I enjoy using Google docs and I am always interested in the many different software applications out there for creating digital scrapbook pages. Today here's a quick presentation and review of the MemoryMixer software (just click on the double arrow to go slowly step my step through the slides). Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun!  Halloween Delicioso Digital Scrapbook Page It's been so long since I have actually sat down and completed a digiscrap page so yesterday I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns and started searching around for a suitable template candidate. Now this is where google reader came into play, it makes it just so damn easy to find the information you require. One of the scrapbook blogs I have subscribed to via their rss feed is ScrapMatters.com and low and behold there it was, the perfect template for the page I wanted to create, delivered directly to me by the powers of google reader, sweet. (ThanksLoriBear for the beautiful template you created). When it comes to scrapbooking a page nothing says Halloween more to me than pumpkins, especially the carving, lighting and displaying of them in all their spooky goodness or perhaps I should say badness. So here are the steps I took and the changes I made to Lori's template to create this page: For the background layer I open up a photograph of my daughter pretending to eat pumpkin seeds, added filter/blur/gaussian blur and pumped it way up to 250 to create a piece of digital scrapbook paper, as the base to my page. Each part of the template is labeled within the layers palette, so I went into each element and changed the colours by picking from my photograph using the eyedropper tool, selecting coordinating colours from within my photo to use for the elements. When changing an element, first select the layer then hold down the command key (mac) control key (windows) and using the move tool click on the shape within your layers palette to select it then click on your eyedropper tool to choose a colour from within your photograph this will set your foreground colour then edit/fill selection/use foreground colour and hit ok. Any parts of the template I did not need for this project I just deleted from the layers palete (make sure you save as before doing this, you don't want to delete the original template!). I saved this page as delicious-pumpkin.psd so that it wouldn't overwrite Lori's original (that I want to keep for my stash :) I opened and copied the same photograph twice more into the page layout and positioned each version above the photo element layer, then selected my photo layer and choose layer/create clipping mask to put my photos into the framed mat's within Lori's layout (once they are clipped within the frame just move the photo around until you have the part of the photograph you desire showing.) Finally I added some text and simply changed the blend mode of the layer to screen and the opacity of the layer to 47%. Adding the words delicioso I can almost hear Dora saying yum yum yum yum yum, can you? Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun! p.s Especial thanks for the template download created by LoriBear ScrapMatters.com Here is the link for the blog post about this Digital Scrapbook Page Template  Stray FM-Win A Wedding I was wondering today if you could do me a huge favor as my niece has got through to the final five in Stray FM's Win A Wedding competition, I have been working all morning on the poster above to try and drum up some support for them, as at this final stage it's all down to the voting. So what is Stray FM and what is this all about? Stray FM is an independent radio station that covers Harrogate, Knaresborough and the surrounding areas and they are running a fantastic competition with the Dower House Hotel to win your wedding along with loads of other great prizes. Now I can tell you I have been to many a function at the Dower House including some great weddings (as I grew up in Knaresborough and as my dad would say it's the bonniest town in Yorkshire), and I have to say it's the perfect spot for a 'Bit of a Do'. Now Amanda is a really lovely girl who would do anything for anyone and usually does, she is always smiling and cheerful even when times are hard, I do not know Michael well as we moved to the states before they got together so have only spoken to him on the phone but if Amanda has chosen him he must be a winner, anyway I will let her tell you their story herself just click on meet Amanda and Michael below. Meet Amanda and Michael So if you have a spare five minutes on the 2nd of November I would really appreciate you giving them your vote, hey I need an excuse to wear a hat! Cheers Groobers Create it, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun At the week-end we were carving our pumpkins, well I say we my husband and daughter were and I was clicking around with my camera, anyway I got a couple of shots once the masterpieces were completed, in one the pumpkins were lit up well but the background was dark and in the other you could see the background but not the lit up pumpkin. I have been trying out photoshop elements 8 over the last couple of days so thought these would be perfect examples for me to try out the new photomerge exposure tool.  Background Lit Up  Pumpkin Lit Up  PSE 8 Photomerge Exposure Now I think that Is a Kind of Magic! Nice one Adobe :) Linda Sattgast adobes scrapbook expert explains the new features with photoshop elements 8 in her video review below: You may also find Rick LePage of MacWorld.com review an interesting read, I know I did so here's the link Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Review Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun!  Photoshop Elements 8 Collage Alternate Blog Post Title: "Lying in my bed thoughts running through my head..." If I was starting out today learning how to use my computer for scrapbooking which software would I choose? Photoshop CS4 with all its bells and whistle or Elements 8 the one designed with the end user in mind? Cricut Cartridges On Sale 10/21/2009
Searching around for Cricut cartridges could turn into a full time job, they are expensive so finding them when they are on sale is important for most owners. Just wanted to give a quick heads up thatJoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores has a (web-exclusive offer) on at the moment for 50% off. On another note I must just quickly report back on my post Testing Professional Digital Photo Printing (link to post) all I can say is wow, I am very impressed :). Firstly when I opened the Kodak Gallery box containing my photographs they were packaged incredibly well in individual envelopes which were then placed on cardboard and then sealed securely, so there was no danger at all of anything damaging the prints. The quality of the black and white photo was excellent and looked exactly the same as online no purple tint here! I have made this photo into a card now and it looks great against the plain black, I have even reused the packaging from Kodak to put my card into, so wins all around. When choosing the paper for printing I choose Professional Black and White Paper and also I tried out the Professional Metallic Glossy Paper on a few photographs I sent along with the black and white one, now I must say I am in love with this glossy paper. One of the photographs was of autumn colors in the trees near my home and you have to experience what this type of paper does to your photos, it truly is magical. I would love to hear about your experiences with different types of photo paper and any professional photo printing services that you recommend, please feel free to leave any comments. Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun! Testing Professional Digital Photo Printing 09/27/2009
 Black and White Postcard Sometimes when I print my digital photos at home I tend to be disappointed with the quality of the prints I manage to produce, especially when it comes to black and white photographs. I print out my photos on a Cannon printer which is purely used for this task (i.e it's not an all in one printer with fax, scanner etc) and generally speaking it produces quality prints, but with b&w not so much, I usually end up with a purple tint to the photo and while the shot looks great online when I print it out on quality photo paper I tend to be a little disappointed. Recently I finished a couple of pieces one of which is a postcard of my daughters were I used my scrapbook software to make a simple black and white picture of my two girls with some text added to the bottom. I have been thinking of trying out Kodak Gallery Beta for a while now so decided today was an ideal opportunity to give it a whirl... All that you need to do is to set up an account where you can store your photographs for free, once you have uploaded your pictures just click and drag the photos you want to print, change the size adding any effects and then decide on the type of paper you want your photos printed on,then you are ready to order. When I made my order there was no charge for shipping because the order was over $4.99 and once I checked out I received further discounts on my order (not sure why, but who's complaining?) which was an added bonus. Ok so shipping takes a couple of days, meanwhile to more creating, I will report back with my results :) Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun! Many people use Adobe Photoshop Elements for their image editing and scrapooking needs as a cheaper, easier alternative to the full version of Photoshop. Unfortunately it has been a while now since they updated the software for the mac user but with this version(version 8) they have done just that, and produced an update for both the Mac and Windows user. If you are currently trying to decided which digital scrapbooking software you would like to use you may want to consider Photoshop Elements which is a great option for computer scrapbooking for both the PC and Mac. This scrapbooking software allows you to organize all your photos and videos (within the organizer for windows and within bridge if you are a mac user), you can add tags and keywords making searching for that digital picture or video clip a breeze. Now you have all your photographs organized to your liking it is much easier to select the ones you want to edit or add effects to and create something from the vast list of options available to you, once you have created your masterpiece elements provides you with easy options for sharing your work. When it comes to creating with your photos version 8 has enhanced the ways you can share your photographs online (and even on the iPhone if you're lucky enough to own one!) The software also provides many more professionally designed themed layouts and templates just ready for you to customize with your photographs. Now if you already own Photoshop Elements is it worth upgrading to the new software? I can't make that decision for you but this list of the new features available within version 8 may help: Organize
Cheers Groobers Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun! I wanted to tell you a cautionary tale today, and it all started way back when I discovered that with Photoshop Elements you could do so much more with your digital photographs. Finding photo editing software was such a revelation to me I wanted to tell the whole world about it, I could not believe the effects you could achieve on your photos and the way you could take them from boring snapshots to interesting creations really inspired me to get started. Setting up a blog to tell of the things I had learned was my intention and sharing a hobby I had grown to enjoy (if you'd told me a few years back that I would enjoy Using Weebly has been and still continues to be a great joy, everything is done for you and all that you need to do is drag and drop elements onto your pages, allowing you the freedom to focus on your sites content, not constantly fighting with setting up all the behind the scenes stuff necessary for a website or blog. As a total non techie it was the perfect solution for me, so eventually I decided I would like to try and make a little money from my blog and started putting adsense onto it, with the help again from Weebly who did all this for me and we entered into a partnership where Weebly set everything up and choose the adds etc and we would share the revenue (if there was any:) Last year I discovered a training program called the Thirty Day Challenge which basically shows you in a step by step approach how to set up a business online, or off for that matter, all the things I struggled with were covered with this course. I started doing the challenge last year but never completed it getting up to day 16 I think it was, but never really committing to it fully, I doubted I was doing the right thing and was constantly overwhelmed by all the new stuff I was trying to learn. Luckily everyone involved in putting the challenge together were very patient and helpful people always ready,willing and able to answer my questions and combining this with a wonderful community (who were all trying to achieve the same things) on hand with helpful suggestions, advice and tips, I knew that I was in the right place to learn. I decided to try the 2009 30 Day Challenge again and was determined to give it my absolute all, following the teachings to the letter as best as I could and as the challenge continues after the 30 days I was not too concerned that I would be starting in the middle of August instead of at the beginning. Now here is where my Cautionary Tale Begins... I was having another great day and had just finished up on a call with a great friend of mine who I had met through the Challenge, who was helping me out with a few of my Market Samurai questions (as she is a whiz with this great software) when I opened up my email and the bomb shell dropped. Me the most careful, will not do anything dodgy (just ask my family) person in the world had received a letter from google saying: Letter from Google Adsense Hello, We continually review all publishers according to our program policies ( http://www.google.com/adsense/policies ) and Terms and Conditions ( http://www.google.com/adsense/terms ). During a recent review of your account, our specialists found that it was not in compliance with our policies. It is important for a site displaying AdSense to offer significant value to the user by providing unique and relevant content, and not to place ads on pages with little to no original content. Additionally, Google ads may not be placed on non-content-based pages. Your site should also provide a good user experience through clear navigation and organization. Users should be able to easily click through your pages and find the information they are seeking. Please review Google's Webmaster Quality Guidelines ( http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#quality ) for more information. As a result, your AdSense account has been disabled. You will receive payment for outstanding earnings, but we're no longer able to partner with you or your network of sites. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team As you can imagine I was absolutely horrified and responded with the following: My Letter To Google Adsense The Google Adsense Team, I am so shocked that my adsense account has been disabled, I have never been asked to leave anything in my entire life, so feel mortified that I have done something wrong. I am truly sorry if I have broken any rules, could you possibly tell me which rules I have broken so that I can correct them on my sites, I had no idea that I had done anything wrong and can promise if I have broken any rules it was certainly not my intention. I fully understand if you must keep my sites disabled but I would like to learn from my mistakes, if it is any issue with my sites I would appreciate the feedback. Again I am extremely sorry for any wrong doing I can only assure you it was an accident. Kind Regards Susan Hodgson Last night of course I could not sleep and was tossing and turning trying to work out just what I could have possibly done wrong to have caused this, and it hit me at 3.45 this morning like a brick to the head. In a blinding flash I knew exactly what I had done, another stupid rookie mistake I could kick myself, why oh why did I not just ask the question on the 30DC Forums :( So here's what I did and let this be a cautionary tale to you all... This year I decided to set up a site about Collage Picture Frames and include ideas and examples of collage pictures I had created, of course I use the same software that I use for my digital So here's the thing.... I had my new site all set up, had an add on there for a collage picture photo tray which I felt was a great and unusual (I like anything a bit out of the ordinary)way of showing off your photos or picture collages that you had created. I suddenly thought that people who came to my site may not want the unusual and may want information on traditional types of frames so I decided to add some adsense adds to see if other types of frames would be more relevant to my site, bingo, eureka, the penny drops there in lies my problem. Maybe and I am just guessing here, when I put these adds on my site, perhaps they were classed as not being relevant to digital As always... Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun Cheers P.S Maybe I should add... Make Mistakes, Learn From Them, Take Action And Move Forward Remember 09/11/2009
 Remember 9/11 | GroobersHi and Welcome to Groobers Blog. My Blog and Gallery were both created using the name Groobers which was my nickname as a child. Popular Posts
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