Scrap And Mac

I received a great query from Erin regarding organizing her digital scrap elements
Hope my answer helps

I am in search of tips on organizing my digiscrap elements on my mac. I recently made the switch and am trying to find an easy, logical way to organize and display my digiscrap elements. Do you use iphoto? Right now, everything is in a folder and they are organized by designer. On my PC, i could see mini thumbnails on each folder, but not on the mac. I have so many elements now that I don’t know what I have!! I just want to be able to see everything when I’mworking on a page. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You do have to do what works for you, but here is how i tackle it!

1. ORGANIZE FOLDERS
Regrarding elements and the like I keep these organized in folders on my computer. I tend to keep my photos for iphoto and digielements and things for folders. I keep them in a folder with the name of the kit firstly then I place them into a folder labelled with the designers name/place I got them. I also have themed folders for events like Celebration Kits / Baby Kits and so on. One of the best things i did to organize my scrapbooking digielements was to place the preview jpeg of the kit that you buy in one folder labelled KIT PREVIEWS. This will help you to quickly find the kit you are after.

2. UTLIIZE THE SEARCH FACILITY WITH MAC FINDER
To find elements I will usually always do a search in the right hand bar- for example ribbon….all the ribbons come up and I can select what I like.

3. ARRANGE YOUR WORKSPACE BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Now when you are working on a page and you want to view all your elements. If you are using Adobe Photoshop- Open all the elements and files you are wanting to use GO TO WINDOW on the top bar then select TILE vertically or horizontally. All the elements will be displayed neatly all over your desktop. This is a great way to arrange your workspace before starting a layout.

Last post I mentioned the Scrapbook Plan that I use to help me organize existing and future Scrapbook pages. Each month I list events that have happened so I know what pages I have to scrap. It is also a great overview of the year when it comes to putting a review of the year together. The second page in the download is simply listing project ideas of what I want to do, great photos that I want to get (eg. Take photos of Grandparents with grandchildren) that I would regret not organizing. It is great to print this off and have it as a visual reminder so you can jot things down straight away as they come to mind! When you look back on 2008 at least you won’t miss opportunities

DOWNLOAD SCRAPBOOK PLAN

If you are like me you probably have a trigger happy finger when it comes to photographing your kids and you have 1000’s of photos! It can be overwhelming to even be in a creative frame of mind to start scrapbooking these photos. Here are some practical tips to help you…

1. IMPORT PHOTOS SAFELY
Once your photos are added to your library into iphoto you will be asked if you want to delete the originals off the memory card.The best way to delete photos from a memory card is to reformat the card using your camera’s menu controls. This creates a fresh set of directory structures on the card, lessening the chance of losing photos to a memory-card glitch.

2. DELETE KEEP & TITLE EACH PHOTO
When scrapbooking, it is a great idea to only keep the pictures worth scrapbooking in iphoto. At this stage simply delete the pictures you don’t want. You can then go and label each picture and add dates and specific information that you can use that are specific memories of your photos. Doing this will save on relying on your memory for the details!

3. THINK CAREFULLY OF YOUR KEYWORDS
This is the key to being able to access pictures you are looking for. Be specific - examples include date, place, iphone photos, B&W, Birthday, Favourite, Animals, and so on. Think about your circumstances and spend a few minutes brainstorming. Time to establish this is well worth it!

4. MAKE TIME
Make time to download, title and store your photos. It will make spending time to scrapbook so much more enjoyable. If you want your layouts to be fantastic this foundational organization is essential!

5. WRITE A PLAN OF YOUR 2008 SCRAPBOOK PAGES”TO DO”
I keep a spreadsheet with the months on it. When I have taken pictures and they are stored in iphoto I just jot down what pages I still have to do. eg. January - New Years Eve 2007 February - Valentines Day Picnic in the Park. This page gives me an outline so I know that when I have spare time I can be productive. My photos are organized and I can spend time creating what I love rather than getting frustrated trying to find things!

If you have some fantastic tips love please share it with us

To create an album is really easy and user friendly once your scrapbooking pages or photos are in iphoto. You can order pictures and the process is made simple with tutorials teaching you exactly how to go about getting your digital pages online and then transformed into some awesome memories. Not only can you make books but calendars and cards as well.At the moment Apple has 20% off books and calendars.

Well I am loving finding freebies! When you sign up for the Vera Lim mailing list you get a FREEBIE! Vera is amazingly talented and creative. Thanks Vera for some inspiration

Maria LaFrance has a wonderful site that gives free layouts away. If you sign up you can enjoy some “Friday Freebies” This week the kit is Sunshine & DaisiesYou have till the 28th to get it

Ali Edwards is in our Designer Spotlight this week. She has been an inspiration to many and you may well know of her in the scrapbooking world. Author, scrapbooker and trend setter - remember her name and check out her site.

Who do you design and write for?: Creating Keepsakes Magazine (have written 3 books: A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking, A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper, and Life Artist) + maintain a blog.

What hardware do you use: Desktop is a G5, laptop is a Mac Book Pro

What software do you use: Photoshop CS3, Illustrator, iPhoto for photo management

What camera do you use?: Canon Digital Rebel

Do you have a favourite book regarding scrapbooking you could share?: Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian

Best advice for a beginner starting in paper scrapbooking: Focus simply on the story + the photos. Those are the things that really matter the most. And don’t forget to tell the everyday stories.

What is your best layout: See below

Then leave a comment and/or an inspired scrapbook page to share in our slide (click the more button).
Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me

If you are wanting a step by step guide to learning photoshop, then this is a great start. I am a visual learner and learn well when I can see how someone has created something. Rather than reading and comprehending, I watch and learn. When I started learning how to use Adobe I didn’t find anything like this. I relied on calling up my sister for help!
A video tutorial is perfect. Here is what you can learn…

* How to transform old photos just like new in just a few simple steps - it’s much easier than you think! (In fact we’ll give you a shortcut which will allow you how to transform photographs you thought were “beyond repair”).
* How to remove red eye from photographs
* How to easily change the appearance of any photograph
* Learn how to use the basic photoshop tools
* How to use the “Palette Well” to setup your Photoshop environmen
* How to quickly find any image you want to work with
* How the “Image State” feature of Photoshop can allow you to never make another mistake again
* Using the selection tool to make all your Photoshop work easy
* How to correctly use the “Grow” command
* Learn the difference between a canvas and an image?
* Discover Photoshops BIG secret - layers
* Learn the different image and color modes
* How to retouch and improve any photograph
* How to paint like Monet using the Photoshop paintbrush tool
* How to merge two (or more) photos together seamlessly
* How to “frame” a photo so that it looks like a professional fashion photographer took it
* How to save your images in all the different formats
* How to use the “Crop” feature
* How to find and use “plug-ins”
* Lean how to make amazing enhancements to any photo such as, teeth whitening, blemish removal, hair restoration, wrinkle removal, double chin removal
* How to make graphics and logos

For more information click here

Love to know how you go and grow

Today in our Scrap and Mac Designer Spotlight is Noell Hyman. She is amazingly talented and just so creative! Noell runs a website offering tutorials and how to’s with particular regard to paper scrapbooking.

What hardware do you use?: We’re all about Apple at my house. I do all my work on my MacBook Pro. My external hard-drive is a G-Tech.

What software do you use?: I use Apple’s Aperture for my photo managing and also for my simple, everyday photo editing. I love this program. I also use Adobe Photoshop for more in-depth editing and then I save those photos to Aperture. I also use Photoshop to crop and edit images of my scrapbook layouts so I can show them online.

What camera do you use?: I have a Canon Rebel and two extra lenses. I mostly use my 50mm lens but sometimes switch to a telephoto lens or the original wide-angle lens that came with the camera.

Can you share your latest layout?: The layout, Connection, is one of my favorite recent layouts. I used a Heidi Swapp mask and gesso to get the butterfly look on the page.

Any scrapbooking product you could not live with out: Absolutely patterned paper. I love it.

Best advice for a beginner starting in paper scrapbooking: Some people really struggle with digital vs. traditional scrapbooking but I like to think of them as more tools in my scrapbooking tool box. It doesn’t seem so intimidating when I consider digital and traditional products as more choices or ways to tell my stories.

HAVE YOU BEEN INSPIRED BY NOELL?

Then leave a comment and/or an inspired scrapbook page to share in our slide (click the more button).
Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me

How Fast they Grow has a wonderful solution to making a chronological scrapbook of your baby photos. You pick your layout from already designed layouts then drag and drop your photos. You can customize fonts, titles and journaling and then share your book online or purchase the book you have just made. After having two kids so quickly together this is certainly a solution for managing all the photos you do take and an easy way to organize them. A lot of the work is already done for you! Very classy