I haven't posted for a few days because I've been trying to deal with a backlog of videos I've done - loads of editing required, and not much space on my hard drive! This first one is part of an afternoon I had experimenting with my new Tim Holtz stuff. I decided to follow his Youtube tutorial on making your own glimmer mist with his distress inks and perfect pearls. I really had no idea how this would turn out - but in the end I wasn't too disappointed!
Although my first attempt is a bit blotchy, the colours are lovely, and this technique gives the most gorgeous silky feel to the cheapest of card. I tried doing some on black, which you will see on the video I've done on using Tim's masks (not yet edited) and although it's got a nice shimmery finish and again feels lovely, the colour hasn't shown in the way I wanted, unfortunately.
It seems to be pretty much trial and error, but that's exciting in itself, because you don't know what you're going to end up with!
I've now discovered that hidden in the depths of my free FLV video converter is a whole page of parameters that can be changed, so I've increased the quality all round, and replaced the original video on Youtube with one of better quality - however, it's still not quite as good as the original...
They don't make it easy, particularly for novices, and I'm not exactly a novice where video is concerned (although not an expert, either, lol!) I suppose everybody records video in all sorts of different formats, so it's difficult to have hard and fast guidelines, but wouldn't it be great if Youtube provided a universal converter as a free download, so that everyone could upload their videos easily, and at the best possible quality to match that of the original. There are an awful lot of really dreadful quality clips on Youtube but I suspect the fault lies in the original filming.
Anyway, the program I've got seems to work adequately and it's free, which suits me!!
I've been very busy again - no sooner had I finished the Explosion Box than I had to forge ahead with Dad's birthday card ready for Tuesday. It didn't take me as long as I thought, and I finished it yesterday. Today I've been working on the video, and taking a few photos, and trying to find a way of uploading videos to Youtube without them complaining about a whole lot of stuff that is totally beyond me - if they don't want people to use certain formats etc. they should explain in layman's terms exactly what is required, in my opinion - I was left totally in the dark as to what to do.
I finally discovered that it could be converted to a flash video (.flv) for which I downloaded a free converter. The only trouble is, the resulting quality isn't nearly as good... I suppose it will have to do, though.
Here are some pictures of the card.
This is just after I finished the front:
This is the pop-up keyboard inside, which also shows the music - it is the piano version of "Happy Birthday" and I inserted "Dad" into the relevant bit!
Here's a closer view of the pop-up - you can also see the music a bit more clearly on this one:
The next two pictures are of a side-view of the pop-up, showing how the cutting and folding works, and what happens when you close the card.
Here are a couple of photos which show the card almost finished - all I had to do at this stage was add the final 3-D elements.
These pictures show the inside with the floating music notes just after I'd made them:
Finally, here are the pictures of the completed card:
Now, here is the video. I decided this time to video the work in progress. It did make for some difficulties, because each step took me quite a while, and I was concerned about the light going before I'd finished, but it was OK in the end.
Here is the template for the keyboard pop-up. I made it to fit inside a folded A5 card, i.e. final size A6, which is a bit small, and it made it pretty fiddly to make. I'd suggest making it final size A5. I've saved this template as a .jpg, so you can paste it and enlarge it to whatever size you like. You can use your photo editor or desk-top publisher to substitute the name in the Happy Birthday music. I have made the fold lines on the black keys quite thick so they show up when printed. If they show on the finished project, simply go over them with a black felt pen.
I am hoping to go over on Tuesday and see Dad on his birthday. I hope he enjoys his card!
