Gluten Free Cruising - It's Not All Plain Sailing

Article coming soon...

Old photos? Roll with it...

As you can imagine, I've tweaked and tweaked these old photos from a day at the seaside when I was two. But sometimes you need to leave them looking old for the best effect. Template by Katie Pertiet.

What's a girl to wear?

[This article is taken from the archived "the Ship's Rail' blog]

X weeks to go until our first cruise since 2019. I'm not daft enough to tell several potential burglars - and one thieving cousin - the dates we're away. Here are some tips for you. They're mostly for the ladies although I should probably say something like "those who identify as wishing to wear a dress sometimes".

I take great pride in the enormous amount of luggage I can take on a cruise and enjoy saying "The airport is that way, Madam" to anyone rude enough to comment on it. However, some planning of what to take avoids a lot of wasted time and - more important -  energy. I don't pack early. That would make me unpack and repack several times "to make sure". I put everything on a hanging rail and on the spare bed (evicting the cat) and pack the day before the cruise. We live in Southampton so we only have two miles' of travel and don't have to stay anywhere overnight.

I won't tell you what to wear during the day or ashore. There are only so many times you can read "wear layers and comfortable shoes" without falling asleep. Maybe I should master that. Folk get free cruises for writing that.

Important point to remember: "No-one is looking at you". My husband says that to me all the time. 

Getting started:

1) Start now. Actually, start two weeks ago if you can nick a Tardis. It takes longer than you think and it's exhausting so you need to do it bit by bit.

2) Set up a system. You need piles/hanging for

- "Yes, I look fantastic in that, I'll pack it". Small space required for this category.

- Sewing/alterations. Don't leave this too late. I have a background in theatre wardrobe so theoretically I can alter/repair anything but I soon lose interest and/or run out of time and the outfit ends up not being taken. Anywhere. Ever. 

- Charity shop

- Maybe next cruise. As in get it out a few weeks before the next cruise and follow this procedure again!

Do not mix these piles up or you will have to start again and then spend ages tidying the bedroom, preferably more than ten minutes before you want to get into bed.

3) Have a colour scheme in mind. I ditch navy and rarely wear jeans anyway so I ditch denim too. Packing black, white and a few bright colours makes life easier. Your "not sure whether that new shirt is navy or black" will drive you mad at sea or on land so throw that out now.

4) Don't forget you need to sort out underwear, shoes, jewellery and the stash of Really Useful Things too.

5) Have a trusty assistant in the house for when you can't unzip yourself. You'll be so proud you were flexible enough to do up that zip but if you can't undo it again you'll have to open the door to the Amazon courier in full evening dress. That's if you can get down the stairs without tripping over it.

6) Have a friend on standby to say, "You always look wonderful, darling" even though he can't see you on the phone. This is not a Facetime opportunity. Later on, realise the friend is a malignant narcissist and write a book about him...

7) Remember to tell everyone if you've lost weight and that's now a problem. This will ensure you save money on stamps as there will be no-one left on your Christmas card list.

Formal Nights

I love formal nights, especially the black and white night. There's something quite magical about seeing everyone glide down those stairs to the atrium. If you have evening dresses going back to the 1980s and they fit, then wear them. There's no point even trying to buy new ones as some silly designer has decided women look good in voluminous flowery prints tied up in the middle. Bring back the sequins please.

If you don't have an evening dress then smart black trousers and sparkly top is fine and who doesn't have gold or silver sandals that look a bit daft in Bournemouth? Pack them!

Incidentally, don't be afraid to include white on the black and white night - for gentlemen too  Spot me wearing this one and I'll buy you a drink. That's if only the usual three people read this blog. Otherwise I'll buy you a coffee from the free coffee station.

Tip for the dress wearers: The tripping factor. Watch the length of those frocks. Formal nights are usually on sea days when the ship is tanking along, not pootling to the next Canaries island. If the dress is the right length with high heels, will it be too long if you have to change shoes? If you fall over can you get up again? No, in my case. A getting-up-again team will be required.

Here's a visual aid for that concept. 

Incidentally that dress now needs to go to the tailors for altering since I've shrunk in all directions (see 7) above).

Tip for the men: You ALL look good in a DJ, really you do! Look regularly in the sale section in M & S. At various times of year they sell off formal suits at much reduced prices. Take some stand-out bow ties. Don't bother with the cummerbund. 

Bras...

Do we need a little lift in that elegant evening dress? Yes, we do. Do we want to look like a hippo who's just got a job as a magician's assistant? No, we do not. Time to find the push-up bras that might fit. This is tricky as they've been put way never to be seen again. Try that drawer you hope your executors won't blab about. Choose executors carefully. 

Yes, it fits. And er, no. When did the boobs get so wrinkly? What is going on there? Do not wear glasses for this project. Find the clothes, take off glasses before looking in mirror. This is definitely a "wish I hadn't gone to Specsavers" moment. 

There was once a time when a push-up bra would have been ideal. Not in your twenties, nothing to work on. Possibly in your late thirties. That ship is well and truly over the horizon. You have permission to cry at this point.

Take comfortable bras. If the dress looks wrong with them alter the dress!

Shoes

Don't even think of trying to break in new shoes on a ship. You'll be in constant pain

OR

Take new shoes to break in on the ship. You'll have nice flat wooden floors to walk on and you can soon get back to your cabin if they're uncomfortable.

Do you wear boots and flip-flops all day? Start tottering about the house in your heels at least two weeks before the cruise or your calf muscles will give out!

You probably won't need as many shoes as you think. I tend to wear flip-flops around the ship and glittery flip-flops in the evening. Easy peasy. I still take loads of shoes. Be careful if you're thinking of taking shoes you've had for many years. I tried on some old ones, walked across the room and thought, "Great. I can wear these". I turned around and saw little piles of black rubber all over the new carpet. The soles and heels had disintegrated!

This section about shoes is probably no help at all.

Makeup

I'm tempted to write "Let's not even go there" since I've reached the age where I look at the makeup displays in a shop and have no idea what most of it is for (ditto the rest of the shop...). Plus I seem to be allergic to anything I could put on my face, perversely even more so with the hypoallergenic stuff. I make up - pardon the pun - for this can't-be-bothered look with weird and wonderful goings-on with my hair. So there.

Tip 1: Take a magnifying mirror, one with decent magnification that lights up. Lighting in cabins is abysmal. The mirror is also useful for plucking hairs from your chin even though they're grey now anyway. This blog is scarily based on my actual life experiences. Incidentally, if you like to knit or crochet in these dark cabins you can get little fold up craft lights.

Tip 2: Remember the ship is usually moving while you're getting ready for dinner, certainly if you're on second sitting. This is not the time to try out some new makeup technique you found on Pinterest which is probably designed for 14-year-olds anyway. If you're on a two week cruise you soon start to notice the ladies have got tired of trying to do fancy makeup while being thrown across the room in rough seas.

Bling

I have loads of jewellery. Drawers and boxes full of it, mostly the big statement stuff. None of it is valuable. I wore a bracelet last week that was much admired and it cost £2.99 in Sainsbury's. I must find the matching necklace. Tip: if you like bracelets pack a crochet hook and practise using it to do the bracelet up by yourself in case cabin-mate goes awol.

I should probably say, "Ladies, sort out the jewellery you want to wear with each outfit and store it in a little bag with that outfit" Nah. Who does that? I pack loads in a roll up thingy so I have the fun of choosing. Admittedly I store goes-with-formal separately from loud tropical colours but I still get to choose. I actually bought a bigger roll up thingy a few weeks ago. I can't find that...

Style tip: Try a big statement necklace with a V neck dress, even if you don't normally wear one. It makes a difference and detracts from the wrinkles.

Evening Bags

Well, this is no fun at all. I used to carry dinky little evening bags that contained virtually nothing. I still have one my Dad bought me when I was sixteen. Dinky little ones are now useless. As well as my cruise card I need to carry a phone - for its camera function, I hasten to add - reading glasses, a fan and husband's insulin kit if he doesn't have a jacket. Of course if he is wearing a jacket I can load him up with my stuff! This was the pile of evening bags and make-up bags on my bed a few days ago.

Proper Coat

If you ever want to stand out on deck while the ship is moving - or even in port - you'll need a Proper Coat. You're standing on a 10 - 15 storey building. You wouldn't do that without a coat.  Not  necessarily your Big Coat unless you're going way north. I don't do that. An anorak/thick fleece type thing and a fold up mac to carry about with you will be fine.

All the Really Useful Things

I pack a gazillion useful things, mostly in clear zip up bags or hanging pockets so I can see what's what. You might be at sea and/or it costs an arm and a leg to replace the Thing from the shop so I pack it. 

Don't forget: chargers and extra adaptors. Why the extra adaptors? Because you shouldn't take extension leads (surge protectors can sink the ship) and if you take US and European adaptors then you can use all the sockets, not just the UK ones, thereby avoiding charger-related divorce proceedings.

Other essentials

- Strong magnetic hooks. The walls are steel. Hooks mean you can get your hats, bags etc out of the way. Note: these are very strong magnets. I store them in the shed since I don't want half the house magnetised. You can also get magnetic clips to hang the Daily Orders (sorry, Daily News) and other paperwork on the wall.

- Selfie stick. We have dozens of these since no-one follows my advice and we end up buying one on every holiday. People really should listen to my sound advice.

- Sewing kit including shirt buttons 

- Pegs of various sizes. To attach your towel to your sunbed on a breezy day  (the big ones used to hang duvets are great for this), to fix curtains together when there is light coming through the gap, to hang washing on the bungee line you're also going to bring if it's a longer cruise.

- Craft stuff for the Knit and Natter on sea days. See you there!

- A spare bag for the last morning - for your overnight stuff /stupid souvenirs you bought and don't have room for. I usually keep out the big beach bag I use around the pool.

I'd list more but then you'd just think I was bonkers.

And ...relax! Have a great cruise!

Don't forget to make a "Cruise Prep" scrapbook page...

Be The Tourist - Silly Stuff in Bordeaux

We went on a Fred Olsen cruise on the Balmoral last May. There are many tales to tell. Later. We were hoping to meet some friends who live near Bordeaux but they were in the UK, as luck would have it. So, that’s an excuse to go back.

Right by where the ships dock - the small ones that can get up the river - is the Miroir d’Eau. It’s a daft water pavement thing. Every 15 minutes or so mist comes through the many holes and then it fills with water, only to a depth of about three inches but…wet, wet, water. Not just mist.

Kids go on it, a few tourists go on it. I’m there. I’m ready. I have one of the “paddle towels” we take to the beach secreted in my little bag. Shoes are off and I’m in. Or, maybe “on”.

Our dinner table buddies laughed at me. Folk mocked me for doing the “tourist” things. I suspect some of these were jealous that I carry a towel with me like Ford Prefect.

If you don’t live there then…hello… you’re a tourist. Embrace it. Do the touristy things. (Well, within reason. I’ve been known to mock those who go to the Beatles exhibition in Liverpool .) Have the courtesy to spend money locally.

Within five minutes’ walk of the ship there are little squares of cafes and restaurants where waiters will indulge your need to practise your O-level French but will take pity on you and switch to English before everyone starves. Walk a little further away from the river and the main shopping street has stores SO much better than at home.

The weather wasn’t very kind so the photos are a bit murky but here’s the scrapbook page:

(A version of this article appears on my Substack page)

How To Cheat At "Outdoorsy"

I'm not outdoorsy. I'm beach-y, sit by a pool-y, walk on the common-y but not one who would make use of the many outdoorsy digital kits that are available and that, for some reason, I buy. I bought them so going to use them...

Here are some flattering photos of me I found the other day with afro perm and fashionable-at-the-time Deirdre Langton glasses. Despite many many hours spent organising photos I'm still surprised when I find them.  We were outdoors having an archery lesson at Walton Hall, near Stratford. We were actually only a few yards from our apartment but still outdoors, so there. I have a huge collection of wood effect papers which made this template (Studio KPD Layerworks No 1677) even more outdoorsy.

[Click on any photo to see a larger version]

Here's a more recent collection of photos from a walk in Boscombe Chine gardens - a few yards from the beach but you wouldn't think so.

The template I used here is Scrap With Liz' Focal Point no 16. Tips: Put the word "outdoors" on it and add some bits of dirt and grass. I have a large collection of dirt...  and yet another wood effect background!



You can see more pages of that Grand Day Out in Boscome here.

Essential Preparation

They say you should write about what you know so I'm not going to write an essay on good preparation  for everything in life.  Come on! Have we met?? 

I do take cruise prep seriously though (a lot more to follow on our dedicated cruising blog) and it's fun to make "prep pages".

I made this page quickly while zipping through a lot of photos from 2019 in order to "catch up". The phrase "catch up" is normally banned but just this once... I also finished a quilt, cut hubby's hair and transferred my entire life onto a new computer so yay me for achievement this weekend.

It was quick because it was a "pre-decorated paper" and all I did was add photos and the text. The "Escape..." word art was pre-made too. Cheat when you can! All the elements on the page are from Connie Prince's Bon Voyage kit. The photos show:

1) The dress I take on every cruise. It had just come back from a short cruise so I took advantage of good weather to wash it before our Aurora cruise. It's beaded silk and it's DRY CLEAN ONLY. Pffftt... forget that. That just means "not to be washed by idiots". Oh, and wash it by hand! It's actually hanging from our garden parasol, not just hanging from the sky. Or maybe I'm wearing it in invisible mode.

2) The pesky labels taken off new clothes. I can't stand itchy labels next to my skin and always remove them. It usually takes forever as they're sewn on in a ridiculous way with multiple rows of stitching. Needless to say I'm often doing this at the last minute and there have been cries of anguish as my seam ripper rips through the actual garment. 

3) Luggage labels. My printer hates these more than it hated printing tax returns. Once upon a time cruise companies took your money then politely sent you printed luggage labels.

I do start preparing well before the cruise but sometimes it gets away from me and there's a lot of last minute prep then I CAN'T SLEEP  'COS I'M TOO EXCITED!!! 

Mind Games

One thing you can do well before your cruise is prepare in your head. I made this page just after we'd booked a cruise to the Canaries. I used photos of a previous trip to Madeira (including the page background) and journal cards from the Project Life app. I added a pic of my Portguese book and the music I was listening to in Portuguese, albeit Brazilian.

Get Off Our Ship!

I like to take photos of preparing to get off the ship too - photos of our luggage and the cabin and the ship in "closed" mode etc. Well, getting off isn't exactly stressful for us since it takes us about 10 minutes to get home...

There are more cruise prep pages in the album HERE and an article on our main site HERE

Changing Shape - Adventures in Zinnia

 

No, not about dieting! My succinct view on that is "Life is short. Eat the cake. Then go for a walk."

For many years I've worked on square layouts which I'd normally print 12" x 12". I have a good print company for that if you're in the UK. A square layout just seems to make design easy which is how it becomes traditional. It's also traditional for quilting blocks, allegedly because 12" can be divided by 2,3 4 and 6. The same principal applies with scrapbook pages as far as the eye is concerned. So there's a lot in the "pro" column for square layouts.

The downside is sheer size if you want to print them 12" x 12" and an apartment by the sea beckons soon. It will be a very small one if it's to be near the beach. Scrapbook albums will have to fit on IKEA shelves because we're not spending the entire retirement budget on having a man come round to build custom shelves. The other problem is you need a specialist and therefore expensive album with square pages.

Time to change SOME of the albums to 6 x 8 which you can tweak into A5 if you want a much cheaper album for them. I'm also looking at making Traveler's Notebook (yes, I know it should have two "l"s but that offends the Google gods) pages tweaked for A5.

Along comes the Zinnia app. This is designed for planners/journals etc but I thought I'd have a go at making scrapbook pages with it.  I'm not really into planners as such. I don't have anything to plan and stickers like "unpack groceries" make me laugh. What else are you going to do? Leave it all in the porch? Journalling, maybe. Not about how I feel because I'm British and most days "meh" covers it adequately but notes about craft projects, occasional To Do lists etc. Here's a silly To Do list I made before Christmas just playing with the app (designer credits to follow):

I don't really do To Do lists either, I just kind of muddle through... 

The week 48 page above started out as a kind of planner then morphed into a scrapbook page when I added photos and other stuff. there are loads of page templates and elements in Zinnia plus you can import pdfs and photos. Tutorials and full review soon. It's mostly easy but there are a few tricks to it.

So, what to do with this page? The 2021 album, such as it is, is square so week 48 had to be square too. I tried making an ordinary square page but whatever I did the Zinnia one seemed more interesting. Eventually, after much faffing about, I simply added it to a square page with some extra bits and pieces and background from Bella Gypsy's Woodsy Winter kit. I haven't printed it yet so we'll see if it's all legible... [Edit to say it printed reall well, you can read all the text]

Masks and Edges

I love using masks and  grungy edges. DH John took this photo of the ferry near his office.  




I used a template from Indigo Designs' Frame Art Vol 2, background paper and edges from Scrapyrus' Anchor My Love.

Here's another page from my home town with big wheel thing that appears now and then. This is the second page I've made of this thing and we never did get to go on it. 



 



The "Bargate" is the mediaeval entrance to the city which is why the streets either side are Above Bar and Below Bar. It makes sense if you live here!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargate

This page is almost more edge than background. I tried to get a panorama shot but couldn't quite get the snow covered chairs in as there was a door frame in the way. It was far too cold to go past the threshold!

Background is from Studio basic's Studio Favorites:Kraft. Border and title from Ju Kneipp's Mitten Weather, other elements from Amanda Yi's Rustic Winter and Krystal Hartley's Winter's Veil.

Project Life When Your Life Goes Wrong

[Legal note: Project Life is a trademark of Becky Higgins LLC and refers to their products. I'm using it here as I'm actually talking about making pages with the Project Life app on my phone]

If you can be bothered to scroll way back in this blog you'll find a post with me hating everything about Project Life. I still stand by a lot of that. I can't stand twee in any form, I can't stand silly people  who make you do scrapbooking - or, indeed, anything - in a certain way and I don't work to a timeframe. However, for the last few years I have been doing a lot of pocket scrapbooking because I like having a photo layout to work to. I've even done weekly Project Life pages, mostly using the Project Life app on my iphone. I then finish the pages in My Memories as for me the layouts are too  bland when they leave the phone and I like to add a border and "stuff". You can see some tutorials and articles on my Easy Pocket Scrapbooking site and there will be more shortly.

I started making weekly pages as an experiment to see if there was enough to go in them. There have been some weeks when I've said to DH "We have to go out and do something, I have nothing for my weekly page". Really. The pages have rarely been done in order and I catch up every few weeks. There are missing weeks in every year. No-one cares. NO-ONE CARES!!

It started to go wrong in 2017. Without giving the details our financial future has been put at risk by a bunch of corporate bullies. We've been put through hell and believed we would lose everything. What do you do about something as trivial as scrapbooking when that happens? Well, first of all you get expensive specialist lawyers, check your pension options and - in my case - come out of the retirement you've only been in for a few months and come up with a plan to exact revenge on said bullies. Oh right, what do you do about the scrapbooking?

I just left everything for six months. I did six regular pages, some with photos from last year. I think I managed to do three weeks' worth of PL pages. Although I talked to my friends about what was happening I didn't feel the need to spout about it in a scrapbook. I'm British. We don't do that.

It's June now and I've started to catch up. I made eight pages last week. The hot weather in the UK helped as I could do sunny pages. The revenge plan also helps! There's a long article on this topic in progress on Easy Pocket Scrapbooking but for now by tips when it gets rough are:

1) Don't worry about scrapbooking when you have more important things to think about but stay in your FB groups (well, not the ones full of bullies obviously), admire the work of others etc. Do whatever hobbies help you to relax. Lots of crocheted scarves have been made in our house...


2) Carry on taking photos of anything and everything and taking screenshots of your Facebook page and the weather (is that just me?)  and organising them on your phone. Make a rough page with the Project Life app when you feel like it. Tell yourself it doesn't matter what it's like as you're not going to use it. You will find it useful as a framework later and might even use the page you made at the time. Carry on backing up. You don't want a load of lost photos adding to your misery.


3) When you do start scrapping again don't worry about what order you do it in. Just pitch in and start! Don't worry about what falls into which week but make sure you put a date somewhere. Show your pages to your friends as you make them.

4) Get those specialist lawyers!


Here's a quick page I made recently during our glorious hot weather. I hope that two weeks wasn't the entire summer. I used the Project Life app the Instaweather and Instaplace apps. Kits is Melissa Bennett's Hello Summertime.




Cheers!

PS (months later....) we beat the corporate bullies. We had the moral and legal high ground and a real desire to grind them into the dust.

Keeping It Simple

I'm not very good at simple. I tend to throw stuff at the page and end up putting bits in all four corners even when I'm trying to leave lots of "white space". This page is made with One Little Bird's Halcyon kit (part of The Lilypad's BYOC February 2015). I started off copying one of the CT layouts but drifted off piste.

I tried to fix the shadows so the elements stand out from the page, especially the flowers. I'll do a tutorial for My Memories later this week. In the meantime here are some tips for keeping it simple if you're one of the Very Bad People who like to throw stuff at a page:

1) Find a simple CT page you like and copy that. Obviously if you end up copying the entire thing you need to make sure you give credit to the person who made it.

2) Use only one photo and keep to one kit. Plain papers can be too traumatic so choose papers with a slight pattern.

3) When you think the page is finished force yourself to remove at least two elements!

I love the "live in the sun, swim in the sea, drink the wild air ..." quote. It's my mantra and we hope to live near this very beach one day. It's Alum Chine in Bournemouth and the photo was taken during the very hot summer in 2013 when we were lucky to be renting an apartment right by the beach for a week. No, we're not kidding ourselves it will be like that when we live there. For a start the apartment we buy will be half the size and not have a sea view!

Click on the picture below to get a bigger image:

Making the most of what we have ...

I'll get to something deep and meaningful in just a moment, it being the end of the year and all that, but first I'll show you some pages I made recently:

Romsey is a little town near us with the best Waitrose (expensive food store for those across the pond) for miles around. We went to get the week's shopping and noticed signs about roads being closed. So we parked in Waitrose and walked through to the square where the Christmas lights were going to be turned on. Unfortunately it took ages and we had to get back to the store before the lights went on. We took some rubbish photos. No matter, here's a page made with Raspberry Road's Christmas in the City which includes a gorgeous Bokeh Papers pack. If I'd know this earlier I might have tried to get some better Christmas shots! Click on any photo to see a bigger version in a new window.



We had a Christmas market in Southampton town centre this year as every year. A depressing Facebook group I was in - note "was" as I now leave anything not uplifting - did nothing but moan about the market and how Southampton isn't Christmassy enough so we went to have a look and had a lovely evening. Best of all I got a Monty tote bag free in John Lewis. Yay me! I think they were for people buying iPads and I was only buying a £25 phone but the assistant was keen to get rid of me and go on her break and I don't blame her as the store was packed.

Here's the page made with Kristin Aagard's Christmas Lights:


One thing we did learn in our Failed Christmas Lights trip to Romsey was the date of their carol singing. Again photos were rubbish but the sly cropping of a regular photo into a panorama made them less so and, hey, we were there! Kit is Melissa Bennett's Tis The Season, template is from Traci Reed's 365 Unscripted Stitched Grids 7.



So is there a not-so-hidden point to the title of this post?

In common with many of my scrapping friends I have far too many kits and other scrapping stuff and there is no need to buy any more. I should make the most of what I have. Indeed I'm sick of everyone trying to sell me more at every opportunity, and not even timely stuff. Christmas kits were being sold in November. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you need to take the photos before making the pages? Are we scared the internet stores will run out of kits? We had New Year kits well before Christmas. By the way, designers, "Happy New Years" doesn't even make any sense in the UK. It appears to beg for an apostrophe, needs to lose an s and/or ends mid-sentence. Don't get me started on the way you leave money on the table by not considering what other nations say.


Yes, of course I'll fall off the wagon at some point but I'll save money, save computer space and actually use the kits I already have.

Have a wonderful 2015 full of good memories and new friends!

Ignore Paypal at Your Peril!

Altogether now with the whinges:

"I can't afford to have Paypal in my store, it costs too much money"

"Poor little me I work so hard and everyone should love me and not criticise me".

Oh sorry, the general all-purpose whinge from silly designers slipped in there. We should probably take that as read.

What matters is not what your expenses are but your profit - the bottom line:

Do you want 100 sales without Paypal charges? Do you want more sales from those 100 customers and their friends? OR...

Do you want 1000 sales from around the world where the net receipts are a (small) percentage less due to Paypal charges? Do you want more sales from those 1000 customers and their friends?

If you can't see it in abstract terms - and most people can visualise the concept of "more sales" - try it out with some actual figures. If your maths isn't so good get a friend to help you.

Here's another common whinge: "The store is taking commission. It's not fair" Well, of course it's fair. Why would someone who has spent time and money building up a store sell your stuff free of charge? It's the same maths exercise:

Do you want to sell to the 100 people who might look at your website and Facebook page or do you want to sell to the tens of thousands of people who are customers of the store?


We have a whole series of articles in progress on running a digital scrapbooking business. What prompted me to write this now is a big paper scrapping company who have branched into digital. This has its own challenges as paper designs don't always transfer well to digital and digi scrappers don't necessarily make their pocket pages the way paper scrappers do. They also have a gazillion stores vying for their business. No Paypal. Lost sales.

You can't assume you will have a lot of sales so why lose sales through not offering Paypal? I can use a credit card for any purchases but the bank charges an overseas transaction free of £2.00 (about $3.00). I have another card that doesn't do that but you lose out on the exchange rate - so still a fee. Don't kid yourself it isn't! And why, pray, should I entrust my credit card details to a company I don't even know?

I fix the stupid "No Paypal" mistake on a regular basis as I'm an accountant. A British one, hence maths not math. When I prepare a business plan or bank loan application for a client Paypal has to be in there or there's no deal. It's standard business practice even for the smallest business. I offer it myself so clients can pay their fees easily. It's a courtesy to clients. The total fees just go in my own accounts along with bank charges. It brings in the fees earlier and I can move the money to my business account in seconds.

Your business will have expenses - phone, stationery, web hosting, Paypal charges. Suck it up. do the maths.  Look at the bottom line. Don't be one of the whingeing idiots. Be professional, be courteous to your customers, make more money!

Save on Top Photo Editing Software

By Yobeth Puckett

There is no better time to try the top photo editing software, Paint Shop Pro, and save 50%.  Get this Black Friday special from the comfort of your home.  After the 50% discount the full version is $38.99 or upgrade to the latest version x7 for only $28.99.  Amazing!  No need to fight the crowds just click here to purchase.

Hurry, this offer is good through November 29, 2014.  PLUS you'll receive additional bonus items valued at $150.00.

This is my go to program for photo editing and creating digital scrapbook pages.  I love it and use it all the time.  I know you'll love it too.

Piracy? Okay or Not?

by Yobeth Puckett


Piracy, copyright infringement, unauthorized use, reproduction of another's work, plagiarism, and the list goes on.  We frequently see news reports of companies copying a legitimate website/product to make a fake website/product and steal sales.  We can probably all agree that's not right and it's not fair!

People often dream of coming up with the next hugely successful company or product.  But how would you feel if you had a great idea for a new product, you labored over it, spent all your time and money to bring it to market only to have the idea stolen.  Someone else loves your idea too! But they're lazy. They decide to replicate it or in the case of digital designs they just download it, repackage and sell it under their own name.

Intellectual property is defined as a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript, film or design, to which one has rights and may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.  A copyright gives the originator the exclusive legal right to the intellectual properties use and the right to authorize others use of the property as well.

Designers always include "Terms of Use" with products they for sell or give as freebies.  The terms vary widely and range from okay for personal use only to commercial use for commercial use. Whatever the terms are they apply to the person that bought the product only.  Designers do not want us to share products with each other, not even freebies.  Do not share, do not redistribute, do not resell, do not claim as your own, etc.  You may be able to use their products if you buy a license from them or give them credit but otherwise it's considered piracy.  That's reasonable since they either designed the product themselves, bought a license or bought a commercial use product.

No Piracy insert as seen in many digital products.

The use of intellectual property seems to be a muddy area for many people. It's not uncommon for people to download pictures & clip art to use in a layout but just because something is available online doesn't mean it's right or legal to download it.

Of course, some things fall into the "public domain" category either because they're not copyrightable, the copyright has expired or the creator has assigned them as such.  Public domain material is not restricted by copyright so they're free to use, no license required.  Titles, phrases, slogans and such are not copyrightable.  Neither are items of fact or government works and documents.  There are web sites that are great public domain resources for books, images, illustrations, audio and films.

Movie Night kit used with permission by Kimeric Kreations

But what about music or movies?  Really?  I don't think you need to ask! Everything made to promote your child's favorite movie is designed for your child to want, you to BUY and the production company to make money. But wait, you say, sometimes designers make things that are super cute to give away as a freebie! That's okay, right? Sure it's okay, if the designer is using original work made to coordinate or complement the characters or theme of the movie.  It's not okay if they steal original work, downloaded directly from the movie website, to make anything.  It doesn't matter whether it's free or for profit!  These large companies do not tend to sell licenses or give permission to use their products.  They retain all rights.

I recently downloaded a free product a designer made using images that were obviously snagged from a web page.  I downloaded it because I wanted to see if she gave credit or had somehow gotten a license to use the images.  There was no mention that she was using copyrighted images, however, she did include her own TOU.  Among other things, she specified the items were for personal use only and to give HER credit if anything made using the product is used online or submitted to any publication.  Wow!  In case you're wondering, I deleted the product from my computer.  I don't support piracy!

Piracy is definitely a global problem.  The world wide web has broken down boundaries and made it so easy to steal other people's work.  I can only say, if you see designs that are obviously stolen, don't pretend it's okay, it's not. Don't excuse it by saying it's okay because it's free.  If the item were more tangible, a car for example, you probably, hopefully, wouldn't think it was okay to keep a stolen car.  Even if someone gave it to you!  Not only is it wrong, it's illegal to possess a stolen car.  The only one with any legal rights to the car is the car's owner.  

I define good character as doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Don't spoil your good character by stealing something simply because it's easy & no one is watching.  Don't support or defend people that do.  Some people try to make this a grey area but it's really quite clear.  Stealing is wrong and if you agree, then don't do it yourself!  Piracy is stealing.  Piracy is NOT okay!

Fill Your Text With an Image Using PaintShop Pro x6

by Yobeth Puckett

Have you thought of using areas of your photo or a favorite background paper to make a title for your page? Give your layout a custom look.  It's easy to do using the Text Tool in PaintShop Pro x6.  I've written a step by step tutorial if you'd like to try it. You'll find the tutorial here.

Go ahead and give it a try.  We'd love to see your layout on Divas Facebook group.