The Delights of Digital

If you have been digital for awhile you will surely understand when I tell you that last week this article would have been entitled “The Downfalls and Dilemmas of Digital”. What we thought to be a simple copying of my hundreds (nay, thousands) of files onto a new computer did not go easy and in fact has not yet been completed! I was without my computer for a week and felt cutoff from the outside world. Sure, I still had a phone, but the real names of friends I know as “funnyfarmer, blondemoments, weehoo, scrappyknees, escrapper or funinthesun were in my metal box that suddenly I could not access! These are friends on my message boards that I feel the need to visit with each day.

During this time of being computerless I pondered the ways we can assure ourselves that the files we save today will be available to us as technology advances. I have old versions of Picture It on my PC whose files are fuzzy when opened in my newer more advanced versions. I would say the safest thing to do is always have hard copies of your treasured pages and photos in addition to your digital ones. Taking into consideration that opening, changing and resaving jpegs can cause me to lose a bit of the resolution. Fortunately most of those photos taken in my early computer days were scanned and I do have the originals. Let us hope as technology advances there is a built in way to rescue older files from systems and programs that it makes obsolete! I try to make sure as I update I can still read files saved on previous CD burners, etc.

I never do away with photos after I scan them. I don’t scrap every photo, but keep some in regular sleeved photo albums and some in special photo boxes. I have so many photos on my hard drive that I could not print out copies of each one but I can print out the most special ones and also save copies on to CD’s and file in a safe place. Now that the price of CF flash cards has dropped so dramatically I have not erased some of the photos of special occasions from select cards.

With all of the major weather and fire disasters that we have suffered this year, I have realized the importance of having those special photos and pages stored in places such as online sites that specialize in high quality prints or in those groups that a lot of us have on MSN and Yahoo (just to mention two). Fire and flood have destroyed the family heirlooms and photos of thousands of people during this last year. Therefore I would hope we all have some sort of back up plan for treasured photos. Perhaps scanning treasured photos and sending them to family or friends in a different section of the country would help give piece of mind. This year has made me get busy on those copies of family photos I was creating for my brothers and cousins!

It does seem that I have dwelled more on the digital dilemma but I must tell you that I do find it delightful most of the time! With any type of new technology we must use it to our advantage and must not be afraid to experiment. Let’s also not be afraid to look for and research any of its shortcomings and figure out those “workarounds” for us.

Speaking of the delights afforded us in being digital…..let’s create some pages.

Project 1: Savannah

Fortunately for me, my friends have the most beautiful children and graciously allow me use of their photos to try out new techniques and ideas. Thank you Chally!

While I was stuck with just my laptop and without my abundance of Hugware to play with I thought I would show you some things you could do if you found yourself stuck on a desert island with your laptop and a photo (hopefully a well charged laptop!)

1. Using Digital Image Pro 10 (DIP) I distorted the entire photo using the distort brush.
2. I cropped the original version of the photo to cut out most of the background but leaving just a hint of color.
3. I cut out equal squares (kind of digital serendipity) and added an edge to them in DIP.
4. I added text to each one.
5. I used the distorted photo as my background and used the gradual blend so that it would not overpower the photo.
6. I created a mat and copied and pasted a color version behind the white version. Using a plug in and DIP I made the edge ragged. You can also do this by erasing bits of the mat using your transparency brush. There you have it. A simple but effective page showcasing our lovely Savannah!
   

Project 1 b:

One of the delights of digital is how easily you can use the same page over and over as a template. All I did was go to hue and saturation and change the color of the page. Then I added a few more squares to the page. To kick it up one more notch you can add elements or embellishments to each of the squares.

Project 2: Love and Happiness

1. Using the background from Carol Halm’s Tea Party I created this simple page.
2. I added the musical frame on the smaller photos from DIP.
3. I added the larger photo in the center of the page with the checked frame in the add frame option in DIP.
4. I added a bit of a verse at the top of the page and underneath the photo.

Project 3: Black and White Page

1. I added a black triangle to the white page. I then added black and white triangles as corners behind the photo.
2. I added a silver triangle under each one. and alternated black and white text.
   

Project 3a: Using Heirloom Tags by Julie Torske

1. I added ribbon and corners from Heirloom Tags to a white background for a different look.

Project 4: Dandelion

1. I added a background chose a color to coordinate using the color picker and then used effects to add some texture.
2. I added a dandelion and border from Carol Halm’s My Backyard a tag, copying and pasting it 3 times and outlining the shape in black.
3. I added a second mat on half of the bottom mat to add a bit more color and texture and a bit of interest.
   
   

   

    

And your assignment if you should you desire to accept it:

1. Create some simple pages and then try various ways to step them up by adding more shapes, textures and embellishments.
2. Do some pages to reflect your favorite hobby or sport.
3. Create a page about your favorite toy when you were young.
4. Create a page about your first car or first bike.
5. Hug someone!
6. Go the extra mile to make someone happy.
7. Get something accomplished that you have been putting off.
8. Start off each day with a positive attitude and end it with a prayer!
9. Meet me back here next month and…
10. HUG SOMEBODY!

Until then Happy Scrapping!
Thena