Great New Actions for Elements!

Panos over at PanoxFX has done it again!  He has created a great new action for Elements called The OOB+ (Out of Bounds plus) it “is an advanced tool which simplifies the steps needed to create the impressive and popular OOB effects.”

The action is very flexible; at the beginning it lets you define the area of the photo and its shape; it then lets you define the size of the white border; in the next step you define the out-of-bounds areas. The action makes use of layer masks and this allows you to edit the final effect at the end.

It is available FREE for PSE 5.0-7.0 and a tutorial on how to use it is also included.

And while you are over there be sure and check out all of this other actions which are now available for PSE 7.0.   Including several new items like “Anaylsis” which has a lot of great scraping applications, and “Comics” which turns your images into comics.

And of course he continues to offer fabulous Photoshop actions as well.

Identity Theft

I have never highlighted an individual layout on this site before, but I was sent a link to this one and it touched me, so I wanted to share it with you. If you have ever lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s or one of the many forms of dementia this will touch you too.

Identity Theft

A Blog on Steroids!

Susan Hobbs has completely redesigned her site – Heart2Heart Designs.   Susan said, “I’ve combined my website with my Blog. With so many sites/blogs out there I figured… what the heck! why not combine them. You’ve heard of hybrid scrapbooking. Well I guess you could call this hybrid blogging.”

One stop now does it all. Tutorials, articles, journal prompts, challenges, FREEBIES!, blog posts, and, yes, even her store! One of the changes is that it is now easier than ever to get some of her very nice freebies.

There is also a sale going on to kick-off the new format:
Buy $5 Get 5% off! 264326W1
Buy $10 Get 10% off! MQI455RU
Buy $15 Get 15% off! 538P2Y71
Buy $20 Get 20% off! 4727365W

The above coupon codes are only good through Wednesday (September 10th) so get shopping! 🙂

Retirement Sale

Designer Royanna Fritschmann of Divine Digital is offering her entire “store” for $29.95. That includes ALL Commercial, Personal & S4H/S4O Products. Over 575 Products available for download on a 3 Day Shopping Pass. Once payment is processed and cleared, you receive your 3 day shopping pass to download all that you can in the 3 days.  She is retiring these products to make room for my new product lines.

Trish Jones Retiring!

Australian designer Trish Jones has decided to “change her focus” and is retiring from designing.   Until August 31st you can purchase her entire store for $19.99. With over 400 items it is a very tempting offer, especially when the designes are so creative!

Time to start planning your holiday gifts!

The holiday season seems a long way off right now, but if you are planning on photo or digital scrapbooking related gifts it is never too early to start working on those projects.  Before you know it the shipping deadlines will be upon us, but with careful planning you can avoid paying the extra shipping costs for rush orders.

Here are some great ideas on how to include photo books in your gift giving plans:

• Favorite cookie recipes, along with pictures of the baking process and of finished items can be collected in a photo book and passed down for future generations.
• If you’ve got kids in sports, pageants, dance recitals or holiday programs at school, make them their own book show casing their role in the event.

• Surprise a loved one with a family history book. You might have to sneak pictures out of their house a few at a time to scan. A big project like this, needs to be started as soon as possible so you aren’t rushed to complete it at the last minute.
• Create a personalized ABC or 123 book for a youngster in your life. Kids love seeing themselves and loved ones in print!

Finally, remember photo books don’t need to be more than 20 pages or even big to make a great gift! Viovio has a lot of great options, including some really cute mini books!

Changes at Hummie’s World

There have been some changes over at Hummie’s World recently.  The biggest is probably that the store has closed and the items that were available there will now only be available in the subscriber area.  In the future, any creations that would have gone into the store will be offered as freebies to subscribers.  Also the videos that were available for free for a few weeks when they first came out are now only going to be available in the subscriber area only.

Hummie will continue to make sample video’s and the occasional freebie’s available on her blog.

New Free Video Tutorials At Graffi’s!

There are two new flash video tutorials available on Graffi’s blog.  The first is called “Creating a Neutral Density Filter Effect with Photoshop or Elements” and works well on photos with skies that need a little more “pop”.  Especially effective with landscape photos.

The second flash tutorial is called “Adding Drama and Contrast to a Boring Sky” it is a technique that really makes the blue pop out of hazy skies, and adds a bit of depth and contrast to the shadow areas of the image.

These are quick and simple techniques that can really add some pizazz to your images!

Taggers “Summer Party” Blog Train

Twenty-two (22) designers have gotten together for a Summer Blog Train with lots and lots of free goodies for you. All you need to do is go from blog to blog and collect the goodies. Everything is color co-ordinated so you should end up with a huge mega kit!

You can jump on the train at any of the following sites:

Bittersweet Designs
Twinky
Swheat Creations
Just a Girl’s Designs
Liadan’s Mes – Scraps by Liadan
Cinnamon Scraps
QueenBrat Designs
Aussie Scraps
Designs by Sarah for Pimp My Tags… With Scraps
Scrappy Lover
Danielle [DMK Designs]
Berry Delightz
Farrahs Creations
Jessica’s Scraps
Simply Irresistible Designz
Classie Creationz
Paula at Scrapz A Dasiy
Vamp Productions Scraps n Things
Baby Cakes Scraps
Angie’s Asylum
Krissy’s Scraps
Tantrum Scraps

Endless Summer

“Endless Summer” is the title of this month’s charity kit at Songbird Avenue. The guest designer is Dani Mogstadand and she has chosen S.A.F.E. House as the charity that will receive 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this kit.