Women in the Civil War trifold

by Devin
(North Carolina, USA)

Hi!

I am making a tri-fold about women in the Civil War. I am not very creative, but want my tri-fold to stand out.

I have 3 topics: Nurses, Soldiers, and Sewers. I have a large thesis statement at the top of my board, with a small summary paragraph under it.

I was thinking of putting a border of construction paper at the top with the words "Civil War Women" across the construction paper. I have heard that putting colorful construction paper underneath your text makes it stand out, but I'm looking for even more ideas. FYI: I have limited supplies, (no sticker), and am not a fantastic artist. Thanks!

Devin

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Hi Devin

Thank you for your question. You gave me a good excuse to go make a layout :) Lol!

I think high contrast makes things stand out, as does light and sparkle on things. If you have no shiny or sparkly items to put on your letters then go for popping things up a bit.

For example, to make your text, use paper that is either a lot lighter (such as white) or darker (such as black) on your base construction paper. If you can, cut out the letters (hand draw them or print them out using your word processor and then use that font as a pattern and cut around them on your construction paper) and pop them up with foam tape the letters will cast a small shadow and be more noticeable.

To show you what I mean, I took a picture of my rough, hand cut letters lying flat on white cardstock first and then I popped up my letters in the second photo shown above.

I like burst patterns because you can use them to really draw the eye to a certain point on your page. You can make a burst with strips of construction paper, cut in wedge shapes.

You can make your wedges fit into a circle if you draw around a dinner plate (or saucer etc - anything round) on your construction paper. I drew a circle about 7" wide to make mine. If you have one, use a compass to draw the circle. Mark the centre of the circle and cut towards the centre from the edge to make wedges. The wedges do not have to be even.

Reconstruct your circle with the wedges under your point of interest (see second photo above) and leave gaps between the wedges to form contrast. Stick them down to the page. I then added my matted photo and popped the photo up with Stampin' Dimensionals, a form of foam tape from Stampin' Up!, but you can even stack small pieces of paper together and glue them to each other to make little props for your letters if you have no foam.

This can take you some time and patience to complete, but I think you would have a trifold that stands out in the end.

Come back and post a picture of what you made, OK?

Susan

PS: Lots of people feel they are not creative, but many if not most creative people start out by mimicking or copying other people's ideas that they like. When they grow more confident, they branch out to make their own designs. Many creative people don't even like their work but others love it. You may be creative and not know it yet!