I know I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog, and most definitely not good at keeping up with my friends :(
I need a whole refurbishment but, as many of you know, I had some major computer crashes...so now I am trying to get organised and tidy up the *house*, so, expect some new look,new interesting competitions and freebies coming up, stayed tuned.
Before anything I feel I should thank a North American gentleman from the Serif Software forums, because without him nothing would have been possible. As many of you know, I'm not keen on PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements, though I have PSE in my Mac, I find it great for photo treatment, for re sizing and stuff of the sort, but for my scrapping and designing? Well, that will be Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 by Serif, the very best program there is.
This amazing piece of software comes handy for under £30 (which means just under US$ 50, me thinks) which is slightly cheaper than PSE and...well...far, far easier to use.
DSA2 has a CutOut Studio which is an amazing tool that will allow you to extract just about anything from a photo with such presition is even scary....and a very good photo editing tool with all the filters my PSE6 has.
You struggle with shadows? well.. suffer no more, because DSA2 will give you the most professional looking shadows by just a twick of the mouse.
I could go on and on, but just look at my pages from October 2009 onwards and you will know.
Serif people are so proud and sure of the product they have created that they even give you a simpler, compact trial version for free. Of course full version will give you an assortment of tools you wont have in the compact, but I know the people I have shown this program to are totally amazed and needed no more than 5 minutes in the compact to go running to get the full version....is that good.
There is also a website called Daisy Trail where you can post your creations without needing to resize, but, though the people over there are marvellous and I was welcomed wonderfully, I am loyal to my scrapping home at Gotta Pixel and have, am afraid, little time at the moment for much else than there and my other CT commitments...
Now, DSA is a program designed to work on PC's (Windows) and I'm on iMac...so I have had my fair share of suffering to get it to work properly, and this is where the Serif Software Forums come in, and with it my saviour, this gentleman who posts there as webmasternapa, and to whom I owe the peace of mind of being able to run DSA to the best of the program's ability.
He has spent time making me a document (idiot proof too, taking into account my little knowledge of technicalities LOL) to re install my Parallels (the program which allows me to have a virtual PC in my Mac) and Windows, and then he also invested a lot of time with me online to make all work to precision... so, thanks so much, Brian, you give me back the trust in humanity :)
But I have to say that the kindness of these people doesn't limit to this one gentleman.
In the 11 months I have been going up and down trying to get the program to work well, I have received so much help from other users at this Serif Forums, I thought they were Serif employees...well, they are not.
These guys are simply people who love the software they use and love to share their knowledge with others and help..which is a rare thing these days....and if you think that, with me, they need to put up with complete technical ignorance...well, they are saints! LOL
There are a few whom i should name because it is because of them I am happily scrapping away, they are a wonderful girl who goes as mjh, and two gentleman Alfred & Peter.
There is someone who needs a very special mention and she is the one you will absolutely LOVE if you buy this program...because she will show you with her videos how to make things you have never thought possible...
her name is Melinda, she is in YouTube as lovemyzombie and once you have DSA2, she will become your most amazing companion and her voice will guide you through her mouse expertingly moving through the DSA tools in her videos.
Remember: you can do just about ANYTHING with this program.
I see I have gone from an update into a review...but without DSA I wouldn't have been able to do what I'm doing now. I had to make some adjustments in the teams I was in and stay with what I know I will be able to manage...
If you know me, you know I am not keen on people who are in gazillion CTs , no matter how great you are...no matter how beautiful your pages are...you will neglect the community side of things.
And to me, if you have no time for the other women who make possible that you would be in the CTs...well...your page become cold and have no more appeal to me.
As much as a great CT page made me go mad with a kit I never thought could be of any use for me and I didn't stop until I bought it (full price!), this other kind of CT member can put me of buying from a designer too.
So, I m just keeping to the very things I am able to deal with without neglecting my community participation.
I am guest for Captivated Visions & Connie Prince, both super designers, favourites of mine, for September, and I'm staying with SweetDigiScraps by Liz and Mye De Leon (another couple of amazingly creative women whom I'm devoted to) and I have now a huge responsibility as Isabel Mendez (Crisdam Designs) asked me to take the lead of her CT.
I know a lot of people out there are thinking I am inexperient to take on this role,but I believe there is nothing in this life that cannot be achieved if you have passion, love, dedication...all things I'm proud to say I have regarding Isabel and her designs.
But yes,in a way or another some of these people maybe rigt, that's why I called my friend Trista (whom you may know better as scrappyt)ha wonderful Texan girl, an artist who scraps from the heart like I do and we are helping Isabel with new look, new team, same marvellous designs that captured my love when I first came to Gotta Pixel and I'm sure you will love too.
We have a CT call at the moment, the deadline for applications is the 24th, so, if you had not seen the call before and would like to apply, you still have three days. The new team will be announced on the 30th :)
I will be refurbishing my blog too, as I had to move my personal blog to Word Press as the site where I blogged (Vox.com) is closing down , still unsure what I will do with that....but my craft work will remain here and I will very soon give it a fresh look and update info :)
So, for the latest news on freebies go to my previous post, and you can visit Isabel's blog, and, of course, the Gotta Pixel Store for goodies!!! Today is Pixel Tuesday at GP, be sure to go get yourself some treats!!!
Here is the CT Call instructions and there is also a post I made HERE @ Gotta Pixel, explaining a bit better who are we looking for. We have already received amazing applications and are very, very excited!!!
See you soon and, HappyTuesday!!!!
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