Photos

Here is my first article that was published on the Craft Critique website.

What I failed to mention was that the mag was a gift from a swap that I participated in for Valentine's Day. My thanks to Laura in Texas for the wonderful items.

Oh, and the photos in the cards below are my photos. They are not professional quality, but it's a start, for me at least. Thanks for looking.


Reported by Kim Fox

166 Ways to Use Your Photos – that’s one of the headlines you’ll find on the cover of Paper Crafting with Photos. This is the first edition of this magazine from Paper Crafts. But it’s easy to see how there could be more issues in the future much like there was a Card Creations and then variations on that theme for other editions.

The ideas in Paper Crafting with Photos are endless – and that’s what you will find here – ideas! Along with a supplies list and brief instructions on how to replicate the examples on your own.

There are cute ideas for sentiments like the card with the photo of a horse that says "why the long face?" and another card with the image of a frog with the phrase "you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince!".

Like most Paper Craft mags, there are plenty of tips sprinkled throughout the publication along with links to more information, tips and instructions online.

Oh and a perk for picking up this mag is access to images that you can download online for free.

Here's what you'll find inside:

Fun Photo Manipulation
Very basic tips for manipulating images are the focus of this section. The sample image that is used in this section is a landscape image; you'll get a general idea of some of the things that are possible with photo editing. NOTE: This section does not focus on one particular photo editing software program.

Give Cards a Photo Finish
In 27 pages this sections highlights a variety of ways to incorporate pictures on your cards. The examples of occasions were birthdays, Father’s Day, love and Valentine’s Day, retirement, welcome baby, Christmas and more. The variety of images utilized run the gamut from the obvious for the occasion to animals, landscapes and food. It’s another way to make your cards unique and memorable.

Envelope Envy
This one-pager offers ideas for including images on the envelopes. Don’t be afraid to use photos on the return address label or as an envelope sealer, just to name a few.

Picture Perfect Gift Wrap
So you’re giving someone a lovely gift, why not compliment the gift with a gift wrap that they will cherish as well. There are over 20 ideas for packaging your gift and including images. The one that stood out for me is on p. 42 and includes a photo of a stack of books; the photo was adhered to a piece of cardstock and then adhered to a bag; the gift bag also has a book mark with the same image on it. Gift bags were mainly used, but so were boxes, pails and a lunch box. Many of the examples also have a wide variety of embellishments like ribbon, flowers, stickers and more.

Play Dress up with Your Photos
This section was so cool. It offers more simple tips for jazzing up your framed photos. These are techniques that crafters often use in crafting, but you might hesitate to use to frame your photos; but why not? The finished projects included stitching, painting and stamping. The techniques make the images much more exciting and fun to look at.

Picturing Fabulous Home Décor
Here are lots and lots of creative ideas and the completed projects would be lovely gifts in your home or in the home of your family and friends. The more unique ideas are decorating a vase; a door hanger, a light plate, a clock, and coasters. My fav in this section was the refreshment holder – it is cute and colorful and has some relatively easy instructions.


Using Your Resources
There are numerous photo editing software and other photo-related tools on the market. This section highlights six products that could be helpful in editing images or making calendars or other items.

Preserving Magical Memories
When we think of photos, we sometimes think of photo albums. There are some really fun ideas for photo albums in this section. However, this section is not just about albums, but layouts too. There is a lot of diversity in this section which include both large and small albums as well as one- and two-page layouts.

Tips for Perfect Photos Every Time
The cover of the mag touts ‘Learn How to Shoot & Edit like a Pro' well, these tips are simple, yet can make an impact on any image. There’s the rule of thirds, which many know about but rarely put to use and the same goes for color contrast. You can never get enough tips for improving your picture taking skills.

Pros:

• Lot and lots of wonderful ideas
• Ideas that you can execute in a matter of minutes
• Very few advertisements
• Index section in the back of the magazine
• A lot of bang for your buck

Cons:

• Some of the pictures and themes are a little hokey
• Most Paper Crafts editions include a sentiments page with various quotes, but this edition does not include one

Bibliographic Information:
Title: Paper Crafting with Photos
Magazine: 92 pages
Publisher: CK Media/Paper Crafts Publication
Copyright: 2008
MSRP: $5.99 US/$6.00 Canada