New Training CD’s From Scrapper’s Guide

The long awaited new training CD for Adobe Photoshop CS3 OR Photoshop Elements 6.0 from Scrappers Guide are available for pre-order at a special introductory price now through midnight on Monday, March 3rd.

In addition to the introductory pricing you will also receive the following bonus items if you purchase by midnight on Monday:

* Bonus 1: 5 additional QuickPages that match the Travel Album Kit that comes with the training program. (Two QuickPages come with the Travel Album kit, so that gives you a total of 7 QuickPages. This is a fast way to get started scrapping those great vacation photos!)

* Bonus 2: 10 additional papers that coordinate with the Travel Album Kit. (More opportunities to mix and match!)

* Bonus 3: A 12 x 12 “grunge” overlay and a video with some great tips on how to use it.

* Bonus 4: A set of Flourish Brushes inspired by Linda’s trip to London last summer. Two brush sets come with the Travel Album Kit, so that will give you a total of 3 cool brush sets.

* Bonus 5: A fun and fancy set of Scrapper’s Guide Travel Word Art.

Photography tip: Shooting for Photobooks

Recently professional photographer Ryan Brenizer blogged about photography tips for shooting photobooks. I think his tips are quite useful to digital scrapbookers, and I’d like to add one of my own to his suggestions.

If you are planning on creating a cover with a photo book company that allows full wrap covers (like Viovio) seriously consider taking the time to take a panoramic image specifically to use for the cover.

For example, here is the cover of a book I created for a recent cruise vacation. I shot the picture from the top of a mountain, and had to crop a bit to get it close enough which did degrade the image a bit – but it was worth it to have an establishing shot that included the ship.

Desinger Christine Smith is retiring

Designer Christine Smith has announced that she is retiring. For now, her store at design.christinesmith.net will remain open. If you haven’t checked out her store yet, you might want to take a look before it is closed for good.

There are a lot of very lovely kits in her store, but it is the tools to design your own items that really stand out. In particular the bow and folded ribbon actions and the flower and ribbon building templates, stand out as unique offerings.

Hopefully her blog with all it’s great tutorials will remain in place as a resource for digiscrappers to access in the future.

Photoshop Essentials

At Photoshop Essentials their Photoshop tutorials cover everything from the basics of Photoshop to photo editing and retouching techniques, photo effects and special effects, Photoshop tips, Photoshop tricks, working with text and creating text effects in Photoshop, and even the essentials of working with digital photos and images! All of their Photoshop tutorials are written by an Adobe Certified Expert in an easy to follow, step-by-step approach so that even people new to Photoshop can follow along!

In addition to the wealth of free tutorials (including ones specifically for digital scrappers) they also offer a variety of free high resolution brush sets.

If you prefer video tutorials, then be sure and check out their selection of video tutorials that are available to members for $9.95 a month. The video tutorials cover setting up Photoshop, Text Effects, Photo Effects and Photo Editing.

CG Textures

The apparent closure of Mayang’s Textures has left many scrambling for a new source for textures. If you are one of those thousands on the hunt for textures then you need to take a look at CG Textures.

It is set up and organized very much like Mayang’s Textures and no payment or royalties are required to use these textures. The quality is very good and the selection’s available are very extensive. There is a 15MB daily download limit, however you can opt for a membership that will allow you unlimited daily downloading privileges.

Hummie’s World – Update

Since I reviewed Hummie’s World last October the site has undergone a major upgrade. There is now a forum, gallery and store. And Hummie has added video tutorials to her already fantastic list of free tutorials. The free video tutorials are available for a short time and then move into the new subscriber section.

A monthly subscription is $5.50 and it gives you access to all the written and video tutorials. In addition, Hummie will be available to answer questions and help (even answering with a quick video if needed). It’s a way to take a class to learn digital scrapbooking without waiting for a class to begin and to do it at your pace as you move along through the lessons. While most of the video tutorials correspond with the written tutorials, there will be bonus videos generated in response to questions.

Whether you are a beginner or a more advanced scrapper wanting to create your own digiscrap papers and embellishments Hummie’s is great place to learn!

Heart2Heart Designs

Heart2Heart Designs is the brainchild of husband and wife team Susan and Bob Hobbs. Their motto is “You’re only limited by your imagination….. and skills!” To help folks improve their skills they have a large number of free tutorials and articles available on the site.

The store has a lot of unique items including, trading card and magazine cover overlays. There are also a few freebies available. This site is Scrap4Others/Scrap4Hire friendly.

Amateur Designer Challenge!

Photoshop Creative Elements has a lot of different challenges running that aren’t specifically scrapbook related but will help you create some beautiful art and improve your Photoshop or Elements skills. But I would like to draw your attention to a digiscrap challenge that is open to everyone regardless of their skill level.

The challenge is to design at least 4 items to contribute to the group kit which has a tropical theme. (In the interest of full disclosure I picked the theme and color scheme because I am leaving today for week in Jamaica, and I wanted something fun to scrap the vacation with when I get back at the end of next week.) Every one that contributes at least 4 items will have access to download everyone else’s contributions. Right now there are well over 50 items in the group gallery, and I expect that number will double before the challenge ends on the 28th of February. As with previous design challenges, Viovio has agreed to host the gallery space.

You can see more information, previews and links to design tutorials on the site. So come join the fun! 😀

Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival

Have you heard about the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival that comes out twice a month? Blog carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize blog posts around important topics and improve the overall level of conversation in the digiscrap blogosphere.

It is not a place to advertise (no posts regarding new kits, sales, etc.), but rather to effectively contribute to the digiworld. Blog posts about what is going on in the digiworld, such as new sites, trends, tutorials, contests, and news, are welcome. You can nominate a post on another blog or even one of your own posts. The more folks that participate the better it will become.

The current issue is being hosted at Kelly Shults Designs.

Scrapbooks Gone Digital

Scrapbooks Gone Digital is a site that is devoted to digital scrapping using GIMP. GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. It is often used as a free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop.

The site has a nice selection of tutorials for digiscrapping with GIMP, a forum, gallery, and a nicely organized poetry section. There is also a shop with a lovely assortment of kits, embellishments, templates etc. If you are scrapping in a “starter” program and would like to have more flexibility without additional cost GIMP may be the right solution for you.