Friday 13 February 2009

Posting links in blogs - a great tip from Glenda

Glenda, from Graphicus, has posted a great tip on her Artylicious blog. She shows a really easy way to put a link in a blog post comment, by copying & pasting from your own blog. But if you don't have a blog, how can you do it?

This is how to do it if you don't have your own blog.

The HTML code for posting a link is as follows. I have had to split the characters on to different lines otherwise they would display as a link (or not at all), instead of the code, but they should follow on from each other all in one line. Between a and href there is a space (ie. leave a space, don't type the word 'space', or the brackets!), but no spaces anywhere else.

<
a
(space)
href
=
"
"
>
<
/
a
>

I keep that written down so I can refer to it whenever I want to post a link.

Between the two sets of quotation marks, you put the URL of the page you want to link to. The URL is the "address" of the page and begins http:// In Internet Explorer and Firefox it's usually found near the top and towards the left of the screen. Copy the URL & paste it between the quotation marks.

The URL of Glenda's blog is http://artylicious.wordpress.com/ So I would insert that in between the " and " like this

"http://artylicious.wordpress.com/"

Now here's the clever bit. If I want the link to look like this - Here's Glenda's blog - I have to insert those words between the two opposing arrows >< which come after the final quotation mark.

Like this >Here's Glenda's blog<

Then the link will look like this (hopefully!)
Here's Glenda's blog

I hope this helps (and that it displays correctly when I post it!). I tried an earlier version but it came out as gobbledegook. Let me know if it works!

Sunday 8 February 2009

Great minds think alike!

For some time now I've been tempted by the Spellbinders Nestabilities dies to use with my Cuttlebug. On Friday afternoon I was looking at them on Once Upon A Stamp's website and got as far as adding a couple of sets to my basket. Then I thought that, rather than buy them online, since their shop is only half an hour's drive away from here I might just as well go up there on Saturday morning & get some without having to wait for them to come in the post. On Friday evening Sally sent me an email. She said "I've been thinking of getting some Nestabilities. Do you fancy going up to Once Upon A Stamp to get some?" We had not mentioned them to each other before then.

Naturally my reply was in the affirmative, and on Saturday morning off we went for our spot of retail therapy. We each bought three sets (good discount on four or more sets so we put them together) the embossing mats to go with them (these also enable embossing with brass stencils in the Cuttlebug) and some Distress inkpads. The Nestabilities are brilliant and work really well with the Cuttlebug.

Had a play with them today, & so far just had time to make one card. It's something of a departure from my usual style, but I quite like it. I used some Elusive Images stamps from Graphicus and a Cuttlebug butterfly embossing folder. The patterned layer behind the embossed butterfly is a background paper from the Artylicious "Butterfly Bliss" CDrom, also from Graphicus.

The best stamps ever! (So far!)

Wow! Graphicus are about to introduce two new stamp plates, on my favourite theme of butterflies. They are absolutely the most beautiful butterfly/flower/collage stamps I've ever seen. Glenda, (of Graphicus) is giving some away as blog candy. To win a set, leave a comment on her blog here: Elusive Images Design Team Blog

Not only are they beautiful, they will be really versatile. Stamps like these are on a par with chocolate when it comes to the feel-good factor, AND they're non-fattening. If I don't win a set, I really don't know what I'll do. I guess I'll just have to buy them......