Thinking About Graphic Design...

Over the years I have learnt to do so much with my laptop. One of them being Glitter Graphics! I found these years ago when I also got into the Doll Graphics that you used to be able to make up, this was something that interested me, so I found different websites that do these said graphics and I learnt how to use Paint Shop Pro & Animation Shop! Love these programs and are so much fun!

Glitter fills are little rectangles of colour with some kind of sparkle added to them, you open these up in Animation Shop and copy each layer over to PSP and paint certain parts of the graphic you are creating and then put them back into Animation Shop to animate them and your done!

I loved doing these, and I even managed to make different Disney Cliparts glitter! It was soo much fun! This was all done before Facebook took off and these graphics were used on websites called Bebo & Myspace! I enjoyed making the different layouts for Bebo & Myspace for myself and others, it was so much fun! Funny when you think about it now and that Bebo & Myspace longer exists pretty much!

When I joined Facebook none of the glitter stuff could be shared, you can now share gif's though so who knows maybe in the future they can be added to be used on there ;)
After a few years of having basic profiles they added Timeline Banners! Which meant you could have any picture you wanted displayed on your profile! This was great, because you could put any photograph etc up!
I came across the Angel Mum Community in 2010 when I lost my baby due to Ectopic Pregnancy and found that there was many pages out there that made graphics for Angels and I joined a few and made a few friends and then after a while I decided that I was going to do the same! I already knew how to make layouts for Myspace & Bebo, I was confident in what I was doing and I enjoyed making different pictures etc.
Only issue I had when I solely worked on Angel Graphics I never realized how difficult it would be when you see how many people have lost beautiful angels as well, I have to admit I did struggle a little, but then I decided that I was going to introduce other kinds of graphics which helped.
I have to admit I have had loads of different pages made up over the years because drama found me and I had to close down pages and open up new ones, or I decided I wanted to create a different name which is something I did quite often lol

I have not done any kind of designing in years, mainly because I didn't have the internet for the last 4-5 yrs until I moved into my own place and now having Internet I decided that it was time to pick it back up again! Only issue is, when I went to plug my hard drive in to see what I have on my hard drive to re-create or bring back it wouldn't work! Thought it was my USB lead so I brought a new one and still nothing! Today I looked at the plug again as I needed to know what cable to buy I noticed that some of the copper wires inside the cable had broken! Which explains why it doesn't wanna turn on, but it was odd because the plug was still getting hot? I ordered a new cable today so gotta wait for that to come then I can hopefully get into my hard drive!
Looking forward to doing some more designing again as I have been wanting to design stuff but as I said no internet so I didn't do anything about it, till now...

Do I Or Don't I ... That Is The Question...

I keep seeing many other graphic designers talk about having blogs, sharing tutorials on their blogs and more..
Keep wondering if it is worth me giving it a go and seeing if I can expand a little more..?
With my graphics, I have been teaching myself and editing myself without help from anyone or tutorials anymore, everything I do I picked up over the last 7 years +

I love graphics, I love designing them too.. But I am not sure if I have got what it takes like the other designers..
But I suppose the one way I will find out is to take the plunge......Right??

Things That Make You Wonder .... "WHY"

Over the last few days, I have been finding various things out, and I don't like what I see..
I run graphics through a friend page on Facebook, and over the last few months I have come to meet some nice people, some not so nice.
Worst thing is, the not so nice things come from someone whom you classed as a 'friend'
Everyone has their opinions, I am not saying they don't, but surely if you had a problem with someone you would therefore explain it to someone to hope to solve the differences or just brush it off and ignore it because you know full well that saying something would cause drama.. Or so you think!
I've been hurt and distraught over people taking advantage of me, and reporting me for silly little things left right and centre, but never did I expect to see it come from someone whom you class as a friend..
1st problem - made a graphic to print, laminate & post - which I did, but then claimed never got it and then set a month long problem with PayPal.. Got their refund & their graphic *sigh*
2nd problem - made a timeline cover & display picture to help out a 'friend' for free - stole my design stuck them onto t-shirts and sold them *sigh*
3rd problem - a 'friend' criticise my work, wrote how they wanted to hurt me, and blocked me from seeing everything on their page - god knows why :\ and now I think I've fallen out with my friend over it..
This is the 3rd thing to go wrong since doing my graphics, all in the space of months! Something is starting to tell me that maybe I am wasting my time and efforts in doing what I am doing, and I should just give up..
Another part of me is telling myself to not give up and let these people win, because there are people out there whom have come forward and told me how my work has helped them grieve and so much more..
I don't want to let people down, but I don't want people criticising me and being generally rude for no reason at all.. I've never criticised them or their work, and I have been doing what I do for the last 7 years, not to mention the 2 year gap! But I still designed websites for friends..
Really wish I knew what gave people the idea to say things like this, especially to fellow designers and friends!!

I get a lot of my inspiration from other graphics.. I look at them and think
" ohh wow I like that, I wonder if I can do it too "
And so I try, sometimes I fail, sometimes I don't..

Its not my fault a lot of the scrap kits are free to download, some are to purchase.. Not to mention having over 1000 of tubes!
All my work I do in Paintshop Pro X2 and I love it and love using it.. I am always learning new things.

I am a happy little bunny today..

Today, I finally worked out HOW to install Paint Shop Pro on Linux - Ubuntu.
I set up a little blog page about it and how I installed Paint Shop Pro 8 for other people on Linux whom are also struggling with not having the program available on Linux.
The downside is that I have been working in Paintshop Pro X2.. Which means ALL the stuff I have done before will no longer work :(
But at least NOW anything I do in the future can be saved properly on PSP 8.
ALSO, I now have Antenna, a website designing software on my laptop so I can get back into doing that and design a website that I have been working on for a little while..

Its nice to feel a little good about myself, even though I have a lot on my mind at the moment..

Be glad when there is more sun available, as the last few weeks have been awful with winds and rain.. No fun. Plus, the weather has killed some of the seeds that have been sown..
Seems the only thing that's able to grow is Weeds & Potatoes..

Still.. Better than nothing.