PC Crafter is CLOSED!!

UPDATE: PCCrafter has closed its Digital Doors and has gone to website cyber heaven.

I will miss the amazing Artists, and while I own quite a bit of their beautiful and whimsical art collections - I will miss seeing NEW art from them available in downloadable kit form.

But there are still 3 former pccrafter artists who do sell their clip art sets online: as of Sept 2015 they are:
Gina Jane (owner of Daisie Company.com)

Laurie Furnell

Tammy DeYoung

That's it, the majority of former pccrafter, Daisie Company and aimee asher (Aimee Asher went out of business in 2015) artists no longer sell their art online in downloadable form.

See my post from April 14, 2011 which has information about the new message forum that hugsister Lynne a.k.a Blondemoments created for former pccrafter.com community message forum members
http://chocolateonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2011/04/so-sad-pccrafter-messageboard-community.html

and  there is a pccrafter messageboard alumni Facebook Group (pcMB alumni) online that you can be invited to join, if you are a friend of any of the members of the alumni group. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/305104625018/ 

Many times folks will ask - what about all the clipart they had in their accounts that they hadn't downloaded yet from pccrafter. Well the website went out of business in 2011 and no content is available anywhere. If you didn't download your content in time before it closed or when you bought it, or Did NOT back up your collections and had a computer crash - You are sadly out of Luck.  Except for the 3 artists I mention above - who sell a "few" select kits that were once upon a time sold on pccrafter - You are not going to find those sets again.

Sadly there is a lot of clipart images uploaded to picasa albums and/or pinned on pinterest that is in violation of the pccrafter terms of use and the artists copyrights.  And anything found online will not be in the original dpi quality etc.    
Remember if you purchased anything from ANY digital website now, or in the past > and installed it to your computer > there are Terms of Use and Copyright information that always must be adhered to - even if the website itself goes out of business.  Those TOUs and Artists Copyrights always remain in effect.  

One of the main reasons that so many artists chose to get out of the Digital Clip art - downloadable business, is because of the rampant illegal file sharing, and disregard of their Terms or Use and/or Angel policies.  

Please support the Artists that continue to offer their art for us clip art junkies, by Purchasing their art from reputable websites and honoring their TOUs and Copyrights.   

So sad - pccrafter messageboard community is gone

Seems that the messageboard community forums of pccrafter.com are no longer online. Tis a sad day for "Me". It was those forums that really brought the "net" out in me. Most of the folks who do visit this tiny corner of the blogosphere - my blog, know me (LibMary) from those pccrafter forums.   **Update > PCCrafter closed its cyber doors permanently in 2011**
 
It was back in 2004, that one of my web pages - a listing of links to free printables was being overwhelmed from traffic from the pccrafter forums. My then free website, kept exceeding its bandwidth because of the visits I was getting. So I traced the link to a message on the pccrafter forums - and began to look around the place. I kept seeing the same questions being asked...How Do You Fill a Blank Template with backgrounds and graphics, and also How Do You Remove the White Surrounding JPG graphics. These questions were something that I never had much of a reason to think about, but I was fascinated by how helpful and friendly everyone was in trying to help each other out. I also noticed that the gals seemed to share a special bond with each other. They told of their daily happenings, asked for prayers, told of their joys, showed photos of their crafts, and opened their "houses" (you pccrafter ole timers will remember when folks got "houses" on the MSN site) for us all to visit.
Now at the time in 2004, I had already been buying the amazing graphics collections from pccrafter and had joined the Monthly Hug Club in 2003 (discontinued as of Dec 2010 when they released their last Club selections) - but I collected graphics/clipart as a hobby. I did signage for the Library I worked in, but really didn't do much else with all the stuff I bought. I just fell in love with it, and had to have it, and it was a bargain, and it didn't require any "room" in my house, only on my hard drive....that's my story and I'm stickin to it!
So I didn't consider myself a "crafter" like so many hugsisters were, but I did understand somethings about computers and software programs. As I worked in a Hospital Library that had a computer lab, and had been working with software programs and computers since about 1986..so if I ever felt I could help out with an answer - I would offer up my "How I Do It" posts and threads.
Lots of gals over the years found my help - helpful - and the seeds of friendship were sewn forever into the fabric of my life. I learned a lot from them as well so it was a 2 way or 100+ way street between us all.

When my sweet Paul passed away suddenly on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in April 2008, I sat at my computer that evening, still in shock, but knowing that I needed to connect with my "hugsisters"...and let them know I needed them to pray for me. The response was overwhelming and still stirs my emotions today. Those women are soooooo special and I'll probably never meet most of them in person, but I know them very well.

Lynne, a.k.a. Blondemoments a hugsister, gave us pccrafter sisters a gift last Dec.
She opened a new messageboard community. We all felt that when pccrafter announced that they were discontinuing the Hug Club, and not renewing some of our favorite artists contracts, that things might be winding down for pccrafter as a clipart business. So Lynne thoughtfully "thought" ahead and created a Plan B / Backup Plan for the "Community".

The new Hugsister forums aren't quite the same as the pccrafter forums, but they already have 600+ registered users, and things are Humming :-).
I still help out with posts that I think I can offer something to someone in the way of information etc. Or I offer up links or resources I hope others might enjoy discovering. Come on over if you haven't registered yet and see what we're all up to:
http://z15.invisionfree.com/HugSisters/index.php?act=idx

A Birds Eye View

I have been totally fascinated by the Eagles Nest shown 24/7 via a live camera feed.
The first baby eagle was hatched on April 2nd, the second on the 3rd and I think the 3rd egg hadn't hatched as of today the 5th.
Excerpt quoted from website:
The Raptor Resource Project brings you the Decorah Eagles from atop their tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.

The live video feed is streamed online 24/7. At night an infrared light provides night vision to viewers through the cam. Infrared light is not visible to eagles, they do not see it or know it is there.
Just amazing what Nature offers us: Enjoy!

Free live streaming by Ustream

Think Outside the Frame

2015 >> UPDATE to this Post  Sept 2015 <<  - this originally was written in April 2011, and in four short years, most of the websites I linked to are now gone - 
I have tried to edit and/or removed the links that no longer work.  
Please remember that websites and online businesses go out of biz or move to a new web addy - Everyday in cyberspace - so if something is important to you, copy and paste information you find useful to a word document for your personal reference. And if you see something in a digital webstore that really calls to you, buy it or do it very soon.  The majority of artists that I use their clip art in digital and real life creations - that I bought via digital stores, are NO LONGER selling their art in downloadable kits or collections.  I  bought from places such as PCCrafter, Aimee Asher and from artists that once upon a time sold digital art sets at Daisie Company  
(Note: Daisie Company.com still is open and sells the art of Gina Jane - a former pccrafter artist)  Laurie Furnell and Tammy DeYoung are 2 other former pccrafter artists that now have Etsy stores. 

Original post:
Hi,
Happy Spring & Everything!!
On Wednesday and Thursday this past week we really had some wild weather round these parts of Florida. I think they had 7 tornado's touch down within 50 miles of my house!!

On Saturday my grandkids were here for a little while and Mariah and I took a walk around the neighborhood soaking in all the wonderful "SUNSHINE" and looked at how green and flowery everything was. When we were walking, she approached a wee butterfly on the sand of an empty lot (I think someone is going to build on it soon - fingers crossed) and the butterfly flew to her finger and stayed with her through a good portion of our walk. She kept trying to let it go by all the various flower patches we passed along the way...but it kept staying on her hand till we found just the right spot ;-)

Graphics from pccrafter.com by Tricia Santry
Blooming Seasons creatable
**Tricia's Friends Forever creatable would have also been nice to
use with the photos. I love all of her artwork :-)  
This artwork is NO LONGER AVAILABLE
UPDATE>PCCrafter closed its digital doors in 2011


Update : Digital Scrapbook Place is no longer online and this set by Elizabeth Weaver is no longer available for purchase
Out of Bounds Frames/Elements by Elizabeth Weaver  formerly sold 
@ Digital Scrapbook Place. No LONGER AVAILABLE 

If you want the font I used in layout:
Get it FREE at Kevin and Amanda's
(and find lots more fun fonts)
http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/pea-miss-mary/

FYI for those who want to think outside the frame: this technique is often referred to as
Out of Bounds (OOB)
I posted these links in a 2007 thread on the former pccrafter.com messageboard community
and just thought I'd share here on my Blog

Image credits:
Frames: Out of Bounds Elements by Elizabeth Weaver @ Digital Scrapbook Place. 
(no longer available)
Fonts: SandyTextHmk, Sheer Beauty, Slumber Party
Cute boy - my grandson Josh!
Scenic photos taken at Letchworth State Park, NY, July 2007

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I have more or less just used tutorials made for other software programs, and adapted to the tools I have in my Microsoft Digital Image software to create my out of bounds or out of the frames compilations.

Here are some links that you may find helpful in doing some of these types of things yourself:

Corel  create out of bounds photo

http://learn.corel.com/photo/tutorials/view/148/Create-An-Out-Of-Bounds-Photo

Digital Technique - How to POP out a Photo
3D Photo Technique
http://www.acherryontop.com/article?a=1178

Making Your Subject Pop Out Of A Photo With Photoshop

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/pop-out/

Out of Bounds tutorial
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28466683@N00/153507433/in/set-72157594146002408/

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And last year (2010) I put up a How I Do It page, showing how I separate/extract a graphic from a background:
http://www.sippingtea.com/hugbees/cutoutpic.html

Happy Cut Outs!
P/S
I used one of the Out of Bounds frames that I got in the kit by Elizabeth Weaver @ Digital Scrapbook Place to create a sigtag (kit no longer available) - that I had in my posts on the former pccrafter messageboard back in 2007