2008 July | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for July, 2008

Posted by karooch on

July 23, 2008

Do You Scrapbook to the Left or the Right?

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No it’s not a political question.

I was browsing through my scrapbook albums the other day, as you do. And I suddenly realised that in most of my scrapbook layouts I tend to position my photo towards the left side of the page.

And when I started to think a bit more about it, I realised that my first instinct is always to do that.

Obviously some photos pretty much dictate whether they should be placed on the right or the left. You don’t want your subject looking off into the space outside your layout. But for all the photos that are, shall we say, ambivalent, I tend to design the layout with them on the left.

In fact I can remember occasions where I have made a deliberate effort to design my scrapbook layout with the photo on the right side, just to try to even things up a bit.

And although I can certainly do it. I find it’s much more comfortable for me to design to the left side of the layout.

Now it just so happens that I am left handed. Yep, a south-paw, a molly-dooker, a cack-hander.

So I wondered if this has something to do with it.

Do you find that you tend to scrapbook to either the right or the left when you design your layouts? And if you do, does it correspond with whichever hand you favour?

Maybe this is a potential area for research. I wonder if I could apply for a Government grant????

PS. Credits to Thao Cosgrove for her gorgeous Art Journal Kit. A longstanding favourite of mine

Texture Tuesday with Wildheart

Wildheart of Wildheart’s Works brings you Texture Tuesday. Wildheart is a Paintshop Pro expert, but I know you’ll enjoy the tips and tricks even if you’re not a PaintShop Pro user. And you’ll find plenty of ideas to help you work with textures in your own program. In fact in this week’s segment she actually converts a Photoshop tutorial to Paint Shop Pro.

This week I wanted to utilize what is promising to be a very useful Web 2.0 application called FriendFeed to search for some sites that offer quality free textures for either commercial or personal use.

One site that I have actually bought software is listed below as well. The name of the site is The Plug In Site. I bought Harry’s Abstract and Mutation software from there at a reasonable price of less than $20 and the customer service they offer is pretty decent. When I placed an order with them it had been from a previous residence and once I got moved in here I emailed them to let them know of the address change and Harold Heim personaly emailed me telling me that my address changed had been noted and my product was being shipped to the new address.

I hope you enjoy this list of links all of which offer very unique textures. I downloaded two texture packs from Designers-Reovlution. I can say that they are very nice vintage textures which can be used for scrapbook pages you want to create to convey a vintage feel.

http://www.designers-revolution.com/2008/07/300-vintage-style-textures-and.html

http://www.graphicxtras.com/products/pspaddons.htm

http://www.designertoday.com/Tutorials/Paint.Shop.Pro/4150/Ruster.Texture.Paint.Shop.Pro.Tutorial.aspx

http://thepluginsite.com/

http://www.lostandtaken.com/

http://www.creativecloseup.com/30-great-free-paper-backgrounds-and-textures

http://wefunction.com/2008/07/function-brushes-subtle-grunge-textures/

http://www.textureking.com/

http://oneodddude.net/FreeTextures.php

http://www.cgtextures.com/

The WIKI Golden Paint Can Awards

Our very own Digital Scrapbooking WIKI has been nominated for a WetPaint Golden Paint Can Award in the hobby hounds category. Woo Hoo!

And right now we’re running 3rd amongst five nominees for the award across the other Wetpaint WIKIs.

This is how the final five nominees were selected by Wet Paing:

We searched the Wetpaint network high and low to round up the cream of the wiki crop in 15 categories! With over 1,000,000 sites to choose from, this was no easy task, so we used a combination of site data, community member nominations, and Wetpaint employee input to narrow down the list.

So let’s not have scrapbooking be an ‘also ran’. Let’s show we are the top hobby on the planet.

All of you who are members of the Digital Scrapbooking WIKI click over to the awards and place your vote now.

Voting ends on WEDNESDAY 23 JULY. So get your vote in now!

And if you’re a digital scrapbooker and not a member of the WIKI…WHY NOT??

Jump on over and join up. The site is packed with info and you can be a part of the community by adding your own info and building your own pages for the WIKI with the easy peasy tools they provide.

And of course, once you’ve joined, you can vote our own Digital Scrapbooking WIKI into first place in the Awards race… not that I’m trying to influence you or anything…

Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival for July

Hey Digital Scrapbookers, its time again for another round of the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival!

This round’s being hosted at Lizzy Went Digi and there’s plenty of digital scrapbooking goodness for you, with news, tips and tutorials to gladden the digital scrapbooker’s heart.

And why not submit some of your own stuff to the next carnival. Or something from one of your favourite blogs. I can promise you they’ll be tickled pink if you submit a link to one of their articles.

To submit a blog article to the next edition of the digital scrapbooking blog carnival just drop the details into this carnival submission form.

Or maybe you might be interested in hosting a carnival on your own blog. It’s a great way to get new readers to come and visit you. And if they like what they see, they just might stick around a while. You can sign up to host a carnival (and it’s sooo easy to do) here on the contact form for Kelly-Ann .

Five Freebies on Friday - 18 July 2008

Time to share some scrapbooking freebie love again. So let’s get started on this week’s Five Freebies on Friday. There are some terrific Scrapbooking Freebie goodies here so enjoy.

Just don’t forget to leave some love when you download your freebie. Remember a simple thank you comment makes all the difference to the designer who will have put a lot of time and effort into creating your freebie.

Have a look at this super Appleblossom kit from Scrappy Thomsen. It’s huge.
Manu has some super cute baby accents on offer. All you new Mums and Grandmothers hop over there.
And Go Digital Scrapbooking has a bright and fresh mini kit for you.
I really liked this Quickpage at Pam Lefors Designs and I think you will too.
And we’ll finish up with a very nice sampler from Kim Smith Designs.

Scrapbooking Today versus Yesterday

Are Today’s Scrapbook Layouts as Meaningful as those of the Past?

I read an interesting article on Scrapping by Design last week.

June discussed the proposition of whether today’s scrapbook layouts are as meaningful as the scrapbook layouts created by our grandmothers, given all the commercial elements that we use to make them.

“Early scrapbookers had no modern day supplies. Instead, they made do with what they had, producing layouts that today’s scrapbookers would sniff at, but nevertheless, layouts that were meaningful and significant…” Read the full article here…

It’s a good article and worth the read. And I agree with the points that June made.

And it got me thinking. So I thought I’d put my five cents into the pot too.

Two Types of Scrapbookers

I think that scrapbookers fall into two broad categories.

Scrapbooker Category 1

There are those who are only interested in the final result.

The end product of their photo, presented on an attractive and interesting looking background. These scrapbookers are more likely to be attracted to the Quick Page style of scrapbooking.

Nothing wrong with that. Life is hectic and we all use short-cuts from time to time. But I wouldn’t think they can consider to have a great deal of their personality in the layout.

Scrapbooker Category 2

In the second category are those who scrapbook for the fun of the journey as well as the thrill of the destination.

It is the enjoyment we get from creating that layout that is unique to ourselves because no one else has chosen exactly the same elements and put them together in the same way that we have. And no one else has designed the layout exactly the same way.

And when the layout is complete, we don’t just say “There, that looks good.” Our enjoyment of it is so much greater because of how much of ourselves we have put into the creation process. I know I like to keep coming back and looking at my layouts many times. It’s almost like they’re a little part of me.

For the scrapbookers who fall into this category, I believe there is as much of themselves in their scrapbooks as there ever was in ‘days gone by’.

The Scrapbooking Middle Ground

And for those who want to be in the second category but don’t have the time or space to manage it, there’s Digital Scrapbooking. By the way, Digital Scrapbooking falls into the first and second category too.

Just like with paper scrapbooking, you can choose the Quick Page or On-Line Scrapbook option which just requires you to drag your photo on and you have an instant scrapbook layout.

But it also offers you the option of real creativity in creating unique scrapbook layouts where you can even change the colour and shape of elements to suit your layout design. Not to mention creating your own elements. It doesn’t get much more personal than that!

And of course Digital Scrapbooking comes with the safety net of the Undo button or the Ctrl+Z command to reverse out of anything that doesn’t work out as you had expected. That’s enormously liberating and really lets you experiment and try new things.

Then when you’re done for the day, you just save your file and shut down the program. No clearing away supplies or half finished projects on the dining room table. The perfect craft for the New Millennia that still allows you to put your own personality into your creations.

Question: Has the ‘commercialness’ of the scrapbooking industry de-personalised our scrapbooking?

So now I’d like to ask you for your thoughts.

Scrapbooking has become a hugely commercial industry. Do you think that it has removed or reduced the ‘personalness’ of our albums? And how do you keep your own personality and identity in the scrapbook layouts you create?

I’d love to hear your views in the comments below.

Step by Step Digital Scrapbook - just for beginners.
Learn how to digital scrapbook and create unique and personal scrapbook layouts quickly and easily on your computer.
No mess, no special workspace needed, no cleaning up.

Posted by karooch on

July 16, 2008

Paper, Digital or Hybrid Scrapbooker

Last October tried a poll on Scraps of Mind to see what kind of scrapbooking we all do.

Unfortunately the plug-in I used was flaky and I couldn’t access the results to tell you what they were.

Well it’s nine months later and there are a lot of new readers on Scraps of Mind, so maybe it’s time to try again.

So what kind of Scrapbooker are you?

How would you describe your scrapbooking?

I think I’ve covered all the options. but if you can think of any I should have included, let me know in the comments and I’ll update the poll.

And if you are a regular reader of Scraps of Mind you’ll probably have guessed that my response is No 6. Bring it on! I love it all. But I do confess that if I had to choose only one type of scrapbooking (and thank God that I don’t) then it would be digital scrapbooking.

Digital scrapbooking is what finally convinced me that I was creative. And for that I will always be grateful.

So let’s see where you fit into the scrapbooking melting pot.

And why not share some of your thoughts on your favorite style of scrapbooking in the comments section below.