Since we're all scrap bookers & photographers, let's share some of the tips we've learned. OR, if you're new to all of this, ask a question so we can leave ideas in your comments.The tips can be for scrap booking, photography, or general computer use.
Scrap booking:
I have been digital scrap booking for nearly two years now. My advice is this:
* YOU DON"T NEED A LOT OF CASH: When you first start out, it is not necessary to go to a lot of expense. Start with someone free or small and relatively cheap. When I first began digital scrap booking believe it or not, I made my first lay outs in open office and saved them as PDF's! Then I begged all my family and friends to install Adobe acrobat reader on their computers so they would be able to open the files! LOL. But the point is it gave me that foundation to start and get used to the whole general idea.
My hubby then bought me Creating Keepsakes deluxe, which I still use to this day. I have never owned any other program like PSP or photoshop etc. I learned so many things with my simple program and sure, it is limited, like I cannot get a paperclip to look like it really clipped onto a paper, but I manage just fine. I did use PSP 10 for 30 days and I found it very slow, tedious and confusing. It would slow my computer down and I would often have to shut down and restart. And I have a pretty good and fast computer! I don't know how those of you manage with these programs.
*FREE PROGRAMMES: I also have learned that there are fantastic free programs that just take a lot of playing around and reading up on tutorials, like GIMP. I make my kits in GIMP now and the next thing I want to try and accomplish is learning to scrap in it too. It has all the tools needed and is free.
*SAVING FILES: I save my files per seperate kit under the kit and designer name. I never chuck out the TOU's as I did when I first started scrapping (not having any idea what they were!).
If I have a whole lot of kits from one designer, then I save them all under one folder in her name.
*BACK UP. This cannot be stressed enough. I once lost a whole lot of work and unfortunately I did not have any back up's. Don't think "It will never happen to me" because it just might. You can loose your information with a storm, electrical fault, or simply a virus. I back up everything on my computer every few months.
*DVD: Digital scrap pages are great to make into slide shows and put onto DVD's. You can do this with a smart little program called, "Nero smart". It lets you make your own menu page, you can choose your font, color, size, background image which can be any JPEG image or even a video playing in the background. You can add music to your scrap pages and choose different blend actions when the pages change. I often do this as gifts for family and friends and in the same way am securing a back up should my own back up's get messed up or destroyed or stolen!
*ON-LINE GALLERIES: My advice is first to check with whoever photo you want to use. I have already made the mistake of assuming it was alright to use a friends photos and she was not happy with me and asked me to remove them, which I immediately did. So I would suggest getting permission, after all these images will be made public. Saying that too, I am always careful not to reveal any private information such as address's, full names etc on my pages as although the internet is a wonderful place and it is great to share your work, it is also not a safe place.Publishing to an online gallery is also a great way to ensure your work is saved in another location besides your computer, even if the page on the gallery is smaller than the original, if you loose your work, at least you still have a saved momento. It also helps you to gain experience, advice and critique as well as compliments!
*BUYING KITS AND FREEBIES: Do you want to know a secret? I have never ever to date bought one single piece of digital scrap booking stuff! Everything I have on my PC and that I have scrapped with has been with the kind and wonderful generosity of so many women out there. This is why I say scrap booking does not have to be expensive. Of course I am not saying don't buy, I think it is great that you can buy and I want to sell my work too and naturally want people to buy from me! My biggest reason for not buying is simply because I do not own a credit card and my husband made it clear that he would not allow me to purchase such things when there is so much of it for free. I am not good with money and I admit, am a spend-a-holic, I would not trust myself with a credit card. I got into digital scrap booking to preserve the photos and memories of my children in an in-expensive
way.I would not have been able to have done this without the kindness of others.
*GENERAL: I try to take the time to look in the TOU of a kit I have used and send an email to the designer with a link to my page. They always ask that people do this and I think it must be a nice feeling seeing their work being used. I know I enjoy it. Leaving a note of thanks when you download a freebie is also just common decency and I would never take something without saying thank you.
*CT: Being on a CT is another way to get kits for free and the same time to really learn new things and push your own boundaries to experiment and try harder. The pages I make for CT's I find are my best ones as those are the ones I put all my time and thought into, knowing I am working for someone,
knowing that it will be in newsletter and that I am representing someone. It makes me work better and harder. I recommended to anyone to give a CT a go.
CREDITS: My biggest tip when it comes to giving credits is that while you are making a page, get yourself a notebook and write down your page title you are saving it as. Write down as you add the elements.papers etc the name of it and the designer. This saves so much time and saves you going back when it comes to uploading your page and then having to still search your folders for the kit you had used. Plus then you have a record on it and if you wanted to put it in another gallery, you just have to look in your notebook for the information.
GENERAL PC USE:
*Get a good anti-virus and anti-spy ware program installed and running on your pc and do it often.
*Back up your programs and documents etc at least once every 3 months.
*clean out your computer, defrag it, remove programs no longer in use, ditch old email's, all these things slow it down.
*If you have a digital camera and store you photos on your computer, again, back them up to DVD or CD as often as you can. Once they are gone, you'll never get them back.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Sharing Cheese cake recepie
It's been a while since we've talked about food. Let's share recipes today or talk about seasonal foods you look forward to at this time of year.
I love to bake! I hate cooking but somehow baking to me, is different. I bake at least once a week and most times get the kids to join in and give them their own cookie dough to use. I think one of my favorite recipies is cheesecake. This one I have is quick and flop-proof and so heavenly!
Here you go! (you gotta try it and let me know! And save me a piece will ya?
Baked cheesecake:
Ingredients:
500ml plain low fat yogurt
2 tubs (500g) smooth cottage cheese or cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup fresh cream
1 TBS vanilla essence
1 TBS flour (rounded)
2-3 TBS custard powder
3 eggs
Crust:
1 packet tennis biscuits (or whatever you have in your country for a base)
100g butter
Method:
Whip yogurt, cottage cheese, icing sugar, cream together
add dry ingredients
whip up eggs and add to mixture
add vanilla essence
bake at 180 degress celcius (not sure what that is in farenheit!)
for 30-35 minutes (mine always takes about 45-60 min though!)
allow to cool and take out of spring-clip pan.
Friday, October 06, 2006
My thoughts on the digital designing world.
I was reading Zephanee's blog today. She has an interesting post. It is based on this thread
This question was posed: If the market becomes over-saturated we will have a pure competition environment where prices continually decrease, and everyone loses out. Or do you feel that the number and popularity of digital scrapbookers is increasing enough to support all of the new designers out there? Thoughts?
I wanted to give my thoughts to the subject, even though I don't consider myself a "designer" especially since I don't sell anything! But who knows, maybe one day I will and so that is why I felt it relevant to read it and jot down my thoughts on the subject.
First of all every person has the right to design. There are no rules, maybe standards (eg. 300dpi, etc)Who has the right to play judge and "god" over who designs or even over who sells their work? No body has that right, but everyone has the choice as to whether or not to buy a particular kit. I agree, that the market is flooded with designers and kits,but not in a bad way. It gives one more choice, it opens up the way for new up and coming designers. People who think there should be a limited amount of designers in the stores/digi-scrapping world are foolish. Who would want to go shopping for clothes and shoes if you only had 3 stores or a few brand names to choose from? Wouldn't that be so dull?
I think that having a huge market is versatile and interesting. To me, the ones complaining are the ones who can't handle the competition. This in turn makes them spit out kits faster than what they can handle and in turn reduces their "quality" and they also give out less in a kit. This is just what I have seen sometimes, not saying everyone is like that.
Another point: Who calls the shots? Who says who the top designers are or who the big names are? I have a lot of designers I consider to be like, "wow!" and "I'll never be as good as her!"-but ask someone else-who says these same people are their most liked? I wish I could name names, but that wouldn't be fair.
To me, the ones i like and know and am awed by are simply the ones whose designs I like, nothing more, nothing less.
We all have different tastes and styles. My point is "If you don't like it you don't buy it". But don't harp on the designer or her kits just because you don't like her style.
I think that some are better at scrapping-the actual process of putting kits and photos together than they are at maybe designing kits. But that doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be allowed to try design.The same is said in reverse. Some designers are better at designing than at putting layouts together, that does not mean they can't do it!)(the same is said of actors, -look at how many can sing too? were they told, "Because you are an actor, the music industry is not for you? no!)
I know a lot of designers have started off as scrappers and their fist kits weren't exactly to-die-for, did that deter them? No, in fact, today, if you look at those same designers, their work is outstanding. They have grown, learnt, progressed. To the extent that you know of them, you see their work around at a lot of places. There are a lot of "top" designers I know of and frankly, I don't like their kits. Does that give me the right to say,"Down with you! You shouldn't be designing because I think your kits are crap" ? Of course not.
All it means is simply, that my tastes fall elsewhere.
I think alot of people fall into the "safe mode" areena. They tend to stick to the well-liked and well-known designers that they normally buy from, and while there is nothing wrong with this, they limit themselves. New designers are popping up all around, and some are really talented. Have you checked out the apprentice designers at Scrap artist? There is a good example of how talent springs up.
Some people wear blinkers and while remaining loyal to the designer they normally buy from, they miss out on a lot that way.
It is alot like most things in life-for instance, coming out of College after just earning my Interior Decorating Diploma, I couldn't get a job in that field. I was told, "you need at least 5 years field working experience". How could I have that, just fresh out of college? It is the same with Digital designs-how can you expect a newbie at designing to obtain a good reputation for their work if no one is willing to buy from them even when their products are good quality and top notch?
Another point: What is it about , like some said in that thread, if you can't bring something new and exciting into the market then why bother? How mean is that? I am sorry, but the human brain is limited as to originality. I have already seen a few kits that although are not copied as such, the idea or maybe something in the design is similar to another one,right down to the naming of the kit. Often merely by
coincidence. Although we are all different, we often have the same thoughts, ideas and design processes. You see this with a lot of things: movie themes, song words, fashion, even the way you put together a scrap page-who says it is original? Who says you thought of it first?
You see this with everything-in fashion, in magazine articles, in art, in books-story lines, movies-story lines. It's hard to be completely 100% original. Even in innovation, we may think we are the first to think of something, and when it comes to patenting it, we may find the idea was put into practise a long time before we thought of it!
Another thing is that styles and needs change all the time. Digital design, the way I see it, is alot like fashion. I think that as time progresses, the styles will change, people won't always be looking for the same thing, and the current kits on the market might become uninspiring. The same can be said of the designer one sticks to, she obviously has a certain style that she sticks to, her trademark, and this may become outdated, it may become redundant. That same loyal customer of hers may in fact become bored of her work and start to look elsewhere. Hence the need for new designers.
We all need to start somewhere, actors, authors,musicians congressmen, whatever! You don't just get born something-maybe the talent is there, but you have to WORK for it, you have put yourself out there.
It is hard to take that step, everyone fears rejection.
Another thing that was mentioned is the thing about freebies, that those who give away a lot of freebies hurt the digital market. Because this means, according to them, that this means less people buying. Not necessarily. A lot of designers give away "parts" of their kits, this is a good idea as most of the time the whole kit is for sale and if you download part of that kit as a freebie, it is an incentive to want to buy the rest of the kit. (just the way I see it). Also a lot of designers started out that way-by giving out freebies, to build up a fan base,to become well known. So that by the time they start selling their kits they already have a trusted and loyal consumer base, and by thanking these continuing to support them, they give them freebies. Besides, if you want to give away stuff, who has the right to tell you that you can't? I love to give stuff away. Are my products inferior? Maybe so, in the sense some of them are not 300dpi, and I don't have the program es needed to make elements. I stick to papers. Does that deter me from making stuff for free? Hell no and I won't be beaten down by those who think that I am not good enough to make things for free, 300dpi or not! If you don't like it or don't want it, the rule with anything free is :THEN DON'T DOWNLOAD IT. It's that simple.
Anyway I felt I needed and wanted to say this. When I have the proper programme, I plan to learn a hang of a lot more and to create digital kits that are 300 dpi, that are beautiful (to me, and to those that think so too)and if I can or want to, sell them. No new designer or for that matter, wanna-be designer should be discouraged into thinking that there is no place on the market for her work, or that her work is
not good enough, ugly or been-there, done-that. We all have a right to create, and to share. Someone else on this planet is sure to like your work.
That's it from me (that was long enough!!)
This question was posed: If the market becomes over-saturated we will have a pure competition environment where prices continually decrease, and everyone loses out. Or do you feel that the number and popularity of digital scrapbookers is increasing enough to support all of the new designers out there? Thoughts?
I wanted to give my thoughts to the subject, even though I don't consider myself a "designer" especially since I don't sell anything! But who knows, maybe one day I will and so that is why I felt it relevant to read it and jot down my thoughts on the subject.
First of all every person has the right to design. There are no rules, maybe standards (eg. 300dpi, etc)Who has the right to play judge and "god" over who designs or even over who sells their work? No body has that right, but everyone has the choice as to whether or not to buy a particular kit. I agree, that the market is flooded with designers and kits,but not in a bad way. It gives one more choice, it opens up the way for new up and coming designers. People who think there should be a limited amount of designers in the stores/digi-scrapping world are foolish. Who would want to go shopping for clothes and shoes if you only had 3 stores or a few brand names to choose from? Wouldn't that be so dull?
I think that having a huge market is versatile and interesting. To me, the ones complaining are the ones who can't handle the competition. This in turn makes them spit out kits faster than what they can handle and in turn reduces their "quality" and they also give out less in a kit. This is just what I have seen sometimes, not saying everyone is like that.
Another point: Who calls the shots? Who says who the top designers are or who the big names are? I have a lot of designers I consider to be like, "wow!" and "I'll never be as good as her!"-but ask someone else-who says these same people are their most liked? I wish I could name names, but that wouldn't be fair.
To me, the ones i like and know and am awed by are simply the ones whose designs I like, nothing more, nothing less.
We all have different tastes and styles. My point is "If you don't like it you don't buy it". But don't harp on the designer or her kits just because you don't like her style.
I think that some are better at scrapping-the actual process of putting kits and photos together than they are at maybe designing kits. But that doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be allowed to try design.The same is said in reverse. Some designers are better at designing than at putting layouts together, that does not mean they can't do it!)(the same is said of actors, -look at how many can sing too? were they told, "Because you are an actor, the music industry is not for you? no!)
I know a lot of designers have started off as scrappers and their fist kits weren't exactly to-die-for, did that deter them? No, in fact, today, if you look at those same designers, their work is outstanding. They have grown, learnt, progressed. To the extent that you know of them, you see their work around at a lot of places. There are a lot of "top" designers I know of and frankly, I don't like their kits. Does that give me the right to say,"Down with you! You shouldn't be designing because I think your kits are crap" ? Of course not.
All it means is simply, that my tastes fall elsewhere.
I think alot of people fall into the "safe mode" areena. They tend to stick to the well-liked and well-known designers that they normally buy from, and while there is nothing wrong with this, they limit themselves. New designers are popping up all around, and some are really talented. Have you checked out the apprentice designers at Scrap artist? There is a good example of how talent springs up.
Some people wear blinkers and while remaining loyal to the designer they normally buy from, they miss out on a lot that way.
It is alot like most things in life-for instance, coming out of College after just earning my Interior Decorating Diploma, I couldn't get a job in that field. I was told, "you need at least 5 years field working experience". How could I have that, just fresh out of college? It is the same with Digital designs-how can you expect a newbie at designing to obtain a good reputation for their work if no one is willing to buy from them even when their products are good quality and top notch?
Another point: What is it about , like some said in that thread, if you can't bring something new and exciting into the market then why bother? How mean is that? I am sorry, but the human brain is limited as to originality. I have already seen a few kits that although are not copied as such, the idea or maybe something in the design is similar to another one,right down to the naming of the kit. Often merely by
coincidence. Although we are all different, we often have the same thoughts, ideas and design processes. You see this with a lot of things: movie themes, song words, fashion, even the way you put together a scrap page-who says it is original? Who says you thought of it first?
You see this with everything-in fashion, in magazine articles, in art, in books-story lines, movies-story lines. It's hard to be completely 100% original. Even in innovation, we may think we are the first to think of something, and when it comes to patenting it, we may find the idea was put into practise a long time before we thought of it!
Another thing is that styles and needs change all the time. Digital design, the way I see it, is alot like fashion. I think that as time progresses, the styles will change, people won't always be looking for the same thing, and the current kits on the market might become uninspiring. The same can be said of the designer one sticks to, she obviously has a certain style that she sticks to, her trademark, and this may become outdated, it may become redundant. That same loyal customer of hers may in fact become bored of her work and start to look elsewhere. Hence the need for new designers.
We all need to start somewhere, actors, authors,musicians congressmen, whatever! You don't just get born something-maybe the talent is there, but you have to WORK for it, you have put yourself out there.
It is hard to take that step, everyone fears rejection.
Another thing that was mentioned is the thing about freebies, that those who give away a lot of freebies hurt the digital market. Because this means, according to them, that this means less people buying. Not necessarily. A lot of designers give away "parts" of their kits, this is a good idea as most of the time the whole kit is for sale and if you download part of that kit as a freebie, it is an incentive to want to buy the rest of the kit. (just the way I see it). Also a lot of designers started out that way-by giving out freebies, to build up a fan base,to become well known. So that by the time they start selling their kits they already have a trusted and loyal consumer base, and by thanking these continuing to support them, they give them freebies. Besides, if you want to give away stuff, who has the right to tell you that you can't? I love to give stuff away. Are my products inferior? Maybe so, in the sense some of them are not 300dpi, and I don't have the program es needed to make elements. I stick to papers. Does that deter me from making stuff for free? Hell no and I won't be beaten down by those who think that I am not good enough to make things for free, 300dpi or not! If you don't like it or don't want it, the rule with anything free is :THEN DON'T DOWNLOAD IT. It's that simple.
Anyway I felt I needed and wanted to say this. When I have the proper programme, I plan to learn a hang of a lot more and to create digital kits that are 300 dpi, that are beautiful (to me, and to those that think so too)and if I can or want to, sell them. No new designer or for that matter, wanna-be designer should be discouraged into thinking that there is no place on the market for her work, or that her work is
not good enough, ugly or been-there, done-that. We all have a right to create, and to share. Someone else on this planet is sure to like your work.
That's it from me (that was long enough!!)
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