Digital Scrapbooking 101 BLOG

Remember Our Veterans This Memorial Day…

Posted on April 30th, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: My Thoughts.

Let our hospitalized veterans know we haven’t forgotten them!

The poppy is the official memorial flower of the VFW. VFW’s Buddy Poppy program has raised millions of dollars in support of veterans’ welfare and the well being of their dependents.

This Memorial Day, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) will deliver a giant Thank You Card to the hospitalized veterans at the Kansas City VA Medical Center.We want to be sure our hospitalized veterans know that as we honor those who gave their lives defending our way of life, we also remember their sacrifices. Be sure to add your name to the giant Thank You Card to let our defenders know you care. We need all signatures by May 9th in order to deliver the card on Memorial Day, May 30th. So, please sign the card today. Every signature means so much.  Will you help us reach our goal of 25,000?  Please pass this on to your family and friends so we can deliver the biggest Thank You Card ever and show our heroes that we haven’t forgotten them.   Thank you for supporting our troops and remembering our veterans! Support the VFW – Click here now to make a secure online donation to help support our crucial work on behalf of our troops and veterans.About the VFW – Click here to learn more about the VFW and our many programs.

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Here’s How to Print Great Photos at Home

Posted on April 28th, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: Scrapbook Articles, Training.

Title: Here’s How to Print Great Photos at Home

Author: Wes Waddell

Article:
Digital cameras are everywhere these days.  Film is definitely on it’s way to the history museum.  The problem with that is that until it’s printed, it can only be seen on a computer or the small screen on the back of the digital camera. 

So you have this great new digital camera and you’ve taken lots of photos for your new scrapbook.  Now, how do you get them from the electronic bits to the printed page?  Well you could go to a store or photo shop and have them print your images for you, but isn’t that what you did with film?  Wasn’t the point of all this great digital photo technology that you can print your own photos at home without having to pay someone else to do it.

Here are some tips to help you get started and to save you a little money at the same time:

I know your first concern… Isn’t this going to be more expensive if I do it myself?  It’ll probably seem like you’re spending a lot of money at first but spending the money to get a good printer and the right software will save you a lot of money in the long term.

You have to have a good printer.  Now, I’m not just talking about the quality of the print, although that is important.  I’m also talking about how long it will last and the cost of replacing the ink and parts that wear out. 

You can buy a good print quality printer for less than a $100.00.  But, it could cost you 2 to 3 times the cost of a printer 3 times that expensive when you add up the prices of the ink cartridges and print heads that that model uses in an average year. Lexmark is a perfect example of this printer model.  Print quality is great, and the cost of the printer is sometimes as little as $50.00.  But, Lexmark ink cartridges and print heads are some of the most expensive on the market.  Not to mention it’s drivers don’t let you control the ink output and tends to use more ink per print than is really needed.  This is how the company makes it’s profit… on the renewable supplies instead of the printer.

Model’s such as the Lexmark and many of the Hewlet Packards (HP) use the old cartridge system where all the ink colors are contained in one single container.  That means that as soon as you use up one color (magenta for skin color usually), you have to replace the whole $30 to $40 cartridge even though you still have ink in other colors inside.  That’s what can really triple your per print costs.

Do yourself a favor, spend the moderate extra money and get yourself a (minimum Six color) individual ink tank printer.  That is, an individual ink cartridge for each individual color.  That way, when one color runs out, you just replace that one color ($5 to $12 depending on size).

Ink jets are wonderful for printing snapshots to small portraits. You won’t need more than that unless you wish to print 12×12 scrapbook pages.  If that’s the case, you’ll need to spend about double the price of a standard size printer and get yourself what is called a large format printer.  Still, for less than $500.00 you can print up to 13×18 prints in most cases.

We are partial to the Canon brand of printers and have used them exclusively for more than 8 years now.  They were the first to offer the individual color ink tanks.  Our second choice, and one I have had good experiences with in the past are the Epson line of inkjets.  They were the second to offer individual colors and have a great reputation for quality.  I don’t recommend HP printers at all, even the new individual color models.  Their print driver requires access to the system directory on your computer and this can cause problems with many of the new firewall and security programs that are now required for cable and many DSL users.  They aren’t a bad quality printer if you have no choice, I just don’t recommend them.

Next, you’ll need to buy some photo editing software. There are lots of brands out there many of them for pros but you can easily find software under one hundred dollars that will have lots more options than you will ever use. Look for software that has automatic settings so that the computer can automatically color correct, auto focus, brighten, or darken, etc. At least until you learn what comes next.  If you do some research, there are also some good FREE software programs out there.  Scrapbookers, take note of www.ComputerScrapbookTraining.com – Free Digital Scrapbooking 101 Mini-Course based on a totally free photo and office program.

Now that you have everything you need and have spent your initial setup funds… it’s time to really dig in and learn your software and equipment. Take the time play with the settings and to experiment with different results.  Don’t try to print perfect photos right away. You probably can get great results right out of the box and with default settings.  But, with just a little time and some experimentation, you may find that you can use less ink, get truer colors and save a bundle in supplies by learning the settings on your driver and software.  Most people with a little time and practice can even learn to do basic photo special effects. Take the time to learn and it will pay off in big dividends down the road.

OK, it’s time to talk paper!  There, is the one place that you are going to have to spend some money from time to time.  You can have take the perfect, well focused image, but if you print on the wrong paper, you’ll be sadly disappointed in the final print. The whiter and the shinier the paper, the brighter and cleaner your final print will look.  Get the nice thick glossy paper, it’s worth it.  I’ve tried the cheaper paper, which is good for travel books and test prints, but you need the high quality stuff for long lasting quality prints.

I’m not saying you need to use quality photo paper for every project.  On the contrary, I personally use a good quality white card stock for many of my mini-scrapbook (4×6) travel book or gift book projects.  It creates photos that look like they have a matt finish inside the plastic sleeves of the finished scrapbook.

That’s where experimentation and learning what your setup can and cannot do for you.  I also find that card stock is perfect when I want to just print a scrapbook background paper and hand scrap the rest of the page.

What is DPI, dots per inch?  Depending on your printer and your software you may be able to print up to 2400 dpi which is probably unnecessary for what you’re doing.  For up to a 4 by 6 inch print you only need about 300 dpi. Most people cannot see the difference between a 300 dpi an a 600 dpi at 4 by 6 inches.  For 5 by 7 or 8 by 10 you can go up to 600 dpi.  Just for the record, commercial printers are currently limited to a max of 600 dpi and the standard is 300 dpi all the way up to poster size prints. 

By all means, let your printer print at it’s max capabilities.  But know that if you start creating pages and prints at that resolution, saying your camera can even do it… the file sizes will be exponentially larger and you’ll soon fill even the largest hard drives.

The information above, should help you on your way to printing great digital photos at home. Just remember to make sure that you have fun printing all those scrapbook memories…  after all, it’s the emotions and the memories that make it priceless to your future generations.  Even the worst photo is worth more than the best photo if it tells a better story. 

 Just so that you have a frame of reference, I’m a professional scrapbook business owner and my wife is a professional scrapbook designer.  We have a six color standard and an 8 color large format Canon ink jet that we paid less than $800 for both 3 years ago.  We have multiple photo editing software packages that we paid less than $200. We print my up to 12×12 digital scrapbook pages for shows and display at 300 dpi.  Our professional hardbound book printer prints all their hardbound books at 300 dpi, even the large 12×12 custom books.

Copyright 2007 PrincessCrafts.com and Wes Waddell

About the author:
Wes and Kathy Waddell are the founders of PrincessCraft.com, the first Digital Computer Scrapbook Membership site on the Internet.  Create your own personal custom digital scrapbook with their downloadable templates at:  PrincessCrafts Computer Scrapbooks as well as a free digital scrapbook Mini-Course and software.  Visit their site today and start preserving your families most treasured memories for generations to come.  Now the largest Digital Scrapbook Membership site on the Internet too.

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Digital Scrapbook Backgrounds From Nasa

Posted on April 26th, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: Digital Photography, Scrapbook Tips.

Hi Computer Scrapbook Friend,

Today’s new image source is from out of this world… literally!

NASA is a great source for some beautiful space and star images that anyone can use to make personal scrapbook background and frame page designs.  The image directories are actually scattered across several sites, but the link below will take you right to the main index page with links to all the different sites. 

Planes, space ships, star and nebula clusters and even many of the moon photos.  Get them all at:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html

If you have any hidden treasures that our digital scrapbook family could benifit from… be sure and let us know and we’ll be happy to pass them on.

Happy Scrappin’

Kathy & Wes

www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.ScrapbookKitsnBits.com

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Scrapbook Background Nature Photos

Posted on April 25th, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: Digital Photography, Scrapbook Tips.

Hi again Digital Scrapbook friend,

Here’s another one of the cool computer scrapbook page background photo sites I found quite by accident lately.

As you can see, this one’s just full of really great nature photos and scenic travel images that you can use to make some really great scrapbook page backgrounds and photo frames.  Just head on over to:

http://photos.jstechs.com/

Don’t forget, if you have any hidden treasure sites for scrapbookers… we would love to pass on your find to all our members. 

Kathy & Wes

www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.ScrapbookKitsnBits.com

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Colorado Springs April 2007 Blizzard Photo

Posted on April 24th, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: My Thoughts.

Hi Scrapbook Friend,

Want to see what Kathy and I have been up to today?

It hasn’t been a whole lot.  The rain and wind kept us up most of the night and then this morning it turned into another spring time blizzard here out east of Colorado Springs.  We lost power and water about 2pm and it just came back about 7:15pm this evening.

Needless to say, we didn’t get a whole lot done today.

Here’s what it looked like out our front door just before the power and water went out… you can click on any of the images for a larger view if you want to.

Wet, heavy and cold stuff!  Hope you are having a warmer day where ever you are.

Update: 25 Apr 2007

Here’s a few  mor photos that we took the next day, about 3pm when we went out to do some errands.

The first one is just outside our housing area headed west:

As you can see, the snow is already melting off (it’s over 50 degrees farenheight today), but the drifting of the wet heavy snow was the real problem for many.  These two 4×4 trucks didn’t quite make it.

Next we move to the top of the hill way in the distance in the photo above.  As we crested the hill and looked down the other side, here was the view…

Can you see all 4 of the cars caught in the drifting snow?  You may need to click on the image for a larger view to see them all…

We didn’t go that way, we turned left and headed north.  As you can see below, it wasn’t much better that way either.

4 more stranded cars, even a Jeep and (you can just see the front) a Durango 4×4 got caught in the heavy drifting snow from the Colorado Springs Blizzard of April 2007.

Here’s a closer image of the three near the top of the rise:

Though you can’t see it too well, the tan (or champaign) colored care with it’s back to us has brand new dealer plates on it…

The good news is that none of these cars had any real damage and no one colided with another.  It was close and scary I’m sure though.  Really made Kathy and I glad that we were home, even if we didn’t have power and water. 

Bet you didn’t know that scrapbooking can be a life saver…   Or, at least it can save your car from an expensive towing bill!  All joking aside, just goes to show  you that mother nature can do some really weird things from time to time.  While photos can capture the event and it’s aftermath… it’s your story and feelings that make it a memory worth hearing about… 

Be sure and capture not only the images, but the emotions and feelings too.  Only a scrapbook does both.

Now, we’ll let you get to the real good stuff below and in the archives…

Kathy & Wes

www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.MyPrincessCrafts.com
www.ScrapbookKitsnBits.com

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Scrapbook Beach (Hawaii) Photos

Posted on April 23rd, 2007 by wwaddell.
Categories: Digital Photography, Scrapbook Tips.

Hi Scrapbook Friend,

I just found a great new source for personal scrapbook backgrounds.  http://www.comeseehawaii.com, Come See Hawaii and all it’s tropical digital photo images.  You’ll love the daily photo and archives.  Here’s just one of the images I found there:

If you are looking for tropical backgrounds to use for your holiday/vacation scrapbook background or scrapbook photo frame design… you have to check this site out.

We’ll be adding new digital image sources on a regular basis now along with more digital photo techniques and digital or computer scrapbook articles.

Check back often and be sure and subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss any of the great scrapbook content.

Happy Scrappin’

Kathy & Wes

PrincessCrafts.com

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