Ate too much chocolates

Can't believe that I did not step out of my apartment today.
I did laundry, packed my winter clothes (for travel) into various boxes, clean the kitchen a little and did some house-keeping on my scrapbooking stuff e.g. rename the files, delete kits that I will never use...

2 months of 2011 has passed, I'm glad that I have layouts to remind me how the days have passed.
I have 2 photobooks for P365 for 2010 and I am still doing it for 2011.
Hopefully, this year will be more colourful than the last.

Here's a new template for you.
Hope it will be useful. Enjoy!

Click on preview to download.
  

Going crazy with 4Shared

Here's a beautiful frame I'd like to share with you. Click on the picture to go to the download page.
Saw it in real life by chance and totally love it. Hope you do too.

4Shared is driving me crazy... it downloads files within seconds (even 3mb files) but they are all the wrong files!

Instead of the zip files or psd that is shown on the download page, I receive pdf with weird titles, or songs which I have never heard before.

Am I the only one?
   

Luxembourg

Took many photos during my recent trip to Luxembourg.
Here's a few layouts I have made with templates from Yin.







Am working on making some more templates.
Visit this blog soon!
 

Fishing

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish; and you will not have to listen to his incessant whining about how hungry he is.” 

- Author unknown

I received 3 comments after posting the short tutorial on how to make warp shadows on Photoshop. All are anonymous, all are not very polite (as least that's how I felt when I read them), all were asking for the PSD file for their downloading.

Yes, I understand that if you use CS2 or below (and PSE?), you are not able to create a layer from the shadow effect. And hence, the tutorial is not very useful.
But can't you at least sign off your name (even if it is a fake one)?

So no, I am not putting the PSD file for downloading.
But I have a solution for those who are not using CS3 or above.

Steps:
1/ Duplicate the mat layer (the white one)
2/ Paint it grey (the shade of grey depends on the background colour of your layout)
3/ Add filter to the layer -> Gaussian blur, Radius=2 pixel
4/ Warp this layer using Edit -> Transform -> Warp

So here I am, teaching you to fish, instead of handing you a fish for dinner tonight.

Then again, if you are one who can't be bothered to fish, then I propose that you look for a chicken or beef somewhere else.
   

Shutterfly

I love Shutterfly, I really do.

I have printed several 8*8" photobooks with them and the pages are always vibrant and of good quality.
The hardcover is solid and glossy and 8" is just the right size for me.

But I'm pissed at 2 things.

One is that shipping is always delayed.
Yes, I'm in some faraway place from USA and it takes at least 1-3 weeks for me to get my book.
However, 4 out of 5 times, I only receive it after 4 weeks.
A few times, after waiting for too long, I write to them and they will reprint and send again.
I often end up with 2 copies after another month because the first copy finally arrive.

Second is that they very often screw up the spine of my book.
I created my jpeg file based on Shutterfly's template for spine and even use my previous books as guide.
But look what happens.

The middle one is the first print. I was upset and requested for a re-print.
When the re-print (first book on the right) arrived, I was more disappointed because it is worse than the original.
Sometimes, even when I print 80 pages book, the spine is also not aligned nicely.

If they could print the other book of mine with a properly-aligned spine (e.g. the left-most book in the picture), why can't they do a proper one for the rest?
Isn't there a quality-control check before they ship it out?
I'm paying and average of US$80 for a book (inclusive of shipping), so I really hate this feeling.

Where else can I print my photobook?
Time for research this weekend, I guess.
   

New photo blog

I managed to set up a new blog over the weekend just for my photography hobby.
Hopefully with my new camera and lens, I will take more photos (and better ones!).

Check over here and please give me your comments!

And yes, I'm super excited that the previous template is well received.
It is much more popular than the previous one which means that I should make templates with more photos slots in future.

Meanwhile, have fun with this one!

Click on preview to download.
  

Hot hot hot!

Have been wanting to do my HK photos for a while and finally had some time to do it during Chinese New Year.

Here's one I made for Ocean Park. Love the vibrant colours!

And here's the template for you to play with.
Have fun!

Click on preview to download.
 

Another hobby

Found a Picasa photo album containing pictures of jewellery I made a few years back.



Some, I have sold via my now-defunct website and some, I have given to friends.
It's a hobby I took up and left aside after awhile.
As much as I love to design and create, I often find myself not having enough boldness in terms of creativity.

Most of the pieces I made are simple and classic but that can be seen as boring too.
Just like the scrapbook layouts I made.
While I love and admire the many layouts I see on other people's blogs, which are full of elements, masks etc, I always end up making simple pages, making the many photos the centre of my pages.

Hmmm... Anyway, here's Template 46.
Have a great Sunday and the week ahead!

Click on preview to download.
 

There is sun today

It stopped raining today (after raining non-stop for 2 days).
I'm glad that there's a little sun and hope that this sunny, breezy days will continue for at least this long weekend that we are having.

Have fun with template 45!

Click on preview to download.