January 2009

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Tech Tip: Alt + Tab

Fri, 2009-01-30 00:30 — Jason

Often, when you have several applications open, you’ll find yourself wanting to switch from one application to another. Many users will use their mouse to navigate the cursor down to the task bar, or dock in Apple OS X, and select the application they would like to use. There is a better way. Hold down the alt key to the left of the space bar with your left thumb and then hit the tab key with your left-hand ring finger. Doing this, will bring up a small window that will allow you to select another application. Simply keep hitting tab, while still holding down alt, until the application you are looking for is highlighted. Once the correct application is highlighted, let go of both the alt and tab keys and that application will be in the foreground. If you’re like me, you’ll sometimes end up with 10 or more applications open. When you run into that situation, you can also use alt + shift + tab. This will allow you to go through the open applications from right to left instead of the left to right movement you get with regular alt + tab. We spend a good amount of our time on OS X. This trick is accomplished on OS X by using the command key instead of alt.

The mouse is really a great input device and I use it all the time. However, there are many times when a few keyboard shortcuts like this will save you repeated movements with the mouse. This is especially true any time you are writing something in one application and want to look at a piece of reference information in another application. With alt + tab this task takes literally no time, and you can keep your hands on the keyboard and focused on the writing task.

Jason

Valentine's Gift Card Holder

Tue, 2009-01-27 23:36 — Jenny

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, you may be thinking of gift ideas for those you love. Gift cards are one of the more popular gifts to give for any holiday, but who wants to use the typical gift card holder that comes free with the gift card? Below is a very easy-to-make gift card holder that's perfect to use for Valentine's Day.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1) Cut out a heart using the Hot Lips paper from Luxe Designs' Lovey collection.
2) Cut out another slightly larger heart from pink cardstock.
3) Place the Hot Lips heart on top of the pink cardstock heart.
4) Staple embellishment on top of the patterned heart. Embellishment was made using pink cardstock and a rub-on from Luxe Designs' Love Words – Multi-color rub-ons.
5) Insert the gift card on one side of the heart.
6) Sew pink thread around the heart leaving an opening for the gift card.
7) Rough up the edges of the Hot Lips heart and you are finished!

This cute gift card holder is so simple and quick to make and is perfect for all those Valentine's gift cards you will be giving away. Use your imagination by using any patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments you would like and when you do, be sure to take a picture and share it with us!

Jenny

Jenny's blog
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Floodgate of ideas...

Mon, 2009-01-26 10:03 — Sarah

Being a part of starting Vintage Plum has been one of the most exciting things I've been a part of, plus it's allowed me to spend more time with the greatness that is my brother and sister-in-law. In case you haven't noticed, I'll go ahead and point out the obvious; they're quite the "dynamic duo". Lately, my mind has been in a thousand places at once, if not a million places at once. I'm constantly trying to think of things to incorporate in our first kit, as well as future kits. I love finding inspiration in everything I see. Once you open your eyes up and realize that inspiration can be found almost anywhere, the options and ideas that flood your mind are overwhelming (but in a good way). For instance, I was at the mall over the weekend and saw a window display that set my mind spinning. Somebody else's spark of genius led me to creating several new ideas. I've spent my entire life with ideas popping into my brain and it's nice to finally have a creative outlet and see my ideas come to life.

I know that for many people going to a "craft store" and trying to find the coordinating products to make a scrapbook page is too overwhelming, and they don't know where to start. One of my personal goals for Vintage Plum is that we will encourage people who don't consider themselves "crafty" to at least take a stab at scrapbooking and card making… and being "crafty" in general. Our goal is to take the hard part out of the process by having your supplies come straight to you, that way all you have to do is enjoy the fun. For the "creatively-challenged" we will have sample pages to help inspire you. If we aren't able to inspire you enough, I encourage you to find inspiration around you! But I'm warning you, once you open up the floodgate of inspiration and ideas, it's hard to shut it.

Tech Tip: The Windows Key

Fri, 2009-01-23 13:26 — Jason

I have been blessed to work in the technology and interactive fields for over a decade now. Through the years, I have picked up a variety of little tricks that I use to save time. While much of the blogging on our site will be centered around our products and the scrapbooking industry, I'm going to use this place to share some of those tech tips as well as some of the things we've experienced while starting Vintage Plum.

Some of you may already be familiar with the power of the Windows key within the Microsoft Windows environment. It’s the little key with a flying window on it that is located between the Ctrl and Alt keys down by the space bar. The Windows key, if pressed once, opens the Start menu. Most are familiar with this function of the Windows key. However, the Windows key is also capable of doing a whole host of other things when combined with another key. For example, one of my favorite shortcuts is using the Windows key to open Windows Explorer or My Computer. To do this you simply hold down the Windows key and then tap the ‘E’ key one time. When needing to go to the file system, there’s simply no quicker method. Below is a list of Windows key shortcuts from this page on Wikipedia.

Windows Logo Key to Open and close the Start Menu
Windows Logo Key + B to Select the first icon in the Notification Area
Windows Logo Key + D to Show Desktop
Windows Logo Key + E to Open My Computer
Windows Logo Key + F to Open Search
Windows Logo Key + F + Control Key to Open Search For Computers program
Windows Logo Key + F1 to Open Help
Windows Logo Key + L to Switch Between Users, or Lock desktop while unattended
Windows Logo Key + M to Minimize All Windows
Windows Logo Key + M + Shift Key to restore after Minimizing All Windows
Windows Logo Key + R to Open Run Dialog
Windows Logo Key + U to open Utility Manager
Windows Logo Key + Y to Open Yahoo Messenger (if loaded)
Windows Logo Key + Pause Key To Open System Properties
Windows Logo Key + Tab Key To Switch Between Active Windows
Windows Logo Key + X to enter Windows Mobility Center (Windows Vista+ only; does not work on desktop computers)
Windows Logo Key + P to switch Projection modes (clone, extend, single, multiple monitors, etc.) (Windows 7 only)
Windows Logo Key + Tab to switch windows using Flip 3D (requires Windows Aero, Windows Vista only)
Windows Logo Key + 1 to 9 to start according Quick Launch Toolbar program

I hope you find these shortcuts useful in your daily computing.

Jason

What Inspired Our Very First Kit?

Mon, 2009-01-19 21:48 — Jenny

Well, let’s see, our first kit will be released in February, so…Valentine’s Day of course! When is a better time to release a first kit than during the month of love? Here is a little bit of information about Valentine greetings from www.history.com: “Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as 'scrap'.” Isn’t that cool? Even the Mother of the Valentine was a scrapper!

Here are a few more things that inspired our February kit: