I was so excited when she showed me so I had to share. ;)
So last post we talked a bit about keyboard shortcuts. Yes, they can be a pain to learn but they will save you SO much time. Just learning a few commands for your most frequently used tasks will help you out and increase your workflow. The ones I use the most are:
cut (cntrl+c)
paste (cntrl +v)
zoom in (cntrl++)
zoom out (cntrl+-)
and of course, my fave:
UNDO (cntrl+z)
I could really use this function is real life. Lord knows I’ve actually tried to reach for it when not even on the computer. I have a bit of a problem. LOL. But if you are having trouble learning check this out:
They’re keyboard shortcut stickers for Photoshop that go right on your keyboard. HOW COOL? I’m seriously considering a set. You can find them at Editorskeys.comand they retail for $15.99. They Adobe set is compatible with both PC and Mac keyboards and is fully compatible with the default keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop 5, 5.5, 6, 7, CS, CS2, CS3, and all versions Photoshop Elements.
Now you have no excuses!!!
Enough about scrapbooking. We all know why you’re REALLY here:
A quick Idol recap – Mint style: Neil Diamond week. Oh joy. Just poke me in the eye with a fork right now. And what’s better than 5 Idol renditions of old Neil Diamond songs? … 10 renditions of old Neil Diamond songs. That’s right. They all sang twice. Wonderful. I don’t know why they did it because they didn’t seem to have enough time. Ryan was rushing everyone on and off and the judges had to hold their comments for the first round until everyone had sung once. I thought the showed moved along faster without all the blabbering in between.
After round one of ’songs your father played in the car during every road trip you ever took growing up’, Ryan lined the Idols up and the judges had a go at them. And that’s when we learned that apparently speaking is not Paula’s only problem. Reading and writing seem to be equally challenging. Although her comments had been pre-written (and thus, one would hope, pre-thought) she was STILL unable to form a solid cohesive sentance. But the best part was went she commented on Jason’s first AND second performance when he’d only sung once. Curious. So the question is, when were these comments written and who wrote them..or is Pauls really THAT messed up that she thought he’d actually sung twice?
Paula nonsense aside, overall the first round was pretty weak. The second round picked up quite a bit. David Cooke was great. Sayesha was ok. Little Archuletta….ehhh. He can really sing but I don’t know what to make of him. Brooke’s first performance was horrible. She sang ‘I’m a Believer’ and the whole thing was just so Disney Channel. I felt like I was watching a kiddie concert for Moms and tots. But she pulled it together for the second song. Poor Jason Dreadlocks. He had another aweful (and I mean horrible) week. By the second song I officially declared his performance as ’snack time’ and went to the kitchen for a treat. Yum.
No idea who’s going to go. I think Dreadlocks has enough fans (who they are, other than you Jammie, I have no idea) to stay. I think Sayesha and Brooke will be on the chopping block.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Have a happy Wednesday!!
After weeks of “enhanced episodes” (cough reruns) we finally get some answers….and of course, more questions. It takes us forever to get through an episode because Mr. M and I are constantly pausing and asking each other, “Are they on the island, are they off the island?” “Is this before the crash, after the crash?” And what the hell is Ben doing in the middle of the Sahara Desert in a Dharma coat? Who shot him? How’d he get there? Why can’t he kill Charles Whitmore?” Ahhhhhhh!!!!!
As soon as they answer one question they give you 20 more. I can’t wait to see how this whole thing unfolds…and when did Sawyer become such a softie?
I guess we’ll have to just wait it out and see.
So let’s get back to scrapbooking since that’s why you’re really here (I hope). The lovely and talented Joann McQuaid has found us some awesome resources for keyboard shortcuts.
Hi Gals! It’s Joann, I snuck in to Miss Mint’s computer to leave you a quick tip for you. National Scrapbooking Day is coming and with all those challenges I thought you might want to know that you can save lots of time using shortcuts when you scrap and save the “mouse moving” for another day.
Here is an amazing website that has a complete listing (with a cheat sheet) of keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop 5, 6, 7, CS, CS2 & CS3 (for both PC and Mac) in really nice and easy to read .pdf file formats. Just print it out the shortcut sheet for you program and keep it by your computer for easy reference. Soon enough you’ll know them all by heart. http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts
PSP, PSE and DIP users check out the following links:
Oh gosh – so much reality TV drama this week I don’t even know where to begin!
In case you haven’t heard, Dancing with the Stars‘ Shannon Elizabeth, (best known only known for showing her boobs in American Pie 9 years ago) and partner Derek Hough (former champ Julianne’s big brother) have taken their “showmance” into an actual off set romance.
Creepy.
She’s 34 and he’s 22. That’s a 12 year age gap. Why the heck would you want to date a guy who is 12 years younger than you. As if they aren’t immature enough when they are the same age as you. I know men do it all the time….but 12 years…that’s alot when you’re only 22.
I totally DO NOT watch The Hills, because obviously as a 29 year old woman, I’m much too mature for such silly teen fake-reality shows…but if I did watch it, I would just have to say that I really hate Spencer with a burning passion. Every time his smug little face pops up I just want to reach through my TV and give him a little (ok, big) smack in the head. I don’t know what Heidi ever saw in that little parasite. He ruined her friendship with Lauren and managed her music career (what? She has a music career??) into the toilet before it even started. I’m not saying she ever stood a chance but I’ve never seen a worse or more embarrassing debut video. Note if you click that link to watch the video…do so in private. Trust me. You don’t want people to hear or see this junk on your computer.
This week on The Bachelor, happy lips Matt (who makes out with 20 girls per episode) went for his home town dates with the last 4 girls. Can we discuss Shayne’s family please? Shayne claims to be an actress. Actually she’s been in like 5 episodes of General Hospital and two movies no one’s ever heard of…but who’s counting. Her father Renegade star Lorenzo Lamas, who looks like he could use a burger or two, totally throws her under the bus right off the bat by telling Matt that she really just wants to be a star more than an actress and that being famous is her main goal. Ouch. Then we meet Shayne’s mom… YOIKES! What the heck is that? No seriously. Mr. M and I actually screamed outloud and rewound and paused to have a good look. So scary.
On Idol the contestants are constantly criticized for trying to sing “big” songs by the “top” artists (Mariah, Celine & Whitney) and for cabaret/theatre style performances. So after making them sing Mariah songs last week, this week, they all had to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber. Does this make sense? No it doesn’t.
So needless to say it was a pretty crappy week. No disrespect to the music – it’s just not what these kids are used to. Brooke was not good at all but the worst…by FAR was my dear friend Jason Castro who sang “Memories” from Cats. (why????) It was like the worst thing I’ve ever heard EVER. I was sure it was his week but no, alas Carly got the boot after her FIRST positive comment from Simon in weeks. I can’t remember who commented/emailed me about this but someone mentioned a few weeks ago that they were surprised that Paula was a choreographer and dancer because she’s always dancing off beat to the music. I’ll admit I’d never noticed it before but this week I totally did and it was HILARIOUS. Please try and watch next week if there is a shot of her standing and dancing during a performance because she jerks her body back and forth to a completely different beat. So bizarre. Oh..and how AMAZING is Leona Lewis live? WOW.
I swear this is still a digiscrap blog and I’m still working on stuff over here!!! ;)
A shout out to the newbies today with a quick tutorial from Mint Chick Sari Underwood (caridura) on how to properly save your pages for web viewing and gallery uploading. Take it away Sari….
I remember when I first started digital scrapbooking, I was so confused about how to save my pages for online posting. Either the page was too big for the gallery or it was blurry once I uploaded it. It was very frustrating! So, I wanted to share some tips on how to save your digital pages for online viewing.
Once I finish my layout and save it, I save a JPG version for printing. I then take the JPG copy and go to Image >Image Size and resize it to 500×500. You can go a bit bigger if you prefer.
I then run a quick Unsharp Mask on it. I have an action that I use for this but you can do it on your own by going to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. My settings are set to Amount 20% Radius 2.0 pixels and Threshold 3 levels. This helps to sharpen it up a bit since you seem to lose some detail when you save for web.
Next up I go to File>Save for Web and play with the quality slider until I get it to around 125k in size. Keep in mind that most galleries have a limit on how big the file size is. On average, 125k is a safe bet for most galleries.
Save this copy for your web postings and you are all done!
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Happy Passover to my fellow Jewish scrappers! Wishing you a wonderful week of matzah, macaroons, manischewitz and the unavoidable matzah induced bout of constipation. A true holiday tradition. LOL! Still working away on new products, finding a new house, unrelated graphic design and photography projects while making time to enjoy the sunshine, hit the gym AND keep up with all my TV shows. Whew!
I was going through some recent pictures and found a few of Chase and Abby I just had to share. They are SO cute when they play together and I usually miss it because by the time I grab the camera, they’re off in another room. But this time I got the best action shots ever. Chase always ends up looking so goofy. I know it looks like they are attacking each other but they are so gentle (no scratching, barking, hissing, biting). They are such goobers!!!
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If you haven’t stopped by the gallery lately, go have a peek. The layouts and projects are piling in so fast I can barely keep up! Here are a few of my recent favorites:
Altered Clothespins by: Shanta Silver When I saw these in the gallery I was sure that Shanta must have bought them somewhere but then I recognized my papers!!! LOL. I just adore this idea. I can’t wait to make some brightly colored mismatched ones for my office. Add a small magnet to the back and you have the most adorable fridge magnets known to man! Shanta used craft paint, dry adhesive and extra small craft magnets or magnetic tape (if making fridge clips) to put these together. After painting the clothespins, she printed the papers (Black print paper: Hanukkah Funukkah Paper Pack (recolored from blue), Ivory & black floral toile paper: Elegant Valentine Paper Pack), cut them into strips to fit the flat side of the clothespins and applied dry adhesive to tack them down. She used a pair of fine-tip crafting scissors to trim any paper overhang.To turn them into a fridge clips, just hot glue extra small, flat craft magnets or apply a generous length of magnetic tape to the back. Adorable!
How cute do they look in the little custom jar?
Shanta’s a crazed hybrid maniac at the moment. She’s got so many projects up it would take me a week to post them all so go check out her gallery of hybrid goodness right here and get inspired to create something crafty for your home.
Thank You Card by: Claire Skeps To create this card, Claire first designed a digital respresentation of what she wanted on the computer using papers and elements from the Family Tree kit. Then she printed all her layers separately and cut it all out. She assembled the card and sewed the leaves only where the veins would be on a real leaf. Now, when folded the paper leaves stand up around the stitching to giving the leaves some dimension. She added Prima Marketing flowers and a Pearl Brad to finish it off. What a gorgeous and sophistocated design!
Desk Calendar by: Joscie Cutchens Joscie designed this adorable 5×5 desk calendar in PSE. Printed it out, trimmed it, mounted it to a piece of Bazzil big chipboard, sanded the edges, and then clipped on the 2008 piece with a Making Memories clip. Digital supplies used: Party Pants Kit, 2008 Calender Grids, Cutesy Doodle Doo – April, Complete Classic Date Stamps and Scalloped Mats. A 12 set of these would be such an ADORABLE gift!!
Custom Coasters by: Megan Turnidge Megan’s custom coasters make a perfect hostess gift or a clever and crafty personal addition to your home decor. To make them, Megan used 4×4″ wood blocks from Jo-Ann’s for 59 cents a piece and then painted them with acrylic paint ($1) in a color that matched her selected papers (from Elegant Valentine Paper Pack) Once dry, she used sand paper to wear down the edges to add a little character. She glued the paper print outs on top and added felt to the bottoms (also about $1). Be sure to seal your final product with a water resistant sealant like Mod Podge’s Outdoor formula or a clear spray formula. Always test your sealers on a sample swatch of paper to make sure the prints don’t run.
That should be enough to get you fired up! Are you ready to start crafting?
Looking forward to all your projects. Have a wonderful weekend ;)
