OH SNAP!

Hello friends.  Camera's are a huge trend in paper crafting right now and I LOVE it.

So today I'm excited to share with you my first project as a member of The Cutting Cafe DT!  I used one of the sets released by TCC in March, "POLAROID AND CAMERA FUN TEMPLATE AND PRINTABLE SET". 

The Cutting Cafe offers digital cutting files / stamp sets.  You do not have to have a cutting machine to create all the fun projects.  They come in PDF for as well.  You can read more about them HERE.  Regina also has wonderful how to / tips and info HERE you will want to read over before purchasing as well. 

Starting 2013 some of the sets include JPEG files as well, which makes re-sizing soooo easy!!  On this layout I enlarged the camera, film strip, polaroid photo, and "Oh Snap" so I could use them on a layout.  I have not had good luck re-sizing images from the PDF's.  I loose some of the resolution.  Of course this could be user error, teehee

THIS set is sooo cool.  You will not only receive the files she shows you on the link I provided ... but it comes with patterns to create CAMERA SHAPED CARDS as well!

LOVIN' the Camera craze??  Well then you will also want to check out the 

"CAMERA'S EVERYWHERE BACKGROUND PRINTABLE SET" !!  And check out ALL the Camera options HERE.

HERE is the blog post that showcases the set with lots of inspiration from the DT.

You can check out inspirational projects using The Cutting Cafe files every Wednesday over on their blog HERE.

Hope you enjoyed today's post!

Melisa

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Challenges

As soon as I saw this challenge I knew which TCC files I would be using this week!

The Paper Secrets challenge is a sketch + use of a polaroid!  

The deadline for playing along is May 14th.

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Project Details

Patterned Paper and embellishments : Basic Grey "Hey Boy" (patterned paper), Fact or Fiction  "Fabric Flowers", Hey You "Toothpick Flags", and Hey Boy "Die Cuts and Transperancy's"
Stamp images : Hero Arts - Basic Grey "Lucille Be Silly" and "Guest Check".

So in case you are new to working with digital images I'm going to share my process.  I'm sure there are other ways this can be done as well.  

The first thing I wanted to do was CROP OUT INDIVIDUAL IMAGES and save them as individual files so I could re-size them individually.  I'm sure there are lots of different photo programs that allow you do do that.  I use the "Paint" program that came with my Windows Vista computer years ago because that's what I'm familiar with and I can do it quickly.

1. Open the jpeg digi stamp page in Paint.
2.  I decreased the viewing size by selecting Image, Resize/Skew, and decreased to 50%. I did this so I could see the entire page on my screen.  It does not change the size of your images, just the way you view them.
3. Use the select tool (dotted box) to frame the individual image. Crop in as close as you can.  This will be helpfull with re-sizing later.
4. Then select Image and crop.  This will eliminate all the other images and allow you to save just the one as an individual jpeg.  Save it.  It doesn't matter what size it is at this point.
5. After you are done with the first image click edit and undo.  Now do the same thing with any other images you want to use.

After you are done close out the program.  It will ask if you want to save, MAKE SURE select NO because you don't want to alter your original file.

Next I want to RE-SIZE AND PRINT my images.  I opened up a document (you can use Microsoft Works - that's what I have, or Word).

1.  Insert the images into a document.  I drag and drop mine.  The image will be HUGE in your document.
2. Grab and drag a corner and decrease the size.  
3.  After I have all the images in the document I can play around and decide the sizes I want before printing.  You can use the ruler along the top of your document as a guide, or to be more precise, select format.  To re-size using format object : Right click on the image, select format object, select size and resize.
4. Print.

PAPER PIECING

1. Print images in draft form.
2. Trim the correct size patterned paper you need and tape it over the image.  I tape mine all the way across the top so that none of the edges get caught.  Make sure you don't put the tape over the image and leave plenty of room so you will get the whole image if the printer is a little off when you reprint.
3. Load the paper and print.

I'm sure there are easier ways to do it.  This is the way I learned to do it with out having to purchase additional programs.