The queen of home made, none other than Martha Stewart, has teamed up again with the publishers at Callaway to release her latest iPad app. Martha Stewart CraftStudio won’t have you snipping, gluing and spreading sparkles into the carpet. Instead it allows you to make greeting cards, invitations and scrapbook pages digitally. And, if you happen to like what you create enough to send it, the app is integrated with Snapfish’s digital printing service.
CraftStudio might have just as easily been named Card Studio because that’s the one craft. You can choose from three backgrounds sizes and decorate them with elements like patterned paper, stamps, punch-outs, stickers and even sparkles. Four themes are included with the app, and five add-on packs are available for $1.99 each via in-app purchases.
Crafters select the card size and land in a clean editing panel that should be familiar to anyone who has used other art apps. All the embellishments are on the left sidebar and the blank card sits to the right. All you need to do is tap on the type of design element you want to use and the app either lays it down or prompts you on how to use it. Resizing and rotating is done with intuitive gestures and a single tap brings up a visual layering menu which lets you bring items to the foreground, background, or discard them with ease.
As you’d expect from Martha, the themes she puts together have patterns and shapes that go complement each other beautifully and share a color palette. Still, you are free to go outside the box and mix and match. There is also a camera icon that allows you to snap something on the fly or choose an image already in your iPad’s photo album. The pictures behave just like stickers or papers; they can be moved around, punched out and written upon.
If the end results are pleasing, or you started with the intention of creating something three-dimensional, you can send the card to your own printer or, as mentioned, to Snapfish’s digital printing service. Projects can also be saved to the camera roll, emailed or posted to Facebook and Twitter.
The app is regularly $4.99 and at that price it’s a good deal. CraftStudio may not be novel, but the interface and design elements are lovely and easy to use. But, if it sounds good I suggest you grab it now – it’s free for a limited time.
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