| Blog: |
| creativitE |
Topics: |
| scrapbooking, daily life, crafts |
I'm so happy for the winners of the Imaginisce Blog Hop! Hop on over here and see if you won by commenting on my blog or other Imaginisce design team members blogs.
***
Remember, you still have until February 25th to enter your scrapbook layout here or post it on your blog and link it here...you could win prizes worth $75!! -Good luck!
First off, let me tell you about Rollip...they offer professional online photo effects for your photos. So those of you who don't want to mess with Photoshop or similar programs (I won't name names, but you know who you are!!) can have awesome photos without all the hassle.
Rollip was kind enough to let me try out their services, and here's how easy it really is. I clicked on the link and signed up with just my name and email address. Next they show you samples of the different effects, you can scroll through them all...there are 40 of them!! I picked one I liked & it told me to upload a photo.
Here's the original photo I uploaded:
(click on any of these photos to see them bigger)
Once I uploaded the photo it told me to "click here to download your photo"...which I did. They also sent me an email with a link to my photo, which would be awesome if I had some type of computer issue and couldn't get to it. And here it is, my first photo using Rollip:
Then I tried out another effect using the same photo so you guys could see what it does...
I could have kept playing with this for days...here's a couple of other effects....
Ok you lucky ducks...the first 15 people to respond by clicking this special link and signing up (only your name & email are required) will win a Rollip Pro account each with 30 credits (worth $5.98 per account...if you were to get a Pro account on your own, you'd pay $2.99 for only 15 photos, so you're getting DOUBLE the amount of photos you can play with these fun effects on.) The credit should happen automatically if you use that link...please let me know if there are any problems. :)
After you try it out please let me know how you like it!! Have a happy Friday!
Sponsor: Rollip
I had such a fun time making these coasters! Four marble coasters come in a kit by Tilano with all the things you need to whip up something special for your home or to give as a gift.
I'm keeping these one though since my house is in major need of coasters, the ones we had previously were just cork & they became one of our dog's favorite things to steal so they had bite marks in them...attractive...great for guests, LOL.
The thing I really like about this kit is that while it does take time to let the coasters dry in between steps, it really is a simple project with really cool results. It's also great to be able to have custom things for the home with whatever you want on them. Tilano has a great video of the whole process to create the coasters, but here's some shots I took along the way.
The first step is to figure out your design. I decided to make mine 3.5 inches square, although the coaster is about 4 inches square. The designs I used are digital scrapbook pages I created with a digital scrapbook kit from ScrapArtist.com (created by Dianne Rigdon). After you finish creating your design you need to use a laser printer to print your design onto Tilano's special paper. I took a .jpg of my designs to Kinko's and let them print it for me. The contrast on the printout seemed much darker on the Kinko's print out then on my test print at home. I'm not sure if that's due to Kinko's printer settings, mine, or what. I also think they resized it a bit since once I got home I notice they were just over 3 inches square instead of the 3.5 inches square size I created. If I were to do this project over again I'd try using my husband's color laser printer to see if there was a difference.
Oh, and an important thing to note is that you need to print out a mirrored image of your designs or your photos and text will be backwards. If you're clueless on how to print out a mirrored image Tilano will help you do it...look here.
Once your images are printed out you brush on a thin layer of Tilano medium over them and the coasters and set them aside to dry. Once dry you can cut your designs.
Next, you brush on another layer of Tilano medium over the coasters & then place your designs over it. They give you a spreader to smooth out the paper & remove any air bubbles that may be trapped underneath. Once again you allow it to dry....they recommend 3 hours. With the warm dry weather we have here in CA it looked dry before that, but I obediently waited just in case 3 hours is the magical amount of time that causes things to work.
After it's dry, you saturate the transfer paper with water from your brush and let the water sit on it for about half a minute. The paper should become translucent (if not, add more water & massage it a bit). You can then peel off the paper and reveal your design. Yes, peel it off...the special paper let's you just peel it right of, no rubbing and fighting it like with other methods of photo transferring- love that!
Once your coaster has air dried you can sand any rough edges or areas where the medium oozed out around the transfer paper if you need to. Mine were fine & I didn't have to do that step.
Lastly, you need to apply 3 coats of the medium...letting it dry 45 minutes in between coats. This protects the coaster from beverage moisture. You can also add some little cork "feet" to the bottom of each coaster, they come with the kit.
So as you can see, it's pretty simple to make a set of these. It would make really great holiday gifts for friends and family. I think another great idea would be to make some wall hanging with these coaster too. B-A-B-Y would fit perfectly on them! -I'll have to keep that in mind for the next baby shower.
Edited to add: I ended up re-doing these coasters...to see how they turned out click here.WIN IT!
Now, I have good news for all of you! Tilano is graciously sending one of my blog readers their very own coaster kit. To enter the drawing please do one or all of the following:
Please enter your email address with your comments so I can contact you if you win. I will draw a winner on Thursday, October 22, 2009 and will announce the winner on Friday, October 23, 2009.
Good luck!
* Tilano sponsored this blog post.
Do you want a subscription to Simple Scrapbooks???? I'll be drawing a name on Saturday Nov 22 for one person to get a FREE 1-year subscription....so leave me a comment if you'd like to enter the drawing.
While cleaning up my SB stuff from Crop Binge I came across some extra make & takes for this Heidi Swapp Post-It-Note Holder....so 5 lucky people who entered a comment here will get a kit for it plus the instructions.
