{amretasgraphics.open.again}

Hello everyone!

This entry was supposed to be posted yesterday...but I was just exhausted after finishing the last file transfer, emailing members (remember the lost database? I had to sent the emails one-by-one! fun! :-D), and finally flinging open the site! Yippii!!

Exhausted, did I say? Yes, to be very honest. I had been working hard to reconstruct amretasgraphics.com after all those troubles...and when it was finally ready, the server unexpectedly upgraded their security setting, and pouf, I couldn't access my own space in the server. It was like...being unable to enter your own house to do the cleaning and redecorating. The landlord simply changed the lock-code of the entrance door without prior warning. Pouf! I was frustrated for days.

On the fifth day, finally, came an email with the instruction on how to upload my files using secure setting which fit their system. Oh my goodness. They said that the files would be encrypted while being transported to the server, more secure than using standard transfer, but my goodness, some files seemed to be really really reluctant to be transferred this way (I never had the problem using ftp commander before). And you know how many files in the queue? almost 4000 graphics + webpages in total. And whenever a file didn't want to be uploaded, the server disconnected itself after a few minutes. Then I had to restart the upload process. Then again, then again...the troubles seemed to repeat themselves until I really got it. And finally I figured it out that the server would reconnect itself and retry to upload the failed files, every few minutes. So, Thursday night I let the ftp worked while I went to sleep, and Friday the whole day, I also punished the ftp for being so lousy and let it work very very hard while I laughed all my way to my work (of course, it was Friday :o))

Such a fantastic adventure, wasn't it :o))) Saturday morning, I woke up happy and my mission was checking what's left in the files. Oh, one two three images were still missing, some links were incorrect. And so finally at around noon, amretasgraphics is up and running again!

Have you checked it by the way? Not everything is done, somehow. I just wanted the site to be up first and then gradually I will complete the contents. I've received a few requests to write something about how I created my graphics, and to display samples from my first graphics to the latest ones, to be able to see the 'evolution', so to say. I think that's a very good idea! My first graphics were quite funny looking...as always the first prototypes of everything, when you start your first trial-and-errors. And somehow I lost some of them with my computer crash in 2003. Another new feature is the Kindwords Cafe, a place for friends and inspiration...My plan is to add new updates every two days or so, then new graphics every weekend.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what's already up :o) One new webset is on its way, and the school webset is being updated with bears and little girls and boys. That's for next weekend :o)

Talk to you again soon!

{cutie bunny updates}

I'm updating the lil' bunnies webset in the member area - with new cards and stationeries. Hope to be able to upload them tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the free teasers here :o)











You may add your own text to the cards above, then use them as webcard, or print them as small notecard/card.

The grateful note below is in A5 size. You can click on the picture and print it, or download the file in pdf format for easier printing using A5 size paper.



Click here to download the grateful note in pdf file.

{member area: irish blessing cards}

Just added some Irish Blessing cards (and some blanks, too) and new background tiles to my St Patrick set, on the member area. Hope you like them :o)

{happy bear prints 2009}

Yippie! My first graphic artwork in 2009!!

For some of you who have been here several times probably know I've been looking ways to make the bigger version of my graphics without 'destroying' the handmade feeling. And then these past few weeks I've been cleaning up and redecorating my room and wanted to display some of my own creation. I was pretty pleased with the Live Love Laugh print series...but I was still dreaming of having some prints of my existing websets. So, after another series of trial and error, finally the "Eureka!" moment came last night. Photoshop is genius. After rescaling and spattering, my graphics were turned into crayon like drawings, and my bears still look cute and fuzzy :o)

To celebrate this, these first rose bear prints are free for everyone to download (pdf format). They come in two sizes, A4 and Letter, each of them. Probably I will call them "Happy Bear Prints". For the moments, there are only two prints with saying. "Happiness lives here" and "Le bonheur habite ici". It depends if some of you are interested in having the prints with the same saying in other languages, I might make ones too. Your comments are appreciated.

To download the prints (pdf files), right-click on DOWNLOAD below each preview and 'save target as'.



Happiness Lives Here
size A4 (21 x 29,7 cm) DOWNLOAD
size Letter (8,5 x 11 inch) DOWNLOAD



Le bonheur habite ici
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Happy bears - red roses
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Happy bears - pink roses 1
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Happy bears - pink roses 2
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Happy bears - pink roses 3
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Girl bear
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD



Boy bear
size A4 DOWNLOAD
size Letter DOWNLOAD

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the prints :o)

[.a.little.note.]

Hello hello! It's been pretty busy around here with a lot of things...it still is. Sorry for the lousy updates *blush* But I'm so glad finally I managed to upload some updates and newbies. See the new layout (again)? *wink-wink* - the frames are removed so I really hope that the pages are easier to view now.

I'm leaving for the airport in a few hours from now, flying to Bali for some works (doesn't "Bali" rather sound like vacation? ;-)) - and I don't know whether I'll be able to post anything from there...well, at least you know what actually happens if Amreta's Graphics is quiet again for a week or two. We'll see.

When I'm back in early November we'll catch up with the contest plan :o) The blank boards and frames are now up in the member area, you can 'play' and have some trial-and-error with them (oh yes, it's highly recommended! ;-))

In the meantime have a good time and take care!

[.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 :-)

[.picture.frame.tutorial.]

Okay, a little tutorial 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 ;-)


::ATTENTION TO MEMBERS::

If you find this fun, I will make this project the first competition for members next month. Let me know what you think :-)

[.new.school.graphics.part.1.]

Dear friends,






Thank you for being so patient with my lousy updates lately! I think I should have been able to manage my time more efficiently :-)

The fact is, I haven't been able to finish the whole new school graphics yet, but since you've been waiting so long for this, I thought of publishing the first part of the set with letterblocks, signboards, some tiles, dividers, etc.

There will be three or four parts in all (I haven't yet divided them) - they are almost ready but there are some things that I need to give some 'retouch' here and there. You will find the bears, boys and girls, and more cliparts and more tiles and more letterblocks (I started to really like letterblocks... that's why I just keep creating some now :-)). They will be up as soon as they are ready. Check it out in the member area.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the first part :-)

Have a great day!
Amreta

[.on.Zinio.and.the.most.beautiful.flower.]

Guess what, I'm featured on Zinio's latest email newsletter :-) As you might know I'm an avid magazine reader and I'm so glad I found Zinio - from whom I can subscribe various magazines in digital format (view my entry about it here). They also have a great collection of literary classics, digitized and you can read them online. For me it's really convenient!

Anyway I've been sick these past few days. I don't know why it's always like that when I finally take a rest after done with a big project at work. The newbies are on the way, I still need to check this and that (for example, I just found out that the font "Tropicana" I used to decorate the book of quotes is not 'acceptable' when I transfered the InDesign file into .pdf). But I thought of giving a small preview on the weekly planner, the cover and the first two pages. If you see only days and weeks, no dates, it is intentional. The other book will have only dates, no days or week. Let me know what you think when they are uploaded this coming week.







And euh, talking about my favorite quote (notice that on the weekly planner preview... and some other pages in this blog :-)) - "The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all" - it is from this inspiring movie "Mulan", the words by the Emperor of China toward the end of the film - and somehow, while leafing one of my favorite magazines, Asian Geographic issue 3/2007, I saw this photography by Masako Imaoka "Portrait of Courage". And I was moved by this particular picture taken in Nahrin, Afghanistan in 2002. Don't you think, this perfectly illustrates the Emperor's words above? I cut and clipped the picture onto my inspiration board on my desk - along with the quote. They give me extra strength and courage :-)

[.HAPPY.2008!!!!.]

Happy New Year everyone!!!! I would like to wish you all a very happy, beautiful, exciting, creative, inspiring, lucky, full of love and nice surprises 2008!!!!



And here’s the news: though delayed, the new site is almost ready! You will see that it’s organized quite differently. I can tell you, it’s been a constant trial-and-errors in the process! But I do think that’s the exciting thing. Now I know more, and I really enjoy each moment of it.

From now on in this blog, I will also write about the new projects at Amreta’s Graphic Corner. It’s baby steps toward running my own ‘graphic shop’ :o) so here I start with two of my scrapbook-blogging pictures – 6 month old me with mom, dad and great grandma :o) such a precious memory!

[.three-column.blog.]

Notice what's new with this blog? *winkwink* Yes, the layout! :-)

I had, for quite sometime, been eyeing those three-column blogs, wondering how they're created, googling and trying out some templates...but much to my dissappointment, it just never worked. Should I say, I never gave up? Somehow after more googlings and checkings, I found this little tutorial that seemed clear and easy to understand. I followed the step-by-step instruction provided on the page, and youhouuu! It really worked!

You may want to check it yourself. Here's the link:

The 'original' page of the tutorial:
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/07/create-three-column-blogger-template.html

The same tutorial by the same author on Zimbio:
http://www.zimbio.com/Free+Blogger+Beta+Template/articles/40/Create+three+column+Blogger+template

Thanks Amanda for your awesome tutorial!

[.flower.field.webset.]

'tis the season of beautiful things...and finally the flower field set is now ready to download....my huge apology for those who have been waiting for it since end of september when i first announced it *blush* - or those who have been so far wondering "where's the update?"

i realise "flower field" doesn't sound christmasy nor wintery, but hey, our friends in the southern hemisphere is enjoying summer now :-) and in any case, i love drawing flowers...in or out of seasons ;-)

you can download the webset from here. it is in zipped file to protect the graphics from direct linking. this webset will also be available to download from its original home www.amretasgraphics.com in a few days.

the sad news is, this is probably the last webset that is available for free. i may start charging for my future graphics in 2008. besides the fact that i've been very dissapointed by the misuses and direct linking, running my graphic site has grown too pricey for me lately. i understand this could be unfair to those who cannot afford, and i will still have free graphics for everyone, but well, to be very honest, earning something no matter how little it is from drawing graphics will keep myself motivated :-))

well, more about it later, but in the meantime, i hope you enjoy the flower field set! :-)

download the flower field webset

screenshot of what you can find in the set below:

[.red.flowers.]

Here's another 'imaginary flowers' set :-) This time the chosen color is red. Let's see what color I have in mind for the next flowers :-)

These graphics were actually ready a few days ago, just before a series of big earthquakes hit my country in the western and southern Sumatra. I was at work when the first earthquake struck and even in the capital, 600 km away, the tremors were felt and the building where I was in swayed, causing panic. Considering the magnitudes of the earthquakes, several tsunami warnings were issued though finally cancelled not long after. Today is the third day but I still receives several alerts from the Indonesian Meteorolgy Agency. The Jakarta Post reported there were 11 temblors rattle Sumatra this Friday morning only. I just hope this will stop soon!

Happy Friday and have a nice weekend!