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Hi, I have not posted for a very long time.  I have been busy with StockWiki Inc., creating a legal structure and all related legal contracts.  I took a couple of days off to make these quilted cards.  They look so sweet waiting to go out!  These cards took longer to assemble than most, about 40-45 minutes per card, because of the need to cut and paste accurately the many small pieces.  My favorite Stampin' Up demonstrator and teacher - Annette Wen - came up with this design. (Link to Annette's projects webpage and her Quilted Thank You Card)  I've modified it some and came up with variations.  My favorite was the last card I made, which uses rose red matting square and rose pink colors in the quilt corners (shown above).  I came up with this one because I was finished making the batch and I was relaxing and playing around with the design with my last remaining pieces of designer paper.  I used up ALL of the pages that have the relevant designs from the Bali Breeze designer paper pack (4 sheets out of 10).  Total cards made = 20.

Card size 5" x 5".  Inside matting square and quilt square are 3.5" x 3.5".  Quilt strips are 1/2" wide.  Center square is 1" x 1".  This is a variation on the Log-Cabin quilt.  IMG_1249 shows the traditional Log-Cabin design with lights on one corner and darks on the opposite corner.  IMG_1236 shows the cut strips ready to be assembled.  The bottom center card in IMG_1229 used the original design by Annette (has a cutout flower in the center).  The last two photos show stacks of 10 cards each waiting to go out.

 

 

 

If you wish to view a larger image, click on a photo, then select "View full size".  You can also download the original size file from there by right clicking your mouse over the photo and selecting "Copy" or "Save As".

I think the quality of travel experience on JetBlue has declined markedly.  Some of it is out of JetBlue's control --the long security lines and the madness of checking routines.  Some of it is due to JetBlue's expansion.  JetBlue's check-in personnel at both Oakland airport and Chicago O'Hare were rude and unhelpful.  The Oakland check-in people did not open up until a full hour after every other airline had started checking people in.  They were then disgruntled and made it unnecessarily difficult for the people who had stood in line for several hours.  (In fact, they gave us dirty looks as they were coming to work and seemed to resent the fact that their customers had arrived 2 hours prior to departure time as per JetBlue's own instructions.)  Chicago's check-in person (a young strapping man) will not touch the checked bags and made the customer (even old ladies) first lift the bag onto the scale by the counter, then carry the bag over to the conveyor belt.  The Chicago check-in person also made the customers who had stood in line go back to the kiosks to print out a boarding pass saying he could not do this from his booth with a photo ID and confirmation number (which I know is false).  Both places also seemed to have gotten rid of curb side check-in of bags.  It could just be that they don't operate until later in the morning.  I took early morning flights out.  (On my previous trips, Washington Dullus airport had cheerful curb-side bag-check people working for JetBlue.)  Other airlines at O'Hare and Oakland had places where you can drop-off bags if you checked-in using the internet.  JetBlue did not, so there was no choice but to stand in line.  JetBlue also lost my bag from my connection via New York's JFK.  It did make it later, it was delivered to my work next day.  Another point against them is that they don't fly into smaller, closer to the city airports that SouthWest does.  I will check out SouthWest for my next trip.

Bill got me started on using Amazon S3 as my new hosting service for my personal website http://www.jenniferyoon.com.  I finally will be able to update this site (after 4 years of being locked-out by Bill ;-). I immediately edited my address and contact information.  But I also noticed how ugly the site design was - a bare bones table format.  I will quickly upload a background image with graduated shading using my Flex2 skills!.

User Experience: Amazon S3

So far, I only have one issue with it.  It is difficult to set the privacy setting to give an external user (client) access to individual files without giving permission to the "Everyone" Group.  There are 3 group settings in this bare bones service: the owner, authenticated users, and everyone. 

S3 provides "Share with Email" and "Share with User ID" for giving selected file access to individuals.  However, both methods require me to know the user's (client's) information ahead of time.  The Email referenced is the user's retail Amazon.com login identifier.  The User ID is Amazon S3 service login ID.  So the user is expected to already have a S3 account.  Furthermore, after the correct user has been set up using an existing Amazon.com email login ID or an S3 login ID, I cannot just send a link to the file location to the user.  The user still needs to login to AWS (Amazon Web Services) and I have yet to find a simple login page that I can send to the user (client) that does not also store & display my personal information.  The main page to AWS is very cluttered, and there is no login button from there.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=3435361 

In the mean time, I am using the password protection feature within Microsoft Word and PDF writers.  I password protect the individual files and upload it to the S3.  Then I give read permission to the "Everyone" group.  Next I send a URL link to the file along with the password to the user (client).  Most browsers will autodetect the file type for .doc and .pdf and open the file with an associated reader.  This method does not take full advantage of the encription built into S3.  I hope to find a better solutions later.

Otherwise, the Amazon S3 is the cheapest, no-nonsense, reliable, and secure web hosting option around.  The low cost is especially important to me because I have about 1.5 gigabytes of financial documents scanned from paper into PDF format that I plan to upload. My content will not change often, so a low-cost storage solution is the most important factor.

How to set up an account with Amazon S3

Right now I use Firefox browser with S3 Organizer (a plug-in installed under Tools menu).  Sign up for Amazon's S3 service with a credit card and this page.  In the unlikely event you don't already have an Amazon.com account, you need to create one ;-)  http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261  Download a recent version of the Firefox browser and install the S3 Organizer plug-in. Link to plug-in: http://www.rjonna.com/ext/s3fox.php  Help file posted at: s3-dg-20060301.chm  Right-click on the link and select "Save Target", make sure the format is ".chm" and not ".html".  If you have a Windows machine, the Microsoft Help file format should be recognized.  I don't think this will open for a Mac machine. 

That's it!  Happy Hosting :-)

I prefer Internet Explorer 7, because I am a heavy user of OneNote 2007 and the web clippings integration lacks some features when using the FireFox browser (as expected, since Microsoft owns OneNote).  I will switch back to IE7 once I discover an S3 manager plug-in for it.  Most of the web clipping features are still accessible when using the Firefox browser. 

• Printing an image of everything on a webpage to OneNote:  File, Print, select Send to OneNote for your printer choice.  You need to set up "Send to OneNote" as a Printer.  You can choose between printing to a new "Unfiled Notes" page or a new page in "Current Section".  Instructions for doing both are in the Help file of OneNote and reproduced here: Sending to OneNote.jpg. 
• This creates an "image" file rather than a text file.  This format is helpful if you want to see the page with the original formatting intact.  You can annotate the webpage with text or writing/drawings on separate layers above the print image.  But if you resize or move the print image layer, the annotation layers do not resize or move with it!  You can zoom in/out and maintain the positions of all layers.  You can also make the text within the image searchable by right-clicking it in OneNote.  You can also copy just the text from the image and paste it somewhere else.
• Copying a section of a webpage and pasting to OneNote: you have two choices -- OneNote taskbar and FireFox "Clip to OneNote" plug-in (installed under Tools menu).
• Using OneNote taskbar -- right-click the taskbar icon, select "Create Screen Clipping".  The webpage grays out.  Select the area with your mouse.  When you release the mouse OneNote pastes the section to your default location (see link above).  (To install OneNote taskbar -- from OneNote menu, select Tools, Options, Categories-Other, then checkmark "Place OneNote icon in the notification area of taskbar." Restart OneNote.)
• Using Clip to OneNote plug-in -- After you have installed the plug-in, select the webpage section with your mouse, then right click & select "Clip to OneNote", navigate to the OneNote section desired, then Paste.  If nothing is selected from your webpage, the entire page will be pasted to OneNote.  The Clip-to-OneNote does not know about your default OneNote locations.  So this feature's drawback is that the item must be manually pasted onto a manually selected OneNote section.

To my dear friends,

Thanks for all of your kind words about the Yosemite photos.  I got a few of you telling me you liked the bark textures.  I am happy to add to your enjoyment.  I hope you will continue reading to keep in touch across the country.

A new Spring Banner

I noticed that I tend to frequently change the banner on this blog.  I like to experiment with different banner designs.  It takes a lot longer than I want to create a new image because I am still learning how.  I used Corel Painter Essesstial 3 and Corel Draw 13 to modify the image as well as PhotoShop to initially resize the card photo to the pixels of this banner.  I had something else in mind when I started, but I was not facile enough with these programs to implement my vision, so I got something a bit different instead.  I hope you will enjoy it for the short time it will grace the top of this blog.

Spring Greeting Cards

As I mentioned on my blog in early April, I wanted to make some Spring-themed greeting cards to send out to my friends, but my craft room needed to be cleaned out first.  Well I made a set of cards now, but it seemed to take full 2 weeks to make 20 of them!  I am averaging 2 cards a day at that rate :(  I have to get faster.  I believe I have come up with some useful design principles and color schemes that I think will be useful on other cards as well.  I am reading the Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird that seems to agree with most of the design principles I use on my cards. I have divided the space into 1/3 and 2/3 portions. The horizontal line also creates a plane, which is a principle used often by Cezanne.  Below is a photo of a representative sample:

The card above was my first prototype.  It kept evolving. I added the flowers on the bottom and the checkered stencil bottom border later. I also drew the eyes inside the cat eye sunglasses.  The eyes took a long time and I needed a magnifying glass.  The best way to draw them is to first draw a thin crescent top across the full width of the sunglasses with a black pencil, and then dot the eyeballs using a thin felt-tip pen. 

 The main stamp is "Paris in the Spring" from Stampin Up. I colored it using Shimmering H2O, which were shiny and easy to apply with a sable brush. Small details were colored with a gel pen or marker pen.  I used 3 sets of alphabets for the sentiment (Curlzy stamps, brad letter stickers, and round dotted stamps).  Air is stamped with Brilliance peacock, which is my favorite inkpad. It also adds shimmering shine. The bottom flowers where attached using my new Xylon 1.5". I used 2 sizes of flower punches to make some of the flowers out of cardstock. Base pink cardstock is from WorldWin.  Their 12" paper is 70 pounds and feels very luxurious.  I like it better than Stampin Up cardstock.  WorldWin's letter size paper is only 65 pounds, and feels about the same as Stampin Up's.

 

This is a later design.  I began to simplify the elements.  I think I like these better.  I skipped attaching the individual brad alphabets with tweezers because they were taking too long.  "Greetings" stamp is one of my favorite from Ken Brown Caligraphy. I also mounted the alphabets for "SPRING" onto a clear acrylic block to be able to stamp it in one motion instead of six. 

I ran out of light pink cardstock so I used a handmade paper from Korea with bark pieces embedded on it.  I really love this paper.  It is much stronger than the generic mulberry paper from the Paper Company, which is a poor quality.  The Paper Company is an excellent source for cardstock, though, and they have the best possible prices.  The burgundy is a bit too dark, but I love their apricot/coral color -- it is the best!

 

I hope to be mailing these out to you with my personal messages in the coming weeks :)

Please don't get mad at me if it takes a long time to arrive.  I AM still working on a website, my StockWiki.com.  I am re-energized after all the crafting and Spring Cleaning during April to get back to work on StockWiki.  I think I know what to do to design the layout now.  Spreadsheet programming will be harder, but I have some ideas from the math side on how it might be implemented.  Cheers, and Happy Spring while it lasts!                   -- Jennifer -- 

I have uploaded the photos from my recent trip to Yosemite National Park (April 11-13, 2007) with my friend Kirsten Rose onto Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jyoon/sets/72157600146043576/ I uploaded just a few here.

 

I tried using the video record feature on my Canon SD10 camera.  It seems to work very well.  This is also a test of video uploading and playback on VOX.  The video is in AVI format recorded in 320x240 resolution at 15 frames per second.  The video is quite boring.  But the uploading & playback on VOX was super simple, I am happy to report.

I came back from the eTech conference at San Jose and the weather at Palo Alto has definitely gotten really nice!  I want to send out some Spring-themed handmade cards, but my craft room is stuffed with boxes and stuff that need to be cleaned out.  I need to do some major Spring Cleaning!.

I am feeling much better about StockWiki's progress.  Saw Adobe people and went over their Apollo Alpha release.  I have gotten much better with CorelDraw X3 too.  I knew that I would, but it took about a month to come up to speed instead of the 3 days I had planned :-(.  I have my CorelDraw workspace setup now for optimum performance.  I had to repeatedly go back and practice using the various line & shape drawing tools until I got their differences sorted out in my mind.  I created a template blank page with my customized workspace, so that I can open this to start a new project.  I use guidelines every 1 inch with snap to guidelines turned on.  I also use grids every 1/10th of an inch but without snap to grid.  F2/F4 are very helpful keyborad shortcut to zoom.

Doodles using Corel Draw X3:

"Smart duplicate" is shown with rectagles turning and moving with each duplication.  "k" letters use graphic text. The bar below "k" uses bevelling to make it look 3 dimensional.  Texture is used to fill freehand drawn black lines.  Blue-green background used graduated shading.

3_Circa Reinforcement Strips

I am somewhat compulsive about organizing.  I have been using user designed paper forms from D*I*Y planner.  http://www.diyplanner.com/  (Check out the image gallery and template directory). Several people there have started a thread on using Levenger Circa notebooks with DIY Planner forms.  This post is a hack for using Circa reinforcement strips in place of a Circa punch when you don't have one handy (1st left photo).  In a pinch, you can get by without a puncher by using 2 reinforcement strips (2nd left photo). 

 

Demo for using Circa reinforcement strips instead of a Circa puncher.

(double click on the photos to enlarge)

Photo 1 immediately above) On this demo, I used a DIY Planner Combined Actions form printed on a letter-sized paper and folded in half.   Photo 2) The holes in the reinforcement sheets will increase the paper's folded size by 7 mm.  (A) To match Leverger's paper size, first fold the letter-size paper in half, then cut off 1/4" from the bottm, and then cut off 5 mm from the inner side (opposite of the folded  side).  (B) If  you are using DIY forms and just cutting letter sized papers in half, then just trim 7 mm from the two inner sides (unfolded size of 8 1/2" x 10 1/2").  Photo 3) Use a punched paper as a guide to line up the holes on both reinforcement strips.  Mark the paper's edges on the reinforcement strips using a ruler and pen.  Cut off the edges or reinforcement strips that extend beyond the paper.  Photo 4) A reinforcement strip peeled from its backing.  Photo 5) One reinforcement strip attached.  Repeat on the other side, carefully matching up the holes.  Photo 6) A closeup after both sides are attached.  Notice that the holes extend immediately off the paper edge. Photo 7) A closeup of the finished page inserted into a Circa notebook.  Photo 8) A full view of the finished page.  The reinforcement strip is visible on this photo due to its translucent shine.  The plastic holes of the demo page fit the Circa rings nicely.