Scrappin' without Scraps

A to Z Fonts Site List

Sometimes it isn't what you say but how you say it.  Fonts can change the whole meaning of a word which is why they are so much fun!

1001 Free Fonts

Abstract Fonts

Dafont

Darcy Baldwin

Font Freak

Fonts 101

Fonts.com

FontShop

FontSpace

Emerald City Fontworks

My Fonts

Scripty Goodness

Simply the Best Fonts

Urban Fonts

Free [Digital] Stuff

The digital scrapbooking world abounds in freebies. And it seems like there are new ones every day.  One of the problems is that it is hard to locate freebies - some are on blogs, some are in stores or on websites.  And some are for a limited time - and you would hate to miss those!  So...how do you keep track of them all?  I'd love to hear your tricks but here are a few of mine.

But first, some freebie philosophy.  Free samples are wonderful for us digiscrapppers who aren't designers.  They are a great way to try out a new designer to see if you like her stuff.  For designers, they are a way to present their designs to a large audience and attract new customers. Or to test out a new idea. After all, who doesn't love a freebie?  And don't forget to leave a comment for the designer!

So now a challenge for you - become a customer.  Take a look through your stash - do you have lots of freebies from one designer?  Or maybe there is a designer's freebies you always look forward to finding?  Or maybe there is a designer you just found?  Take a moment to show your support by buying something from that designer.  You don't have to be a big spender - every little bit helps! 

Now for some freebie resources.  One really easy way to keep track of these resources is to make a playlist in Bloglines.  That way you can easily see when the blog has been updated. And now - in no particular order....

Digi - Free

Hummie's World - Freebies   

Ikea Goddess

Amy W's Scrap a Lot

Shabby Princess

Digi Scrap Depot

plus most stores offer freebies too. 

Happy Scrapping!

Typepad Storefront Widget

Recently Typepad announced a new widget for bloggers who use Typepad - one that allows you to set up your own storefront, complete with a shopping cart and secure payment via PayPal. And all from your sidebar in a matter of minutes.

So since digital scrapbookers are a group of avid bloggers, will this change digital scrapbooking?  Hmmm I wonder....

Since I started digrscrapping, it has gone through a lot of changes. In the beginning (like maybe 3 years ago - LOL!), there were few digital designers and few digital sites.  Prices for kits were a bit higher than they are now but still quite reasonable considering how much use you can get out of one kit.  As more people started scrapping digitally, the number of sites grew and so did the number of designers.  Becoming a digital designer was possible with a computer, talent, time and a high speed connection plus it was easy to do it from home or as a extra business.

Just as market economics would predict, the digital world now has lots of designers - probably more than are needed.  Prices have dropped, freebies now appear on such a regular basis that many consumers feel they don't need to buy kits with all the free ones available. In an effort to cope, designers have begun offering more and more sales. But when it takes hours and hours to create a kit that sells for < $5 is it worth it? Digital store sites and designers seem to come and go - this year has seen many designers leave the business. Those designers still left seem to move frequently from one site to another, probably in search of more sales. Without a rise in paying customers or in kit prices, it would seem that we will continue to lose designers in 2008.

So now that Typepad will help you set up a store, will designers just decide to sell from their own blogs? For one, it cuts out the fee designers pay for being part of a store. It certainly seems easier than setting up and maintaining a store site - less hassle, less marketing and if you've had a blog for awhile you have a built in customer base. Plus you don't have to pay for a domain name and hosting. But so far I haven't seem anyone jumping to set up a store.  Maybe we're all still wrestling with the holidays and too busy to think about it.  Or maybe it is harder than it looks - I haven't tried it yet.  Or maybe 2008 will the year of the store-blog?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....

Blog Carnival

With all the Harvest Festivals and County Fairs going on, this seems a perfect time for a Blog Carnival!

What is a Blog Carnival?  Good question.  Much like a country fair (but virtual), it is a collection of fun things to do and sites to visit which all center around a theme.  For this one, the MC is energetic digiscrapper Hummie who has an amazing blog of information.  I'm hosting it this week and it is on digital scrapbooking, of course! And there are loads of great articles!

News

Digital Scrapbooking Day is on Saturday, November 3rd and it looks like there will be tons of fun things to do for the first ever celebration. Don't forget to order your official DSD shirt.  All proceeds from the shirt sales go to the Susan G Komen for the Cure for breast cancer research so you can support two good causes at once!

What is Digital Scrapbooking Day?  A day to celebrate the wonderful world of digital. Would you like to let us know you are doing something special on your blog or store or site for DSD?  Just let us know at [email protected]

A few teasers...Memory Makers magazine has a free digital download in the Nov/Dec issue which just came out.....Tamron is giving away a Zoom Lens (worth $400)

Scrap Back Up Day was October 13th but it is never too late to back up your photos and LOs.  Learn how here

Wordy Wednesday - Get Amazing posted at The DigiShoppe

Tutorials

Dishwasher Magnet posted at Digital Scrapbooking Day - hybrid project for a sign to tell you whether than dishwasher is clean or dirty.  Print out on magnetic paper.

Digital Curled Edges How To posted at Scrapbook Ideas

Tour of Bevel and Emboss Settings in PSCS2 posted at Misty Cato Designs

Photoshop Friday 2007 #33 Organizing posted at Jessica

Using and Customizing Styles in CS2 posted at Scrap Your Art Out! who notes "Nice little tutorial showing how to use and to customize styles in Photoshop."

PURSuE Your Art changable purse is also posted at Digital Scrapbooking Day - make a purse that you can change with digital scrapbooking to suit your mood(s).  Or better yet, make one for grandma. This one was made by Angie Pedersen.

My First Video Tutorial at The Legacy Lady who tells us this is a "Video tutorial on recoloring an overlay and frame for a layout..."

The Legacy Lady also sent in another tutorial - Creative Photo Fun Tutorial - and describes it as "Blend your photo into your favorite digital scrapbooking element using the tips in this tutorial..."

How to Create a Soft Focus posted in Welcome to Scrapville

How to Turn an Ordinary Business Card into a Quick, Handy, Stylish Gift Tag posted at the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking site

Are You a Beginner in Digital Scrapbooking? posted at Everday Digital Scrapbooking - great resource forthose just getting started

My Comments on Your Comments - tutorial by Misty Cato

How to Create an Epoxy Bubble or Plastic Charm as Digital Art posted on Everday Digital Scrapbooking   

Articles

DigiScrapZine is a wonderful new site with lots of articles.  The creative genius behind it is Michelle Thompson who also authors one of my favorite blogs Scrapability.

Re-emphasing This Kaboodle Group posted on Scrapability

Seeking Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials posted at Angie Pedersen's Blog of Me

Digital Scrapbooking Meets Genealogy posted at The Legacy Lady

A Most Reluctant Convert by Kaylie about organizing your digital scrapbooking stuff.

What You Need to Know about Copyright in the Scrapping World by Karen is a great article about this subject and a must read for designers.

5 Great Photo Projects for Partes  from the Photojojo blog is a bunch of ideas for party photos.  I might just have to use some of these at DD's birthday sleepover.

Great Photography is About 30% Camera posted on Scraps of Mind is a wonderful article and a must read. "Even if you have a point and shoot camera - you can take great shots using the photography tips in this article..."

Edit Your Photos Online Without Any Software  by Monkey Insight and she notes " Picnik just launched two weeks ago,  It's a website that lets you upload, edit and save back your pictures to your computer or photo hsaring site for free.  This article incudes a short review and demo video."

All Talk and No Action? posted on Dream Scrapper who describes it as "Info for designers on requirements for designing actions that will work in Photoshop Elements."

Now That I've Got It, Where Do I Put It? posted at DreamScrapper who says "Information regarding where to put add-ons for Photoshop Elements, no matter what version you use."

At Digital Scrapbooking Info you will find  ACDSee Photo Manager 10 has great new features - "This article details the new features available in ACDSee 10 Photo Organizer. There are even videos that introduce the new features in a way that you can't get by just reading about them!"

and finally a blog I would like to share because I find the posts are always interesting:

Blog of Me is a lovely thoughtful blog about scrapbooking by the very energetic scrapper Angie Pedersen who also wrote several books The Book of Me, The Book of Us and Growing Up Me - and maintains the Scrap YOUR Stories website.

Trends

Scrap Praise offers Picks for Today  which Monique describes as "A great blog to find the latest hot scrapping products and beautiful layout finds!"

Monique's Scrapping Blog > Challenge 411! is "The posts to read for info on new and happening challenges! I try to find challenges a bit different from the usual classics, and give you all the info you need to decide if it's one you want to try or not!" and you can find it on Monique's Scrapping Blog

Freebies

Layered Template 2008 Planner / Calender by Simply Sarah - this a wonderful calender! 

Sketch Me If You Can! offers tons of free sketch templates

Candy Corn Border by Hummie.  Isn't this prefect for halloween?

How about these Halloween Charms ?

A couple free recipe cards - just click on the title to download the full size card.  Print out and add it to your recipe box.

White Bean Soup

Credits: Fiesta Ole by Elizabeth Lane at Scrap Outside the Box; font is Offshore Banking Business and Augie

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Cheesy Chicken Chili

Credits: La Creameries Fraise by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals; fonts are Quiggley Wiggley and Augie

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Praline Dip for Apples

Credits: DST free kit by Carrie Stephens at Fishscraps; font is Willing Race 

Creating Templates that are FxFoto Friendly

Here's a little tutorial with all the information you need to create sketch templates than can be used with the Quick Layouts tool in FxFoto.  The templates may be made with any photo editing software including FxFoto and you may find it very easy to just add an FxFoto friendly page to all your current sketch template kits.

In case you haven't used the Quick Layouts tool in FxFoto, it lets users drag and drop papers into a sketch template.  The papers and photos are automatically cropped and placed in the page so they are layered without having to learn about using layers.  It makes it very easy to create a layout.  Elements and embellishment may be added by simply clicking on them and then arranging them on the layout. Text is added in the usual FxFoto way - open a text box and then move it to where ever you want on the page.  If you have never seen Quick Layouts in action, there is a video tutorial on the FxFoto website - Creating Layouts Part 3 - Sketch Templates.

So here are the "rules" - not really rules, more like guidelines....

Color

FxFoto uses color matching to drop papers so if a template has the same color in two different areas, the program will drop the same paper in both areas. For example, in this template by Jen Caputo (available at The Digi Shoppe) dark gray is used in several areas. 

Since all the dark grays are the same color, here is what happens when I drop a red paper into one of them:

Design-wise you may well want the same paper in multiple ares of you template.  But if not, the colors need to be different.  You can go wild with the colors or make them more subtle - it's up to you. When I re-color templates, I tend to recolor every piece because I might want to make the different parts different colors.  Okay - I will admit to being a bit of a scrapping control freak - lol! But that is just me and you know your customers better than I do.

Here is the way I might recolor it.  I could always drop the red paper into every other ray to make a repeating patter or I could make every ray a different piece of paper.

Edges

On each paper and photo block there need to be distinct edges.  Otherwise FxFoto can't see where the photo block or paper ends and will flood the adjacent areas with the photo or paper.  And the edges should not be feathered or blurred.

Let me show you what I mean. A picture being worth a thousand words and all! A big thank you to Cheryl McCain of The Scrapping Garden for graciously letting me use one of her templates as an example.  Cheryl was one of the first designers to create templates specifically for use in FxFoto and this template is from her More Than One collection.

In the template above, the right hand photo block is open to the background which is the same color as the photo block. Below, I've circled the area that is open and enlarged it so you could see it better:

Now here is what happened when I put a photo in the right block.  It flooded into the background because there is no edge.  It is kind of a cool effect but not if what you really want is two photos on a paper background.

Now if I just draw a line to close the box like this:

Then the photos end up as two photos, as they should.

Which brings up another guideline...

Photo Blocks

They don't have to be square or rectangular but for multi-photo sketch templates, the photo boxes

should be different colors.

Text and Titles

The users of FxFoto will really appreciate if if you don't have writing or journaling lines on the template.  Otherwise they may have to first erase the text before using the template.  A preview is a great place to note where a title and text should go.

File Type

What works best in FxFoto is a TIFF file (sometimes called a TIF or TFF file) because repeated saving of the image will not degrade the quality.  A PNG file will work too but if possible, it is best to avoid having your templates as JPEGs.  What doesn't works is a PSD file since it is specific to Adobe products.  You can find a brief discussion on file types and some of the pros and cons in What's the difference between JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP? What what about TIFF and RAW?"

If you are working in FxFoto software to create templates, the following steps will let you save your template as a TIFF rather than a JPG.  JPG is the default file type but in FxFoto you can save as a PNG or TIFF easily.  Click on Save and then choose Save As Image.  When you get to the dialog box below, choose the folder where you would like to save your template.  Now click on the down arrow next to the box marked Default to open the drop menu which you can see below:

In the menu choose TIFF and then click Finish.  In case you are wondering, CMYK TIFF refers to a special file type that is used in the publishing world, where CMYK determines the colors.  I would not suggest using CMYK TIFF for a sketch template because it is very large.

So, in brief,

1. Use different colors for each shape
2. Close your shapes with an edge
3. Colors for photo blocks
4. Leave writing off the template
5. Save as TIFF or PNG file

 

Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Digital Scrapbooking Day    November 3, 2007 

Let's celebrate! 

You can find out more at Digital Scrapbooking Day dot com.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate.  Feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Scrap Quick!

If you are a regular reader, you might remember my recent post Some Quick Pages.  Well the tutorial I wrote for using FxFoto with ScrapQuick pages - Creating a ScrapQuickArt page with FxFoto Creative - is now up!  Way to go Christine!

Both of these are ScrapQuickArt pages - Beatitude by Amy Teets with the Sinead Turner as the page artist.  I added the title ( Messy Stamped Alpha by Christine Smith ) and some journaling (Augie font). And that was it!  How easy and gorgeous was that!

I hope it get it up here too soon!  It's going to be quite a busy week here but I will try to squeeze it in!

Digiscrapping Blogroll

This is a great idea...a Digiscrapping Blogroll.  Now there are several bloglists and blog rings like   and  Top Digi Blogs which Carrie Stephens runs, Top Scrapbooking Blogs and Ringsurf's Digi Scrap Blogs - you can find links to all of them on the right side bar of this blog. They are an incredibly useful set of links to digital scrapbooking blogs and one thing I really like about them is they show the headers of each blog.  That makes it easy for someone visual like me to locate a particular blog.  And an interesting blog header will sometimes make me stop and check it out.  But headers make the list awkward to scroll through. And the blogs are listed in order of popularity and by the blog name so it can be hard to find someone. 

Enter Digiscrpping Blogroll which has been organized by Hummie which you can see on my sidebar. What is so different? Well, first off, there is a scrolling thingie listing all the blogs by the writer's name which does make it a bit easier to find someone. And she put them in alphabetical order by first name which helps too.  For someone like me who has never gotten around to making a list of my favorite blog links, well, this sort of cuts down on the need to do so. One of the reasons I've never made a sidebar list is that I am afraid I will offend someone by leaving them off my list. Of course, the blogroll is only as good as the person running it but Hummie is working really hard to add blogs and so far it has about 300+. That's a lot of digiscrappers!!

Another big advantage is that if you wanted to just check out some blogs it would be easy to just click on the names from anyone's blog who has the list.  Many of us have been using Bloglines to keep track of our favorite blogs since it allows you to create playlists of your favorites.  So you can have a playlist of all the freebie blogs or all the store blogs or all the news blogs.  One really nice thing about Bloglines is that it tells you when someone has updated their blog with a new post which saves lots of time.  Of course there is no reason not to use both! 

Want you blog to be listed?  Hummie's post on Digiscrapping Blogroll will tell you how to do that.

And it you are a Typepad user with your blog set up like this one with 3 columns then you need to change the pixel width to 100 to get the scroll bar to show up. 

Rockin' Girl Blogger

Well, well, look what I woke up to this morning. I am just tickled pink - and to be tagged by none other than Angie Pedersen is so cool.  Pretty amazing collection of blogs I like to visit regularly are already sporting this cute little button...Jen Caputo, Cathy Zielske, Katie the Scrapbook Lady, Kim Guymonand Michelle Thompson of Scrapability

In the category of preachin' the word of the digital gospel, I say that Susan White is a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  She provides consistent informative content, and she has BIG things in the works - all delivered on a blog, baby.

I'm not sure how informative I am ....but....a-yuh... there sure are BIG things coming..    ;-) 

So who am I going to tag with a bit of linky love...

Studio Friday by Tine Wiggins - since 2005 Tine's been gathering weekly thoughts from artists all over the web and the world about art subjects and the creative process.  What I love is that there are that the Studio Friday folks include all sorts of mediums - paint, paper, fiber, fabric, clay, jewelery and computers.  I never miss reading these, although I don't always manage to post in time.

Loquacity of Latharia -  ( say that three times fast) - I met this woman at Cropping on the Cape along with several of her partners in crime and of course, we exchanged blog links.  What I love about here blog is the myriad of subjects she covers - some scrapping, some life and some just plain fun. 

Delightfully Digital by Thena Smith - You know her I'm sure and her posts and poems always bring a smile.  I hope I'm so cool when I grow up.

Inspiration for Generation C  and Everyday Digital Scrapbooking both by Julie Ann Shahin - the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog is a never ending source of inspiration with projects galore.  And on Inspiration for Generation C you will find a great series on getting published.

Hold Dear by Michelle Geller -  She does such neat stuff - her projects are so interesting and I've gotten quite a few ideas from her.   Way cool combining of all sorts of scrapping, painting, sewing, digital and vintage things.  Very inspirational.

Okay so that's my list... 

Something Old, Something New....

My fingers are buzzing....I decided to update the A to Z Designer List.  Silly me, just thinking it wouldn't take long.  LOL  It has taken me the better part of two days! 

It is amazing how much the digiscrapping world has grown over the past year and a half!  It is quite a list.

So now a challenge for you...go through the list and check out some new designers.  There is an amazing amount of talent out there.

A to Z Designer List

Edited to add:  Yes I added the great designers at Designs in Digital.  Please let me know if I have missed you or your favorite designers - at [email protected]   I'll be happy to add them! Thanks!!