ATG Tip

Hello all,

I've finally managed to come up for air from working on my websites, upgrading from my laptop to a faster and more powerful PC and getting the Yuletide cards made (112 to date - just got to finish sticking in the inserts and I'm done). I didn't realize how much time has passed since I last had time to look at the forum. The Photoshop section looks interesting - I've only used Photoshop so far to create eBook covers, and that has been a very hit and miss affair as I keep forgetting what I should be doing . Using it to make background papers sounds great!

When I first started on my Yuletide cards I found that the ATG gun is great for speed, compared to last year with the double-sided tape, BUT at times I was wasting precious gold foiled and other fine papers as I tended to stick them skew whiff With thicker paper and card one can hopefully peel them away and have another go if it's not quite straight, but more delicate papers just tear or crumple and can't be re-used (I hate waste - I've even gutted all my background mats where I can )

After a few mess-ups and quite some frustration I decided to do a few edges with some double-sided tape, and keep the backing strip. It's slightly wider than the ATG strips and now I just run the ATG down the edges, quickly cover with the backing strips, line up without worry of getting all stuck up in the wrong places, and stick down when I'm happy with the placement. True, it takes a little longer than just sticking down, but not as long as normally peeling off double-sided tape, and it far less frustrating knowing that it's going to end up straight, rather than looking as if I've had too many G&Ts

So I thought I'd just share the tip and see if anyone else has any other ways of avoiding sticking down in the wrong place.

Thats a great tip Karen Thanks for sharing it.

I'll have to give that a go, thanks.

After taking off your backing from DST
run a glue stick along it, it will enable
you to slide your card/paper before the
glue dries

Was just going to say that sis
Karen it's PaintShopPro not Photoshop but some things are similar just the tools are named different

That's a great tip Jayne, thanks for that too. I am hopeless at getting things straight. If I look down on the worksurface it looks like it is bowed as I wear varifocal lenses. When I first had them I thought the kitchen worksurface had bent and had to look at it eye level to check it hadn't. So when I am trying to put ribbon onto a card I can never see if it is straight until I hold it up (then find it is crooked )

Cubbie - As we were having our walk last night and I was telling my husband about it I realised PSP = PaintShop Pro. That's fine. I've got a copy of both Photoshop and PaintShop (Jasc). The eBook cover actions programme I've got is only for Photoshop, which fortunately hubby has a copy of. All these different programmes - IT confuses me enough as it is at times, although I'm learning - pretty swiftly too.

Craftworker - I have varifocals too. However, I'm so short-sighted that when crafting I have to take my specs off, otherwise it really mucks things up, as well as making my eyes feel funny. So my tendency to skew-whiff must be inherent - can't blame it on the specs It doesn't help that I think I have an element of OCD at times when it comes to making my cards - if it looks a teensy bit off it really irritates me. Sometimes I can put it right - at other times I just acknowledge that I'm probably the only one to notice.

Still, it's all good fun, isn't it?

The squew-whiff problem is one I have as well, if I look at my computer screen without my glasses it looks like it is wider from top to bottom on the left side than the right, and I get the same when doing matting and layering as well even with my glasses on, I look at something and if it looks squew-whiff then is usually isnt