Please welcome our Guest Designer BEV ROCHESTER

Welcome Bev and here is her lovely work.

I have used a Sweet Pea stamp – Glam Goth. Isn’t she gorgeous! I made a bit of a boo boo with this card, after it was done I realised the ribbon should have gone over the image, not behind. Just as well as it would have hidden this gorgeous fairy. So, as I had no intention of starting the card over I just ran a piece of chain across the image to under the flower then dangled a charm from there. Phew, problem solved lol

The little blue roses are mini rose cabochons that I painted with a coat of Shimmerz December Sky. The twinkle is so pretty. The cabochons feel like porcelain and the detail on them is amazing. The image has been coloured with Copics – can’t remember which colours I used and I have lost the bit paper that I wrote them down on, sorry. The paper is Onirie Sweetness of Living.


If you want to see more of Bevs work pop over to her blog www.bevscrafts.blogspot.com

3 more paper ranges by ONIRIE

Here are the three "NEW" ONIRIE paper ranges that have just arrived. Wonder what the design team are going to make with them.
Talking of Design Team we have a Guest Designer for the month of February and she it starting tomorrow , so remember to pop back.
SPRING


MATROYASHKA


FARAWAY COUNTRY

Julie: 3 blog posts for the price of 1!

Hi there. How're you today?

I think I've actually seen the sun twice since we last met, so I can't complain really can I? Better still, I've taken delivery of some of the brand new Onirie papers Jean has begun to stock ... and that's made me very happy indeed!

I've changed my mind at least three times about what to share with you today ... so have decided to share bits of all three things rather than make a proper decision! Starting with some of those papers ...

Jean is currently stocking 4 different ranges of 12x12 papers from the French [hard-to-buy in the UK] brand Onirie .

3 out of the 4 ranges are double-sided and I personally have wored with 3 out of those 4 ranges! So I'm well placed to vouch for lots of wonderful sides of patterned paper there!

The lovely gridded backgrounds to both these layouts are from the 'Projet Toto' range: And while I think this next design has sold out already, there are still others in the range which feature those 'cute-in-a-good-way' sketchy, doodled characters:
I still have some of the range left including this amazingly atmospheric one [called 'Smearing']
Which is so striking you could almost just throw it into a frame and hang it as is! The other ranges are equally as stunning ... but are all quite different. Do go over and check them all out, if you're tired of the same-old-same-old ranges than Onirie might just be what you need to make you fall back in love with paper.

[Clearly that last line was just a joke ... I mean .. when did you ever fall out of love with paper??? I don't think such a thing it's possible ... is it?]. ;-)

Right then, let's move on to 'thing I wanted to share No.2'. The new ranges of Queen & Co. embellishments in stock now:

That perfect little Self Adhesive Gem in 'Snowflake' is seriously one of my favourite items right now! I'd love a pair of earrings like that, in fact ... oooh maybe I could actually turn them into earrings .... I'll make sure to let you know if I do!

Anyway ... I've blogged more images of the cards I've made, which feature the gems, over on my blog today here. While you're there you can have a look at the free class I'm holding there for the next few weeks - which is all about how to use Twittter - and you're most welcome to join in!

I've made a vintage-style title images for each of the lessons throughout the 3 week course and all of the bird images I used came from the 3DJean 'Vintage Labels' Image CD which is in stock now: I've been teaching myself how to use a free image editing software called GIMP which is how I managed to take the original images from the CD and adapt them to give my class a very specific bird-themed look and feel! So don't just think you have to print out the images form your Image CDs - they may have a purely digital use which you'd not thought of.

[But don't forget my 'printing from Image CDs tutorial' if you actually DO want to print out!].

OK then, that's enough from me for one day ... you've got new stash to browse and a Twitter class to contemplate joining in with!

I'll see you around.

Julie

New Papers

Four "NEW" sets of papers arrived this week from ONIRIE and I just had to have a play with them. I chose the OPERA set to make a little book to hold ATC's.

Here is a little book I made with the papers , it's so easy to make from a double sided 12x12 paper, so this new paper was just the thing. Then to go in it I made some Bird themed ATC's.

It's a while since Ive made ATC'S so was a nice change.The colour of them was also a change for me PINK , those that know me know im really not a pink girl part from my hair colour lol. The crowns I used are the Dusty Attic one's we sell just painted pink to match. So cute

Love token

Need to make a little something for Valentines Day? How about Ryla from Sweet Pea.

Simply stamped,coloured and mounted onto a chipboard heart which has been sprayed with Shimmerz.

And edged with the fabulous glass glitter.

Real cute!
Effie

XXX

Jan:Pretty Lady

y

Isn't she gorgeous?

She is one of the new Sweet Pea stamps that Jean has got in for you to play with. I have coloured her dress with Distress Inks to tone in with the background paper.

She's definitely going to be one of my favourites will she be yours?

Julie: Tutorial - Printing from Image CDs

Hi there, how's things with you 4 days into a brand new year?

For my first post of 2011 I've created a tutorial to share, step-by-step, how to efficiently print out some of the images from one of several Image CDs Jean has in stock.

Plus, it's as much a tutorial on how to use Picasa - a free photo-editing software - to print out a sheet of A4 paper completely filled with images so you don't waste any paper. The techniques I show in the photo tutorial below are exactly the same as those I use when printing out my photographs for scrapping too.

With the 'Vintage Labels' CD I organised my kitchen storage jars:

And here's how ...

Using Picasa to print your own labels

If you don't already have Picasa you can download it for free from Google here and the put your Image CD into your computer.

You can copy all of the images on the CD onto your computer if you wish, but if you don't want it taking up space on your hard-drive then:

• when asked by your computer what you want to do when you insert the CD, select 'Open folder to view files'.

To be able to see them properly go to 'Views' and select 'Extra Large Icons':

Next create a new folder [by going to 'Organize' > 'New Folder'] where you will store all of the images you want to use.

• Now drag the picture from the CD over into the new folder. This does not remove it from the CD - it just makes a copy:

When you've copied over as many images as you want to print out open up the Picasa programme and search for the new folder with the copied images inside:

You now need to select all of these images before going on to arranging them ready for printing. The quickest way I know to 'Select All' is:

• Click on or near any image in the folder;
• Hold down the 'Ctrl' button on your keyboard and then press the 'A' key.
• The selected images will have a blue border around them:

Now you need to create a page from those images by clicking the 'Collage' button at the bottom of the page:

At this stage your images will need some re-arranging before printing:

In this new page select A4 from the 'Page Format' box on the left - as this is what you will be printing out onto later:

Next, click the arrow at the top of the page - just beneath the 'Settings' tab.

• It is possible to sometimes work with the 'Mosaic' and 'Grid' setting but ...
• For finer control of your images and their sizes - I usually opt for 'Picture Pile':

Make sure to untick the 'Draw Shadows' box before moving on.

Each of your images on the page now has its own wheel to control its individual size and position on the page:

You can rotate, make larger or smaller and grab and move about. This part might take some time but it's worth it as you get to choose the size of each separate image - plus it makes full use of your paper!

After a few minutes tweaking and shuffling here's my finished page:

When you're happy with your finished arrangement - click the 'Create Collage' button at the bottom of the screen:

It automatically saves to a folder called 'Collages' - which the Picasa programme creates on your computer [I always end up moving it somewhere else if I'm going to keep the collage for future use, but there's no real need to].

Picasa will prompt you when the collage-making process is complete - and you can click to view it. If you want to print out your page then and there click the print icon at the bottom [or go to 'File' > 'Print'].

• In the 'Print Layout' pane select 'Full Page':

The rest of the default settings are usually fine - so now simply press print at the bottom right of the screen.

I printed my full page of Vintage Labels directly on to self-adhesive photo paper so I could make easy storage jar labels:

They could also be used as journaling blocks, on cards, envelopes, gifts ... etc etc.

And ... considering that I only printed out a handful of the 2800 labels on the 'Vintage Labels' CD I have ... the possibilities are [almost] endless!!!

If you aren't already familiar with them, check out Jean's selection of the Image CDs [priced £3.50] here.

I really hope my tutorial today has helped those of you looking for a way to print out a full page of images. I'd lov eto hear from you after you've given it a go! Just give me a shout either here on on my own blog.

I'll be back later this month, you have fun printing with Picasa!

Julie