I am so excited to have Mari here with us this month!  She is a very talented digital designer, but she is also an amazing hybrid artist.  Her hybrid projects are always top quality and so FUN!  Here is a closer look at her contribution to THE DIGI FILES this month (there are also some hybrid/printable projects included in The Digi Files and pictured below):

You get this kit AND 6 other digital scrapbooking collections valued at a minimum of $5 EACH for only $5 in THE DIGI FILES!!  That’s over $35 worth or product for only $5!  I know that it sounds too good to be true, but it’s not at THE DAILY DIGI!!  Here’s what our team did with this fun kit:

Layout by Steph: supplies “I Luv U” by Mari Koegelenberg, The Digi Files 12; fonts Susie’s Hand and Howie’s Stamps Lowfat.

Layout by Rachael: supplies, “I Luv U” TDF12;  Aqua Paper (Sunshine kit) by Suzy Q Scraps; Template by Janet Philips; all included in TDF12

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Janet Phillips template (Collection 35)

Layout by Amy W, additional supplies: font-pea donna

Layout by Jacki, additional supplies: template by Leora Sanford

Layout by Melissa, additional supplies: Font is DJB How Cute Am I

I’m Mari and I am from South Africa, but my husband was transferred to the USA for work in April 2008 and here we are living in sunny California.

My favorite subjects to scrap are my kids – Chrismari (5) and Christian (1). I am blessed to be able to spend each day with them.

Currently I am a designer at the Digichick and also a contributing editor at the Hybrid Chick and Digital Artist Magazine. You can find my designs HERE and view some of my Articles HERE. You can stay updated on news and events for MKC on the My Digital Art Studio Blog or visit my Journal for my everyday life and happenings.

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The printables for these projects are included in Mari’s TDF12 contribution:

In Photoshop you can select your freeform path tool. Select the drop down menu and set the curve fit to it’s maximum of 10px. Use your pen to draw, you will see that the patch automatically smooths your curves making for smoother writing. Remember to select a sharp brush (hardness set at 100% and spacing at 1) and you can handwrite your own journaling!

I have always loved creating, painting, drawing, needle crafts and even woodwork! In August 2004 I stumbled upon my happy medium – Digital Scrapbooking. It was not long before I started designing and creating Digital Scrapbooking Elements.

Fast forward a few years later and a fateful visit to my local scrapbook store where I met Belinda. She introduced me to Traditional Scrapbooking and all of the wonderful ways you can incorporate Digital Scrapbooking with Paper, I was hooked!

I get inspiration from so many sources but I love colors! Color sets the mood and theme for me.

I have a entry level Acer Desktop which we upgraded with 5 GB of RAM and a 500GB External Hard Drive. I use Photoshop CS3 Extended, ACD See Photo Manager 2009 for my Designing and I am saving up for Illustrator (which I totally love!). I also use MOZY to back up my files! VERY Important!

I have a Nikon D40 with a 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens. I also use a Wacom Bamboo Tablet for everyday and design work. Also as a Hybrid Scrapper a good printer is important! I have a Epson Stylus NX415 with a single ink system. No more wasting cartridges.

My Bestseller is my 2010 Calendar Template:

My Favourite product so far is the Golden Harvest Collaboration with Danielle Engebretson (which has several coordinating printable products you can purchase separately).

Here are some of my favorite Mari products:

Here’s some inspiration created using Mari’s products (layouts without credits are linked to originals):

Layout by Katie, supplies: Mari Koegelenberg Studio 365 February Grab bag. Template by Janet Phillips

Layout by Karen, supplies: Mari Koegelenberg Snow Much Fun bundle, Metal Bits, Stamped Alpha 4; Natalie Braxton string

Mari, THANKS so much for being here to share your talents with us, we really appreciate it!

Go have a look in Mari’s store and come back and tell her what you like, we will randomly select a winner from those comments to win a $10 GC to Mari’s store!  (Comments must be posted before midnight EST and must include a product name to qualify)!

As a THANK YOU to all of our readers, Mari had this coupon for us to go shopping with!

We love to show you “eye candy” (layouts and fun digi kits) here at The Daily Digi, but for today’s UN-digi post, I (Katie) am going to literally show you some real candy made into works of art!

From the Jelly Belly Art Gallery and created with Jelly Belly jelly beans! They have several rooms in their virtual art museum to visit online.

Would you believe that this Mona Lisa is made entirely of chocolate?

Candy artist Craig Kanarick uses color and candy to create his masterpieces.

One of my favorite things about spring is when the Peeps are in bloom.   I really enjoy following the Washington Post Peeps diorama contest each year. There are so many creative entries! Here’s the winner from 2009:

Here’s the winning entry from 2008:

This was a semi-finalist in 2007 (the first year of the contest):

Food presentation in Japan is an art form, so it was no surprise to find that these intricate and beautiful confections known as Wagashi are Japanese.

Sugar can be quite a tool in the hands of an artist. I love this Sugar Sand Art!

Can you believe this sculpture is made entirely of sugar? Beautiful!

These decorated sugar cubes are like miniature works of art as well.

Feeling the need for a little sugar? Here are some sweet little creative projects that are easy and fun to do:

• Pixie Stick sand art
• Licorice tic tac toe
• Candy critters
• Candy necklaces
• Candy snails and mushrooms
• Candy necklace trim

These are my kind of art projects because you can eat the supplies!

There are so many acronyms in the online world and even more in our digital scrapbooking community, so it can be a bit confusing at times. What’s a PDF you ask? PDF stands for Portable Document Format and the great thing about them is that they are easy to download using the free acrobat reader software available from Adobe.

Why use a pdf format file? What if I (Katie) want to type up a document to share with my family members in Microsoft word but some of them have Corel Word Perfect, and others use a Mac system?  If I save the document as a pdf file, then anyone can download it and read it. Also, because the information is highly compressed, it is possible to share large files quickly. There are many ways to create a pdf file, but most programs today have this function built right in. I can save a document in Microsoft word as a pdf just by selecting “save as pdf”. Easy!

You may wonder what this all has to do with digital scrapbooking? Plenty! It is helpful to understand how to open, save, and print pdf files because most online classes in the digital scrapbooking and photography communities use pdf formats for the handouts. All of the commands you need are right on the tool bar of the pdf window so it is easy to print the pdfs if you want to keep them for a reference. Once you download a pdf to your computer, you can access it anytime without having to go online. It’s like having a blog post, magazine article, or idea book right on your hard drive!

There are a lot of free pdfs out there to download that will give you wonderful scrapbooking and digital scrapbooking tips and ideas.Here are a few that I found that are sure to provide inspiration.

• Getting started in digital scrapbooking at Designer Digitals
• Adobe Photoshop Elements tutorials in video and pdf format
• Paint Shop Pro tutorials in pdf format
• PDF tutorials from digiscrappingtutorials.com
• A year of tags project from Cathy Zielske
• Becky Higgins has a wonderful life story project pdf file on her blog.
• Debbie Hodge has a wonderful journaling ideas pdf file to download from a Tuesday Tutorial on Ali Edwards’ blog.
• Cathy Zielske’s multi step tutorial on creating a photo grid in photoshop elements is available on Ali Edwards’ blog.
• Tracey Clark’s Photographing Birthdays Tuesday Tutorial on Ali Edwards’ blog is also available as a pdf.

Have fun downloading!

P.S. If you are planning to teach a class on digital scrapbooking, you might want to check out this post where you can email Steph for a helpful pdf file.

The digi stores are bursting with love right now in preparation for Valentine’s Day on February 14th. We wanted to share some our favorite digi finds with you to help you with your own love inspired creative projects!

All images are linked…Happy shopping and scrapping!

Sigh… I LOVE them all!

P.S. Don’t forget to download our free Valentine gift for you!

P.S.S.  The random winner from the comments in CD’s feature post yesterday is Vicki who said this:”Wow…what a treat just looking at her designs. I totally love how each one is packaged just a bit differently!  I had never seen her designs and ohhh…I will be going back to look more!  Love the Circle Werx and the Love Song Alpha!”

Vicki won a $10 GC to CD’s store!  THANKS Vicki and everyone else that took time to tell CD what you love!