Mega Doodle Inspired PSE 5 or 6 Action Grab Bag #4

Here is Mega Doodle Inspired's Grab Bag #4 for Photoshop Elements 5 & 6 found at Scrappin' Freestyle for $5.00. This was a great step back in time for me as I haven't used my PSE 5 in over a year! I am in awe of the capabilities of this program after trying out this grab bag! These actions also come with easy to follow instructions with screen shots for installing the actions for the new or rusty PSE action user! This designer really has her customers placed first.Nice fold with lift shadow. Paper is left layered for easy customization.I am not totally crazy about this "tear". The designer does a good job "rolling" the fold, but in my opinion the tear could be a more layered realistic tear. I do want to point out however, that the designer does leave the paper, shadow and fold paper in three separate layers, so the designer using the action could put their own tear on if wanted.These actions included in this time saver pack include:

-Save my GIF-
-Save my JPG-
-Save my PNG-
-Save my PSD-
-Save my Preview 600-
-Save my Preview 900-
-Trim and Save My PNG-

I tried each and every one of the actions, I did not have any difficulties using them, they all performed to my expectations. The trim and save PNG action does not cut off any of your element as you will sometimes see if a designer does not pay close enough attention when using a trim tool in PS. The save my JPG, does a nice job a saving multiple items that I placed as you would on a preview without converting to a JPG file. It did not move my elements and resized them appropriately.

Fun patterns, actions do all the work for you after you pick your colors or papers. Only real downfall I could possibly see to these are that they are ready made and not easily customizable, except of course for colors, unless you are experienced with using actions.Two different envelope styles that can be customized for different looks depending on the paper textures used. Very realistic shadowing and seams. Both envelopes remain in open layers allowing you to place items inside the envelope or to open or close the flap, with shadows for each! Very customizable and even come with a recolorable wax seal.

Cindy Doerksen CU Grab Bag 27

Cindy Doerksen's CU Grab Bag 27 has been uploaded and has been requested several times for a critique, so to those who requested, here it is. This grab bag is $5.50 and is available until July 27th at Candy Tree. There are 5 different items included in this grab bag: watercolor overlays, vintage goodies, stamps, ribbons and journal boxes. This grab bag unfortunately does not include any previews of the products included in the grab bag. As we have told these commercial use designers several times, it is near impossible to organize our hard drives without these images. The journaling boxes are very large, almost full page size. Thank you Cindy for another unique bag full of goodies! Cindy did inform me that she leaves these layered journal boxes page size so designers could use them for frames as well. Wonderful dual purpose use.Very unique. Saved in individual layers for easy customization. Few areas where it is not extracted close to the thread but it does not show when printed.

LBCreations CU Grab Bag 15

I have just received this grab bag from Designs by Babette AKA LBCreations. This jammed packed bag can be purchased for only $5.00 at Divine Digitals until July 27th. I am simply amazed at this woman's ability to turn out not only the amount of product in a week, but the quality. If you are a designer in need of quick kit turn around CU products, then these are the grab bags for you.

Veronica Spriggs: She's Gotta Have It!..Commercial Use

Veronica Spriggs has released her newest Commercial Use Grab Bag for $6.00 at DigiScrap Boutique. In this bag you get 3 new items and a bonus CU Texture pack with purchase. I have to say I was a little skeptical on the price. Six dollars is a lot for a 3 product grab bag, but the items are usable and with a few corrections, well worth the money.Lace is meant to have flaws, see if you can find a piece of lace, hand or machine made, and find a perfect one. I am not pointing out "flaws" in the lace as you will see them, I find that the designer did a wonderful job in making them very realistic in this aspect. What I am pointing out is design errors, what you would not find on lace in real life.

Cindy Ritter Commercial Use Grab Bag

Cindy has sent in her new Commercial Use Grab Bag to be critiqued. This grab bag is $5.00. One thing that I noticed immediately was the size of this bag. It is almost 200megs. Sounds huge for $5, right? Well, the previews are saved as .PNG files at 300 DPI 1815x1815 each taking up a large amount of room on your hard drive. So, the first thing I did was resize these images shaving 16 megs off the size of this grab bag.
Each of the 10 overlays in this overlay pack come as both a .JPEG and .PNG file. This is not necessary and again adds a tremendous amount of weight to your hard drive.
Each of these "Bits & Baubles" are simple shapes that have an Atomic Cupcake action run on them. Designers do not require premade elements for commercial use, this would be more of a personal use or scrap 4 hire element pack in my opinion. (As a side note, I have included 4 different of the Bits & Baubles on the image and was just labeling the frayed fabric.)
This glitter makes a really nice colored glitter "glue" when the right blend mode is applied.

Monica Larsen Action Grab Bag 7

In Monica Larsen's Commercial Use action grab bag #7 for $9.00 you will receive 4 actions plus what she calls 2 "bonus" actions, for a total of 6 actions. Upon unzipping this bag, disappointment hits as this critique likes instant gratification. I want to personally see the end result of the actions when they are ran. Monica does not include previews (or folder) images for any of these grab bag actions. This also makes it very difficult to organize any files received in this bag. Ok, now on to the actions!

The actions are labeled according to what the "final" result is going to be, but what I call something and what you call something may be two different things. So, the tag action stops, asks for a box color, text color and a line color. In not knowing the "end result" several things that should have been done such as centering the text on the tag was not done. All of the following previews are shown after only running one time, they may get better with running them, now knowing what the "final result" is, but I wanted the public to see what you would see right out of the box so to speak.
I have went and got the previews that Monica has made for us with the actions that are now included in the grab bag that is now being sold. These are examples of the actions made with just colors and not papers with the exception of the round box. You are able to customize the texture with the background papers you choose to use with the action.

Thaty Borges Commercial Use Grab Bag 4

Action has many manual steps where you must change color several times and does not has a realistic end result.
Journaling tags come in various themes to accommodate several different kits and designer tastes.
Bracket templates are very theme specific and the phrases in the brackets such as "My Shine" are not idiomatically correct. Unsure how fonts could turn out jaggy.
Overlays are good in quality with no jaggies or stray pixels, with the exception of the above that shows how the designer got off center on some of the shapes.Alphabet template is a basic font saved on a 3600x3600 layer. Not separate .PNG files. Designer would have to separate letters prior to making an alpha with this template.