JFlah's Blunders

The head of our PreK ministry asked me to help her make a craft for the story about Hannah praying for a baby in 1 Samuel 1:9-2 8 . She brought me a neat idea she found online where only the hands/torso change when the page is folded. Thankfully I had time to sketch up an original version of what she brought me. Click here to download this design for free. Finalized version created in Adobe Illustrator: Preliminary sketches:  Ideas she provided:

Here's the "final" poster design. Might be tweaked a little more, but this is basically it. Made the angels subtle and the nativity prominent. Thankfully the boss was around when I was working on placement of the pieces. He helped me choose three angels and decided he wanted the nativity big. Here's the inspiration:

Here's the nativity sketch - sketched elements separately, scanned them at a high resolution then compiled them into the scenes. Wish I'd had more time to work on these, but I think I've done ok in the time allotted. I'm glad God's given me a place to work that will allow me to do creative things like this even though I still feel a little funny about being found sketching when the boss shows up at the door and says 'what cha' doin?'

Every year I've been doing slides and cards for Parent/Child Dedication and every year it takes longer than I expect to transform the pictures that the parents give me into something that translates well to the SD format. Here are only a few of the before/after samples from this year's lot. Found an arm, color matched it then extended the background. Doesn't look like much, but I tilted the pic, extended the background and added a filter. This one was the most challenging of the bunch. Had to scan and fix a low res pic and then extend the background for the slide. Levels, sharpening, background work. Extended the background. This one didn't turn out quite right because of the pattern of the blanket he is sitting on. Added a wall and finished the dresser.

I had the pleasure of making child dedication slides for my sister's children. They were on a very long list of children to be dedicated this year. Every year I take pics parents send for the dedication service and add the dedication verse along with the name. Often it's a challenge. This year the slides are kind of plain, but I think they work. We do child dedication every Mother's Day at work - making the week before Mother's Day a rough one for me. Come to think of it, the month of May is a rough month for that matter. We have Easter either in April or May so there's always extra music ministry work, then the children's choir usually does their spring musical on the first weekend of May. Also in May we have HS Grad recognition service, this baby dedication service and two luncheons (Daisy Chains for Bereaved Mothers and Pearl Girls Luncheon for Single Moms). It's an insanely busy month for me both from a graphic design standpoint and from the typ...