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Sweet Photoshop and Image Editing Roundup posted by Lifehacker. Tips and links to things like free Photoshop plugins, creating patterned silhouettes and color themes, and erasing tourists from photos.
technorati tags: photoshop, graphic+editing, Lifehacker
Whohoo! A great tutorial from Misty Cato on Creating a Template from a Layout. Quick and easy - gotta love that!
Remember a while back when there were a number of classes (both online and in real life) about creating a scrapbook based on Amy Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life? Big Picture Scrapbooking did a class on it; Jodi posted quite a few entries on her blog (scroll down to March 17th), and Michelle blogged about it here and here, and has a scrapbooking encyclopedia on her site.
I loved the idea since I first heard of it back in 2005 - organizing personal memories and stories in an encyclopedia format. I admit, however, that -- despite running out and purchasing my own copy of Rosenthal's "textbook" because I simply had to have it and start right away on my own version -- I have yet to start. Haven't even written one entry. Best laid plans, and all that.
But one stumbling block kept me stymied -- I never quite pinned down how to do it in a functional way. I didn't think a traditional album format would work well, because - knowing myself - I would continue to think of entries after the album was "complete". Then recently I ran across this project by Missy Fortenberry: A to Z Altered Recipe Box.
Kudos to Missy on this one! Archiving the "entries" in a box might just be more do-able and accessible. (Plus all the gooey fun of Mod Podge in creating an altered box, but perhaps that goes without saying...)
Yes, this is still an item on my "To Scrap" list, but maybe this altered box format might just push it up just a little higher in the scrapping rotation.
What about you? Have you created/scrapped a personal encyclopedia? Did you take a class? How did you do yours? Have you thought about such a format but, like me, just haven't started? What's holding you back?
My latest distraction -- Here's the "game" I have up on my cube window at work right now. Basically it's a simple Excel spreadsheet, with the letters of the alphabet along the top row, and down the side. You think of famous people's names, and fill in the blanks. Look along the top "axis" for the person's first initial, then go down to their last initial, and write it in. If there's already a name there, move on to another name. Really simple. And yet, strangely addictive. People who have never played my movie game are coming up to do this. One woman even printed out her own blank worksheet and filled it in with her boyfriend at home last night. Another woman said she was thinking about it on her drive home the other night, making a mental list of names to check the next day.
The only rules we're using are that the name must be a real person (not fictional), and a "reasonable" number of people would agree that the person is "famous". There are no value judgements on names, such as "that person doesn't deserve to be on there, because they were evil incarnate" or whatever. On our list at work, we have actors (film and TV), music artists, political figures, athletes, authors, "society folk" (read: Paris Hilton - LOL), activists, historical figures, and probably others. Our grid at work is about 1/2 full now -- I haven't decided how long I'll leave it up. I am going to bring my camera tomorrow, though, to hopefully catch some shots of people filling in answers.
I've entered some of the names we've already come up with as examples. Keep them there, or clear them out to start fresh on your own. It would be easy enough to use the spreadsheet template multiple times with themes - all music, all fictional characters, all women, etc. This would make a great car game for families with older kids (I think my 13yo son would enjoy the game, but wouldn't know that many names, for example.) Or a great way to pass hours on an international flight.
Have fun!
Ran across this quick video tutorial on how to Replace a Dull Sky in Photoshop Elements on computers.about.com. Looks pretty easy - using a mask, adjust the saturation and brightness. It really is amazing what you can do with editing photos these days!
This National Scrapbook Day, May 5th, marks the 5th anniversary of the release of my first book, The Book of Me. Hard to believe, isn't it?? In honor of the occasion, I'm going to be putting together some resources to give away on my blog, like a mini digi kit and some journaling PDFs. I also will be linking to digi kits I find in online stores that would work well for BoM pages/albums. I thought I'd give you a heads up, in case you design digital scrapbooking kits or embellishments (or know anyone who does), and want to whip a kit together to offer in your store or on your blog.
The book anniversary is a great tie-in to promote the kit. You can call it a Book of Me kit if you base it on prompts, themes, or quotes from my book. I'd appreciate a mention of my name in the kit description, in
that case - something like, "based on prompts from The Book of Me by Angie Pedersen" is probably all you'll need.
If you have (or know of something) that works for BoM, send me a link, and I may include it in my listing of resources.
So what do you think? :)
technorati tags: book+of+me, Angie+Pedersen, scrapbooking
My next (and last) interview is up at Create a Connection. This week's interview is with my cyber-friend Tasra Dawson, author of Real Women Scrap. More good stuff!
I've just released another book in my marketing eBook series - this one on the basics of a Virtual Book Tour.
Description:
During a Virtual Book Tour (VBT), an author visits a specific lineup of websites or blogs, similar to a real-life book tour, where stops are made at brick-and-mortar bookstores. Each day, the author visits a different
website, from the comfort of her home. But there's much more to it. This ebook explains and defines all the basics of a Virtual Book Tour.
In this 14-page ebook you will learn:
Click here for more information: Virtual Book Tour eBook
technorati tags: virtual+book+tour, online+book+tour, book+promotion
I've recently created two pages at MySpace:
myspace.com/thescrappymarketer
myspace.com/goscrapyourself
The first one promotes my marketing writing services and freelance writing projects; the second on promotes my Book of Me series, and scrapbooking in general. I've been hearing interesting things happening for professionals with MySpace pages - approaches from book publishers, journalists, TV producers, etc - so I thought I'd toss my hat in the ring. I'll report back with any interesting developments.
If you have a scrapbooking-related MySpace page, or something related to marketing or freelance writing, please feel free to Invite me to be your Friend!
Also, I admit to being a complete "newb" (as my 13yo son would say) about MySpace - if you see something I'm totally missing on either of my pages, or if you catch me committing some terrible MySpace faux pas, kindly educate me, please! :)
My third interview is up at Create a Connection - this one with The Crafty Girl Kelly Angard.
I am completely in awe of this woman's talent and insights. I can only look at her stuff for so long before I have to go sit by myself for a while and just think. Powerful images and concepts. Great interview!
