Thursday's Tip: Blogging, Digital Scrapbooking and Blog Books

We have some amazing product that is perfect for digital scrapbooking going bye bye for good. Check out our clearance sale for some of my favorites, many of which I will be using in this tutorial:

Home and Heart Bundle
Ready Made Templates
Alphabets
and much much more!

Many of you probably already blog, or there may be some of you wanting to blog, and just haven't gotten around around to it. Regardless, a blog is the perfect place to put your digital scrapbooking skills to use! Or if you don't have the digital scrapbooking skills, our ready made templates are quick, easy to use and make it look you are Photoshop masters!

Let me tell you why I love blogging. First of all, with the whole world turned digital, its the easiest place to store my memories and photos of my family and well as write down important memories and exciting happenings. I simple upload my already digitally stored pictures, and write whatever I want to write. Second, its cheap! Digital products can be used an endless amount of times and the blog sites are free! Third, I can share my memories with whoever I like, or even keep the blog private as well. And lastly, can you say BLOG BOOKS?!!! Technology is amazing! I'm so in love with the invention of the blog book, that make printing out my blog into a physical book easy and beautiful! There are a lot of great blog book companies. Check out Blurb Book and Blog2Print!

This tip will be in two parts. The first part I will show you how to enhance your blog using digital products. And the second part will show you how to get start a blog, if you already do not know how.

A. Using digital product to enhance your blog:

Blogging is the ideal medium for your digital product, and right now during our clearance sale, we have some amazing items at dirt cheap prices! To make this header, I used a plethora of product from the Home and Heart Bundle on clearance right now for only $5.20.

To make your header, simply log into Lettering Delights so you can easily grab the items you want directly from the Try Me Now Tool. I started with a base from the Family Graphic Set. Opening it in Photoshop, I began by layering my frames, graphics and title on top. I used the Try Me Now Tool to write Hansen using the At Home Alphabet.

Continue with layering your graphics, and title. Feel free to change up transparencies of some. Just have fun. It's just like scrapbooking, but with a computer!

When your header is finished, upload to blogger by selecting design in the top right corner of your blog, then choose layout at the left. Click on edit on the title area, and a second box will pop up that will enable you to configure your header. Choose the header from where you saved it on your computer and make sure you select the bubble that says "instead of title and description." Then hit save.

You can make entire layouts the same way, starting with a piece of digital paper, and layering your digital graphics and alphabets, or you can make it super easy on yourself, and use our digital templates. If you haven't used a digital template before, just simply open the template in Photoshop or a similar program, and plop your pictures on top or underneath if they are transparent. You can also pretty easily remove the center of a frame if it isn't transparent. If your template is a jpeg and isn't transparent you have to make sure it it no longer a background layer in photoshop. Just doubleclick on the layer in the layers menu and change it to layer 0. This will make it so when you delete the center of the frame, it will be transparent and not a solid background. To delete an oval or circle frame, begin by placing a guideline at the top of the oval and at the left side. To place a guideline in photoshop, make sure you have the rulers on your image by hitting control + R, then place your arrow at the top of the ruler and drag it down to where you want your guide. Using the oval marquee tool, start your marquee where the two guidelines meet and then drag the oval down to where you want it to end.

 Hit delete, and this will take out the center of your frame. Insert your picture below the template layer and save.

So that's digital scrapbooking made easy. Right now all our digital templates are on sale for just .25 cents! So hurry and get them before they're gone!

B. Getting started with blogger:

Begin by going to www.blogger.com. You can also go to www.typepad.com, but today I'm focusing on blogger since it's a little easier to use, although typepad enables you to do more. The first thing blogger will ask you besides creating login information, will be for a blog name. Sometimes this takes a few tries to get a name no one has used, but keep inserting  them till an available one comes up. Then select a blog template.

After you have chosen a template, you can refer to the above tutorial to create a blog header. You can also choose a different background for your template, and play with different colors and layout settings. You can change the background by selecting template to the left. Choose customize and then choose background towards the top left. You can see a large selection of pictures, patterns, and textures to choose from. There are even many free sites that make blog backgrounds that you can apply as well. You can also adjust the widths of your sidebar and black, or select advanced and customize your colors as well.

Once your blog is set up how you like it, select "back to blogger" at the top right, and now you can play with the layout on the left. You will see a basic template of how your blog is set up and each box can be edited and customized. Any place that you see "Add a Gadget" is where you can add a plethora of gadgets including customized html, pages, pictures, buttons, search boxes, etc. When you are done playing with these options and adding everything you think your blog needs, you are ready to start posting. Select "New Post" to the left and it will take you to a black box. You can begin typing, add pictures, links, etc. Have fun, get creative, and remember...when your blog gets to a point that you want to have a physical copy, anything you put up can be downloaded and printed to a blog book, including all pictures and images! Check out the finished blog here!

Thursday's Tip: Using the new Thin Fonts with your Cutter and MTC

Question: What is a Thin Font? 
A Thin Font is a single-line font. A person can put a pen, crayon, or a number of tools right into the "claw" of a cutting machine rather than a blade and use the machine to "draw" instead of "cut". When you do that with a regular font (.ttf or .otf) the machine traces the outline of the font so rather than having a single line, you get a double line like this:

Sometimes that tracing effect is great! But sometimes you would be better off with out it. For example look at this traced doodlebat:

Answer: Thin Font (.opf) is created so your machine makes a single line rather than tracing. 

Question: What do I need to use a Thin Font? 

Answer: Currently, a thin font can ONLY be used in Make-The-Cut Cutting software. Besides, needing this software, you will also need a cutting machine that is capable of replacing the blade with a pen or embossing tool. 

To learn more about Make-The-Cut click here. Or if you are ready to buy Make-The-Cut, click here.

Question: How do I install a Thin Font?


Answer: Follow these instructions:
1. Purchase and download your thin fonts from LD
2. Install the .opf file in MTC 

There are a couple ways to do this. You can click on the .TTF button at the top of MTC

Or using the Text and Font window in MTC, click on the +TT button

Navigate to your downloaded .opf file and click open. Once it is installed it will show up in your Text and Font window like this:

Question: Now that it is installed, how do I use a Thin Font?

Answer: Simple use the "Add a group of characters" tool on the Text and Font window

Navigate to your downloaded .opf file and click open. Once it is installed it will show up in your Text and Font window like this:

From here on, you are on your own to choose what writing implement you will use in your cutting machine. Realize that every implement you choose will "draw" differently in your machine. A dull crayon will look very different from a fine marker. Have fun experimenting. If you have questions about how to use crayons, markers, pens, and other implements in your cutting machine, refer to your own instructions for the various machines.

Question: Why did I get a .ttf as well as a .opf when I purchased my thin font? 

Answer: A .opf is not visible in any program but MTC. You have a .ttf as a visual reference as well as something you can install as a system font on your computer 

However, these .ttf fonts are missing a lot of the characteristics that make a font fun and unique. If you are looking for fonts to install on your computer please browse our selection of actual fonts. Use the .ttf font only as a visual reference that can be viewed in Windows.

Question: Why would I want to use my cutting machine to draw my fonts or sketches rather than using my printer?

Answer: Your printer can only use printer ink. With your cutting machine you have endless possibilities like the following:

1. Using light colored or metallic paint pens (like white, gold, and silver) on black or very dark paper. This idea would be GREAT for addressing invitations!
2. Using colored pens to accent your cut projects
3. Using glue pens to lay down perfect lines of glue for glittering.
4. Using the embossing tools to emboss images or words.
5. Using glitter sketch pens Using crayons or pencils 

We are so anxious to see what all our creative customers can do with this new product. Please share your thoughts and ideas on our idea page or Facebook page. Visit Under a Cherry Tree to learn more about Thin Fonts with Jin as she explores this new product too!

Question:  How will I know what my thin fonts will look like?

Answer: You don't really. Many things will impact how this font looks. 

What paper you are using impacts the look of your thin font. A very textured paper will create a very textured font. It may even get difficult to read depending on the drawing utensil you used.

The writing untensil also impacts the look of the thin font. A crayon will create a waxy, childish version but as it grows dull, it will grow fatter and shorter, changing the look of the font as it goes. A sharpened pencil will look crisp to begin with but also will grow dull and need adjusting. Other things that impact the look? How thick or thin the tip is and whether or not the untensil bleeds on the paper.

We know you LIKE to know though...so we've created some samples to help you understand what it could possibly look like:

Thursday's Tip: Crafting with Kids Spring Art

I love having my child create me art that I can hang in my home. In my opinion, there is nothing cooler than kid art and nothing more surprising, which makes it all the better. This cool little Floral Paper collage, turned out amazing and was fun for us both!

Materials:

Mulberry Lane Too SVGs
card stock
Scrapbook Paper
canvas
brush
mod podge

Start, by splitting up and cutting out your Mulberry Lane Too Flowers onto a piece of heavy card stock. This will be used as a stencil, so I went ahead on put them all on one sheet.

Go ahead and begin ripping up a piece of scrapbook paper that would make a suitable sky. This was probably my son's favorite part, since he has an avid love of destroying things. He couldn't believe I gave him the go ahead to rip up a piece of my "pretty" paper. We actually used 1 and 1/2 sheets for our 10" square canvas.

When that is done, go ahead and mod podge them onto your canvas. I let my son do most of this, and just helped here and there to make sure everything was stuck down. Make sure you paint the mod podge under as well as on top of your paper.

The finished canvas should look like this:

While your canvas is drying, use the Mulberry Lane Too Stencil you made to trace the flower shapes onto the backs of the the scrapbook paper. I went ahead and did this part.

I then handed over the paper for my son to do the cutting.

When all the floral pieces are cut out, paint a coat of mod podge over them and let dry.

I then had my son go ahead and paint on some grass using a sea sponge and then some flower stems and leaves.

Glue the flowers together and then adhere to your canvas!

An adorable project made by and even more adorable artist!

Free Facebook Timeline Cover Images

These FB timeline Cover Images will be permanently free on our site: LetteringDelights.com .  To download, simply add to cart and go through the checkout process.  You will not need to enter credit card information.  The product is free and will be made immediately available for download.

Thursday's Tip: Silhouette Colored Eggs

The tradition of dying Easter eggs has a long history, but over the years the techniques and artistry has evolved. And now there are so many fun and amazing things to do with your eggs, that each year you can enjoy finding a something new to do with your eggs! These easy silhouette eggs are so fabulously simple that even your kids can have fun doing them.

Materials:  
Boiled eggs
Dye
Vinyl or Contact Paper
Digital cutter or exacto knife
Easter Cut It Simple Shapes
Any of Patricia Zapata's Flower Cut Its

Begin by cutting out what shapes you want to use on vinyl or contact paper. Either works great! If you don't have a digital cutter, trace the silhouettes onto contact paper and cut out using an exacto or scissors. Peel off the backing from your silhouettes and place them onto the eggs. Make sure you burnish the edges well so that they stick firm to the egg.

I used both the Easter Cut It Silhouettes and Patricia Zapata's Summer Blooms Cut Its.

Go ahead and then submerge the eggs in your dye.

Remove the egg after the color reaches the saturation level you desire. Then let dry completely before you remove the stickers.

And your amazing silhouette eggs are born!