A day in the life of Kim

Crave Photography Giveaway

So the folks over at Crave Photography have an amazing new year's giveaway complete with design gift certificates, online mentoring and lenses.  Go get entered at http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/25000-fans-giveaway/

Cyber Monday Sale {CG Essentials and R4P}

Today you can enjoy 25% savings in the digi shop at CG Essentials.  No exclusions.  Some products as low as just $1.12.  Coupon not required.  CLICK HERE to start saving now.

Also, in the Resources 4 Photographers store, you can save 25% too!  No coupon required.  All items are for use by professional photographers and include a professional terms of use.  See store for details.  CLICK HERE to start saving.

Black Friday 50% Off Sale {Resources 4 Photographers}

Don't miss out on the biggest sale of the year at Resources 4 Photographers.  Most items marked down 50% with some items as low as just $3.00 each.  No coupon required.  Sale ends midnight eastern time tonight.

Some exclusions apply.  Discount not valid on Photoshop Actions, Photoshop Elements Actions and bundled sets.  Discount cannot be applied to past purchases and is not redeemable for cash.

Click here to shop now: http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital/company/resources_4_photographers

iDSD sale starts today {CG Essentials digiscrap products}

Take 40% off most items in the CG Essentials section of ACOT.  No coupon needed.  Some items as low as just 90 cents!!!  Sale prices are in effect now through midnight eastern time on Sunday, November 6th.

CLICK HERE to begin shopping CGE designs.

And don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour Saturday night if your area follows Daylight Savings Time.  :)

New Store Navigation at ACOT {Resources 4 Photographers}

I decided that the navigation in my section of the digital shop at ACOT was just too hard to meander through if you were looking for a specific photographer tool or photoshop action.  So the last two days I've been busy restructuring it.  I really think you will like the new navigation as it is much easier to understand as well as find products. So here's the deal:

ACOT gave me a separate sub-store specifically for Resources 4 Photographers, which separates these items from my personal use digital scrapbooking products.  There are now 12 navigation buttons at the top of the page which I'm sure you will agree is a huge improvement when searching for specific items.

To find the products, please refer to the steps below. 

Simply go to A Cherry on Top's home page at http://www.acherryontop.com/, then click on the tab marked Digital here: http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital and then you will see a list of designer shops in the left column.  Scroll down til you see Resources 4 Photographers and that will bring you here: http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital/company/resources_4_photographers (or you can simply bookmark that link so you can get there with one click).  You are now officially in my section of the shop.

Now let's look at the navigation buttons.  I think for the most part it is self-explanatory.  The photoshop actions have been broken up into two types - one set is all Photoshop Elements actions and the other is for all of the pro versions of Photoshop.  All client cards (thank you, invitation, birthday, holiday, etc) are in the "cards" section.  All business and marketing items (rep cards, business forms, starter sets, gift certificates, etc.) are in the "business marketing" section.   If you have any trouble finding specific items, just message me and I'll help you out.

I'm also in the process of creating more "secondary" previews so that you can see more details about each product in the store. This will take some time, but I'm so thrilled to be able to offer this option for you now that the store has the technical capability to show more than just the one product preview.

I hope you enjoy the newly enhanced shopping experience in the Resources 4 Photographers sub-section of the ACOT shop.  Looking forward to continuing to offer you the best customer service I can offer.  :)

Store changes for Resources 4 Photographers

Some changes are being made to the shop at ACOT in order to give you a better shopping experience.   The store is giving me a section specifically for the photographer tools and photoshop actions so that these items are not mixed in with the digital scrapbooking kits.  Within this new, dedicated section of the shop there will be navigation buttons to make finding the items you want a bit easier. 

Please note that some products may be temporarily disabled during the change but it shouldn't take long to get things back on track.  I think you will find the new navigation options easier and more customer-friendly.  Stay tuned for more details...

 

Lots of new digital products for photographers {Resources 4 Photographers}

Sorry for neglecting this blog.  I have been very busy since my last post in July - first with the big move of all my photographer tools and photoshop actions from Pink Ink over to A Cherry on Top, and then with the kids being home, plus school getting underway, and lots of last minute high school seniors needing portraits taken.  It's just been busy busy busy.  :)

So now that the store move is complete, I thought I'd give you a brief tour of where things are.  All of my products are listed in the digital section of ACOT, within the designer category of CG Essentials, and then the subcategory of Photographer Tools right here: http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital/company/cg_essentials/line/photographer_tools  All of the photoshop and PS Elements actions are listed here: http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital/company/cg_essentials/line/photoshop_actions. 

To search for items by keyword, please take the following steps:

1.  First you'll need to click through to my section of the shop at http://www.acherryontop.com/shop/digital/company/cg_essentials?v=s0.  The shop main category is CG Essentials as this is my other business where I sell personal use digital scrapbooking products.  Figured it was easier than setting up two store accounts for now, but in the future I may separate them in order to provide easier navigation.

2. Next, decide if you are looking for personal use digital scrapbooking products, or if you are looking for photographer tools, or the photoshop actions and click on the appropriate icon at the top of the page.  They look like this:

3.  Now that you are in the proper section, look up at the top of the screen and click on the search field and type in the keyword you are wanting to look for (ie., senior, holiday, card, storyboard, etc).

4.  To the right of  your keyword is a drop-down menu.  Click that and change it from the word "digital" to the words "current results".  This will allow you to only search in my section of the shop that you selected in step #2 above.

5.  Your results will now be displayed.

So how about you go grab a drink and we'll continue with all the new goodies that I've made since July.  :)

For those interested in giving gifts to clients or even your own family members, this year I'm offering a set of 3 calendar templates which include the dates of each month in the year 2012, the month names, and some ABR brushes.  Two of the templates create an 11x14 print and the other one makes an 8x10 print.  Simply have your photo lab mount the print on mat board to make it rigid enough to place on a display easel.

I've also created two holiday sets - one for Christmas and one for Hanukkah.  Each set contains 12 digital papers, holiday specific elements and 3 layered PSD card templates.  You can use these to create holiday cards, mini accordian books, albums, memory books and more!

If you're looking to get some marketing brochures made up, this set has 2 sizes to choose from.  They are in layered format and fully editable.  Swap out the pink paper and use colors of your own branding!  You can then have them printed up (perhaps through Overnight Prints) or you can save the completed project as a PDF for displaying on your website or for sending to your client by email.

Another fun product is the custom image box.  These next two template sets are for the wallet sized image boxes.  They are sized to Millers Lab specifications, but I imagine you can tweak them to fit WHCC or other lab you may use.  The templates are in layered format and include all papers, elements and text shown.

There are 8 new memory box templates available.  These are compatible with Paper Coterie's 10x13 memory keeper.  Click on the images below to be taken to that item in the shop at ACOT.

That wraps up all the new products.  As always, I still am taking custom design orders.  Paper packs are the most popular.  Twelve piece exclusive use paper pack designed with your branding colors is $150 - or- you can can choose to do just one paper for $15 each. Each paper pack takes an average of 12-30 hours to create as the process is very interactive. So if you know exactly what you want, it takes less time for me to create than if you are not really sure yet.  If this is something you are interested in, please email me at service@resources4photographers.com.

Have a great afternoon!!

Weekend Sale at A Cherry on Top {digiscrap designs by Kim Hill, CG Essentials}

Big sale going on over in the digi section of the shop at A Cherry on Top this weekend as we celebrate Independence Day here in the USA.  Selected items are marked down from now through 9 am eastern time on July 5th.  CLICK HERE to shop my designs now.  No coupons required.

Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!  :)

Fotolia stock images - a review

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try the royalty-free, online stock image database at Fotolia and thought you'd like to hear about it.

There ares more millions of high-quality photographs, illustrations, vector images, and HD videos. They have a really simple search function which makes quick results of sorting through the endless options. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple their terms of use are.  Most are allowed to be used in print, electronic, online materials and web pages.  And most images are able to be modified in order to create derivative works.  Very generous compared to other stock companies.

Depending on your needs and your budget, there are a variety of size options to choose from, ranging from extra-small (346 px wide at 72 dpi) all the way up to XXL which is in the neighborhood of about 4350 px wide at 300 dpi.  There is also an extended RF license which allows you to use or modify the images for items you intend to resell.

The way you purchase the images is by credits. Extra-small files are as little as just 2 credits, whereas the extended license fee varies from 20-100 credits.  The more credits you buy at one time, the better the rate.  So if you were to buy say 6400 credits, it works out to just 75 cents per credit.  But someone like myself might only need something small like 25 credits which works out to be $1.20 per credit.  This is really a competitive price with their stock photography costing as low as 1 - 10 credits, vector illustrations as low as 4 credits, and video footage as low as 10 credits.

Overall, I found Fotolia to have a broad variety of stock at a competitive price and will use them again for future projects.

Digital Scrapbooking Wknd Sale & New Holiday Kit

Okay, so I know it seems a tad early to be thinking about the Christmas season, and even I was cursing the retail stores for having trees up and decorated as well as holiday musak playing.  BUT ... the holidays will be here before you know it!  So let's get a jump start on holiday gift giving and card making with the BELIEVE IN THE MAGIC KIT, which I think even the kids will enjoy (well, at least mine loved the Santa!!).

The kit has 12 papers, oodles of elements, as well as a complete uppercase and lowercase alphabet with numbers and extra characters. When you buy the complete kit, you will also receive a BONUS greeting card template in layered PSD format. Of course, as always, you have the option of purchasing just the elements, or just the papers, or even just the alphabet set. But the only way to get the card template is to buy the complete kit. And with this weekend being the designated Digital Scrapbooking Day celebration, ALL of these are on sale for 30% off throughout the entire weekend (no coupons needed). Can't beat that?!

So here is a look at everything:

And here are some layout ideas from the team. Be sure to check out the digital gallery and leave them some love, too!



Thanks so much for your continued support and patronage.  Looking forward to seeing what YOU can create!  :)