Wednesday, September 30, 2009

MORE STUFF ON EBAY - RUBBER STAMPS!


Just to let you all know, I have started listing the stamps for sale.

Altered book page copyright Susie Jefferson.


There are also 4 issues of Teesha Moore's Studio zine.

I will be putting up a lot more stuff, including grab bags of stamps, so do keep checking if you are interested.

My eBay seller ID is: sandpjefferson

Thanks for looking!

Monday, September 28, 2009

COMPETITION - FINAL CALL


Just a final reminder that the BladeRubberStamps competition closes on WEDNESDAY, 30th September. 


As there has been a disappointing number of entries (sob) I am amending the competition details, and opening the competition up to cards, ATCs, Inchies and Twinchies as well as postcards, journals, altered art and scrapbooking.

So I hope there'll be a few more entries! I am so looking forward to seeing what you've done.

Full details of the prizes etc are here, or click the button in the sidebar.

Send me your jpgs!

Friday, September 25, 2009

HAPPY PINK SATURDAY BLINKIE

I'm very excited - I just created my very first blinkie (with the help of Picasion as I couldn't find the Animation button on Photoshop).



Take this code:

<a href="http://1stfloorflatblogology.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu313/1stFloorFlatComputery/ee79e342.gif"/></a>

So here it is: especially for you Pink Saturday ladies! 

If you'd like the blinkie for the sidebar of  your blog, just copy the code and paste it into an html box. In Blogger, go to Layouts > Page Elements > Add a Gadget > choose HTML/Java code box, and just paste the code into the box and then Save. That's it!

Hope you like it!


Click this link to visit Beverly's blog How Sweet the Sound to read the rest of the Pink Saturday posts.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

BIG CLEAROUT ON EBAY


I'm overwhelmed with STUFF - it's only a small, one-bed flat - and I simply have to make some room in here for yet more art materials.

So I'm having a massive clearout on eBay! If anyone is in need of art books, including two on polymer clay, some mixed media, journaling, bookbinding et al, you might want to take a look.

My seller ID on eBay is sandpjefferson and here is a link to what's for sale right now.  

This is just the first wave! I'm too tired to list anything more tonight.

Tomorrow, I'll be listing more art books, some DVDs and some art materials, so do check back.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

EDITING PHOTOS: NO STRAIN, NO PAIN

How do you like this great vintage photo effect? 


Copyright Mary at Across the Pond











I just found this great photo editor for you - thanks to Mary at Across the Pond (who has a great blog, incidentally - you must visit) which does everything for you!

It's called PhotoScape - it's FREE - and you can download it here.

For anyone technically challenged, or anyone in a hurry - like me - who just wants to get in, do the job, get out - this is ideal.

I'm really impressed with it - and there's loads of little video tutorials, plus you can do montages, vintage effects, batch editing, add frames and text!

ENJOY!

Friday, September 18, 2009

PINK SATURDAY - TRUE LOVE


Copyright-free pics from my own collection - PU & CU OK - but no putting into collage sheets or CD collections.

What could be more Pink Saturday than True Love - all things Valentine, pink, red, hearts, passion... so here it is in black and white (and sepia)!











I found a wonderful video on YouTube - Gomez and Morticia from the original Addams Family TV series. This has it all - fire, passion, comedy and above all.... LOVE.



This touches me, as it's very much the way my husband behaves around me: 59 going on 9, attention-seeking, silly, funny, happy and still a delight: after 16 years together, he still makes me laugh. And there's no-one else I'd rather talk to and spend time with. My darling and my best friend.

I found the video via a comment left on one of my posts by Sugarpie on her brand new blog Lipstick, Lace & Lingerie which is simply stunning - you MUST visit!. It's also introduced me to a new group, The Rescues, which I had never heard before either, so I am totally thrilled on both fronts.

Make sure you have the sound turned on for this one: it fits the video perfectly. Thanks so much for this, Sugarpie - it's made my day.

This neatly segues into another little gem I found for you: The Dance, Le Tendre, made by Serendasong on YouTube. Very charming, bittersweet, intensely romantic. Again, turn the sound on for this one.



Very simple, almost stark, this basically says it all. The music is Le Tendre et Dangereux Visage de l'Amour by Jacques Janssen (1942) and the film clips are circa 1920.

And here's the lyrics to one of my favourite songs: again, bittersweet and thought-provoking.



Where or When 
Lyrics by Rogers & Hart






When you're awake the things you think
Come from the dream you dream
Thought has wings, and lots of things
Are seldom what they seem

Sometimes you think you've lived before
All that you live today
Things you do come back to you
As though they knew the way

Oh the tricks your mind can play

It seems we stood and talked like this, before
We looked at each other in the same way then
But I can't remember where or when

The clothes you are wearing are the clothes you wore
The smile you are smiling you were smiling then
But I can't remember where or when

Some things that happened for the first time
Seem to be happening again

And so it seems that we have met before
And laughed before, and loved before
But who knows where or when.

 









You've gathered that I love old movies, anything vintage. There's a charm and an innocence found nowhere else, so this post is steeped in sweet nostalgia.


Click this link to visit Beverly's blog How Sweet the Sound to read the rest of the Pink Saturday posts.

Friday, September 11, 2009

PINK SATURDAY


I'm showing off my new blog button - it's an inchie, made especially for me by Jennifer of  The Rusty Tiara.


I saw her post House Inchie, and shamlessly begged for one just like it! So now it's my new Home link.  Mine, all mine (NOT copyright-free, and not for sharing)!

And to go with it, here are some other houses and some poems I found on the web which cover most situations we find ourselves in during our lives:



Copyright-free image, source unknown - sorry











A House Is Not A Home
Burt Bacharach

A chair is still a chair
Even when theres no one sitting there
But a chair is not a house
And a house is not a home
When theres no one there to hold you tight,
And no one there you can kiss good night.

A room is still a room
Even when theres nothing there but gloom;
But a room is not a house,
And a house is not a home
When the two of us are far apart
And one of us has a broken heart.

Now and then I call your name
And suddenly your face appears
But its just a crazy game
When it ends it ends in tears.

Darling, have a heart,
Dont let one mistake keep us apart.
Im not meant to live alone.
Turn this house into a home.
When I climb the stair and turn the key,
Oh, please be there still in love with me.


Copyright-free image from Art-e-zine









A Baby In The House
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I knew that a baby was hid in that house,
Though I saw no cradle and heard no cry;
But the husband was tip-toeing 'round like a mouse,
And the good wife was humming a soft lullaby;
And there was a look on the face of the mother,
That I knew could mean only one thing, and no other.

The mother, I said to myself, for I knew
That the woman before me was certainly that;
And there lay in a corner a tiny cloth shoe,
And I saw on a stand such a wee little hat;
And the beard of the husband said, plain as could be,
'Two fat chubby hands have been tugging at me.'

And he took from his pocket a gay picture-book,
And a dog that could bark, if you pulled on a string;
And the wife laid them up with such a pleased look;
And I said to myself, 'There is no other thing
But a babe that could bring about all this, and so
That one thing is in hiding somewhere, I know.'

I stayed but a moment, and saw nothing more,
And heard not a sound, yet I know I was right;
What else could the shoe mean that lay on the floor,
The book and the toy, and the faces so bright;
And what made the husband as still as a mouse?
I am sure, very sure, there's a babe in that house.


Copyright-free image from Art-e-zine







The Fun House
Mark Lewis Berryann, 2009


I finally took some time just for good ole me,
Sitting back to relax in search of true harmony,
An endeavor when life has been taking its toll,
A moment to be sitting with no paper on the roll.

I have so much to win and even more to lose,
I may drain a few bottles when forced to choose,
I have learned to minimize the pain from my loss,
Like a missing pizza cutter left in last weeks box.

I’ve a cat to remind me of my importance here,
He licks my face and makes my troubles disappear,
Large sums of cat nip and he flops in one place,
Waking with a hangover he bites me on the face.

I have two sons who remain smarter than me,
At least that’s what they torture me to believe,
With rooms that appear to have been robbed,
Do video games inadvertently lead to a good job?

I would say a few funny things about my wife,
But, she's who helped to put the humor back in life,
All joking aside I consider my wife far above,
Still there's nothing more fun than being hopelessly in love.


Copyright-free image, Creative Commons





As they say, East or West, HOME is best!

Click this link to visit Beverly's blog How Sweet the Sound to read the rest of the Pink Saturday posts.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

COMPETITION - REMINDER


Just a reminder that there's a competition on the Blade Rubber Stamps blog.


Here's the link for the full details.



I hope you'll join in!

Finalists will all have their work displayed on the blog, and I for one can't wait to see it!

The competition is open to anyone, not just the UK, and I'm looking for altered art, scrapbooking and journal pieces - there just has to be a rubber stamp used in there somewhere (by any manufacturer).

I hope you'll join in! Email your artwork to me (click the link in the sidebar).

MUSIC WIDGETS - AGAIN!

I got an email from someone asking me about the music widget controversy - she was a little disbelieving about the "you can't hear the music because of copyright issues" thing on Playlist (I'm in the UK) so here's the proof.


Copyright-free image from Tack-O-Rama

 I took the snapshot of one particular blog where the widget is at the very bottom - which is good, because it makes the blog load faster - but is bad, because my computer was frozen for the usual 3-5 minutes, and I couldn't figure out why!













Here's my original post on the subject, in case anyone reading this wants to reset their players.

Friday, September 4, 2009

PINK SATURDAY - MAKING BLOGGER BLOGGING A HAPPIER EXPERIENCE

I wonder whether you've noticed that Blogger has updated their blogging platform, to make things easier for us?


Copyright-free pic from Flickr


Does your New Post text box look like this?



If not, you need to update your tools.





Here's how:

Go to Settings > Basic 










Scroll right down to the bottom of the page, and you'll see this:






Click on it! You now have the new Editor.

OK - done that... now what?

What you get is the new New Post text box, and you'll see things are a little different. You get Undo and Redo buttons, for a start! This is guaranteed to make life easier (I don't care to remember how many times I wiped a potential post by mistake).














Next to the Undo and Redo buttons, you'll notice button F - which is the font button. Your font is set via Layouts > Fonts & Colours, where you set the main fonts, sizes and colours for the entire blog. The F button changes the font within a post, eg: a header where you want a different typeface to really stand out. I have used Arial to label the top photograph.

T - this changes the size of the text. My first paragraph is Large, and the top photograph is typed in Ariel, Small. This sets it apart from the body of the text and makes it visible without being too prominent.

B button is BOLD

I is for ITALIC

ABC is the strikethrough - use this when you go back in and edit an old post, to show you have changed something. Highlight the text with your cursor, then press the ABC button to make it strike through.

A is the text colour. Again, I'd use this for emphasis - perhaps to highlight links or text you particularly want to be noticed.


The highlighter symbol . Again, highlight text with your cursor, then press the button (the little arrow allows you to choose your colour). Great for links within a post!









Link - add your hyperlink. NEW - you can add email addresses.

The picture button lets you upload pix one at a time into the box. Click on the picture you want to add to your blog, then click Add Image and it will appear where your cursor is in the body of your blog post. This is NEW - all pictures used to load at the top of your post, which was highly frustrating. And the Preview didn't help much either.








Select Small, Medium or Large (this is the thumbnail size of your image - clicking on it when published will still bring up the full-sized picture) and Left, Centre or Right to position it. These pix are all Medium and I set them all Left.

 
We're all familiar with the appearance of our text: left, right, centred or justified . Full justification is a new option.
We are also familiar with numbered or bullet-point lists as well.
The quote marks highlight a paragraph like this, in case you aren't familiar with this funtion.
Tx - this removes the formatting from a piece of text. Especially useful if you've copied a passage of text from Word, as this can Do Strange Things to your post - as when all my links suddenly went blue, and I couldn't change them. I had to go through and delete all Word formatting from every single affected post!


And once you've hit Publish Post, you'll see a little pencil icon. Click on that to edit the post - no more going to Customise > Dashboard > Posting > Edit Posts. Don't see that icon? Then you need to go to Layout view, and click Edit in the main posting block, as shown below.

 
When in Edit, you'll see this:

Check the Show Quick Editing box, and save it.
Whilst we're at it, why not change your COMMENTS link. You know, where it says 0 COMMENTS or 51 COMMENTS. Why not change it to something more interesting, eg: ... lovely people left a comment. 

Here's how:

And here's how it looks on the page!



You might like to read my other post about improving your blog to make it a nicer place to visit. (Notice how I highlighted the link?)


This is how adding the link looks in the new editor:


 And you get to proof-read it as well, before finalising it.


And finally....

Add a label cloud! Way nicer than lists - although lists have their place too. Go to Layout > Add a Gadget > Label, and choose your settings. 

If you don't like the look of Blogger's label cloud, here's my earlier post on how to customise and install your own.




Click this link to visit Beverly's blog How Sweet the Sound to read the rest of the Pink Saturday posts.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

SHABBY CHIC & ALTERED PHOTOGRAPHS

I just found a couple of very nice tutorials by Milliande on how to alter and distress your photos for a shabby chic look. 

I already have the book mentioned (Altered Imagery by Karen Michel) but it's so nice to see a video tutorial as well! (I have a nasty habit of looking at the pictures but not trying the techniques - then the book goes on the shelf  and I've forgotten all about it...)

How to get from this:



All photographs copyright Milliande




 To this!








Here is Part 2, which also includes a journal page.
 











Abolutely brilliant!