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Hi! Yes, that site artist is me once again, so we'll skip the usual artist intro and move onto more important matters - like how to get your art featured instead of mine!

I'd really, truly love to have more submissions from all of you. One reason is selfish: I'm bored with seeing my cookies. Typically, I've looked at them for countless hours before posting them here, and enough is enough! But the primary reasons are for you. Featured cookiers get noticed by other members, potential customers, and people looking for cookie artists for competitions, classes, and other events. Plus, each featured artist gets his/her own in-depth Cookier Close-up interview here on Cookie Connection, which allows us all to get to know one another better. And what could be nicer than that?!

The other good news is: it's really easy to get your art featured, as I'll demonstrate with a simple example using this month's site art. First and foremost, getting featured requires no new cookie baking, decorating, or photographing. You can simply take an existing cookie photo (or photos) and crop it (them) to the proper sizes needed for our site banner and backdrop (690 W x127 H pixels for the former, and 1900 W x 1200 H pixels for the latter). Don't know how to crop? No worries; I'll share some handy apps for cropping at the end of this post.

Now onto that simple example I mentioned. For this month's art, I started with this image that I shot for a stencil release a few months back:

IMG_6493NICE HOR WITH PLAIN AND MESSAGE GREAT OPENER

I chose it not only because the flowers and birds on the cookies are super appropriate for the month of May, but also because the color palette works nicely with the Cookie Connection logo. Remember: The banner image sits right next to our logo at the very top of the site, so color compatibility is a huge plus.

Once I selected the image, I cropped it to exactly 690 W x127 H pixels to extract this slice for the site banner:

NEWAPRILBANNER

BTW, don't worry about how to get your banner image nestled next to the Cookie Connection logo, as shown below. As long as you send me a banner image in the right size (again, 690 W x127 H pixels), I'll do the rest.

April 2018 Banner - ME - TRY 2

Now, for the background . . . While a 1900 W x 1200 H pixel image is ideal, it's not critical that it be exactly these dimensions. It can definitely be bigger, though it's best if it isn't any smaller. (If smaller, the image will automatically be tiled - aka repeated - to fit, which sometimes looks odd if the breaks between tiled photos appear to the sides of the text area, or body, of the site.) It's also important that (1) the image works well with the banner image, and (2) you have interesting photo content anchored in the upper left hand corner and far right, because those areas are most likely to show on most devices once the image is loaded to the site.

I began by cropping my original image as close to 1900 W x 1200 H pixels as possible, but found I had nothing but napkin and blue table covering in the far right. (Note: You could, of course, work with a different image than the one used for the banner. Either way is fine, as long as the banner and background make sense together visually.)

PossibleAprilBackground

I ended up cropping the image very tightly around the cookies, and then placing a second copy of the cropped image directly to the right, to create an image of roughly the right size (below).

Background Tiled 4

There's a line between the two tiled images, but since that line is dead-center, it can't be seen behind the body of the site. Plus, I now have some cookie content revealing on the far right edge of the site! Woo hoo!

Once you've assembled your two photos, you simply need to post them into our "Site Submissions" clip set following the guidelines found herePlease also specify the month for which you intend them in the title or caption of your post.

Now, back to the matter of how to crop photos to a specified size. I use Photoshop for all of my cropping, because it's also a powerful photo editing tool. But there is definitely a learning curve to it, and it is relatively expensive. That being said, I did a little research on the best apps for photo cropping, and I came across this post. Image Size sits at the top of their list, and I noticed it was reviewed favorably elsewhere, so I went ahead and downloaded and tested it. As the post says, it really is rather wonderful. You can crop any photo to any aspect ratio (W x H) through a simple four-step process: (1) upload the image you want to crop; (2) enter the aspect ratio you want at the top (this sets the size of the "crop viewer", a term I just coined); (3) move the photo around under the "crop viewer" until you have the crop you want (you can zoom in or out on the photo, and rotate it too); and (4) then hit the download arrow to save the cropped image to the photos area on your device. What's more, it's available for both Android and iOS devices. And, no, I don't own stock in Image Size!

So, with all of these tools now at your fingertips, I sure hope to see some wonderful site submissions from you in the coming months. If you have any questions about cropping, how to submit, or anything else, please don't hesitate to ask in the comments below. And, remember, all contributors will get their work featured prominently in the site's banner and background for a full month, plus the added PR benefits of a forum post like this one and a Cookier Close-up interview! So it's really a win-win proposition for all! Thanks for considering!

Attachments

Images (5)
  • Original Un-cropped May Cookie Image: Cookies and Photo by Julia M Usher
  • Image Cropped to Banner Size: Cookies and Photo by Julia M Usher
  • Banner in Site Header with Logo: Cookies and Photo by Julia M Usher; Graphic Design by Pretty Sweet Designs
  • Image Cropped to Background Size: Cookies and Photo by Julia M Usher
  • Image Cropped Smaller and Then Doubled Up: Cookies and Photo by Julia M Usher
Original Post

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Hi Julia you are right its so easy to send submissions. I will be posting something for the next month consideration! I bake lots of 3d cakes but i also love cookies. By the way your cookies are amazing. And finally i encourage everyone to do the same. Post your cookies for consideration and follow the rules about sizes it's easy. This is a great place for showing our work. Good luck everyone!

Roberto Correa posted:

Hi Julia you are right its so easy to send submissions. I will be posting something for the next month consideration! I bake lots of 3d cakes but i also love cookies. By the way your cookies are amazing. And finally i encourage everyone to do the same. Post your cookies for consideration and follow the rules about sizes it's easy. This is a great place for showing our work. Good luck everyone!

Thanks, @Roberto Correa, I look forward to seeing what you submit, and I thank you for the kind words about my work and the support on this blog post! 

Poli Peixoto posted:

Hello, Julia, I'm very happy to be here. I am your fan and your work is beautiful. I have attached a work of mine so that you may know it! I hope you enjoy!

Great to have you on the site, and your cookie is beautiful! If you want more people to see your cookies though, it's best not to post them under unrelated topics (you posted this one under one of my monthly stencil releases in the blog, where very few people are likely to see it). Photos are best posted to the "Clips" section of the site, but please read our Site Posting Guidelines before you post, especially our rules about copying others' images (we don't allow copied works without stated permission from the copyright holder). Thanks, and have fun on the site!

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