The Start Of Splotchbird

I am a mom of 4 young children and the amount of "art" they take home is overwhelming. I am not overly sentimental and usually most of their art get a tender motherly approval followed by a quick (unseen by the kids) move straight into the bin. However, I do feel a bit bad about this cruel behaviour, so I do tend to at least take a photo of the better pieces and the once in a while actual Masterpieces are placed on the wall or safely stored in a box. It made me think though... how could I make their art into something even more lasting and creative. There is the photo "art book" of course which is relatively easy to complete IF you know your basic editing tools. And there are some companies out there already that offer (costly) services that do exactly that for families. But what else can be done? Then I visualised a new idea based on my company called Once Upon a Photo. I create books, re-telling classic stories in which children play out the characters themselves. I capture this in my photo studio and eventually edit this with hand-drawn illustrations and text to make their own personalised story book. In other words, I combine "illustrations and liturature with photos".... Bing! That's it... combine the kids' own art with their own photo. Or rather, let them step inside their art and make their art come alive. And thus, SplotchBird was born (a name my son came up with and my new logo is based on one of his bird drawings)

More info: onceuponaphoto.co.uk