HERE’S THE STORY |  I was at a meeting a few weeks ago with a bunch of other parents and got to talking to another mom about scrapbooking and how it’s like creating a “time capsule” for our family, in that we can go back and revisit periods of our lives – and years from now we’ll see the fashions, haircuts, pop culture references and whatever crazy slang phrase was popular at the time. I really love that about scrapbooking – because it’s not just the images, it’s the voice, too.

Then I just couldn’t get the idea of a time capsule out of my head for the rest of the night. I literally got up out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to write down everything I was thinking of just so I could get some sleep without worrying it would all be gone in the morning. I love it when the inspiration flows like that.

This time around I also created a separate product listing for just the papers – in case you’re anti-element or something. Or you just like to collect papers. I’m not judging!

I’ve also included a coordinating free product in The Cage Liner as a thank you to my subscribers. It’ll be available for download (no purchase necessary) through Wednesday, 3/9. Not yet a subscriber? Subscribe Now.

And last but not least, a Vintage Glass Alpha.

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by Amy K (March Guest)

by Beth

by Christine

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by Melanie (February Guest)

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by Tali

A delicate little sprout off in the margin encased in a bottle, and it brought a smile to my face. I kept referring back to that little sprout the next week – flipping the page back to smile at it some more – and then I made my mind up to immortalize it and share it with the world. Little Sprout is a delicate little departure for me, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and plan to do more of.

It’s 15% off in store through Sunday, 1/16. Cage Liner subscribers can buy it for 20% off – so be sure to check your newsletters for your savings coupon.

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by Beth

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Little Sprout Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Vieve! I’ve emailed you with instructions on how to claim your kit.

Enjoy your week, everyone!

As a result I took the entire weekend off from my computer completely – except for a little bit of recipe browsing last night on my laptop. By this morning I had the jitters, though.

I extended the sale on Page Turner through the day today since I was absent all weekend. You can still save 20% through tomorrow.

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by Alisa

by Audrey

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When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. ~Ansel Adams

Today marks the release of Focal Point, I offer it up in homage to my fellow members of the Mamarazzi. It has all sorts of vintage camera goodness in it, I had a blast creating it – and The Flock made some stunning pages. Their inspirational pages are at the end of this post.

Cage Liner Subscribers: Check your newsletter for exclusive savings through 12/5! Not yet a subscriber? Sign Up Here

NEW! Embedded Metadata for ACDSee Users

Due to a discussion we had on PDS 026 about pretagging kits with some of the metadata, I decided to give it a try with this kit and I embedded my name and the kit name into the files for this kit so that step is already done for you if you’re an ACDSee Photo Manager user. The kit name is pre-filled into the “Caption” field of the ACDSee database table, and One Little Bird will be in the “Author” field. I have my ACDSee set up to show me this information right on my thumbnails, which you can see in the screenshot below.

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I could reinvent the wheel and say how I set my ACDSee up to do this, but instead I’ll just refer you to the page on DigiScrapInfo.com where I learned it for myself: Customizing your thumbnails in ACDSee Photo Manager.

Embedding the information into these particular fields allows you to use the Auto-Categories function to find all the products by one particular designer with one click, which you can also see in the screenshot (above) over on the right hand side of my screen. I have the “Author” auto-category expanded so you can see the beginnings of my list. So if I want to find all of my products, I just scroll down to “One Little Bird” and everything I’ve tagged with my name in the “Author” field comes up on the screen. For more information on this method of tagging, see How To Assign the Kit Name & Designer over at DigiScrapInfo.com.

This particular methodology is in line with how I personally tag items in ACDSee, and perhaps you won’t find it useful at all – in which case this metadata will just sit there not hurting anything. If you’re an Adobe Bridge user I also embedded this information into the IPTC table for each file, so they will appear in the “Description” and “Creator” fields in the IPTC drop down in Bridge (see screenshot below, right side of screen).

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You can also enable this information on your thumbnails in Bridge by going to Edit | Preferences then choosing  “Thumbnails” in the list on the left side. You then have the option for “Additional Lines of Thumbnail Metadata” and you can check “Show” and then “Author” to show my name beneath your thumbnails, and also “Show” and “Description” for the kit name. I’m not a Bridge user myself – so whether or not this is useful when you’re searching for products to scrap with, I do not know. But hopefully it is!

I did not tag any of the files with organizational tags because everyone organizes their supplies differently. What I tag as “buttons” you might tag as “fasteners”, or maybe you only do “paper” and “elements” in your system. It’s far too subjective for me to make guesses on, but going forward I will embed this information into my product files to save a little time for those of you who find it helpful. For those of you who don’t, it shouldn’t harm anything to have it on there.

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Lori! You’ve won a copy of Focal Point. I’ll be emailing you with details on how to claim your prize. A big thank you to everyone who left a comment – I always appreciate hearing from all of you.

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by Becky

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Every once in a while I decide that I don’t have enough hobbies. Over the weekend I got this idea in my head that I was going to learn how to crochet – because you can learn how to do just about anything on YouTube. My grandmother is a wizard with a crochet hook and I’ve never met a craft that I don’t like. Some of them don’t like me (like hybrid scrapping) but for the most part I enjoy figuring things out.

My friend, Christine, frequently taunts me with her killer crochet and knitting abilities. She even made us an afghan for our wedding – because she’s a show-off like that. I don’t have any desire to have a ton of sweaters or anything, and I already have more blankets than any reasonable person should have, so I figured I would be stuck making dishcloths and … I don’t know … scarves? When I told Christine that I was considering tossing my hat into the ring (my crocheted hat, no less) she pointed me to Ravelry.com and it was game over for me. There’s a pattern for just about everything there – anything from cat toys to holiday decor.

(via Lily)

My best bet for justifying any new hobby is to say “I’m going to make GIFTS! Gifts for PEOPLE!” so I started off with this holiday tree (pattern here – requires free registration). I made mine with a heathered beige yarn because that’s what I happened to have here. Instead of colored buttons I was going to use some abalone shell ones that I have in my Craft Closet of Broken Dreams. I won’t lie, I had to unravel this tree about a half-dozen times in the beginning because I had no clue what I was doing. I suppose I should have started with something a little more basic because I’m not great at keeping count and this entire project was counting. It took me about three hours to finish the body of the large tree, but since this was a last minute project decision I didn’t have stuffing or felt to finish it. I picked them up after work today so I’ll have to wrap this project up this week. In the meantime I went looking for Sisko because he’s always a good sport about things.

And now … some Inspiration from The Flock!

using Pear Tree:

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By Amy

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using Twogetherness:

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by Alisa

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Share Your Projects With Me!

a Flickr Group exclusively for One Little Bird creations

using Wildflower:

(click on images below to enlarge)

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by Alisa

by Alisa

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Share Your Projects With Me!

a Flickr Group exclusively for One Little Bird creations

Using Flashback:

by Alisa:

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by Bianka:

by Crystal:

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by LaRissa:

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All New Tomorrow!

I’ll be popping these into my store tomorrow – they’re one-click layer styles with my most-used shadow settings. The example elements are not included, however they’re all available in various kits of mine. When you combine these with the manual tweaks explained in my Mind Blowing Drop Shadow Tutorial, you’ll be able to achieve total world domination.

using Trademark:

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Layouts using:

Instinct @ 9th & Bloom

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