Google+ and Blogger…

 

I recently updated my Blogger profile to Google+ (G+) and I am still working out the kinks.  I just participated in Club Scrap’s monthly blog hop and received an email from a reader who couldn’t respond to my “no-reply blogger” comment that I left on her blog. I also read a comment about the blog hop  in the Club Scrap Community forum. The reader didn’t comment on three blogs because she was asked to join G+ and wasn’t comfortable doing that. I did some research on the Google/Blogger integration and this is what I discovered. 

First of all, readers will need a G+ page or profile to comment on your blog if you have updated to G+. When you enable G+ comments, existing Blogger comments will stay on your blog. G+ Comments lets you bring the following conversations together in one place, right under your blog post:

• Comments made on your Blogger blog post
• Comments on the blog post that you’ve shared to G+
• Shared content on G+ that links to your blog post

Basically you are getting more bang for your buck because you can engage with more of your readers. So, joining G+ and enabling G+ comments on your blog is a win win situation.

I also found a solution to the “no-reply blogger” email address  on Fluster Buster. That was an easy fix.

Since I already had the Google profile, I jumped in and made a page. I didn’t like the backgrounds on G+, so I made my own profile cover photo. Cypress North posted a “Guide to the New Google Plus Cover Photo Size, Inspiration & Tips” and provided .psd templates to download.

This is my new cover photo for my G+ profile page that I designed in Photoshop Elements…

(Click photo)

Read More »

Club Scrap June Hopes Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop on the Club Scrap Hopes Blog Hop! If you started on the Club Scrap Creates Blog, you are in the right place. If not, keep in mind that you can access the whole list of participants from there at any time.
My Dad just had his 62nd birthday and took my boys to Omaha for the College World Series. Of course that was “scrapworthy”! My sister took most of the birthday pictures with her iphone using  Instagram . My sisters and some of my closest friends introduced me to the Instagram and Hipstamatic apps for the iphone. The apps have a bunch of cool filters and effects for creating a cross-processed, textured look to your photos, with an added online sharing component. The photos print in cute little 4*4 squares, perfect for small photo albums.  I love playing with the filters!  I’m a digi ALSB scrapper, so I got out my Idea Decks for this project and I found three layouts that had square sized photo mattes for the Instagram photos. (The ALSB Digital Layouts tutorial by CS Jac opened my eyes to digi scrapping!)

I made templates out of the Idea Deck layouts so that I can use the layers as clipping masks for quick and easy layouts later.


Birthday dinner and the airport send off!

A little somethin’ extra if you use PSE …. I really like the vintage look that some of the photography app filters give my photos and wanted to reproduce the look for some of my photos not on Instagram or Hipstamatic. I subscribe to Photoshop Elements Magazine and I highly recommend “The Instagram Effect” tutorial parts 1&2 to recreate two popular Instagram filters for your photos, Toaster and Earlybird.  The possibilities are endless! I  saved my filters as PSD files and can use them over and over. 
(Click photo to enlarge)

Next stop is  Deb’s blog at http://debduzscrappin.blogspot.com/.  Have a fabulous day!

Read More »

Here Comes Trouble!

My nephew was born June 3, 2013! Third times the charm. My Aunt Linda, Kellan Allen’s great aunt posted this on our family group page on Facebook:
“Welcome to the Family , Kellan Allen ! You are the first male  namesake of Memaw and Papaw's great-grands! You were born almost 90 years after your great-papaw was born on June 23, 1923. Papaw would have been so proud! Your daddy was the first male  namesake of the grands, so it is befitting that you are the first for the great-grands. Lots of hugs and kisses for your lovely Mommy, cutie big sisters, and your proud daddy. Auntie Linda and Uncle  Jan .”
Well of course I had to make something special…

My first quilt. With the help of Jenny at the Missouri Star Quilt Company’s rag quilt tutorial, I did it!

Blue and brown minky checkerboard on one side and three patterns from the Oh Deer line by Moda Fabrics on the other. I made the card to match using cardstock from Club Scrap and the Oh Boy! Cricut cartridge.


My hands got a work out after clipping all those edges, but I love how it turned out. I even made some simple receiving blankets and topstitched with some of the decorative stitches on my machine. I am a sewing machine!

Read More »