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

Free Card Kits

For years I have been avoiding making card kits. My thoughts were along the lines that we would provide crafters with a large number of free papers but that the actual design and style of the card ( or other papercraft item ) would be down to them. We've stuck to that for every since we launched Free Craft Downloads / Craftville.

So what's changed? Well basically we have been asked again and again for kits so we have finally decided to trial them. They aren't meant to replace our "normal papers", in fact all the kits have been made up using previously released papers.

What we have done with these kits is resized and altered the papers so they all fit together to make one card. It reduces the amount of cutting, resizing and altering sheets making the kits quite easy to put together. No only that but you don't even have to use everything which is there. Sheet 1 is the basic card and you could, if you wish, just print that off and fold it in half. That would make a card but obviously doesn't involve a lot of craft.

The second sheet is the decoration, normally a bit of decoupage or a pyramid (stacker). You don't have to use everything (or anything) on this sheet. Even my demonstration piece at the top of this page uses less than half the decoupage available. If it's a pyramid design with 6 layers you could just choose to use 3!



The final sheet, 3, it an insert sheet. Again it is optional, you could put in a plain white sheet if you prefer, or not use one.

So we shall be trialling these kits for the next few week, So far they have proved very popular with lots of downloads (maybe having them available in zip files helps) so my guess at this stage is they will become a perminant feature on the site.

You can see the range of free card kits we have available HERE.

The Craftville Bears

Bride and Groom Bears

By now many of you will have seen some of the designs in our new character set. We are really pleased with the Craftville Bears For a long time we have wanted to develop our own bears but it has proved a bit more difficult than we imagined. Whilst we fully support "copyright" it is remarkably difficult now-a-days to develop a bear character which doesn't resemble some other too closely.

If you think of all the bear designs in existence, many of which are covered by copyright. We have Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Rupert Bear, The Care Bears, Yogi, Ted and even Smokie. Add to that Bears which have appeared in films and TV but not necessarily as the main character; Baloo, Fozzi, Lots-O'-Huggin Bear (Toy Story), Teddy (A.I.) and lots lotsw more, I'm sure you can think of many more. So you can see how crowded the market has become for bear designs, I wonder if there will come a t time when no more are possible!

Anyway we are really pleased with our designs and we how to use it in a wide range of  situations and styles. So far we have a soilder bear and a nurse bear. These will soon be joined be a fireman bear, a lollypop bear ( sorry that may be confusing for the non-UK readers... crossing guard bear may explain it), bride and groom bears and many many more.



As with all of our papers these bear designs are completely free to download, print and use in your paper craft projects. We hope you like them as much as we do :-)