Quick Tip - New Guides in Photoshop Elements 8

This video shares a quick tip in using the new guides in Photoshop Elements, as well as a few uses for them.

Bag Toppers

I wanted to do a little something special for the boys today (the two that are home and my Little from Big Brothers Big Sisters), so I bought a bunch of candy and set out do do some bag toppers as a digital scrapbooking hybrid project.

I'm always seeing templates and downloads in the stores for purchase and have always thought "how hard can that be?"

It wasn't that hard and took me very little time to do it! Here's how.

First, choose your bag size. Your topper should be created based on the size of your bag. I am sure there are a variety of bag sizes. Since I was only make three and really filling them up, I used a gallon size bag. For class parties or more volume, use a smaller bag.

Manually place a piece of paper over the bag and eye how big it must be to fit as a topper. Fold it in half.

Remove it from the bag and cut the excess to create a template.

Measure the template. This is all you will be utilizing the template for. The size you measure is the size that you will utilize as a new file in Photoshop Elements (or other program).


In Photoshop Elements, find the horizontal center. I used the new guide in Photoshop Elements 8. Place some items, such as I did the circle and the journal mat, so that they will be included on both sides when folded. For other items, duplicate them and rotate them. For the border and the ribbon, I used Image/Rotate/Flip Layer Vertical. For the text and the sign that needed to be readable, I used Image/Rotate/Flip Layer Vertical and then also applied Image/Rotate/Flip Layer Horizontal.



When printed, fold the topper in half and staple it to the bag! Easy! It took me about an hour to make the whole project (less all of the time I spent on distractions!) You could glue on bows, buttons, and other items, but since mine are for boys, I kept it non-girly!

Here is my three bag toppers -- ready for making smiles!

You may download the topper I made today for a limited time here (and then in the Subscriber Area). Print it out and staple it on!

Download (I used my own kits available in the Subscriber Area for this project.)

Fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween Titles

First posted on 11/3/08

Hey all! Here is a reminder from me!

Did you know that I have pages with scrapbooking titles? I do plan on adding more as I have time. {Time, how do I get more!}

However, one of the pages has 858 titles for fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween.

Be sure to check out this page for title inspiration while doing layouts of photos this October and November!

And the spotlight is on..........

Join is in getting to know yet another member of the forum for our second gallery spotlight! Come and give her warm fuzzies!

Most especially, why not give her the ultimate honor by scraplifting her?


**********
Have I said lately how much I like this new feature in the forum?

Don't ya wish.....

Don't you wish you could just hang out a sign like this impromptu at any moment as needed?


"I am stressing out a bit right now, so I am temporarily disabled." :)

You all are crazy not to........

You all are crazy not to take Candy up on this challenge!

She put up this FABULOUS template....my favorite of hers in fact, and only one person did the template challenge! So, Candy is tempting you with the above posting bonus. Isn't it awesome? Two templates just for doing a challenge--for free---from a generous person!

What are you waiting for!

November Designer Challenge

Tina was forumerly a regular in the forum, but due to personal life, she drifted away for a while, but we are so glad that she is back and actively participating again. I smile when I see people JUST SCRAP (I'm thinking that should have been my designer name...lol).

Tina has jumped in there and volunteered to get the next Designer Challenge started! Aren't these great cold weather colors? Won't you join us? Anyone can make anything to share with these colors and post it in the threads. (Click here.)

I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Warm fuzzies abound!

I just had to share this layout with you!

One of the Variety Challenges for the class was a scan it challenge. Laura decided to utilize all of the downloads in her layout (see them in the background?) and then write a poem about it! I didn't know she was such a poet! This really made me smile and I wanted to share it here to make sure others did not miss it. Her efforts should be seen! (click here)

In addition, Laura is a paper scrapbooker in a digi-world and is fitting right in! We enjoy having her with us.

We have recently changed the "Gallery Greats" program to "Gallery Spotlight" for several reason. Dawn came up with the idea and put it into place! I am so thankful for her contribution to the site!

Laura was our first gallery spotlight, so please visit the forum here to read more about her!

What is that in my inbox!

WHAT IS E-MAIL SPOOFING?

Have you ever had a flurry of e-mails indicating bounced e-mails to e-mail that you did not even send? Thereafter you receive e-mails from people asking what the e-mail was that you sent, right? Especially for those new to computers, this can be very scary.

This happened to me this morning. It has been a long time since it has happened to me, but I recognized it right away.

These messages are due to a worm. It is not a virus or a trojan. It is a worm and the worm, most often, is not even on your own computer! Yep, it is called "e-mail spoofing."

Here's more on spoofing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

When someone gets one of these worms, it will scan the entire inbox collecting every e-mail address it can find, whether in other e-mail messages or in the contacts. It chooses one of the collected addresses to be the "spoof" address. It places the spoofed address hidden as the "from" field and proceeds to e-mail the message from the original account to all of the other e-mail address. In other words, the messages go out from someone else's e-mail account with the appearance that it came from your e-mail account because your e-mail was "spoofed" in the headers.

WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?

So there is actually absolutely nothing you can do but to ride it out until the person whose machine is being attacked gets fixed. Most often it only runs its course on you once.


AN EXAMPLE

You forward a message to Aunt Claire and 50 of your other best friends, including Uncle Jake. Aunt Claire and Uncle Jake do not know each other. Aunt Claire likes the message and leaves it in her inbox. Aunt Claire gets this worm and the worm chooses Uncle Jake's address to spoof and sends out spam from Aunt Claire's account, appearing to use Uncle Jake's e-mail address, to 50 of your other best friends and every other e-mail address it can find in Aunt Claire's inbox or contacts.

Uncle Jake will get the original message sent to him by himself, along with bounced messages to accounts no longer active and bounced messages from Yahoo and Google Groups he does not belong to. Thereafter, he will get a flurry of e-mails from angry people he does not know (who happen to be your 50 best friends) wondering what the spam message was that they received.

Therefore, as you can see, Uncle Jake is guilty of nothing and is the victim because his e-mail address was chosen as the one to be spoofed. Aunt Claire is the guilty one, but has no idea any of this is going on in order to clean her machine of the worm. Uncle Jake might be able to put two and two together to realize that it is all of your friends e-mailing him in anger, but all you are guilty of is putting too many people in the "to" field of your forwarded e-mail.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

This is why it is SO important to not forward e-mails to many people at one time. The more e-mail addresses in the "to" field of your message, the more e-mail addresses are sitting in someone else's inbox ready to be gathered, possibly spoofed, and hit with a spam message. Instead, use the blind carbon copy option to forward mass e-mails.

Then consider if the e-mail you send with 50 addresses in the "to" field is forwarded to someone else with all of the addresses still intact. That forward e-mail could end up on who-knows-who's computer that gets a worm. Always delete e-mail addresses from messages you send as best you can.

BLOCKING YOURSELF

Sometimes when you receive one of these e-mails and you mark it as spam, you unintentionally place your own e-mail address in the blocked list. When this happens, if you are in a Yahoo Group and sending messages, you will wonder why you are not receiving your own e-mails back from the group. You will need to go into your spam settings to find the list of blocked e-mail addresses and remove your own address from the list.

This is also another good reason why you may want to clean in total the blocked addresses from time to time. You may be actually blocking someone you know without knowing that you did it should their address be the spoofed one.


OH

.....and so don't open and click on that e-mail you received from me today. Sigh.

Course Sign ups (and marching band videos)

Many of you who have been with me for years know that every October marching band season takes over my life and that I cannot get much else done.

There is only one more weekend of marching band and that I will be excited to have some weekends back where I can get some new material up for you.

Here are a few videos for you to watch. My son is the one on the quints/tenors (that would be the one with 5 drums in front of him) on the right side.





The Designer Class is quiet large and the first lesson already has 512 posts in it!

I have been working on preparing this class and it takes all I can right now to just keep up with the other classes that are now running. Hopefully, I will be able to get new content up in a few weeks after marching band finishes.

I want to encourage you to sign up for a class.

This time, I am only going to run Template Challenges self-paced.



This time, I am only going to run Course 1 self-paced.


I am, however, hopeful to start a round of Course 2 by guided e-mails on November 1st. These classes are NOT live online. They merely are e-mails that direct you to a tutorial or a challenge already within the forums to complete. Therefore, you can read the e-mail and do the assignment as you have time during that day or week. I ask that if you sign up for the guides that you make a serious commitment to yourself to follow them. No lurking allowed. The others in your class want to see what you are doing too as part of the "class" experience of doing it with someone else. I encourage everyone to know their classmates and to comment on their layouts in the gallery. There's nothing like warm fuzzies to keep you motivated to scrap!

You can find the sign-up threads here:
http://www.hummiesworld.com/Forum/forumdisplay.php?f=115

I welcome you to join in on the next round of guided classes.

Read about the Subscriber Area here.

Subscriptions are $5.50 per month

Read how to subscribe here.

Guided class descriptions here.

To register for the classes below, please see this thread.

Each person who completes a class will receive a special icon by their name in the forum, but the real prizes are the layouts you will complete along the way and the skills you will learn!You can use any products in this classes, so there are no excuses!

They are a great way to get yourself organized and motivated to JUST SCRAP and JUST LEARN!

Photoshop Elements 8 - New Adjustment Layers in a Palette Now!

I know, I'm way behind on sharing PSE 8's features....here's a quick video that shows how the New Adjustment layers are now in the palettes rather than pop-up boxes.

I hope to do more videos soon. There are quite a few changes that you will need to get used to!

Here's the video:

UseIt! Challenge and Spelling with Image Challenge

I have for you in this layout TWO new challenges!

THE ALPHABET IN PHOTOGRAPHY

First, there are these two great sites where you can create images out of photos to utilize in your layouts. OR -- get out there and take photos yourself of inanimate objects that make a layout. You can find more information in the challenge thread here.


A NEW TREND!

I have not seen a new trend in the digi-world for some time now, but I spotted this one and just had to create a challenge with it.

The second challenge is to use these offset frames, or the template for them, in your layout.
You can find the download in the forum challenge thread here.

Cutting for Hybrid Chipboard Books

So, we have all of these great, awesome chipboard book shapes, right? So, how in the world do we cut the printouts to adhere them to the books?

First, one must have the correct template to work from before printing, but we will discuss that in another post!

It is my understanding that the right pair of scissors is vital to ease of cutting and that the Cutter Bee scissors are the best! Therefore, in my recent trip to a scrapbooking store, I spotted a pair and bought them for a little over $12.

These scissors are designed for detailed, precision cutting.

I also saw Honey Bee scissors, but could not tell the difference and, since they cost a few dollars more, I did not buy them. From my research on the internet, it is my understanding the Honey Bee has a non-stick surface great for cutting sticker paper, which is not something I will be doing, so I am glad that I did not buy them.

I understand that if you move the paper instead of the scissors, it is often easier to cut out the chipboard shape books. Be sure to try all methods of cutting to see what works best!

Another option for cutting is with an exacto knife. I do have one of these from my very short period of paper scrapbooking, along with a cutting mat, so I do plan on testing both methods of cutting.

Book of Me Challenge -Favorite Childhood Toy

Dragons Lair came up with an awesome challenge for our Book of Me! Oh, I know what I should do for mine, but can I find any photos? Hmmmmm....

Won't you join us? What was your favorite childhood toy? Challenge is in the forum here.

Square Open Chipboard Album

I blogged recently about the KaiserCrafts (here) and am anxious to do some more blog posts about the things which I purchased on my excursion and other hybrid finds as I am researching hybrid ideas. I am excited to think of new possibilities for Christmas gifts!

Guess what I found? The magazine that I shared in my last post is not the newer magazine. There are two magazines by KaiserCrafts. The one I received was a free "Workshop" magazine and it is available online for a free download! Isn't that totally cool? (Click here) I've found the first issue of the full magazine online, but am searching for the newest one.

This book that I bought is a "Square Open Album" for only $2.99!
You can find examples of these cute little books that are tied together by ribbon online.
Here is an example.
Here is an example.

I am thinking that this would make a cute gift for Christmas, birthdays, or even with just a collection of sayings as a gift to a friend for no reason! I am also thinking about how cute this might look full of photos and placed on a shelf for decoration!

With 6 boards double-sided, there are 12 fun-filled possibilities to create!

I'm not sure what I will be doing with it, but stay tuned to my blog for the results!

Coolibah - Digital Scrapbooking for the iPhone

{I created an 18 minute long video (too long for YouTube and my blog) which you can view in the forum here. I hope it shares with you how awesome this application is and how easy it is to use!}

Bobbie and Scott are a brother and sister team who have been busy creating a new iPhone application for digital scrapbooking! Isn't that awesome!

Bobbie is a work-at-home-mom and has played around with digital scrapbooking in her spare time. She is a graphic and website designer focusing on the small business and the work-at-home-mom community.

Scott is the brains behind the Coolibah project. He is a programmer that is a complete genius! Without him, this whole project would be impossible. He came up with the idea and asked Bobbie to help him with the vision behind the design so that it would appeal to women and digital scrapbookers.

In addition, there are a number of Beta testers, me included, who have been giving suggestions along the way to make it fit into the niche of the digital scrapbooking community. It has been fun to watch the progress of this awesome application. I really think you are going to like it! At first, I was not so sure I would use it, but as the application has progressed in the developmental stages, I can see myself using it more and more!

Bobbie
The Nifty Studio - Web and Graphic Design Website
Blog
Girl Indie - a blog she writes with her best friend about indie women designers

Scott Means
Facebook
Website

Coolibah
Follow on Twitter
Read Blog
Website
Facebook
Flickr

The designs will also be cataloged onto the website. Designers can set up an affiliation with Coolibah to provide their designs. Your kits are downsized to 96 dpi for use on the iPhone application.

You can visit the blog to see a list of the current designers who are available on the application. What a great collection of awesome designers to open with! I understand that they plan to have 150 kits available when the application goes live.

A great way to build a sense of community with the phone is to join the Flickr group to share what you have made on the iPhone. I think it's a great place to see what awesome things you can do with this application.

Here are two that I have uploaded already with just quick playing.



And this one is the one I make in the video I am sharing with you.



Let's discuss quality of the final projects.

First, I want to mention that this application is not meant to be one where you journal on your pages. You know I am a big encourager of journaling, but the ability is just not supported on this application.

The layouts are easily exported so that you can share them online or by e-mailing them to friends and family. I think this is one of the main focuses of the program.

The exported layouts are easily taken off of the iPhone. The dimensions of the layouts are 1056 pixels by 656 pixels at 96 dpi. The industry standards for printing digital scrapbooking is to utilize 300 ppi for best printing, or 200 ppi at a minimum.

When opened in PSE, I see that the image is 14.667 inches by 9.667 inches at 72 ppi (which is different that dpi).

If converted to 300 ppi, the dimensions are 3.52 by 2.32.
If converted to 200 ppi, the dimensions are 5.28 by 3.48.

Standard smaller photo printing sizes are 2 x 3, 4 x 6, and 5 x 7.
Therefore, it is apparent that 5 x 7 is not an acceptable size for printing, but let's look at the other two sizes.

First, this is my layout brought in Photoshop Elements and placed on a new 2 x 3, 3oo ppi file.
You can see that the bounding box goes beyond the file size. This is a good thing because that means we are downsizing to print at this size. Anytime you downsize, photo quality is satisfactory. Anytime you upsize, the program must make up pixels to create the image and loss of quality is found.

This is the same file with the image downsized. You can see that the bounding box hangs over the image area slightly. Therefore, this size does not translate exactly into a 3 x 2 size, but is close. The choice is to either have a bit of the left and/or right sides cut off or to squish yourself and make yourself a tad bit skinner. It is do-able. I can imagine just printing the .jpg out of the iPhone at 3 x 2 would most often produce a satisfactory page. Your printer software setting can be made to choose to either "fit picture to frame" (which would make it skinnier) or to print as is (which would cut off parts) and your printer would make the adjustments for you.

Therefore, my conclusion is that the iPhone application results could be utilized to make small mini 3 x 2 brag books.

Here is my layout brought into a 4 x 6, 300 ppi file. You can see by the white space that it in no way closely fills the page. This would require a lot of upsizing that may result in a lack of quality.

Here is the same layout brought into a 4 x 6 at 200 ppi file. You can see that it is a little closer to the actual file size, but it still requires upsizing. When I upsized the layout, it had a little bit of hanging over on the right, the same as indicated above in the 3 x 2 size, so the same issues would exist.

It is my opinion that for some, this size might print okay. It depends on the eye of the one looking at the printout. The industry standard would say "no" to this size, but the untrained eye may feel that this prints just fine. My opinion of this size is that it should be left up to personal choice as to whether or not one could print at the 4 x 6 size.



I may do some test printing with these sizes later and share, but for now, that is my analysis! In this way you can see exactly what you can do with the program and choose your purposes, whether it be to create a mini brag book at 3 x 2 or just to share in the digital world through online sharing or e-mail.

Still yet, I must say I am impressed with the program and am amazed at what we can do on the iPhone! The drop shadows, although you are limited to one setting, seem to add an awesome realism to the layouts. The choice of kits and items to put onto your layouts is amazing. iPhones aren't meant to be able to do it all, but this application certainly does as much as I would expect to be able to do on an iPhone (and maybe even more).

The application was submitted to Apple at the end of August. From what I have read from others submitting applications, the wait to be accepted by Apple can be a long, painful process. We cannot predict Apple's progress, but can only hope that it is soon!

Beta Glitter Style/Tested in PSE8

I need more hours in the day!

First, I purchased Photoshop Elements 8 the very first day it came out and have yet to share with you about it on my blog! Can you believe it? I did chat a bit in the forum about it, but I just am struggling for time to do all I want to do.

Also, I want to create more layer styles for you, but do not have the time I need to get it down to perfection. It has been so long since I played with making the first layer styles that I almost forgot the details (measurements, etc.) of how I made the first one. Getting it down just right so that the styles are high quality, but yet the files are not too large is a hard thing to do!

If I had more time to play tonight, I might have gotten this one just right, but the seamless tiling is not quite spot on and the file is a little large in size. I need to find time to play and then write down the figures I come up with to make creating styles an easier and quicker task than I am currently making this.

I'm out of time, so much to do, so I am offering you the beta version. You can come back to find the better version later.

The beta version is not all that bad. It depends on how large your object is and how picky you are.

If you can use it, then please do!

Download

I was able to test it in Photoshop Elements 8. There is an xml file in the download for PSE8 also.

I suppose I am not in a huge hurry to share PSE8 with you because the installation of plug-ins appears to be much the same as PSE7. I am thankful for that. Less reteaching and just a little tweaking of .pdf files in the near future.

Kaiser Craft Hybrid Projects

I am thinking Christmas. Yep. I am wanting to do some easy, meaningful gifts with my digital scrapbooking skills. I have wanted to find out where oh where everyone purchases those cute little hybrid books to complete and set out to investigate the other day.

I have a series of blog posts ready to share with you on what I have learned, so won't you come along and learn with me? I will be sharing some links for you over the coming days.

One of my first finds was the inspiration at Little Dreamer Designs. They utilize Kaisercrafts books. So I set out to find where oh where I could purchase these items.

"with love by Mushy" is an awesome blog full of hybrid inspiration. When you get to the bottom of the page, be sure to look for the "previous posts" link to continue the ooohs and ahhhs!

Visit the Little Dreamer Designs gallery and you will be sure to want to join me in getting into hybrid! You can watch their blog for hybrid projects as they do have templates available in their store.

I found the Kaiser Craft albums for sale online at Camera World.

I also found them available for sale online at Ritz Camera. Here is a nice page with ideas and inspiration.

Both of these stores I have heard of before and I believe to be reputable. I am always careful buying online only from well established stores. I am sure to make a purchase soon!


On the official Kaiser Craft website, I found a page of Project Ideas.

On the official website it also mentions a magazine which appears to only be available at scrapbook stores that carry their products.

I found last weekend that the closest store was about an hour from my home, but I would be driving right by it to a marching band competition! So, we prepared and left home early enough. The store was out in the country down a dirt lane, but the husband and wife team were very nice.

I found the "magazine" which did not seem to be much of a magazine. It would be better called a pamphlet as it had so few pages. Many of the products are under a Kaiser Workshop product category and the name is found on the cover.

However, the pages inside did carry some great information and greatly detailed instructions, so I was happy to find it.


The owner of the store did not carry many of the board books which I was looking for, unfortunately, so I will need to make an order online. I did purchase some items there and I will be sharing those with you over the coming days.

The owner mentioned to me that as long as I bought the chipboard at her store, she could cut it into and shape (similar to those sold my Kaiser Crafts). I thought that was a great idea, but did not have time to stay.

I thought it was such a great idea that I would mention it to you. If you know of anyone locally that has a machine that cuts, you might want to ask to tap into that resource for hybrid projects.

I have some more links to share with you, but if you know of places online to by mini hybrid board books or tag books, please leave a comment and I will share them all in upcoming posts.

Resizing and Renaming in Windows Live Photo Gallery

Oh, duh! I put my headphones on to record, but they were unplugged! So this video does not sound its best, but I wasn't about to re-record it.

This video shares with you how EASY it is to resize and rename in Windows Live Photo Gallery. I am using it to prepare a lot of photos for upcoming blog posts, but I have not tested it for gallery uploading. I want to compare one done in PSE to one in WLPG for quality. However, I suppose if someone was just having a lot of trouble resizing in PSE for galleries, this would do the trick too!

Shutterfly Guard

I absolutely love my hard bound books that come from Shutterfly! I am busy creating another book. This one is with a heritage theme.

There is one difficulty with creating layouts to be printed in hardbound books. When the pages are uploaded to Shutterfly (or other services online), the binding of the book will pull in some of your page. If there is any important parts of the layout too close to the edges where the binding is created (layout on left side of binding would be cut off on the right side/layout on the right side of binding would be cut off on the left side), such as photos or text, you may be displeased with the outcome of your book.

There are templates available which can be found at Shutterfly or purchased at numerous digital scrapbooking sites (many of which will note "Shutterfly ready"); however, I find all of the thinking in advance of which page will be on which side of the binding a bit too much work for this feeble brain. I do not want to work so hard! I want this to be easy! I want this hobby to be enjoyable and relaxing! Even with the templates, one must plan somewhat!

Therefore, to make life easy, I simply keep all vital information (photos and text) three-fourths to one inch from all edges. To make it even easier, I place my Shutterfly Guard on the top layer of my layout, turning on and off the visibility of the guard as necessary to check the positioning of my vital layers.

This graphic shows the Shutterfly Guard as the grey area. Papers, mats, ribbons, and similar elements that do not matter whether or not they are cut off are okay to be beyond the Shutterfly Guard.

Of course, it is simple enough to create your own Shutterfly Guard, but I am providing you mine for convenience.

You can download my Shutterfly Guard by clicking here. (or in the Subscriber Area).

You can find my layouts using this Shutterfly Guard in the Heritage Challenge threads (here).

Here is this layout without the Shutterfly Guard visible, ready for printing. Yes, your pages may not be perfectly centered in your book as they would be if you used the templates and more brain power, but I can say that I used this method and the slight imperfection was not noticeable.

Designer Class to Begin October 15

The word is out! Wow. I had not even made a formal announcement for this class and it is already filling up and the questions are coming in!

WHY?

There are many reasons why one might want to learn how to design digital scrapbooking elements and papers.

Maybe you just want to save money by creating your own designs. Rather than always looking for a kit to fit your photos, create your own papers and elements
to fit your photos.

Maybe you just enjoy the creative side of designing and sharing with others.

Maybe you have spied that glimpse of how easy designing really is now that you have gotten yourself familiar with Photoshop
Elements and are wondering if you could make it as a designer.

Maybe you have another related business, such as a photography or scrap for hire business, that requires you to create products that are copyright friendly.

Whatever you reason for taking this class with me, I am happy to have you join and do hope that you learn not only skills for designing, but skills to enable your scrapbooking layouts.

ABOUT ME - THE DESIGNER NOT!

I have dabbled in designing over the years, often wondering if I had what it takes to become a designer. I have always known that I do not have any artistic gifts. I enjoy the technical side of designing, as well as sharing, but do not feel that I am good enough to sell my designs.

I do feel that I have gifts of teaching. So, the question is: "How do I teach something which I do not consider myself good at doing?" I believe that I can teach you how to maneuver your program to create the basic papers and elements, but I cannot teach you how to be artistic. That is something that has to come from within you.

Therefore, please do not expect to come out of this class being a great designer, but rather come with an attitude of developing your skills.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Expect an interactive class. Those who are not actively participating will be removed from the class.

Expect hands-on learning, creating something new with each lesson. Lessons will mostly be in video format.

Expect to be prepared to share your creations for others to download. The best way to learn how to become a designer is to practice and share. In addition, it is the first step toward marketing, as well as to obtain feedback from those in the digital scrapbooking world.

Expect to be learning for months to come as we explore how to make many of the common digital scrapbooking papers and elements. This will be a very slow paced class. I have found that due dates and pressure can cause stress and stress leads to loss of creativity.

WHAT ABOUT?

What about programs? This course will be taught in Photoshop Elements. However, anything done in PSE can also be done in the full version of Photoshop. Please remember that the ability of PSE is limited. In the future, I hope to create additional lessons for the full version of Photoshop which will be an add-on to this class.

What about topics? This course will be for beginners and experienced designers alike. It will start with informational topics such as FTP uploads and sharing files, blogging, marketing, and move into basic papers. Thereafter, the course will continue with creating specific elements and more advanced papers. The course will begin with the very basic and easiest of designs and move into more difficult designs. Already designing? The earlier lessons will be a way to refresh and tune your skills while sharing and gaining tips from others in the class. With each lesson, you will be required to create and share the files.

What about cost? The only cost to this class is the $5.50 monthly subscription cost to the Subscriber Area. However, I am going to run these classes differently than other classes. This class will have a private area in the forum which only those enrolled in the class may have access to. I will be making these tutorials exclusive from the regular Subscriber Area. In order to continue to have access to the tutorial videos for this class, you will need to remain active in the class, sharing your creations online. Of course, any .pdf files provided will be downloadable. (The designing tutorials currently in the Subscriber Area will remain there, but new tutorials will only be available to active class participants).

Please read this page for details on how to subscribe.

What about time? At this point, I do not have any idea how long the course will be running. Do expect it to continue for many months. There are many types of files for us to learn to create. Until we reach the end of my long list, the class will continue. In addition, I do not plan to start another session of this course for at least 6 months, so if you are interested in this class, do not delay!

How do I sign up? Once subscribed, visit the class registrations thread (here) and leave me a note.

iTunes in Yahoo Instant Messenger

I had to make myself stop looking and playing with iTunes plug-ins yesterday so I could get down to work at my site, but before I did, I found iTunes in my Yahoo IM.

It was an inactive plug-in already in my IM settings, so I just had to select it and start it.



There was nothing fancy with it except the little record player, which I discovered was clickable by accident. Being a child of the 80's when we had records, I found it a bit fun! Just grab the needle (yes, young'ns, that's what is under that arm that moves back and forth across a record) and move it from one part of the song to another. The arm moves across the record as the song plays, just like a real record. In addition, you can get really cool when it makes scratching noises.

ScanIt! Challenge

There is a new ScanIt! Challenge ready! It has been a long time since I put up the first challenge. Everyone really enjoyed the first one. Not only does it stretch your imagination, but each person shares what they scan and extract, so everyone can download some fun elements to use in their layouts and gain inspiration from each other.

In addition, the first challenge (desk drawer) has been sent out as a class assignment, so you can watch that thread again for new download finds.

Won't you join us?

Check them out here in the forum.

Join us for a Template Challenge!

Candy has done it once again! What an awesome template! You can download it in the forum and join us by sharing your layout made with this template.

Heritage Challenge - Traditions

Michelle has started an awesome challenge that anyone can partipate in. Won't you join us in strapping your traditions? Whether the traditions are from your heritage or just beginning to be passed down through heritage, scrap them and share in this thread.

You can use any products, just scrap!

iTunes Mini Player

I know I've been pulling up some old posts in the recent week, but I have so many ideas to share with you of new things too! Bear with me please! I need more time in my day! I wish I could quit my day job and just do this. :)

Here's a great idea I recently discovered. I have been using iTunes much more since I purchased my iPhone and learning many things about the program.

RADIO STATIONS ON iTUNES

First, I recently found that I can play my favorite online web radio stations on iTunes! I was able to right click and add the station to a playlist to easily be found again without going to the website. There are default radio stations already on iTunes, but this way I am able to get local stations on my iTunes! How cool is that?

Who needs a radio as long as you are online? Of course, keep a battery operated one around in case of inclement weather, but this is awesome for everyday use!

My favorite radio station is KHIS in Southeast Missouri which is a Christian radio station. You can find it here. Click to listen. Thereafter, scroll down to find the option to play it in iTunes.

iTUNES MINI PLAYER

So, this morning I discovered that the Yahoo Widgets I used to love in Windows XP were now available for Vista.

I found there were many available for iTunes. The mini Yahoo Widgets for iTunes, however, that I tested, kept the original iTunes application open on the computer also. So what was the point in a widget? It made no sense.

I began hunting and pecking around in iTunes only to discover that that iTunes did indeed have a mini player, just like Windows Media Player. You can find it under the View drop down menu or you can just use the keyboard shortcuts of "Control M" to activate it.

So, the only difference between the widget at the actual iTunes was that you could set the widget to be on top of all of your other windows. Hmmm. Could iTunes do this? I set out to find out. Sure enough, it does!

Under the "Edit" drop down menu, choose "Preferences."

Check the box indicating "Keep Mini Player on top of other windows." Click OK.

Now, you can cruise around the forum at my site with the Mini Player in the banner area and see what song is playing! Isn't that cool?

Easily change the volume when someone comes into the room.

Ready a blog that has a video embedded? Easily pause your iTunes player so that you can now listen to the video.

How cool is that?

Now, I found an iTunes sleep timer and iTunes alarm widget. I see they are available for Apple computers, so maybe these will be fun widgets to keep? Oh, wait? There are other programs (or this) to play with too? What is best? Off to play! (When I have time to play!)

One Photo Many Techniques (Part 1)

First posted 1/20/07 - I never did finish this series of ideas, but there are 4 parts.

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I have decided for my PSE tips to take one photo and share many techniques that can be done with that photo.


While in the park for a parade line-up last early December, I was surprised when I walked by this beautiful pile of leaves so late in the season. I had to take a few snapshots of them as I just knew I could use them digital scrapbooking some how. My dear family has to always be patient waiting on me as I stop to take photos of weird things all the time.


I have decided to take this photo and let my imagination run to share some tips and techniques that can be done with just one photo.



My first thought, for today, is to use the photo as a background.

One reason I love rectangle scrapping (11 x 8 1/2) is that resizing photos to use for backgrounds fits perfectly.


First, I notice that my background photo needs repairing. It does not look as vibrant as I remember the leaves. I always try the levels first, so I hit Control L. Oh my, yes, I need to move the slider over. In the screenshot below, you will note the hill. Just move the slider I have circled over until it reaches where the hill begins to go up, watching your desktop until it looks the best.

That made some nice changes to my photo, but it is still not vibrant enough. So, I made a duplicate of the photo and began applying blending modes to the top layer. I tested them all and decided that the "multiply" looked most like the real vision in my head.

However, I could choose any one of the blending modes for the purpose of use as a background. Each and every one of them gave a whole different feel to the layout. Choosing a blending mode for a background may be just the inspiration you need for the theme of your layout.

Another thing to consider is contrast. In order for your photos to pop that you will be placing on top of this background, you will want the background to be either lighter or darker than your photos in order that your photos pop. My lesson 8A teaches about visual weight.

Make the background lighter or darker by either the blending modes or by reducing the opacity.

Okay, I must quit for today! I do believe I shared more than the intended one technique. Have fun!

Designer Technique (Glenda Ketcham)

Original posted 2/9/07
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Please allow me to introduce our first Designer to participate in the Designer Technique, Glenda Ketcham. In the Yahoo Group, we have all come to love Glenda, so I could not resist asking her to be our first. When she volunteers for something in our group, we can always count on her. She pops in every so often to post in the group and is just as sweet and humble as can be.

Glenda is a designer at Digitals. Click here to go to her shop.

Our group claims Glenda as our "journal police/cop" and, therefore, I was not surprised when she chose her favorite technique as journaling. I have asked each designer for one layout and one favorite kit, but it is just like someone who loves to journal to want to share a lot! Please read more.

You may click on the photos or the links to see larger layouts.

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Hummie asked me to share a layout using some of my favorite techniques. However, I’m not much of a "techniques" kind of digital scrapper. I started paper scrapping several years ago and that style has carried over into my digital pages. One thing I liked about paper scrapping was the fact that journaling was stressed very strongly. I think it’s important to not only document our lives and the lives of our loved ones with photos, but also with the stories that go with those photos. When we’re young, we think we will never forget the story that goes along with a particular photo or event. But, now that I’m older, I know for a fact that’s not true.

I love journaling about every-day things that happen, sometimes just silly little things. But those are the things that make up our lives. If I only wrote about earth-shattering events in my life, there would be very little journaling! But I think, in journaling, we tell our kids and grandkids that what they do on a daily basis is memorable. This is that kind of layout, something my granddaughters do every day. In years to come they will know how special these little things were to me.

Every-day journaling

For a bigger event, like Christmas or another holiday, I like to do a lot of journaling on one page and then little snippets of journaling on the other pages of that same event. It may look like a lot of journaling, but in years to come I think it will be neat to look back and know that Christmas was spent at Damon and Amy’s new house, the one that Damon was the main contractor for (his first time). Also in years to come if my other two grandsons, Jake and Grayson, look at the photos and wonder why they’re not in any of the pictures, the journaling tells them that was the year they moved to Missouri and weren’t able to come home for Christmas.
Christmas layout with lots of journaling

I think it’s neat also to talk about a particular gift that was received. In the case of Christmas this year, Sydney received her American Girl doll, which she will probably keep forever and her own little girl may play with one day. Won’t it be fun for her and her child to look back and see photos and a story about when Sydney received that doll.
American Girl Doll layout


I’m not sure whether this is considered a "technique" or not, but this is certainly one of my favorite layouts/photos. I blended the background of the photo into the background of the page, making it look like these little "angels" were floating in the clouds. In this soft, beautiful photo, I decided not to use any elements that might detract from the photo.

Angels floating on cloud

About the only other "technique" I use is deleting the background from the photo and placing it directly onto the background of the scrapbook page. I’m pretty picky about the way these pictures look, so I only do this when I can get a nice "clean" cut.

Extracting Photo

I’m not sure this would be considered a technique either, probably more of a style, but I love to put the pictures on the page at crazy angles. Many of the photos we take of the grandkids are of action shots, them running here and there . . . chaotic. So, I like to reflect this chaos in the layout, photos going every which way, tumbling here and there, just like the kids!
Grayson’s birthday party

Zane and Lindsey

My current most favorite kit is "From the Attic: Mamaw Lucy’s Trunk." I have been thinking of doing a kit like this for a long time. I wanted to base it on my own mother’s suitcase of photos she always kept under her bed. This first kit in the "From the Attic" series is based on a trunk full of wonderful old things that belonged to my brother-in-law’s (Russell’s) mother, Lucy. Russell’s sister, Linda, was one of my best friends all through grade school and high school. So, even though the items in this trunk didn’t belong to my own ancestors, it still had very special meaning to me. I’m working on another kit in that same series, which will be "From the Attic: A Time for Elegance." I will eventually do a kit for that series called "Grandma’s Suitcase," based on the wonderful items in my own mother’s suitcase of photos. I’ve sort of had to work up to doing the kit based on Mother’s suitcase because it brings back such vivid memories of her and me sitting around the suitcase talking about the different photos and who the people were. I have kicked myself several times over for not writing down those stories.
Here are some old photos done using this kit:

Layout 1

Layout 2

And, here are some recent day photos done with the kit:

Layout 1

Layout 2