I tried out digital images for paper crafting

Happy friday!

If you haven't checked out the CDS Color challenge over on PapercraftPlanet yet, you can find all the details HERE.  I plan on playing this weekend too!

OK, I've played around with digital images this week (I just can't call them stamps) and here are my average, Joe-stamper thoughts on them.

1. You have to download the image.  Sometimes they download as just the image file, and sometimes they download "zipped" up and you have to unzip the file to expose the actual picture file, and sometimes they download within a folder and there is a thumbnail image and the larger image.  It depends on the company and how they have saved their downloadable file.  The 3 images/companies below all downloaded differently, and I didn't think I did anything different during the download process.  I'll admit that it could be that I am just a computer dummy though!

• If  you downloaded a zipped file, you need to unzip it by right clicking on the zipped file, and select "extract all",  then you follow the prompts your computer gives you, one of which is selecting a folder on your computer to save it in.

2. Once the images are on your computer, you have to place them, or open them in some sort of photo editing program or printing program in order to flip them, resize them, and print them.

3. I dont have Photoshop, so I opened up a Word document and placed all the picture files in the word doc to fill the sheet, being mindful of the margins and leaving enough room around the images for me to die cut and trim, etc.

• When you place the picture in the Word doc, by going up to the pull down menu "insert", pick "picture", pick "from file".
• It may default to coming in "behind" text, which is what mine did, and this will not allow you to move it around or resize it, so you need too modify it to be "above" the text.  You do this by right clicking on the picture you just inserted, click "format picture", click the "layout" tab, and then click on "in front of text", then "ok". Now you can move it around as desired.
• Save your file for quick future printing.

4. Now you need to select your cardstock or othe paper to print on.  If you are using copics, I have heard that the Neena Solar white can go through some printers, but I did not personally try that, so I can't give you direction on that.  Since I wanted to watercolor, I used Canson 90 lb watercolor paper,, which was suggested to me by Wendy Hall. I bought a 11x14 pad from Hobby Lobby and chopped a sheet down to 8.5x11 so that it would fit through the printer.

5. You are ready to print!  I found that a laser printer works best if you watercolor images.  The ink in an inkjet tends to smear with water or other markers.  NOTE:  I did notice however, that the more I "handled" my image, from cutting out parts of the image for popping up, that the laser printer ink wore off just a bit.  You can see it in my close up of the scarecrow card, the edges of the coat are not quite as black as they were when first printed.  I have heard that if you heat set the printed sheet with your heat tool, that it would eliminate smearing while coloring and I would imagine that the "wearing off from handling" would be less likely to happen as well  But I didn't heat set mine before I handled my images (I was too excited to get started on them!).
Below is how I arranged my word document sheet:  I put duplicates of some images because I already knew that i wanted to cut out portions of them to pop them up.  I purposefully made it really small because I could not figure out how to put a copyright watermark on them, and besides, I am only showing you how I laid them out anyway, not giving all the image details.

Below are the 3 cards I made using images from 3 companies.
All the images were freebies.

This one is a scarecrow that I got from Digital Delights.


SUPPLIES:

• STAMPS: none.  digital image from Digital Delights. by Louby Loo
• CS and PAPERS: watercolor, chocolate, sage, basic grey marrakech
• INK: mellow moss, bashful blue (for sponging around edges. Coloring image: Faber-Castelle watercolor pencils 131, 132, 153, 173, 183, 118, 126, 187, 176, 175, 147
• EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: sponge, waterbrush, linen thread, piercer, sewing machine, SU dimensionals, copper brads

This cute bunny is from AiFactory.

SUPPLIES:

• STAMPS: none.  digital image from AiFactory.
• CS and PAPERS: watercolor, new leaf, chocolate, groovy guava, cosmo cricket earth love mini deck
  
• INK: brilliance black, groovy guava, ruby red, celery, bashful blue
  
• EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: Nestabilities dies, waterbrush, white gel pen, sewing machine, SU dimensionals, PTI ribbon and brads

Of course the dragon is a Dustin Pike.

SUPPLIES:

• STAMPS: Digital image from Dustin Pike., and sentiment from Charlie reindeer games from Clear Dollar Stamps
  
• CS and PAPERS: watercolor, new leaf, ruby red, cosmo cricket earth love mini deck
  
• INK: brilliance black, groovy guava, ruby red, celery, garden green, soft suede
  
• EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: Nestabilities dies, waterbrush, basic grey bling, sewing machine, SU dimensionals, PTI ribbon

In conclusion, I had fun with digital images, and it does open up my choices for images I can use.  But when it comes right down to it, I do prefer good old fashioned stamping the best.  However, if I ever see a digital image that I just can't live without, I now know that I can use it successfully and with satisfactory results.
I hope you were a little inspired today, and I thank you for stopping by!

Happy stamping,
Laurie