The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects by Michael J. Hammel

This is an excellent book for new users and those just wanting to learn a few new tricks in GIMP – the GNU Image Manipulation Program, which has become one of the most admired freeware rivals to Adobe Photoshop.

The book takes you detailed-step-by-detailed-step through each stage of your image's development to produce professional looking images, text effects or logos from scratch and how to create fabulous photographic effects. Michael J. Hammel also shows you where, on the drop down menus, to find each effect you need.

From a crash course in using GIMP, this book helps you create fancy gel, metallic or distressed texts, tiled patterns, perspective shadows, different textures, (to just name a few!) for fantastic movie posters, web designs and so much more.

Still not impressed? Then take a look at the logo for this blog, the graphics on the teen and youth pages on the GPL website. All of those images where created using GIMP with the help of this book!

To request this book from the JCLC catalog, click here!

How to remove the musty smell from old books

The first thing to understand is that what you smell is mold. Just like food kept too long in the fridge, books kept in enclosed or damp spaces will begin to grow mold. Spraying any liquid on a book is likely to damage the surface. Also using newspaper or dryer sheets can leave marks on the pages. There are some gas products out there which are supposed to kill mold, but as most, although not all, of these gases are toxic here are a few inexpensive ideas for tackling just the smell:


1.To obtain Kitty litter smell. In a large container with a lid, put some kitty litter. Then put the book(s) you wish to de-smell in a smaller lidless container. Put the smaller container inside the larger container and cover. Make sure the books do not touch the kitty litter and leave for a couple of days or longer as need.

2.To get cedar wood shavings smell. Put the books in enclosed container and sprinkle the wood shavings around them. After a few weeks the books should have lost that musty smell.

3.For a fresh baking powder smell. Sprinkle baking powder in between several pages and set the opened book out in a sunny and DRY! place for a few days.

4. The Perfume sachet smell. Put books in a plastic sack or container with lid and add sachet. Leave for a week or so and you will have fresh smelling books that you can use instead of potpourri, especially for those books you leave in the bathroom…

5. The clothes pin no-smell! This method, unlike the previous ones, provides you with instant book satisfaction. Take a clothes pin and place it on your nose as tight as possible. Then using a pair of cheap cloth or latex gloves, read your book. Not only does this completely remove the smell from your nose, also you don’t have to worry about those bugs that live in books.

Modern and Creative Book shelves

If you are like me, you go to the library and check out a big pile of books.  But when you get them home you have nowhere to put them - all the available shelf space being taken up with the books you already own.  So, you end up with piles on the floor that dogs and husband (not to mention yourself!) trip on or knock over.

But fret no longer! Here is a creative idea designed to hold your books without taking up floor space and giving your home an interesting modern art look!

If your house isn't big enough for you to devote a whole room to books, with comfortable chairs to read in, then  this designer bookcase is the one for you!  Inspired by the smallness of modern Japanese homes, kick back and relax within arms reach of your next title!

Need to move large numbers of books and don't want all the heavy lifting.  Then shelves on wheels might be the thing for you!  Just load these shelves up with your school books, work books or reading projects and wheel them from room to room as you move about your house or office!

 

To see more creative ideas for bookshelves click here.

Creative ways to recycle old books.

Okay, everyone has them, those books picked up at a yard sale, second hand book shop or given as gift. Read and forgotten or just shelved, boxed and forgotten. You find your self not wanting to throw the books away, but not wanting to read them either.

Instead of letting the books molder, why not try out some of these great recycling ideas?

1. Those big, old, useless textbooks getting you down? Tried selling them, but they’re too old. Why not make bookends? Click here for simple instructions. Or use those old encyclopedias to make a free standing bookcase.

2.Got some old cookbooks with recipes you still use? Tear out those good recipes and cover with Plexiglas for a unique backsplash for your stove. Or just frame your favorites and use them as decoration.

3.Make a secret hidey-hole for trinkets, by hollowing out a book.

4.Need a new case for carrying all those DVDs? Use a book! Here’s how!

5.Make your own audiobook by turning a book into an mp3 player case.

6.Have a favorite passage from an old, falling apart book? Cut out the section, laminate it and use it as a bookmark.

7.Decorate a room by framing covers of favorite children’s books or make an eccentric clock.

8.Use a stack of books to make an invisible book shelf

9.For a unique wedding gift make a scrapbook of your best recipes for two. For an added touch include helpful hints and notes. This is one gift that will never go out of style!

Need a new lamp shade?

Trade your better looking old books for new ones or donate them to your local library. There are a numerous websites where you can trade books.bookmooch.com, paperbackswap.com, and bookins.com are just a few.

Set a good book free and watch its progress at BookCrossing.com Over 680,000 people in over 130 countries have participated. Simply register your book, then leave it at a coffee shop and track it online.