The Goods

I will start by saying I am self taught and am still learning and experimenting... But for right now this is what I use

Program? I use Adobe Photoshop 8.0

Computer? A Mac PowerBook G4, which is new to me this week. My hubby conned me into swapping with him over the weekend. I think I actually like this one better, the screen is bigger and the monitor is more true to color than my macbook. Although I just realized it doesn't have the cool camera built in. The girls and I have had a BLAST photographing ourselves with it!!! I should also mention that I use a double screen. I have a flat screen that is hooked to the laptop that I use when working at the desk. I have been able to set it to match the colors that are printing... a big help!!!

Printer? Konica Minolta magicolor 5450 It is a color laser and I LOVE it... now. When hubby first brought it home I wanted to send it back. What I didn't know when we got it was that color laser printers use CYMK colors... Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black. Every last one of my designs were done using RGB colors and let me tell you, they are NOT the same. Nothing printed out the color it was supposed to and a lot of it looked rubbed off. This is because laser printers are VERY picky about their paper. They like really silky, smooth paper that is made especially for laser printers... go figure!!! Now that I have those 2 things figured out I absolutely LOVE it!! But if anyone knows by chance why the print menu is in Spanish I would really like to be enlightened!!!

Paper cutter? Fiskars Rotary Paper Trimmer My beloved paper cutter. I started with a hand held and have graduated to this. It is so easy!! There are measurements all over it. The blades last a really long time and the protective cutting strip is a cube so it has 4 sides. I have discovered a little trick with it... The blade does not cut exactly in the center so each side can be used twice. When the groove gets too deep I just turn it around before flipping it to a new side. I LOVE how reusable it is. It is really well made, nice and sturdy after 2 years of hard use!!!

Laminator? Pro-Lam 100 by Akiles This laminator is fairly new. It is much more heavy duty than the one I was using. Using 10mil pouches limits the type of laminator. I burned my very first one up because I didn't know the thickness of the pouch would make a difference. It was made to handle up to 7mil. I didn't realize this and burned it up in 4 months. A little research lead me to purchase something that would handle the extra thickness. My second laminator has now been moved to emergency status only. Although it could laminate the larger size pouches it was not made to JUST laminate the heavier duty pouches. When I started having trouble with it after a year I figured something a little more heavy duty would be better.

Any Questions? Did I forget to cover anything? If I missed something you are curious about just let me know!!