It’s time, again, to start the exciting hunt for the “perfect” calendar for next year. Over the past few years calendars seem to have taken on a new art. We’re no longer stuck with the options at the mall kiosks. Now, more and more independent artists are getting their work out there through blogs and online shops such as Etsy. Here’s a few that have caught my eye recently…and a cool project idea from one of our books, if you’re in the market for making one yourself!
Snow & Graham: love the size of this one. It's like a new piece of art for your wall each month
Oipul's: This sparse modern version is clean to look at, but some might think begs for added design elements. It's a great choice for a doodler who wants to add their own design each month
Elle's Studio: These colorful cards could be tacked to a bulletin board as a casual monthly calendar or used on date-themed scrapbook layouts
Oven Door Owl: I bought my 2008 calendar from this etsy shop, and I'm loving the colors for 2009 just as much as last year. If you like playful typography, then I'd recommend checking her shop out
Do you plan on buying or making your calendar for next year? Leave us a comment and share your favorite date-themed finds!
In her exuberance following the discovery that I like scrapbooking supplies, my mom purchased a crop-a-dile for me. Mom didn’t have a clue what the little green machine was for, but “it looked neat” so there it was in front of me. To be honest, I wasn’t all that thrilled. I tried to look grateful, but all I saw was an eyelet setter, and I never use eyelets. So the crop-a-dile sat unopened in the bottom of my tool drawer…until we needed to photograph a crop-a-dile for an upcoming book.
Turns out, this little thing is awesome! First of all, it’s a hole punch in addition to an eyelet setter. (Maybe I should have paid a little more attention…) It punches two sizes holes, which is handy in and of itself, but it can punch—easily—through (almost) anything! Layers of chipboard, stacks of paper, playing cards, thin metal, even records! (Though, I’ve been warned against trying to punch through poker chips…). As if that wasn’t enough, the eyelet-setting function makes setting eyelets so simple. So. Simple. No more getting out the craft mat, the eyelet setter, and hammer. Not more getting out the anywhere punch. Just set the eyelet where you want it, punch, and voila! All of a sudden I’m adding eyelets to just about every paper project. Love my crop-a-dile!
Do you love your crop-a-dile? Do you want one? What other tools can you not live without. Come on over to forum to talk all about it!
Have you heard the news? Memory Makers Magazine is looking for 10 savvy scrapbookers! The magazine has posted rules and information for the 2009 Masters Contest.
What is a Memory Makers Master, you ask? Ten lucky scrapbookers who are awarded more than $2,000 in cash and prizes, and work directly with Memory Makers editors, creating layouts and projects for the magazine for an entire year. So cool!
Speaking of Masters, I’m loving the 2008 team! Have you checked out their blog recently? The Masters share their loads of talent quite often and are always full of creative ideas like these:
Left to Right, artwork by: Iris Babao Uy, Staci Etheridge, and Tracy Austin
You can check out more layouts and great ideas from the Masters in every issue of Memory Makers Magazine (the June/July issue is on sale April 29) as well as Memory Makers Books’ upcoming Ask the Masters book.
It’s no secret that Photoshop is an incredible tool, not only for creating digital and hybrid scrapbook pages but for editing photos so they are the best they can be. I’m a fan Photoshop myself (I probably use it at least once a day) so so I'm excited to share the breaking news in photo editing world: Adobe’s new, FREE Photoshop Express for the web.
As soon as I got the news from the photojojo newsletter, I couldn’t resist clicking over to the Photoshop Express site (FYI, the page loads much better using Safari than Mozilla). Express offers pretty much all you need to fix up your photos, like adjusting exposure, white balance and hue. Plus, Express is made for sharing: You get your own URL, you can create slideshows and you can load and edit photos from sites like Photobucket and Facebook.
I should mention that Express is not a Photoshop replacement—no layers and fancy things like that—but according to photojojo, “it is a remarkably slick and well-designed basic photo-editing and sharing application. Arguably the best so far.” And how cool is it that you can edit your photos with Photoshop anywhere at anytime for free?!
I still haven’t had a chance to really play around with Express, but I can’t wait. If you try it out, let us know how it goes! Leave a comment in the forum.
