You may recall that I currently use Rootsmagic 3 for my genealogy research software. I settled on this package a while ago as it was one of two (the other being The Master Genealogist) that would export real footnootes/endnotes when compiling a book.

I am pleased to announce that Rootsmagic 4 is being released. Bruce Buzbee is blogging a series of articles about the new features in Rootsmagic 4 here.

So still no baby here.  Induction is scheduled to begin tomorrow morning at 8am (Yippee, not!).

C got his test results yesterday (these are the first results and he will be having follow up tests to confirm his cancer status in future).  His tongue and lymph nodes are looking pretty good from the CAT scan, however he has something showing up on his esophagus that needs to be investigated.  He is being referred to the ENT and will likely need a biopsy and PET scan for them to get a better look. 

Not quite the news we were expecting but at least know the treatment seems to have worked on what it was designed to.  As he had chemo we were a bit suprised that there was something else to be investigated as the point was to stop it spreading elsewhere.  Hopefully it'll turn out to be nothing.

When I was growing up I had a bedroom at the back of the house overlooking our back garden.  This layout features photos I took of the back garden, 3 out of the 4 were taken through the window.



Credits:

Fall Fiesta Flower 2, Faded Sapphire Stick Pin Gold, Twilight Dreaming Paper 2 - All Meredith Fenwick

M Originals Template No 17

Beautiful ES and Times New Roman fonts

Credits:

Bren Boone Summer Afternoon PP1, Mermaids Haven Livin Easy Paper 3, CK Ali's Font, Four Photo Circle Template Jessica Sprague.

Just a quick note to say that I am still pregnant and that this one is definitely not coming out early now what with tomorrow being the due date.  I hate the thought of counting upwards after counting down for so long but it looks like that might be the case unless baby arrives tomorrow on C's birthday.

Tonight I picked up a set of digital date stamp brushes from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. I love date stamps where you can simply put a ring around the date that the event or picture was taken. While these are all "script" looking, you can simply erase the frame in Photoshop/Photoshop Elements and create your own new frame (just a plain box or even nothing at all to give even more looks to the brushes. Anyway for 25 cents how can you go wrong!

Disclaimer: these instructions aren't for the faint of heart. While these instructions have been thoroughly tested by a 3rd party, please make a backup before trying any of this. I am not responsible for any computer related issues resulting from your implementation of these instructions.

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To create a new drop down menu item in Photoshop Elements Show Effects (for example Atomic Cupcake) you will need to create a new .xml file for each action (.atn) file that you have (to locate your .atn files see this post). With the current set of Atomic Cupcake actions you would need 111 .xml files!
7. Once you have created all the .xml files, you need to rename the Mediadatabase.db3 to MediadatabaseOLD.db3 it is located at

XP Users - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Locale\en-US or your own locale


*Edited* - 09/30/2008 - To do this in PSE 7.0 with Vista you will need to rename the name.xml file to be name.metadata.xml and put them in the same directory at the .atn and .png files (i.e. In Vista your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Program Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Photo Creations\Photo Effects). Note: No rebuild of the mediabase database is necessary.

I've used Adobe Camera Raw with Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS3 but have never been able to figure out how to open a .jpg file into ACR using Photoshop Elements 6. Of course, if you actually have RAW files they will open into ACR automatically but what happens if you want to use the same set of controls or even the same development settings, right you need to open in ACR.

Here are the instructions for opening a .jpg file into ACR using Elements 6:

1. Open Elements Editor.

2. Select File, Open As and browse to the image you want to open.

3. Select Camera Raw (not Photoshop Raw) from the File Type menu and click OK. It will now open into ACR.

4. After editing the image, you can save it as a .DMG file, and in the future it will open in ACR by default.

I'm slowly working my way through some older photos mostly of me for my "My Childhood" album ) which I'm printing at 8.5x8.5. This picture was taken a few days/weeks after the birth of my sister which would be September 1976. The picture was scanned from a dusty, scratched and faded photo and after a levels adjustment and some use of the Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop Elements 6, it looks pretty good.

I keep thinking the layout needs something else but can't make my mind up what it should be so I'm leaving it for now. If you have a suggestion, then let me know in the comments.

Credits: Erica Hite's Bookworm Collection (Scrapgirls.com). Century font.

Sandy Bay is the caravan (RV) resort in Devon where we used to go to every year as kids.  The photos are random from various years plus I added a map of the area.  I've been meaning to do a layout of this for a while because it seems like we spent a lot of time at the resort or looking forward to going there.  It's one of those places that I'd like to go back to (it's still there and still a resort) but it's pretty far from London which is where I usually base myself when in England.



Credits include: Vintage Photo Frames (Katie Pertiet), Grungy Cardboard tag (Gypsy Chick), Beached paper (Lindsay Jane Designs), Endless Ephermera, the sun shape recolored (Raspberry Road), Festival Rusted Clip (Shabby Princess), Everyday Inspiration Staple 3 (Meredith Fenwick).  vtPortable Remington and 28 Days Later fonts.

Ten Years Ago: July 1998 - I had just started with Vantage Point Software after closing our computer store in Surrey. Craig was still doing some computer store stuff with some old clients.

Five Things on Today's To-Do List: - I don't have a to-do list on Sunday but tomorrows includes vacuuming, washing floors, washing bed linens, cleaning bathrooms, and going to the Doctor's office for my prenatal.

Snacks I Enjoy: - Chocolate, cake, icecream, chips, doughnuts.

Things I Would Do If I Was a Millionaire: - Buy a new house, buy a new hybrid vehicale, set aside RESP money for kids, go on a family vacation with a nanny.

Places I Have Lived: - London (while at University, I wasn't brought up in London), Ankara the capital of Turkey and San Francisco (at the Chinatown Holiday Inn).

If you are reading this, then consider yourself tagged and post a link in the comments.

If you haven't tried the new publishing feature at http://ancestrypress.ancestry.com/ you should try it. This tool is designed for you to produce a family history book.

You can create a tree on http://www.ancestry.com/ (set up a free account not a paid account) either by typing in the information or by using a genealogy software program such as free http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ to export a GEDCOM file which you can then import into Ancestry. Then when you go into the publishing module you tell it to use your tree (and which one if you have more than one). You can then auto-generate a book using the information in the tree.

Books generally consist of a pedigree chart, family group records and individual timelines. However, you can add additional pages of various types as well as importing photos that you can then drag and drop onto the pages. You can also drag and drop various scrapbooking elements such as quotes, labels, journaling tags, flowers, buttons as well as choosing from a number of different background colors, textures and pictures.

When you’re done, you can either order a book or print the individual pages to your local printer for insertion into a scrapbook/ring binder. The tool is free, you only pay if you order a book (and then just the cost of book production).

Yesterday I posted about Atomic Cupcakes special birthday deal, where you can download all their actions for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Most Photoshop users know how to install actions in Photoshop but installing them in Photoshop Elements is much more of a mystery and changes with each version that Adobe releases.Here are instructions for installing them in PSE6 (edited: PSE7) under Vista/XP:

1. For each action there are two files (an .atn and a .psd).
2. You'll need to resave the .psd into .png format.
3. Copy the the .png and the .atn files into your Photo Effects folder making sure the names are identical.
4. In Vista your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Program Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0 or 7.0\Photo Creations\Photo Effects.
5. In XP your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Photo Creations\photo effects
6. Open Photoshop Elements 6.0 or 7.0 Editor.
7. In the Effects pane, select the Photo Effects icon.
8. Make sure the drop down menu has Show All selected.
9. You should now see icons to the actions (each with the Atomic Cupcake logo on it). If you can't see all the icons then switch between the different effects icons until they are all loaded (it took several refreshes on my computer to get them all to show).

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Edited:

If you can't see the Program Data folder, you need to check that your hidden folders are showing(the Program Data is a hidden folder and won't display unless you expressly set it that way). Note: there is a Program Files folder that isn't hidden, but you want the Program Data folder.

In Vista, open Windows Explorer, Organize, Folder and Search options, View Tab, ensure that the Show hidden files and folders button is switched on.

You will need to restart Windows Explorer for the changes to take.

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And, if anyone knows how to create a submenu/filter for the Photo Effects drop down (for example, to say Atomic Cupcake) I'd love to know how to do this in PSE6. Email me!

*Edited 07/17/2008* I have now been given a link to instructions on how to do this but am going to post them on my blog. The long and short of it is that you need a .xml file for every action you want to appear in the drop down, so for the Atomic Cupcake collection you are looking at creating over 100 .xml files!

*Edited 09/30/2008* Vista instructions work with PSE 7.0.

So either there's some really good sales lately or I'm turning into a digital scrapbooking shopaholic!


Today I read that Atomic Cupcake, creator of Photoshop Elements/Photoshop actions for scrapbooking, is having a special for the month of July where you can download their entire collection for $30 instead of the regular $4.95 per action. They have approximately 110 actions and templates waiting to be grabbed (that's less than 30 cents each!).


So several hours later, I've bought, downloaded, unzipped and installed them to be used on my layouts and while I probably won't use all of them, there are some that are jumping out at me straight away.


Distressed Edge: Torn Cardboard:
Sanded Away:
Scalloped Edges:

Chipboard:

Anyway, to get yours, visit www.atomiccupcake.com.

I have just started work on some family history layouts and remembered the new publishing feature at http://ancestrypress.ancestry.com/. This tool was originally designed for you to produce a family history book, but I happened to notice that you can print to a local printer in letter size.

What this means is that you can create a tree on http://www.ancestry.com/ (set up a free account not a paid account) either by typing in the information or by using a genealogy software program such as free http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ to export a GEDCOM file which you can then import into Ancestry. Then when you go into the publishing module you tell it to use your tree (and which one if you have more than one). You can then auto-generate a book using the information in the tree.

Books generally consist of a pedigree chart, family group records and individual timelines. However, you can add additional pages of various types as well as importing photos that you can then drag and drop onto the pages. You can also drag and drop various scrapbooking elements such as quotes, labels, journaling tags, flowers, buttons as well as choosing from a number of different background colors, textures and pictures.

When you’re done, you can either order a book or print the individual pages to your local printer for insertion into your scrapbook. The tool is free, you only pay if you order a book (and then just the cost of book production).