The In’s and Out’s of Photo Editor- Week 2

Hi everyone! Liz is back with another challenge for ACDSee Photo Editor. I’m going to utilize some of the tutorials we already have here at DigiScrapInfo so we can get to know this program better.

First off, did you see this post?

ACDSee invites you to help build ACDSee Photo Editor 2008!

I’m so excited- we’re all going to be able to give input! So if you don’t have ACDSee Photo Editor yet, you can wait until the 25th and you can download the beta, or download a 30 day trial of our current version. Then we’ll post challenges here every week so you can work your way around the program. Isn’t that exciting! The good news is, you’ll be able to play with it for 90 days!

Anyway, let’s move on to the challenge. If you currently have ACDSee Photo Editor, please feel free to jump right in. If not, wait until the 25th and download it then so you can play along!

We’re going to focus on drop shadows today. They are an integral part of a digital layout. My goal is to make my digital layout look like it was done as a paper layout. A good way to help with that is drop shadows.

I LOVE shadows in Photo Editor. They are done on a separate layer, so you can manipulate them as much as you want! I think they look realistic, but I admit, it took me a few layouts to get a good groove going. So I’ll share the settings I use at the end.

Here is the tutorial we will be using:

Drop Shadows with ACDSee Photo Editor

Here are some examples I’ve done:

A few tips that I’ve learned. I am by no means an expert on this, and I’m sure most of you already know this, but we cater to everybody- new user, or very experienced, so I’ll post it anyway.

When working with drop shadows I have used this tip as a general guide. The closer you want your element to appear “attached” to the paper, the smaller a shadow to use. For example, I put a very small shadow on pictures, background paper, and small elements, but use a larger shadow for things like flowers, ribbons, and frames. Here are some excellent tutorials regarding shadows from Digital Scrapbook Place.

Digital Realism: The Shadow Knows

Shadows and Perspective

These helped me tremendously when starting out.

Anyway, I want to see some layouts with some cool shadow tricks. Post a link in the comments section to your layout, and feel free to let me know what settings you used, any tips and tricks you discovered, etc.

Here are my settings:

I almost always use the same shade, and vary the opacity. Unless I’m working with a dark background, I will usually go to R48, G48, B48 or 303030, which is a dark gray. If I’m using a dark background, I will usually use black. I adjust the opacity down to between 60-80%, depending on what I’m using it for.

For Photo mats, photos, background papers, and small elements such as glitter, buttons, etc:

Offset- 8-12, Blur- 4-5, Opacity- 80%

For frames, cardboard, etc:

Offset- 13-16, Blur- 9-10, Opacity- 75-80%

For Ribbons, flowers, and big shadows:

Offset- 17+, depending on what I want, Blur- 11+- again, depending on what I want, Opacity- 60-75%

Feel free to play with them and come up with your own! I admit, I haven’t played with them a lot, but it is fun once you get the hang of it. I’m pleased with how mine turn out in print. They look realistic enough to me.

Thanks for playing! See you next week!

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Using Trailfire to find digital kits of a certain type or promote a kit

Trailfire.com The idea behind this web tool is to create a trail through the internet on a topic. Its basically a list of web pages linked together on a common subject. For each web page you add to your trail, you can add a note about the page. These trails can be public or private. Here is Trailfire’s overview.

What could we use this tool for in digital scrapbooking? Well, I think one of the parts I don’t like about digital scrapbooking is if I want to find a particular type of kit, I go wander around digital scrapbook stores looking for that type of kit. Some people ask questions at DigiShopTalk.com and have others point to that type of kits. Some try search for it using google but this returns a lot of extra non-digital scrapbooking stuff. Although I finally created a google search just for digital scrapbooking. Have you tried it? Digital Scrapbooking Search So I think trailfire could simplify how users find particular types of kits, just create a trail of kits through the different stores.

Let’s say the particular type of kit is a heritage kit. There are some great heritage kits scattered throughout the digital scrapbook stores but to find them takes a while. What if you had a way to link up all those heritage kits together? That’s where trailfire.com comes in. I started a trail of Heritage kits. Digital Scrapbooking Heritage Kits As I or others (because its public) find more heritage kits, you can keep adding. Follow the trail and see if you like it! (note when I published this Scrapartist was down for maintenance.)

This could be done for those Template Lovers!. Create a trail of templates. Or for any other categories or subjects.

How could designers use this to promote their products? Create a trail of layouts done with a particular kit. Here I created a trail of Robyn’s England “Return to my Roots” of layouts using this kit. I know if I am thinking about buying a kit, I like to look at layouts using that kit. Also, it provides a service to your customers that do buy and gives them ideas on how to user your kit. Most designers already have CT’s spreading layouts around using their digital kits. Why not start the trail with those and happy customers would be glad to add to the trail. All it requires is a click of button. How can you add a trail to a digital kit in a store? Just add the trailfire public link to the digital kit’s description in the store.

Another features is you can add comments about each site you mark.

It’s kind of cool!

Other facts:

• Here is how you can create your own trail: Create Trails
• Trails can be private so only you and whoever you share with can see them.
• You can make trails public but no on else can add to them.
• You can make the trails public and allow people to add to them. That’s called a Wiki Trail.
• You can even subscribe to the rss feed of the wiki trail At the very top of the home page of the trail, look for the rss link and enter that into your favorite RSS reader. (Now I know when people add to the Heritage Trail.)

TrailFire’s help is pretty good and self explanatory.

Have fun with it.

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Facebook & Kaboodle Intersect!

I see that Kaboodle has a Facebook application available & some of you have found it! It looks really slick. Here’s what it looks like & what it can do for you.

My suggestion to designers & store owners would be to create an account in Kaboodle & add your items to that. Then you maybe don’t need to upload the items into Facebook. You can add the Kaboodle app & have them on your homepage in Facebook automatically & easily accessible. From there you could encourage people to explore them by creating games, offering coupons, RAK’ing etc. Encouraging people to add them to their lists will be important because then others will see them in Facebook. The beauty in it is that people can shop directly from Facebook.

Here’s what the app. looks like on the profile page. (Thanks to Vicky Shaw who’s profile I used)

Clicking on View All shows the items along with the description.

Here you can:

Clicking on the image takes you to a nice large image. This is what I like about Facebook. It shows larger images than Kaboodle or most stores which really makes the item for sale appealing!

On this item view you can

• add it to your list
• shop for it by linking to the store
• see related items

It looks like fun! Let us know how you’re using this new connection between Facebook & Kaboodle?

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Cleaning up your Facebook Profile

Is it a mess? Are there applications everywhere? Is your right column really long requiring the visitor to scroll? Have you succumbed to Facebook addiction & you’re ready to take control again? (well at least of the appearance! we won’t go into time management here ).

Here are some tips for getting your profile under control.

• Delete app’s that don’t have any value for you (even if your best friend sent them).
• Most of the things in your profile can be collapsed or minimized by clicking on the arrow.

• Move items around to bring the most important ones to the top for priority in viewing
• Move items to left column to equalize the space.

There are 2 ways to move panes:

1. Click on anything & drag it to a new position. Items can be moved into the left column this way which shortens the length of the page considerably. (The mini feed is static).

2. To right of Applications click on ‘edit’
Rearrange app’s using arrow icons on left.

Tip I just figured out tonite:
To reduce items in the mini feed -
Under Privacy tab – News Feed and Mini-Feed Privacy
(I unselected many there which should clean up that area). It also allows you to leave a group in stealth mode!

Have you found ways to simplify your profile? Do share, please!

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Routinely visiting Facebook & turn off the email notifications

Many of us are using Facebook now. Every once in awhile someone says, “so I’m here, now what do I do?”

Since time is at a premium, I’ll share my system for how I routinely ‘read’ Facebook.

My profile is bookmarked in my daily reading group in Firefox’s tabbed browsing. (are you using that yet? People agreed that it’s a MUST have!)

That opens to my profile in Facebook in a tab:

• Im my Inbox on top has a number on it, I read the messages first.
• I scroll down to check my wall posts.
• Then I click on home (top right)
  • Requests are on right – Add friends is on top if there are any
  • I tend to ignore the app’s & periodically go down & take action on them, but it’s infrequent. Facebook shouldn’t rule your time.
  • Then I skim the News Feeds & see what my friends are up to. If I see people joining a group, I go check it out & ponder joining

• If I have time, I click on Groups on left
  • • by scaning the right column, I can see changes highlighted
      • It’s a good reminder to visit my ACDSee group!
      • If you have a group, please keep tabs on it.

So if you have a system like that, then you can turn off the email notifications. There isn’t much information in them & sometimes they’re delayed. Here’s how to disable them:

Click on Account | Notifications

Turn off as many as you’d like. Note – I did leave the notification on for “Replies to my discussion board post” because I comment in so many places & like to know when people respond so that I can continue the conversation in a timely manner.

One last Facebook tip: When you want to message a particular friend, rather than surfing thru their photos, click on Friends & type in part of their name in the search box on the right. That will bring up their photo & the option to message them. It’s so much quicker!

How do you ‘read’ at Facebook? Is there a faster way?

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Digiscrapping Groups are Growing on Facebook!

I was just browsing over at Facebook & it’s exciting to see how the number of digiscrapping groups at Facebook had increased! I’ve also received some emails from groups about new products available & most recently a Creative Team call. I’m trying to join each group to keep up with how you’re using this quickly growing space. Feel free to add me as a friend. Then you can browse my list of friends and I’m sure you’ll find some people that you know!

Are you enjoying it there? I’m getting requests to add applications (like 45 now), so many must be playing with them. It’s kind of addictive. The Facebook mail is nice. Announce it in your forum & link to my post on how to get started, so more of your members can join in. Maybe they’re already members there? I’ll be posting some tips soon on using Facebook on a regular basis.

Here’s an updated list of digiscrapping groups:

• ACDSee
• Amys Images
• Butternug Squash Designs
• Dallas Digiscrappers
• Digi S4O – For people who digitally scrapbook for other people.
• Digital Addiction
• Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
• We love digital scrapbooking at DSAG!
• Digital-Scrapbooking.org
• Digital Scrapping.com
• Digital Scrapbooking (Ottawa, Ontario)
• Gypsy Chick Digital Scrapbook Designs
• Kutnkudlys Kreations
• Launch Pads Fanclub
• Missouri Digital Scrapbookers
• Minnesota Digital Scrapbookers – and area states
• New to Digital Scrapbooking & Paint Shop Pro
• Nuts4Digi
• NW Houston Scrapbooking
• panraven.com
• Photo Walking with Hummie
• Retrodiva Digital Scrapbook Designs
• Scrap Outside the Box
• Scrapbook-Bytes
• ScrapbookGraphics.com
• Scrapbooking Addict
• ScrapGypsies
• Sheila Rushton’s Creative Imagery
• Utah Digiscrappers
• Ztampfans

Magazines & Resource Sites

• Digital Scrapbooking Magazine
• DigiShopTalk.com
• Digital Scrapbook Printing
• Pink Ink by Holly McCaig – Photography

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Building Community

When my sister & I created this site last January, our goal was to offer resources & give back to the community. We hold a strong belief in that. Around March I started blogging about marketing tips, helpful software, blogging tips, etc. That focus has grown to the point where we now offer two options for newsletters. And we have found our focus to be broader than planned but I love exploring & sharing these venues with our readers.

Yesterday when I was at Facebook, I noticed a new site, Web Community Forum was launched on the weekend. In browsing it, this list made my heart stop. My name links back to this site:

Here’s some background info on some of those listed:

• Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR agency in Silicon Valley.
• Charlene Li works with Forrester Research, and Jeremiah Owyang has accepted a position there.
• Robert Scoble is a prolific blogger on tech related items. He reads over 700 blogs a day!

I’m truly honored to be listed as a Voice amongst those great ones! Teresa posted about my Facebook Series today. A huge thank you to the folks behind Web Community Forum! I hope that all of you realize what a voice your blogs are in celebrating your passion for recording memories of your family’s lives & your work if you’re a designer.

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Web Strategy … wikis, social networking, etc

A shoutout goes to Christine Smith, another Minnesota gal & owner of Scrapquick Designs. Way to go girl! She is realizing the power of building community & I see her moving around doing a great job. Those efforts will gain her far more exposure than traditional advertising. You have to read her blog post from Aug 25th. She was promoting the DigitalScrap Wiki. She is encouraging people to join her in building up the wiki as a community resource. She said:

The reason I am jumping on this bandwagon is that I am moving my design and promotion efforts AWAY from large sites and toward open resources that are mostly free from the constraints of the desires of site owners and advertisers. Even a site like DigiShopTalk has posting limits, size limits, forum moderators and a responsibility to its advertisers. That’s all good for certain reasons but just doesn’t serve the needs of everyone. So I like the DigitalScrapWiki because it is formed through contributions from people who are involved in and interested in digital scrapbooking on all levels from scrappers to hobbyist designers to FT designers and site owners.

So what are open resources? Well, social networks fit the bill. If you’re interested in what Christine is suggesting, it can reduce the amount spent on traditional advertising. (Granted you probably want to find a mix of the two that works for you. Please ask if you have questions on that). And I believe that if you take the time to do some reading here, I’ve provided ideas on ways you can promote your designs in very cost effective ways by building community. Here are some helps from our blog:

• info on wikis
• using social networking for promotion

And this all ties into Web Strategy. I see Christine & many others using the tips that I’ve offered here. You ladies are truly great entrepreneurs! And I enjoy making online tools known & teaching how they can be applicable to digiscrappers & designers. On Friday, Jeremiah O. gave me a huge compliment by referring to me as a Web Strategist. He has devoted so much energy to promoting the importance of communities & utilizing web tools creatively. His focus is on corporations, but I believe it’s applicable to a business of any size. (He quoted my ideas about how Walmart should change their online promotional strategy. What are your thoughts about how the public perceives Walmart? Could it be shifted do you think if a woman were helping them promote?)

Here’s an update on the Facebook groups list – join your friends:

• Scrap Outside the Box
• Scrapbook-Bytes
  
• ACDSee
• Nuts4Digi
• Photo Walking with Hummie
• Butternug Squash Designs
• Ztampfans
• Missouri Digital Scrapbookers
• Minnesota Digital Scrapbookers – and area states
• Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
• Dallas Digiscrappers
• Digi S4O – For people who digitally scrapbook for other people.
• Launch Pads Fanclub

Sign up for our newsletter if you want to receive a monthly list of our marketing ideas by email.

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Using Kaboodle Creatively

So have you figured out how to use Kaboodle & add items & create lists? If you would like screenshots or instructions please post a comment & I’ll put something together.

I’ve seen questions about how to use Kaboodle creatively. Here are a bunch of ideas.

For Digiscrappers, here are some ideas to maximize Kaboodle:

• Tag items as you add them – add designer name
• Get your lists organized
  • Hollie (Holliewood stores) suggests: … you can have several lists, like digi-shopping, things already bought, stuff for the house, or even inspiration. you can organize those lists into catagories, like my digi list is then arranged by store. its a really super way to catalog your shopping.
• To find new friends
  • Look thru the lists of your friends & add people (it works in Facebook too)
  • Search people for digital scrapbooking
  • Post a link to your Kaboodle profile in your signatures with a note asking people to add you – In Kaboodle, click on ‘My Profile’ tab & use that URL.

  Add me!

• To find new items – read the email that Kaboodle sends of what your friends like
  • Someone suggested: Adding friends is great! That is where I find most of the new items. I read the email they send of what your friends have added. Then you can copy the item to your kaboodle. Ok, I think I may be an addict. LOL
• Keep track of purchases – personally I check what I have in ACDSee 9, but many are making a folder called ‘own it’, ‘recently purchased’ or ‘bought it’.
• Take advantage of sales – if you have your lists by stores, when a store has a sale, then you can quickly decide if you should buy
• lists used for gift giving
  • You can buy a gift card at that store, or contact the owner and have them set up a coupon for you.
  • your lists can help your husbands & others find gifts for you

Ideas for Designers & site owners:

1. What does it mean to be RAK’ed by a designer? Here’s how it works (please leave a comment if you have other ways)

• create your list of items & tag them with designer name
• A designer goes to Kaboodle & does an item search for name of item or designer name
• pm that person to communicate your (random act of kindness) – need to be registered
• To see how easy it is, here’s a search for items by Shabby Princess

2. Games – here are some examples of how people have used Kaboodle

• Can I Kaboodle you? encourage people to put things on their Kaboodle list & show you, then choose a winner
• Scavenger hunt – It’s all in the clues Designers from Plain Digital Wrapper provided clues that correponded to their Kaboodle list but required players to find answers at their store.

• Elemental Scraps Kaboodle Bingo was played in June – does someone have details for us?

• Let us know what ideas you come up with to use Kaboodle to promote your store.

And this is one other thing I noticed. I saw an ad for the LilyPad Shoppe at Kaboodle in the banner. I think it was a google ad? It was very eye catching & well done. Kudos girls!

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How much social networking is enough

…or too much?!!  Are you getting value for your time invested?

Dianne Rigdon posted 2 comments today.  The first one is an excellent point. 

Connie I am loving all these great marketing tips and links and concepts. I?d love to hear an overall opinion about all the different social networks?whether we should try to be active in multiple groups such as facebook and twitter and kaboodle in addition to the digital scrapbooking forums and groups that we are already active in. It?s overwhelming to think of doing more, esp that which takes me away from design, but I love these concepts. Just trying to figure out how to fit it all in!

We are always juggling how to ‘fit it all in’.  Someone else had asked a similar question too, expect she said she was just getting into blogging.   I think that the wonderful thing about the web is that there are socialization opportunites just by powering up your PC.  We share our love of our hobby with each other & grow & learn together.

But there has also been talk of ’social network fatigue’.  How much is too much?!  Dianne questions how much she should be involved in?  And that underlines my efforts here.  My goal is to introduce our readers to the myriad of social networking options.  I’m outlining the ones that I’ve tried and trying to save everyone time by providing ideas for utilizing them for marketing your designs as well as the digiscrapper to enjoy. 

Please note that I’m not proposing that you use them all!  That is an individual decision.  Today, I think Dianne noticed my note to her on Kaboodle that said, ‘I don’t use Kaboodle for lists, but rather Evernote.’  I’m willing to be a hub for people starting out there though.  But I’ve been participating in the digiscrapping group there & enjoying that conversation.

My advice is to treat these social networking sites as places to experiment at.  Choose one & give it a chance.  I will provide you with the information to get started & suggestions for making it applicable.  You get to decide if it fits into your needs.  If you want to read an interesting article, this one on Social Networking Fatigue is quite in-depth & interesting. Brian Solis has some excellent points that I’ve extracted to save you reading it if you don’t have time.

1. Start with listening & watching, then participation becomes clear. (I have done this for you).
2. Monitor the guys on the front lines (again I’m doing this for you)
3. Why start with Facebook?  it experienced 270% growth in one year’s time!
4. Get involved & participate

“But, of them all, Facebook is the most interesting and so far, the most rewarding and engaging of the bunch. It’s not just about the ability to connect with people. It’s about creating, cultivating, and promoting a strategic online presence and personal brand.
Remember, participation is marketing.”

The option to have “…embedded feeds that represent all of my online activity for those who visit my profile, all in one window.”

And this is a great summary,

And what about Social Network Fatigue?
Well, that’s for everyone else. Your job is to not only promote your expertise, but also engage in conversations and discussions that matter to you and to your business.
Facebook is one of many social networks that require your attention. To truly engage in social media, you need to be wherever the people that matter to you congregate, even if it requires your participation across many different locations.

Well, Dianne made a decision before I had time to respond, and this is what she said:

Well I am just gonna try it all – facebook and twitter and delicious and kaboodle…play as I get time and see what works for me. So far I really like the interactive nature of facebook and that I can import links to my blog with it. I am also trying out the wordpress blog too just for fun lol.

And I think she answered her own question!  Try as you have time.  She realized like Brian stated that you can bring your other platforms like Twitter & your blog into Facebook.  But, the interactions at forums & your stores can’t, but maybe you can find a way to export your galleries as RSS feeds?  That’s a great idea!  In Brian’s conclusion, he says that you need to be where your people congregate, so it’s definitely important to be involved in the digiscrapping communities.  I’m not suggesting giving that up.  What I am offering are suggestions for sharing our digiscrapping hobby with the world & possible marketing opportunites for designers.  But as pointed out, you need to be a person first and develop meaningful relationships.  (and we’re very good at that – that’s why we love this community so much!)  

As I introduce these social networking sites, you’ll find that each has it’s own unique spirit. 

• Facebook is a platform where the masses are gathering.  (and I see you’re having fun with the over 2000 app’s    ) 
• Kaboodle is a shopper’s dream site. (it’s in beta & growing quickly)
• Twitter is like mini blogging (I’m more of a listener there – Julie Ann Shahin is using it in a cool way though!)
• Flickr is about photography (there are also others like Fotki & others)
• Stumbleupon is a unique approach to finding new sites

Do I use them all?  Remember that I work full time & maintain this site with my sister, so no.  But I’ve been playing with them so that I can know what’s out there & in turn save all of you time.  That is our goal here to provide information.

If you have comments, please add them.  I really enjoyed discussing Dianne’s comments & I’m thinking that many of you were wondering the same thing?!

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