You haven’t heard much from our blog in the last week or two.  It’s a busy time of year! 

I personally took the last week off and am enjoying time with family!  I only stop at my computer once a day for less than an hour to go through the questions in email & the forum.   That is almost complete computer withdrawal for me and it was needed.  Besides sitting and playing games with the kids, we have been watching movies and catching up on Mythbusters (all my family loves this show.)  And when we get tired of being at home, we have been visiting family, or visiting some places the kids want to go and some places that kids don’t want to go (home hardware stores.)  The many trips to the hardware store is for "things" for our basement bathroom.  I know a lot more about self leveling cement, wiring, and tiling than I did 3 months ago.   I even installed a doorbell last night because it drove me crazy that I couldn’t hear the doorbell when I was downstairs.   The kids wanted the 64 different sounds doorbell but I overruled and we have the classic "ding dong."   

As for DigiScrapInfo, Connie and I realized it’s almost a year old.   Wow, time flies!!! It doesn’t seem that long ago that Connie, I and hubbies were thinking of which domain name to choose for our site.  Anyway, we are going to be celebrating our 1 year birthday in January so watch for that news. 

So I am going to take it easy for a few more days with family (with some of that time spent tiling and grouting, joy joy) and when January arrives I will be back here ready to work and celebrate. 

Enjoy the rest of the holidays and Happy New Year!

Heidi

How many times have you went looking for something on your computer & didn’t really know where to begin?

• an email that you know you received or sent? with the person’s name or topic?  but you have 5+ accounts)
• a document & you can’t remember if it’s an email attachment or on your hard drive?

I just don’t have the patience or time to spend looking for those types of things anymore.

So, copernic has become one of my ESSENTIAL desktop app’s. And it’s free as most are that I bring you!

What it is:

It’s a desktop application that you download, install, and then it catalogs your hard drive. My sister was suspect of this, but she’s heard me rave about it enough that I think she may be using it. (She reads more email accounts into Thunderbird than I do).

How to use it:

Copernic installs a little search bar in the bottom right of your window

Type in your search term. In this case I’m going to look for email from Robin (from Rakscraps).

A pop up window comes up when you start typing.

The search results for Robin show 65 emails, 32 files & 3 contacts.

From here click on the “Open Main Window” & a full window opens with a bottom pane showing the details of the email or file that you choose.

The choice to Reply or Forward email from Copernic doesn’t work.

But you can open files from it, which is very handy!  This handy little app saves me a LOT of time!

I have always like flourishes and cluster frames and have admired how the flourishes seem to wrap around the frames.  So I pondered it and realized just how it easy it is to do in ACDSee Photo Editor.  I did it quite a few times on my calendar toppers that I created in the last few days:

So I am going to show you how:

I have gathered a flourish and photo cluster.

• The flourish (and background paper) is from Petit Moineaux from her Noel kit
• The frame cluster is from Lindsay Jane Designs

and placed them on my page in about the position that I want them.  The frame should sit on top of the scroll.

1. First lock the scroll into place once you have it where you want to.  We are going to layer two scrolls directly on top of each other and I don’t want the bottom one moving.  To do that, click the box next to the eye to lock it.
2. 
3. Now, let’s make a copy of that scroll.   I just make sure the scroll is selected and press Ctrl-C (to copy it) and Ctrl-V (to paste it) and I get this:
4. 
5. Now select both scrolls.  (Hold down the Ctrl key and Select both Scroll objects)
6. Make sure you are using the selection tool.
7. 
8. And choose Align, center vertically & horizontally. 
9.  
10. and it looks like it turns into 1 scroll. It is really 2 scrolls directly above each other.  One is above the frame and one is below the frame.  Just so it’s easier to show you I am going to put in a white square to take the place of my photo.  This is easier to see what is happening when the pictures are already in there.  So the correct layering you should have is, from top most layer down:
1. Scroll
2. Frame
3. Photo
4. Scroll
11. 
12. Its easier to work, so I am going to zoom in on my scroll & frame. 
13. Select the top scroll and select the Polygon Lasso Tool
14. 
15. Then you want to start selecting everything that you don’t want on top of the frame.   The polygon tool allows you to make nice straight lines to match the frame line.  So each click allows you to create a line from the previous point.  If you don’t quite meet, hit Esc key to connect the lines.  And now I have marching ants around the part of the scroll that I don’t want over my frame:
16. 
17. Then simply press the delete key, to delete it.
18. 
19. I also want the tip at the bottom of the scroll to go away, so I use the polygon lasso tool again to select the tip and delete.
20. 
21. I now have a scroll that wraps around the frame.  I can easily put in my photos and finish the page.
22. 

Wasn’t that simple?

The credits for the calendar examples:

I was using ACDSee Photo Manager so the items in the calendars are all from different designers, but here is the list of items you see in my calendar examples:

• Carrie Stephens Vivicious
• Petit Moineaux  Noel
• Wendy Page Swirls
• ksharonkdesigns - sequins
• Barbara Schiefer Snowflakes Paper
• Carla Gibson Good Ole Days Paper
• and the calendar templates & frames are from Penny Springmann

To use, here is the code for your profile in forums:

[url=http://www.digiscrapinfo.com][img]http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/
acdsee10-blinkie.gif[/img][/url]

[url=http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/dsiwiki/ACDSee_Photo_Editor][img]http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/
photoeditor-blinkie.gif[/img][/url]

I put spaces in each one because both of them went off the screen & couldn’t be copied & pasted.
You can feel free to just link to our blinkie and there is no need to host it yourself.

This can be done in a few easy steps.  You can either choose all images in a kit, or just a few (like 9) that represent the kit.

1. Select your images that you would like to go into the preview.  (Hold down the ctrl key to select multiple images scattered throughout.)
2. 
3. Go to Tools | Create Contact Sheet
4. 
5. Now you can change the settings.  The most important thing is to make sure you preview has all the images on ONE page and are fairly big.
1. So adjust the number of columns and rows:
2. 
3. Right underneath I reduce the spacing to 10 x 10 so there is little white space.  (This step is only done once and the settings will be remembered.)
4. 
5. Click on the browse button to give my file a name.  (If you selected the images as described above, the current folder should be where the images are located.) 
6. 
7. You can also change the size in the Page Size.  Most previews are 500×500 or 600×600.   (This step is only done once and the settings will be remembered.)
8. Click OK
6. And now you have a preview that gives you an idea of what the kit looks like:

After you make a contact sheet your settings will be remembered.   Then your steps come down to:

1. Select images
2. Select Tools | Create Contact Sheet
3. Click Browse to Name Contact Sheet
4. Click OK

I have been busy scanning photos to add into my parents muvee dvd. A I have been scanning them, I am trying out some new tips and tricks to pass along to to all of you. Most of these tips are likely to be Epson specific, but hopefully some of them will help you to get more familiar or to play around a bit with getting photos in Photo Manager or in scanning software.

To save space and get more photos on your scanning bed,  the photos do not have to be placed in the right orientation. After the scanner preview scans, there is (in Epson Software, at least), an icon to rotate that picture. Make sure you have the correct photo selected, then click the rotate icon until the photo is right side up.

Before:

After:

If you forget to rotate the photo, or your scanning software does not have that option, you can rotate files easily in Photo Manager.

Another neat trick I tried was to use a selection to scan only part of the picture.

First, scan in the photos you want. In the photo I am working on, I only want the two faces on the right. I go to the Target Size Drop Down box and choose “Customize.”

There are many presets, but in this case I think a 2 x 2 area would be good to use. Enter the dimensions in the box, name the preset, and click save.

The 2 x2 preset is now in the drop down list.

Making sure that the picture you want to use is selected, choose the preset of your choice, and a selection box appears on the photo’s thumbnail. Use the hand tool to move the selection box to the appropriate area.

  And here is the finished scanned photo.

Since I still have many more pictures to scan, I will post more tips and tricks as I find them!

This was a cool site so I had to blog about it.  A new way to personalize a gift card!

Holiday Visa® Gift Cards — Create & order a unique gift card online - using your own images at GiftCardLab.com

The GiftCardLab allows you to upload an image and get a receive a Visa Gift card with a custom image printed on it.  How cool!

This would be a great way to use a photo or digital scrapbook images. 

The details:

The cost:

"The Visa Gift Card costs $5.95, which includes customizing the card design, embossing a name and message on the card and standard shipping."

and plus the cost of the value of the card.  You can put as little as $10 on it and up to $250 on it.

Image requirements:

"image of at least 840 x 840 pixels and no more than 10 MB in size."

You also need to make sure that your images meets their rules.  (No trademarks/brands/copyrighted material, No names of public people, No private information, No vulgar messages, and a few more that you probably wouldn’t do.)

Message:

"You can select from one of several messages to have embossed on the Visa Gift Card. If you do not select a message, “Best Wishes” will be embossed on the card."

Some other good points to know:

"Visa Gift Cards are delivered in 5 to 10 business days. If you uploaded your own photo, please allow an additional 2 to 3 days to approve the image and print the card."

"It’s easy to keep track of what’s left on the Visa Gift Card. Enroll the Visa Gift Card online at giftcardlab.com to view your balance or call Customer Service 24-hours a day using the phone number found on the back of the Visa Gift Card."

"If your card is lost or stolen, call our Customer Service Center at 1-888-799-0028 as soon as possible so that the card can be canceled and replaced."

Well, I received my Viovio Book that I had printed.  Actually it came a week ago, but I didn’t have time to blog until now about it.  So the time from ordering to arriving on my door step was about the time I expected.   (Ordered book on Nov 18 and received Nov 30 so it took 12 days from order to arrival.)

I had a few surprises and let me explain.

Cover:

First I expected my cover image to wrap my book.  After going back to Viovio to reread, I have since learned that if you print a 10 x 10 book.  You get a case material with an embossed adhesive cover image on it.  I see they have now added some examples:  Square Photo Books

If you order an 8 x 8 book then your designed cover wraps around the book. 

"Our glossy 8.5" case-bound hardcover books allow you to wrap an image around the cover."

On my 10 x 10 book, I got the following cover and I do like it, just wasn’t expecting it.

And then since I did a cover, the first and last page of the book was my original cover.  It looks fine and it looks like I intended to do it, kind of like a title Page. 

Spine:

It turns out they print the info on the spine for a 10 x 10 book even if it says it doesn’t.  I am glad that I put in what I wanted to have on the spine even though I didn’t think it would print.  They used a silver ink that looks really nice although it smeared a little.

Quality of the book:

The book is put together very well.  It looks like it is binded by staples not glue or sewn.

Photo Quality:

All the digital kit materials printed well and looked excellent.  The colors were excellent!  The individual photos to me appeared a littly grainy.  I am wondering if its the nature of the paper and not the printing.   All the other books from that other companies that I have printed have used a glossy photo paper.  The paper user is described as:

"a 100# light gloss Photo Silk, 96 Bright. This is a phenomenal paper that provides wonderful color, a professional smooth appearance, and long lasting binding quality."

And here are some photos of the book:

Viovio’s stamp isn’t very big so that’s nice.

Some final thoughts:

This was my first 10 x 10 book.  I have usually printed my books at 12 x 12.  The 10 x 10 is a really nice size. 

Pay attention to the cropping.  I followed their template closely and nothing important was cropped.  But due to the nature of books, remember the curve of the page at the binding makes things difficult to view.  So I would recommend keeping any writing off the edge of the page that will be in the center of the book. 

The cost of the book was $26.19 and I paid $8.45 for shipping.  The shipping cost could easily be reduced to a few dollars if you had time to wait for the super saver shipping offer. 

I think navigating Viovio’s site and finding information is a little tricky.  (That would explain my cover misunderstanding.)

My Recommendation:

I would definitely recommend Viovio printing process.    If you are printing multiple copies of books, are giving as gifts and want to keep the cost down, then this is the way to go!   I don’t think its as a high quality of a book as Heritage Maker’s or Shutterfly’s books but its 1/3 - 1/4 of the cost also.   So for the price of the book the quality was great.    Only the graininess of the pics bothers me.  I think I should go print some of my layouts at Costco and compare the difference.  (Cause sometimes its the the photo and not the printing process.)  If I do the comparison I’ll blog and let you know what I discover.

I have an Epson Perfection 3170 Photo Scanner. It was a Christmas present from my in-laws a few years back. I will never complain about them, because they always get me awesome scrapping/computer gifts. Now, that is not the only reason I love them, but it helps. Haha!!

Last year I made a movie DVD for my best friend as a Christmas present. Since we have been freinds for more years than I like to admit, I had a huge amount of non-digital photos and memorabilia that had to be scanned before I could upload them into the movie software. It was a big drag, although the outcome was worth it. The movie was a huge hit. Well, at least it was in my family!

This year, my mom asked for a movie for herself as a gift. At first I was dreading it. But since I now have ACDSee Photo Manager, the scanning is an absolute breeze! Photo Manger is much easier to handle files than the software that came with my printer.

I will set about 3 pictures on the scanner bed, depending on the orientation of the pictures. I make sure that they are not touching so that ACDSee can easily “see” them as separate files.

In Photo Manager, click on Get Photos and select your device. Click Next.

Then, check the box for Scan Multiple Documents and select the first option. Select your file format. jpgs is the most common and versatile. Click Next.

Choose the File name you want, Select Folder and Subfolder where you want the files to be placed. Click Next.

At this point, my Epson Scanning Software opens up and scans a Preview. I have my scanner set to Home Mode which gives me different levels of control. If I want to change any of my settings, my preview scans will be erased. You can also see that even though I did not place my photos on the bed exactly straight, ACDSee is able to straighten them as it selects the photos to scan. Since I am happy with all of the settings for these photos, I will click Scan. ACDSee will then scan each of the photos.

After the scan has finished, I close the scanning program and them the Photo Wizard appears. If you have more photos to scan, click scan to restart the process. If not click Next.

The Wizard is complete. Select Browse to your new images if you choose to. Click Finish and you now have three new photos scanned in a flash.