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*NEW* Kaleidoscope Software: Kaleidoscope KreatorTM!
Creating photo kaleidoscopes has never been easier thanks to new software from Kaleidoscope Collections! With Kaleidoscope Kreator, photo kaleidoscopes are just a button click away.
To create a kaleidoscope using Kaleidoscope Kreator, simply open an image, choose a template shape, position the image in the template and click. It's that easy! This software eliminates the need for multiple copies of a photo, complex mathematical computations and hours of painstaking cutting.
Kaleidoscope Kreator can create kaleidoscopes of any size and offers twelve different shapes to choose from, ranging from the classic circle to elegant lace to a unique sunburst design. The pinwheel effect available for all shapes instantly doubles your creative options. As an added bonus, Kaleidoscope Kreator includes over 100 high-quality digital images that assure you instant success in making beautiful kaleidoscopes.
Whether you're a digital or traditional scrapper, computer "illiterate" or digital guru, budding artist or seasoned designer - you'll find Kaleidoscope Kreator sparks your creative imagination and reminds you what it's like to be a kid again.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with the owners of Kaleidoscope Collections, sisters Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and Nancy Kurokawa, to learn more about their company and their products
SS Reflections: Kaleidoscope Kreator is such a great idea! What's the story behind it?
Jeanie: I always say, "It's Nancy's fault!" :) I was in business for myself doing photo restoration and retouching when one of the online forums that I participate in started a discussion about how to create photo kaleidoscopes in Photoshop. The person who started the discussion used a flattened coffee filter with a wedge cut out, then placed it over a photo and scanned it into digital format before using Photoshop to manipulate that wedge into a kaleidoscope. Never one to pass up a technical challenge, I set out to figure out how to do it all digitally. Of course, I sent my initial experiments to my sister & best friend, Nancy!
Nancy: As soon as I saw the kaleidoscopes, a light went on in my head! I've been an avid scrapbooker for years and I knew that kaleidoscopes were really popular for special scrapbook pages. I say "special" because up until now, kaleidoscope layouts have been incredibly time consuming to make, so most people only made them for special occasions.
Jeanie: I had no knowledge of any of this. I just liked the patterns I was able to create and was going wild trying all sorts of digital images from photos to paintings. I even experimented with creating kaleidoscopes from kaleidoscopes.
Nancy: None of the images she was using contained people though - and I knew that people were the focal point for many of the kaleidoscopes created by scrapbookers. So I had Jeanie teach me the technique she was using in Photoshop and created a few "people kaleidoscopes" for her to see. Jeanie: I have to admit that I was really not too hot on this idea at first! Nancy was very patient with me though. She even pointed me to some finished layouts that others had done so that I could get a better idea of what she was talking about. In the end I simply had to trust her judgment, since I didn't know anything about scrapbooking at the time.
Nancy: I finally created some kaleidoscope layouts of my own and inspired Jeanie to try some digital layouts. I knew there was a scrapbook show that was coming up near me and encouraged Jeanie to fly out so that we could attend the show together - mostly so that she could learn more about scrapbooking!
Jeanie: I was totally overwhelmed by the show! It was really crowded and there was so much stuff! Nancy had me bring some of my kaleidoscope pages, but I was way too intimidated to show them to anyone.
Nancy: I knew Jeanie had a really cool idea, so I took charge and started asking people if they had time to give us some feedback. I showed them the kaleidoscopes that Jeanie had made and all of the people we talked to were very encouraging.
Jeanie: As we were walking out, Nancy suggested that I talk to the people at the registration desk about the possibility of exhibiting at another show they were doing in a few months. My initial reaction was, "Why? There's probably nobody there who makes the decisions anyway!" Was I ever wrong! Not only was the decision maker there, but when she saw my kaleidoscope designs, she said she would "figure out a way" to get us into the show (even though there was a waiting list of 40)!
Nancy: Needless to say, Jeanie came back out three months later with her computer, scanner and printer in tow. Our idea was to make "custom kaleidoscopes" for people while they were shopping. People would drop off their photos and come back later to pick up their kaleidoscopes.
Jeanie: It was a great idea in theory...
Nancy: No, it was a great idea period!
Jeanie: She's right - it was a great idea! It's just that I was totally overwhelmed trying to create kaleidoscopes and answer people's questions at the same time. We learned a lot at that show - the best part being that people were really excited about our kaleidoscopes. We were swamped! A lot of people asked if we were selling the software to make the kaleidoscopes. At the time we were only offering a service, but that's where the seed for the software idea was planted!
SS Reflections: How did you go about designing the software?
Jeanie: It seems as though my life experiences up until this point had prepared me well. I was a software engineer in a previous career and had worked on all the phases of a software release cycle. More recently, I'd gotten into photography as a hobby and photo restoration/retouching as a career, so I had a lot of experience with digital imaging. And through my participation in some online forums, I know how much beginners can struggle trying to learn digital photo editing and manipulation. 
Nancy: We also had the experience of creating dozens of custom kaleidoscopes using the technique that Jeanie had developed in Photoshop. We knew what we liked about that technique and some things that we knew what we'd like to change if we had the opportunity. We also had a good feeling for the special requirement of scrapbookers to be able to specify exactly what part of a photo would be used to create the kaleidoscope. None of the other kaleidoscope programs and filters that we were aware of provided the capability to select a specific portion of a photo to make the kaleidoscope. Jeanie: The trick was finding an engineer who could do the coding for us. I probably could have figured out how to do it if I took the time, but I'd been out of software engineering for quite a few years and technology changes so fast that it would have been like starting from scratch. Luckily, I remembered that one of my previous clients (from yet another career as a massage therapist) did consulting on the side and he was up for the task!
Nancy: We met with him and showed him what we'd been doing in Photoshop, then explained what we wanted to be different. Our biggest requirement was to make it super simple to use! We didn't want people getting frustrated as they tried to figure out how to use the software.
SS Reflections: Well you certainly accomplished that goal! We're having a blast with Kaleidoscope Kreator onboard here. It's addicting!
Nancy: Funny you should mention that. We've contemplated putting a warning on our packaging to that effect! LOL Seriously though, we've heard that comment time and time again from our customers. One of our customers uses Kaleidoscope Kreator to make tiles for tea bag folding; she created over 2000 kaleidoscopes in a month's time!!
Jeanie: I sold a copy to an acquaintance a month ago. She's had it for about three weeks, but has not yet been able to actually try it because her husband has commandeered the computer to make kaleidoscopes himself! He is having a blast making kaleidoscope cards for his grandchildren and is thrilled because he never thought he was creative.
SS Reflections: Sounds like we're not the only ones having fun with Kaleidoscope Kreator. Why do you think it's so addicting?
Jeanie: I think to some extent Kaleidoscope Kreator brings out the child in all of us. Remember the excitement and anticipation of looking through a kaleidoscope when you were younger? I used to love the beautiful patterns that changed when turning the dial. I just never got tired of them!
Nancy: I also find kaleidoscopes to be very relaxing. I often create kaleidoscopes as a way to relax before I go to bed at night.
Jeanie: Interesting! Did you know that kaleidoscope images are very similar to mandalas that are used as a meditation tool in some religions? They help to focus the mind and quiet down the "chatter."
Nancy: I don't think that causes any sort of addiction though! I think it's just that Kaleidoscope Kreator makes beautiful geometric designs. And because the designs are almost always a surprise, it's like opening a little present each time. Who can resist that?
SS Reflections: So what are people doing with all of the kaleidoscopes they create?
Nancy: We designed Kaleidoscope Kreator with scrapbooking in mind, so obviously it's great for creating page layouts. That said, most people think of kaleidoscope pages with the kaleidoscope filling up most of the page. This makes sense if you consider that kaleidoscopes have traditionally been created using 4"x6" photos that come very close to filling up a 12"x12" page.
Kaleidoscope Kreator allows you to specify any size for a kaleidoscope though, so it's now possible to use kaleidoscopes as embellishments on a page as well. I like to use the background of a photo to create kaleidoscope embellishments that perfectly match the photos on a page. For example, let's say you've got a picture of your child surrounded by flowers. Then you could create a kaleidoscope using just the portion of the photo containing the flowers and use one or more to embellish your page layout.
Jeanie: Kaleidoscopes are great for making cards too! The simplest ones involve simply printing a kaleidoscope and adhering it to cardstock. The kaleidoscope images are strong enough to stand on their own. Of course, we like to play with the kaleidoscopes a bit, so we've been known to combine multiple kaleidoscopes and layer them or fold them to give them more dimension. Some of the shapes make beautiful flower-like images and we simply add cardstock leaves and a little chalk shading to create the illusion of flower designs.
Nancy: We've been having fun printing on mediums other than paper as well. I've printed on transparencies and then sandwiched the kaleidoscope between glass to make sun catchers and ornaments.
Jeanie: And I've been experimenting with printing on fabric. I've made purses, pillows and even quilted wall hangings.
Nancy: We've also had some designers having fun with photo transfer techniques, shrink-art, etc. If you can print on it, you can put a kaleidoscope on it!
SS Reflections: You haven't said much about digital page layouts. Do you have any ideas specifically for our digital scrappers?
Jeanie: Of course! The digital "medium" will always be my first love, so of course I enjoy sharing that passion with others. Obviously Kaleidoscope Kreator fits well with digital scrapbooking! There are just so many ways to edit and embellish kaleidoscopes digitally. Since I know how difficult it can be to learn photo editing programs, I've written detailed tutorials on how to do such things as change the background color of a kaleidoscope, how to add a border, how to add a photo in the center, how to tile kaleidoscopes to make a background pattern, etc. (Users gain access to those tutorials once they register Kaleidoscope Kreator.) So far the tutorials have been written for Photoshop Elements, but I'm currently working on the same ones for Paint Shop Pro and Digital Image Pro. (Of course traditional scrappers can use these tutorials too! They can simply print the added digital embellishments along with the kaleidoscopes.)
Nancy: I also want to mention that Jeanie wrote a comprehensive help system for Kaleidoscope Kreator that is written using non-technical terms so that novices can easily understand it. She included a couple of appendices on topics such as Image File Types and Understanding Image Size that both novice and more advanced digital scrappers can learn from.
SS Reflections: What kinds of images make the best kaleidoscopes?
Jeanie: That's a somewhat subjective question. From purely a design perspective, we have found that images that contain distinct lines and have a strong contrast between light and dark create some of the most striking kaleidoscopes. That said, many people create kaleidoscopes using images that have special meaning for them. The kaleidoscopes present those photos in a special light and they can have a strong visual impact as well, even if they aren't "the perfect photo."
Nancy: In fact, we've found that lots of times the "less-than-perfect" photos make terrific kaleidoscopes! Case in point: some of the photos that we include on the CD do not have ideal composition, but since only a portion of them is used to make a kaleidoscope, the composition doesn't really matter.
Jeanie: By the way, we made kaleidoscopes with every image that we included on the CD to make sure that people would be successful making kaleidoscopes right away.
Nancy: That doesn't mean that they can't use their own images though! In fact, they can use any image they have in digital format. That includes images downloaded from digital cameras, scanned photos and anything else you can think to scan. For example, we included a few scanned images of my son's finger paintings that make beautiful kaleidoscopes!
Jeanie: Don't be limited by just scanning photos or artwork though. Try scanning 3D objects like flowers, small stuffed animals, sea shells, etc. (Be careful not to scratch your scanner glass!) There are endless possibilities - have fun and experiment!
SS Reflections: You two are just full of ideas! Have you thought about doing an Idea Book?
Nancy: Of course! But we're not quite ready to talk about that yet. ;)
SS Reflections: I imagine a lot of people reading this interview would like to know where to purchase Kaleidoscope Kreator.
Jeanie: Thanks for asking! There are quite a few stores carrying our products - if your local scrapbook store doesn't, please have them contact us.
Nancy: You can also order directly from our website: www.KalCollections.com. We have a free downloadable demo there as well as an Idea Gallery for inspiration.
For more information on Kaleidoscope Collections and their products, please visit their website at www.KalCollections.com or contact them via e-mail.
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