I stumbled across this little gem a couple of days ago on Youtube. A remix of Daft Punk, Skrillex, and wicked cool graphics from Jack Conte.
Enjoy!
07
Apr 13
Using the MOO Lightroom Plug-in to Load Multiple Images to MOO
Moo.com currently has a 25% off sale going on, so I decided to order the cards I need for my photography business. A Lightroom plugin was created so you can load images directly to MOO for business cards, minicards, and postcards. The download and instructions to load the plugin are at https://github.com/moodev/moo.lrplugin).
The instructions for loading images to MOO given on that page are great if you work on one image and then load it up to MOO. However if you want multiple images in your pack, when you follow these instructions, you end up with multiple Moo projects – not with a single project where all your images end up together for your cards. Here’s my solution to load multiple images as one project – create a Lightroom collection for your Moo business cards. Creating a collection will allow you to drop images from different projects into a common area so you can work with them in one place and then export them into MOO as a single project. The instruction are below.
Note: If you’re going to do additional printings (postcards, stickers, etc) from MOO, I’d create a collection for each type of printing (but then I can be a little OCD that way 
).
- Click on the + sign next to the Collection module title.
- Select Create Collection
- Name the collection Moo Business Cards.
- Make sure that Top Placement is selected.
- Click Create. The collection is created.
- As you edit the images, drag and drop them from the slide bar at the bottom of Lightroom into the MOO Business Cards Collection. You must be in the Develop Module or the Library Module to do this.
- Once you have all your images saved, make sure you are in Library mode.
- Click on the collection you wish to view.
- Click the grid view button to show all the images in the collection at once.
- Click CTRL+A (PC) or Command+A (Mac) to select all the images. Note: If you decide not to include an image for some reason you can always hold down the CTRL key (PC) or the Command key (Mac) and click on the image to deselect it.
- Click Export. The Export dialog screen displays.
- Click Plug-in Manager in the lower left corner.
- Select the MOO Export Plugin.
- Click Done.
- In the Export To drop down, select MOO.
- Select Business cards in the Make drop down.
- Leave the dropdown Cards will be: as “oriented automatically”.
- Select Export. The files will be loaded to Moo.
Once your images are loaded to MOO, you can finish your order.
For more tips about creating MOO cards, visit the MOO FAQ Page.
Have fun creating your Moo.Com cards.
27
Mar 13
I’ve Fallen in Love with this Video
Seriously… the title says it all. This young woman has taken Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” and made it her own.
06
Dec 12
Playing a Little Catch Up
I’ve spent the last 4 days sleeping, coughing, and hacking – there’s nothing like a little pneumonia to knock you out. I’ve read the prompts for ProjectReflect12 but just haven’t had the energy to respond until today. So here are my albeit brief answers to the prompts over the past few days.
December 2 – It happened for a reason. I know without a doubt that the trip back to Iowa happened for a reason. That reason was to get my grandma’s diagnosis of Alzheimers. It doesn’t make the the situation easier but I know that we would still be looking for answers if I hadn’t gone home. Without family feedback from my family, feedback from her healthcare providers, and a few trips to the ER, we wouldn’t have put the pieces together and gotten her in to see her doctor to discuss what was going on with her health.
December 3 – I’m glad we met. My friend Kelly is someone I’m glad I’ve gotten to know better as an adult. We met when her family moved to a farm about a quarter mile down the road from where I grew up. We grew apart in middle school and then kind of came back together in high school when we were both involved in drama and speech contests. When we graduated high school we went our seperate ways again only to reconnect through facebook. She’s been a sane voice when I’ve needed insight from an uninvolved party. I value that if I tell her something private, it won’t go anywhere else. but more than anything else, I enjoy going back home and meeting her for coffee, because it’s like I’ve never been gone and we pick up right were we left off.
December 4 – Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned. Even as a writer, I forget sometimes how much words can hurt the ones you love, especially when spoken when you are over-tired and emotional. I said something to R that made him mad at me and justifiably so. Lesson Learned, talk about the problems with the one you love when you are well rested and emotions aren’t driving your feelings. You’ll get a better discussion and feelings won’t be hurt.
December 5 – Accomplishments My biggest accomplishment is that I became a better photographer this year by investing time, energy and effort in practicing and learning. I also taught my first photography workshop on Light Painting and other low light techniques.
December 6 – Be Kind, Rewind Is there a day I would do over? No I don’t think so. I think I’d lose a valuable lesson of some sort if I did that.
01
Dec 12
Coping Mechanisms
Today’s ProjectReflect12 prompt struck a cord with me.
A couple weeks back, R and I had a discussion about some of the coping behaviors he was seeing in me. He said that when I was unengaged with my work and interests that I used unhealthy behaviors more than I did when I was happy and satisified with the work I was doing. Since then I’ve been more aware of when I’m using food and alcohol as a way to sooth feelings. Stuffing my face with food, or drinking my anxiety/fears away doesn’t solve the problems at hand. It also can lead to more serious problems.
There’s two healthy coping mechanisms I’ve developed over the last year. The first is grabbing my camera and taking photographs. It gets me up, moving, and out of the house doing something that I truly love. The second is doing a quarterly retreat. I started this on my birthday and I think it’s helped me to realize that things have got to change and I need to grow more than I have in the past. The recent light painting workshop I taught (and will be teaching again) came out of one of my retreats this year. The workshop made me aware of the joy that comes with teaching and sharing knowledge, and seeing people take the knowledge and collborate.
Right now, I’m working on being more conscious about my unhealthy behaviors. I promised myself that there would be changes when I got back from visiting so I could do the things I really wanted to do and live my life fully instead of being sucked down in the quagmire and feeling pissed because my life is going nowhere. I have ideas about where I want to be in the next 3-5 years and I have to clear the decks to make that happen. This is what December is for, making room for the new – and it starts today.
20
Aug 12
A Mixed Media Starter Kit
I’m taking part in Patty Digh’s Project 137 and today one of my fellow tribe members asked me what she needed to start doing mixed media work after I commented on a really lovely piece she had posted. So I pondered it and the items below are what I came up with as a starter kit (and I’ve included some alternatives too!)
First off is paper.
I recommend paper that can take getting wet and won’t buckle (wrinkle) as it dries.
The book on the left and in the middle are part of the Visual Journal Series made by Strathmore. The book on the left is 140 lb cold press watercolor paper. The middle book is 90 lb mixed media paper. Both books are 9×12. The book on the right is 90 lb Canson Mixed Media paper. Another good one for drawing and painting. You can pick up both of the Mixed Media journals from artistcellar.com.
Next up is paint.
You can start with the following 5 tubes of acrylic paint White, Primary Blue, Primary Red, Primary Yellow and Black.
With these colors you can make secondary and tertiary colors, as well as tints (adding white will lighten colors) and a variety of greys.
And if you want to pick up some other colors that aren’t that expensive, you can get some of the small bottles of craft paint that you can find at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.
You need something to put the paint on the paper with, so I recommend a nice set of brushes.
DO NOT BUY THE CHEAPEST BRUSHES POSSIBLE!! It’s a total pain in the you-know-what to have to pick out hairs that have fallen out of the brush off your paintings and out of your work. Spend a little bit of money here. One thing you might want to do is pick up a few brushes that you are going to use specifically with things like mod podge. Once you put glue on a brush, it’s pretty much toast for painting.
And speaking of Mod Podge, it and gesso can be a great starting point for adding things to your paintings.
Mod podge is the glue for putting paper and images from magazines onto your painting. Gesso is applied over slick paper/surfaces to give them a little tooth so the paint can grab on. A great way to practice drawing faces is to take an image from a magazine, glue it onto your page and then apply a thin coat of gesso over the image and let it dry. There’s enough coverage that you can take a pencil and sketch in details, then color it in.
One thing I recommend, is using coupons to buy your art supplies. Michael’s, Aaron Brothers, and Hobby Lobby can have some pretty good deals and you can stretch your dollars big time when they have 40 or 50% off coupons. It may take multiple trips though to get everything you want that way. Since I’m a smart phone user, I generally load the app for the store and just let the person take the coupon code right off the screen instead of printing it out on my computer.
If you’re lucky enough to have a reuse/upcycle shop like Texas Art Asylum, you can also find lots of supplies there as well for not a lot of dough. And in some upcoming articles, I’ve got some great ideas for mixed media work from common household item.
The best thing I can tell you though, is to have fun while you paint. Connie Hozvicka, at Dirty Footprints Studio said it best when she recommends approaching painting like a five year old. Think about the energy and the curiousity five year olds bring to any piece of art they do. They have fun while they paint and put their whole body and heart into it.
Have a great day!
13
Aug 12
Two very Different Ackroyds
I’ve got two very different Ackroyds on my playlist right at the moment. The first is Dan Ackroyd, the comedian and actor who was also Elwood of the Blues Brothers. The song Soul Man is humming through my brain this morning.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, this video by Poppy Ackroyd called Aliquot popped on my facebook feed. I listened to it and other songs by Poppy on Sunday. The start of the song reminds me of rain starting.
Enjoy!
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