I won this charming print from the talented Ms. Kathy Weller over at Weller Wishes last week and I love it!  These dancing kitties are just right for my studio.  Maybe they’ll bring me luck?  Thanks, Kathy!

Hard to believe I never noticed this little gem before recently.  I have been working in Photoshop since version 2.0 – way before PS even had layers, let a lone all the great mind-boggling features it now sports.  That is one of the things I miss about working with other people nearby ~ that “Hey!  Look what I found!”  interaction that leads to learning.  So, everyone – Hey! Look what I found!

I do a lot of repeat patterns and while this has nothing to do with a repeat, this tip really speeds up part of the process.  So let’s get started…

Say you have this little flower motif you want to scatter.  You’ve got a total of three layers that make up this flower: 1. the flower outline, 2. the flower fill, and 3. the center fill.

Select all three layers…

…then, either using the fly-out menu (the little arrow at the top of the Layers Palette)

…or by going under Layers > Smart Objects > Group Into New Smart Object.

This will combine the three layers into one ~ however, this is not the same as merging layers together (you’ll find out why in a second).

Now go ahead and duplicate that layer as many times as you need to make the pattern you desire.

Now here’s the really cool part… You decide you don’t want that flower to be orange, but now what do you do?  You’ve “lost” your layers…..  Double click on one of the new “smart set” layers (any one will do, but you have to do it inside the icon box rather than over the title of the layer) and this dialog box will pop up:

Don’t be overly concerned about it, just click OK.  What happens now, is a file opens that contains just your original flower – with all three layers!

Edit the file, layers as you wish, then simply save (don’t Save As, just save).

Return to your repeat file and viola! the changes you just made to the smart set are now reflected on every flower in your repeat file!

Pretty cool, eh? How could I not have known about this???  I can’t tell you how much easier this makes my life!  Hope it is a new and joyous discover for some of you as well!

FYI ~ I have Photoshop CS2

Ok, so we all love our families, mates, pets, kids, our old coffee mug, etc.  But what about those intangible things?  What of those do you heart?  Here are some of mine…

…I love anticipation ~ like looking forward to the Squam Art Workshop, or waiting for that special book I ordered to arrive in the mail, an art supply that is on its way, or knowing there is an upcoming day of thrift shopping with a buddy.

…I love the feeling of sun on my face and a handful of breeze in my hair (a nod to Bernie Taupin for that last bit :-)

…I love that little tingle I get when I find a treasure at a flea market, thrift shop, garage sale, etc. and that the feeling lasts all day (and often beyond).

….I love laughing with good friends, even better, I love the feeling I get if I am the one to make them laugh.

…I love the creative spirit that lives within me (even if she is a little more rigid at times than I might like!)

Tell me what intangible things you heart ~ share as many as you’d like….  I’d love to hear them all…

I am too excited.  Thanks to seeing this mentioned on Lizzy House’s blog, I recently registered for this workshop in September 09 (they have one in June also) and I don’t know how I am going to contain myself until September!

Despite the fact that I have wanted to do something like this for a long time and know I’ll be just fine, I am slightly nervous.  It has more to do with how I work than anything…I am rarely a “jump in and do it” artist; I’m more of a “circle it for a while, then throw it back to my subconscious to work on” gal.  But that is part of why I want to do this ~ to get me to work outside my comfort zone which will surely lead me in new creative directions.

How do you work?  Do you just grab your paintbrush, mouse, stylus, whatever and work, or do you have to think about it?   Another way?  Tell me all about it.

Captain hubby has kindly picked a name out of the hat at random (he even closed his eyes) and the winner is….VELA ~ from Little Star Soup ~ this must be your lucky week ~ I see on your blog that you recently won some cards from Ms. Faboo herself, Robin Zingone too!  I hope you have loads of fun with this GeoBreeze Scrapbook kit ~ and hope that you share with me what you created!  Email me your address and I’ll get it shipped out soon!

I really enjoyed everybody’s stories about their birthday memories.  Carol, yours took the cake, I must say ~ it made me laugh out loud.  And Erica, you know I was lovin’ D.C. too :-)  Here’s what Vela had to say:

I really don’t remember many birthdays. I do remember my 8th though. It was the only time I had a big party. There was a ‘photographer’ there who set up a ‘Future You’ booth. You stood inside and he took a ‘picture’ of your future you (he would actually give you a a picture from a magazine). I remember REALLY not liking the one he gave me, and I started crying. Other than that it was a great Birthday.

The one I recall the most (actually, the only one I seem to recall prior to my 16th) was my 8th or 9th and a big party.  At the time we lived in a huge old farm house near Schenectady, NY.  There was a herd of kids there (I don’t think I even knew them all; some were kids of my parent’s friends) and while my party was going on in the living room & dining room, the adults had a party going in the kitchen & family room.  I recall a magician who may or may not have been a clown, but his act scared some of the kids and made them cry.  There were musical chairs, lots of presents & a big cake.  Later, I recall being very resistant to the idea of going to bed while the adult’s party was still going on downstairs.  I felt that it was my birthday and I should be able to stay up as long as I wanted!  In reality, my mother had probably had enough of me and kids for one day and just wanted a drink & adult conversation!

That’s what I said when I got home from Paris in December and this monitor that I ordered before I left was sitting here.  It is like having a TV set on my desk!  I am not sure this photo even adequately depicts just how BIG this sucker actually is.

It all started because I have two – that’s right two Apple cinema displays that have gone completely pink on me (apparently an issue for these displays).  I thought they were 30″ displays, so I ordered a 30″ Dell (that hopefully won’t go pink!) display.  Turns out what I actually had were 24″ displays.

Now, those are some sweet-sized displays, (pink issue aside) but this…this is a monster.  The video card in my G5 wouldn’t drive it at the highest resolution, which made everything huge & whacked out.  So my excellent tech support (Captain Hubby) set out on an odyssey to find the right card.  It seems they are discontinuing the bus structure that my G5 sports, therefore the cards that support it are also being discontinued.  Captain Hubby finally found one on eBay which came in on Friday.  Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with it and I am getting some display issues, but hey ~ it ain’t pink….the search is on for another card that will hopefully eliminate the weird display issues.

::SIGH:: Technology is never easy, it seems.

Hey ~ don’t forget to leave a comment on the birthday post telling me about your most vivid, best, worst, whatever, childhood birthday memory and you’ll be entered to win a huge mess ‘o scrapbook stuff!