Freebie, Links & Vintage Design

One of the things I love is surfing the design and resources sites on the web.  I have done quite a bit in the past few days, checking to see what is new.  One thing I found is Flick'rs new "photo page" design.  It is really an improvement over their old one.  In the past, if you wanted to download an image, you had to click on the image, then, the sizes, then, pick a size, then, download it, then, find your way back to the next image you want.  It took forever!  Well, today, I was at Flick'r to download the newest textures from "Lost and Taken".  If you haven't had the pleasure of Caleb Kimbrough's  wonderful textures, you really must.  In addition to this website, where the downloads are all zipped up for you, Caleb also does texture freebies for several other websites, such as "BittBox's Free Texture Tuesday."  For these, you must click on the images to go to the source, which is Caleb's images at Flick'r.  You can see all the nice textures this guy has done!  Wow!  

It was whilst downloading that I stumbled across the "photo page" feature.  Though it was nicer than before, one still had to do some maneuvering about to get to the correct-sized download.  Then, while hovering over one of the images, my cursor turned into a magnifying glass.  I right-clicked over the image to see what was up.  This message popped up:

If you click on the size you wish, it takes you straight to the download image!  When done, all you have to do is scroll on to your next image to download another!  So much easier and quicker than before! Be sure you let the page completely load before you right-click.  You'll get the usual right-click menu otherwise.  I had to try a time or two, but, it was worth it.

I am almost positive this feature is pointed out in the 'tour' for this new "photo page" feature.  LOL  But, I only do those when I can't figure something out.  You, too?  LOL  I just love finding anything that will make my time more my own.

So, I'm thinking if you are reading this, you are in to scrapbooking or some aspect of design and/or digital art.  My writing sure isn't Pulitzer material.  LOL  So, if you are into the current trend of designs, you can't help but notice all the vintage goodies that are the trend and are readily available all over scrapbookland and all the other design platforms, including web design.  With the extra-added bonus of "recycling" old images, anything Victorian is prize material.  Old stuff looks used and worn, so, grunge naturally goes along with it, which allowed more artistic freedom from 'paint-by-numbers' designs.  The world around us is not spit-spot, so, why should design be?  Another factor with old images is the copyright issues are expired.  Images from this period had what came down to a '70 years after the death of the writer/artist' copyright term, which, for many, has expired.  (See this PDF Document if you wish to know more about copyright laws.  Thanks to PublicDomainClip-Art for the link)  What this all amounts to is a more casual style of design, which is more comfortable to the masses.  This old, grungy style not only allows for, but, is great for hiding a multitude of sins, literally and in designing.  I think that there is just something so classically deviant as Victorian design, with all its decadent excess, under the guise of proper ladies and gents.  'Tis not hard to fantasize about spending leisurely afternoons, sipping tea in the conservatory, whilst flirting with one's suitor, a handsome gent, with a twinkle in his eye.  LOL  Oh, listen to me.  You do it, too!  It's like taking a mini-vacation, eh?

Anyway, my point in reminiscing about the good ol' days is that I have some new links for you to resources, many of them vintage.  These, I have already added to my "Resources" page; link is at top of page:

PublicDomainClip-Art

VintageVectors

AlteredBits

VintagePrintable

Reusable Art

Additionally, I found the following and will add them soon:

Clear-Cut Stock @ DeviantArt

A vintage/retro stock resource group

Please mind each artists TOU's

ARTEFACTS

Keep Designing

This last one is a 'sister' site to Vintage Vectors.  So, you know they will have some great stuff and it lends itself to vintage quite often.  Check it out!

Since I mentioned 'vectors', ya'll do know that you can open and use vector images in Photoshop, don't you?  I didn't for a long time.  I would be so disappointed that some of the goodies I found were EPS or Illustrator.10.  I wouldn't download them.  Then, I accidentally tried to open an EPS document and got the pop-up window that comes up.  PS wants to rasterize the image before it can work with it.  Anyway, on a lark I clicked 'okay' and a second or two later, I had the image, pretty as you please, in my PS workspace.  That really opened up a lot more possibilities for me.

With all this about vintage stuff, I had to get something together for a freebie.  I have thrown together a little 'collage sheet' for you.  I've been cleaning out my files and discovered some old, old challenge material.  These were in it, so, I set them all on one sheet for you to download.  I don't recall where I found the 'arms', but, I will certainly cooperate with your terms if they are yours.  Just leave me a message.  Click on the image to enlarge it, then, right click and copy to your disk.

There is more stuff for me to get rid of, so, I'll return soon.  This file, above, was an astounding 486mgs when I found it today.  By changing it to a .png file, I was able to delete nearly half a gig off my hard drive!  That feels good and I have goodies to give.  LOL  A real win-win situation.

Please, take a look at the slideshow at the top of the page.  I will be back tomorrow with some news about the marvelous design team at Magickal Scraps.

'Til next time,

smile,

damnit!

LOL

Hugs,

Su

Freebie, My Art, Inpaint, Links & the Usual Prattle

My goodness!  It seems like forever since I posted last.  Over a month!  Sheesh!  I finally finished the online course that was consuming so much of my time.  At the same time, it has been a battle with the depression.  Once I reclaimed my 'space', it got better for me.  I have spent the last week, or two, designing up a storm.  I missed playing on Photoshop!  I had several things to work on for Magickal Scraps and I wanted to do a challenge at my Digital Whisper group.  So, I have been busy!  The difference, now, is that the stuff I do is for me!  I have my grandson with me this summer, too.  This is his first summer that he didn't go to daycare.  He's going to turn eight(8) next month.  The boy is eating me out of house and home!  He must be going through a 'growth spurt'!  He had a full breakfast, which included grits and bacon, plus two pb&j sandwiches, all for lunch today!

I joined in with the designers on July's Daily Download at Magickal Scraps.  Unless something changes, I will be working on all of the monthly kits for the DD.   I really enjoy it and have a lot of fun with it and the ladies who all collaborate on it.  Some of the color palettes and themes are too cool, too!  Check out the slide show above.  That is July's DD.  To get any or all of the past DD's, just go to MS Forum, to the Daily Download section.  The links are left up for a while, so, you should be able to get what you want.  Also, the ladies all have little goodies they give away on their blogs.  Snowy, Edna, Kyra and Nana all have their own blogs.  I linked each one for you.  Check them out!

A lot of my time is spent working on the challenges from both, Magickal Scraps and Digital Whisper.  Snowy and a couple of the ladies post challenges for us, like, the Colour Challenge, Template, Brush, and Quote Challenges.  But, then, there are the Story Challenge and the Photo Challenge.  The Story Challenge has us writing our own story in a layout each month.  It is supposed to be a 'highlight' of our year, month by month.  The Photo Challenge varies, but, this month we are taking any photo we have taken, such as a flower, and extracting it to make elements.  The challenges give you a lesson while working on it, as a rule.  I learn something every time!

With the Digital Whisper group's challenges, Kimmie posts a new image every Sunday.  I have really been inspired by some of them.  (DW is an invite only group, but, if anyone would like to give them a try, e-mail me and I will happily send an invite to you.)  Here is a recent one I worked with.  We started out with the image of the bridge.  This is where I went with it:

(click to view larger image)

This next piece was for the challenge during the week of the 4th of July, so, "Freedom" was quite an appropriate title for this one.  Right away, after seeing the image of the cage Kimmie gave us, I thought of that song from years ago, "White Bird", by The Joy of Cooking.  Here's a YouTube video of that song.



Here is the original image by Asif Akbar of India and the extracted cage.

I extracted the cage so I could alter the door on it.

I thought the cage was the perfect image for 'freedom'.  I used masking and the clone tool to change the cage door from being closed to being open.  It was good experience for me.  The challenges are fantastic!  And, here is that piece that I did:

The text says, "White Bird Must Fly or She Will Die", a verse from that song.  I'm not real sure about the song's meaning, but, hey, I think it goes without saying that we have to live life and experience all it has to offer us - good or bad.

I love doing these kind of images!  I devote my DeviantArt account for my art, more or less.  I place all this sort of stuff in there.  There isn't a whole lot of art that I haven't shown here, in there, but, it is growing.  One day, I might prepare a portfolio.  LOL  I've also made a few 'resources' for download, there.  They are all free terms.

I'm excited to share something that I found.  Photoshop has recently come out with CS5.  The major new addition to their vast array of PS tools is "Content Aware".  Ya'll probably know what that is, but, just in case, it is a feature that let's you remove a part of an image and fill in its place with the surrounding background.  It's pretty awesome!  You can see a short video on this particular feature when you click the link, above.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but, I don't have that much money to spring for the new version, CS5.  As much as I would adore having it, I must be sensible.  I must!  I must!  LOL  So, I had resigned myself to the fact that my 'clone tool' was going to have to do the job, if and when, I need to remove an object from an image.  Which, actually, is more often than I realized.   Well!  Let me tell you!  Just the other day, I stumbled upon a peachy little program that performs a function with results much as the new Photoshop's tool has.

Inpaint is a program that will remove an object from an image.  Plain and simple.
 Doesn't that sound cool?!  I tried it myself and it really did the trick.  I used an image of a Monte Verde Toad, from P D Images.com.  Below, I show the before shot and the final image.  Not too shabby!  What impressed me most of all were the reviews I read on it at Giveaway of the Day.com.  From several comments it appeared the program went over very well.  Many said it was quicker than Adobe's newest feature.  Though the program is no longer available for free at the Giveaway of the Day website, you can still download it for free at the Teorex.com site.  Here are my results:

BEFORE INPAINT

AFTER INPAINT

Visual by www.PDImages.com

What this little jewel does is it recognize the pixels bordering an area you mark off with a 'selection tool'.  Then, all you do is click 'Run' and watch it go!  It will remove the pixels you want out and replace them by matching similar pixels from that surrounding area you marked off.  In the image of the frog, above, his foot touches the edge of the image.  That may be why that corner of the 'after' image is a little discolored.  It still looks quite natural.  I experimented with several images and this one turned out good.  Another image that I tried was of a solid blue sky with the tower Big Ben over to one side.  It didn't fill in with the blue quite as it I had hoped.  It got darker down near the bottom.  I realize, however, that the tower touched the bottom edge of the image.  There were no pixels, or very few, for the program to 'copy'.  That, and the fact that, in the sky, there were numerous color variations.  So, in my humble opinion, I should try to use this tool away from the very edge of images from here on out.

I'm sure you can imagine how sweet it would be to have this tool.  You could remove your ex from all those great shots of you.  Or, perhaps, take an unsightly sign, or some trash, for example, from an otherwise great shot.  Um, I guess that is all the same thing as removing one's ex.  ROFL!!!!  You could remove about anything from an image.  Inpaint is a free program, however, in order to register it and be able to save your images, there is a fee.  It is very reasonable, though, particularly when you consider your options.  There are a couple of license options for you to choose from, personal and business.  Both are very reasonably priced!  Finally, I might add, there is also a way for you to get it for free which is not bad, at all.  I'll let you find that out for yourselves at Teorex.com.  LOL

I'd like to take a minute to mention the "Giveaway of the Day" website.  If you sign up for daily e-mails, you get daily featured product offers which are always free for that day only - 24 hours.  They offer some awesome programs, with honest reviews, plus reader comments, to help you decide if you want it or not.  The folks posting there are brutally honest.  They give it a whirl and give their feedback.  But, isn't that what we want?  I've gotten quite a few really nice 'must have' programs for free.  I should let you know that the programs, though free, come with no support.  It is but a small concession for all I have received.  Inpaint was one of them.

Last, but, not least, I have some things for you all.  One of my efforts to 'streamline' things is to get my files in better order.  I have an almost full external hard-drive that really should be weeded out.  With one program, WinOptimizer6, I removed over 6gigs of junk the first time I ran it!  "6" gigs!  (click link if you would like to try this wonderful 'optimizing tool'.  It's FREE!)  So, I have been doing some each day, condensing, deleting, archiving old stuff, etc, and I found some goodies you might like.  Do have fun and enjoy yourself!  As usual, click on the image to go to 4Shared for download.

They would be good for collages, ATC's, scrapbooking, or whatever! 

Next are some simple, but colorful, old wooden doors.  I originally used the door image for "grunge" practice.  I included the 'greyscale', too.

Both of these are CU and completely free to do what ever your little heart desires.  TOU's are included in file.  Thank you for being so good to, and for me!

I guess that is it.  I do want to remind you that I have updated the "Resources" page.  Click on it at the page menu at the top of the page.  There are more 'vintage' links.  Until next time, which shouldn't be as long, I bid all adieu.  NO MORE ONLINE COLLEGE COURSES FOR ME!

Generously give out smiles.  They're always free and can be returned.

Hugs,

Su

It's MY House, Freebie & New DD

And, so, another holiday weekend is in the books.  Memorial Day is today.  Everyone had a nice, long weekend.  The family all went camping at the springs.  It was quiet.  It will be quiet a lot more with Sarah and the children moving.  Sarah is buying a place from a friend of hers.  I'm happy for her.  I will miss the babies being here so much.  I love the little guys!

This will be the first time I've been on my own in forever!  I've always had somebody living here.  At times, I've had too many people staying here.  I've tried to help out a few friends through the years.  Now, it's all mine.  It is odd.  I've become quite defensive of it lately.  It's like, okay, I'm alone.  Leave me be!  I have found myself wishing people would leave or not stop by.  Is that bad?

This whole thing with Sarah moving has actually been quite hard for me.  I have spent many an hour stressing and worrying over it.  Will they have enough?  Can Sarah do it?  How will the children be?  I dunno.  I just worry.  I know her situation.  But, with all my concern, now that it has come about and she has moved, I want the place to myself!

I have two other bedrooms to decide what to do with.  I don't exactly need a den.  I could use a place for my paints and paper and other crafting stuff.  I'm debating as to whether to move my computer into this room.  The other room will still have the grandchildren's beds.  Sarah bought them new beds for the new house.  That way, the grandchildren can sleep there when they stay over at Granny's.  LOL

 

Be sure you check out the slideshow at the top of page.  It's the new FREE Daily Download from Magickal Scraps.  This month's collaboration is called "My Summer Garden".  Be sure to collect the whole kit by visiting each day for the pieces.

Last, but, not the least, I have made a little kit for the Color Challenge over at Magickal Scraps forum.  It's called "Vino" and the preview is below.  I made some pretty brocade papers and some with grape patterns.  Have fun!

 

(Click on image to go to 4Shared for download.)

With that, I bid you adieu until next time.  Don't forget to 

 

Smile!

Su

Freebie, DD, ICE & a S l o w PC

This week has been one hell of a week!  My pc has been acting up.  Talk about s l o w !  I went in and removed some stuff I didn't use or need and tweeked things a bit.  I ran the registry cleaner and actually sped it up some.  LOL  I have the fast internet, at least, that is what I am paying for.  There have been a lot of storms and lots of outages in the past few weeks, so, maybe that is a part of it.  I got a little panicky earlier when I had to re-boot, after almost every piece of e-mail I read.  That sucked.

On the home front, everyone seems to be just a tad out of sorts.  The two little ones have been teary-eyed alot, especially Jaela, the drama queen.  She figured out that her high-pitched, obnoxious scream bugs the hell out of everyone.  Sometimes, she is hoarse afterwards.  I guess they have been giving in to her when she does it because it actually hurts your ears.  I am putting the skids on that.  Nicky started to give in to her the other day when she shrieked for her way.  I stopped him.  He said he didn't want to hear her scream.  That was the point, I told him.  She knows you are going to give in to her if she does that.  So, we're toughing it out.  We've had a few sessions that didn't ever seem they would end, but, overall, I think she is getting the point.  Her scream sessions are shorter.

Nicky has been ornery.  (Maybe it is from hearing Jaela scream.  LOL)  I think it is that time of the year when school kids don't think the last few weeks of school will ever pass.  Summer break is almost upon us.  They have already been going to the beach and the springs, plus, we have the pool.  They are ready for some time off! 

I kept Kaleb one morning so my DIL could do the shopping.  He is such a good little guy.  He loves to sit and listen to you talk.  His mommy and I were talking about stuff when she dropped him off.  He was in his seat on the sofa.  I looked down at him and he was just a smilin' at his mom.  She wasn't even looking at him, yet, he was tickled to pieces, watching her!  I took a couple of photos with my daughter's camera, but, I can't find the cord to upload them.  When I do, I will post them.  Kids!

Meanwhile, I found the coolest software!  Microsoft has come up with a program that takes a group of your images and splices them together in a panoramic image.  It is awesome!  It's called ICE, for Image Composite Editor.  It takes the appropriate images that you load into the program and stitches them together where they look like one big panorama view.  I read the review on it and the writer did his own experiment with the program.  It seemed like it would be pretty cool, so, I downloaded it and grabbed my camera.  I stood on my front steps and shot a series of five(5) photos from left to right.  I didn't even use a tripod.  Click, click.  Came inside, uploaded them into ICE and sat back. 

Here is what it did:

I think it is cool that, in one photo frame, you can see both ways down the street.  Neat!  Maybe no one else can see the implications where a shot like this would come in handy.  I can!  See?

I took this photo the day my son and his bride were married.  They are all a bunch of comedians!  It was an extremely casual and laid back affair, thank goodness!  But, the shot would have been improved greatly had I been able to take several shots and stitch them together.   Think of how terrific some nice outdoors shots would be.  Mountains, or the beach, perhaps.  Wow!  Have a look-see for yourself.  The program is free and it is from Microsoft.  Here is the link.

As of this point in this post, it has taken me three days and multiple reboots just to get this far.  Sheesh!

For all that, I have a little something for ya.  Several people commented on the background of my recent art challenge piece for Digital Whisper.  Since I saved it in .psd, in layers, I took all of the subject matter images off and left just the background.  Here it is if anyone else would like it.  Click to enlarge, then right-click and save to disk.

The DD at Magickal Scraps is coming along great.  All of the links, back to the first of May, are still active, as of this writing.  Snowy is in the process of working on the store.  I know I can't wait until things are up and running once again.  Go pick up some lovelies in this colorful kit, "May Flowers".  (Slide show at top of page)

I have something else, but, if I don't get this posted, it won't matter.  I'm just having too many pc issues.  It takes forever to upload anything.  I'll see what I can do.  Either way, I will be back soon.

Take care and don't forget to smile.  It's better than any make-up.

Hugs,

Su

DD "May Flowers" & Happy Mothers Day

I have been in quite the creative mood!  With challenges back up in the Magickal Scraps Forum, we've all been busy working on them.  Everyone was so happy to be back doing challenges, the creativity, board-wide, is awesome!  The first image is for the "Positive Affirmation Challenge".  I think you know or can see what is expected.  Whatever works for the individual.  So, I am starting at the very basic level.

The next one was done for two purposes.  One is a weekly challenge at Digital Whisper with the theme "life".  I thought of the triple goddess.  The second purpose is for this:

Happy Mothers Day

to All Moms, Everywhere

Next, I have the previews for the  May DD at Magickal Scraps.  Click on any image to be taken to the 'download'.

That takes up through Sunday.  I hope those who celebrate Mothers Day have a wonderful, laid back, enjoyable day.  Blessings to all of you!

Hugs,

Su