Card Sketch April #4

Just letting you know the newsletter will be late going out this week. I picked up a horrid stomach bug (thanks Bob!) and am sleeping a lot. Meanwhile enjoy this weeks card sketch!

I have to say I found this weeks sketch a little on the tricky side. Not sure if I just wasn't feeling creative or whether it was the heat. It's been in the 90's here this weekend, which has been a bit of a shock to the system. It almost got to 100 yesterday!!! It's April for heavens sakes!!! Anyway I eventually cobbled together something I was semi-happy with.

"Smile" card by Di Hickman
Supplies: Cardstock & PP: DCWV; Ric Rac: Boxer Scrapbooks; Flowers: Queen & Co; Brads: Boxer Scrapbooks: Pen: Sakura; Rub-on: EK Success;

---

"Cheers" card by Pearl Liu
Supplies: Core'dination vintage cardstock, Lily Bee French Couture pp , Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage Cat Crazy , Cuttlebug Embossing folder - Houndstooth , Prima flowers

---

"Sleep tight" card by Chrys Rose
Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; The Paper Company paper; Daisy Bucket paper; Pink Paislee chipboard; Boxer Scrapbook brads; Ranger stickles

---

"Just for you.." card by Linda Flinders

---

"Happy Birthday" card by Jan Tatomir
Supplies: Paper: DCWV, K&Company, Crate; Chipboard: DCWV; Rub: Crate; Fence: Papier Valise; Buttons: American Crafts, Dress It Up; Punch: EK Success

---

"Stop to smell the flowers" card by Celeste Brodnik
Supplies: Pattern Paper: Fancy Pants; Ribbon: MOD; Felt Flower: Heidi Swapp; Brad: Doodlebug Designs; Crochet Flower; Pen: Signo Unibal

---

"Hi how r u?" card by Raechelle Bellus
Supplies: cs: Bazzill; pp and stickers: Basic Grey; stickers: Rose Moka; American Crafts Thickers; ribbon: Offray

---

"Bouquets of thanks" card by Louise Connell
Supplies: Papers, rub ons, ribbon ~ Crate Paper Kaitlin; Sentiment rub on ~ K&Co; Flower ~ imaginisce; Adhesive pearls ~ Papermania

---

"Hello" card by Annette Taylor
Supplies: Patterned Paper – My Mind’s Eye, Stabilo Pen, Brad – Papermania, Stamps – Studio G, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and Nestabilities die, Giant Ric-Rac from stash, Gel dots – Papermania

---

"Love" card by Jackie Price
Supplies: Made with Scraps from Jackie's stash!

---

"Flowers for a friend" card by Jo Willis
Supplies: Papermill card, Hampton Arts stamp, Prismacolour pencils, Making Memories paper, Marvy pen and rbbon and pins from stash.

---

Remember I love to come check out your cards so link me up in the comments if you make a card using the sketch!

Di

Read more...

Publishing 103

In parts 101 and 102 we discussed the basics and where to find calls, in 103 we're going to discuss the submission email! What to include, what to write, what to attach etc.

• Address: So first things first remember to tailor the email to the correct recipient! Make sure to check the call details carefully! Even if it's a magazine you've submitted to before always check the submission email as emails change, or calls may get sent to feature editors directly.
• Attach: Remember to attach the freakin' project image!
  
• Subject: Again in the call info will sometimes say to put a specific subject for the email but if it doesn't try to tailor it to the magazine. If the call for example is for PaperCrafts May issue, and your project is for their Mothers Day feature, try something like PaperCrafts May 2009 - Mothers Day Card Submission.
• Attach: Remember to attach the project image!
• Intro: The body of the email should always contain a little introduction as to why you are emailing, what magazine, issue and which specific call you think the project fits!
• Attach: Remember to attach the project image!
• Project info: Include a project title so that if you get a call back they don't have to request jpg 908651. Include a supply list of products used in the project. I sometimes include a brief how-to for the project if it is a particularly technique heavy project or if I know that the magazine I am submitting to will need that information. Also regarding the project I add journaling if the project is a layout and any other pertinent information like if the project is digital, or hybrid for example.
  
• Attach: Remember to attach the project image!
• Personal information: Always include a little paragraph of personal information. Nothing too large. Usually I opt for name, address, blog link, and email address in the signature of the email instead. But the idea is to give them as much information about YOU as possible. Usually these submissions are kept on file for a long time, you want them to have as much info to contact you as possible!
  
• Attach: Remember to attach the project image!
• Signing off: ALWAYS and a little thank you to the end of your email! A simple, "thanks for considering my project for your upcoming publication" works well and shows good manners.
  

Oh and in case I haven't mentioned it ALWAYS remember to attach the project image! I can't stress this enough! Even now 3 years later I still sometimes have a brain fart and forget to attach the image! Doh! I'm sure the editors are used to it happening all the time but double and triple check before you hit send!

So once you hit send, what happens next? We'll discuss that next time!

Read publishing 101, 102

Read my Design Team articles: DT's 101, 202, 303, 404 and 505

--------------------------

If you are going to copy and paste this for other website remember to credit me, the original author Di Hickman! I have had numerous people copy and pasting my articles into various forums with no credit, and some blatantly claiming the work as their own. This is highly unprofessional. Give credit where it is due with my name and I would appreciate a link back to my blog, thank you. Di

--------------------------

Read more...

Manufacturer Challenge - Doodlebug (3)

Week 3 in the Doodlebug Manufacturer Spotlight! I have a few projects to share this week so sit back and take them all in! I made some more cards with the pink/red papers. I already mentioned I love the floral paper! Had to use up the scraps! I especially LOVE this first one!

Supplies: Paper: Doodlebug; cardstock; DCWV; Flower: Heidi Swapp; Stamp: Fiskars;

Again I'm basing the cards on old card sketches of mine. Love going through my scraps to make cards with my sketches. A couple of the designs are perfect for those little pieces of patterned paper left over from projects.

Supplies: Paper: Doodlebug; cardstock; DCWV; Flower: Prima; Rub-on: PSX; Pen: Sakura

Supplies: Paper: Doodlebug; cardstock; DCWV; Flower: Prima; Rub-on: EK Success;

I posted Saturday how I altered an oatmeal tub to contain my flowers and ribbon, and I mentioned I printed off text panels for all my embellishment colors and so I got busy :) Jumped into the altered stash and found a couple more oatmeal tubs to alter (already had a couple saved) so here is the brown ribbon/flower tub.

As you'll see slight alteration from the one Saturday in that I added elastic bands to keep the printed panel in place. Not because the adhesive didn't stick, but because with the flower "prettying" and my haste in getting the tub off the shelf I ripped the blue panel partly off the tub already! What can I say? I'm a klutz! Seriously I am so accident prone it's not funny! Anyway this'll hopefully keep them on and in place, with some room for movement if I end up catching them on each other!

I have another couple of cards to share with the red/pink paper, I just need to do the stitching on them, and then I want to use the last sheet of Doodlebug in my stash!!! That's like the brown paper above but it's grey/black. Not sure yet whether to use it for the ribbon tub, a layout, or to use it for cards... decisions decisions!

Read more...

New digital scrapbooking templates!

I have a new digital scrapbooking template pack released this weekend! Layout DiAGRAMS set #15 features 4 templates, size: 12x12" in PSD and PNG format. Priced at just $2.50 throughout April! Available at my Di Hickman Designs, Scrapwow or A Cherry On Top Stores

I did something a little different this month, in that I asked for a few members at DST to work with my kits and templates. I just love the layouts they created using this template pack and my Chick-a-dee kit!

Layout by Reba

Layout by Erica (DoodleBop)

Layout by Kim

Layout by Marla

They all used the Chick-a-dee kit, below and the DiAGRAM set #15, available in my Di Hickman Designs, Scrapwow or A Cherry On Top stores

Of course my CT had a play with the template pack too and made these great layouts!

Layout by Renee' Morris-Dezember
Credits: Di Hickman Template Pack 15, Jennifer Pebbles: Block Lable
& Skinny Date Lable, Carla Dudley: Capture+Record Digital Kit, Sande Krieger: Stitching, Shabby Princess: Staple

Layout by Shannon Blinn

So much fun seeing the great layouts made with my digital kits and templates!

Happy Sunday

Di

Read more...

Earth Day Project

Earth Day is coming up soon and I thought what better than practicing the three R's. I am reducing the need for a storage container by recycling an empty oatmeal container :) Just doing my bit for the planet, and hey it saves me money too!

Supplies: Boxer Turquoise dot paper; Small metal rim tag; White button; Blue Mini Brad; Prima Flowers; UHU twist & glue and glue roller

Now I just have to eat my way through a few more tubs of oatmeal so I can make more for my other color of flowers and ribbons :)

Enjoy the weekend!

Di

Read more...

Project 101 in 1001 - update

Project 101 in 1001 is going well so far! I already completed #5 and #6 on the list and I printed off my self portrait for March! Whoot! Hopefully by staying on track with the updates on the blog I'll keep printing and creating layouts for the album! This is the page I made for the goals achieved in March which was running 3 miles. Still working on the 4 mile page so I'll share that next time!

Supplies: Soon to be released digital kit by Di Hickman :)

Of course the self portrait part HAD to be commemorating the first goal achieved, so it's me after a sweaty run! I've saved the PSD with the frame, size and text layers so that I can just reuse it a a template and print it off easily each month. Adding the date and a little info gives me more to work with in the album. I'll be sharing the album next month as it's published in the current issue of Ready Set Create :)

Since I've done item #6 - run 4 miles, I need to get cracking on the page. I think this one will be a journaling heavy page instead of a photo page. Post run photo's are NOT good for the self image at all!

As for the other items, well I am doing fine with reading books (#45), I have LOTS in my reading list to loan from the library. I also found "The artists way" series of books available at the library so I'll be getting that soon (#18), and they also have Learn Spanish books (#33) and CD's so I added those to my list. The list is HUGE now! lol! This week I have been trying to do #4 - eat at least 1 thing I grew everyday for a week (besides oranges). I already eat an orange a day from the garden when possible (lots of those right now) but I want to USE the produce I am growing so this is an ongoing goal that I want to make a habit. I harvested almost 2lbs of peas on Monday, plus I have beets, turnips, greens and more peas ready to harvest, so this should be easy for this week!

Wish me luck! And if you have suggestions for items 88-100 let me know!

Read more...

Printing on the Prima chipmates stickers

The Prima Hybrid store has coordinating digital chipmates stickers for some of the paper lines so I thought I’d do a little tutorial to show paper peeps how to use the stickers to print just one sticker at a time. There are a few ways of doing this, but I am focusing on using digital editing tools. For this tutorial I am using Photoshop CS3 but the principle should be the same in all photo editing programs.

1. First open up photoshop and the chipmates sticker sheet you want to use, in this case I opened the “Signs of spring” chipmates.

2. Add a new layer and fill with white (second layer in screenshot). Duplicate the background layer and move ABOVE the solid white layer. Using the marquee tool draw a box around the chipmate sticker you want to print.

3. Next click, select, inverse (or right click, select inverse) and the selection should be inverted so all the sheet EXCEPT the area you wish to print is selected. Simply press delete to remove the excess printing area, leaving just the green sticker and text in this example.

4. Print onto a chipmate sticker sheet, and use in your project

Physical Prima Supplies: Signs of Spring papers; Clearly IOD transparency tape #517809; Loft 18 Flowers #52005 Signs of Spring epoxy overlay stickers; Chipmates Inkjet diecut stickers Digital Prima Hybrid Supplies: Signs of Spring Chipmates

I hope this helps you to save ink, save supplies, and makes your hybrid projects easier! As I said there are other ways to do this technique so if you have any questions about the tutorial just ask!

Di

Read more...