I’m super excited to welcome Tracie Stroud to THE DIGI FILES this month!  Tracie has a very versatile design style with a definite FUN side!  I LOVE her contribution this month as it really does typify her style!  Let’s take a closer look at what you will find in THE DIGI FILES from Tracie:

Our team had a lot of fun with this collection too:

Layout by Katie, additional supplies: Template No. 16 by Ali Edwards. Font is Ali’s Hand.

Layout by Melissa L., additional supplies: Ali Edwards Hello Summer word art (day), Font is DJB How Cute Am I

Layout by Amy Wolff, additional supplies: font-Pea Donna

Layout by Tara, additional supplies: – sissy lynn by NeeNee designs

Layout by Trina, additional supplies: Calliope Template – Tracie Stroud, Font – Century Gothic

You can see many more inspirational layouts using this collection on the Team Inspiration page.

I’m Tracie Stroud, I live in Shreveport, Louisiana.  I share life with my husband of 10 years, 2 beautiful kiddos, and 1 on the way.

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Digital Layout (Sunshine in Your Smile) credits: Pocketful of Sunshine by Tracie Stroud
template: Sidekicks Pack No. 3 by Fizzy Pop Designs
stitching: All Stitched Up no. 5 by Tracie Stroud
alpha: A Bit Sketchy Alpha by Tracie Stroud
date stamp: It’s A Date no. 4 by Tracie Stroud

Because of the way digital cameras capture an image, even the best cameras put a slight “fog” on the photos. To help with this and give your photos a slight ‘pop’, you should run a ‘defog’ on each image. There are a few ways to do this, but I apply the following settings to each photo before I do any other editing:
Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask
Amount = 20%
Radius = 60 pixels
Threshold: 0

You’ll be amazed at the difference this very simple step can make! I created an action for it in Photoshop, and I batch run it on all photos as soon as I upload them to my computer.

I started traditional (paper) scrapping about 8 years ago. After my daughter was born, I didn’t have the space or time for all the supplies anymore. I didn’t know about digital at that time, so I just gave up scrapping altogether, which made me really sad. When I was pregnant with my son, about 4 years ago, I spent some time on the pregnancy boards, and everyone was raving about digital scrapping. I decided to try it, and I’ve never looked back! After scrapping for a couple of years, I really wanted to try designing. I had lots of ideas that I wanted to try out, and with some great constructive criticism from a couple of designer friends, I made my first kit. I started selling in January of 2009.

My kiddos. They’re so active and vibrant. Things they say, their energy, and just being around them are so inspiring.

I currently use a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista and 3GB of RAM. I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, both CS4. Right now I’m using a Pentax digital SLR, but I’d like to get a point and shoot soon, just for the convenience of carrying it with me while I’m trying to juggle 3 kiddos and all their gear. I use a Bamboo Fun graphics tablet for everything. I literally haven’t touched a mouse in 9 months!

Here are some of my favorite products by Tracie

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Tracie’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

Go have a look in Tracie’s Store. We will randomly select a person from the comments to win $10 in product from her store! (Comments must be posted before midnight EST)!

As a thank you to our readers, Tracie has created this coupon to share with all of us!

I instantly fell in love with Hazel Olive Designs products from the first time I saw them, when Mscraps first opened!!  I am excited to have her finally joining us in THE DIGI FILES!  Her contribution is adorably versatile and our team had a lot of fun with it!!  Here’s a closer look:

This is just ONE of the SEVEN collections you can get for $5 total in THE DIGI FILES this month!  You can see everything that is included on the Contributor’s page.  Here’s some inspirational eye-candy for you created with Oh Baby!:

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: “Get Real” Shadows by Jennifer Barrette,  Traveling Typewriter font

Layout by Katie, additional supplies: Template by Michelle Martin. Fonts are CK script and Century Gothic.

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Valorie Wibbens Block It Vol. 1 paper blocking template.

Layout by Amy Wolff

Layout by Leilani Rose (Hazel Olive CT member), additional supplies: font, BigMummy

You can see some more GORGEOUS layouts on the Team Inspiration page.

I am Ashley of Hazel Olive Designs.  I grew up in sunny California and married my high school sweetheart at 20.  5 years layer we have been blessed with two beautiful and wonderfully unique daughters.  Hazel is now two and Olive just turned one.  I design at home despite the double trouble crawling and toddling of the girls.  They are the light of my life, my inspiration and I couldn’t do anything else but name my company after the twosome.  So there you have Hazel Olive Designs. 

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Title: Baby Kielei

Credits: Bloom by Vinnie Pearce

Scrapbook your favorite photos first. Trying to scrapbook for any size family can be overwhelming. You tend to feel that you should scrapbook in a particular order…last Easter before this Easter, 1^st birthday before 3^rd, ect. All the while, uploading a few thousand new photos a week on to your PC. You would need a team to scrapbook everything! This kind of process can lead to feeling like your getting behind, and make your artistic time start to feel like a chore. Instead, don’t feel the need to scrapbook in any particular order at all. Choosing your favorite photos that inspire you the most is a good place to get started. Then, if you never get to those Christmas 1998 photos…at least you still have your favorite photos done and in a coffee table book to ooh and ahh over.

I began my scrapbook journey at a local scrapbook store.  After a few years I moved on to take the role of a scrap-for-hire designer.  This new bit began to introduce me to a new world of Digital Scrapbooking. Following the birth of my first daughter, I found myself with-out the past freedom or time available to spread out my paper crafting supplies on my desk and craft away.  This opened my door to digital scrapbooking and the convenience of an equally expressive laptop hobby.  I am a long time computer geek, program researcher, and creative artist.  I have always had a constant need for a creative outlet.  I discovered an absolute love for designing digital art and products while getting the opportunity to share my adoration of contrasting color schemes and funky flair. This month I will be celebrating my 1 Year Anniversary of Hazel Olive Designs. Looking forward to another great year.

Colors definitely play a big part in my inspiration cycle. I am a color junkie. I love discovering colors schemes that are playful, fun, and contrasting. Vintage pieces are another major inspiration in most of my kits. I love all things shabby and old, and enjoy the challenge of designing a complete kit around one funky, antique store find.

I use a Toshiba Qosmio X505 laptop with a 6GB, 7200RPM hard drive for the bulk of my designing. With my toddlers running me around, portability is a must as my home office moves from the kitchen to the playroom and elsewhere at any given moment. I design in Photoshop CS4, Illustrator, and Art Rage Studio. My camera is a Canon Rebel XTI…love this thing. I scrapbook, design and anything else computer related with my trusty Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I can’t imagine going back to a mouse in this life time. I also use an awesome little app on my IPad called MoodBoard for organizing and collecting colors and inspiration for my kits. For back up and extra storage I use a Maxtor, One Touch 4 external hard drive with 750 GB of extra storage. I also religiously rely on Mosy Online Backup to further backup and protect my laptop and external hard drive.

My favorite product right now would have to be my Grunge Me: Volume Two, The Assortment. I have been using this one like crazy lately. It has such a convenient range from elegant to the super grungy. I find myself using it on all my pages and a lot of my papers as well.

My best selling product is my Be Yourself kit. I think it can be difficult to find funky boy kits for the “in-between” age. This one seemed to produce quite a few fun, pre-teen to young adult layouts.

Here are some of my favorite products by Ashley

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Ashley’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Ashley has created this freebie to share with all of us!

We are fortunate to have Amy Wolff as a team member here at The Daily Digi and I am also super excited to welcome her back again to THE DIGI FILES as a contributor!  Amy has, what I like to call, a classy-artsy-shabby style.  Her designs are loved throughout the digital community as much as Amy is!  Here’s a closer look at her contribution to THE DIGI FILES:

Here are some awesome layouts for inspiration:

Layout by Melissa L

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Fonts are Fontologie Textura and Pea Bandit; Amy Martin template.

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Fonts: Dekka Dense JL, Designer Notes

Layout by Rachael, additional supplies: Template (modified) by Traci Reed

Layout by SharonS (a reader), additional supplies: Template: Janet Phillips, Fonts: CK Academia, Cooper

Name: Amy Wolff
City: Sioux Falls, SD
Family: Husband Cameron, daughter Kyra, and two sons Kirby and Kyler

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I’m going to share with you my favorite tip I learned from The Daily Digi and how you can apply it to other things.  Check out this tutorial Fonts Don’t Float.  I’ve been using this same technique to add polka dots or other designs to ribbons!!  Grab a plain colored ribbon, take a round brush and make sure you set the spacing out to the desired length. Make a new layer above the ribbon. Then hold down the shift key while dragging a line of polka dots across the ribbon.  When you have your desired polka dots, use the tutorial to blend the dots so you can see some of the ribbon texture.  Keep playing until you reach a realistic look.  I’ve found this to be so much more effective than playing with the normal blend modes.

I’ve always played with the computer when I was a traditional scrapbooker.  I guess that means I was always somewhat hybrid.  I printed out titles, journaling, even images I grabbed from the internet to make my son’s alphabet book.  I found true digital scrapbooking in 2005 and never looked back.  It’s a natural progression from scrapping to designing and I’m blessed to have had great mentors along the way.  I’m always learning new things and expanding my horizons to be inspired.

Lately I’m inspired by home decorating blogs!  There are some great color palettes and textures out there.  I also just latch onto a feeling I want to convey and go from there.  If I’m playing with relaxing colors, I try to pick relaxing shapes and textures.  If I’m in a happy mood, I pick brighter colors, etc

I’m using a HP quad core processing with 7 GB of ram.  Whenever I buy a computer I try to get the most RAM I can afford.  It makes a huge difference in how fast photoshop runs.

I use PSCS3 but I’m thinking of upgrading to 5

I have a Nikon D40 DSLR and a pocket camera that I love, a canon powershot SX120IS

Here are some of my favorite products by Amy

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Amy’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

Layout by Dunia, supplies: Calico Cottage Kit by Amy Wolf
Be Inspired by Ivana – Layered Template by Dúnia

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

I am excited to welcome Rachel of Captivated Visions to THE DIGI FILES this month! I love her contribution especially the sentiments and the cute little camera! I think the colors add a unique twist as well! Our team really had fun creating with it as well! Here is a closer look at her contribution:

Here’s what our team created with this kit:

Layout by Katie, additional supplies: Template No. 37 by Ali Edwards. Font is CK Easy Goin

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Font is Fontologie Printing Primer. Shadows by Jenn Barrette

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Digs My Hart font

Hybrid Fan Out Mini Album by Sunghee (directions for this album will be included in the Playbook to be released in just over a week).

Layout by Tara, additional supplies: Font – Sissy Lynn (funky fonts) by NeeNee designs

You can see even more awesome layouts on our Team Inspiration Page.

Hi Readers! My name is Rachel Jefferies and I live in Birmingham, UK. I’m married to Simon, we’ve been together for nearly ten years and we will soon be celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary.

I work at home full time, when I’m not busy working I enjoy digital scrapbooking and hanging out in forums and doing challenges etc. Hubby and I also love to watch movies and we are huge CSI Fans and watch that most nights! I also love my camera and of course my music collection which is very varied, what I listen too depends on my mood at the time, I have lots of favourites!

For ten years I worked in the Banking Industry but desperately craved a career change, a few years ago I made the big decision to leave my day job and ventured out on a journey of well, i guess you could call it self discovery! And here I am, and I couldn’t be happier as a Digital Scrapbook Designer!

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Here are some tips for Photoshop which I do often that I thought you might find of interest!

First one is how to texture white elements or papers:

If you try putting a greyscale overlay ontop of white and changing the blend mode to the common overlay setting or soft light setting you will find it extremely hard to texture your paper or element.

It’s best to start with a colour that is ‘off white’, this works well for creating your own papers, or elements such as sticker borders or tags and word strips. First Fill your canvas or shape with colour #fefefe, this looks greyish in colour but once we add our texture and blend modes it will appear to be a textured white finished product.

Using a greyscale overlay, place this on a layer above your element or paper and clip it to the element if needed. Change the blend mode on the overlay layer to linear burn. You will notice no difference in the texture of your paper or element layer at this point, what we need to do now is reduce the opacity of the overlay layer. The amount by which to reduce the opacity too will depend on the type of texture your overlay has, and how much texture you want to add to your white paper or element. Normally an opacity of around 20 – 35% works well. Your Paper or element will now be textured and fairly white in colour. To brighten this up a little you may want to adjust the brightness of the overlay layer a little. To do this choose Image > Adjustments > Brightness & Contrast from your menu, and increase the brightness a little until you get the desired effect. You can also continue to work on your paper or element by adding a further texture overlay above the original one, and change the blending modes, don’t be afraid to play around with all of the blending modes and the opacity options, there are no rules, sometimes a paper I make may contain ten or more overlays all blended togther!

Saving your Dropshadow settings as a Photoshop Style Set:

This is a great time saver for me, if you have a common or regular drop shadow that you use a lot, for e.g on flat papers, or strings or ribbons wouldn’t it be great to save them and not have to create them from scratch each time? I have done this and use a regular group of shadow settings when creating my product previews and also use them on my layouts.

Firstly I always save my shadow styles, or any other custom styles for that matter on my computer and not in the main Photoshop styles folder, having lots of styles and brushes saved in the main programme folder can slow down the initial start up of Photoshop and that drives me bonkers!

Once you have a shadowed element or paper and are ready to save your style settings double click on the fx symbol on the right hand side of the layer that the style is applied too or right click on the layer and choose blending options. Click New Style and ensure both check boxes are ticked, give your style a name and click ok. Continue this process for any other styles you want to save in the same set. You might want a set of varied shadow styles, or maybe you just want to create a set for deep shadows, and another for flatter shadows etc.

Once you have all of your desired shadow styles saved you need to save them as a set. To do this in your Styles window on the right hand side, just underneath where you can minimise or close the Styles Window there is a tiny little arrow pointing downwards, click on this and a menu will appear. We are going to work in the Preset Manager. This will preview all of the styles you currently have loaded into Photoshop. We need to select which styles we want to save in our set.

To do this find the first style that you saved and click on it, to select all of the others you can either hold down shift and then click on the very last style, this will select everything in the row/s between your first and second left click, or after clicking on the first style, hold down control and click on each of the others individually. Once you have them all selected choose Save Set from the right hand side. Now you simply need to choose a location on your folder where you want to save your styles set too. I have set up a Presets folder on my C drive and save them all in there so I know where they are. Give your set a file name, such as deep shadows or scrapbooking shadows and hit Save. Ensure you leave the file extension as the default .asl

You now have a set of custom styles saved! To Open them use the same tiny little arrow in the Styles Window in Photoshop to bring up the pop up menu again and this time choose Load styles. You can now browse for the location where you saved the set on your computer and choose open, and they will all load into Photoshop at once! I hope this saves you some time, have fun with your styles!

I started dabbling in design work a few years ago, it started from an obsession about signature tags! I was browsing a forum one day and a lot of the members had these cool graphical signatures against their posts. I asked them how they were made and which programme or software was needed for me to have a try. I soon purchased Paint Shop Pro and started to create graphical signatures of my own. Soon after I found another similar hobbyist forum which introduced me to digital scrapbooking kits. It wasn’t long before I was tempted to try and create a kit of my own and I started to create freebies for my blog, that then developed into selling kits on my blog and then shortly afterwards I became addicted to Photoshop and moved into my first store!!

So I was actually a designer before I was a ’scrapper’ and when I get the time inbetween work projects I love to take part in challenges and create layouts. I’ve never dabbled in paper scrapping but I am getting very tempted to try a Hybrid project or two! We are currently in the process of decorating our home and we are going to create a studio for me so I have a bigger workspace, nothing will stop me then!

Oooh so many things! I’m a real visual girl, so seeing things that I love gets my brain ticking for a kit idea! Fabrics, patterns, colour, magazines, stationery, the list is endless! I have a notebook with me where I jot down ideas for kits as soon as I have them so these special little thoughts are never lost! Simon jokes with me that I should keep a notebook in the bedroom I’m often babbling about kit ideas before I go to sleep ha!

PC:
The majority of my design work was completed on my Toshiba laptop but I’ve recently moved onto a Desktop PC which is faster! The only thing I hate about it is that I don’t have a widescreen monitor so that will soon change! This PC was built by Simon and includes an Intel Quad Core processor, 8GB of RAM (Hawt!!) We have three Terrabyte Hard Drives, plenty of space to back up my files for a little while longer! The Pc runs Windows 7 64-BIT

Programmes:
I design with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, I’m currently using a Bamboo Tablet but when i move into my new studio I have a brand spanking new Intuos 4 Tablet which I’m itching to use! I occassionally use Artrage but I haven’t played in their for a while, it’s so fun to make glitter and use paint!

Tablet:
I’ve been using a little Bamboo tablet for some time now and could never switch back to a mouse, I use it all the time and the feel of the pen is so natural! I’ll soon be using a Medium size Intuos 4 which Simon bought me for my birthday, as soon as we get the studio ready with bigger work space i’m ready to dive in!

Camera:
DSLR, Canon EOS 350D with 18-55mm Lens, this baby I love but haven’t been able to devote enough time to learn all of the manual settings, I will be using it more this year for sure!

Well I totally love my new Happy Snapper Kit! I’ve been designing a lot with doodles lately and it’s so very hard to pick my favourite kit ever from my store but I will go with a recent doodly release, In His Teens, I love to make grungy kits now and then and I just adore how this one came out!

Your best selling product – I’ve just retired it lol, as although it was a good seller it didn’t represent my current style at all so I’ve had a big clean up in my store, this collection was part of a grab bag during June and was a huge seller.

Here are some of my favorite products by Rachel

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Rachel’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Rachel has created this coupon to share with all of us!

Rachel has one last surprise for all of us…a free gift that coordinates with her contribution to THE DIGI FILES!

I am very excited to welcome back Megan a.k.a Flergs to THE DIGI FILES this month!!  Flergs is such a talented designer and just as sweet as she is talented!  Flergs is known for her glitter styles that she creates to coordinate with each kit, but she really rocks everything she does!  Here’s a closer look at her contribution to THE DIGI FILES this month:

Here’s what our team did with “In Bloom”:

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Fonts are Pea Miss Staker and Traveling Typewriter

Layout by Melissa L., additional supplies: Emily Powers Graffitti; font is AmerType Md BT

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Kingsthings Typewriter 2 font, Get Real Shadows by Jenn Barrette

Layout by Melissa S., additional supplies: template by NeeNee

Layout by Katie, additional supplies: Gina Miller template. Font is CK script

You can see more awesome  inspirational layouts on the Team Inspiration Page.

I’m Megan Farrow AKA Flergs, I come from a small town in Country Victoria, Australia. I have 2 beautiful kids, Deacon 8 and Kaylee 4. I was a hairdresser for many years but recently cut back to be a mum and design. I always wanted to do something with Graphics and finally found my passion! I really truly love my job. I would design 24 hours a day if possible. But, as it is I only get 4-5 hours at night once my babies are in bed.

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I’m a hopeless scrapper so my design tip is, design for fun. Design because you love what you create and enjoy doing it. if you do it hoping for a quick buck it will become boring and a chore and will reflect in your designs. A kit will pretty much make itself as your ideas & creativity flows.

I started as a paper scrapper for years, then once I found digital I never touched paper again. I wasn’t a scrapper for long, I’ve been a designer for longer. I enjoy it more than scrapping, I just love to create. I just started to make things for my pages, then some blog freebies, then started selling. And I started off making actions, but soon became a kit designer.

I get a lot of inspiration from movies, fabric & childrens clothing. I can usually create a whole collection from one piece of fabric or one of Kaylee’s tshirts. Once I start I usually overflow with ideas. I don’t have any unfinished projects, I always recycle anything that I get stuck on. Searching ETSY for fabrics usually is where I get my best inspiration.

I hate MAC’s, I am a PC girl through & through. I have a nice big 24″ screen. I run Windows 7 64 bit, and have a quad core CPU with 4GB RAM. 4 Hard Drives totaling 1.5 Tb and a 1Tb external drive.

I love my Canoscan 8800F, I have a Medion tablet from Aldi for $50 that I love! Cheap but not nasty. I can’t live without my songs while I work either so my iPod is a must have. I listen to some crazy playlist while I work!
I use CS5, Illustrator, Art Rage mostly. I have a Canon, but I’m a terrible photographer.

I can’t really say what that would be. I change my mind a lot. Love my Twilight kits of course, I’m a sucker for boy kits so I probably would say Denim Blues, Helter Skelter or 6k74. I like to use grungy & dirty type papers & elements. Something I always did when I paper scrapped was dirty everything up, because my son always seemed a mess!

Would be my Twilight inspired kits for sure! All 3 are always very popular. Also some of my Designer Tools like the Alpha Maker, something I cannot live without.

Here are some of my favorite products by Flergs

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Flergs products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Flergs has created this coupon to share with all of us!

I am excited to welcome our very own NeeNee to THE DIGI FILES this month!!  I love NeeNee’s templates because they have lots of paper layers and the photo spots are big!  They are super fun to use! Here’s a closer look at her contributions:

Here are some layouts our team created using NeeNee’s products:

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Ten Pin by Miss Mint
Blue & Co. Notions Papers by Jen Allyson

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: kit by Shabby Miss Jenn

Layout by Steph, additional supplies: Emotions by FeiFei’s Stuff also included in TDF#20 this month

Layout by SharonS (TDD reader) Scrap and Snap (TDD Collab.), Fonts: Nee Sissy Lynn, Oh Photo Shoot

Layout by Shannon (NeeNee’s CT), additional supplies: You make me so happy by Wild dandelion designs & Papercropz v9  and sissy lynn font  by Neenee Designs

You can see more inspirational layouts using this collection on the Team Inspiration page.

Although most of you know me as NeeNee (a nickname that stuck when my now 24 year old neice couldn’t say my real name), my given name is Jeanye.  My name is pronouned Genie  you know, like the one in the lamp.  Unfortunately I am not able to grant wishes although I sure would love to, lol!  I am 35 years old and married to Jonathan, a Operations and Engineering Manager helping build Toyota trucks.  We live in the beautiful San Antonio, Texas and have 3 beautiful daughters and a son ages 19, 17, 15 and 13 along with a grandbaby due August 29th, super exciting!  I am an extremely happy person, very optimistic and typically always the life of the party.  I don’t take much in life very seriously and am always cracking jokes!  When I am not sitting at my laptop you can find me watching medical shows, lounging near the pool or enjoying the open road on a Harley Davidson.

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I think the best tip I have to offer is one that I have just recently adopted myself after years of what was more work than pleasure.  Make sure that you keep scrapping or designing for you.  Most of us began scrapping because we enjoy it so, don’t loose sight of what is really important and what matters most at the end of the day – your happiness and enjoyment.

I started paper scrapping back in 1998 after the birth of my youngest daughter.  I still do paper scrap on occasion for a few of my albums that I just can’t bear to do digitally (like my Harley Davidson one) because I still love the look and texture of the 3D elements not to mention I have so much money tied up in paper supplies that I feel they just have to get used!   I discovered digital scrapbooking in late 2008 while working on designing a blog for my parents exotic bird and miniature donkey breeding business.  As is the story with so many, once I discovered digital, things moved VERY fast and I have thrown myself into it 110%.  I have to admit that I tried my hand at designing briefly in early 2009 but, realized that I just was not ready for it.  After spending another year learning my software and familiarizing myself with the industry, I launched my design business as a template designer in February 2010.  In these last few months, I have now grown into designing word art, kits and even fontography!  I am a knowledge junkie so I am always growing and evolving.  Who knows what the next year has in store for my designs!

I have been an avid quilter for over 13 years, even owning a retail quilting and Pfaff business for nearly 4 years so I find most of my inspiration in my own studio.  I am surrounded by thousands of fabrics on a daily basis and I can not help but be inspired by color palettes, themes and shapes from the fabrics I create with.

I bought myself a Toshiba laptop in May after crashing a “freebie” laptop that I had for about a year and 1/2.  I was so happy to have my very first “real” laptop!  I also use an additional monitor so that I can have 2 working screens open at a time.  I try to keep my laptop’s hard drive as empty as possible and instead save everything to my 1TB Seagate external hard drive (recently upgraded from a 250 gb).   Is it horrible to say that it’s already at 630 gb since just purchasing it in May?  I think a 2 TB is looking like a great Christmas present for myself!

I mostly design in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS5.  I will admit thought that I still use Photoshop Elements 6 sometimes as well because old habits die hard and it is my old faithful when I am in a hurry!  I use FontLab for my font creation as well as Adobe Bridge and Dreamweaver (yes, I do some web design too!).

Wow, this is almost embarrassing to say but my camera is a P&S and I don’t even know the brand.  Kodak I think, lol.  I have really put my camera needs second to my design software over the last 6 months but, a Canon Rebel T2i is scheduled for my September birthday!

I do use a few other things for my scrapping and/or designing.  I have a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, a Light Trace II, my Pfaff Creative 2144 (love me some stitched ellies), half a studio full of paper scrapbooking/designing supplies and of course my “how would I live without you” Canon scanner.

Wow, this is really tough!  My Papercropz line of templatez in general are my favorites but, if I must pick one….it would be Papercropz Volume 8.  This set was a stretch for me as I don’t typically scrap with lots of photos but, I was in LOVE with the results of each layout!

My best selling product is always the current month’s  Featured Artist Templatez.  Each month’s release just keeps getting more and more popularThe most recent version and best seller to date is my July Featured Artist Templatez (Heathergw).

Here are some of my favorite products by NeeNee

Here’s some inspirational layouts using NeeNee’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, NeeNee has created this coupon to share with all of us!

Having Sharon, a.k.a FeiFei’s Stuff, contribute to THE DIGI FILES has been in the works for a very long time!  I added her to my “invite soon” list over a year ago.  I am so excited to finally have her and her gorgeous designs in THE DIGI FILES this month!  Here’s a closer look at her contribution:

Here are some layouts created using “Emotions” by FeiFei’s Stuff”:

Layout by Katie

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Font is traveling typewriter. Shadows are by Jenn Barrette.

Layout by Amy Wolff, additional supplies: Amy Martin’s uber mini template (altered) and My Four Hens photo actions

Layout by Nikki (FeiFei’s Stuff CT)

Layout by Suzanne (FeiFei’s Stuff CT)

You can find more awesome layouts in the Team Inspiration Page!

My name is Sharon but my closest friends call me “Shaui”. I am blessed with a wonderful family. A husband who supports me with my designing and scrapping and disagrees with my late night dates with my laptop. A daughter who never fails to make me laugh with her witty mind and her doodles that she can only understand. A son who can complete my day with a smile. I miss the rain. I miss the smell of wet grass in the morning. I love the sales in Dubai. I heart anything crafty and personalized gifts. I’m the worst singer in the whole universe and yet I get a perfect score at karaoke machines! I love to dance, read, laugh and do something creative. I love it when I finish a kit because it means I was productive Oh, and I’m a big fan of the Jabbawockeez!

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A Tip for Scrapping

Carry a little notebook with you all the time and journal day to day things. I tend to forget things right away so I make it a habit that when Fei say something funny or sweet, I write it right away or when Nico did something new, I record those milestones. I like remembering those little things.

A Tip for Photoshop

Name your layers. It saves time and it is easier to find the layers when you want to edit or delete them. Or if you have too many layers, Group them (highlight the layers that you want to group and hit CTRL+G) and of course name your Groups too.

It all started with a little girl named Fei and the invention of digital cameras. When I gave birth to my daughter, for 3 months, I took pictures of her every single day. After one year, less than 20 pictures were only printed and that was given away to my family in the Philippines. I have like thousands of pictures of Fei and it was just stored inside a computer. I first tried paper scrapping and after one page, I gave up. With limited resources here in Dubai, it will be too expensive for me to buy all my materials overseas. And then I stumbled upon digital scrapbooking. I downloaded freebies from here and there to make my layouts. Most of the time I would alter what I have and I thought maybe I can do my own stuff. It started with one frame and then a floral brush and then, next thing I know, I was giving away freebies on my blog. That is when fei-fei’s stuff was born.

Most of the time, it is my family that inspires me. Sometimes books that I have read or when I see a cool ad.

use a desktop, WindowsXP, Intel Core i7 with 6GB RAM.

I use Phtoshop CS3 and Illustrator and AutoCAD.

Canon Rebel XTi

I also use a Bamboo Tablet

Here are some of my favorite products by Sharon

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Sharon’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Sharon has created this coupon to share with all of us!

I am happy to welcome Dysfunctional Designs to THE DIGI FILES this month!  Her graphic, minimal style designs are great for scrapping just about any style layout (which you will see below).  Besides being a fantastic designer, she has some great photography tips for us as well. Here’s a closer look at her contribution to THE DIGI FILES this month:

Here is a look at what our team created with Mid-Mod:

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Creative Outlet template by Taylor Made ( modified), Getting Started Journaling by Sahlin Studio, CK Jot font

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Three Paper Peonies template; AylaCSScript font

Hybrid Project by Sunghee, additional supplies: various paper supplies.

Layout by Amanda (Dysfunctional Designs CT)

Layout by debzanne (Dysfunctional Designs CT)

You can see more inspirational layouts using this collection on the Team Inspiration page.

Hi! I’m Ami Collofello of Dysfunctional Design. I’m a 31 year old mom of three: 6 year old twins Samuel and Celia, and my 4 year old baby boy Dalian. My husband and I have been married for 7 years, together for 12. I moved to Portland, OR four years ago from the Chicago suburbs and I love it here!

When I’m not doing mom stuff, I’m working as a graphic designer. I started working under the name Dysfunctional Design about ten years ago when I started developing web sites. Today, I do more design than development because my attention span just ain’t what it used to be. (Darn kids ruined my work ethic!)

I also like to eat a lot. That takes up most of my free time. And I turn into a very scary lady when I am deprived of Pepsi.

Here’s where you can find me:

The Digichick
Facebook page
Twitter
my blog

Hoard your digital photos! Scrappers are the type to take photos for a purpose. We bust out the camera, document our day, and rush back to the computer to see all of the scrap-worthy pics. It’s usually easy enough to pick out the great shots – but what about the rest? If you go easy on what you delete, you might be surprised at what you find.

A few months back I started working on our 2009 Family Album. I had done some layouts throughout the year, but I decided I wanted a uniform look for the “official” album. So I started digging through the year’s worth of photos, flagging the ones I already knew were the “good” ones. But I was surprised at how many more good – and meaningful – photos I had waiting in limbo. There were hundreds of photos that I had brushed off as blurry, busy, or just plain bad – until now.

Going through my pictures a year later gave me the ability to see them with a different eye. With some cropping and processing in Lightroom or Photoshop, those blurry, busy, and bad photos were given a second chance. Here are some photos that were prime recycle bin material:

But after a little editing, I created this:

Another example is this shot of my boys:

This was just one of about twenty pictures I shot that afternoon. I didn’t like the light, the clutter in the foreground, the tired eyes…but then I decided to play with it.

A sweet little portrait of the boys.

I know it’s not exactly practical to save all of those unwanted and questionable photos, especially if you’re like me and won’t get back to them for a year…or more. That’s lots of valuable disk space! But try going back just a week or two later to see if you missed something the first time through. You never know what gems you’ll end up with!

I fell into digital scrapbooking after I accepted the fact that I am not skilled enough to use paper. In 2004 I tried to make a traditional album. It just didn’t work. So I went where I was comfortable – the computer! I’ve been a graphic designer for over 10 years, so when I started digi-scrapping I just made my own stuff. I’ve been selling in digi-land for about 3 years now.

Anything vintage, retro, or modern. I love looking at old photos, clothes, records, books, and furniture, so that’s where most of my inspiration comes from.

My main computer is an HP desktop, with 64 bit Vista, an AMD Phenom Quad-core processor, and 8GB RAM.

I use Adobe CS4 for all my design work. My most used programs are Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I also use Lightroom for photo processing.

My camera is a Nikon D40 (which I just adore!).

I use a Bamboo Fun tablet – for everything. There’s not even a mouse at my computer anymore! I just love the control that the pen gives me.

My favorite product would probably have to Vintage Tee Revival. I love the colors in it and the style just screams “me!”

My best selling products are my Random Alphas.

Here are some of my favorite products by Ami

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Ami’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Ami has give us this coupon code to share with all of you! Save 30% off her store through August with this code!! spotlight

I am excited to welcome Audrey of Audacious Designs back to THE DIGI FILES this month!!  Audrey was one of the very first contributing designers in THE DIGI FILES #1!  I absolutely love Audreys use of color in her kits and can’t wait to show you what our team did with her contribution this month!  Here’s a closer look at what she contributed to THE DIGI FILES this month:

Here’s what our team created using this kit:

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Janet Phillips Collection 49 template; Font is Steinem

Layout by Katie, additional supplies: Template No. 39 by Ali Edwards, Krafty bare paper by Katie Pertiet, DJB Tracy Script font.

Hybrid layout by Sunghee

Layout by SharonS (a reader), additional supplies: brush: R. Young, font: SF Katie.  Sharon made this layout to go inside her purse that displays layouts.  She decided it was ‘perfectly find to scrap my boys in pink when it’s for my purse’.  I love it!

Layout by Sharongrey8 (a reader)

Hi! My name is Audrey Neal. I currently design digital scrapbooking products under the name Audacious Designs at Design House Digital. Over the past six years, my articles and designs have been featured in numerous idea books and magazines, such as Scrapbook Trends, BH&G Scrapbooks Etc., Memory Makers, and Scrapbook Answers. As a writer, my work includes monthly columns with Memory Makers, Scrapbook Dimensions, and Scrapbook and Cards Today, as well as editorial positions with Digital Artist Magazine and Scrapbook Dimensions. Along with co-author May Flaum, I wrote a book about hybrid scrapbooking called Paper + Pixels, which features step-by-step techniques for beginning, intermediate, and advanced scrapbookers. I’ve also released two paper lines with Dream Street Papers and two stamp sets with Inque Boutique.
I live in western Kentucky with my husband, Chris, and two daughters, Cassidy and Cami. A former middle and high school English teacher, I currently work fulltime for a federal education grant at a local state university. When I’m not designing or scrapbooking, I love to read, take photos, travel, camp, scour flea markets and thrift stores, and attend concerts.

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Credits: everything from Audacious Designs: Winterberry (patterned and solid papers, elements, word art); Sketchy Stamped Alpha; TTV Frames; Pieces of Me (elements: notebook paper and messy stitches)

I started off as a paper scrapper. After I had my oldest daughter, I decided to create a small scrapbook album for her grandparents; we lived 6 hours from them and there were lots of everyday things that they never got a chance to see. So I gathered up some of my favorite photos of her and browsed the scrapbooking aisle at Wal-mart. This was back in 1997, so my options were fairly limited: brightly colored patterned papers, stickers, and a spiral-bound 6×6 album. It was nothing fancy, but it achieved my purpose. After completing that project, I didn’t scrap again until 2000 or so. I picked up a copy of Becky Higgins’ Scrapbooking Secrets book and decided to scrap our wedding photos. From that point on, I was hooked. I paper scrapped up until 2006. At that point, I was working with Scrapbook Answers magazine and had gotten a number of hybrid assignments, so I started playing around with some of the options that using my computer gave me. I co-authored a book on hybrid scrapbooking with May Flaum, titled Paper + Pixels, which really made me curious about moving further into the digital realm. Not long after that, I attempted my first digital layout. Slowly but surely (after once claiming that I’d never go digital), I started making the transition from paper to hybrid to fully digital.

Designing just seemed to grow naturally from that point, after I started really learning my program. I was just so excited about all the things I could do, and these ideas started forming in my mind. I started off making templates and handwritten word art, and then progressed to papers and elements.

I love color and pattern and the way that those two things can combine to tell their own little story. A lot of my kit ideas come from little words or phrases that I hear, that spark an idea. Then it’s a matter of finding the right mix between colors, patterns, elements, and those words or phrases. Honestly, I’m not nearly as talented, artistic or program-proficient as a lot of other designers out there. But I work hard to put together kits that take a common theme and add a little bit of humor or whimsy, feature a great color scheme, and keep things simple so that your words and pictures can be the main focus.

I scrap on an HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop with 3 GB of RAM. I also have a 500 GB EHD that we use for backup, and I have a Western Digital Passport EHD with 360 GB of storage that I use for storing my scrapbooking and design files – it’s perfect for the traveling I have to do because it is so small.

I use Photoshop CS (the original version) and PSE 5.0 for designing, as well as CorelDRAW. I know that I should upgrade at some point, but to be honest, there are so many other things that I’d rather spend the money on.

I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50, which is essentially a hybrid – it’s more than a point and shoot, but it’s not quite a dSLR. It does give me the option to shoot in RAW, and I can change lenses on it. It has been a great transitional camera for me, but I would love to upgrade to a true dSLR.

I have a Wacom Bamboo tablet, but my oldest daughter uses it much more than I do. I’m very much a creature of habit when it comes to the way I work, so even though I have some fancier tools and programs available to me, I stick to what I’m most comfortable with.

My favorite product is probably my Chemistry collection (papers, flair, elements, word art, and grids).

It’s one of those instances where a color scheme and a phrase came together perfectly and melded into a really fun take on a love-themed kit.

Here are some of my favorite products by Audrey

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Audrey’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

As a thank you to our readers, Audrey has created this coupon to share with all of us!

I am happy to welcome the amazing Emily Powers to THE DIGI FILES this month!!  Many of us will know and recognize her from her beautiful photography work.  She also has some great digital scrapbooking products!  She contributed some really fun products this month that you can get in The Digi Files EXCLUSIVELY (this will be your only chance at these products):

Look at the really fun things my team created with these products:

Layout by Karen, additional supplies: Dani Mogstad Just Stay Little kit; Ali Edwards word art; Anna Aspnes stitches

Layout by Katie

Layout by Jenn, additional supplies: Explore, Learn, Grow by Sahlin Studio, Font: CK Jot, Chalk Dust

Hybrid project by Sunghee, detailed instructions for this project will be found in July’s Playbook which will be out July 27th.

Layout by SharonS (a reader), additional supplies:  Papers, word art, ribbon: Two Little Pixels Collab, Template: Janet Phillips, Photo overlay: Emily Powers, Acrylic heart: Nikki, Flowers and pearls, Hero Arts, Font: CK Journaling

John Newton once wrote, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” I’m a mom, a wife, an artist, a dog lover, a photographer, a writer, an eternal optimist, a teacher, a limping worshiper, a storyteller, a dreamer, an entrepreneur, a night owl, and a bibliophile. I’m spontaneous, determined, loyal, whimsical, smart, eclectic, organized, passionate, creative, generous, ordinary, and resourceful. Mostly, I’m just me, Em.

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Photo dates are a free and fun way to grow as a photographer. Your community is an oyster; there are pearls hiding in the most unassuming, ordinary places. Grab your camera, head out solo and capture the world around you. Want to experiment with modern portraiture? Invite a significant other, child or friend to model for you. I like to occasionally schedule a photo date with another camera enthusiast and take turns photographing each other’s families; that way I’m in a picture once in awhile too!

Go on a photo date each month and your skills will dramatically improve as you wade outside of your comfort zone and photograph new people, places and things in new ways. Classes, books and workshops are helpful, but they cost money and nothing compares to self-discovery; get out there and engage the craft!

I’ve been scrapbooking, in one form or another, since high school, but I started digital scrapbooking and experimenting with photography in January of 2006, six months after my daughter was born. My sister-in-law, Angela, stumbled onto digital scrapbooking while browsing online. She introduced me to the concept and we both said goodbye to our paper scrapbooking supplies and never looked back.

Addy was my creative catalyst. Every day she changed, grew, moved on to something new and memories slipped between the cracks. I think it’s important to look back at where we’ve been in order to see where we are going. This is one of the primary reasons that I document our journey through photography, art and storytelling. One day, Addelyne will look back. She will know that she was loved and wanted from the very beginning. She’ll be able to trace the themes and stories that crisscross her life. She’ll know where she’s been and that will set her free to see where she’s going.

About a year after I dove into digital scrapbooking and photography, my entrepreneurial mind began to spin. Deann McDaniel, a close friend of Nancy Rowe Janitz, emailed me and suggested Angela and I contact the ScrapArtist owner about selling templates in her store. Long story short, Two Sisters Designs was born. When Deann decided to open her own store, we joined her team of storytellers. At that time, Angela and I also started individually designing digital scrapbooking products. After {We Are} Storytellers closed, I took a six-month hiatus, but then decided to join my good friend Liz Tamanaha at Oscraps.

It’s always been important to me to love what I do and do what I love! I agree with interior designer, Summer Thornton: “If you don’t love what you do, do something else. Even if you have to take a pay-cut, even if you have to ’start over.’ Do whatever it takes to do what you love.”

I’m inspired by my family, particularly my husband and daughter. Matt is my heartbeat. We’ve been high school sweethearts and best friends since the 10th grade. It’s stirring to wake up to your soul mate every day. My daughter, Addelyne Raine, is four-and-a-half. She’s a 3’6” adventure. If Matt is my heart, Addy is my soul. She’s taught me to live moment-by-moment with my eye’s wide open.

My Abba inspires me most of all.

“Welcome, child,” he said.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

“For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak.”

(From Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis)

Blogs are never-ending source of inspiration. There are many blogs I like to pop in and visit every day.

Computer – MacBook Pro, Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Programs – Adobe Creative Suite

Camera – Canon 20D

Printer/Scanner – Epson Stylus Photo RX580

Tablet – Wacom Bamboo

The Hybrid@Home, PHOTOLOGY, Expectantly Yours Kit + Album lines are all my favorite. One example from each is shown below.

The PHOTOLOGY line

Here are some of my favorite products by Emily

Here’s some inspirational layouts using Emily’s products. All of the layouts are linked to the originals with credits.

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

Emily will be leaving digital designing and closing her store at the end of July, the products in THE DIGI FILES this month will not be avilable in her store (so grab them while you can).

As a thank you to our readers, Emily has given us this coupon code to share with all of you!

DD50%OFFEMILY

AMOUNT: 50% OFF YOUR PURCHASE

EXPIRES: SUNDAY, JULY 25

ONE TIME USE.

GOOD ON ALL EMILY POWERS PRODUCTS.

EXCLUDES COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTS.

INCLUDES CU PRODUCTS.

COUPON CODE FOR TWO SHUTTER SISTERS:

DD50%OFF2SIS

AMOUNT: 50% OFF YOUR PURCHASE

EXPIRES: SUNDAY, JULY 25

ONE TIME USE.

GOOD ON ALL TWO SHUTTER SISTERS (ANGELA + EMILY POWERS) PRODUCTS.

EXCLUDES COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTS.

INCLUDES CU PRODUCTS.