[.ramadan.food.market.]

I finally got the internet connection restored! I'll try again later tonight or early tomorrow to upload the frames into the member area :-)

In the meantime here are some pictures from the Ramadan food market in my hometown, as promised. My sister took the pictures using her mobile phone - I think they are quite cool, though :-)

graphic goodness: 800x600 graphic boards

Here come blank and framed 800x600 boards, free for everyone to use. Click on the images to see and download these boards in their correct size.

[.800.x.600.]

What can I say… my internet connection at home is still not fixed – I could get connected for a few minutes then it didn’t work again. I disconnected and re-connected. But the same problem persisted. It’s been a few days and I am totally disappointed for not being able to transfer my new frames and boards. Ough!! And certainly I don’t want to work from an internet café – too much risk :-D

In the meantime you can get a few free 800x600 boards here on my blog. With and without frame, a small preview to the actual collection in the member area (you can imagine how stressful it is to wait for the connection when you have to upload more than 100 boards and 10+ blank, interchangeable frames! Yes, that’s what you will get in the member area :-))

I really hope this wireless 3G connection, which is supposed to be pretty ‘sophisticated’ will be fixed, VERY SOON. I’m so excited about having all these blank boards and frames in my collection, wishing you will all enjoy them too. My cousin is still taking a look at the possibility to change the connection into a steady broadband cable – but still no news either from the provider. Eew, seems like lately I spent my days keeping my fingers crossed on quite a few things… ;-)

Anyway, here they are the blank and framed boards, free for everyone to use. Click on the images to see these boards in their correct size.

[.one.music.life.]

This used to be like this, all the time. My daily this-and-that merged intensely with my so-called music life. Doing exercises on the violin to retrain my fingers (and my brain) early in the morning was something I hardly missed. Then those weekly practices with my pianist (a set of sushi with lots of wasabi normally followed suit). Then to a gang of enthusiastic concertgoers I belonged.

No, not everything’s gone. I thanked my lucky star. Yesterday evening I once again found myself sitting at Goethe House, with my pianist on my right and a violinist friend on my left. The ever amazing Abegg Trio was on stage. Loved the happy-go-lightly Hayden’s trio, got agitated through the classic-modern composition on the second programme, then Dvorak’s Dumky Trio was a blast! Especially the first movement. I came to understand that I might be a dévotée to folk music, as listening to this best known of Dvorak’s piano trios of which colourful tunes of folk songs and dances were the joyful themes – I felt I was kind of ‘expanded’ and boy, the music must have restored the good chemicals in my brain!




Image courtesy of www.abegg-trio.de

Birgit Erichsson, cello. Gerrit Zitterbart, piano. Ulrich Beetz, violin.


Next plan? Marcel the pianist and I will re-start our regular practice this coming Sunday. My violin will be happy! Now would you excuse me, I have to say hi to Mr Bach and Mr Beethoven... :-)

graphic goodness: sample play

I think, the more you 'play' with the frames and the graphics, the bigger chance you will create your own scrapbook-like photo creations, greeting cards, stationeries...just let your creativity flow...who knows, this is just a start, no? :-)


Like Amy and Becky, you can submit your creation by sending it to my email - and don't forget to provide me with your site's URL for a link back.

Update 2010: or better yet... share it on Amretasgraphics Facebook Page here

[.country.sampler.1]

I think, the more you 'play' with the frames and the graphics, the bigger chance you will create your own scrapbook-like photo creations, greeting cards, stationeries...just let your creativity flow...who knows, this is just a start, no? :-)



Like Amy and Becky, you can submit your creation by sending it to my email - and don't forget to provide me with your site's URL for a link back :-)

[.more.member's.creation.]

One more creation by member! This time is from Becky. Don't you think it is so sweet? Thank you Becky :-)



ps: the contest will be announced end of this month :-)

[.member's.creation. + .inspiration.board.]

Amy sent me her creation :-) I'm so glad she gave me permission to post it here :-)




And I'm certainly very happy that many of you like the frames {blush}. Turned out I make alot of frame backgrounds using my tile collections. I will upload them all very soon. And just today I was thinking of also making bigger (800x600)frame background and I call it 'mood board' or 'inspiration board'. I find it more convenient using this bigger background tile to create scrapbook-like inspiration board.

The step by step is very much similar to creating frame picture. I inserted the 800x600 background to MS Power Point, then inserted pictures and arrange them freely - resized them, sending them backward or forward (using the 'draw' function), then select all, and copy and paste it to MS Paint.

On MS Paint, I decorated the board with my graphics (see the tutorial on previous entries), saved it as PNG, and voila! An interior design inspiration board with pictures from Jonathan Adler. I really love his design! Especially his decorating philosophy: "Happiness is Chic". I can't agree more! :-)



This picture of course looks very small on the blog...click on the picture to see it at it's real size.

And, ok, what do you think of the mood board? Is it a good size, or too small? I'd love to hear your opinion :-)

[.contest.idea.1.]

Well, I'm so excited about the contest idea :-) Tomorrow I will upload many blank frames and frame backgrounds to the member area, and all members will be able to participate in the contest. The rules and entry to be announced probably in one or two weeks from now, in order that there is sufficient time to have trial-and-error-and-tweaking with the graphics.

The first idea that came up to me for this contest was photo blogging. Participants will have to create several framed photos in sequence and to put text / comment / story to accompany the pictures.

Probably something like this imaginary conversation between my two little sisters, when they were small. I love looking at these pictures, and they had these cute little-rascals-ish sparks in their eyes as if they had been plotting something :-D




WELCOME BABY SISTER... "i've gotta tell you we've got a big sis, and she thinks she's our boss, but together we're stonger than her!!"




"...okay, do we stick to our plan? we're both bigger now, and chubby as well!"


Sometimes, when I got remarks from people that I'm an upbeat person...I just thought of my little sisters, you may guess where the surge of energy often came from :-D


Well, this is the first idea, let me know what you think and let's have our first contest soon! :-)

amreta plays: picture frame part 2

Attention readers: this was a tutorial from 2008, way before I got myself familiar with Photoshop. In newer version of amreta plays series, you'll notice I work a lot using Photoshop. Certainly you still can use these techniques if that is easier for you. Don't forget to subscribe to my  free newsletter and get more graphic goodness delivered with a happy heart to your email :o)

Hi everyone,

I just forgot to mention in part 1 that when you paste the frame from Power Point to MS Paint and want to decorate the picture with graphics, make sure that the “draw opaque” function is unchecked (so that the graphic’s background stays transparent).




And below are a few more free blank frames. If you are a member you will be able to find more blank frames and frame backgrounds in the member area this weekend. You can have more variations! :-)

PS: if you decide to use these frames, a link back to www.amretasgraphics.com will be appreciated. thanks :-)

[.picture.frame.tutorial.2.]

Hi everyone,

I just forgot to mention in the tutorial that when you paste the frame from Power Point to MS Paint and want to decorate the picture with graphics, make sure that the “draw opaque” function is unchecked (so that the graphic’s background stays transparent).




And below are a few more free blank frames. If you are a member you will be able to find more blank frames and frame backgrounds in the member area this weekend. You can have more variations! :-)

PS: if you decide to use these frames, a link back to www.amretasgraphics.com will be appreciated. thanks :-)

Anyway, thank you for your responses! I think I can confirm by now that the competition is on. I will start preparing and announce it about two weeks from now. Stay tune :-)

amreta plays: picture frame part 1

Attention readers: this was a tutorial from 2008, way before I got myself familiar with Photoshop. In newer version of amreta plays series, you'll notice I work a lot using Photoshop. Certainly you still can use these techniques if that is easier for you. Don't forget to subscribe to my  free newsletter and get more graphic goodness delivered with a happy heart to your email :o)

Okay, a little play time. We’ll start with one pre-made frame and see if you like it :-)

I particularly like this one for blogging. To make it easier, if you use the premade frame below, first of all you need to resize your picture to 800x600 pixels.

The programs you’ll need are Microsoft Paint and Power Point. So have them both open at the same time.

First step, right click this frame below and save it to your own hard disk.




On Power Point, insert the frame to the blank document (click ‘insert’ on the menu on the top, choose ‘Picture’ and ‘From File’). Normally the frame will be inserted to the middle of the page.




After that, insert your picture. If your picture’s size is 800x600 pixels, it will automatically inserted also to the middle of the page (which means to the middle of the frame as well). And it will look like this:



(it’s a picture of me and my great friend Beryl in Stockholm last year :-))


If happens that the picture is not right in the middle, you can use the ‘align’ function in Power Point, and you can also drag the picture to the side if you don’t want it to be in the middle, for example.


When you’re happy with the result, the next step is to select the whole picture then cut or copy it, then paste it to Microsoft Paint. Tips: I always have the MS Paint canvas smaller than the picture, so I won’t need to adjust the edges after pasting the picture.


That’s it, and then you can save the document in PNG format – so far I found that it is the most practical format, since BMP format would be quite heavy, and if you save it in JPG or GIF format the picture will not look so good, a bit deteriorated.






And, after pasting it to MS Paint, you can also decorate the pictures with more graphics! If you’re already member of Amreta’s Graphics, you know that you can open the websets in the browser, then right click on the graphics of your choice, click ‘copy’, and paste it on MS Paint and play with them :-) You don’t have to past it directly to the open MS Paint with the picture – you can open one more MS Paint in another window, then play with the graphics there first. Below is one example, the same picture as above, decorated with more graphics :-)




Hope you enjoy the tutorial and feel free to email me if you have question. This covers only the basic steps and certainly you can always explore your creativity and try more things. By the way, this was the results of many trials and errors so don't worry if you think it's a little bit difficult at the beginning ;-)