pcLayers Blog

Freebie - Camera Memory Card Tip Card

Have you ever lost a precious memory card full of photos?  Wedding?  Birthday?  Family event?  Loved ones?  I know I have!!!  I lost an entire gig of photos from a trip to Thailand, as well as my whole bridal shower.  And it was TRAGIC!  Oh yes, bold, italic, and caps!  That means this is serious business.  My compact flash memory card just happened to give me all question marks when I went to download my images to my computer.  And I nearly had a heart attack. 

Fortunately, you can learn from my mistakes and keep your memory cards as healthy as possible with these four tips.  I know you don't need one more thing to remember, so I created them as a handy card (the size of a credit card) to print out and include in your camera bag.  Impress your friends!  I was so excited, I told everyone I've seen.  Even if they didn't want to know.  Ha!  Random strangers, waiters, parking attendants...... nobody is safe from my new found knowledge.

So let's take a look at this handy info card:

"Never take the last picture on your card."

I don't know the technical reason why, but don't do it.

"Don't delete images on your camera."

Just keep on shooting, and then download the entire card to your computer and get rid of all the bad shots there.  Don't delete them one at a time on your camera; this causes gaps and things shifting around on your card that could cause damage to your files.  Delete them all at once later by "formatting" your card.

"Wait until the card is done recording before removing from the camera."

This should also read, "and make sure your camera is turned off."  Your camera needs some time to record all that information before you take the card out.

"After downloading photos to your computer "Reformat" your card 3 times in a row."

Picture yourself in second grade writing with a pencil.  Oops.  You messed up.  One pass with that eraser is good enough so that you can write there again.  Two passes makes it even more tidy.  But three passes makes it look like you never messed up at all. Your card needs  to be formatted 3 times to completely clear it of all old images and meta data.   

And some great news for those of you living in the Salt Lake City area, who have lost images on a flash card; this company will try to restore your lost images on a card for only $35 (but don't quote me on that).  And I've heard straight from the source that they have an excellent recovery rate.  Now I just have to figure out where I hid that old flash card......

Credits:
Card made entirely from the Spring Fling Kit by Christine Lazar Schuler now available at pcLayers.

P.S.  Here's an example of what my Canon G9 camera looks like when I format it (it's obviously almost empty).  If you aren't sure how to format your camera, check your camera's manual or call your local camera store. Or post a comment here, and see if someone else has any handy tips for you!

Tinkering Ink Botanical Bliss QPs

They're here!  Take a look in the QP section of the pcLayers store.  We've also got some new (and different than the giveaway) Covent Garden Tinkering Ink Quick Pages there as well!  And they're only 95 cents each!  Leave us a comment with a link to your blog or gallery pages if you've been using the new TI kits; we'd love to see it!

Bloom Where You are Planted

Hi! Becky here with a little guest post, and a quick walk through of how I put together the quickpage from the Spring Fling kit that Christina Lazar-Schuler designed.

The history of this wonderful friendship that I have with Christina, began with our meeting at the CHA-Winter of 2006 when I worked for her in her booth. We hit it off immediately, and had loads of fun! I took a little trip to visit her and her wonderful family that consists of Terry her husband and her kitty furbabies later that spring. They live in a suburb of Vancouver B.C. and they shared the beautiful sights, sounds and flavors of their home town with me. Wonderful memories that I share with wonderful friends. I joined her design team and had the opportunity to use her beautifully designed stamps, papers and digital products. Christina has such diverse talents, that it is hard to keep up with what her next amazing projects and designs will be! She has a wonderful balance between vintage and urban that makes her products and projects unexpected, fresh and very inspirational! She has taught many classes on quite a few techniques that cross-over many creative boundaries. She never hestitates to try something different and embraces challenges with enthusiasm and a learning eye. If there is anyone who has ever taken up the call to "Bloom where they are planted" it is Christina!

So for the layout, start with the blue paper with the damask pattern and the large flourish, we are going to use the brushes to erase part of this layer to creat some dimension and visual interest.

Next, open the green paper with the taupe flourishes and put that layer under the blue layer so that you can see the green through where it was erased.

Then use the frame brush to create a place to put the picture in the layout, and the smaller flourish brush to accent around it. Flipping and rotating the brush helps to keep the flourishes random and less contrived looking.

    

Use the shape of the frame to form your selection tool to copy out of the picture that you intend to use, this helps prevent sizing and shaping issues! Place the picture layer under the frame layer. Add the word art for the title, then place the pin on the corner of the picture, and erase a spot to make it look pinned into the picture for added visual texture and interest. 

Have fun with this kit, it is full of wonderful colors, textures and inspiration, and be sure to share what you create in the gallery, it is always exciting to see what people create!

B-

Customizing Digital Chipboard for Endless Possibilities

Today we are so excited to hear from Kayla Lamoreaux, a member of our design team and also a member of the creative team for Digital Scrapbooking Magazine.  Kayla has been digitally scrapbooking since 2002 and in addition to being mom to five cute kids she teaches digital at Weber State University.

I am so excited to be a guest with you all today!  Just in case you all are having tax time blues, I thought it would be fun to pop in with a video tutorial for making the most of pcLayers' brand new chipboard collection.

The possibilities are truly endless with this fun group of chipboard elements... Today I am going to share with you how to custom color the Large Caps Alpha in Photoshop Elements.

Click To Play

By the way, you can pickup the Covent Garden quick page album in the store along with the brand new Covent Garden Kit.  Happy Monday! 

Tinkering Ink Freebie Day 8!

New chipboard pieces!  They're up!  And they're only $1.95!  And we have a surprise guest blogger coming by on Monday to tell you some great things you can do with these on your scrapbook pages.  You can find them here on our site.

Oh, and!  (I think my English teacher would roll over in her grave after a grammatically incorrect sentence like that).  We're spreading the TI love even a little bit more by having a sale of all the QPs from this past week for only $1.95 for all eight 12x12 versions!  It goes up tonight, and lasts until (6pm MST) Monday so make sure you check it out!

Wow, I can't believe it's already day 9!  What a fun week hearing from all of you! Here's the last of the free 8x8 Tinkering Ink quick pages!  I felt inspired to scrap my cute birthday cake.  It was too perfect with this kit.  My sister in law let me borrow her new giant cupcake cake pan to make it with.  This is one big, huge, enormous, monster cupcake.  And it tastes just as good as it looks!  And it was way easy to make and so fun to decorate. 

And the comment question for the drawing for $10 in pcPurse today?  Well, I don't really have a question.  Like I've said before; I'm not good at coming up with them!  But after having a hard week, I personally think you should just give someone else a sweet compliment and say something really nice to them in case they are having a crappy week too!  And even if they are having a good week, make it a little better by spreading your own little happy ray of sunshine.  ;)  But that doesn't really give you much to post here does it!  LOL.  You'll come up with something I'm sure.  Maybe just post a nice thing that someone has said to you this week.  I know one of mine.  I was working on a magazine illustration and my dh walked in and said, "hey, you can still draw."  Funny, but it made my day.

Thanks to all you fun, cute people who have left us a little love on the blog this week!  We read every one, and it has been great to get to know you a little bit better!

Update:  Congratulations to comment #3 from babycakes "THANKSSSSSSSSSSSS !!! so awesome :)"  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

Tinkering Ink Freebie Quick Page Album Day 7!

It's official!  Covent Garden is now up for sale in the pcLayers store.  Be sure to click through all the previews (below the main image of the kit) to see all the cool digital accents like the bows and felt pieces.

If you've been entering comments to win; PLEASE be sure to go back and read the posts one more time!  I've listed the winners with the posts you entered, and you have to email me to claim your prize!!!  nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com

Please note that all QPs are available for a freebie as a limited time only offer!  They are only up for 24 hours.  :)

This yummy QP was created by the talented Celeste Rockwood-Jones.  Check out her cute kits, gallery, and blog! I love her most recent post about "Easter Lily."  It cracked me up. She also created the super cute chipboard sets {available soon} on the pcLayers site. They'll be going into the new section called "basics."  I can't wait to start using them in some of my own layouts!

Celeste had a great question for today's drawing too {leave a comment and you'll be entered to win $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers picked by the random number generator!}:  "Ideally how many photos do you like to have on a QP?"  Hmm...  That's a hard one for me to answer.  I'd say from 3-5.  But I notice I have trouble putting that many on my own!!!  I think I'm more of a one hit wonder as far as making my own QPs - I almost always only use one photo.  But I love it when other people do all the hard work composing them with more photo openings for me to fill!

Update:  Congratulations to comment #13 from tiffany "Thank you for all of the quick pages. I just love the colors. They just seem happy.  And I really like this one. I have the hardest time deciding on just one picture."  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nattaliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

 

 

Tinkering Ink Quick page day 6!

Our beautiful day 6 page is brought to you by Becky Olsen.  She's such a huge inspiration to me!  Her layouts are always so fresh and free; I wish I could make mine more like hers.  Be sure to drop by her blog for some great ideas.  Don't forget!  These pages are only available for 24 hours, so get yours quick!

Aly D's question for today?  What's your favorite scrapping snack?  {Leave a comment to enter to win $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers....}  Wow.  What's NOT my favorite scrapping snack?!  I love just about anything that I don't have to make.  But the super gourmet cup cakes that Becky brought to our last crop have been my favorite so far.  Yum!  They were soooo good!  Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, and some kind of insane fruity-guava-something-with-more-good-stuff-on-top, yummy goodness.

Update:  Congratulations to comment #4 from tammy "Another great addition to the gifts, thanks so much."  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

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Tinkering Ink QP Freebie Day 5!

Another gorgeous Tinkering Ink page by the talented Kayla Lamoreaux!  I just couldn't resist using that fuschia (apparently fuschia isn't in my spell check, but I promised I looked it up) for the preview image.  LOVELY!  It doesn't seem real that we live in the same state; I picture Kayla's house all warm and sunny and bursting with gorgeous flowers....  my house?  Oh, yes, another blizzard.  I'm not surprised.  ;)  I've got that Annie song about the sun coming out tomorrow stuck in my head now......

And anther drawing question!  Once again from Aly D!  {Leave a comment to enter to win $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers....}  "How often do you scrap?"  I'm embarrassed to answer that one!  Not nearly enough!  How's that for my answer.  Put me to shame; go ahead, I know you can! 

Update:  Congratulations to comment #2 from missy "I think about scrapping every day! But in reality I usually only get LO's completed on weekends and Mondays (a day I don't work). Any LO's I start on workdays usually take a few days to finish up just because I run out of time! Thanks for the QP's!"  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

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Tinkering Ink Freebie day 4!

The first of a two day spread by Kayla Lamoreaux!  I absolutely love the floral photos she used!  Gorgeous!  Ah, spring.  I can't wait for it to really start warming up.  Be sure to check out her blog for some great tutorials and tons of fun new things going on (wait; did I mention great tutorials?!).  And here's a link to her cute pcLayers gallery too.

And another fantastic question from Aly D for our random $10 pcPurse drawing: What is your favorite pcLayers kit?  Mine?  I might be slightly biased since I have three on there, so excluding any of those, I'm going to say Blossom, by Celeste Rockwood Jones.  Remember the pink and green from my last post?!  Too perfect!

Update:  Congratulations to comment #5 from Christy Harrill "Thank you so much for sharing!"  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

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Tinkering Ink Quick Page Freebie Page 3

This beautiful QP is brought to you by another talented member of the pcLayers Design Team, Aly Dosdall.  Check out her pcLayers gallery!!!  36 amazing layouts and counting!  Way to go Aly!  I love how she used the little strips of carstock with the brads for her journaling, or as a design element without any text. 

I was feeling pretty un-inspired for questions to ask for the comments random $10 gift certificate drawing (we're using a random number generator to pick a comment to win!), but Ali had a whole bunch of great ones, so....... here goes: what is your favorite color combo?  I know mine!  My bookbinding class pointed out that 99.7% of the time I always pick green and pink.  I can't get enough.  And I've recently been adding a lot of turquoise blue to that; you know, just to liven it up a little bit.  ;)  What about you?

Update:  Congratulations to comment #4 from diane "My favorite color combo of the minute is a nice cool blue with brown.  Yummy!"  The random number generator has picked you as the winner of $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers!  Please email me at: nataliemalan(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

So sorry!  Link expired.