Monday, October 15, 2012

Giveaway for New Downloads and Linky Winner!

Hi Everyone,

I want to say Congratulations to # 20 Kristine Anderson who was the Random.org $50.00 Gift Certificate Winner in our Linky Party! I'm also doing a Giveaway for our new Thanksgiving Kit and Poppy Set and will announce a winner Wed, Oct 17/12. Just leave a comment and tell me what you think of them?

Kristine entered this cute card she made using our Halloween Stickers with Tim Holtz's House Die. You also have to see the cute witch card she entered as well. Big Thanks to everyone who entered! You have each won a small 3" and a large 16 x 20" cotton blank Bag (see Vicki's post here with bags) or this Cat and Dog small Digital Art Stamp set. There were 26 entries and so many great samples you have to go see if you missed them!

We already had Thanksgiving here in Canada last week (I wish it wasn't so early) but when our the Stamp Set sold out I couldn't resist incorporating it into a Thanksgiving Downloadable Kit and it's ready now in our Etsy Store for $10.99 and it will be in our new website store this week sometime!

We added some new digital stamps to this set you can see above on the right side as well as 10 pretty papers and some great images. I love the children in the field!
The download Kit includes 33 separate PNG Digital Art Stamp files you can overlay or simply print on any medium. Plus – you get 10 different Fall theme Printable Papers and 5 color ephemera files with with 2 postcards, 6 table place cards, 2 menu cards, frame and paper lace blank card.

You can see on this beautiful 12 x 12" layout that Vicki Chrisman created how big the Thanksgiving Day title can be, so you can fit it across a scrapbook page or shrink it for a card. Vicki used 2 of the papers, added the black Oak Leaf Frame, the wheat stamp, basket card, sentiment and cut a couple of the flowers to add as floral 'buttons'.

Plus - these 2 pages inspiring Sample Pages are included with ideas and more are in the works and will be added to our Thanksgiving Pintrest Board. ! You can dress up Fall and Thanksgiving table decor such as menus and place cards, create invitations, greeting cards and scrapbook pages!

Vicki has some cute Halloween ideas here and will be posting some of these projects on her blog this week as well as who Melissa Bovewill be joining our new Design Team! There will be a couple of other ladies joining as well but I don't want to spill the beans on all our surprises

Check out this Fun Paper Pumpkin Tutorial by Melissa Bove made using the kit!

The samples on the page below were created using the actual Thanksgiving Stamp Set but now that it's sold out the great part about Digital Art Stamps is the designs are re-sizable and will be larger than the stamp sets were . Watch for tutorials coming soon if you are new to Digital Stamping but here are some Tips on Best Free Software that will help you do amazing things with Digital Stamps!

Our new Poppies Digital Art Stamp Set is ready. Our Poppy Stamp Set has sold out and our new Digital Art Download Stamp Set is bigger and better with 13 large re-sizable designs! The original set had the 5 stamps shown on the framed packaging card and 4 new etchings of poppies have been added as well as 4 words/sentiments taken from old antique books. The bouquet of poppies is now 6.6 x 8.4" full size, the word 'Precious' is 5.5"W, the dragon fly is 2.5 x 3", the new poppies are 3 x 4.5" and the poppy heads are 2 to 3" each. The lettering on the 4 new sentiments: Praying For You is 4 x 8", Remember is 4 x 7" , Poppies and 'Popping by to say hi' are 6 x 2".

The larger, re-sizable designs will allow you to shrink them tiny to fit on tags and pendants, medium for card making or jumbo for pillows, scrapbook layouts and large projects. The download comes with a Sample Sheet (shown in 2 parts) and there will be a Poppy Digital Art Stamp Board created on our Pintrest Boards and displayed on our Blog.

Of Course, all Digital Sets have Free Shipping for extra savings!

SOLD OUT CLEAR ART STAMP SETS: LARGE SETS: Vintage Christmas, Halloween Labels, Mustache Men, Antique Trims, Party Cats, Thanksgiving, MEDIUM SOLD OUT: Seaside, Poppy, Grand Greetings, Fairy Wishes, SMALL SETS: Material Girl , Keys to Life.
These sets will be available soon as digital downloads, as well as Paper Pads and some Cotton Scraps. I will show some of the new T-Shirt Designs this week as well

Here are the prices for our Digital Art Stamp Sets unless they are a kit with paper and color images. .
Large Sets $8.99,
Medium Sets $5.99
Small Sets for $3.99

My Embarrassing Day: Have you ever pushed a button you were NOT supposed to push, or done something that was totally opposite of what you planned? I was trying to finish this post and at the same time trying to login to a bank service I use to give a friend some exchange rates. I accidentally I hit the ACCEPT button instead of REJECT for a test I was trying. I was looking right at right button and my hand automatically went to the wrong one! $#@^*%;*?!! I paid for it - 3 hours later of phone hell (wow, security is crazy now). Then my html got messed up on this post. I’ve decided I need to sign up for yoga or stress reduction!

Don't forget to enter our Giveaway for for both the Thanksgiving Kit and Poppy Set leave a comment and let us know what you think of the new downloads?

Wishing you joy and creativity

Sandy Redburn

Owner

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Monday, October 8, 2012

Welcome to Our October Linky Party and Some Fun Halloween Samples!

Hi Everyone,

Today is the first day of our October Linky Party which will run all week. I hope you will dig out your Crafty Secrets supplies and create something or find a past favorite sample you want to share and post it here this week!

Everyone who enters our Halloween Linky Party this week will get to choose between a small digital stamp or a small 3.5" and a large 16 x 20" cotton bag from State Line. Except, sorry overseas entries have to get the digi stamp due expensive postage. Here is the digi stamp - but it will be much bigger and high resolution and it needs a sentiment. Any ideas??

A random.org Winner will be drawn and announced next Monday for a $50.00 Gift Certificate. Don't be shy! To enter, scroll down to the end of this post and click on the thumbnail that says 'your next' and add a photo and link to a blog or online gallery you use so everyone can see your project. It's helpful to others if you can list what Crafty Secrets product you used a supply list.

I have some fun Halloween samples to share today as well.

I created my sample above using PSE - Photoshop Elements and our new CD #4 Creating With Vintage Halloween. See my List of Best Free Software Picks for our CD's if you want to try doing layers and don't own PSE. I picked a green paper and added some images from the PNG Folder with the 3 witches, the top border, a few spiders and the pumpkin. After I opened the paper with PSE , under 'File' tab I clicked Place and got the images 1 by 1, hen you can size and move them around. I added the lines for the spiders using Paint.net (cause I haven't figured out how to in PSE yet).

I own a 12 x 12" Canon printer (see link on right side of this blog) but if you have a 8.5 x 11" format you can crop an image or shrink it down. I shrunk mine to 3.5" and pasted it in PSE on orange sheet music paper from CD and printed a strip on paper to make a candle wrap.

Here's a cute Halloween card Cammi made with our CD

Below are past Halloween samples I found in my files and all of our Image Booklets, Stickers, Cuts, Stamp Sets, etc are on SALE!

Halloween cards by Heidi Blankenship using our Halloween Image Booklet

Card by Pam Hooten using SM20 Halloween Stamp set

Treat tins by Vicki Chrisman using Halloween Stickers

Tree by Jan Hennings published in Stampington magazine using Halloween Stickers

Wooden Spoon Halloween Mini Album by Michele Kovack

Decoration by Julie Campbell

Cool cards Rebekah created with our Halloween Download Mega Kit (same files as the CD).

I've started some Halloween Folders on Pintrest you can check out

If you are looking for more ideas here are links to a bunch more fun Halloween samples! and more here, and here

Here is Where You Can Enter Our Linky Party. Don't be shy we would love to see what you have created!

Sandy Redburn

Owner

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Best Free Digital Software Downloads, Quality Low Cost Ink, Tutorials and Ideas!

Hi, this is a big post with beginner tips and helpful links for using our Digital CD's and Downloads, the best free digital software downloads and low cost ink!

Many people tell us they love the idea of being able to use and print vintage images and paper designs but they have never used digital image CD's or digital downloads. This post provides the answers to the most common concerns we hear:

- Where do I start and do I need to buy expensive software?

- Where can I buy good quality, low cost ink?

- What can I print on and what can I create?

- Where can I find tutorials showing me new techniques and inspiring ideas?

You don’t need to be a computer whiz to use our Creating With Vintage CD’s. If you can print a jpg and a png file you can use our CD’s to print papers and images to create with but many more creative options are possible if you use some image editing software. You can layer PNG files like our lace over a piece of paper and add a photo, frame and cool digital embellishments! Our first 6 CD's includes a step by step tutorial by Patty Debowski thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com showing how she creates this layered layout below using CD#1Patterns with Photoshop Elements but you can do the same thing with many of the program links listed below or try PSE free for 30 days with the Adobe.

You don’t need to run out and buy expensive software. I’ve listed the most popular FREE programs below and each has various tools to help you crop, color, re-size, rotate, add text, artistic filters and layer images, designs and photos. They also have a history button so you can quickly undo your last action if you don’t like the result. If you are a newbie, look on each company’s site for FAQ or tutorials.

If you just wish to re-size and crop images, check your computer to see if you already have a built in program you can use such as Paint, Microsoft Office Picture Manager, Windows Photo Gallery and often printers come with photo/image editing programs.

Links to the Most Popular FREE Image Editing and Viewing Programs

www.gimp.org for Windows or Mac, will do layers and many similar features as Photoshop.

www.getpaint.net image editing, creative tools, it supports layers and is easy to navigate

pixlr.com image editing, creative tools and it supports layers.

www.photoscape.org variety of tools, slideshows, animations, combines and splits images.

PhotoFiltre 7 creative tools, layers and impressive photomask tool. For personal use only.

www.faststone.org image browser, viewer, converter and editor but no image layering.

www.picasa.google.com   Picassa from Google offers some fun tools but no image layering.

www.adobe.com    Adobe offers a free 30 day trial for Adobe Photoshop Elements and for Adobe Premiere Elements. Both are for the fully functional programs and offer a perfect way to see if you like the software.

If you pay too much for INK try quality compatible ink made for your printer from www.inkfarm or www.inkgrabber.com We buy all our ink from these two companies and use it for all our proofs and samples and have saved a bundle a money!

*** UPDATE - I'm back to add this great news - Matt from Ink Farm just offered all Crafty Secrets Customers 15% off and Free S&H Forever! Just use code: craftyink

What Can You Print On? Paper, cardstock, canvas, fabric, label sheets, tissue and other mediums to create cards, invitations, ATC cards, album and journal covers, scrapbook layouts, decoupage sheets, decorative labels for bottles, boxes, candles, coasters and tins. Iron-on T-shirts, pillows, aprons, wall art and more! Here’s a label I printed on opaque label paper using our Free Mothers Day Printable BoxTemplate.

You can use transfer techniques or print on decal paper to decorate dishes, glassware, furniture, soap and other items. You can decoupage paper and images to transform and recycle all most any ugly surface! Read Vicki’s tips on how she re-did these old drawers and bottles using CD #3 Typography .

IMPORTANT TIP!
When using liquid mediums such as Mod Podge or acrylic gels for image transfer and decoupage projects keep in mind that ink from ink jet printers may bleed if you don’t seal the surface you have printed on. Krylon Matt Spray Sealer is our fave brand to seal a printed surface for decoupage. Wait until the ink dries on your printed surface and apply a light coat of Krylon Spray. When dry, give it a second coat of spray and repeat to seal it more if you like. When the surface is completely dry you can use a liquid medium to glue and decoupage images to all sorts of surfaces! Major craft and home improvement stores sell Krylon sprays. Note: Laser printers use waterproof ink.

Iron-on Transfer Paper is available at many office and craft stores and online. Just follow manufactures directions and remember to reverse the image if it has text on it or your text will come out backwards. Click link to see apron and pillow by DT leader Vicki Chrisman used iron-on transfer paper

You can print on fabric to embellish aprons, gift bags, tote bags, onesies, T-shirts, sweatshirts, napkins, pot holders, tea towels, quilt squares, pillows, wall art and more! Look at these cute fabric ornament sachets Tammy Roberts made with CD #2.

You can print on fabric with Freezer Paper! Freezer paper usually comes on rolls and is waxy on 1 side. Iron the waxy side to a large or small piece of light colored fabric so the wax melts enough to stick. Cut fabric into to 8.5 x 11" or best size to fit your printer and the freezer paper will make the fabric stiff enough to feed through. After printing, simply peel the freezer paper off and you will have a printed fabric design ready for a project! Note: Don't use wax paper as it's waxy on both sides. Yep, inkjet printed fabric won't be washable, but it's so inexpensive and great for many decorative projects such as gift bags, pincushions, pillows and more!

Here's my Decoupage Dress Form Tutorial using a white plastic form with 2 sewing papers from CD #3. Later I printed assorted designs from the CD onto cheap cotton fabric ironed to Freezer Paper to make a fabric skirt that ties on.

See Inspiring Ideas and Samples on Our Pintrest Boards to see inspiring samples for all of our CD's, digital downloads as well as our original Clear Art Stamp Sets, printed image Booklets, Creative Scraps and other pre-printed products.

Tutorials and Videos See over 60 tutorials and tips with digital as well as traditional stamping and crafting techniques.

CD 7 Sew Decorative - Check out our latest CD, Sew Decorative which includes an 8 pg Tutorial by Designer Sheila Rumney showing step by step beginner digital techniques.

You can visit our online store at www.craftyvintagegirl.com! The new site automatically provide links when anyone purchases digital items and creates a packing slip for any items to ship. Plus the shipping is lower on small orders, there is a Wish List and each month we have a FREE Digital Stamp or printable with orders (1 per month). Here a FAQ page on shipping etc.

Our old Shopatron Store doesn't offer digital downloads or have an international shopping and eventually when we get all the customers moved over we will close the store because it's so limiting.

Come Join Our Linky Party and Design Team Challenge the first Monday each month. The party lasts for a week during which you can post samples you have made as well as see what our Design Team ladies have created. There are random.org winners and loads on inspiring ideas!

I also have to brag a little as I'm so proud of our oldest daughter Katie who is a Story Producer on the Bachelor Canada Show and was in charge of planning many of the dates and finding exciting and romantic locations and activities. It's a bit of a standing joke that Canadian TV Shows have a tighter budget than TV Shows filmed in the USA. In fact we heard some radio announcers joking that they might go to Subway for a date. Ha-ha - thanks to Katie and her co-producer the dates appear to include international destinations like Paris! It's so exciting because she has sworn not to divulge any details and her 2 sisters and I have wondered for months what was happening??? You can watch the first episode online here but I better warn you there is some W-itchy potty mouth by a few ladies.

Katie is 30 and has been with her boyfriend Ryan since grade 12. They are still so romantic it inspires me. She's been a vegetarian since she was 14 and last weekend she helped host a big birthday dinner for 20+ people and cooked his favorite meal, meat - now that is love!

So, where did all that time go? In this photo below our girls are holding their twin nephews who are in university now and it's hard to believe how grown up everyone is!

Hey, don't forget about our Linky Party this Monday, Oct 8/12. If you are busy it runs for a week and I will post details on choosing 2 muslin bags or a digital gift for every entry.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians and Happy Columbus Day to those in the USA!

Hugs

Sandy Redburn

Owner