Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Reading Now: CK The Ultimate Guide to Photo Keepsakes

Published in 2006 this 250 odd page you tome is from the people that bring you Creating Keepsakes Magazine. Five Chapters;
  1. Albums
  2. Gifts
  3. Home Decor
  4. Keepsakes
  5. For Babies, Toddlers and teens.
If this book really is the 'ultimate guide to photo keepsakes' then my place is the ultimate palatial mansion. And it's not.

There are some nice projects in here and some good inspiration. But unlike the Autumn Leaves books I have reviewed lately this book looks dated and leaves me want more, A LOT more. I wanted better photos with more close-ups and details. I wanted a darn sight more information in the 'How to's'.

Verdict; leave it on the shelf.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Reading Now:The Designing With Recipe Book

I really love the Desiging with series of books and have practically all of them. I enjoy the style of the vast majority of most of the artists and feel like I get a lot of ideas although I would say I found when I started reading them as a newish scrapbooker that some of the techniques needed a lot more explaining. This is not the case in the DW Recipe Book which is one of the best aspects of the book.
The book was published in 2007 so it's older but I would say still very current. It is divided into 6 chapters Chapters 1 to 5 deal with one photo through five photo layouts and chapter six with layouts with 7 or more photos.

Each page page of the book features one layout with artist and materials information beneath it, a sketch of the page and the 'recipe'. The recipe includes comprehensive instructions for recreating the layout. This includes things like heat embossing and using masks. At the end of each chapter there is a feature layout with sketch and recipe shown with two alternative layouts based on the feature LO. This is feature that I really enjoyed and felt could have been exploited a little more.

Overall I would say that if you can pick this up on a good special or cheap second hand then it's certainly worth it.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sunday, June 21, 2009