Black and White Photo Strip Tutorial

Everything looks better in black and white.  Especially if you add a little touch of red and make it in the shape of a heart:

Is this not the cutest garland you've ever seen?  I got the idea from eighteen25, who in turn used scrappergirl's tutorial (WARNING: MUSIC ON BLOG).  I used Stampin' Up's Love Letter polka dot and Bella Rose red floral paper and some sheer pinky-red ribbon (hint: use a thick needle to string the hearts onto the ribbon).  Each heart is made with two 1x5 inch double-faced paper strips.   The photo strips were easy (and fun) to make (tutorial below).

I also used the photo strips again to make this fun Amber Ink Valentine's card:

Photo Strip Tutorial

Step 1:Gather photos.  I use Picasa, which made this so easy.  I went through my photos and pinned any I wanted to use (see screen capture below).  Then I exported them all to a new folder I called "valentines" (clever, huh?).   Having them all in one folder makes them easier to batch edit and to find later, plus you're not messing with your originals. 

Step 2: Batch edit.  Clear your holding tray, then select your "valentines" folder. At the top menu, select picture --> batch edit --> black and white.  

Step 3: "L7, you're a square, dude!"  Crop each photo to a square.  After selecting crop, you can choose "Square: CD cover" from the pull-down menu (see screen shot).  It doesn't matter what size your square is, we'll make them all 1x1 in Word.

(For the next steps, I should have taken some screen shots to show you, but my DH just installed Linux on my computer and, yes, I am too lazy to restart it in Windows to get some Word pictures.  But if you have any questions, let me know in the comments.)

Step 4:Word is the Word, baby. Open a new Word document and make the margins as big as your printer can handle (you can do this by dragging the margins along the rulers on the top and side, or by going to page setup and entering in new measurements).   I went with .25 at the top and bottom so I could get 10 inch strip.  I tried to go with .12 at the sides so I could get 8 strips, but the margins were too small for my printer.


Step 5: Insert your pictures.  In Word 2007, click the insert ribbon, then picture.  Once you go to your easy-to-find Valentines folder, you can use "shift" to select multiple photos at once-I suggest about 5 at a time so your compute doesn't wig out.  Click the first one, then hold shift as you click the fifth one (another hint: you can hold down control to select multiple files that are not in a row).  Repeat until all your photos are inserted.

Step 6: EEEK!  They're all crazy different sizes!!  No worries, man!  Double-click the first one so the "picture" ribbon shows up.  On the right of the ribbon, enter in "1" for the height, and your width should automatically change to 1 (sometimes mine changed to 1.01 or .99...that's ok).  Continue for the rest of the pictures. Word will automatically put them in a line with a wee little space between them, but the next row will be right under the previous one with no gap.   I was able to get 7 columns of 10 pictures each, which meant I could make 7 hearts from one page. If you don't have enough photos, just copy and paste the same ones again!

Step 7: Print.  I printed mine onto Gina K's cream paper for the hearts and onto PTI's white paper for the card.

Additional step for card: Insert Amber Ink's ipaper jpg into a new Word document and double click the picture.  Then select "crop" on the picture ribbon, and crop the paper to the amount you'll need for the squares.  That way you can print just the amount of paper you need and not use up a whole sheet (and even print two blocks of different ipaper at the same time), but the scale of the paper doesn't change.

I love this garland almost as much as I love Word.

Hope this inspires you to get geeky this weekend!  Learn to love Word and it will love you back.

DTGD: Phase Six

Finally! I started this altoid tin on Saturday for one of the DTGD challenges and it just keep being interrupted and/or growing. But now I'm ready to call it "done!" I was completely inspired by this adorable altoid suitcase by Michele Force-isn't it the most charming thing ever? I decided to make one for my hubby for when he goes to his training in the fall--but I'm not sure if I can wait that long to give it to him!

It started out as an Altoids tin. I covered it with SU Maine Blueberry (I think that's the name? It's before my SU time-I nabbed it on ebay a while back), adding some white ribbon and an Old Olive "handle" with self-adhesive metal nailheads. Then for some reason, I thought it didn't look "suitcase-y" enough, so I thought, "hey, I should add some vintage luggage stickers to it! Yeah, of places we've been to!" Cue at least an hour of searching the internet for vintage tourism posters/postcards/airline logos (and resisting the temptation of buying said vintage posters), then copying and pasting the image into word and reducing the size. Then I printed them all out onto adhesive labels, cut out, and stuck down. For the final touch on the outside, I added a tag printed with "crew" on one side with a heart on the other.

Here is the other side (feel free to click the pic to see it bigger):

For the inside, I picked out six "couple" pictures and five Addison pictures, sized them down to 4x6 (which is the same ratio as 2x3) in Picasa, added 1960s and cross-process effects in Picnik (I may have cross-processing addiction issues), then inserted them into a word document where I made them 2x3 inches big, and printed them on photo paper. I cut a strip of Not Quite Navy 3 3/8 inches wide, then scored it every 2 1/8 inches (which leaves a nice small little flap to glue to the bottom of the tin, which I then covered with DP and another picture). I also lined the inside top and added a little pocket for a love note. As I was taking pictures of it, it seemed a little blah on the inside so I went back and printed out the stickers again and pasted them on the appropriate photo. I even found some cute airplane/travel vintage pin up girl posters to adhere to the inside top.

I give myself two, maybe two and a half hours before I cave and show it to him! :)

My shopping trip to Ann Taylor Outlet yesterday was not as productive as I would have liked, but I still got a few new items. When we were checking out, I asked the salesgirl if they had an outlet coupon book (they do at the outlet we normally go to, and it's usually 15% off total purchase at Ann) and she said they did. DH immediately asked me if I wanted him to go get one and asked the salesgirl where to get it. The salesgirl said it was so cute of him to offer to get she'd just give us the discount without the coupon! How awesome is that?!?

Right now I'm off to dinner and then a free sneak preview of Dinner With Shmucks starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell. Be prepared for the full review tomorrow. ;)

DTGD Day Four: You're Never Too Old for Space Camp!

Does anyone recognize that movie line?  It's from one of our favorite movies, Stranger Than Fiction. I have no idea why we are one of only 17 people that liked this movie^[1]; I think it's one of Will Ferrell's best.  So I got it in my head to make a space shuttle for DH, with The Greeting Farm's Space Ian as the star.  This would have been about 4 bajillion times easier if I'd had any sort of skinny canister around the house, but as it was, I ended up making my own cylinder with an inside layer of black and outside layer of white.  I also made the cone by hand, and the wings, tail (with moving rudder), and engines.  The easy part was coloring Space Ian with copics, adding some metal nailheads to his suit and glossy accents on his helmet.  I stamped another image, cut it out, and poked the wire through the back.  Then I adhered the two images together with scor-tape, sandwiching the wire between.  I also put a paperclip between the two at the bottom, in order to offset the weight of the glossy accents so he'd stand up float in space straight. 

I would have loved to fill it with Milky Ways, but that would involved buying some and that would lead to eating them.  I went with a Cookies and Cream bar, which DH likes and I don't. 

Close up on Space Ian adorableness:

I made another card yesterday before my engineering project, playing with some new paper, tools, and stamps. 

This is mostly Stamping Up! except for the button, thread, large polka dot paper (October Afternoon) and ribbon (PTI Scarlet Jewel).  I stamped and embossed the flower from Growing Green twice, cut out, and layered.  I ran some Cherry Cobbler through the Square Lattice embossing folder and distressed, added the Love Letters patterned paper, ribbon, and twine.  The sentiment is from Tiny Tags, punched with the jewelry tag punch.

Now off to get started on today's challenges!!  Wheeeeee!!!!
 
^[1]Shout out to Angela for being one of 23 people who liked Away We Go--I loved that movie!