Midweek Reading Sept 10

Welcome to this week’s reading picks. I’ve been crawling around the web collecting resources and articles for your digital scrapbooking design business. Let me know what you read or found useful in the comments – I always love hearing from our readers!

SOCIAL MEDIA

How to Use Instagram Hashtags to Expand Your Reach

PHOTOSHOP

Add Depth To Photoshop Shapes

Customizing Your Photoshop Workspace!

Type Tool Tip (scroll down)

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Customize Your Shadows - A Photoshop Elements Tutorial

TECH TIPS

Quick Tip- Sharpen for Web

Changing Folder to Kit Preview on a PC

Midweek Reading Sept 3

Fall is here and that usually means school is in session! Even if you do not have students in your home, the learning can and should still continue. Here are some resources I recommend this week -

TECH MANAGEMENT

Download Instagram Photos and Videos to your PC

Monitor Calibration- Is Your Monitor Calibrated?

How To Download Free Fonts & Manage Them In Windows

GOOD TO KNOW

Best Online Photo Print Lab [Test Results]

Scrapbooking Quotes that Glam Up Your Scrapbooking Pages (Great for word art or sharing with your fans and followers!)

LIFE SKILLS

Working From Home for Creatives

How to Manage Idea Overflow

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Midweek Reading Aug 27

It’s time for a new list of reading materials for digital scrapbook designers. We hope you find these picks useful and interesting as you build your business.

 

Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you will get an email with the weekly blog posts – it’s a great way to make sure you are not missing out on all the store news including sales, freebies and articles.

 

PHOTOSHOP

The Ultimate Guide to the Dodge & Burn Technique

6 Commonly Used and Confused Tools in Photoshop Explained

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

6 Free Social Media Guides All Business Owners Should Read

Facebook Page vs Facebook Profile- Do You Know The Difference

How to Optimize Your Google+ Cover Photo for SEO

 

BLOGGING

Five Quick Ways to -Deep Clean- Your Blog

 

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Midweek Reading August 20

If you missed last week’s post about why it’s a great idea to keep learning to support your digital scrapbooking design business, check it out here.

And now this week’s picks -

TECH MANAGEMENT

Low Disk Space- 5 Native Windows Tools To Free Up Storage Space

7 Ways To Improve Battery Life on Windows 8 Tablets & Laptops

PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop Blend Modes Explained

Change the color of anything in Photoshop

How to Save and Load Actions in Photoshop

RELATED LEARNING

6 Open Online Photography Classes You Can Learn From At Your Own Pace

The top 10 lessons I learned from A Year of Productivity

Have a great week!

Keep On Learning

Over the years of being in the digital scrapbooking design industry, I have learned the importance of being a self-taught and self-directed learner. Even though there are great classes available that teach certain aspects of this business – from design skills to marketing tactics, there is no Digital Scrapbooking Design University that teaches you everything you need to know to be successful.

Oh wait, there is no University of Everything You Need to Know. But there is this awesome thing called The LIFE We Live.

Like many other devoted designers and store owners, I make an effort to hone my design skills and pursue good information on how to improve my work and business methodology. I am naturally curious and enjoy learning new things so this process has always been fun and interesting to me.

Beyond that, learning new skills is absolutely critical to success as a digital designer. Trends change, customer expectations change, software changes, platforms change. WE CHANGE. We can’t expect to keep doing the same things and always get the same good results!

In a recent article at 99U, Paul Jun says
It is the learners, those willing to open their minds and augment their skillsets, who will be poised to succeed in the future.

I could not agree with this more and have found it to be true not only in my businesses but in my personal life as well. You can bet I am not running my household the same way I was 20 years ago. Everything from how I manage information to what cleaning products we use are subject to change. I bet most people would say the same.

Some things don’t change as much – the values we hold, the emphasis we place on family and relationship – but a lot of other things are up for negotiation!

Quoting the above article again,
A desire to learn is a fruitful asset that will fuel you throughout your life. Without this unquenchable desire to grow our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, we stagnate. We become comfortable with what we know and may feel that there isn’t anything else to learn. Of course, that kind of thinking is poisonous: there is always something that we can learn that will improve how we lead our lives and do our work.

Here at CUDigitals, part of my mission is to help you keep learning about this business with articles containing links to helpful resources, tutorials on interesting ways to use the Commercial Use Digital Scrapbooking Products we sell plus tips for marketing your business. We love being a part of your design process and appreciate your support of our store. THANKS for shopping with us, subscribing to our newsletter and following us on social media!
~christine

top photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net

Midweek Reading August 6

Are you taking the time to hone your marketing and design skills to support growth in your digital scrapbooking business? It takes effort and dedication to keep moving forward and adapt to changing trends in design and sales. To help you sort through all the info out there and still leave you time to do what you really love (design digital scrapbooking kits, right?), here are some hand-chosen links and articles that I think will be helpful to you:

BLOGGING and SOCIAL MEDIA

How to Easily Create Static Pages in Blogger

3 Steps to Dramatically Increase your Blog Traffic

27 SEO and Online Promotion Tips

PHOTOSHOP

Scroll All Windows in Photoshop

organizing photoshop brushes

Adding Canvas Using the Crop Tool

TECH TIPS

Go Clean Your Hard Drive- 5 Things You Can Do in 10 Minutes or Less

Quick tip to Shorten URLs

Midweek Reading July 23

This week’s reading for digital scrapbook designers gives you some helpful resources from around the web to help keep you learning new skills to enhance your design business. It can be a lot of work keeping up with everything so we’re making it easy by picking out 7 articles and resources for you to explore this week. Check back every Wednesday for more!

Marketing

How to Add a Personalized Message to your Feedburner E-mails and RSS feed

Social Media

6 Tips to Improve Your Facebook Page

How to use Google Plus as a Blogger

Photoshop

GuideGuide – easier way to use guides in PS

Layrs - free PS extension

Design

The Ten Commandments of Typography

The 10 Commandments of Colour Theory

Midweek Reading July 16

Are you overwhelmed with all the info available to keep learning new tricks and techniques for you digital scrapbook design business? Every week, you can get 6-8 quick links to some of the most useful things that have been published recently so you can spend less time scouring the web and more time creating and marketing.

The mission of CUDigitals is to bring you high quality digital scrapbooking tools, supplies and free resources to support your hobby or business.

Here are this week’s picks:

Pinterest

How To Add A Pinterest Board in a Blog Post

How To Viral Market Pinterest

How To Make Your Pins Go Viral

Photoshop

Isolating a Single Photoshop Layer

Hue & Saturation - OWN IT!

Comprehensive Guide to Color in Adobe Photoshop - Spot Colors

Blogging

16 Top Tips from Blogging Experts for Beginners

How to Display Most Commented Posts in Blogger

 

We hope you have a great week!

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Midweek Resource Rewind

My family is on vacation this week (yep, me too!!) Instead of the usual midweek reading, today you can get a quick rewind of some of the designer tip blog posts from this spring and early summer in case you missed them. I have been reflecting in my personal life lately about the usefulness of circling back around to things to pick up missed lessons. My hope in resharing these items is that you may pick up a new idea you missed when reading the first time around OR that those who missed the first trip around would see these for the first time and also find them useful! Enjoy!

top image credit: freedigitalphotos.net

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Midweek Reading July 2

It’s time for another round of articles and tutorials from around the web. These resources were curated to help you support your digital scrapbook design business. Have fun!
PHOTOSHOP
Installing Photoshop Kuler Panel and Why You Need It 
My Top 10 Most Used Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
ORGANIZING and TIME MANAGEMENT
How I Use Evernote
Evernote for Blogging
TECHY TIPS
Download Plan schedule downloads in Firefox
Duplicate File Finder - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE

5 proven ways to keep your customers begging for more

4 Common Email Subject Line Mistakes

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Midweek Reading June 25

It’s time again for a fresh roll of articles and resources from around the web. Every Wednesday, you can get new ideas to help you in your digital scrapbooking design business. Here’s this week’s round-up
PHOTOSHOP
See What's NEW in Adobe Photoshop CC, and more 2014!
Adobe Announces Largest Software Release Since CS6
Changing the Background Color in Photoshop
BLOGGING
How to center the header image in blogger
How to add a blog post divider on Blogger
21 Seriously Annoying Blog Design Mistakes You Need To Fix Right Now
WEB TOOLS
How to make an Email Signature in G-mail

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Midweek Reading June 18

Every Wednesday on this blog, you can get a list of useful articles to help you increase your skills and knowledge in important and interesting areas of your online business. Our store offers useful designer tools and high quality CU / Commercial Use Digital Scrapbooking supplies every day plus weekly articles and resources so you can always depend on us the things you need to bring your designing to the next level.
Here are this week’s hand-picked links. I scour the internet for the good stuff so you don’t have to!
PHOTOSHOP
10 Quick & Easy Photoshop Tutorials (good stuff for YOU and to share with your readers, too!)
d! Konstruct- I know a shortcut!
Photoshop Crop Tool - Its Not Just For Cropping

CREATIVITY
How to Become More Creative
40 Ways To Stay Creative (one of my favorite graphics on this topic so far)

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLOGGING
How to Use Hashtags on Google+- Dos and Don'ts
My Blog- How to Add a Favicon to Your Blog
How to Verify Your Blogger Blog on Pinterest

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Midweek Reading June 11

It’s time to have a look at some useful links for digital scrapbook designers from around the web. It’s important to keep growing your skill set in Photoshop, marketing, social media and more in order to move your business forward. Here are my hand-picked links for you this week:
Blogging
How to Automatically Remove Spam links from Blogger Comments ~ (kinda techy but interesting!!)
Blogging Mistakes to Avoid - How to Correct Your Blog Fail
Utilizing the Bottom of Your Posts
Photoshop
Are Layer Masks Transparent or White in Photoshop?
Introduction to Puppet Warp in Photoshop
Time and Life Management
7 Tips For Working at Home... And Doing it Stress Free!
How to Make a Content Calendar Using Evernote
How to Spot Burnout (and Recover)

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Midweek Reading June 4

Here are some great reads to get you over a possible mid week slump! Click through for specially selected items chosen to help support your digital scrapbook design business.
PHOTOSHOP
8 Photoshop Tricks I Wish I Knew when I was a Student
10 ways to make Photoshop run faster
10 Photoshop Filters You Should Definitely Know
30 Second Photoshop – Resize Large Layers – TipSquirrel
MOTIVATION
5 Tips and Tricks to Get Yourself Motivated
CREATIVITY
21 Ways to Get Creative
BLOGGING
10 Tips Every Blogspot Blogger Needs to Know
How to refresh your blog by updating and recycling your Content

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Midweek Reading May 28

Are you in a midweek slump? How about some interesting reading to support your digital scrapbook design business? We know you are very busy creating and marketing your products and have little extra time for scouring the web for resources. That’s why we have this round-up of hand-picked links of special interest to digi designers. Leave us a comment if there was something you really loved!
PHOTOSHOP
Add Custom Keyboard Shortcuts To Photoshop - Lifehacker Australia
Photoshop Help- Get Your Layers & Layer Masks Working Flawlessly (useful for recoloring elements!)

MARKETING
The Science of Social Timing Part 2- Timing & Email Marketing
Why Every Business Should Blog

CREATIVITY
Creativity – 29 Ways (not only is this a good list, but the graphic is very beautiful!)
36 Surprising Ways to Boost Creativity for Free – Greatist

SOCIAL MEDIA
How to- Make Cute Pinterest Cover Boards! ~ Diane's Vintage Zest!

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Midweek Reading May 21

It’s time again to take a quick tour of some useful, hand-picked links to help you in your digital scrapbook design business.

Photoshop
How to Straighten a Crooked image in Photoshop
Screen Modes in Photoshop « Julieanne Kost's Blog
30 Second Photoshop - Quick Bokeh Effect – TipSquirrel
The Photoshop Character Panel - Eric Renno

Time Management and Life Skills
How to Deal with Stress- 33 Tips That Work

Tech Tips
Awesome Visual Featuring 7 Tips to Effectively Search Google ~ Educational Technology and Mobile
The Best Memory Cards for Digital Cameras - Jasmine Star Photography Blog

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Midweek Reading May 14

Are you ready for some more reading material? Save time combing through RSS feeds and grab the links to these hand-chosen items to help you in your digital scrapbook design business.

Photoshop
Installing And Managing Brushes And Other Presets - Tips & Tricks – PSHERO
ISSUU - Adobe Photoshop - Every tool explained! by houts houts
Improve Quick Selections with Refine Edge - Dan Moughamian
10 Ways to Create Professional and Organized PSD Files - Tuts+ Design & Illustration Tutorial

Blogging and Site Management
How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools MoritzFineDesigns

Tech Tips
Photography Tip—How to Restore Pictures Deleted from a Memory Card

Creativity
AC Podcast- Eliminating Creativity Drains - Accidental Creative

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MidWeek Reading May 7

Tips and links like these have been posted on the CUDigitals Facebook page and other social media outlets in the past. However, like everyone else using Facebook Pages without paying to play, the deliverability of our posts has gone completely down the tubes. It does take time to compile and schedule these tips that I believe can be a help to your digital design business so it would be GREAT if they were actually made available in a reliable format for all our readers. For the time being, I am going to be compiling a week’s worth of links here on the blog where they can easily accessed no matter the settings on someone’s Facebook feed! They will also be linked in our Friday newsletter in case you missed them here. I would REALLY love to hear some feedback about having these links on the blog instead of on Facebook. Please leave me a comment below.
Reminder from last week’s blog hop – install LinkClump for Chrome or MultiLinks for Firefox to select, right click and open a bunch of links at once. You can open all these items into tabs with one right-clicked selection.
Photoshop Tips
Adding Layer Masks in Photoshop « Julieanne Kost's Blog
Align and Snap to Pixel Grid in Photoshop « Julieanne Kost's Blog
Customizing the View Options in Photoshop « Julieanne Kost's Blog
Creativity
Can Creativity Be Learned- – PictureCorrect
Why I Sketch Every Day — Medium
Blogging
How to Write a Blog Post in 70 Minutes or Less - Michael Hyatt
Social Media
Why You Should Forget Facebook - Jeffbullas's Blog

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Digital Scrapbook Designer Resource Roundup

It’s Spring Break here in MN so that means lots more time with my family this week! So I thought it would be a good time to do a quick resource roundup for digital scrapbook designers. These are some of the posts from the CUDigitals blog for the 1st quarter of 2014. I hope you enjoy these tidbits and tips ~
Free E-Books
How to Be Creative

Hugh MacLeod is a celebrated blogger, an advertising executive, and an all-around successful person. He owes much of his success to his creativity, creativity that, as he states in his lovely manifesto, we are all born with. So how do you go about actually being creative? The answer to that lies in his 26 tried-and-true tips for expressing the artist you got locked away deep inside you.
Time Management for Creative People

• Finding the method in your creative madness
• Identifying and prioritizing your most important work
• Getting in the right state of mind for focused work
• How to minimize interruptions and distractions
• Managing e-mail effectively
• How to remember — and fulfill — all your important commitments

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Free E-books, New Releases and Sales

Designer Tip: Free E-Books
Looking for some inspirational reading that will help you business on a creative level? Here are some that I came across recently.
How to Be Creative

Hugh MacLeod is a celebrated blogger, an advertising executive, and an all-around successful person. He owes much of his success to his creativity, creativity that, as he states in his lovely manifesto, we are all born with. So how do you go about actually being creative? The answer to that lies in his 26 tried-and-true tips for expressing the artist you got locked away deep inside you.
Time Management for Creative People

• Finding the method in your creative madness
• Identifying and prioritising your most important work
• Getting in the right state of mind for focused work
• How to minimise interruptions and distractions
• Managing e-mail effectively
• How to remember — and fulfil — all your important commitments