My brother is slowly teaching me the ins and outs of Photoshop Elements and one of the things I asked him to teach me was how to make an animated .gif.  There’s an Animate function there that I’ve learned to use, but it’s always nice to be able to do it for free somewhere else right?  Well, you can.  Rhoda uses Photoscape for editing her images so after I read her post I hopped over to test it out. I liked a lot of the tools available with this free software, but the one that caught my eye was the Animated GIF option. 

For those who don’t know, an animated GIF file compiles a number of images as frames displayed successively, kind of like an old flip book movie. It’s a fun tool for play but also useful for making buttons or ads too.  With an animated .gif, you can layer several images on top of one another – look how fun it can be! 

To do it easily and for free, you can use the Photoscape software, available here.

Simply click on and drag your images to the row above.

Then choose your interval times and sizes.

Save your new animated .gif, it’s that easy.

Have fun with funny faces, kids, pets, any subject you like.

You can use illustrations or your logo to create ads for your business or blog with this same tool (just make sure your images are the right pixel size before importing them).  If you have Photoshop Elements, you can do it there to, here’s a helpful You Tube video – the first four minutes explain how to make an animated gif in Photoshop. 

Have fun creating! 

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I had coffee with a two blog friends yesterday who live in my town (Cathe and Elise) and we got to talking about some holiday creations we’re planning with fonts (stay tuned for some magic!) but then that got me thinking about how much fun it really is to play around with different fonts on the computer.

My graphic design skills are limited, but I do love to play around with all sorts of different fonts and create simple cards, printables, or labels.  Halloween is one of those holidays when it’s especially fun to combine images and fonts together, and last year I made beverage labels using the free software from Picasa, here’s a look back. 

I created several kid friendly beverage labels including juice box labels …

soda and large juice bottle labels…

… and three different water bottle labels too (only one shown).

Download and print the above labels here. 

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I’m such a fan of Pinterest and find myself pinning my favorites quotes from time to time.  I got to thinking how easy it really is to create your own free printable word art with free online editing software.  Not everyone has access to Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, or the skills to use them proficiently like many talented graphic artists. 

I know the basics of Photoshop, and work with it from time to time to make inspiration boards, but most of the time, I turn to the free and very user friendly software programs provided by Picasa (and Picnik) that I’ve mentioned in the past.  Nope, I’m not getting paid to say, it, I just have been using these two for years and love what they can do!  I use them often for my own photo editing and watermarking but they are equally great for creating your own artwork with fun fonts. 

If you want to make your own free printable word art for your home in any color, style and font you love, it’s really easy if you follow a few simple steps.

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As much as I love a beautiful painted wall in a single color, I also adore the look of painted stripes on walls.  They can be bold or subtle, symmetrical or varied, horizontal or vertical, but done just right, stripes are perfect for creating big impact on a budget.

Designing, measuring, and prepping your space for stripes is difficult enough, but the greatest frustration felt by most is taking the time to paint stripes around a room with textured walls, and then peeling off the tape, only to find uneven lines.

via Remodeling Center

Last year, I attempted vertical stripes in my master bath with pearlescent paint.  While I loved the added shimmer, I gave up on the project because I ended up with those dreaded uneven lines.  The project has been on the back burner ever since.

In yesterday’s post, I asked the question of how to get perfect painted stripes on textured walls, discreetly hoping YOU would share your secrets.  Ha!  My plan worked.  Several of you have perfected a technique for stripes and you answered the call.

Samantha Pynn

If you’ve had the desire to add stripes to one of your spaces, well hear what a few readers have to say about it!

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Awhile back, it was my grand idea idea to spruce up the living room walls with some traditional panel and picture frame wainscoting – in fact, it was my specific “please, oh please, honey can we please” request for Mother’s Day.  I managed to catch the Mister at a weak moment, and with a little charm and a lot of begging, he agreed to take on this project. 

We started our adventures in wainscoting back in May, and over the course of several weekends, we were finally able to finish, whew ! (dramatically swiping hand across brow)  There was some intense labor involved, some minor curse words muttered, a few panel do overs, plenty of cutting, a whole lotta caulking and spackling, and then there was all that priming and painting. 

I need to sit down, that was exhausting. 

Here’s the first peek:

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