New Affiliation -- Beautiful & Unique Photographic Blank Greeting Cards

I'm still not working at my day job and waiting to see a spine specialist for consultation and evaluation. I know what my MRI showed and things don't look good for me working at a desk for long periods of time again. So this is being put together a few minutes at a time. One has to keep busy either mentally or physically to stay calm and in the present -- at least that's what I have to do .

In speaking with my dear friend and mentor, Darla Woodworth, the other day, we began talking about her camera and computer work and the beautiful and unique greeting cards she created a few years ago. I've been honored to receive a set as a thank you in the past and am too selfish to send any of them to someone else. Darla used to have a website of her own but demands of work and life in general took their toll, as they often do for all of us and she eventually pulled the site.

I asked her if she had any of the greeting cards left. She laughed and said "scads!" So I asked her about allowing me to list them in my Etsy shop and share them with others. We discussed it a bit and came to an agreement and ... ta da!!! ... today I've listed the four different sets she offers, shipping included in the price!



So, in the spirit of self-promotion, I hope you will go take a look and let me know what you think (by a comment here, a convo on Etsy or an email to me at dpeagreendesigns at gmail dot com). As well, if you can't resist or immediately think of someone who would love a set, either point them here or maybe it's time to buy a gift .

I Tweeted last week about free software with a link to how to use it to watermark photos and graphics before uploading. The online guide I found is missing some of the steps and I am still working on creating one of my own to share. I'm also having to take my time with this but I haven't forgotten it and will have it posted soon.

Thanks for visiting and reading. If you're praying person, please put me on your list. I need all the strength, patience and peace I can glean about now. Have a great Tuesday!

Much love,
Diane
http://dpeagreendesigns.etsy.com
http://dpeagreendesigns.blogspot.com

Sharing -- Article about Social Networking & How It Can Help Your Small Business

I'm still pretty much out of commission for now. I can't sit for long enough periods of time to write a decent length blog without too much pain. I had an MRI earlier this week and the results are lumbar disc degenerative disease and arthritis. My doctor is referring me to a spine specialist. Thank goodness for successful children. My son is setting up a wireless network for me and bringing me a laptop. Once I figure out if I can type and lay down at the same time, I will get back to regular blogging .

While reading I found this article in Costco Connection about social networking sites and how to use them for marketing during these tough economic times. I use Twitter and am planning setting up a FaceBook fan page. While this article is not an "in depth" study, it does discuss a lot of sites I have yet to explore. I hope you find something here of value to help you keep your business not only afloat, but successful, until the tides once again turn.

Look Inside >>  June 2009

Time for a Late Spring Break ...

Lady Bug Note Generators

Free Software I Use To Create My Designs & Patterns -- Part 2

To edit the pages of a pattern I create to add my copyright, titles and other verbiage in the font I like, I need to convert original pdf files printed from my creation software to a graphics format from "pdf". I have used a variety of free programs from pdf995. All are very good, but include ads that pop up and, sometimes when their servers are busy, the ads take forever and slow me down.

Irfanview takes care of this perfectly! It is another free graphics software that has a lot of ability, most of which I have not taken the time to discover. There are lots of articles on the web on how to use this freeware. One day I will take the time to see what else it can do for me. Right now, I use it to save my "pdf" files printed from my pattern creation software as "tif" files to open in my old graphics program, PaintShopPro 5 (I would provide a link but this program was purchased by Corel years ago and is no longer available). I've had this piece of software for years and paid for it. I learned to use it when I was creating my genealogy website to create the backgrounds, buttons, banners and other graphics I used there. If you're like me at all, it is difficult sometimes to take the learning curve time necessary to become expert at something new when that something old is working well .

To convert a "pdf" file to a "tif" file in Irfanview is easy. Select "File", "Save As" and the file type. There are several different settings to select from but if the end goal is to have a individual "tif" file to edit from each page of the "pdf" file, none of them need to be changed. The resulting "tif" file will appear as one file but when opened in your graphics program will become separate graphics for each page that was originally in the "pdf" file.



When I create quilt and quilt block patterns that I have freehand drawn, there are sometimes some wild sewing lines created by the algorhythm of the software I use. Using Irfanview to create "tif" files and then opening them in my graphics file allows me to clean these up and redraw appropriate lines instead, as well as add the aforementioned copyright text and update fonts.


I hope these articles give you some ideas to help you design your own patterns or for other uses in your daily work and play. Remember, my patterns, as well as custom orders, are always available at my Etsy shop, DPeaGreenDesigns.