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Submission
Guidelines
How to Share Your Family History Art
Somerset Memories
features scrapbooking, journaling and family history art made by
our talented readers and contributors. We welcome all kinds of arts
and crafts that incorporate personal mementos, including current
and heritage photographs, letters, awards, invitations and other
keepsakes.
Perhaps you've
created an altered book or a sophisticated scrapbook page about
yourself or your loved ones. Perhaps you've found a unique way to
display family photographs using everything from collage to polymer
clay. Perhaps you've created an innovative art journal to record
your trip to Paris or your own interior journey. No matter how you
choose to turn your own Somerset Memories into art, we hope you'll share the
results with us.
Somerset Memories
is interested in all kinds of media, from scrapbook pages to scraps
from an ancestor's dress that you've sewn into a quilt. As long
as your art features a piece of your personal history, we'd love
to see your work.
Our publisher
carefully considers each and every submission. In keeping with a
long-standing Stampington & Company tradition, you'll receive
a voucher for a complimentary copy of any issue of Somerset Memories
in which your artwork is featured.
Somerset Memories
is also interested in the personal significance of your artwork.
Please enclose a brief written statement with your submission about
the mementos used in the piece, including any memories or stories
you might have about the people shown in the photographs. If your
piece has special meaning or an unusual history, send us a 500-word
essay for consideration in our readers' Remembrances column. If
your work is chosen for Remembrances, you will receive a complimentary
one-year subscription to Somerset Memories.
We hope that
Somerset Memories will inspire you to make your own beautiful, lasting
legacies.
How
to submit your artwork:
- We prefer
submissions of original art so that we may photograph it ourselves,
but we also accept professional-quality 4" x 5" transparencies
and e-mailed submissions. Send your scanned jpg files (low resolution)
to: memoriessubmissions@stampington.com.
Note: Due to the high volume, we reply to e-mailed submissions only
if the work is accepted.
- When creating
your artful remembrances to submit to us for consideration, we encourage
you to use color copies (rather than originals) of your photos,
documents, letters, etc. in the artwork. While we do our best to
ensure that no artwork is damaged or lost, we cannot be responsible
for items that might be irreplaceable.
- Concise and
thorough instructions explaining how you assembled your artwork
must accompany each sample. Please include a list of materials and
credits for any stamp images that were used in your artwork.
- All artwork
must be properly identified with your name, address and phone number
clearly printed on a label and attached to each sample.
- If your artwork
is three-dimensional, attach your identification with a removable
string or pack the sample in a plastic bag with your identification.
Artwork that has not been properly identified cannot be considered
for publication.
- Unsolicited
submissions must be accompanied by sufficient return postage. Please
do not attach postage to packaging. Contributors from outside the
U.S., please send postal coupons obtained from your post office
or a check or money order (in U.S. funds) to Stampington & Company.
- For acknowledgment
of artwork receipt, include a self-addressed stamped postcard.
- Please send
all artwork to Somerset Memories, c/o Stampington & Company, 22992 Mill
Creek, Ste. B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653.
Artwork
Return Policy:
Sometimes,
a piece of artwork submitted for one issue may be better suited
for an upcoming issue, so we may have to hold your sample for
six months or longer. If you need artwork back urgently –
for a show or special event, etc. – please indicate this in
your submission information. Please note: We may consider your submission
for one of Stampington & Company's other publications, including
Somerset Studio® and The Stampers' Sampler®.
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Due
to the large volume of artwork we receive, it is a requirement
of your submission to Somerset Memories that you include sufficient
funds to cover postage for the return of all unsolicited artwork.
If you wish to have your artwork insured for the return journey,
please include sufficient funds and indicate your preference in
a postcard or letter enclosed with your submission. (It is not
necessary to include return postage on artwork such as scrapbook
pages that we expressly requested the artist mail to us).
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You
may send cash, check or money order in U.S. funds made out to
Somerset Memories for return of artwork. Please do not attach postage
to packaging, and do not send loose postage stamps. The U.S. Post
Office does not allow us to mail out packages with stamps. Contributors
from outside the U.S., please send postal coupons obtained from
your post office or a check or money order (in U.S. funds) to
Stampington & Company.
Submissions
for Articles:
Somerset Memories
is currently seeking project-based, how-to articles on making family
heirlooms. Examples include quilting, journaling, scrapbook pages,
wearable art, and home décor. Remember, your project must incorporate
family history.
A brief outline
of your proposed article is appreciated, along with at least one original
art sample to illustrate it. A word to the wise regarding project-based
features: The artwork itself often sells the article. The editor is
seeking great projects; artists who have not published articles before
are encouraged to submit their ideas anyway, as editorial assistance
will be provided.
Format:
- In general,
our articles start with a few paragraphs, explaining perhaps how the
author learned the technique and why this particular technique resonates
with the author. We also appreciate any information regarding the
history or personal significance of the mementos used in the artwork.
- A complete tools
& materials list follows.
- The project
is broken down into steps, including preparatory work, the 1-2-3 of
it, and special clean-up requirements.
- Tips are optional.
They may include safety tips and/or creative ideas for further exploration.
- A one-sentence
author bio completes the article. For example, "Mary Smith is
a quilt artist from Tucson, Arizona, who teaches various fabric design
techniques in workshops throughout the country."
- Resource Guide
information: Whenever possible, please include resource information
(company name, address, phone, Web site, if available) regarding any
special tools or materials used. When using commercial rubber stamps,
please include the stamp manufacturer's information; if using hand-carved
stamps, please indicate this. If you would like to include personal
contact information (address, phone, Web site, etc.) for self promotion,
we will include this in the Resource Guide as well.
Word count is completely
open. Write as much as you feel is necessary to cover the topic, and
then stop. Your article will be edited, and may be trimmed or additional
information may be added as necessary. Payment for articles ranges from
$75 to $350, depending on the length, content, complexity of the project
and amount re-writing required.
Please submit your
queries to editor Rebecca Ittner, Somerset Memories, 22992 Mill Creek,
Suite B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653. Or e-mail: rittner@stampington.com
UPCOMING DEADLINES:
June/July 2006: January 12, 2006
August/September 2006: March 11, 2006
October/November 2006: May 13, 2006
December/January 2007: July 10, 2006
February/March 2007: September 16, 2006
April/May 2007: November 13, 2006
Reader
Challenges:
Take
the Challenge! Somerset Memories invites its readers to submit artwork to
the following reader challenges. Please see the submission
guidelines above for more details about sending your artwork to
us.
Memories in Moments
Share a heritage/memory art project that can be completed in 20 minutes or less! In the increasing rush and complexity of everyday life, not everyone has time to spend hours upon hours creating beautiful art (though we’d all love to in a perfect world). However, we know that beautiful heritage/memory art can be created in a few precious moments, and we’d love to gather your innovative ideas and inspire readers to preserve their precious memories in those little pockets of time (20 minutes or less) as they arise. For information on submitting your artwork, please see the Submission Guidelines, and be sure to note clearly “Memories in Moments” in your submission.
Deadline: Ongoing
Go digital
Somerset Memories is launching a new department devoted exclusively to digital
scrapbook pages called The Virtual Gallery in our February/March issue.
If you have created computer-generated scrapbook pages, simply e-mail
low resolution scans (72 dpi) of your pages to us at: memoriessubmissions@stampington.com.
If we choose your page, we'll contact you via e-mail for the high-resolution
image.
Deadline: Ongoing
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Adopt an Ancestor
Are you fascinated by people in old photographs? Have you ever
“adopted” ancestors from pictures you’ve found
in an antique shop or thrift store? Somerset Memories invites you to create
scrapbook pages featuring your adopted ancestors, those faces
of strangers who arouse our curiosity. Who were they? Where did
they come from? What were they like? Were they happy? Why did
their pictures end up here, in a sale pile, discarded and unwanted?
Provide your own answers to these questions on a scrapbook page,
and we’ll run as many of your submissions as we can —
so that these ancestors will find a family once again. For information
on submitting your artwork, please see the Submission
Guidelines.
Deadline: Ongoing
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Cousins by Katie Pertiet. Click here for a larger view.
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PLACES
& POSSESSIONS
Pages that Celebrate All Things Great & Small
Scrapbook pages are filled with faces. Pictures of people we love.
Yet not just persons but places and things can make for compelling
pages. A beloved bracelet, a family heirloom, a favorite getaway,
a gravesite – virtually anything that touches your heart
can be used in a layout. Consider the examples shown here. An
old green wine decanter, its stopper cracked and broken, has great
value for Mecque Leonard. Her grandmother gave her the bottle
for her 30th birthday, and there was a message inside. Gram wrote
that the decanter was her first antique, and she wanted it to
go to her first granddaughter. Perhaps
there’s a special object in your life that you would like
to commemorate on a scrapbook page. Whether it’s diamond
ring or a plastic one you got as kid on Coney Island, whether
it’s an exclusive island getaway or a crowded city park,
we’d like to see those things that you treasure. Send us
a page that celebrates a possession or a place, and we’ll
run as many of your submissions as we can in a future issue of
Somerset Memories. Don’t worry if your treasured object wouldn’t
fetch a dime in a thrift store. As these pages show, a seemingly
ordinary object can be a thing of beauty – in the eyes of
a beholder.
Deadline: Ongoing
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SWAROVSKI SWANS and TINY MIRACLES by Kari Barrera. Click here
for a larger view.
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Show Your
True Self – Tattoos and All
Scrapbook pages often depict seemingly perfect people – adorable
infants, angelic children who never throw a tantrum, and dreamy,
air-brushed self-portraits. Then there’s the heartwarming
journaling recounting baby’s first tooth, a first day of
school, a wedding. While it’s important to preserve such
happy moments, it’s also the dark and difficult days, the
somber thoughts and serious reflection that can make for compelling
pages.
At Somerset Memories, we invite you to create your own scrapbook pages that
look at life honestly, that are unafraid to share the negative
feelings as well as the positive ones, and that offer a self-portrait
that’s true to oneself and one’s view of reality rather
than an idealized picture. There’s no formula, no single
style, no one way to create these pages. The artists featured
in our February/March
issue ("Scrapbooking Gets Real") each did what they
felt was right for them, expressing themselves in their own individual
way. We hope you’ll do the same, and send the results to
us. We’ll publish as many of your pages as we can in an upcoming
issue of Somerset Memories.
Deadline: Ongoing
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