This time of year always means change.

We watch as our gardens fade and scatter seed, and the leaves put on their fabulous show of colors, and we ponder the cycles that make up the basic architecture of everything.

Fall is always a time for new art projects around here - when we spend more hours in the studio than in the garden, and we always get big ideas about buying a greenhouse so we don’t have to part with our flower friends.

A brand new monthly publication has been launched - Digital Stamping and Paper Arts - which those of you on our Yahoo Announcement Group already know about - in fact many of you are already playing with your first two issues. In order that you can know the essence of this new publication, we are sharing an actual article from Issue 3 - one that will result in a great home accent project as well as teach you a little about digital art tools.

And, in the pursuit of better ways of delivering images to an “image hungry” audience, we have produced some great new downloadable images and digital stamps to play with. So, we are on a mission to make sure folks get comfortable with downloading (we’re going to give you some practice!).

Finally, we will “treat” you to yet another Sheer Heaven transfer “trick” - just in time for Halloween.

So, with no further ado, let’s get on with it . . .

Our nieces and nephews are always “down with this” and “down with that” and it seems to be a good thing. We think it means getting comfortable with something - makin’ it happen, if you will. Anyway, we know all of you reading this are sitting in front of a computer screen, and are willing to bet that most of you are not quite “down with” the whole download thing yet. Right?

I recently had a chance encounter with a Digital Scrapbooking magazine and was shocked by the fact that thousands of scrapbookers have become digital page designers - and they are downloading images like mad. Why was I shocked? Because I have been pulling teeth for close to five years to convince the rest of the paper arts crowd that computers don’t bite (well... Macs don’t anyway - lol).

The digital bandwagon gets bigger and goes faster every day and it’s time to get onboard while you can still catch up with it. So, let’s talk about downloading.

Basic Downloading - the “Right-Click”
This is the least scary of the download procedures. Basically, you right-click an image on a web page and get a pop-up box that allows you to Copy or Save it to your computer. Hardly anyone is afraid to do that. But the problem with that kind of downloading is that, usually, you are infringing on copyright (unless you have permission to download the image), and the file resolution is very bad for printing because it is intended only for screen viewing.

There are much better options for downloaded images. Let’s look at a few:

Downloadable File Formats
Although all computers do not have the same software installed, there are three file formats you can be fairly certain will open on any computer:

JPEG - This is the format of most web graphics and photo files generated by digital cameras. For this reason, most computers have something installed that will open and print a JPG file.

PNG - This is a relatively new file format that is rapidly becoming popular for web images and downloads. Most computers will open and print a PNG file with a built in image viewer or with PhotoShop or Elements if you have it. Many digital scrapbooking images are saved in this format. The advantage is that the background of the image is transparent.

PDF Files - You must have Adobe Reader software installed to open and print these files. Most computers have the free Adobe Reader software installed - or should have. If you don’t have it, download it free from Adobe.com. Many downloadable art products - image sheets, catalogs, and magazines are produced as PDF documents, and many more soon will be.