A new DIGI FILES means a new MORE WITH FOUR challenge!  Yea!  I am so excited to bring you this challenge every month — it is definitely one of my favorites.  By limiting what you can use it forces you to look at your products in new ways…and often with AMAZING results.  Here are this month’s products (all from THE DIGI FILES 8).

Here is the basic set of guidelines:

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• For a digital layout, in addition to these items you can use staples, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.
• You need to use some of each of the items.

And here are some layouts that our team came up with!

Layout by Amy: “I used the photo overlay to create my own brick like pattern paper.  I needed a journaling block and decided to fill in the middle of the photo overlay with the paint bucket to create an ink block to journal on.  Lastly, I needed 5 different flowers, so I recolored one using the hue/saturate adjustment filter.“

Layout by Katie: “I did recolor the blue paper to a match the picture. I love how the crochet flowers match my Mom’s groovy vest!
Fonts are Steph2 Whirligig and Times New Roman.  This was my 1st Birthday “

Layout by Karen: “Here’s mine… I was looking for a “sunny” paper to go with the photo/theme, but wanted it lighter than the yellow paper I used in the strips. I blended the white paper and the yellow checked paper to get the tone I wanted. I also cut up the mask/frame to use it as an inked edge on the right side of the layout.”

Layout by Jacki: “Mine morphed several times until I ended up with something completely different than what I started with! I thought the challenge was difficult this time! But I ended up loving the end product, a celebration of great-grandparents and generations of family.

I used all the More with Four products but used the painted photo frame for my background paper instead and extracted a couple buttons from the crochet flowers.”

Now we want to see what YOU can do…MORE with FOUR!  Post a link to your layout before Monday night and get a chance to win a five pack of coupons from our sponsoring designers!

We’re back with another MORE WITH FOUR challenge!  I think this is one of my favorite parts of the site!  I love seeing what people can do when we reduce product and pump up creativity!  By limiting what you can use, you are forced to move beyond “the norm” and try things that may be new to you.  The end result is usually a page you love.  THE DIGI FILES 7 are just packed with inspiration. I had a hard time narrowing things down to just FOUR products!  But here you go! If you want to join in the fun, post a link to your page before Wednesday and have a chance to win a 5 pack of $10 coupons to sponsoring designer stores!

Here is the basic set of guidelines:

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• For a digital layout, in addition to these items you can use staples, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.

You need to use some of each of the items.

All of these items are part of the THE DIGI FILES 7 and can be purchased RIGHT HERE.

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Layout by Jacki: Font is DJB MarlaScript

Layout by Kelly: The fonts I used were DJB Heather E and Marla Script.
And I used the staple from PODD School Stuff from the Daily Digi 7

Layout by Ana: Staple School Stuff, Pamela Donnis (in TDF 7) and Fonts: DJB Christy, DJB Marla Script and LDJ Whimsey Outline (title)

Layout by Karen

Layout by Janet: DJB Marla Script; staple by Shabby Princess

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Now it’s YOUR turn!

We’re back with another MORE WITH FOUR challenge!  I love these challenges because I LOVE seeing how people take the same four products and turn out something different.  There is so much power in digital…the power to resize, recolor, mask, warp, multiply, etc.  Most of us have gazillions of gigabytes on our hard drives of digi materials — just think how much more we would have if we learned to use them all to their fullest potential!  The other reason I love this challenge is that I love that it makes you think — makes you be more creative.  “How do I get all this to work together?”  “How do I break away from my normal style and incorporate this onto a page I love?”

Creativity is like anything else — it needs to be stretched, to be excercised, to be pushed. If you haven’t tried it, I would suggest you give it a go.  One lucky person who posts a link to a layout before Tuesday will win a 5 pack of coupons from our sponsoring designers! So come on — stretch your creativity and get a chance to win while you are at it!

Here is the challenge:

Here is the basic set of guidelines:

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• For a digital layout, in addition to these items you can use staples, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.

You need to use some of each of the items.

All of the items are part of this months THE DIGI FILES, which you can grab RIGHT HERE.

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And here are some of the layouts that THE DAILY DIGI team created…

layout by Karen: “I recolored the papers to make them more boyish. The font is Darcy Baldwin Angel Baby.”

layout by Kelly — Fonts: Fontologie- Printing Primer In Between, Brush Script

layout by Katie: template by BellaGypsy, font is CK footnote, I cut Gina’s frame into pieces to use as stitching

layout by Ana: I also recolored the papers to make them work better with my photo and the color scheme I chose for my page. (font:
DJB Tina, Darcy Baldwin)

layout by Janet: staples by Shabby Princess, paper templates by Emily Merritt,  font is Typewriter Scribbled

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Now let’s see what YOU can create!

WOO HOO!  We’re back with a new MORE WITH FOUR!  And not only that, we get to show off our first team layouts!

MORE WITH FOUR is a product challenge where we give scrappers just FOUR products and they have to create a layout with them.  Here are the “official” rules:

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
  
• For a digital layout, in addition to these items you can use paint/inking, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.

You need to use some of each of the items.

This month we have chosen some fun products from THE DIGI FILES 4.  Here they are:

And here are the fabulous layouts some of our team created:

DUNIA: Kaye Winecki’s papers, Sketched Borders by Creashens, Flower buttons by Kristin CB, Curve Templates by Loreta Labarca, Fonts: BookmanOldStyle, Chowderhear and Greer.

JACKI: I choose to use the DigiDare #1 – what you wake up to in the morning. I just got a brand new bedroom set which I’m just loving. The color scheme is completely new to me and it’s fresh and fun. With a new comforter and pillows, it makes it awfully hard to crawl out of bed in the morning – especially at 6:15, ugh! Kaye’s gorgeous papers were just the perfect colors and I loved the dreamy clouds (especially how they fell right over my alarm clock – LOL! . I recolored Creashens sketch borders to white to add to that dreamy feel and layered them several times to give a little extra impact and I also used her cheery green glitter border. The background photo is a repeat of the featured photo and is set on Overlay at 77% opacity. Using the burn tool, I darkened the edges of the background paper to add to the feeling of frames and layers. When I think of beds, I think of lots of layers of sheets, covers, pillows. Kristin’s flowers were the perfect addition and I also cropped the center flower of the button for a little extra variety. Fonts used are Doodlie Beans (for wake-up time) and Smarty Pants, both from Darcy Baldwin.

ANA: The challenge was really difficult for me, as I always use stitches in my pages (or staples). At least we had the buttons to tie the elements! I didn’t need to recolor any element (except for the border, I colored it brown) as the colors of the products kinda matched my picture. I had a hard time using fonts for the title, as I always use alpha, but I thought it was interesting because I searched for a font that was similar to stamp. Credits apers, Kaye Winecki, Sketched Borders, Creashens (colored), Flower buttons, Kristin CB, DJB Libby Fizzed Out, Darcy Baldwin (journaling) and Downcome (title)

KAREN: I didn’t quite realize the depth of my element addiction until I started this challenge! Instead of using lots of different elements, I focused on using Creashen’s borders in several different ways to draw attention to my photo. I also found myself drawn to the “dare flair” part of the challenge that requires texture on the layout. I spent a lot of time experimenting with paint and ink to get just the look I wanted, which was lots of character on the paper, but nothing that would take away from the photo itself or the framing.

(In addition to the four elements of the challenge, I used Anna Aspnes kraft paper tears and Two Sister’s Artist’s Canvas paint/chalk. The fonts you probably recognize: Fontologie Giggles and Printing Primer)

RACHAEL: The challenge was a lot of fun, but I found that creating a layout without photos was more difficult than I thought it would be!

AMY: When faced with limited supplies I always turn to the papers to make up the bulk of the layout.  Using the polygonal lasso tool is perfect for “cutting” out irregular rectangles from paper.  I also used the rectangular marquee tool to cut labels from the white paper (any light solid colored paper works well).  Finally, you can extract pieces of layered or clustered elements to use them separately.  I removed the smallest flower part of the buttons to use as accents on my labels.

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Thanks, ladies, for creating some gorgeous pages that are totally inspiring!

Now it’s YOUR turn — open up your DIGI FILES 4, pull out the 4 products, and get scrapping!  Leave a link here before Friday and we’ll be giving away some great coupons!

P.S.  To all my American readers out there, have a great Memorial Day.  Take at least a few minutes to really remember what this day is about and about the men and woman who risk their lives daily to guarantee our freedom.  And enjoy the BBQ!

We’re back with the MORE WITH FOUR challenge.  Here we challenge four scrappers to scrap with just FOUR products! The rules are limiting, the challenge daunting, and the results are spectacular!  Check out this months challenge:

Scrappers were give just four products — all from THE DIGI FILES 2. The products they used were:

1. The papers from Doris Castle’s SUNDAY LOVE kit

2. The flower elements from Kate Hadfields SPRING GREENS element set

3. The alpha from Misty Cato’s  HIGH FLYING  kit

4. Frames from Amanda Heimann’s TRULY YOURS kit

And here are the rules:

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• In addition to these items you can use paint/inking, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts (NOT other alphas).
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.
• You need to use some of each of the items.

I can tell you from the emails I received that this challenge wasn’t easy!  When we usually have endless amounts of product sitting on our hard drives, it is easy to go and search through our stash for exactly what we need.  But when we are limited to just four products, it forces us to approach a page differently.  We have to look at what we have and think about what can be done with it. If there is something that we want for our page but it isn’t there, we have to think about how to make it.  If we have something that isn’t the right color, we have to think about how we can change that.

Digital scrapbooking is full of so many possibilities.  We are not limited by size, color, amount, or intended purpose.  Instead, we can resize, recolor, reuse, and recycle! Don’t get stuck in a rut…try the MORE WITH FOUR challenge and see how it stretches you!

Here is what our scrappers came up with!

extra supplies : paint brushes by Nancy Rowe Janitz at Scrapartist

Noel Culbertson (hybrid scrapper and one of my fellow Scrapbooker of the Year ‘07 finalists) made this fun and peppy page for her daughter.  Here is what Noel had to say about this challenge:

“There is something so invigorating about someone handing you a pile of supplies and asking you to go nuts! I love how limiting your supplies can really spark your creativity. For me limiting supplies helps me focus on bringing out what is special to me in the photo, which is what scrapbooking is all about, right?

I recolored Amanda’s leaf flourish by resizing one of Misty’s letters, and grouping them together to make it look like the flourish went with the alphabet. Then I duplicated the alpha layers and selected the multiply blending mode to darken them up a bit. To unify the sketched look of the flowers, I held control & clicked the layer to select it (the scallops, frame and leaf flourish), then went to Select > Modify > Contract and chose 7px. Then, with the selection tool selected, I right clicked and selected Stroke Outline, and 5px. This gave them the look of being outlined with a pen. The lines around the photo were from outlining the frame, contracting it about 44px, stroke outlining and resizing it over the photo .”

WHAT YOU CAN TRY: To imitate the look of a hand drawn pen outline, try adding a stroke layer to frames or elements

Fonts:  Pea XOXO from Karen and Rub This

Jacki created this gorgeous, feminine layout about her daughter.  I love the dreamy feeling to the photo! Here is what Jacki had to share:

“I played with opacity for this LO. For the large photo I did “overlay” and moved opacity to about 90%. I used the dodge tool to make some of the frames look more aged. I also played with opacity on some of Kate’s flowers to add them around the edge.  The journaling is about a tribute to my MIL who died several years ago. She took this photo of Kassy without me knowing. That sweet baby girl sat patiently with a hat on for grandma (says a lot about her disposition)! I comment on her garden and how she’s no longer here to tend it and her growing grandchildren.”

Jacki also says, “I challenge myself that when I do CT stuff or challenges at shops to actually scrap a photo from the past I haven’t scrapped yet so that I’m building the albums for the kids, not just creating something for someone else. Not always easy. This was a scanned photo from 1998!”

WHAT YOU CAN TRY: Leave the current photos where they are and go dig up something from the past.  Most of us have only been digi scrapping for a few years, but the memories go back so much father!

Kayleigh created this gorgeous page with a letter to her husband.  I love the photo and how she used her own handwriting on the layout.  Here is what Kayleigh had to say about the challenge:

“I had lots of fun playing with those items & it was fun to step out of my box a little bit.  Since there was no stitching and I always put stitching on my pages, I used a dashed line to immitate the look. I re-coloured the frame & added a white stroke to the inside & outside of it to make it pop off the page. I also added a stroke to the flower & a deep shadow to make it look like it was raised off the page (like a paper scrapper would use a pop dot). I often use buttons or brads on my pages as well & since those were not included in the fabulous four items I used the dot to the letter ‘i’ to create an embellishment. I also took the small letter ‘l’ & enlarged it to create the cardboard piece beside the dark paper. I also incorporated my own font into the page, which is my very own handwriting called XXL-Kayleigh W. I also lightened the beige paper turned it vertically to make the lines draw your eye into the grouping. The green paper is re-coloured as well.”

Journaling: Dear Eric, I love this photo of us on our wedding day so carefree & in love. Ready to take on marriage hand & hand. We had no idea of the challenges we would be faced with in our 1st year of marriage. We didn’t know that you would almost be killed in a car accident on a warm sunny day. We didn’t know that we would be faced with my back pain during my pregnancy. But we made it through it all, together. Stronger & more in love than this day. Our day. Kayleigh

WHAT YOU CAN TRY: Rotate a paper 90 degrees to get a totally different look and feel!

One of our scrappers had a change of plans and wasn’t able to participate as she would have liked.  So, I jumped at the opportunity to challenge myself.  I enjoy scrapping challenges because they give me some direction.  Sometimes when I want to scrap I feel so overwhelemed with all the photos, all the kits and elements, all the choices.  I don’t know where to start and so I often don’t! By having a specific set of guidelines, I have a starting point and can let the rest flow from there.

WHAT YOU CAN TRY: Why not try a photo-less page?  Not all of our stories have a photo.  Instead, use the papers and elements to convey the feeling and theme of the layout.

So there you have it…how four scrappers did MORE WITH FOUR.  And now it is your turn!  Just comment in this thread with a link to a MORE WITH FOUR layout page and you will have a chance to win coupons (yes that is plural!) from some of our participating designers.  For every LO that features the full MORE WITH FOUR challenge, your name will be entered into the draw three times.  For everyone who does a NEW layout using one of the “what you can try” challenges, your name will be entered once.  ENTRY DEADLINE: Friday, February 27th.  Good luck and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

In the digi world, there is store after store and kit after kit and more product than anyone could ever use in their lifetime.  The number of gigs of digi scrapping materials we have on our hard drives should say something about how much is out there.  More and more, kits are overflowing with sometimes 10-15 papers and TONS of elements.  It is easy to get swept away with all the cool stuff that is out there and there is a temptation to just “put it on our page because it looks cool!”  It is also easy to spend most of our scrapping time “finding the perfect element” rather than getting the memories recorded.  But what do you do when you are limited to FOUR products?  Well, you do MORE WITH FOUR!

I asked four fabulous scrappers to limit themselves to just these four products (all from the current DIGI FILES).

And these were the rules: The purpose of this challenge is to challenge scrappers to use MORE WITH FOUR. We want to show other scrappers some of the cool things about digital — the ability to alter, to resize, to recolor, to use more than one of the same item, etc. There are some great advantages of digi and there are so many things you can do with just a few supplies.

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• For a digital layout, in addition to these items you can use paint/inking, paper tears or tearing actions, and fonts (NOT other alphas).
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.
• You need to use some of each of the items.

THE MORE WITH FOUR product list:

1. The alpha from Flergs TROUBLEMAKER mini kit
2. Papers from Pineapple Plantation’s VINTAGE VALENTINE mini kit
3. Flowers from Melissa Bennett’s LOVE STRUCK mini kit
4. The metal “hardware” from Shabby Miss Jenn’s VINTAGE LINENS mini kit

And here are the fabulous results.  This challenge pushed scrappers out of their comfort zones  It made them strive to be creative with what they had rather than just digging in their stash for more. I love how each of the scrappers took the challenge in their own direction and made beautiful layouts that they can be happy with!

Leslie made this gorgeous layout celebrating her pregnancy. I love how used the flowers to replace the letter “O” in bloom.  The scalloped paper also adds to the page, mimicking the bump of her belly. Here is what Leslie had to say: “At first, I thought this would be an easy challenge to take on, but as I opened up the 4 products I just sat and stared. However, once I started on the page, it all started to fall into place. It was definitely one of the faster pages I’ve ever done.”

What you can try: In your title, try using elements in place of a a letter or two.

Gina created this wonderful journal-filled page. I love that the journaling became part of the page design and she was able to tell a really important story in the process. And the pictures are so, so adorable!  Gina had this to say: “Working with only four products was really HARD!  I ended up going with a text-heavy subject so I could fill the page that way.  I hate to have too many blank areas!“

What you can try: Take Gina’s example and use journaling as the pain part of your page.  Tell a story that is longer than you usually have room for or that you have been putting off because you don’t know how to make it fit.

This beautifully simple page is by Emily.  I love the way she scattered the flowers across the page, giving it a flowing and feminine feel.  The fact that some of the flowers are “flowing” right off the page and past the border adds to that sense of movement. I also like the fact that she rounded the corners of her patterned paper in order to soften the layout. This was Emily’s response: “This challenge definitely pushed me out of my creative box. I am used to using a lot more elements, but it was fun to be challenged with only using a few!”

What you can try: Take some of your elements and make them flow off the page.  Literally “break out of the box.”

Cathy’s gorgeous layout is the epitome of sweet!  I love the little flowers and the way her title is the main part of the page.  I also adore how she used her photo to split the title in two.  Here are some of Cathy’s thoughts: “This was fun! Being limited to 4 products forced me to be a little more creative with how I used my elements and paper. I covered some of the flowers in patterned paper using a clipping mask (one of my most used digi techniques) and I “cut out” some circular embellishments out of one of the patterned papers to add to the title. I used the metal brad prongs in two different ways: as a way to attach one of the blue flowers to the page and to accent my journaling in the top left corner.”

What you can try: Try using a photo to split your title.  Be sure to do what Cathy did and make the split at the natural syllabic split.  This way, the eye and mind effortlessly move across the page and keep the title as one.

After seeing these layouts, Steph and I just had to give it a try!

I made a two page layout about my thoughts on being a mother of boys. I extracted the screws from the picture hanger by Shabby Miss Jenn and used them to adhere the flowers.

What you can try: Take an element and use only part of it rather than being confined to using it “as is.”

Steph’s page is a great example of some of the wonderful parts about digital scrapbooking.  In order to keep with the colors in her photo, she recolored the apha to green and recolored the flowers to bring out the colors in her daughter’s t-shirt and the palm trees.

What you can try: Try recoloring an element that you love to make it work in a different color scheme.

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Okay, here is your challenge! We want YOU to try more with FOUR!  Or, if you would rather, you can take one of the “what you can try” suggestions and apply to any new layout using any products.  The point is that we want you to be challenged and stretched.  Link us to your NEW layout in the comments for this post before Monday and we will be giving some lucky scrappers coupons to the sponsoring designers stores.  We can’t wait to see what you do!

P.S. Today is the last day to have a chance to buy THE DIGI FILES for a chance to win some great prizes. See this post for details!

P.P.S.  We have gotten several email from people having trouble signing up for the newsletter.  After the server move, we had some trouble accessing the database.  However, it is now fixed so if you had trouble signing up, you can try again now.  And there just may be some goodies coming in the first newsletter

What do you get when you give FOUR great scrappers FOUR great products?  Well, you get MORE WITH FOUR!

Each month THE DAILY DIGI will be hosting a challenge called MORE WITH FOUR.  Here are the “rules” that are given to the scrappers:

The purpose of this challenge is to encourage scrappers to do MORE WITH FOUR.  We want to show other scrappers some of the cool things about digital — the ability to alter, resize, recolor, and use more than one of the same item.  There are some great advantages of digi and there are so many things you can do with just a few supplies.

• You will be given four digital products.
• You are to create a layout or hybrid project using these four products only
• In addition to these items you can use paint/inking, staples and fonts (NOT alphas).
• You can alter the items shown as long as the item is still recognizable.
• You need to use some of each of the items.

Usually, the challenge will involve four items from that months edition of THE DIGI FILES.  But, so that you can be introduced to the challenge, some of the great designers at Scrapbook Graphics generously donated supplies so these four scrappers could knock your socks off!

Since part of the MORE WITH FOUR challenge is to get back to the basics, I chose some basic and neutral supplies to challenge the scrappers with. Here is what they had to work with:

BACK TO THE BASICS paper pack by Doris Castle

PAPER SHAPES element set  by Flergs

CROSS STITCHES by Natali Design

FEELING DOODLISH by Ellie

So?  Do you think you could do it? Can YOU do MORE WITH FOUR??  These four fabulous scrappers did…

This great layout is by INDAH (Inskidahv).  I love the way she made the swirls blend into her layout and how the thick stitches draw your eye to that oh-so-fun photo.  Here is what Indah had to say about the challenge: “Wow.. talk about product constraints! I love every single product that was given to me, but as a kit lover it was a bit restraining to use loose products instead of starting with a kit then developing with individual embellishment packs. Yet i developed a great creativity challenge and was surprised to see how together it all came out because even though they are individual packs, they are coordinated in some way and was just perfect to put together with! I also used atomic cupcake inked edge action in addition to the products given since i can’t stand bare edges.”

This gorgeous layout is by Laura (LauraKaye). I ADORE the way she blended photos into the layout and how she filled her page with so much journaling.  I am sure that Laura and her family will treasure this page for a long time! Here are some thoughts from Laura: “I felt that being limited to these four products helped me to scrap faster.  Instead of searching my stash for a frame, I used the stitches to create a frame for the paper.  Rather than trying to find the perfect complimentary background, I duplicated my background paper and used the screen layer style adjusting the opacity to get just the right color. Also, since I was limited to one pack of elements, they all coordinated easily!“

Peppermint’s layout boasts that perfect mix of subdued color with just the right amount of “pop.”  I LOVE the orange shirt and how she created a visual triangle using it, the small star element and the title.  And the journaling around the main design of the page leaves the words without distracting from the photo.

Colleen shows off her talent with this intricate layout called BEST FRIENDS.  I love all the little details like the stitching around the border and the ink splats.  What a fantastic page!  Colleen shares her thoughts: “It was a lot harder than I thought!! I am used to using lots of stuff! But the thing i missed the most was alphas!!“

After seeing all these layouts I was inspired to challenge myself to try MORE WITH FOUR.  It was so fun and due to my recent scrapping rut it was so good to have some direction before I started.  I pushed myself to use more elements that I normally would and in the end was very pleased with the result!  Shadows are NOT my strong suit so I loved that Flergs paper shapes came with optional shadows!

Thanks again to Doris Castle, Flergs, Natali Design, and Ellie Lash for donating the scrapping supplies for this challenge.  The next time we have a MORE WITH FOUR challenge, YOU can be a part of it!  Here is how it will work:

1. We will choose four items from THE DIGI FILES to be used for the challenge.

2. We will challenge FOUR scrappers to do MORE WITH FOUR and we will showcase their layouts on January 22nd.  At that time, we invite any and all readers to do MORE WITH FOUR! Just take the four items shown, follow the rules, create a layout, and give us a link.  Some lucky scrappers will win coupons to some of the participating designers stores!