This Monday’s Spotlight is on an innovative printing service, Moo.

Moo is a printing company. What’s so great about them is that you can print the images you’ve uploaded on any photo sites like Flickr, Facebook, etc or from your own computer.

I found out about Moo through a friend of mine and since then, my Husband and I have used their printing service for the Hubby’s business cards. The service is fast, friendly and efficient. They package your order really well too!

What I like about Moo products is that you can personalize your cards. You can choose which image goes where, how it’s cropped. It’s so much easier to have control on what you want to order rather than relaying to an over-the-counter assistant. Love it!

Moo started with miniCards but has since expanded their product offerings to include double-sided business cards, post cards, stickers, greeting cards and note cards.

MiniCards

Double-sided Business Cards

Postcards

Stickers

Greeting Cards

NoteCards

Wouldn’t it be great if you can print your scanned or digital images of your scrapbook layouts and use them as background for your business cards or post cards?

If you’re a scrapbook designer, imagine having your own products or artworks displayed on one side of your business cards? If you have a 100 scrapbook layouts or products you’ve designed, they can be printed on each of the 100 business cards you ordered. Cool eh?

I am thinking of doing this for the scrapbook layouts I’ve done. I can have postcards or non-occasion greeting cards with my own work on the card!

Post from: Blisstree

Monday Spotlight: Moo’s Printing Service

Shopgirl asks re the Wishblade Reviews post:

I would like to create vinyl letters that would adhere to my storefront. I have had them made for me by a sign company, but they are too expensive. Where can I find the vinyl sticky paper (what is it’s technical industry name?) and which cutter should I buy??

Matt also asks regarding Wishblade usability:

I’d also need to know further about the custom graphics usability.

If I can’t just make stencils off a common editor like paint shop pro or photo shop, and cut them out with the machine, it’s useless to me. So i need to know what types of files wishblade will use (ie gif, jpg, tif), things like that.

PS: people interested in cricut.. it only uses graphics they sell you on cartriges at $80 per.. and you’re still stuck using what ever they make.. no doing your own.. at this time.

Melanie asks regarding Ria Mojica’s inspirational layout:

Would love to know where she obtained the embellishments for this super cute layout!!

Answer: I have emailed Ria regarding this. I will update this post once I hear back from her. Stay tuned!

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Any other questions you may have, please feel free to leave a comment on my blog or email me on christine(at)b5media(dot)com

I don’t have Wishblade so can’t really answer the questions here (but will do some research!). If any of you knows the answers to some of the questions featured here, please feel free to leave a comment on this entry.

Happy cropping!

Post from: Blisstree

Friday Q&A: Questions from Mad Cropper readers

The Pioneer Scrapbook Binding System is a cool product. It doesn’t look much but based on the reviews I read in Scrapbook.com, I think it’s a must have rather than a ‘nice to have’. I have post-bound scrapbooks and they can be a pain sometimes if my layouts are bulky because of the embellishments.

Here’s an example of a customer raving about this product:

These little peices of plastic are absolutely the best! No more messing with screwdrivers and adding extension posts with the Snap Load bindings. Once you replace your posts with this product, your pages will lay better, turn better and you can easily add in more pages anywhere you want. Double page layouts look better together, too, with no gaps between the pages! The instructions that come with the set are not very easy to follow so I’m going to help you out.

Just take out the posts and throw them away. Don’t bother with the instructions on the pack for leaving the posts in place. Now take all your pages and thread the straps through them. The straps are flat and have a smooth side and a ridged side. With the pages laying on the table, the ridge side should face center of the book. I know you want to thread with the ridges faceing up or down, but the ridged straps need to face each other. Now get the mounting locks. Peel off the backing and you will see that they each have a little bumpy snap at the back on one end. Place those snaps inside the album holes where the screws were so that the long end of the lock is facing down for the top holes and up for the bottom holes. Now thread the straps through and press them into place. If you made your book too tight or loose, you can easily adjust them at any time.

Post from: Blisstree

Innovative Scrapbook Product: Pioneer Scrapbook Binding System – Snap Load

She wrote to Making Memories asking for a replacement. Heard nothing for a week and a half so she thought that she won’t get a replacement. Lo and behold after a few more days she received a brand new replacement via Federal Express!

No questions asked! My friend got her trimmer that she deserves. Making Memories stand by their product and deliver on their promise.

Cool eh?

Post from: Blisstree

A Testimonial regarding Making Memories’ product integrity

1) Glue dots — I love, love them! They are perfect for adhering small things especially hand cut letters or little embellishments!

2) Stackable Paper Trays — helps me see what cardstocks I’ve got

3) Basic Grey Patterned Papers — I love, love the patterned papers of Basic Grey. They’re so elegant. Love it!

4) White Uni-Ball Impact Pen — want to make an impact on your journalling? A white pen is handy and improves your layouts. Takes it to the next level! The number of scrappers in my e-group who have purchased this baby is amazing!

5) Paper Trimmer – what would I do without a paper trimmer? Really! Seriously?!?

6) Sizzix Machine — I know there have been other die cut machines that have come out since the big Sizzix classic die cutter. But I love mine the best!

7) Rub-Ons – Love this one too. Great for Titles or journalling!

Acrylic Stamps and paints — I love Making Memories’ stamp pads and acrylic paint sets. I use them all the time!

9) Corner puncher — I love shaping edges of my photos and the corner puncher is quite handy for this!

10) Cutter Bee Scissors — It’s cute and features precision tip that’s great for details and corners. The grip handle is very easy on your hands too. Superb cuts!

What about you? What are your favourite scrapbook products?

Post from: Blisstree

Mad Cropper’s Top 10 Scrapbooking Products

In August of last year, I posted reviews of the Quickutz Silhouette from various source in the web. Now, we have a couple of Mad Cropper readers who have shared their experience with the tool. I hope you find these useful in helping you decide whether to buy that Quickutz Silhouette or not.

If you have a different experience from what was posted here, feel free to share by leaving a comment in this entry.

Barbara Haynes

I do love my Silhouette, but have downloaded Inkscape and I am learning to weld works using this program. Lots of learning curb, so I would love an upgrade on the Silhouette that would weld the words right in the program. Then it would be PERFECT!

Kathleen

I recently purchased the silhouette and am having the hardest time making anything. The letters are impossible, it does use many fonts but without being able to weld them together it’s sometimes impossible to use them. I have a lot of computer experience and am having an extremely difficult time using it. I downloaded inkscape, am using word and the software that came with it, ROBO Master. It’s very frustrating and I’m considering returning it. I was debating between this and the Cricut Expression and the deciding factor was the fact that I wouldnt’ have to buy cartridges. You still have to buy cd’s or files though unless you can make your own or use free ones, which aren’t always the greatest quality, or the largest selection.

Post from: Blisstree

Quickutz Silhouette: Digital Craft Cutter Reviews from Mad Cropper readers

The Quickutz Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter is an awesome addition to a scrapbooker’s collection of tools. The size of a printer, the Silhouette sits next to your computer and connects through a USB outlet. For use, it must be set out from the wall, but when not in use, can be pushed back. The Silhouette uses dowloaded fonts and designs along with the computer to digital transfer it to the machine and cut them out. Basically, you open a program, select the design or font you want, edit it on screen and the Silhouette cuts it out.

The Silhouette comes with software, cables, blades, and a cutting sheet. 50 design dowloads are also already included. Downloads from the company directly are about $10. They are purchased through your software and an internet connection. Prepaid dowload cards are available from Quickutz dealers making downloads a fraction of the cost. For example, with a pre-paid card, 5 downloads is $30, compared to the $50 you would pay by paying as you go. The Silhouette also uses fonts already on your computer. You can use any font as long as it is a “true-type” font, meaning it will end in “.ttf” in your documents and dowloads. You can also dowload many true type fonts for free on the internet. A quick search of my computer before I bought the Silhouette told me I had 233 true type fonts already on my computer. You can also cut the downloads that are pre-loaded, ones you purchase, ones you create, and clip-art that is not copyrighted. .GSD files , .GST files, and DXF loaded images can also be cut.

Although expensive, the Silhouette is easy to use. It can also cut out and entire word at once, compared to traditional cheaper die cutters where you had to change dies with every letter. It comes with a blade and three colored ends to attach to the blade to make the depth of the blade different. This gives a variety in the papers it can use. The blades can cut paper, cardstock, vellum, vinyl film, specialty paper, sticker or adhesive-backed paper, iron-on transfer paper, and magnetic paper, making it incredibly versatile.

Although the Silhouette doesn’t require you to be technically savvy to use the product, and you can get a lot of use out of it without a lot of technical knowledge, the more you learn about the capabilities of the machine, the more you can do. The Quickutz website has a lot of help, as well as their customer service line. It is not hard to use, but for someone like me, who doesn’t understand a lot of technical terms, it can be useful to check these options out.

Read the rest of Jennifer’s review HERE.

Post from: Blisstree

Quickutz Silhouette: Digital Craft Cutter Product Review

Oreosmom says

Well, it took me a little more time than I expected because I have Windows Vista…you do have to download TWO files from the Quickutz site for the drivers to work with Vista.

However….I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy

I still have a whole lot to learn, but I was able to cut something for you ladies to see….I wasn’t able to post it because Photobucket isn’t working. Sad

You’re going to have a great time, just don’t get frustrated when installing it. I didn’t know you can also use pens with the Silhouette!!

When I went to make my first cut, the paper ran back and forth through the machine THREE times before it cut so, I thought it was still not working and all of a sudden….It did it!!!

Kristina’s Review:

You know how much I love tools and this one is so cool! My FAVORITE thing about this tool is every true font on the computer you have the Silhouette plugged into, can be cut with this tool from 1/4″ to 8″!

I went to see the demo of this QuicKutz product. I think it is a little over-priced because you still have to buy CDs with clip art on them to update it.

It would be great for cutting out titles, but I don’t know if I would pay $400 for it.

I think I will just wait a little longer and I think the prices of all these cutting systems will keep coming down because of the competition.

Post from: Blisstree

Quickutz Silhouette: Digital Craft Cutter Reviews

I recently bought a MacBook (I switched from PC to Mac for the first time in my life!) and have slowly building my software applications. As a mad cropper, it is important to have an image editing software that I can use for my photos. After all, photos are the most important elements in a scrapbook layout. I’ve been surfing the web for applications that will best suit my needs and of course, a package that I can afford. I found
Adobe Photoshop Elements v.4.0 for Macintosh and found a rather ‘negative’ review of the product. Not sure if I’ll get it still but hope this review by B. Mullins helps you in your own decision-making process in the event that you are in the same boat as me!

I’ve had it for a couple of days now, but there are a number of things about PE4 that make the transition from version 3 to 4 needlessly difficult, not to mention if you get PE4 first.

The main change involves the use of “Bridge” to handle what the Browser function did previously. Unfortunately, it seems there are some missing planks in their Bridge, as it’s like having 2 separate programs attempt to talk to hand off files to each other. It is clunky, not intuitive at all, and often doesn’t work in a consistent way, even when you figure it out.

According to Adobe Technical Help [when you can reach them through 3 or 4 layers of sales beforehand], there is no “Organizer” for Mac that comes with the Windows version, and they were surprised at a number of missing elements in this version as a result. It also seems that they’ve tried to piggyback an existing full Photoshop program–Bridge–onto the back of Elements, which despite appearances, is a completely different program.

Another example: the Adjust Shadows/Highlights–which allows you to correct for things in shadows, or too bright…buried in a 3rd level menu…has been changed from the PE3 default of “50% lighten” to a “25% lighten” with no ability to change that preset. So everytime you want to adjust your picture, you have to push the slider back to 0% and start out there to see what’s best for your photo. Clearly Adobe recognized their 50% preset was too much for most, and changed it–but left off the ability of the user to preset what works best for us. What’s the solution to this or any other inflexible/confusing issue? I was told several times that if I wanted things to work better, I should buy the full Photoshop.

That is simply unacceptable, especially for a company of Adobe’s size and history of working primarily on the Mac platform. I would rather have fewer features that work more reliably and straightforward, especially involving putting our most used features on a toolbar instead of being forced to grab them out of deep menus everytime.

In Bridge, they are trying to combine a number of features found in iPhoto, such as rating photos by stars, making it more flexible. However, they don’t allow you to customize your displays or views enough to be efficient, much less easy to deal with. The speed of Bridge, and especially interacting with 4, is slow. Also particularly irksome is the lack of sensitivity/responsiveness of the sliders within PE4, i.e. brush size and opacity.

So far, I’m not impressed with the Magic Selection Tool, one of the main reasons I wanted to upgrade. It doesn’t seem to grab things as efficiently as advertised, although it is better than just the Magic Wand 3 had. I’m also less than impressed with another new feature: Adjust Skin Tone, something that could be a big time saver while offering the improvements most people care about.

The combined Help program is overly detailed in some regards, yet leaves out big chunks of the program for you to guess at solutions. They have virtually no tutorials or overviews of the program specifically for the Mac version.

I will update this review as I use it more, but I would caution against jumping at this upgrade until they work out more of the kinks in the interface, unless you are a virtual pro and don’t mind spending a lot of time figuring things out that aren’t quite Ready For Primetime yet. What I look to PE for is something that allows more extensive editing than iPhoto6 has, and yet doesn’t have the complexity or cost of the graphics standard Photoshop.

Whether because of the Mac platform changing to Intel chips, or friction between the companies, it seems Adobe is heading in the wrong direction on the Mac platform, making us seem once again like the red-haired stepchild in the computer world, while still charging the same as the Windows versions.

Post from: Blisstree

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Mac – A Review

Joanne Yap of Scrappin’ Moms just did a review of Canon Selphy ES1 Compact Photo Printer. It’s another important gadget for mad croppers like me. Drool, drool, drool!

Here’s an excerpt of Joanne’s review of Canon Selphy ES1:

The Selphy ES1 is incredibly fun and easy to use. It’s packed with an array of advanced technology. You truly make someone happy by being able to share a beautiful photo printed on the Selphy ES1. And you can afford to choose only to print the pictures you want only when you’re ready to do your layout, all that in 60 seconds!

So what does the Canon Selphy ES1 do to make it a cut above the rest? Here are some features that will certainly amaze every scrapbooker in town.

1) Photo Prints are guaranteed 100 years and because of its over coating, photos are protected from water, chemicals and finger prints even. This is because Canon has revolutionized its photo prints with its dye sublimation technology.

2) Canon brings color to life and allows color correction at your fingertips

3) Ink and Cartridge of prints are all in one, to ensure your prints come out perfectly proportioned of ink and paper. You are also given the opportunity to pick the sizes you print from 4r to cards size.

4) Special features are its new upright design for the space saving and portability factor. Another great feature is is its LCD color monitor which displays full screen image display.

5) And lastly its mobility feature lets you print anywhere because you can purchase an optional battery.

I am scrapbooker and the special feature that attracted me to this photo printing machine is it’s convenient connections. A photo is taken, and presto with this Selphy ES 1 you can print it with your camera directly, using a built in retractable cable an connects to your USB port.

You can use your camera’s memory cards too, simply insert in the Selphy ES 1 because it has multi memory slots. From camera cell phones print your photos with blue tooth wireless connectivity instantly. And lastly your personal computers or laptops can be connected to the Selphy because each unit has a software included in your package.

The best feature is its creative print function that lets you have album type layouts, calendar, multi layouts, speech bubbles and can print credit card, 3r and 4r sizes at the touch of your finger tips ! Imagine never to crop a photograph or print every single photo of your child’s party? This machine really allows you that freedom to print in the sizes you prefer and thus reducing your printing budget.

Make someone happy, buy a Selphy.

Arrgghhhhh!

Post from: Blisstree

Printing photos with Canon Selphy ES1