digital monday :: a request, a giveaway and a tip!

Memory Trends is next week. As I prepare for the show, I'm thinking about the kinds of questions I'll get from the retailers who will attend. They're all trying to figure out how best to incorporate digital scrapbooking products into their store inventory. So, I thought, "What a great question to present to my blog readers?"

So, here's the question:

What digital products would you like to see on the shelves of your favorite scrapbook store?

Everyone who answers via a comment to this post will have their entry thrown into the virtual "hat" to win a special digital giveaway!

Can't wait to hear what you guys come up with!

The tip!

Here's a great tip I learned from Christy, a student in my Doing it Digi class. Just goes to show you that we do indeed "teach that which we most need to learn." Thank you, Christy!

Photoshop Elements is a great tool at a great price point and more than adequate for most digital scrapbookers. But one of the areas where it falls short of its big sister, Photoshop CS3, is in text handling.

You can do a lot of things with Photoshop Elements (PSE), but one of the things you cannot do is kern or track text. Kerning is the adjustment of space between a pair of letters while tracking is the adjustment of space for an entire block of text. Christy found a workaround that will allow you to tightening the space between pairs of letters or blocks of text in PSE. Here's how:

Using the Asian text options

The key is Tsume, which reduces the space around a character by a specified percentage value. The function is designed for Asian characters, but it works for our alphabet, too! Here's what you need to do:

1. First you need to enable the Asian text options in Preferences. Go to Edit > Preferences > Type. (Photoshop Elements > Preferences > Type on a Mac.)
2. Turn on the check box next to Show Asian Text Options and click OK.
3. Now type a line of text in your document window.
4. Select the characters you want to adjust.
5. Click the Show Asian Text Options button in the options bar.
6. Select a percentage for Tsume from the pop-up menu, and press the Enter or Return key. The greater the percentage, the tighter the compression between characters.

   

Pretty neat tip, huh?

later...

Comments

[Damon Crawley]

I want to see more paper lines available on CD like Tinkering Ink does. I don't care for Tinkering Ink's designs but would love to see BasicGrey and Making Memories designs available that way. Imagine BasicGrey designs printed onto white Bazzil cardstock!

[Becky]

I'm in that class too and when I read her response about kerning, I was like...what? LOL! But now it totally makes sense. I found this awesome Celtic font online that lets you draw Celtic knots as you type (I’m sure there is a 'technical' name for this kind of font, but I don't know what it is), and I always seam to get a little line going through my design. This would help lots!!! YAY!!

[Teresa]

I would love to see papers, tags, monograms you could print at home. Or mini books you just had to add photos to digitally or after printing them out. That would be great for gifts.

Teresa

[sharon]

Retailers..Well tricky question..since there really is not a lot of digital product to physically sell in a store. I think that scrapbooking retail stores should reach out to the digital designers to offer exclusive products and hybrid classes at the store. Can you imagine an awesome digital kit by a top designer that you can only buy at a local scrapbook store. Then on top of that a class in which the digital papers are printed out and used to create an awesome project. I wonder if this one has been done already..

sharon

[Olga]

I have never been a traditional scrapper but if I´d go to a scrapbooking store for supplies as a digital scrapper I´d be looking for things like DVD tutorials, books about digital, papers for printing at home, DVD with kits so I don´t have to worry about downloading and backing up my stuff, just loaded onto the computer, information about backup systems (every now and them you hear the horror story of losing everything), albums specific for layouts printed at home, that kind of stuff.

Have a great time in the event and best wishes.:O)

[Karen]

I love the idea of digital kits on CDs. Even with all my digital elements organized on Shoebox, it still takes me time to find what I want. I'd love tutorials. I've bookmarked a bunch on the internet, but a CD with tutorials would be great. I'd also like a series of easy to use templates for those of us who are still beginners and/or short of time.

[Tami]

Since I am new to the digital scrapbooking venue I would like to see tutorials, books and such. At this point the digi world still seems intimidating and overwhelming. It is hard to figure out where to start. There needs to more items that show one how to get started in digital scrapbooking and/or the benefits of hybrid scrapbooking.

[Juls]

I am new to digi also. I really love your new book- more of the same would be great. I would like a mix of elements that all fit together to complete a project. Digital elements from some of the top lines would be great. Sometimes I find it overwhelming to pull all the elements together.

[Alyson]

I think it would be really cool to buy a cd with a bunch of digi elements (and have it in some sort of cd cover that has a little booklet showing all of the elements included individually - like little proof sheets) AND have it displayed with some coordinating physical embellishments, so when you design it you can keep in mind the embellishments you bought with the disk, then print & adhere them where you want.

[Kristin R]

I'd love to see T-shirts and accessories just for the digital scrapper. Deluxe paper for printing at home (maybe a lustre or metallic finish). Cute laptop bags always catch my eye. I'm not brand savvy, but I'd love to see some special collections produced by my favorite designers available for purchase. Books and magazines. Classes on how to turn your handwriting into a font, scanning real life items to use on LOs. Cropping space that's OK for digital scrappers, and the abilty to print LOs at the shop.

[Wendy]

Paper collections on CD. A large format printer to print out layouts at the store. Digital scrapbooking crop nights.

[Katee L.]

I live in Northern Maine...about a two hour drive from Portland, so I really wish that more of the box stores would carry products that I hear so much about but never get to experience. Heidi Swapp is a perfect example...someone should bring her products in! I know that there are plenty of women in my area who scrapbook and who are looking for supplies out of the ordinary at the box stores, it's just too bad that none of them step forward and up the stock.

I would also like to see the box stores grab and run with clear stamps. I'm looking for something inspiring and different that I can't find from my CTMH consultant! (and that never happens at a box store)

[Laurie Patterson]

I think offering some kind of printing service of digital prints at the store would be great. That way a person can come to the store with their camera, computer or just the memory card, print the photos they want and continue to scrap right at the store. Also a large format printer so that digiscrappers can print out their pages.

[Lain Ehmann]

I would love to see a DVD that leads me through the techniques - something I can watch while attempting the same things on my computer. I like to read things, but having someone show me would be even better.

[Kayla]

Digital Cds or cards in-store that can be used online. Retail classes on digital in the store so we can bring new digiscrappers into the stores and also cater to traditional scrapbookers. I would love to see digital duos - traditional products on the shelf next to their digital counterparts so that one could mix them up however they chose.

I would love for stores to have a place for digital crops - i.e. wireless internet access, place to plug in laptops, etc.

I could go on and on... it will be exciting to see where the industry goes with this!

[Lisa]

Thanks Renee for your beginning digital class... I've made a # of digital LO's now with the training I got from BPS.

What I'd like to see?
1) Scrapbook kits on CD (like baby or b'day or holiday themes that include embelishments, a brush/stamp or two, background papers, fonts, etc.) This would be cool w/ a gallery link included so you can share and see what others did with their kits.
2) Digital stamp/brush sets
3) How-to manuals (like your books - love 'em!)
4) Digital project ideas (other than scrapbook pages)
5) Digital classes on CD

Hmm, I'm getting kind of excited about the opportunities that could be available at my local stores.

[Heather S.]

Great question Renee. I have to second the first comment. I would love to see more of the big retailers make digital versions of all of their product lines. But I would make them only available at the local stores on CD or DVD. I would also love to see my local store set up with broadband wireless access, power supply and large format printer so I could get away from home and go "cropping" digitally at the local store. Have a great time at the show and thanks for asking!

[Kari]

I would love to see CDs or DVDs with papers, kits, elements, etc. along with an insert to show what is on the disc. Maybe some DVDs (that could play on either your computer or DVD player) of tutorials. I find myself looking at traditional scrapbook materials and figuring out how to make them digitally.

If stores stocked "supplies" for digital scrapbookers, I might actually visit them more often. :)

[Jen]

I'm also in you current "doing it Digi" class, so my ideas may change once I finish your class and have learned so much more. For now, I think stores should:
1) Have a large format printer, so digi scrappers can print their LOs.
2) Carry good paper for printing LOs - for use at home or in the store on their printer.
3) CDs with blueprints - like Becky's sketches books, only for the digi scrapper.
4) CDs with coordinated kits. And thumbnails of what is included are key.
5) if manufacturers coordinated their traditional lines with digital kits or accessories, seems like that would appeal to hybrid scrappers.
Really excited about your class! Thanks!

[Catherine]

Hi Renee,
I would love to see more digi books available at stores. I had a hard time trying to find yours. Also digi scrap magazines are what I look for.

Thanks for asking,
catherine

[Jill]

With the age of wifi, hosting 'crop' night at there store for ladies to bring their laptops and scrapbook together. Being around friends to bounce ideas off of and enjoy girl time is part of the process.

[christy]

The things I would love to see at my local scrapbook/hobby store would be digital kits, a photo center that prints up to 12x12 photos, and software that I can use to organize my digital supplies. I would also love to see more books about digital scrapbooking, such as yours. I ask for a lot of my scrapbooking books for my birthday or Christmas, and a lot of my family isn't sure where to find it online. They're more likely to purchase it for me if it's in a store.

[Heather M in Ohio]

I would love to see CDs of paper lines, such as Tinkering Ink. I think classes with hibrid projects or demos would be useful. I would love the store to have options for printing at 12 by 12. I also would be interested in tutorials on photo programs. It would also be useful if stores could add more outlets to their crop spaces. Where I crop locally with just one laptop and a cricuit or two all the outlets are used and the cords are in the way. It would be great if it was easy to bring laptops to crops.

[Tara]

Paper lines from companies similar to what Tinkering Ink does... I love certain brands (Basic Grey, for example) and would LOVE to be able to use their lines on my digi work!

[Brooke - in Oregon]

For me the #1 thing would be for the store to actually Welcome the digi scrapper. :)

Wireless Internet for sure • Digi Magazines • Kits on CD • Classes Digi and Hybrid