Since you asked ...

Nancy wrote, How are you feeling? The big day is soon, no? Please give us an update. Is the room ready? Is Jamin ready?

The big day is just one week away. We are scheduled to check-in to the hospital at 6:00am Dec. 5th for my c-section. I'm feeling pretty good and trying to get as many Christmas preparations done early as possible and spend some special times with Jamin before baby arrives. My days have been filled with putting up the Christmas tree, shopping and wrapping presents. Jamin and I have gone on several 'Starbucks' dates. He even has his own drink preference that he can order himself 'decaf iced mocha'. Of course he often opts out of the mocha in favor of a cookie. We have nice chats over coffee (or a cookie) and I'm always amazed at how grown-up he seems on our special dates.

For the past month Jamin has shifted from looking forward to his sister's arrival to complete denial, often during the course of the same day, but over the past couple of days he's really warmed up to the idea of having a sister. Just today he came and wrapped his arms around my waist. I thanked him for the hug and he said, 'no, I was hugging my sister' and I had one of those teary-mommy moments.

Of course I've also been trying to get products lined-up for the next couple of months so I'll pretty much be able to take a few months off from the computer aside from a biweekly blog post and some advertising. Blog entries may be limited to the Sunday new products release info and one other freebie/layout or scrapping post during the course of the week for the next two months. I'll definitely post baby photos as soon as I'm home and able to upload them.

FREE SAMPLE
Here is a small paper set. Enjoy!

New Releases - Templates and New Everyday Alpha

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving surrounded by family at our house and just relaxed the rest of the weekend.

Here are today's new releases at Scrapbook-Elements.

First is a new template set - this 9 template set is perfect for creating and album in which photos and journaling are the focus.



Here is how I put the album to work.



Of course the templates can be used for traditional layouts, travel albums and a host of other applications. Here are a couple of examples.



I've added an alpha to the Everyday Alpha Series.



This is the latest quick page collaboration between me and Mrs. Wresh.



FREE SAMPLE
No longer available. Here is a template from the Clean and Classy Template Album set. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving

A happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate the occasion. We hosted our Thanksgiving meal this year and it was nice to be surrounded by family. Jamin is the only kid in the bunch, but he did his job keeping everyone entertained with his antics.

For those of you who are doing your Black Friday shopping online, I invite you to stop by my store at Scrapbook-Elements where almost everything is 20% off through Sunday, November 25th. While you are there don't forget to check out the growing number of quick page sets I've put together with Kim Wresh.



Free Sample
No longer available. Here is a pack of solids inspired by the colors in our Thanksgiving meal. Enjoy!

A Few Fall Layouts

For those who participated in the 'Baby Name Game' at SBE, I've drawn the winning posts. Our winners were IlaMarie, ScrapMonkey and solanah. If you haven't already, winners should check their pm's at SBE for instructions on claiming your prize.

I know things on the blog have been slow this week. I came down with a head cold Sunday that pretty much knocked me out for a couple of days. I'm feeling better now and getting ready to start tackling our Thanksgiving meal. I also hope to have a freebie ready for tomorrow.

Meanwhile here are a couple of pages I've done recently.

This is the first year Jamin has been old enough to really participant in holiday preparations and traditions. He and I had a great time making our Jack-O-Lantern. Jamin named him appropriately - Jack.


Credits: Backgrounds and floral spray from A Place Called Home, Bookplate and stitching from Summer's End, Frames from Framed! 3 (not yet available) and title alpha is Battered Brown Alpha all by Misty Cato


Credits: A Place Called Home by Misty Cato

New Releases - A Place Called Home and Christmas Cards

Thanks to everyone who has come by my little party over at SBE. I really appreciate all the comments and well wishes. If you haven't come by yet, the threads will still be open (and freebie available) through the end of the day Sunday, Nov. 18.

Today's new release comes just in time for Thanksgiving photos but will work for many different themes.



As usual you can pick up just the elements or just the papers. The papers in this set are personal favorites of mine.



Here is a peak at the quick pages...



Mrs. Wresh and I also put together a brag book album with the set.



Thanks to Mrs. Wresh there is also now a set of photo cards available from my Hand-Made Christmas Page Set. These 4x6 photo cards will also work as brag book pages for a quick, portable Christmas brag book.



I did some playing with them with the photos from Jamin's first Christmas (hard to believe this was almost 3 years ago).



FREE SAMPLE
No longer available. Here is a small sampler from my new A Place Called Home Page Set.

An Invitation

I'm having a little party to celebrate the pending arrival of my little girl. She is scheduled to arrive Dec. 5th via c-section and I can hardly wait.

You can join the party any time through Nov. 18th in the forums at SBE. If you drop in, I'd love it if you left a note in my guest book. Also, be sure to stop by the party Welcome Thread to pick up your 'party favor'.




I really appreciate all the supportive, encouraging comments and advice left by blog readers over the past few months.

Some Housekeeping and a Layout

Before I get to a couple of questions, Jody left a comment on the blog a couple of days ago with a request regarding the 2008 4x6 Calendar templates. Jody, your blogger profile doesn't have a public email associated with it and I don't have access to customer information at SBE so I don't have a way to get back in touch with you. Please drop me an email at mistycato(at)mistycatodesigns(dot)com and I'll see what I can do for you.

Donna wrote, you give your tuts in ps could you possible lead me in a direction to psp tut for a template (layered) first tut for me?

I write for PSCS2 and PSE4 because those are the programs I have and know how to use. Unfortunately I don't know anything about PSP. There are several other great tutorial sites that may be able to help you out. Scrapbook-Bytes has a huge tutorial section searchable by program. You can check out there template tutorial for PSP here. Other places to check include DigiscrappingTutorials and the tutorials section at SBE.

Lynn wrote, "I have a silly question about brag books and non square layouts. . .do you crop out a section (4x6 or whatever) from your paper, or do you squish and stretch it to fit?"

It's not a silly question at all. Sometimes I use elements exactly as they are made and other times I'll resize it down so it doesn't overwhelm the small page - I just do whatever looks best to me. With patterned papers, I'll usually resize them to 7x7 and then crop a 4x6 piece for my brag book, particularly for papers with large patterns or strong edge effects. I'm not sure what you mean by 'squish and stretch,' but I don't change the original proportions as that distorts and texture or pattern on the papers.

LO: Legos
My mother saved all the Legos my brother and I played with growing up. Jamin discovered them during a recent visit and spent the afternoon exploring the world of Legos (which of course required dumping them all over the floor).


Credits: Rainbow Rub Alpha with Bonus Coordinating Solids, Misty Cato, SBE (blue paper and letter recolored)

Formatting Text in PSCS2

The character palette in Photoshop allows users to customize their text beyond simply choosing the font and size. This tutorial will walk you through an overview of some of the =setting choices found in the character palette.

To following along with this tutorial, you'll need to have a canvas open in Photoshop with a layer containing at least two lines of text.



Open the character palette, Window>Character.



Take a look at the character palette. The first three fields are identical to the ones you find in the options bar when the text tool is selected. The first drop down menu allows you to choose your font and the second will show any style options that are built-in to your selected font such as italic or bold. The third drop down menu allows you to pick the size of your font.

To experiment with the remaining settings, click on the text tool in the tools palette. Click and drag on your canvas to highlight two or more lines of text.

In the character palette, click on the small down arrow next the word 'Auto' in the fourth menu position. This setting allows you to set the amount of space between lines of text. The larger the number you select the larger the space between the lines. I've chosen a setting of 60 and you'll see in the screen shot below the lines of my text are now closer together than the original paragraph.



Next click on the small arrow for the drop down menu below the one on which your were just working. This setting controls the 'tracking' or amount of space between each character. A negative setting will move the characters closer together while positive settings will put them further apart.

In my paragraph I have chosen a -25 which squishes my characters together a bit.



The next two drop down menus, each labeled with a T and a vertical and horizontal arrow respectively, allow you to control the height and width of each character. Values above 100% make the dimension larger and values below 100% make the dimension smaller.

For the sake of illustration, I've set the vertical drop down to 75% and horizontal to 175% for the text below. The result is shorter, longer letters.



Finally look near the bottom of character palette where you will find a row of various 'T' icon buttons. Highlighting your text and clicking on the icons will do the following (the first 8 lines in the text in the screenshot below have been altered to show each setting):

1 - bold
2 - italic
3 - capitalize
4 - small caps
5 - superscript
6 - subscript
7 - underline
8 - strike through



Other text related tutorials:
Text on a Path
Text Fill

Holiday Sparkle, Alphas, Calendars, Quick Pages and More

I've got lots of new stuff this week. First, as set of 8 glitter overlays to add a bit of sparkle to your pages. You can place these over any background paper. They are great to add a festive touch to holiday and New Year's pages.



Here are close-ups to show the details on each of the 8 overlays.



This set of 4x6 2008 calendars is a great way to create a brag-book sized calendar for next year.



Rainbow Rub Alpha brings a fun, bright touch to pages. Each letter comes in all 5 colors.



Another alpha - coordinates with the Smooth Sailing products, but works will with any color palette containing red.



Smooth Sailing brag book ideal for boys, patriotic and nautical themes.



Mrs. Wresh and I have been busy on our collaborative quick pages with three 12x12 quick pages set and a brag book coming out this week.










FREE SAMPLE
No longer available. Here is the January 2008 calendar from my 4x6 Calendar set.

Site Review: Kissed Studios

Digital scrapbooking continues to grow and as a result you can find shops of just about any size and style. Recently I've noticed several specialty stores popping up. There are sites devoted to commercial use tools, quick pages and printable crafting just to name a few. Today I had fun browsing the pages of Kissed Studio, a store devoted completely to templates.

Two things impressed me about Kissed Studio. First, all their templates are available in 12x12, 8.5x11 and 11x8.5 sizes and in multiple formats (making them usable in Photoshop, PSE, Fotofusion, DIP and a host of other programs).

Secondly, I appreciate the inspiration provided by their Signature Series line. Each package of templates in the Signature Series contains layouts based on a popular digital scrapper. The previews on the site show the templates as well as the layouts on which they are based, so it is easy to envision how a template could be put to use.



Kissed Studio also sells single templates and you can browse by number of photos.

They have several free samples available. I grabbed one this evening and was able to put this page together in a matter of minutes. I definitely plan to go back to pick up one of their template packages, my biggest problem will be deciding which one.


Credits: Photo by Holli Dunn Photography, Papers from Starting in Style Papers by Misty Cato, Template from Kissed Studio

Over 50 Items on Close-Out and Free Sample

Hello everyone - just a brief note tonight to let you know I've put over 50 items in my store on close-out for the the month of November, after which they will be permanently retired. For now you can pick them up at 50% or less of their original price. Several holiday and seasonal items are included.

No longer available. Here is a sampler from Warmest Regards, one of the products on close-out. Enjoy!

New Releases, Sale and Free Sample

With Halloween 2007 in the books, it is time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will be trying to have our Christmas preparations done by the end of November in order to relax and wait for the arrival of our little girl. Of course that means I had to get designing for Christmas in early too, thus the release of Hand-Made Christmas today at Scrapbook-Elements. Hand-Made Christmas is 20% off through Tuesday during the SBE Digital Scrapbooking Day Celebration.



Here is a close of of some of the elements (available as an element pack or with the page set).



And here are the papers.



Ms. Wresh and I have been busy too with our collaborative quick page sets. Like all most of my products, these are on sale through Tuesday, November 6th.



A blog reader advised me I should take my baby boy products and recolor to get ready for my girl. While this set isn't a straight forward recoloring, it is the female version of the Adorable Boy set above.



I love the brown and teal combinations that seem to be the tread recently so I had fun doing a quick page set with the color scheme.



Finally a more sophisticated quick page set, perfect for formal occasions or even a non-traditional approach to Christmas pages.



FREE SAMPLE
No longer available. Here is a small sampler from my Hand-Made Christmas set. Enjoy!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day! If you are looking to join the festivities, just about every site and store around are running sales and activities. You can find info on my sales (and spending) below, but most of all I wish you tons of inspiration. Digital scrapping has brought me so many blessings; a way to express myself creatively, develop a small business, introduced me to many friends all over the world and, most importantly, given me a great way to preserve and celebrate the wonderful moments I have with those I love.

If you plan to celebrate your DSD by shopping, I invite you to stop by my store at SBE where almost everything is 20% off through November 6th. If you are looking for some games and inspiration, there are several things going on in the Digital Scrapbooking Day section of the SBE forums.

I did my shopping a little early. I picked up these papers from Jessica Bolton at Scrapbook-Graphics. I like that they aren't full of pattern that could distract from photos, are plain enough that I can journal right on them and yet they are more interesting than just your basic solids. Plus I see lots of potential for boy and girl pages (I have start thinking about versatility now). You can read how to save 45% on any of Jessica's stuff on the SBG blog.


I also stopped by Digital Scrap Spirit and picked up Manuela Zimmerman's Timeless Journey papers. I love brown, so at 50% off I couldn't pass these up.



Here is the real deal of the day. The designers at Digital Scrap Spirit are giving away this fabulous kit, just for stopping by. There are no strings attached and you'll find the download links on the front page of their store. Thanks so much for the gift ladies!



Have a fun and blessed Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Drive-By Freebie

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. We did a short trick-or-treating outing and spend the rest of the evening at home enjoying all the trick-0r-treaters who came by.

No longer available. Here is a small paper pack. I've been working on my fall and Christmas kits so it was fun to do a few papers in non-seasonal colors. Enjoy!