Free Christmas Craft Papers

We have a good selection of free Christmas Papers to download now so this year we can be a bit more relaxed about them. You will probably have noticed that many of these are cartoon based, the Craftville Bears, which seem to have gone down very well. We started with three designs, Father Christmas, the Elf and the Fairy but then someone on Facebook asked if we were going to release a snowman. We hadn't planned to but though it was such a good idea we added it to the list.



What we didn't want was for newer users of the site to think that we only have cartoon style Christmas papers so this week we are reminding every one of the more traditional papers we have available for download.

We have a great selection of Christmas papers now and as usual the main problem has been to help people find the right ones for the project they are making. For this reason we keep on pushing the page we have which lists all the free Christmas papers. This is our sort of "one stop shop" for suitable papers and by far the easiest way to see the full range.

CHRISTMAS 

DOWNLOADS

The British Craft Network

The British Craft Network

Well after a few weeks of promotion "The British Craft Network" was launched at the beginning of October. The network already has a wide range of participants, many of whom will be familiar names at least to British Crafters. Robert Adams, Ribbon Box, The Stamp Hut, Bee Crafty and Scrap Yard are just a few of the companies involved.

Now let me say right up front I am really glad the "normal"craft shopping outlets have a bit of competition and it's really nice to see that they are doing it in a different way, I do however think they have a few issues. This is early days so they may still be "finding their way" so I shall continue to watch and see if things develop in a positive way, I do hope so.

A Presenter

The programs I've watch so far have mostly been "presenter-less". Now this may be a concious decision by the British Craft Network to avoid presenters given their poor reputation on shopping telly. We are used to presenters interpreting the demonstrations with their sales pitches and cutting demos off short as time runs out.  Due to this I think many of us have taken against presenters. Having said that the presenter, when working properly, can play a very important role.

1. They can be the "learner". Asking those questions which we might ask if we were there and asking for clarification for the difficult parts.
2. Move the demo forward when it seems to be getting stuck.
3. Adding a little banter. This can annoy when done badly but it really can "add" something when done well. You will notice radio programs, even when meant to be a single person, now often contain banter between the main person and another, I'm not suggesting they go to the level of "Alan and Barry" but I do think some chat would help.

Having said that I'd rather no presenter than a bad one! Whilst many people think they can present it is actually a remarkably difficult role which, when dome badly, can destroy a program.

Robert Adams: British Craft Network

The Demos

Whilst it's really nice to see fuller demonstrations I did find some of them moved a little "slowly". I prefer the "Blue Peter" type of approach with the occasional "here's one I made earlier" so we don't have to see every single part of every step, especially when an action is repeated several times. I'd much rather see more demos than what at times border on Instructional Videos. Again I assume this was a effort to get away from the speed demos on normal shopping TV but, for me, it goes a little too far and I found my interest waning at times.

Ribbon Box: British Craft Network

Technical Details.

There are some lovely little intro bits and "Adverts" which someone has obviously spent a lot of time on. Someone involved here has a good level of technical expertise when it comes to video. Unfortunately that wasn't matched by the technical details in the demonstrations themselves. I found the single camera view soon got a bit boring. It would be nice to see a couple of different camera angles which isn't that difficult to achieve

On the whole this is a great idea and I wish them every success. I know the above may seem a little critical but with the level of competition around I do think they are going to have to "up the game" a little if they are going to build on the launch.

If you would like to watch The Bristish Craft Network (and I would urge you to do so and give them a bit of suport if you haven't already done so) you can find them here:

The British Craft Network

The BestFree Graphics Programs

Knotter

I've been making graphics for Free Craft Downloads / Craftville for many years now and before that I was involved with graphics in websites etc. During that time I've used a whole range of graphics programs, many of the them free, in fact I think I've only ever used one paid for program on a regular basis and that was 10 years old before I stopped using it!

Anyway I've decided to share my "finds" with others who may find them useful. These are real free programs, they are legal, full versions and made as free. I have downloaded and installed each of these programs and haven't had any issues with the installing unwanted extras, viruses etc.

Lots Open Source / Free software is still going strong but it is getting harder to find. When you search for free software the rubbish you get in the search results is amazing, programs which aren't free at all. programs which are free for a limited time or have some of their functions disabled until you pay. There are even versions of the open source free software with added viruses!

Many of the programs I use / review have a long history and are either made by a community or by one or two individuals with the support of a community. Some of the bigger ones like GIMP and Paint.net have active forums and a multitude of people creating add ons.

Image Manipulation

So if you can actually find these programs there is some really good stuff out there. I've review 17 of the best programs I have found (after sifting through 100s) on 4um8.com .

Graphics Editors

Image Viewers / Organisers

Painting Software

Photo Manipulation

Others.

I can't stress strongly enough how good some of these programs are, far paid than spome of the paid software available!

So if you want to organise your images, make or edit some graphics for card making or even correct / edit your photographs then there is a bit of software for you. There is even a really nice/simple bit of software for making Celtic Knots.

You will find all of my reviews, download links and recommendations on my site

4um8.com

I have even started to add a few tutorials and will be adding more. I would be very interested to hear how anyone else gets on with these programs , or indeed , if you have found any good free programs yourself. Please do let me know.

Bob