Scraps Of Mind

Welcome to Scraps of Mind. I'm delighted to see you. Why not check out the site, and if you like what you see, subscribe to my RSS feed and get daily updates delivered to you. If you're not sure what the RSS thing is, then check out this 'RSS made easy' post. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing more of you.

I have woken up to a bloggingly sunny day this morning.

First I discovered that the recent Google review of their Page Rankings has scored me a Page Rank of 4. For those that are not familiar with Google Page Rank, that’s pretty cool.

Basically they group all the web sites that are in the public domain into 10 ranks; the very top sites in the World ranked 10 and the overwhelming majority having a rank of Zero. How they work out the rankings is a total mystery, known only to Google and the Dark Forces. I think they throw a bunch of statistics and other factors into a big cauldron, add the eye of a newt and the wing of a bat, mix well, season to taste and cook in a slow oven for several months. Hubble bubble, toil and trouble.

Anyway, from my point of view it’s a lovely surprise, so I’m not too concerned about the recipe because the way Google chops and changes its rules and algorithms chances are I’ll never be able to work out how it happened.

So just when I’m basking in this Google sunshine I discover that The All For Women blog has ranked Scraps of Mind in its Top 50 Australian Women’s Blogs list! That’s just blown me away.

I’m a believer in opportunities and I’ve been playing around with the concept of advertising on Scraps of Mind for some time. This has convinced me that the time is right, so I’ve launched the Scraps of Mind Advertising Page (top navigation bar) with a number of advertising package options. I want you guys to share in this so if you know of anyone who might be interested in advertising on Scraps of Mind I’m offering a 20% referral/finder’s fee. You can

1. contact me with an introduction of the prospective sponsor, and give us your paypal email address, or
2. you can have the sponsor contact me directly saying “Jane Smith referred me, her email address is yourPaypal<at>emailaddress.com”. Upon payment, a 20% referral fee will be paypal-ed to you!

Scraps of Mind is a very important part of my life and I’m thrilled with both these events because they help to reinforce that all the time and effort is worthwhile. But fundamentally the reason why these achievements have eventuated is because of you. It’s you readers of Scraps of Mind that have helped me create this blog and your support that has encouraged me to work on building it up.

So thank you all very much and you should all pat yourselves on the back.

Other related posts:

Let your Blog Stumble - It won’t hurt
Top 10 Tips for Building a Better Blog
Easy Way to get more Traffic to your Blog

13 Comments »

Like many people I make my own business cards for Scraps of Mind. Those of you who receive my free daily RSS Feed may have noticed the logo at the top. Well that is basically my business card.

I simply created it in Photoshop Elements, merged the layers and then duplicated the resulting layer until I had enough to cover a sheet of A4 paper (by the way, I keep an unmerged file as well so I can easily make changes to the card without recreating it from scratch). Then I print it out on satin finish photo paper and stick the sheet onto some cardstock. Cut them out with my rotary cutter or scissors and give them a light sanding on the edges to remove any burrs. A couple of dozen usually lasts me a fair while so I don’t mind doing them by hand.

So really this is an extension of Artist Trading Cards, except the edition run is larger than you would normally do for an ATC edition.

But before business cards were invented, everyday people used Calling Cards sometimes called Visiting Cards.

In the Victorian era, well-to-do ladies and gentlemen would have special cards made to leave at the homes of friends who were out when they called. The custom originated in France in the early 1800s and then quickly spread across England and America.

Calling Cards evolved their own set of etiquette rules, being carried in elegant card cases which were made of sterling silver, papier-mache or mother-of-pearl. Making social calls was a formal part of Victorian life and cards would be left on the elegant trays in the hallways of homes, to be presented to the occupant. They even had a code which involved folding a corner of the card to convey a message: top right corner meant ‘congratulations’, bottom right meant ‘condolences’ and bottom left meant ‘farewell’. If the top left of the corner was folded it meant that the visitor had come in person and an unfolded card meant that they had sent a servant.

Hundreds of thousands of Calling Cards were printed throughout the 19th century in many different styles. There was even a style of card which had a decorative piece of Victorian ’scrap’ attached to the left side. When lifted up it revealed the card owner’s name or a hidden message.

How cool would it be to have your own personal Calling Cards? I mean really personal ones, not just cards from a template in some printing kiosk. Always handy to give someone when they need your phone number (if you’re not someone who has business cards) or to leave a short message for someone who’s out when you call on them. Why not make a few of your own? You can make them using hand scrapping techniques or digital scrapbooking techniques.

And here’s another cool idea, make a Virtual Calling Card to leave as your signature in on-line guestbooks or as your forum signature in scrapbooking forums. Annie’s Calling Cards has a range of free card templates for you to choose from if you don’t want to make your own. All you need to do is add your name and details with your photo editing software.

What do you think?

Other Related Posts:

Artist Trading Cards
Scrapbooking Techniques and Tips - Love your Layers
Cardmaking on the Run

————————

Learn digital scrapbooking fast
Digital scrapbooking how-to movies make digital scrapbooking in your Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or Paint Shop Pro software easy to do!

No Comments yet »

In previous articles we’ve talked about the reasons why we do Scrapbooking and how we actually first got started in Scrapbooking. And I thought it would be interesting to get an idea of the different kinds of Scrapbookers that read Scraps of Mind. There are several different combinations of scrapbooking techniques that we scrapbookers employ and I guess different folk are into different combinations or maybe just one.

I find these days that I mainly do digital scrapbooking, probably because I now find that it comes more easily to me than traditional scrapbooking. But I still can’t resist the tactile lure. So that’s why I’m drawn to hybrid scrapbooking, where I can either add ‘real life’ elements to my digital layouts when I print them out, or I can create digital components which I add to my paper layouts. I don’t just mean printing out digital photos, but more adding a frame or some digital elements to the photo and then printing it out, cutting it and pasting it into my paper layout, together with the other ‘real life’ elements that will make it up.

I also like to make cards which are either totally traditional or hybrid techniques. I rarely make digital cards. And my ATCs are almost always made using traditional methods.

So what about you? Are you a Traditional, Digital or Hybrid Scrapbooker? Or do you enjoy a combination of two or more.

I’d like to know for two reasons,

1. I’m actually interested to know more about you and your approach to this magnificent addiction we share, and
2. I think it will be helpful to know where your Scrapbooking preferences lie when I’m thinking about what topics to write about on Scraps of Mind.

So please pick one of the survey options below and let’s get to understand a bit more about our scrapbooking community.

[survey_fly]

If there is an option that fits you that I haven’t covered here, please let me know in the comments and I’ll include it in the results.

I’ll publish the results of the survey at the end of the week (assuming enough of you give it a go to make it worthwhile publishing) Thanks in advance for joining in.

Other related posts:

How did you get into Scrapbooking?
Why I Scrapbook
Hybrid Scrapbooking - The Best of Both Worlds
Trading ATCs
———————————

Start digitally scrapbooking today - FAST!
Software Scrapbook Secrets Revealed will let you start creating layouts within 60 to 90 minutes by watching these easy to use movie tutorials.
Available for Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop.

18 Comments »