I've been a designer for some time now. Started over a decade ago making quick pages, clusters, etc. for designers using their kits. And then creating kits for challenges or freebie sites. I even tried selling my own designs for a while when I was invited to join a store -- but it took all the fun out of it. I'm not much one for "have to's" and being in a store meant creating so many kits per week. Nah, not for me. But, I did learn a lot over the years.
1. If you are part of a blog train, post your stuff the day before so it is ready when the train goes live. There is nothing more irritating than designers who are not ready when the train is. If they are in a different time zone, then the store hosting the train should say the deadline for posting is 8:00 am EST (or whatever). If I go through a train and someone has not posted, I don't go back, and if I hit two or three like that, I quit following the train.
2. A huge kit is NOT a kit that has 10 different elements or papers in 15 different colors each. I can recolor my own paper or element.
3. Learn to name your elements or papers. Opening a kit with names like element1, element2, paper1 and paper2 is a pain in my (you know what). This is also true for freebie clusters or frames or whatever. I put all my random clusters in one folder and hate having to compare each one to see if it is truly a duplicate or just someone who called it cluster1. I was taught to use a certain format when creating (designername)_kitname_element (or paper). This also makes it easier to credit. Some stores do this or something similar, but a lot of freebies are created by the CT for the designer's blog and posted without any identifiers.
4. I don't know about you but I break my kits up into CU and PU folders. I clean up each folder by taking out all the "junk" -- links, advertisements for other kits, TOU. I keep one TOU from a designer in their folder; I don't need 20 of them. I don't have room to keep all the junk.
What are your pet peeves (for scrapbooking, I mean)?
8 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly! I am a new designer, and I'm trying to make sure I label correctly. It drives me nuts when I download something, and after unzipping the files (I unzip a lot of them, and I don't unzip them and then go to the file each time, I unzip all the files I've downloaded and then go to where they all landed) there are files with no identifying info attached at all. Then I have to go look through everything, and see if I can place it. It drives me NUTS, NUTS I tell you! LOL
I’m just a scrapper but I agree with every point you made! I will unzip each separately and go thru deleting what I won’t use, like all those different shades of the same paper, cuz none are usually in a color I need at the time anyway. Like you I can recolor what I need. Really prefer a mini kit with a few generic non-cutesy elements. I never post anything so all is PU to me. I like it when I can just download the parts I want and not the entire large file!
I wholeheartedly agree with you! I go through the files and delete what I won't ever use or things that are so much like what I already have. I mean, how many buttons and ribbons do you need? I don have a question, if someone reading these could answer it. If you have a shadowed and unshadowed cluster and not lots of room to keep things, which one do you keep?
My software has a shadow feature (I use Fotofusion by Lumapix) so I never save the shadowed elements. You can always add a shadow. Kind of difficult to remove one.
I save everything because I'm still so new to the game I'm not sure what I will or won't use. Right now I desperately need to get everything organized. I do agree with you about being ready for the blog train. Sometimes I will go through three or four that are not ready and I just quit. I don't think I could sell anything either. Even if I got good enough to. I've had people ask me to make them a photo book for money and I just tell them I'll make it, you pay to print it. I want to always do this because it brings me so much joy. I do thank you Pat and other designers for being so generous with freebies. It's allowed newbies like me to build an impressive stash right off the bat and that's so nice.
We completely agree with all of your points but, do have a comment to add. What burns our biscuits is downloading kits that are not clearly marked as full size or tagger size. Most of the tagger size are made at 72. resolution, not 300. resolution so trying to change the size is usually not a good option. We have NO desire to download anything tagger as we don't create anything but full size things to put in our scrap books or give to family as a printed gift. Please don't misunderstand, we are so very grateful for the wonderful gifts shared so freely, and although we can and do create our own things, it is so nice when we don't feel up to it, to have a stash of goodies to create from. It only takes an extra couple of minutes or less to add what size the kit is. God Bless and many Thanks!!
I have accumulated a massive graphics collection and I only make things for my family and good friends! I just love going through them and organizing. One of my pet peeves is that some of my favorite designers make beautiful kits but a large chunk of the kit is taken up preview pages! I also dislike getting alphas on sheets. I have not mastered extracting the letters. I have been using Microsoft Publisher for years. Learn how to use Photoshop is a goal for me.
4shared. Ugh. When I see that it is a 4shared link my brain moans. It seems the links never work, newer or older. I love Mediafire personally. That's where I always back up my stash. :)
Thanks for everything, you're super talented. After reading some of your most current posts, I'm hoping for your Hubby's quick recovery. Be safe in these scary times.
Kayla- Kentucky
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