All artwork printed on different papers on the best photo quality setting.

All of the artwork available at Bits of Ivory is 300 ppi resolution for high print quality.  This helps to preserve the textures and details in the artwork and results in a more professional looking product when you use them on projects either as gifts or on your professional crafts.

Many who are new to paper crafting, or only indulge occasionally are unaware of the importance of the type of paper you choose to print on.

1.  Copier Paper: You can have a fantastic printer, but when you print on copier paper (even if it says it’s appropriate for ink jet printers), you’ll have a dull, flat image without much detail (see the top left graphic in the photo above).  Of course, this paper has it’s place.  It’s very inexpensive, and if you’re simply using the artwork to illustrate a newsletter it may be perfectly appropriate.

2.  Card Stock for Ink Jet Printers: Card stock for ink jet printers has the advantage of being thicker (so that you can’t see through the page), and often is a bit brighter white to enhance colors.  It can also be very inexpensive, but once again you will be sacrificing detail, depth and color in exchange (see the top right graphic in the photo above).  This paper is appropriate for printing artwork that isn’t very detailed, or for projects where the image quality doesn’t have to be the absolute highest.

3.  Matte Photo or Presentation Paper: This paper is a bit more expensive than cardstock, but maintains the heavier weight.  The quality of the image printed is much better (see the bottom left graphic in the photo above).  While the quality and detail are not quite as sharp as on the glossy photo paper, it is still very good.  For projects that will be handled often it is actually preferable to the glossy photo paper because it won’t show fingerprints when touched.  It is also superior for distressing techniques, especially ink which can sometimes discolor photos printed on glossy paper.

4.  Glossy Photo Paper: This is the most expensive option, but the details and color show the best on glossy photo paper (see the bottom right graphic in the photo above).  For photographs and artwork with a very high level of detail, it’s the best option (except on the types of projects noted in the previous section).

The left is printed on Matte Photo Paper, the right on Glossy Photo Paper.

Most printer companies suggest that you use only their brand of paper for best results.  I pay less attention to the brand and more to what papers are economical and still give me excellent results.  With a little bit of trial and error you can find exactly what works for you and your style of crafting and card making!

Happy Printing!
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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

I just added a new set of magnets to my shop at Bramble & Vine featuring photos from Volterra, Italy.  These are perfect for architecture enthusiasts and lovers of all things Tuscan or Italian.  Realistically, though, I realize that their biggest draw is that they’re the literary home of the Volturi from the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.  They make fantastic gifts for Twilight fans of all ages, for lockers or fridges or desk cubicles.  They’re especially ideal for those who want to celebrate their secret obsession in a more subtle, sophisticated fashion.   Two of the images are of the Palazzo dei Priori (one with the famous clock tower), and the other shows the street sign at the corner of the piazza.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Volterra was one of my very favorite places in our recent trip to Italy.  It’s a charming little village, and the alabaster creations there are amazing.  And, certainly not least importantly, it is the home of my favorite gelato shop, Chic E Shock, which serves the most beautiful and delicious concoctions imaginable.  Take a moment to chat with the master gelato maker/proprietor if you get a chance as well.  He’s amazing. 

Sadly, the New Moon movie due to be released in November was not filmed in the actual village of Volterra.  They chose a nearby village instead, which was easier to film in.  If you’re looking for scenes from the movie – these magnets won’t be your thing, I’m afraid (although the palazzo in the town where they filmed is similar to the one in Volterra).  Still, there’s something rather special here to fans of the books!  Because the photos are originals taken by me, they’re unique and different from anything else you’ll find out there.  They come packaged on a piece of metal covered in Italian text and in a plastic protective sleeve – perfect for gift giving.

On another note, thanks to everyone for your support as we open a new Bits of Ivory shopping cart.  We are slowly adding our sets back, but you can see the shop and the sets that have already been renewed here:  http://www.bitsofivory.com/shop/.  Over the next few weeks we hope to have all the sets back up and ready for purchase!

Very Best Wishes!
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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

This note was sent to Bits of Ivory customers today:

This weekend we found out that our website had been hacked. The hacker redirected customer payments to his own PayPal account rather than our Bits of Ivory account. We are closing down our store at http://www.bitsofivory.net/store and will re-open with a newer, more secure shopping cart in a few days. You will be able to access this new store from our www.bitsofivory.com webpage if you are interested in purchasing artwork in the future. Fortunately we do not store any of your financial information on our site (which is why we process payments through PayPal) – so none of your credit card or PayPal information has been compromised.

We are unable to transfer customer information to our new shopping cart, so you will need to re-register at our new shop if you wish to order from us in the future. Most of our artwork will be making the move to the new shop, though several of the clearance items will not. Newsletter information will also not be transferred, so if you want to keep up with what is new at Bits of Ivory we encourage you to subscribe to our blog (www.bitsofivory.com/wordpress).

We will be adding products to our new shop over the next few days, but several of our newer sets are available in the meantime in our Etsy store – bitsofivory.etsy.com.

We’re finally ready to announce our new Christmas art set just a wee bit late for Christmas in July.  We hope it’s still early enough for those preparing for Craft Fairs this fall!  You cand find NATIVITY in our Bits of Ivory shop (along with more detailed views).  This set has been on my drawing board for quite some time, and has been a labor of love.  I hope that you’ll enjoy working with it as much as I have enjoyed creating it!  As always, it is 300dpi for excellent print quality for your crafting, cardmaking, scrapbooking, etc.

Very best wishes!

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Our Brown Paper Packages with Snowflakes ornament/album was on the front page of Etsy today, together wtih a treasury of really gorgeous handcrafted things.  Thanks to IlluminatedPerfume for including us in your beautiful treasury!  If you missed it, here’s a little snapshot!

 
These are our first ornaments of the season, but we’ll have several more ornament/albums listed in the shop soon, as well as tags and gift cards to help get you ready for the season. I know that some are annoyed when they see Christmas out so early but in addition to providing a shopping opportunity for people who like to get their shopping done early, I love sharing new ideas early so that our customers who participate in craft fairs have lots of time to be inspired and create their own projects. Don’t despair, we’ll also be adding some fantastic fall items to the shop as well – including Halloween!

I’ll just share a few last thoughts about the Digital Scrapbook Artist software today.

I was impressed at how easy it was to pick a page template and then customize the size of the page.  You can use this software to create pages of any shape or size, which makes it very convenient for many different projects, from framed pieces to paper-bag albums and cards.

While Serif plans to have commercial licenses available for the Daisy Trail sets soon, at this time they can only be used for personal projects.  In the meantime, professional scrapbookers and designers can still use the fantastic features of this software with other digital scrapbooking kits that do allow for commercial use!

As a designer and graphic artist, I use my image editing programs almost on a daily basis.  For quick and easy digital scrapbooking without the fuss, though, I’ll definitely turn to this software.  I know several family members who become frustrated with the more complicated programs when they simply want a beautiful page and the drag-and-drop format of this software is a perfect solution.  You can find the software online for under $50.00 either from Serif or Amazon. 

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

As promised, here are a few of my very favorite tools in the program.

First, Brushes.  Everyone loves brushes, and different brushes are provided with each theme to compliment the look of your pages perfectly.  From stitches and beads to grungy edges and paint effects, there’s something for just about any look you’re going for.  If you’re feeling particularly creative you can even make your own brushes to use.  Settings such as size and transparency give you flexibility as you use your brushes, and for those who have pen and tablet mouses, it has pressure sensitivity to vary the line width or transparency as you’re drawing.

The cutting and cropping tools in this program are some of my favorites.  You can cut freeform shapes with the scissor tool, choosing from many different scissor shapes for a scalloped, pinking, zig zag or other edge.  Just as with cutting paper, you’re left with both pieces of the beginning shape, now cut into separate objects to be arranged as you wish – or toss one away by deleting it!  This clever little feature also works with the preset shape cutter.

Another favorite feature is shape text.  Simply select a preset shape and place it on the page, or create your own by drawing a closed line, and then select the shape and start typing!  Your text will automatically flow within the shape.  It’s easy to keep journaling right on your journaling tag!  Of course, if you simply want the text to fill a certain shape but don’t want the shape behind it (heart shaped text on your background, for instance), you can detach the text as a new item when you’re finished and delete the original shape.

Drop shadows are fantastically easy to manipulate in Digital Scrapbook Artist.  Simply click and drag it until it gives you the perfect depth!  You can also easily change the skew of the shadow to give the impression that the object isn’t lying flat for just a bit more dimension.  Other effects to add interest to the page include embossing, feathered edges, paper textures, transparency and even some great 3D preset effects for realistic looking metalics, woods, etc.

Watch Friday for a few more of my favorite things about this program!

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

I recently had the opportunity to work with a new software program created especially for scrapbookers.  Digital Scrapbook Artist by Serif impressed me with it’s ease of use and flexibility.  I was happily surprised by the very reasonable price, which makes it easy to add this to my own software collection even with the graphic imaging programs that I already use, and also makes it a great gift for friends and family who are interested in digital or hybrid scrapbooking.

All week I’ll be reviewing this software here on the blog.  Don’t hesitate to comment with any questions you might have!

EASE OF USE:
Easy enough for digital novices, it also has enough great tools to make it fun for experts to use.  Click on premade layouts and drag your own photos for a very quick and easy page, or use them as a starting point and then drag and click to customize until you have just what you want.  If you’re feeling particularly creative you can start from scratch as well! 

The program itself comes with two themed sets of pages with different backgrounds, lettering, brushes, embellishments and papers that you can mix and match for a cohesive look.  It also comes with several Daisy Trail theme sets.  One click of a button and you have access to all of your sets so that you can add various elements from different sets to your current workspace.

The user guide is very easy to use.  Simple step by step color-illustrated instructions walk you through anything you want to do in the program.  I generally don’t think much of instruction manuals and only consult them when I can’t figure something out for myself.  This one is different.  It’s so user friendly that it’s fun to browse through it to learn new tools and techniques.

Continuing later this week - more information on those tools and techniques!

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Photo is of a project featured in the membership area of Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine online.  Don’t miss the step-by-step instructions for this altered steno notebook there!

Spring has stayed through June, and I’m feeling particularly thankful for that.  I love the cool spring weather and am not quite so fond of the hot summer, so an extra month or so of chilly evenings and rainy mornings has me ready to share a few of my favorite things this season.

1.  I love it when bearers of bad news are wrong.  We were warned by the nursery that wisteria would definitely grow in our climate, but it wouldn’t blossom.   I’m so glad that we decided to plant it anyway.  This year it was just dripping in gorgeous blossoms and I’m in love with it.

2.  I love happy accidents.  We purchased lilac bushes for the side yard and as they started growing they looked a bit, well, off.  We found out that they’re actually Japanese lilacs.  They have the same gorgeous scent and color, but the leaves and blossoms are more feathery-looking than traditional lilacs.  Best of all, they blossom just as other lilacs quit (and after the wisteria loses it’s blossoms as well).  The timing is absolutely perfect to keep our side garden in color and heavenly scent.

3.  I love rain.  Not always, sometimes I’d like to make it stop for a bit and come back later when I’m not busy trying to do things.  But mostly I just love rain.  We didn’t have it much growing up so rainy days were precious treats to be thoroughly enjoyed.  I would sit on the porch and hear it patter upon the roof – or sit outside on the front steps and let it just soak me.  It was beautiful.  I loved the rain in Italy – so much more powerful than anything I’d experienced in Wyoming.  And I love the rain here.   It makes everything smell so fresh and clean.

4.  I love garden fresh produce.  My husband is fantastic with plants.  He claims it’s all in the watering of them, and that my weakness in this area explains my wilting and dying flowers so much more realistically than my own mystical brown-thumb theories.  Oh, and weeding.  He highly recommends removing the choking weeds from around my flowers.  Not at all romantic, I know, but there’s an upside to a practical husband.  It’s garden fresh produce.  We’ve been having salad from our lettuce plants in the garden for weeks now and it’s fantastic.  Soon we’ll have fresh garden tomatoes to add to it, and peas.  Delicious.

5.  I love Spring Clean.  Not cleaning.  I don’t love cleaning.  I’m about as good at it as I am at watering flowers.  But spring makes me want to see things put back in order and freshened up, and so I feel motivated to do it despite not loving the process.  It feels great to have the winter things put away and rooms decluttered.  I love to open the windows and air everything out.  I love seeing the deck cleared off and set up – those outdoor rooms are some of my very favorites in the house.

So if you’ve not seen many new things in my shop lately – perhaps these top five things will make that more understandable.  And for those who are disappointed by that and aching for something new, take heart.  Soon the summer sun will be driving me down into my cool basement studio to create once again.  I’ll counteract the heat with the Christmas art set that will be released at Bits of Ivory in July.  At Bramble & Vine there will be books and tags and cards of all sorts coming from my studio – and perhaps I’ll have a Top Five Tuesday celebrating my little oasis.

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Welcome to Favorite Things Friday, where I share some of my very favorite tools and supplies.

Finding a perfect adhesive for projects can be a challenge.  I hate glues that promise not to wrinkle my papers, and then wrinkle and warp anyway.  It’s annoying.  It’s beyond annoying, and it happens quite a lot.

I was recently introduced to Coccoina paste and liquid adhesive.  I’ll admit that I didn’t get my hopes up.  After all, the glue is almond scented and the paste is reputed to taste like marzipan.  School children in Italy have been using it (and presumably tasting it) forever.  It doesn’t sound like the kind of tool that serious artists and artisans would use on their very serious, grown-up art projects.

Well, I’m not afraid to admit that I was mistaken.  These adhesives are one of my new very favorite things.  The liquid glue with it’s sponge applicator tip spreads the glue so evenly and gently on delicate papers – and I’m not kidding, no wrinkling and warping at all.  It’s non-toxic, and so far it’s proven to be a very strong and effective adhesive.  I love this stuff.  How heavenly to trade the chemical or pasty odor of other glues for that of sweet almonds!  And while I haven’t tried it myself, my boys assure me that the paste does actually taste quite nice.

Coccoina is imported from Italy, and if it’s not carried in your local stores you can find it online.  I purchased mine from Little Pink Studio at Etsy and it arrived beautifully packaged.  How nice to find a present to me in my mailbox (even if I did buy it for myself).

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets