Mariannes Motifs

I have been featured on Shutterfly Gallery

I have been featured in the Shutterfly Gallery Mother's Day Section.   

Click here to view this photo book.

Here's an example of another great project you can make at Shutterfly - the Snap Book.

Printing Borderless Full Color Photo Cards

As a digiscrapper, I can think of so many ways I could use these Custom Photo Cards from CardsDirect.  These care would be perfect for  Save the Date Cards for Weddings, Family Reunion Invitations, Thank you cards, and even just print up some AWESOME personalized blank cards.  As digi-scrappers, you can do a layout the perfect 7 7/8" x 5 5/8" size layout including wonderful digital background papers and elements from digiscrap stores such as CG Essentials.

They are running a special right now on ordering 100 cards, you get them for $136. and $5 shipping.  I calculated the cost (assuming a batch of 100, 25 is their minimum print run) of only $1.41 and that includes shipping and envelopes!

Feature the cute kids, doggies, kitties, and make yourself some gorgeous personalized blank cards.  (Of course they will also print any text)  After you upload your design they will send you a proof. 

Another bonus - lined envelopes.  I have a feeling that this professional printer is going to do a great job on these cards for a really decent price.  I think you have to call to get a price for the smaller print runs smaller than 100 but they do say they will do a 25 print run minimum.

Here is an example from their website of the Borderless Full Color Photo Cards option which can be portrait or landscape as per your design.

CD Album Layouts

Here are two of the layouts I made for my CD Album I am making.  This will be a hybrid scrapping project or as they say "bi-scraptual"  :-P  Hybrid meaning paper and digital.  What I am going to be doing is printing the layouts, affixing them to old junk CDs with Mod Podge, and then using my Bind-It-All to spiral bind them together to make a book.

My plan is to make 2 of these and send them to my Mom and Jin's mom as a Mother's Day gift.

Everything on these is from the Skate Park CD Album or Skate Park Kit from Kim Hill at CG Essentials.

7 Random Things About Me

This is a picture post!  I have been tagged by Momma Muse on her post Random Facts about Me.  Yay!  (She was tagged by Reward Rebel)  I have never bee tagged before.  Wow.   I feel so special.  I am tagging -  Lori's blog Lori's Life.

The Meme is "7 Random Facts about me."  I did mine as a digital scrapbook layout.  The goodies are all from Kim Hill.   Her blog is A Day in the Life of Kim and her store is CG Essentials.  Some of the goodies I used in the layout are listed as follows - all available at CG Essentials.

Printer's Alpha
Box, background paper, and dream from Pink Sherbet
Lines, stitches from In the Garden
Pricetag from Back to Basics

Freeware For Mac Digiscrappers and others

In trying to learn more about my new Mac laptop I was reading "ScrapyardKath's" blog Digi Scrap Mac and came across a great list of Freeware for Mac Digital scrapbookers that may be of interest to Mac based Digi-scrappers and other Mac users as well.   I am going to go ahead and post it right here on my blog for myself and anyone else who might be interested. 

One particular one I want to check out is VoodooPad.  I actually use plain old Windows Notepad all the time.  Yeah, I am kinda oldey fashiondey, aren't I?  You don't have to laugh.  Stop that.  ;-)

VoodooPad
A garden for your thoughts. Plant ideas, images, lists and anything else you need to keep track of.

What I want for my Birthday

I have decided that what I want for my birthday is a new telephoto lens for my Nikon D70.   The kit lens that we bought with the camera is not very good at all, and to boot, we have damaged it somehow and every picture we take has spots on it.  Thankfully the spots are on the lens glass, not on the camera optics.  I have done some research and know exactly what I want - a Nikkor 55mm-200mm telephoto with VR (vibration reduction) image stabilization. 

This, my dear friends, is what I am saving my money for.  This is why I have cut and dyed my own hair.  This is why I have made my own coffee in the mornings and given up my Dunkin Donuts run.  This is why I have cooked dinner instead of gone out.  This, dear readers, is why I have blogged about Oysters for $8.14.

I will most likely buy this lens online either from 42st Street Photo, or Adorama.  I remember going to 42st Photo with Mom and Dad when I was a kid.  I remember the hustle and bustle of the New York streets, the Orthodox Jewish guys running the place, with their peyes, side curls.  It was a cool experience and I remember my parents saying "This is the place to get a great price on cameras."  It's still true, and now you don't have to go to New York to get the price, you can order online.  What a wonderful thing, this Internet!  Just click their big ol' ad below if you want to check out their store.  I figured out I could chose my own ad to have Google Adsense display (called a referral ad) and when I saw 42nd Street Photo was one of the choices, I was so happy.  I knew I could totally recommend them in good faith,  having personally shopped there and even been in the store.  I even had a great personal story to tell about it.  Yay for Google referral ads!  Who knew?

How to remove the "inside shadow" on a frame in photoshop

This tip is from Kim Hill, Digiscrap designer and store owner of CG Essentials.com.  It's very handy when you are making your own Quick Page png files and you don't want the frame to have a shadow on the inside, just on the outside.

Apply the shadow to the frame.  Then create a new layer.   Then use the magic wand to select the  inside of the frame.  While the selection is active, merge the frame and blank layer together.  Then press the delete key.

Photoshop Express sneak-peek

Adobe gave our a sneak peek of the upcoming Photoshop Express at Photoshop World.  It looks like its going to be a free web based limited function photo editor intended to bring the basic features to the general public.  Great idea, Adobe!  The more people learn about your products the more chance they are going to end up trading up after awhile.  Keep the market leadership through giving it away!

Here's a screenshot I snagged from the John Nack Adobe blog.

Happy Leap Day

This has been an exciting month, this Feb. 2008.  We had a full lunar eclipse, leap day, and on a more personal note, I started the scifijungle blog and t-shirt shop.  I hope that the special features of this month are a good omen for my endeavors.

Here is a scrapbook layout share for you today.

Kim Hill PDQ Template Set 28 Template 5
coming soon to SBE
scrapbook-elements.com
PSE BleachedOut Action - Kim Hill
Scrapbook-Elements.com
Background Paper - Memory Lane Kit cgessentials.com
Accent Paper - Zhtamph Koreani Kit
fonts
Base02
DJB SusanB

Kim Hill sneak peek 50% off today only

Kim Hill's got a new Sneak Peek kit up at cgessentials.com.  This one is fantastic and today only 50% off.  It's got alot of pink, but don't worry if you have boys because it has enough neutrals and elements to make it worth your while. 

Really worth your while.  Folks - THIS KIT HAS A TOTALLY COOL CARDBOARD BOX IN IT.  Yes, its awesome.  Trendy and totally what I need right now.  But Kim's style kit - with her signature rich depth to the papers.  And the elements are to die for - time and date market type thing....  Well I don't want to spoil the fun of the surprise so I won't go into more detail than that.

Don't Pout

Here's a little advance notice of the boys' Valentine's for this year.  I just put an order in at Walgreens Photo for 60 of these in 4x6.  I am going to tape a piece of Laffy Taffy on there, write the classmates' names on in Sharpie marker, and call it a day.

Silly, yes, but at least I can say I made them myself.

credits: Kim Hill - cgessentials.com ArtBin solid cardstock and Wishing Star kit frame.  Hearts by Jen Wilson Designs.  Font Darcy Baldwin, DJB SusanB

Quick Page Brag Book Tutorial using png files

For today I have updated and improved one of my most popular older posts.  Enjoy!

Quick Page Brag Book Tutorial using png files

How to make a Brag Book using Quick page png files

Here's an project idea of how to make a 4x6 brag book with the Harvest Time brag book quick page album.  (or any brag book quick page album) These are png files that have transparent parts where you can place your photos on a layer underneath for an instant "scrapbook-y" layout that looks great.

1.  Have some photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.  (These instructions will work with pretty much any version.)

2.  Take some fall photos with your digital camera or scan in some old paper photos.

3.  Open one of the brag book pages in your Photoshop program.

4. Open your photos.  (File, Open)

5.  Crop your photo with the crop tool if you want.  When it looks the way you want click control + a to select all and control + c to copy.  Switch to the brag book page and do control + p to paste.

6.  On the left hand side of the screen use the layers palette to drag the photo underneath the quick page layer.

7.  Resize your photo to fit:  control + t will start the resize command.  To make sure you keep the aspect ratio correct click the little lock button on the tool bar or hold down the shift key as you resize.  (No squooshed faces, please!)

8.  Add text: use the text tool on the left side of the screen and pick whatever font and size you want on the toolbar at the top.  Use the move tool (very first tool on the toolbar on left) to move your text just where you want it.

9.  Add other elements or frou frou stuff if you want!  Kim Hill's shop has lots of goodies. 

Tip: For Brag Book freebies, check Ikea Goddess and DigiScrap Depot.  You can buy some wonderful themed brag books, and but if you check the freebie sites you can also get alot of super cute free png quick pages to download.

10.  Save your file.  I like to save the full psd file in case i want to make changes.  I also save as a jpg with compression level 10 for printing.  This is the file you will upload to a photo processor.

11.  Finish all your layouts and make a note of where on your computer you have saved your jpg files.

12.  Upload these pictures to your photo processor of choice.  I usually upload my 4x6s to Walgreens.com and then I can pick them up at the store by my house 1 hour later.  This saves me from having to deal with printing them myself although that is cool, too! 

Tip: Want to know how to bind a brag book? - try using a Bind-It-All machine for easy at home spiral binding.  Click here for more info on a book I made with my Bind-It-All.

13.  For an extra special touch - try these spiral bound "snapbooks" from shutterfly.  At $9.99 for 20 pages, its a pretty good value.  These make super little gifts for grandparents!  Winkflash also has a similar product.

updated 4/2/08

My first Quick Page Brag Book is for sale at cgessentials.com

As you may know, I've been a member of digiscrap designer Kim Hill's creative team since the summer.  Kim allowed me to make a brag book (4x6 set of .png quick pages with transparent sections for photos) and it is for sale in the online shop.

Harvest Time 4x6 Brag Book

I am very excited about seeing my work for sale in the store.   Thank you Kim!

Here's the blurb on the set:

This brag book has 12 pre-made pages in flattened PNG format.  Each page is 4x6 inches.  Pages are laid out to look great when printed as there is plenty of blank space around the edges so that the important things do not get cut off when printed.  There is plenty of space available for your personal touches of journaling or additional elements.

All layouts can be flipped horizontally and most look great rotated 180 degrees giving you 3 times the options.  And you could also use these to make your own desktop wallpaper!

If you like this brag book, you may also like the Harvest Time coordinated kit sold separately.
 

What I am currently working on

I made my first digital scrapbooking kit "The Mod Kit" last summer.  It took forever but eventually I finished it and shared it as as freebie on Scrapbook-Bytes.com.  Its not up there anymore since they re-organized their site, so I may post it here as a freebie.  I also have made a few quick pages that I may post as well.

The next kit I am working on (a year later!) is called Peaceful Flower.  Here is a color swatch of the color pallete I am working with.  Its very slow going for me, as I am learning how to work with Photoshop, and also re-awekening my creativity.  It seems like since I had kids so much of my personal energy has been focused on them that I have to re-learn how to access the creative side of my brain.