Friday, October 14, 2011

Using Digital Images

My friend Abby (from Little Birdie Blessings) is the one I have to thank for the digital inspiration.  She sent me a cute little card with a birdie on it that was just beautiful.....and the entire card was done digitally!  Well, that got me to looking around web for some free digital kits to try out.  Of course I asked Abby too --- and she forwarded several wonderful sites to me.
 So today I'm sharing some cards I made up using only digital items, AND of course I'll share some fun sites where you can download your own digital images to work with.
 Let me list for you a few of the benefits of making digital cards/scrapbook pages:
  1. If you're in a creative slump and can't seem to get things to turn out right -- mess around with some digital elements.  You can always delete things off you don't like - and you're not wasting ink, paper, or other scrapbooking supplies to do it.  (The trash can in my craft room wouldn't fill up nearly so fast if I used this "rule" in the future!)
  2. Nothing to drag out to create -- so it would be fairly convenient to take it along with you somewhere - especially if you have your digital images on a laptop!
  3. No mess to clean up afterwards -- big plus!!
  4. You can combine images from all the kits and layer away to your hearts content!
  5. You can re-size any image you want to use - not possible with stamps
  6. No thick layers to think about protecting or paying extra postage for!
 Now that's not to say I'm going totally digital! I still love the feel of  3D card with real flowers, lace, and other embellishments, BUT it's fun to mess around with the digital stuff too!
I know at least one lady that I make cards for on a fairly regular basis that would NOT like my digital stuff at all!  She likes LOTS of layers and extra stuff on her cards -- nothing plain and simple and certainly nothing one layer!  SO...I couldn't go all digital even if I wanted to (ha ha!).
Oh, and I just remembered some Photoshop Brushes that  friend downloaded (for free) and then installed on my computer (back when I had dial-up and couldn't download big files quickly).  They are going to be so neat to combine with these digital scrapbooking sets!
O.K. now on to the links:
  1. Shabby Princess has a whole page of free digital kits -- a lot of the elements you see above are from there
  2. Raspberry Road Designs --- beautiful freebies and also kits for sale(recommended by Abby)
  3. Raspberry Road Blog
  4. Faith Sisters has Scriptures that layer over you page nicely (also recommended by Abby!) 
  5. Paper Craft Memories has a whole page of Scriptures you can download and layer over your creations too.
  6. Abby also told me about  Jessica Sprague -- she has one buck Wednesday where different kits are on sale for $1 that day.
  7. One more (also from Abby -- isn't she just the best?!) Star Sunflower Studio
The two companies I used in my designs (above) were Shabby Princess and Raspberry Road Designs.  I had so much fun combining images from different kits and companies.
Thanks Abby for giving me the inspiration to try this and also for sharing most all of these fun links with me! 
Why don't you give it a try -- you just might find it to be lots of fun!

5 comments:

Pamela said...

I love these, Esther. I've just started dabbling in digi and love what you can do. I do like mixing the two like putting an element onto the digi. I love the saying, "You are such a joy to me."

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll pin this for later - just wish I had the time to really explore all these things! I'd so love to make such beautiful images! Love your work!!
Joy!
Kathy

Little Birdie Blessings said...

Oh Esther, what a great post. You're so kind to me. Love all those links you've shared with others. You've definitely got a spark in your writing that will get others enthused for digital. I've always enjoyed working with digital images and graphics, and often combine them with actual paper and elements like you did. That's called Hybrid. Lots of fun and I can see you're really enjoying it. Hugs to you my friend. ~ Abby

Unknown said...

Your cards are beau-TI-full!!! Amazing job! I just love your blog.

Christa said...

These are gorgeous, and even more so in real life!

I'm bookmarking this post to browse and collect some digital files, and then I need to find a good printer that doesn't eat an ink cartridge every few days.

Thanks so much for sharing!