Product Review: New Seasons® Digital Scrapbooking Kits

Publications International, Ltd. started in the traditional scrapbooking game with archival quality traditional scrapbooking kits that included a booklet of 16 pre-printed 12x12 papers, a sheet of stickers, and a sheet of perforated diecuts. Recently, they've entered the digital scrapbooking arena with their New Seasons® line of themed digital kits, called Digital Album – Simple 1-2-3™, that include specialized software and post-bound albums. It's perfect introduction to the world of digital scrapbooking as well as a simple solution for those with very little time and a lot of photos to get out of the camera and into albums. Best of all, it's only $14.95.

The new digital scrapbooking kits feature a fabric or suede covered 12.65"x9" post-bound album with 10 page protectors that fit 11"x8.5" horizontal pages. The software comes with 24 pre-designed quick pages as well as 16 additional background papers and over 50 tags, ribbons, word art titles, and other assorted matching elements to created your own digital layouts.

The software is PC compatible (sorry Mac) and uses only the designs built into it so you cannot add images from other sources. It also features a variety of ways you can share your creations: print on your own printer, save as a graphic (jpg format) to upload to a photo sharing site or gallery, put it on a CD to print at a retail store or online photo processing site, send in an e-mail, or even save as an HTML file to post online.

The pages can be printed on any standard color printer, but the prints may have a white border anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2" on all sides. Do a test page before you print them all. Most photo-quality printers have a setting to print your pages from edge-to-edge (called a full bleed). Choose that option in the printer preferences for a more professional look. For best results, use the paper and ink suggested by the manufacturer.

The Publications International, Ltd. web site has no individual kit descriptions, however, there is a short demo video and a downloadable PDF flyer with more information. They don't list the Baby theme but I found it (and the other kits) at a local discount super-store in their craft/sewing department. I'm giving it to my tradtional scrapping daughter-in-law at her baby shower to bring her over to the 'digital side' .... bwahhaahaaa!

Available themes: Baby, Wedding, Travel, Traditional Memories, Modern Memories

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Publications International, Ltd. and did not get anything from this company to write this review. I bought both the Travel and Baby themed kits myself. However, if any of them read this review...I won't turn down any 'gifts' they may want to send...hint hint! ;-)


Consumer Service:
Publications International, Ltd.
Attn: Consumer Service
7373 N. Cicero Ave.
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
800-595-8484 (phone)


Warranty Registration and Claims:
Publications International, Ltd.
Attn: Warranty
820 N. Orleans #301
Chicago, IL 60610
800-454-9006 (phone)


Corporate Office:
Publications International, Ltd.
7373 N. Cicero Ave.
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-676-3470 (phone)
847-676-3671 (fax)

Fun Geeky Products for Your Holday Gift Giving!

I love looking around at all the new gadgets coming out
for holiday gift giving. You never know when one of them may actually be a brilliant idea! Here's a couple I found on PC Magazine's
web site that I thought were clever.

The sneaky and subtle OH! *#% (yes, that's really the name of it!) flash drive from Fred & Friends takes file security to a new level. It looks like a wire from a broken plug-n-play thingy but it's actually a self-contained 2GB flash drive! Who'd ever think to steal a ratty looking thing like this! LOL! The only drawback I can see is that it really can be mistaken for a useless piece of junk and it might get tossed in the trash...accckkk!

Laptop art from Infectious will add a whole lotta flair to your laptop! Infectious also produces designs for your wall, car, and other devices. The art is printed on easy to apply 3M vinyl - just peel and stick. If you want a change, just peel it off and apply another! There are more than 70 designs available right now.

Best of all, there's an open call for submissions, so why not try your hand at designing? All designs selected get 5% of net sales and up to $100 in Infectious product. Design of the month gets an additional $400 in cash. Go do it!

Have you found a cool gadget, too? Tell me about it in the comments section!

Sail away, sail away, sail away...

My free-spirited friend, Marilyn, has taken off on a sailing trip to Alaska with her husband on their 45' sailboat. They will be gone for 3 months, exploring the inland passage as they go. When they return they will refit for a 5 year adventure around the world.

She will be able to communicate now and then through short text-only e-mails via ham radio and when they hit a port with an internet cafe or library with access, she'll update her travel blog. I'd love to be able to "go off the grid," but I don't think I could go that long without the internet and e-mail. ;-)

Here's a lovely cartoon in her honor (I am 'not' a good sailor!). If you like it, go to www.vimrod.com and subscribe to get a silly daily cartoon in your inbox.

Color Calibration is important and now it's easy - and FREE!

Have you ever noticed that your photos look different on your computer than they do when printed? When you post your layouts on your blog or in a gallery, do they look different when seen on another computer? You know that strawberry should be red but it sure looks orange (or yellow or green or...).

Good news - it's not your eyes or your camera! It's the color calibration of the monitor you're viewing it on. Photoshop has a color calibration utility but 90% of computer owners out there don't have PS. How can you make sure both you and the world can see Aunt Edna's favorite yellow hat in all it's original sunny glory? Color calibration is the answer.

Calibrize has developed a FREE! program to help you calibrate the colors of all your monitors. Don't worry that it's just all too technical and you can't possibly do something like this. No need to get your buddy the nerd or a local 3rd grader to come over and do it for you, Calibrize has made their program easy for everyone to use in just three simple steps. [It runs on any computer using Windows XP or Vista. There is no Mac version available at this time.]

After you calibrate all your computers, you'll want to make sure that your viewers see your images the way they're supposed to look, too. Calibrize has a wee icon you can place on your web pages, on your blog, or in your gallery postings so they can download their own copy and calibrate their monitors!

Disclaimer - I am not affiliated with Calibrize and they are not paying me for this review...after all, their program is free...LOL!

EHD disaster report...

Nada...no data left...6 years of photos gone...thousands of digital graphics gone...and who knows what else...gone...irrecoverable.

The hard drive doctor said:

We are sorry to inform you that your hard drive data is not recoverable. After careful analysis, our clean room engineers reported that they were unable to get a sufficiently clean data stream from the drive to recover any of the drive data because the drive had a combination of physical surface head crashes and significant misalignment of the read/write heads that irreparably corrupted the data surfaces.

Crap.

In the meantime, here's what I am doing to try to recover my peace and sanity:

1. Purchase a new domain name, catriona-macgregor.com, with a web host that will give me 1,500GB of file space on their servers. [Yes - that's 1 1/2 TERAbytes! Woo hoo!] And all for $6.95 per month if I choose a 2 year subscription...no brainer there! Check it out!
   
2. Redesign my existing design portfolio website and upload it to the new site.
3. Develop folders on the site where I will be storing my backup files. (might as well start out somewhat organized!)
4. Send out an e-mail to my friends and family to try to gather photos from shared events. We frequently would make disks to share so at least I'll get some things back so I can scrap them!
5. Go through my saved e-mails for digiscrap purchases and make a list so I can contact the store owners and see if they will be so kind as to let me download them again. I know some kits have been permanently retired but maybe they have a backup...LOL!
6. Resurrect my first two months of Project 365 by copying the [very reduced] images from my blog. Thank goodness I posted them weekly!
7. Develop a weekly schedule for backing up all other internal and external drives.
8. Retrieve my poor dead EHD from the 'morgue' and send it in for a replacement while it's still under warranty.
   

Please, BACK UP YOUR FILES! NOW!

It WILL happen to you...and without warning.

A note about emerging data storage technology...
Solid state drives (SSDs) have been around for a long time but with limited storage capacity and slower speeds than traditional hard drives. However, what IS new is that they are being re-engineered to jump into the laptop and external drive market because...they do not crash! No moving parts! Huzzah!

• StorageSearch.com has a whole bunch of information on their site - go check it out.
• Another company developing SSDs is Crucial. They are making drives that are pretty small...32gb is NOT enough for any digi scrapper's storage needs!

I went to Fry's today, to investigate, but they do not have any SSDs in yet...they're too new! There are two on their website but they're way expensive and Remember, as demand increases, the price will go down and the capacity and speed will go up.

Random Artistic Inspiration

Have you lost your muse...can't seem to get any good ideas? Visit this random word generator designed for artists! The words, randomly generated from a database that visitors can even add to, will inspire tons of new ideas. If the word doesn't inspire you, you can generate another and another until you find one that clicks. You can also choose between different types of words: Actions, Colors, Emotions, Eras, Genres, Objects, People, Qualities, or Styles.

Not sure what a word means or want to find out more about it? Each word can easily be searched by Google or defined by Dictionary.com from a link on the right side of the page.

Try out this great tool brought to you by Valerie C...you'll be inspired again!

Bag, lady?

Digiscrap grab bags - do you love 'em or hate 'em? Grab bags have hit the digi world with a bang and the artists promise they are full of quality items that are well worth more than the small amount they cost. I have even bought a few, myself, from commercial use to those that support charities, and I can honestly answer my own question with...it depends!

I know that's a cop-out, but it does. Just like a grab bag from a gift shop or your favorite second-hand shop, it might be filled with old outdated toys or a diamond ring. Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances (oops, a little pirate language creeping in there! Arrr!).

Recently, it seems to me that a lot of artists in many digi shops are "bagging" up their products every month. Is that a good thing? Frankly, I prefer the exciting, once or twice a year variety. Having them every month takes all the mystique out them.

Tell me what YOU "like" and "dislike" about them.

• Are they just a fad or here to stay?
• How often do you buy them?
• Did you get fabulous gems or stuff you'll never use?
• Will you keep buying them?
• Why or why not?
• Recently, one of my favorite digi-designers asked her readers questions like these and, as a result, is now offering a do-it-yourself grab bag where you can choose what you want (from a select list) to go in it. Would you like to be able to pick and choose or do you like to be surprised?

Have fun with this and be honest!

Slainte! {Gaelic for Cheers!}

The Costume Detective: How to Date Old Photographs

Do you have a box of heritage photos and no way to tell when they were taken? This website can help!

By using costume history, you can date your vintage photos by analyzing the fashions, hats, and jewelry worn by your ancestors. You will also find helpful tips, hints, and examples assist you with dating your photos within +/- 5 years. In many cases, this can help you narrow your search for supporting documents and records which may pinpoint the exact date of the photo.

Visit the Costume Detective to learn more.

[Many thanks to designer Kay Eflin for this tip posted on her blog.]

Got a lot of new purchases from i-NSD? UnzipThemAll!

Did you acquire a lot of zipped files from all the fun on i-NSD? Or do you have a ton (like I did) that you just haven't gotten around to unzipping yet? Isn't it a royal pain to unzip them one-by-one? Oh, aye! Well, here's a nifty little software program designed to do just what it's named: unzip them all. It will unzip .zip, .rar, and .ace files into their own new folders (named the same as the archive's name) in just one click! In addition, this wee program doesn't require that you have any of the archive programs, such as Winzip or Winrar, installed. It's completely independent. What a nice bonus! Here's how easy it is... Start the program. Navigate to the folder your unzipped files are in. The program recognizes the files and highlights them for you. Click the Start button. Watch the progress on the bottom of the box...it's quick! Notes... An error code 6 means the file was corrupted and did not unzip. However, if you look in your folder you will see that the program went ahead and created an empty folder anyway. It will not delete your original file so you will have to do that manually. If you have a password protected archive, you can type the password to extract files. UnzipThemAll is a "donationware" program - that means it's free but it's good karma to donate to the developer. The program is available in both French and in English. Click here to go get it.