DigiDares

Just sending a quick public kudos to DigiDares – we think your scrapbook pages and digital scrapbook items are excellent!

Katie Pertiet Interview

This interview with Katie Pertiet of Designer Digitals is now online.  Click to get your digital scrapbooking secrets from the Queen of Digital herself – - right here.

Are you familiar with – http://katiepertiet.typepad.com/ or http://www.designerdigitals.com? If so then you know how fantastic Katie’s work is. She’s a brilliant digital scrapbooking designer.

If you don’t know Katie yet, you definitely should get to know her as well as her team at Designer Digitals.

And that’s what I would like to help you do. I will be interviewing Katie in the next few days here and what I like to do during these interviews is ask YOUR questions. Now I may not be able to ask them all…but I will pick a couple at least – those really good ones that I didn’t think of – and I will ask them for you.

Why should you do this?

Well, in my opinion…whether you are a digital scrapbooker or a paper scrapbooker or both, getting inspired and getting ideas will come very easily if you know other GREAT scrapbookers to be inspired by.

Katie is one of my inspirations.

So in short, if you have questions, I encourage you to post them here in our comments section,  on or on the ScrapbookingDirections Facebook FAN PAGE and I will go through them and incorporate what I can into the interview.

What I don’t get to bring to the interview, I will post to this site (if it hasn’t already been posted here). I will also respond as best as I can to those questions too – and invite Katie and others to do the same if they have the time.

Does that sound inspirational and helpful to you? I hope it does.

Warmest regards….Cijaye

Scrapbooking Terminology – A Public Review

Oki doki, we are on a mission here! We get emails all the time asking questions which start with “this may be a really stupid question but…”

Then it’s followed by “what is a” or “what does it mean to” — for scrapbooking!

Then it occurred to me that as a newbie to scrapbooking I was boggled many times myself. I had no clue in the early days what a crop, a swap, a crop-a-dile, a big shot, a punch, a die cut and all that was.  For all I knew these were innovative HAIR CUTS!!!! WOW! That was wrong of me wasn’t it.  Then comes others like  pop dots,  glossy accents, cracked glass, brushed velvet and copics.  Hmmmm….are those MAKE-UP TECHNIQUES?  (She says with a little giggle under her belly).

So – instead of confusing matters by simply throwing together my own glossary and explanations – I thought I would let you ask the questions and get the public involved yet again.

Anyone who reads this can post a comment or a response to a comment, I emplore you to do so.  You will have a lot of fun.  I know you will.  And you will help others.

By asking the questions – you encourage answers and by answering questions you GIVE BACK!

If you are interested, please know that your contact info is private, no one can see who you are or contact you directly if you comment. You don’t have to be embarrassed by asking the question either.

So please click the leave comment link and ask about the scrapbooking terminology that you are most confused about today.

We are here to answer.

More from Cathy Zielske

During a recent interview with Cathy Zielske – Scrapbooking Directions was able to ask many of the questions scrapbookers just like YOU want to know…and Cathy’s answers were plenty!

This particular article serves as a resource reference to that intereview.  Why?  Because Cathy is cearly one resourceful scrapbooker! In our 45 minute tell all chat about Scrapbooking, Cathy shared some of her best tips and tricks as well as some fantastic words of wisdom to new and aspiring to be professional scrapbookers.  We wanted to share them with you on the site as well.

So here it goes…

First: Cathy mentioned two Big Picture Scrapbooking Workshops that in our opinion are MUST ATTENDS for every scrapbooker.  We’d like to spread the word about them for Cathy as a little thank you for her time.

Workshop #1 is: “Me The Abridged Version” ; she will be running this again in the Spring of 2010.  It’s a classic of hers that encourages scrapbookers to tap into their inner selves and bring forward all that is great about who they really are.

I (Cijaye DePradine, owner of ScrapbookingDirections.com) believe that every scrapbooker should tell their story!  After all – creating keepsakes is WHY you got into scrapbooking in the first place and if you are doing it right, you are creating TIMELESS keepsakes that can be passed down from Generation to Generation.  Your story should be passed down as well.

WorkShop #2: (Coming in December) is the “Design Your Life Course”.  This course is going to share a lot of design knowledge with scrapbookers who really are searching for that structured and professional approach to Scrapbooking.  Since Cathy’s background is in DESIGN – this will no doubt be an eye opener for many!

Next, I’d like to share a few of the fantastic suggestions Cahty had for those who aspire to be more savvy scrapbookers.  Perhaps you want to land a career in the Publishing world within the Scrapbooking Industry, or maybe you would like to design digital pages and elements for sites like Designer Digitals.  Whatever your reason, Cathy offered some GEM’s up for the taking if you are REALLY SERIOUS!

Here they are:

1. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements software (primarily for digital design)
2. Lynda.com (this is a fantastic reference of Photoshop Tutorials; for all skill levels with the programs)
3. Typography (learn this and you will understand words, spacing and scrapbooking layouts like never before)
4. Before and After: How to Design Cool Stuff Magazine (one of her Design Favorites!)
5. She also suggested that once you get where you want to as far as skills go, then you can start looking for CALLS from MAGAZINES to submit your work.  *She did caution that it’s not always easy – but if you are dedicated, consistent and you can prove yourself to offer value and something new and fun to those who want it, you might get lucky!

Honorable mentions through the call for many different reasons, were the other amazing Talents in the Scrapbooking Industry that Cathy has either learned from or worked with herself.

These Scrapbooking Experts are:

1. Jessica Sprague
2. Renee Pearson
3. Stacey Julian

Just to name a few.

Hope these references inspire you as much as Cathy has inspired us!  Thank you again Cathy.

Die Cut Machines – A Public Review

There is no doubt that die-cutting is really cool. Especially considering it can now be done at home with a desktop machine that costs anywhere from $50.00 – $500.00+.

Before die cutting was ONLY exclusive to print shops. And it was expensive! I know because I used to work at one. The dies alone would cost anywhere from $100 – $2000 to make as they needed to be hand crafted more often than not. AND they were almost always exclusive to the buyer of that die. Therefore that buyer needed to know that it was worth his / her companies interest to take that route before even doing so.

Granted some dies were available to everyone – but more or less this is an expensive trade. Not any longer.

At least not for scrapbookers. So today instead of Scrapbooking Directions putting its opinion out there on Die Cutters, we want to ask the public for theirs.

We want YOUR feedback if you have a die machine. Esp. if you have many die cut machines.

We want to know why you chose the machine you did. Your opion (comments) will help others make the decision for themselves.  It’s not a low cost invesment so it’s one that many scrapbookers would REALLY appreciate honest feedback on.

So please leave your comments.

Tell us which die cutting machine you have and why you chose it? Was it price, was it the library of dies, was it the ability to work with OTHER dies (being a universal die cutter), does it emboss also? Is it one of the only die cutters that can work with heavy duty double sided adhesives without wearing down the machine? [These are all of the reasons we chose the cuttlebug diecutter].

But what’s your story.

Please share.

Cathy Zielske Scrapbooking Expert Tells All

Today marked a superb day for ScrapbookingDirections.

This morning I was able to chat for well beyond any imaginable time period with Scrapbooking Design Expert Cathy Zielske.

Cathy is the former Art Director for Simple Scrapbooks Magazine (one of my all time favorites while learning how to scrapbook).  She is now a contributing scrapbooking class instructor at Big Picture Scrapbooking and she is a contributing designer at Designer Digitals.

All again, fav’s of mine.

After reflecting on our interview this morning I do have to offer a very sincere and publicl apology to Cathy, that our interview went over the originally anticipated time to.

She was just so facinating and so amped up herself that I literrally became immersed in what she had to say as if we were college buddies getting caught up after years of not connecting.  Thank you Cathy for making it that enjoyable.

Fellow Scrapbookers, you really have to listen to it for yourself, you will understand what I mean right away.

Cathy revealed some very thorough answers to the tough questions I asked.  Here’s what we discusssed…

1. For all scrapbookers out there: How often do you scrapbook?
2. What do you love most about what you do? Why?
3. What do you struggle most with as a scrapbooker and how do you overcome it?
4. Where do you get the majority of your inspiration and ideas from?
5. How do you come up with your layouts?
6. Which do you prefer: single or double page Layouts? Why?
7. Clean and simple scrapbooks really are your forte and we don’t see a lot of excess embellishing in your pages, is there a reason behind this?
8. For aspiring designers: Can you elaborate on your design background?  Schooling, career choice etc? Primary softwares you use today?
9. What special training would you suggest that aspiring designers (of scrapbook papers and elements) should look into?
10. How did you land your position as art director for Simple Scrapbooks Magazine?
11. How different is your role with Big Picture Scrapbooking now?
12. How did you team up with them?
13. For your fans: Apart from your classes with Big Picture Scrapbooking, Your Designs @ Designer Digitals and Your Live Chats on Renee TV, Twitter and Facebook – where else can people find you, see more of your work or learn more from you this year?
14. Do you have any big projects planned for 2010 that you can let us in on today?
    

From Your Fans:

Marie Edouard  asked: I like my scrapbook pages out of an album because of the amenities i use on the pages.

What’s the best way to display your scrapbook pages other than putting them in an album?  – If they are not in an album or have a page protector i am afraid they might not last. What’s the best way to maintain them from dust and from getting damaged? I have seen people use shadow boxes or small looking easel stands.

What’s the best way to frame them?

Linda Maffeo; I am new to scrapbooking and am not sure where to start.There is so much information and ideas out there.

I have my pictures, have purchased tons of pretty paper, (I feel like a little girl again…it’s all so pretty or cute or…) embellishments and tools, but it seems a bit overwhelming when I know it should be simple. Once I get started I am sure the ideas will flow but until I can complete the first page I am stuck.

How do I start?

Her answers were nothing short of inspirational and so well addressed!  Especially to her fans.

Marie and Linda I sincerely encourage both of you to take a listen.  Her closing remarks were fantastic!

You can listen to the entire interview by clicking the link below.  (Please note it may take some time to load as it was 45 minutes long; it all depends on your internet connection and computer processing speeds).

Click below to listen:

www.scrapbookingdirections.com/podcasts/Cathy-Zielske-Interview-Nov-2009.mp3

Happy Scrapping!