Escape and Scrap – https://www.e-scapeandscrap.net/boutique/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=113_319
Daisies and Dimples – http://daisiesanddimples.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=347
My LAYOUTS:
Visit Kaklei Designs Fan Group! on Facebook
Thank You very much for visiting!
Su
Greetings! This morning there was just the slightest tinge of fall in the air when I awoke. I love it when it is cool out. When it’s hot, it is so hard to cool off. But, when it’s cold, you can bundle up and keep warm by a fire or under lots of blankets. My favorite thing – cozy! LOL
Last week was definitely not up there among stellar weeks! LOL I’m behind again, or should I say, ‘still’! Both time-wise and financially! LOL Quite frankly, my nerves are just plain shot! Things are real crazy! So, if ya’ll don’t mind, I’m just gonna post the final parts to this month’s freebie, CU 001. I hope you have enjoyed this one and can use the goodies we’ve made!
Part 5
http://www.suruha.com/download/su_cu_sept/su CU Sept 12 Pt 5.zip
Part 6
http://www.suruha.com/download/su_cu_sept/su CU Sept 12 Pt 6.zip
Here is the Preview of what you will be getting:
Then, if you haven’t been to Miss Edna’s blog for her final parts, click on her preview to go there:
Thank you for all of your kind comments! You really are a great bunch of folks! I’m so pleased you visit!
Until next time,
Smile for me!
Hugs,
Su
Good Monday, All! It’s a little later that I am posting today. I had a hard time getting going this morning! My grandchildren cam and got in bed with me at 5:00 this morning. The older one, laid down and snoozed. Not the little girl! If that child is awake – everyone is! LOL So, after they left for school, granny went back and laid down for a bit!
Let’s get straight down to the freebie! This week you get another two parts to our first CU(Commercial Use) freebies. We have decided to do the CU every 3 months or so. We both enjoyed the creative process and had fun with making this month’s goodies.
As usual, click on my links below for Parts 3 and 4, then, click on Miss Edna’s preview to go to her blog to download her two parts. Miss Edna is an early poster, so, hers is always up before mine, but, if you haven’t been there yet, be sure to go!
Last week, we gave out two parts each, which are still available. This week, two more, then, next week, the final two parts. That’s two parts each so, you end up with twelve(12) parts by the time you collect them all!
My Preview
Check it out! These files are NOW direct linked!! Woo-Hoo!
Part 3 – http://www.suruha.com/download/su_cu_sept/su CU Sept 12 Pt 3.zip
Part 4 – http://www.suruha.com/download/su_cu_sept/su CU Sept 12 Pt 4.zip
Miss Edna’s Preview
That is gonna do it for today! Be sure to come again next Monday for the final parts. Until then…
SMILE!
Hugs,
Su
It’s done! From now on, all my downloads will be direct downloads! Yay! I shouldn’t have to host my files on Minus anymore, though, of all the hosting sites, they were awesome! I learned how to use the FTP and put the files in to my site’s files for direct download. Thanks to my friend, J. and the folks at Hosting Bonanza! All files are ‘on site’! Woo-hoo! I hope to, eventually, move the bulk of my goodies in to my own site, so, I don’t have to rely on the hosting sites anymore. Then, I won’t have to put up with the scams (see last post), pop-ups, and constant waiting that come with some of those sites! Yay!
If you are in to digital scrapbooking, there is an entire community of scrappers online. There are hundreds of shops, forums and articles, with tips and tutorials, that make up one huge community. Everything I have learned in scrapping, I learned from other scrappers, either by asking, reading posts, or from tutorials. This is probably the case with many of my fellow scrappers. You seek out and find a site, possibly with a forum and a good group of folks, with fun challenges and helpful members, and you’re set! Everyone seems to find their niche quite easily as the members are a friendly bunch. That’s what I have noticed about scrapbooking. Everyone is so helpful and friendly!
I will venture a guess and say that over half, at least, the scrappers use Photoshop. Learning PS is the biggest hurdle! So, along with learning digi-scrapping, you must learn how to use Photoshop, or some other editing program. It is in trying to learn PS that I have discovered another huge community of folks – the PS design blogs/sites. These are the sites where you can read anything at all on the topic of using Photoshop. You can find a plethora of presets: textures, patterns, brushes, actions, you name it! If it works in PS, it is offered! Additionally, there are scads of tutorials that are there to teach old and new techniques and offer inspiration. Some sites have Premium areas where members have access to certain tutorials and PS goodies for a minimal fee. Most are under 10 dollars a month, with even better deals for 6 or 12 month memberships. Several of the larger sites are a part of a network of related sites, all included under one membership and all geared to help you with design! But, the bulk of these sites are there for your perusal of free goodies. I sign up for the RSS feed on most of them and have their frequent updates and newsletters sent right to my inbox so I don’t miss a thing. Over time, I have learned which ones are better than others and have adjusted my e-mail intake accordingly.
I bring all this up as the scrapbooking community, as huge at it is, is not the end all of obtaining resources and learning Photoshop. While these PS design blogs/sites may not have blinkies to collect and display on our blogs, and they may not have the challenges and communal events so popular in scrapping sites, they offer some serious PS help! Over the past 4 years, I have learned a great deal from subscribing to these design sites. I’ve also learned which ones are preferable. I want to share with you all what I have found. I promise you won’t be disappointed in any of them!
I want to note that some of these sites have ‘vectors’, either in their name or as a feature. DO NOT ignore these sites! Vectors work in PS! If you don’t know this, you do now. Look at the file format – .ai (Adobe Illustrator). Adobe is the key word here. But, .eps (Encapsulated Post Script) files open in PS, too. Try to open either one in PS and see for yourself. There is a box that pops up that will guide you through opening the image. As PS is a raster program, the .ai and .eps files will be converted into rasters once opened. To maintain the ‘vector’ status, though, they must be opened in Illustrator or another vector program.
Ready? Alrighty! In no particular order:
WebTreats – This site is well-known for their wonderful patterns with liberal terms. But, they do offer other PS presets, such as brushes, textures, shapes, styles, etc. I know you’ve seen these around the web!
Image Linked to Item
PSDFanExtra – This is a large network of sites offering all kinds of presets, for free, as well as their Premium section’s offerings. They feature a weekly set of textures that I always love! Here’s a set of mixed textures from a recent offering:
Image Linked to Item
I tend to fancy this site as the folks there are wonderful help! On their BlogsFanExtra site, you can ask for and receive a redesign of your blog – free. Tom will evaluate your current blog/site and make recommendations. He includes a .PSD file of his recommended suggestions. He did my previous blog and I took his advice, carrying over to this blog, his ideas and suggestions. My content is what I want featured, not necessarily other scrappers blogs. He’s evaluated some popular sites since it’s inception.
PSDTuts – This site is also a part of a large network with a Premium section. They’re very well known for thier tutorials and their ‘mini-courses’ in all sort of Photoshop training. Their Basix series, featured by Martin Perhiniak, is wonderful for a beginner learning PS.
Image Linked to Item
They also offer many free resources such as the previously mentioned presets.
PSDDude – This site has some of the coolest offerings, in my opinion. As they don’t have a Premium section, that I know of, all of their offerings are free. Just in the past week, I have obtained an action that gives paper a folded look
Image Linked to Item
and a set of styles that create both Letterpress and embossed effects for your designs.
Image Linked to Item
CreativeNerds – Another good site, featuring similar free resources and tutorials. They often feature goodies from other sites that one might miss if they didn’t. They have a really good Premium section and, get this, their membership is $15.99 for A YEAR!
Their most recent free offering:
Image Linked to Item
VectorPatterns – Don’t let the name mislead you! These folks come out with the most awesome free patterns! I think I have downloaded all of them! Their latest offering:
Image Linked to Item
Each download comes with a scalable vector and a PS .PAT file. They have some cute designs, perfect for scrapbooking!
Fuzzimo – I saved the best for last! This site seems to cater to the needs of us scrappers. They offer some fantastic freebies, many of which I have used, myself, and have seen others use.
Image Linked to Item
Image Linked to Item
Image Linked to Item
Obviously, there are a gazillion more web sites, many that are similar to these. And, there are even more design sites that aren’t strictly PS sites. Many are specializing in web design, or, in a particular aspect of PS and/or design. For that, many of their resources work for scrapbooking. I only mention these few sites as I find they are tops in providing goodies that scrappers might be able to use. While I absolutely love the scrapbooking community, I only want to suggest that there are other communities of resource providers and folks who are eager and willing to help available. Hey, the scrapbooking community has some fantastic designers, but, sometimes, free is what we need. A good deal of these sites have liberal terms, as well! I hope you have found something among these sites I’ve listed! That would make me
Hugs,
Su
Good Monday to All. I hope everyone is well and in good spirits. Wish I was. Sheesh! I am so flippin’ depressed, I hope I can get through it. Everything is gone wrong. I can’t go into it all, but, suffice to say, I don’t know what I am going to do! Oh, well! LOL
Have any of you received an e-mail from any of the file-hosting services, lately, claiming some part of your digi-files are infringing on a copyright? A few weeks ago I got an e-mail stating that 2 of my files on MediaFire were in violation of Copyright infringement. The letter, which included a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo, included a lengthy list of all the files they were claiming as infringed. The letter open with:
Hello, My Name is Hervé Lemaire , CEO of LeakID, I am legal representative of lemaire which does business under the name Metropolitan, Authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. You are hereby given notice valid under the DMCA copyright infringement notification requirements, 17 U.S.C.512. I am the designated agent of the owner of the copyrights of the images and audio/visual works listed below. I believe that the images and audio/visual works listed at the times cited below are being copied and distributed in a manner that has been not authorized by the owner of the copyrights, its agent or the law. All link below containing pirated versions of lemaire copyrighted works. The information in the notice is accurate, under penalty of perjury. Please remove all linksAs soon as possible, we will check them everyday. Thanks to inform us about y our actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this common goal. Very truly yours, Hervé
The files in question are part of a set of downloads for a kit I made, so, there are multiple images in the two files in question. I requested in a response that they inform me of the exact images, but, I haven’t heard back from them. I made all of the parts to the kit! That, or what I used, I knew where it came from and there were not any stipulations. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before!
I mentioned it to an online friend and she said the same thing had happened to her! Then, this morning, while perusing a site of another scrapbooking lady in France, I saw a post about infringement and read it. The very same thing is happening to her, only she claims it is 4-Shared that sent her the e-mail.
I decided to do a little research. Apparently, this act of alerting people that their files are infringement of someone else’s rights is a cancer! I realize that copyright theft is rampant! Over at DeviantArt, it is an almost daily occurrence. Artists are closing their accounts in droves due to the outright theft of their art! One artist, with a rather unusual name, had someone open an Etsy shop, by the very same name, selling all of the artists goods for theirself! When the artist addressed the thief, the thief stated that the pieces were ‘out there’, so, what did it matter’. I guess since people post things on an open internet, it makes the things fair game in the thief’s eyes. But, to use the artist’s own name was ridiculous! The artist began removing all of her art from DA and, finally, Etsy closed the thief down.
So, I get it about the infringement. But, what if the files aren’t an infringement, as in my case and the case of the others I mention. This doesn’t even include all the rest of the files listed in the e-mail, belonging to other ‘infringers’. There were 563 infringed files on the list!
The action taken by the hosting services is to suspend the files in question. Needless to say, I am moving all of my files elsewhere. In my researching the topic online, I found several incidents of false claims that were quite scandalous. Those were big claims and one, in particular, that caught a lot of attention, proved to be a mistake. This is looking like a new way of stealing to me! What is stopping me from claiming your files as my own and alerting MediaFire or 4-Shared, providing the files are hosted on their sites? Either from lack of knowledge as to how to handle a bogus claim or from not knowing of the claim at all, you don’t do anything. Wallah! I claim them as my own and you look like a thief! That’s what is happening!
In looking over the list of files included, there are a lot of music files and games, as well as anime. Some things are obvious. like music and games. I mean, if I am hosting a hot, new artist’s music, I’m asking for trouble. It’s pretty obvious it isn’t mine! But, what about the files that are mine? I just wonder how many of this 563 files really are infringing! Somebody isn’t playing nice! I don’t have money to pay for legal fees to fight this, but, I can remove my files from MediaFire and 4-Shared. What a pain! That means I have to change all the links in my posts, too! But, that’s okay! The two sites are becoming impossible, anyway, with all the damn pop-ups! Even with my pop-up-blocker, for every download at MediaFire, I get two pop-ups.
Alrighty, then! LOL Having gotten that off my chest, let’s move on to what we are really here for – the new Freebie from Miss Edna and I! This month, we did something totally new. We made CU Okay goodies! Following a colour palette, somewhat, we have made overlays and patterns and stock images and all kinds of goodies, just for you, that may be used for Commercial Use and any other use, PU, S4H, etc. We both enjoyed creating and plan on releasing a new CU freebie once every 3 months, 4 times a year! So, do watch for those. This one is “CU001”.
We usually post QP’s for our first two(2) parts, but, not this time. Starting with Part 1, all of the offerings are free digi-elements! We will give you two(2) parts today, two(2) parts next Monday, then, the last two(2) on the following Monday. That means you’ll have a total of twelve(12) parts of new CU goodies! So, without further adieu, here are the links for the first two(2) parts.
CU001 – Part 1 – http://www.suruha.com/download/su CU Sept 12 Pt 1.zip
CU001 – Part 2 – http://www.suruha.com/download/su CU Sept 12 Pt 2.zip
Here is a preview of my offerings:
And, here is Miss Edna’s previews! She did a different preview for each part.
(Click on image to go to her blog for these two parts)
There ya go! Let us know what you think of our new kind of freebie, please. We really hope you enjoy!
Until next time…
I hope you are smiling!!
Hugs,
Su
a free spirit 