We’re having a promotion at Digitalscrapn, and you can get this amazing mega - that INCLUDES my Raspberry Truffle kit!! (USE COUPON CODE: myvalentine)  To give you even a BETTER value, I’ve put everything in my store there on SALE for $2.50!! So you can get TWO FULL KITS and the MEGA for just $5!! So treat yourSELF for Valentine’s day, and get my Crazy in Love kit for all those school Valentine party photos!! This sale is good ALL WEEKEND, so you don’t have to stress yourself, but buy to day for the great MEGA freebie.

And just to share the love today - here’s a little gift for you!

CLICK HERE or on the image to DL the freebie!

How can the $99 second cousin to the most powerful and best image editing software beat it hands down? By doing something far easier and better -

Here’s what I mean. I love this picture of my daughter Kate:

It captures her in that pensive moment that epitomizes her growing into a teenager. But its not that great a photo - the color’s dull, the water’s an icky green. I wanted to change the mood and make it a black and white. The usual way to do this is by going in Photoshop and using Image-Adjustments-Hue and Saturation and lower the saturation to 0. This gives me:

Notice it’s kind of dull and looses some of that nice light showing on her face. Now I could play around with the curves in Photoshop and get it better. But in Elements you have a whole tool devoted to B&W conversions that gives you a variety of choices. Go to Enhance-Convert to Black and White. You get this box:

Look at all the choices! The styles gives you the basic look and then you can fine tune it using the intensity and color adjustments. Try it and see! Here’s a few variations on our picture:

This great tool is available in Elements 5.0 and 6.0, and a more sophisticated version is available in Photoshop CS3.

Keep scrapping!

Stan - the DaddyKitty

I came across this neat idea on this great Photo Blog - take a Photo a Day! Since I’m determined to make gift books for all the grandparents next year, I thought these would be great divider pages! So I’m trying - and to make it a little easier, I made these templates. Even if you don’t take a photo a day, what a great way to do an overview of a month! I’m thinking these would make great calendar pages, too!

Kit includes:

13 .psd layered templates - one for each month, and one generic one you can customize

12 .png templates for those of you who can’t use layered files

All templates are at 12×12 inches 300ppi, but will scale down just fine.

Now only $3.99 - regular price is $4.99! Just click the Buy Now button -

Here’s a quick peek at my portion of the new Mega at Digitalscrapn!

you can get this kit FREE with an $8.00 purchase from ANY designer (not just me!) by using coupon code february14 at http://www.digitalscrapn.com

Take a look at some of the great things in this kit!

and since you were SO kind to read this far…. a FREEBIE!

Happy Scrapping!

Aren’t digital cameras great? I got serious about photography when I was a teenager back in the dark ages of the 1970’s. Then I had my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera and photographed everything I could think of in that funny square format. The great thing about it and other film cameras is you had to press the camera against your face to see thru the viewfinder. This forced you to brace your arms in towards your body and hold it to your face - thereby getting sharper pictures.

Not so with a digital camera.

Most people, even if their digital camera has a viewfinder, hold it away from their body so they can see the view screen on the back:

Try it yourself. Go grab a camera - I’ll wait…

See how unsteady it is? It’s hard to hold a camera out like that and hold it still enough to get sharp, clear pictures. To get better results tuck those arms back closer to your body, so at least your elbows are touching your body:

Even better, use the viewfinder (if your camera has one) and use the view screen for taking a look at that great shot after you take it!

Thanks to our top notch model Katie! Until next week - keep scrappin’ and photographing!

Stan - The DaddyKitty

Oh I was SOOOO disappointed when my beloved New England Patriots had victory SNATCHED from their grasp at the last minute in Superbowl XLII last night! So I decided to console myself with a freebie and a coupon for you!

and so you can engage in some SHOPPING THERAPY - here’s a coupon for my Digitalscrapn.com store

use code POORPATS for 42% off anything in my store!! CLICK HERE to shop!

this coupon good through Saturday February 9, 2008