Designer Digitals’ Katie Pertiet; Shares With Scrapbooking Directions

Do you know Katie Pertiet?  Do you know Designer Digitals?  Really they are one in the same.  Katie Pertiet is the owner of Designer Digitals.  She is the lead designer of MANY amazing digital scrapbook items and she’s the force behind the rest of the team of Digital Scrapbook designers she’s put together for that site as well.

As you can imagine…this makes Katie Pertiet a very busy entreprenuer.  But she’s also a mom.  You can learn more about that side of her here: http://www.katiepertiet.typepad.com/

Recently ScrapbookingDirections was able to snag a few momen’ts of Katie Pertiet’s incredibly valuable time.  We are incredibly grateful for this – especially considering the time of year it is.

So this is our Christmas gift to you….Katies answers to our questions are in teal color…

1) Katie, for those that don’t know you – can you please tell us what you do  in the scrapbooking industry today?

I have some collections with Bo Bunny right now. My Old Time Christmas was their St. Nick Collection.

2) Do you have a specialty?  Or something that you LOVE to do more than anything else?

I would say that vintage botanical and nature products are my specialty. Growing up I wanted to be a biological illustrator–I think that’s where it comes from.

3) Can you tell us how you got into it in the first place?

I have been scrapbooking since high school and I went to school for graphic design and had been working as a professional graphic designer for years, when I made the move from paper to digital, designing product was a natural!

4) What inspires you?

Everything around me. I see scrapbooking in absolutely everything– it’s an illness!

5) Where do you get your ideas from?

I’m inspired by everything around me! Magazines, the internet, tv,  vintage books, cereal boxes… yes, everything!

6) Do you design every element of all of your scrapbook pages  yourself or do you ever work with the designs of others’?

Occassionally I use CU items for worn edges on alphas and papers and a  few little tidbits of fasteners. But I have reworked all of them. I’m  pretty picky with pretty high standards and have picked up a number of  CU items that I just can’t use.
[Scrapbooking Directions adds: CU stands for commercial use]

7) I noticed that there are a lot of pages in your personal gallery  of work http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/ideas/showgallery.php?cat=2&
that profiles a single photo or a small cluster of photo’s in one  central location on page…do you choose this style more than any other – for a reason?

No real reason, just what I am drawn to. I just do what feels right  and that feels right for me!

I also noticed that you don’t seem to over clutter your pages  with vast amounts of paper or ribbons or other accents…is there a  reason behind this?
I want to keep the photo and the memory as the focus of the page. I  think sometimes if there is too much going on on the page it becomes  distracting. That’s just my personal preference.

9) You also have this brilliant way of making your images part of  your background (ie: not looking like photos). Is this an easy to  learn skill that can be found on your website?

There are tutorials in the store that explain blending in detail and I  have some tips listed in the forums.

10) It appears that you have a growing library of digital  scrapbooking tutorials on your website, is there a release schedule  of any kind for new lessons?  If not, how often would you say this  section is updated so that people can remind themselves to come back?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a schedule. Cassie Jones is our tutorial writer and it really depends on her personal availability.

11) For those who struggle to know where to start…are your  tutorials the best place, or would you suggest something else?
We also have a wonderful knowledgebase [http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/tips/ ] and getting started pages [http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbookin/GettingStarted.html ]–I suggest you start there!

12) Do people need special software programs or resources in order  to take full advantage of your lessons?

Our lessons are focused on PSE and PS. Help with other applications
can be found in our knowledgebase [http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/tips/
]
[ScrapbookingDirections adds: PSE is Photoshop Elements and PS is Photoshop]

13) If someone wishes to design for designer digitals some day – how might you suggest they go about it?  (from reader: LydiaThompson)
I’m sorry but we do not accept applications for designers.

15) Do you know of any places that a digital paper designer can get their work published to PRINT? (from reader: Abigale Chan)
The best way to get picked up by a manufacturer is to attend CHA and  get to know the manufacturers. They all work differently, so I  recommend really getting to know the market before you jump in.

[Scrapbooking Directions adds: CHA is the Craft and Hobbies Association]

16) Are there any new projects on the go for you for 2010 that you  are able to share with us today?

We are working on a number of upgrades to DesignerDigitals. A new home
page and new shopping features will be coming in 2010!

We all look forward to that new home page and extra features Katie.  Thank you for taking the time to share with us today.

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, a few words from Katie Pertiet.

Digital Photography For Beginners

Do you own a digital camera? Every scrapbooker should have one.

It makes the act of cropping photo’s a lot less painful. Not to mention – Digital Camera’s and their digital photo editing softwares make it much easier to enhance photo’s.

If you don’t own one, then you are surely missing out the fun of digital photography. A digital camera is a must have for every one today. With the advent of digital cameras adding special affects to the photographs have become much easier. You can make every photograph look much better with the help of digital camera software. In fact you can EVEN add sounds to the moving pictures while adding many other special affects to them via various digital software.

The best feature of a digital camera is that digital camera software can be installed into it to use it along with a computer system. This makes the act of photography all fun for you indeed. All you have to do is to connect the camera with the computer system and use the software to accentuate the pictures. Always read the instructions carefully for connecting the camera to the computer system.

Once you connect the camera to the computer, you can import the pictures to the computer system. To import the images to the computer, right click on the welcome screen of the digital camera. Click the import contact lens. You will get the list of pictures in your computer system. And now you can easily use these pictures.

You can add a number of software for photo clarity to your computer system. For choosing the software to be used in your camera, click on the choose software from the menu. Your digital camera software is responsible for launching the photos. Now you do not have to spend hours in developing the films and waiting for them to dry up.

You will come across some amazing software in the market for your digital cameras. Using digital camera software, you will find it extremely convenient to share, view and send pictures to your friends.  It’s just a matter of chosing the right one for your needs.

Certain camera software that can fix the common photography problems that have become too popular among the professional as well as amateur photographers. They help them correct the commonest of photography problems such as red eyes or blur images. These distorted photos results can successfully be altered by you by changing their color AND brightness to perfection. You do not have to worry about lighting issues while clicking the pictures as well.  The fantastic news with digital photography is that you can switch your settings over and over again until you get that perfect shot and it doesn’t “waste film”.

You can even print your digital photo’s the same as you would print your film photos.  And with the resolution (pixels) available to many of the newer digital camera’s now – you can also print the same (or similar) quality.  **Assuming you aren’t looking for medium or large format image quality like they use for billboards and posters of grand sizes).

BUT that’s just the start of the great things you can do with your digital photos.

Recently I was told about a product that promises to teach Digital Photography in a way that only to this point – professional photographers had known. The author of this product is Dan Feildman.

I have not received the product yet myself – but I do trust the person who referred it to me – and they tried it.  If it interests you at all…you can find out more about it by clicking the link below.

Click Here to get this free report that will show you exactly how to take that perfect shot. !

Scrapbook Layout – One Photo Many People

One photo – many people – scrapbook page layout. (digital)

Believe it or not, this layout was quite tough to do.  Mostly because there were so many vibrant colors to choose from and I didn’t want to take away from the page by choosing the wrong background papers or elements.  This is why the scrapbook papers have very subtle patterns to them (thank you Designer Digitals). And the embellishments (flowers and cord) (again, by Designer Digitals) were also subtle.

In the end I was very pleased with how this scrapbook page layout turned out.  It was really fun to do.

Basketball Scrapbook Layout

Basketball Scrapbook Layout – Digital – Eight Photos

Now this particular layout is very special to me.  This was one of my first tries at digital scrapbooking and more important – the paste into or grouping feature in photoshop 7.0.

My son (at age 8 or 9) drew the basketball – which I then scanned and enhanced for the photo.

Granted, this page would be a lot less “busy” had I created it today…but I love how I was able to use the sections within the basketball as frames for the scrapbook photos.

Floral Scrapbook Layout Idea

Scrapbook Layout – One small photo – One Big Focal Point

This has to be one of my all time favorite scrapbook pages.  Everything on it was designed from scratch by me (cijaye) during the early days of digital scrapbooking.  I started out with a drawing I made of the flower.  I created the background layer, then I decided to play with the flower as a primary focal point on the page.  At that time I didn’t really expect to be able to get a photo onto the page.  Though it was important.

I played with the idea of placing tiny photo’s into all of the petals and then I got very overwhelmed by how busy that would look.

So, I elected to cutout the center of the flower and using the “paste into” feature in photoshop 7.0 I resized the photo of choice to just the right size.

I still adore this one.  Even to this day!

Fairy Princess Scrapbook Layout

Girl Scrapbook Layout – One Photo – Fairy Princess Frame

Again, this is one of my earlier scrapbook layouts.  I was really into the “draw your own elements” and “paste into them” features of digital scrapbooking.  I believe for this particular layout I had do do some erasing around the edges of the photo in order to get it to ONLY display in a portion of the frame.

In the end…I was REALLY impressed with myself.  Having no official graphic design training whatso ever…I thought this was pretty advanced.

Today this type of technique is easy for me.  It’s just a matter of working with the photoshop layers in the absolute most creative way possible.

Scrapbook Layout for a Blurry Photo

Scrapbook Layout – One Blurry Photo – Great Digital Elements (Thank you designer digitals)

This layout was a lot of fun for me.  I used a lot of elements from designer digitals on this one.  I did a bit of resizing and a bit of retouching – but the goal was to be able to use this really blurry photo in a way that made it NOT MATTER that it was blurry.

Thanx to the great designs at designer digitals I was able to find some great elements to breath a new life into this scrapbook page layout.

Scrapbook Layout – 3 Photos

Digital Scrapbook Layout for Girls – Using 3 Photos.

Again, this is one of my early attempts at digital scrapbooking.

My daughter drew the sunshine (at age 5 or 6) – inspired by the basketball page layout I did with my son’s basketball drawing and she asked me to find a way to create a page with her drawing as the focal point.

I could have gone bigger with it – now that I reflect back – but I still managed to produce a pretty cool layout that I really enjoyed.

All other elements on page were designed by myself (font excluded of course).

Black Background Scrapbook Layout

Digital Scrapbook Layout – Black Background – One Photo

Again, more fantastic page elements and design from designer digitals made this page possible. The caption, the swirls, the blue and white flowered background as well as the amazing orange flowers were all from them.

But what got me going on this page – was that I loved the caption! That’s where my true inspiration came from. I knew I had to have the perfect photo for it as well since my daughter is just so incredibly animated.  She loves taking photo’s and doesn’t care what she looks like in them.  It makes it really easy to make a lot of pages around her.

Anyhow…the photo itself was originally taken as my daughter was laying down on my hardwood floors in the kitchen.  I used the magnetic lasso in photoshop 7.0 to crop away the wood floor and then I added this insane sunset photo I took.  It certainly allowed me to stay true to the caption.

Scrapbook Layout – One Photo

One Photo Layout – Paper Scrapbooking

This was my absolute FIRST scrapbook page done with paper.  I had to do it.  This was one of my favorite photos of all time.  It reminded me of a television commercial that would leave a warm and fuzzy feeling in your heart.  Don’t know why.  Anyhow…reflecting back I would have spent a little more time making sure that everything was properly placed (not crooked) on the page.  I probably would have scanned the photo and made it much larger as well.

On this page, I tore handmade fibre paper (the red and gold on top and bottom) and I bent wire to spell out the word cousins.  I also printed the journaling onto a manilla folder.  This page took a LONG time as I wasn’t very happy with a LOT of it as I was building it out.  I had ZERO direction on it – other than the fact that I loved the photo.

What I do love most however is the fantastic colors I chose.  The green, red and gold with hinds of orange are just FANTASTIC!  Hopefully this one inspires you in some way.

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