October 2011 – Page 2 – The Daily Digi

October 22, 2011November 27, 2013

Digital Scrapbooking Looks Like…

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Digital scrapbooking can take many forms, and as we always emphasize here at The Daily Digi, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to digi scrap. We love all styles and types of digital pages and we regularly encourage our readers to scrap the way that makes them happy. Today, I (Katie) thought it would be fun to show you several different layouts from our flickr gallery and SHOW you all the things digital scrapbooking can be. I love every one of them!

(all images are linked for credits)

I love the big photo background with smaller framed pictures on this layout by SharonS. Her clever placement of embellishments really add a great finishing touch to the page.

I’m in awe of this page FILLED with tv show images by neeceebee and I love the perfectly imperfect shapes combined with the pennant banners.

This page by Bethanny10 captures such sweet photos and I love the font she used for the titlework. Classic colors, clean design, and great journaling, make this page fantastic!

Pages without photos are a fun way to document a memory and we have some serious Mario addicts in our house as well. Crystalbella_77 created such a fun and whimsical layout by using bright colors and shapes to illustrate the story.

Green Horned Unicorn (Antonia Krajicek) makes great use of white space on this layout to give the page an uncluttered and peaceful feeling. The dark background with white and pastel accents really show off the beautiful black and white photo.

Documenting the everyday events and memories is such a practical, and enjoyable way to digi scrap real life. I love how oaklanefarm was able to include a week’s worth of photos in a visually pleasing format and still have plenty of room for journaling and fun embellishments.

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How many lists do we make in life? Sarahpinklime shows us how breaking up the pieces of a list can be a creative way to digi scrap.

The photo is definitely the star of sharongrey8’s layout, but if you look closely, you will see all sorts of creative details around the edges. Digital scrapbooking is a wonderful way to emphasize beautiful photography.

Candid pictures can sometimes give us a better glimpse into someone’s personality than a formal photo. I love the filmstrip feeling of the photos along the edge of missbizibee’s page. The patterned papers are a fun way to illustrate the theme.

Our memories are pieced together throughout our lives like a quilt, so I love the slightly wonky look of Lauren Reid’s collection of photos, papers, and embellishments placed on this page. The patterns are so whimsical and fun, and the layout feels lighthearted and joyful.

I love seeing creations from other digi scrappers. I think it’s wonderful that there are countless ways to express and share our treasured memories. I hope you will find inspiration from one of the layouts in this post, or from one of the thousands of pages shared in our flickr group. Then take that inspiration and turn it into something you can share with others!

katie big

October 21, 2011November 27, 2013

First Stop on Friday

When I (Katie) write the Funtastic Friday posts, I always end up stopping and shopping along the way so it takes me quite a bit of time to put them together. However, I can hardly call it “work” since I have so much fun with it all! When it’s Steph’s turn to post on Friday, it’s always my very first stop of the day so I can see all the good things that digiland has to offer that day. I know many of you have told us that the Funtastic Friday posts are your first stop of the day as well. So let’s get on with the fun stuff! Smile

Elise Piece’s latest release, Shabby Black & White, is full of amazing elements and papers! This kit is perfect for highlighting classy black and white photos or for making your color picture layouts really pop.

Scrap autumn layouts with lush colors and gorgeous patterned papers, plenty of flowers & leaves, and even some animals in this new kit by Tracey Monette at 9th & Bloom.

Ready to rip and tear your photos and papers?! These imperfectly perfect cutting tools will make it a snap! Be sure to check out the great sale!

Antique Autumn is 20% off for one week, and the coordinating Antique Autumn Wordy Bits are free with the purchase of the kit through October 27.

If you are searching for large kits to complete an album or if you just love to have plenty of choice of papers and elements when scrapping be sure to check Iara’s store. All collections are on sale through Nov 1st.

O’Halloween is a collection of wickedly good papers and elements inspired by the frightfully fun season of Halloween.

Suzy Q Scraps has a new collab this week with Meredith Cardall, a beautiful digital scrapbook kit perfect for scrapbooking about loved ones who have passed on, funeral services, & difficult times.

Celebrate your Little Guy with this FUN Boy Kit: Planes, Trains and Automobiles by Mari Koegelenberg Creations NOW Available at The Digichick. Save 20% NOW Through Friday.

Mye De Leon has this fabulous Fall/Thanksgiving kit! Grab it at 20% off for 1 week only!

Baseball, by Heather T. @ MScraps, is just about that–with fun papers, unique masks, & and a large, scribbly alpha!

Chelle’s Creations has a new release for the week -A Tu Tu Cute Bundle! Plus the release of Girlfriend.

Liz has a new set of templates out that have places for LOTS of photos. Be sure to check them out & here is a freebie she has to coordinate with her new release. Just go on over to her blog to grab the freebie & see the new release!

Studio Rosey Posey’s new Conundrum collection includes the full kit plus alpha, stacked papers, clusters and solid papers. Conundrum is absolutely fabulous for scrapping those heritage photos! If you love vintage and shabby the kit is great for your everyday family photos too!

Check out this cool new action and brush set from Wendyzine!

Here are a few more goodies that caught my eye this week:

I have a special place in my heart for this kit because it’s been designed with love for Melissa Lewis, a Daily Digi team member who is fighting ovarian cancer. Here’s what the Lily Pad designers have to say about this kit:

The Pad designers all teamed-up to create this kit filled with love, beauty and above all, hope. This collection was designed with our good friend Melissa Lewis in our hearts. Melissa is battling cancer and we wanted to send her and her family a positive message to let her know that she is not alone. All proceeds from the sale of this collection will be donated to Melissa and her sweet family. 🙂

Happy Friday everyone!

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P.S. Michelle Huegel was the random winner chosen from the comments in yesterday’s feature post on Secret Stash. She won $10 in product from Secret Stash.

October 20, 2011November 27, 2013

Secret Stash: Add a Pinch of Curiosity

DesignersStudio

It was love at first site when I first stumbled upon Secret Stash! I felt like I had just discovered an amazing “secret stash” of awesome digital scrapbooking supplies and I couldn’t wait to share them with our readers. I love the beautiful eclectic designs that come together in a cohesive collection because they are so well designed. Erin’s ability to create a gorgeous collection that is cohesive in theme and color is something to be admired. Let’s take a closer look at “Authenticity” that is included in The Digi Files this month:

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This is just ONE of the huge collections you get when you purchase The Digi Files by becoming a member. Here are some layouts created using Secret Stash Designs’ contribution:
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Layout by Karen. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs.

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Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Beautiful You template by Che Yang.

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Layout by Anne. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Fonts: District Thin.

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Layout by Miss Kim. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Fonts: Letter Gothic.

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Layout by Lauren. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs.

You can see more layouts created with this kit on our “Team Inspiration” page.

InTheStudioWith
Hi, my name is Erin, better known as Secret Stash Designs or misserin in the forums. I began digital scrapbooking over 4 years ago and have been designing for over 3 years. I was born and raised in WI, and yes I do very much like cheese. Not a cheesehead though! I live here with my boyfriend and two kids. My son is four and my daughter is eight. We all really enjoy it here. The summers are hot and there’s lot of things to do. The winters are killer! But my kids really like the snow, so I’ll endure it I suppose! In my spare time I like to read tons of books and learn photography (key word being LEARN!).

STORE

WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

designerscanvas3 Included is a layout of my son, Maddox when he turned 4. I feel proud of this one because I took the photos myself with my newly learned DSLR skills and overall, I spent a good amount of time tweaking my page. Maddox LOVES trains so I took him to an old abandoned train site that acts as a landmark in a neighboring town and I was so happy about the shots we got that day! This is definitely one of my favorite layouts so far.

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Watch Me Grow by Damayanti Studio and Cucciola Designs.

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I have dabbled in paper scrapbooking in the past, but paper and glue have never been my forte. I’ve always loved computers and gadgets though….just technology in general. I had joined a website for moms, and they had lots of different groups you could be a part of. I went for several photo editing groups and began learning how to really tweak my photos. We did tons of crazy edits and contests. So I was creating these photo collages, and while searching for little graphics here and there that I could use on my collages, I started hearing more and more about digital scrapbooking. I started downloading kits and, well, I was pretty hooked to say the least! With my love of technology combined with my newfound hobby, then add a pinch of curiousity… well, I was wondering how the designs were made pretty much from the get-go.

inspirestocreate3 Many many things. Books, commercials, movies…my kids give me silly ideas all the time! I do try to think of things that I’d want to have for scrapping my own personal moments. And for whatever reason, some of the best ideas often come to me while soaking in the bathtub. Maybe it’s because it’s one time of the day when I can have some quiet and relaxation. Whatever the reason, when I’m in a creative funk, I know it must be bathtime…

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Computer: I use an HP desktop with Windows 7 and 6 GB of ram, with a 19 inch flat screen monitor, that, despite it’s size, I can sit really close to and press my nose up against when I’m designing.

Programs: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge & Adobe Illustrator

Camera: Nikon D5000 with 18-55mm lens and 55-200mm lens

Everything Else: I have a smaller Wacom Bamboo tablet…I’d really like a bigger fancier one, but this one still works very well.

tipstricks
I love keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop. Often times, I find that I want to move 2 or more items on my layout or in a design to the same spot, at the same time. A good example would be if I had a framed photo on a page and decided I wanted both items to go somewhere else. It takes more effort to move them one by one across the page and to get them placed properly again. But if I press ctrl on my keyboard while selecting each layer I’d like to move in the layers panel, I can then select multiple layers at the same time and move them, rotate them, etc. That’s a big shortcut for me that I use ALL the time!

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Extraordinary. I really like the poppin’ color scheme and overall I really enjoyed myself creating it. The ideas were flowing freely while I was working on it, and that’s always a good feeling.

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Here are some of my favorite products by Secret Stash:

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

Go have a look in Secret Stash’s store! We will randomly select a winner from the comments to win $10.00 in product from her store! (Comments must be posted before midnight EST to qualify)!

Save 30% on your next order at Secret Stash during the month of October with coupon code digi30off.

October 20, 2011November 27, 2013

Inspired by Secret Stash

The following layouts were created using AUTHENTICY by Secret Stash and included in The Digi Files during October.

Layout by SharonS, additional supplies: Template: Trixie Scraps, Fonts: Smiley Monster, CK Handprint, CK Fluid

Layout by Aaron

Layout by Jenn

Layout by Patti

Layout by Cvetana

Layout by Lela

Layout by Rena

Layout by Cheryl

Layout by Melanie

Layout by Karen. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs.

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Beautiful You template by Che Yang.

Layout by Anne. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Fonts: District Thin.

Layout by Miss Kim. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs; Fonts: Letter Gothic.

Layout by Lauren. Supplies: Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs.

October 19, 2011November 27, 2013

Digi Scrapping Your Job

It might surprise you to find out that I (Katie) used to sell food to schools and hospitals. I journaled about the experience on the layout above. Here’s what I wrote:

Right after I finished up my degree in English from the University of Utah, I went to work full time at my Dad’s food brokerage firm in sales. I was an account specialist who sold to schools and hospitals. I spent a lot of time selling chicken nuggets, ranch dressing, cereal, and corn dogs, along with a variety of other products. In this picture, I was working at a booth at a school food show and demonstrating State Fair mini corn dogs. I spent a lot of time running samples to the buyers in schools and hospitals so they could try out different items. I also called on them regularly to maintain a good relationship and let them know about new products. Most of the purchasing was handled through a bidding process because they were such large and competitive accounts. My role was more related to communication and problem solving, but I also had some good results. The biggest sale I ever made was an entire truckload of cereal to the Jordan School District. Overall, the item I probably showed and sold most frequently was State Fair brand corn dogs.

I spent every weekday for a few years of my life focused on the job of selling these products to my customers. It was a big part of my life at the time, but many of the people who know me now, have no idea that I ever held this job. I’ve held many other jobs in my life such as; Resident Assistant in a dorm, Customer Service Representative, Bookkeeper, Technical Seamstress, Writer, and more. Each one of these experiences has shaped me as a person and had an impact on my life (and also the lives of some of my family members). However, I have never created a scrapbook layout about any of my jobs until I wrote this post! How can it be that so much of my life has gone undocumented?”

When I asked around in our team forum, I found that I wasn’t alone in this neglect. Many of our team members expressed that they have always meant to create some pages about their work (or a family member’s job) but had never gotten around to it. I was thrilled when a few team members had some pages to share about their own work experiences!

Anne said “I work full time at a (couple) of local churches, so I might have a different kind of job to many others – but this is how I’ve scrapped a few pages of it. I should really make more pages, this is a big part of my life.“

Kim said “I teach early childhood special education and due to confidentiality issues, I can’t scrapbook my students (although I’d sometimes love to capture their quirks and triumphs). Instead, I scrapbook my classroom. These are cell phone photos I took after my room was decorated but before my students arrived because it will never look this nice again. Our school mascot is a star, so I took that theme and ran with it. I also used the same kit as I had used to create many of my classroom decorations (flash cards and subway art for the bulletin boards).”

Trina said “Here’s one about my dh’s work – he won Bakery Manager of the Year so I had to do a page about it. I had to take the picture from the flyer, which no one saved me so I found it online and did a screen shot from it.”

Want to scrap about work? Here are some fun prompts and tips to get you started:

Write down a list of all the jobs you’ve ever had. You can start with the early ones like babysitting or paper routes, or focus on jobs that you’ve had after the age of 18 (or pick another milestone like college graduation). Even if you don’t scrap about all of those individual jobs, you will at least have some documentation of your work history.
Take a camera to work with you sometimes soon. A phone camera, or a small point-and-shoot won’t be very disruptive to the work environment and it provide some great visuals to add to a layout. Be sure to capture the daily scenes and people of your everyday work life. You will be surprised at how much those photos will mean to you down the road!
If you don’t currently work, but scrap for someone who does, encourage them to take a camera to work. Or arrange to meet them for lunch one day and bring your camera along. Take a few snapshots of them in the work environment. This way they can just blame it on you the “crazy scrapper” and they don’t have to feel self-conscious about documenting their routines. This is especially helpful when documenting men in the workplace. I know my husband would feel a little awkward about taking pictures at work, but he doesn’t mind (too much) if I come by and shoot a few.
When conversing with co-workers, ask them about what they like/disklike about their jobs. It will give you an opportunity to think about the same topics and give you some great journaling information.
Make a timeline of how your career has changed over the years. Have you switched jobs frequently? Have you stayed with the same company? What types of advancements have you earned?
Think about what your dream job would be and scrap or journal about it. It’s ok to dream a little!

When you consider the amount of time we spend working in our lives, it’s easy to see that these experiences definitely should have a place in our memory albums. It will be meaningful as years pass to be able to look back on your time in the workforce. Your friends and family will also learn a lot more about you and appreciate your shared memories.

katie big

October 18, 2011November 27, 2013

Organize your bookmarks

When’s the last time you cleaned out your bookmarks on your computer? Do you have an organized system for bookmarking ideas and articles that you want to revisit at a later time? If you are like many internet users, you have bookmarks scattered all over the place. It’s tempting just to add a link to a favorites list, or throw it into a bookmark browser, but if you put a little thought into organizing a system, you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle down the road. A few years ago, I (Katie) just haphazardly added links to my bookmark bar. Now I’m very organized with how I save bookmarks!

I’m a firm believer in using folders to organize bookmarks. As you can see in the image above, I only have 2 saved links that are not filed in a folder. Everything else is grouped and categorized. Here’s my approach to bookmark organization:

USE YOUR TOOLBAR WISELY

Learn how to create folders in your bookmark bar and find tips for managing bookmarks in your browser of choice.

I keep only the basics bookmarked in my toolbar to keep it clutter-free and useful. I have several folders that help keep me on track. My most helpful folder is the “DAILY” one and I’ve spent time whittling it down to include only the sites that I must visit each and every day. I’ll let you take a peek inside so you can see how I’ve set it up.

This is the only folder of mine that is not organized alphabetically. Instead, this folder is arranged by an order of how I should prioritize my daily tasks.

I always start my day by reviewing my calendar since that will influence everything else I do that day. I use Google Calendar which you can read about here.
Checking my email is also a top priority. I use gmail. I’m a Google girl! You can read about my email management system here.
Next stop is the Digital Scrapbooking Inspiration Flickr group. Steph and I approve all images before they post to the group to keep out any possible ads and inappropriate content. This means I need to visit this site a few times each day. Here’s more information about Flickr.
K12 is our virtual academy (homeschool) website. I need to log in every weekday.
The Daily Digi is this website. I log in every day to be sure that my post is up if it was my turn, or to read anyone else’s posts. I never miss a day, unless I’m stuck camping in the wilderness. lol!
TDD team is a link to the team forum for The Daily Digi. We are always working behind the scenes on great stuff for YOU! That’s another daily stop on the internet for me.
Scrapbooklady refers to my own blog scrapbookladypages.com – I always double check my posts and follow the comments.
Family refers to a personal blog for my own family members.
Toy stands for Toy to the World which is a blog I share with my kids dedicated to our love of Legos and other fun things.
The Pinterest link is my place for a little “me time” each day. There may be days when I skip this one, but that makes me sad to do so. You can read my Pinterest tutorial here for more information.
Hootsuite is the best site I’ve found for using and managing Twitter. It’s the only way I use Twitter! You can follow The Daily Digi on Twitter right here. We also have a Twitter tutorial here for more information. I’m on twitter almost every day. I do slow down my twitter posts or even take a break on the weekends.
Facebook is the place where I go to interact with many online friends and keep up on digi news. You can connect with The Daily Digi and The Digi Show on facebook.
The Digi Show is the website for the podcast that we do each week. I try to visit this site each day to keep up on comments from listeners. You can get updates about new episodes by signing up here.
Capture Your 365 is Katrina Kennedy’s website for her 365 community. I’m participating in a new project 365 during the school year so I’m trying to visit this site each day. I have fallen behind lately though. You can read about Project 365 and other fun alternatives in this post.
Google Reader is the final stop on my daily bookmarks to visit list. There are many days when I never get to this one, but I like to keep it in my daily file in hopes that I will keep up with my blog reading by doing a little each day. I read A LOT of blogs so I can stay informed about digi happenings. I also just love to read blogs! Here’s some more information about Google Reader.

I’m not going to take you through the rest of my folders, but I have used a similar thought process in putting each of them together. Every folder has links to regular tasks I need to do for that subject. These are used ONLY for frequently visited links. I will discuss the “pin it” and “read it later” later on in this post.

SYNC OR BACKUP YOUR BOOKMARK BAR

Your bookmarks are only useful if you have some way to access them from other computers and/or a way to back them up. Part of the reason I never used to put much thought into my bookmarking system is because I had lost several collections over the years when I upgraded computers or had a hardware crash. I also didn’t like that I could only use them on my home computer. Bookmarking technology has greatly improved over the last few years and there is no reason why you can’t keep your favorite links safe and available to use anytime. Google Chrome lets me sync by bookmarks and I can easily access them anytime I sign into my Google account. I know Firefox has similar benefits. There are work-around ways to sync bookmarks/favorites in any browser using third-party apps such as dropbox and xmarks.

USE ONLINE BOOKMARKING SITES

One of the reasons I can keep my browser toolbar so neat and organized is because I make good use of several online bookmarking sites. You could certainly argue that it might make more sense to just keep everything in one place, and there is nothing wrong with taking that approach. I have found that online bookmarking serves a different purpose for me than saving a favorite in my browser. Again, I use my toolbar to bookmark the things I use on a very regular basis. It is the quickest and most practical way for me to access those frequent links. External sites for bookmarking are helpful to me for other reasons, especially because I save thousands of articles, images, and ideas! There are many great sites such as Evernote (one of Steph’s favorites) and StumbleUpon, but there are 3 sites that I love and use the very most to help me keep track of everything I want to save.

Delicious. I’ve posted about Delicious before and I will still sing it’s praises. I’ve used this site for several years. This is where I file about 50% of the links I want to save. Before Pinterest came along, I used Delicious more like 98% of the time. I currently have 2,944 links in my account but that doesn’t overwhelm me because every one of them is tagged and easy to find. I keep all of Delicious bookmarks private since I post a lot of writing and blog ideas there, but you can also choose to share your links with an audience if you would like to. They’ve recently introduced stacks to make the site more visually appealing (and I believe also to compete with Pinterest). I can access the links I’ve saved from any computer just by logging into my account.

Pinterest. It’s been amazing to see how this site has spread like wildfire through the digital scrapbooking community! I’ve posted about Pinterest before and I’m still just as passionate about it today as I was when I first discovered it. I love that site! I would guess that I’m saving about 45% of all the links I want to bookmark to Pinterest now. I currently have 1,462 pins in my account and I add more every day. I love that it’s like a visual directory of recipes, project ideas, and inspiration. It’s also fun that I can share my finds with others! The social aspect of Pinterest is very rewarding for me. You get to “pin” things to your board instead of “bookmarking” them, but it really is the same thing. It’s just bookmarking made fun!

Instapaper. This is a relatively new addition for me. The reason I like Instapaper is because it syncs across several platforms (computer, iPhone, and iPad for me). It’s like file folder to stick things in that you just can’t read right that minute, but plan to review soon. It’s not meant for keeping track of thousand of links. It’s not a tool to organize and tag large collections of web pages, it’s meant to store links that you would like to read once and then discard. It would become unwieldy to use this as your only bookmarking tool. Instapaper fills a gap that all these other tools have left behind. Delicious fills about 50% of my bookmarking needs. Pinterest fills about 45% of my needs. My toolbar bookmarks are home to about 4% of my other links (albeit, the very most important ones!) so that always left me with some links that didn’t fit anywhere. I didn’t want to go to the effort to add a url to Delicious, Pinterest, or even file it in my folders if I just wanted to review it later. I used to always just bookmark those pages in a folder called “misc.” but I rarely got back to them. Now that I can access these saved links on devices like my iPhone and iPad, as well as my computer, I’m actually reading the articles I’ve been saving for later. When I see that the list is getting too long, I know I need to spend some time reading the saved items.

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

Not everyone will need to be saving thousands of links to refer to. Because I create content for a few blogs, a podcast, online classes, tutorials, and more, I need to keep track of a lot of information. I also homeschool 2 teenagers and have many other interests and responsibilities in my everyday life that mean I can use a lot of internet inspiration. If you are a more casual internet user, you might not need as many resources. There is no right or wrong way to create an organized bookmarking method, the key is to find a system that works for you and stick with it! It’s not as difficult as it seems – in fact it took me A LOT longer to write this post than I usually ever spend on keeping my bookmarks organized! Now that I have my own methods established, it is all very automatic. It’s also a very worthwhile task because I have easy access to the many wonderful things I find online!

katie big

P.S. Theresa was the random winner chosen from the comments left in yesterday’s post. She won $10 in product from Girl Boy Girl Designs!

October 17, 2011November 27, 2013

Girl Boy Girl Designs: And Four Chickens

DesignersStudio

Jen from Girl Boy Girl desings really knows how to rock the boy kits! She creates many of her own paper pieced elements that you can find inside her kits. We are excited to have her with us in The Digi Files this month with a bold and bright collection called “Roboto”. Let’s take a closer look at “Roboto” that is included in The Digi Files this month:

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Here are some layouts created using Girl Boy Girl Designs’ contribution:

LO3

Layout by Lauren. Supplies: Roboto by Girl Boy Girl Designs; Fonts: Arsenal White.

LO1

Layout by Jackie. Supplies: Roboto by Girl Boy Girl Designs.

Layout by Karen. Supplies: Roboto by Girl Boy Girl Designs; Bliss alpha by Lauren Reid; Template by Amy Martin.

Layout by SharonS, additional supplies: Template: Simply Tiffany Studios, Font: {Skinny} Jeans

InTheStudioWith
I’m Jen(nifer) Balding. I’ve almost always lived in Oklahoma, and will probably die here, too. I’ve been married for 17 years and have 3 kiddos (Clare is 12, Cameron is 11, and Caitlin is 9). We also have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 fish, a hermit crab, some kind of lizzard, and 4 chickens!!

FUNKY PLAYGROUND

GOTTAPIXEL

BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

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LOMM
howitallstarted3
I started paper scrapbooking years ago with Creative Memories. I soon started adding my own custom titles, journaling etc. that I had done on the computer to my layouts. Then I stumbled across Shabby Princess – OH EM GEE! At first I didn’t get digi-scrapping, but I printed out papers and elements for my traditional layouts, then digi finally “clicked.” Talk about HEAVEN-like everyone else, I was instantly addicted. I can’t leave my paper supplies behind, though, I love them too much, so hybrid is a perfect fit for me. I’m not sure exactly how I started designing-I just did-and although I love having my families memories recorded, I enjoy designing more than scrapping, I’m weird that way!

inspirestocreate3
I am literally inspired by EVERYTHING! Napkins, songs, color combos, things my kids say-the list goes on and on.

toolbox3
I have a Dell windows XP (I think – I/m so not computer literate) – 6 GB of ram and running out of storage space. I use photoshop CS3, artrage, and freehand (totally old-school). And I have a cheapie Genius drawing tablet. I use a canon rebel xti, and would really love to take some photography classes to learn how to really use it. I also have a CanoScan 8800F scanner-and who could forget my Cricut cutter and SCAL software – it’s my newest toy and I have sooo much fun with it!

tipstricks
You can change your shortcut keys in photoshop!! Just go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Find whatever you want to do and create your own shortcut. Things that you do ALL THE TIME may not have a preset shortcut, so create your own. Saves me a ton of time.

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My fav product-that one is so hard-usually it’s the product that I’m working on.

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Stick Kids

Here are some of my favorite products by Girl Boy Girl:

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

Go have a look in Girl Boy Girl’s store! We will randomly select a winner from the comments to win $10.00 in product from one of her stores! (Comments must be posted before midnight EST to qualify)!

Both of Girl Boy Girl Designs’ stores are 30% for the entire month of October!

October 16, 2011November 27, 2013

Why I Don’t Delete Photos (and why you might want to stop)

I rarely delete photos. There are a couple of reasons I have made this choice:
1) I would rather spend that time scrapping
2) I feel like digital photo technology is in its infancy and you never know what the next development will be.

A week or so ago, I was smacked in the face with the reality of the amazing new developments yet to come when I saw a video of sneak peeks from Adobe at Adobe Max. The sneak peeks are developments they are working on for future releases of Photoshop. The video below shows the Unblurring Tool they are working on in action. That’s right a tool in Photoshop that will unblur photos! The video is a little hard to see, but watch and listen to the audience gasp in amazement. Remember that this audience is filled with true Photoshop Geeks. I would imagine it would take something pretty impressive to cause the reaction this effect got.

October 15, 2011November 27, 2013

Custom Calendars the Digi Scrapping Way

Calendar topper by Dani Mogstad and Cindy Schneider available at Sweet Shoppe

Digital scrapbookers love to create calendars of all shapes and sizes for themselves and for gifts. I thought I would post today and share some of my favorite calendars as well as my digital workflow when I create calendars. It seems that each year I discover something new that helps me get these created pretty quickly.

This is not the first time I have posted on this topic (and surely won’t be the last…lol), here are some of the posts from the past (each one includes some tips):

Fall of 2010
Fall of 2009

Workflow

Here’s a quick look at my digital workflow when creating my calendars. I always do toppers (with matching bottoms) and some CD calendars as well. If you are new to digital and need a step-by-step how to, scroll down to the bottom of this post for a video.

Products

We found some very unique products from around digiland, let’s take a look…

These are the calendars that I used in my video and above:

This one has a coupon for 20% off for TDD readers: 2012_20%_TDD expires 11.1.11

Now you can easily create an artsy calendar/layouts. This product are combination between art template with calendar. You can use it as calendar or scrapbook albums. Easy to modify to suit with your style.

Mye De Leon has these awesome and versatile calendar collections in various sizes – 8 1/2×11 wall calendars, 4×8 note calendars (perfect for bookmarks!) and 5×6 CD calendars! Available for 30% Off for the whole month of October at her personal store – Digital Scrap Shop.

A digital scrapbooking calendar set by Melissa Bennett. Get an early start on your gifts this year!! I have the new 2012 calendar set done. Each page is 8 1/2 x 11 and ready for you pictures and will make scrapping your memories easy!

Designs by Lili has a great tool for creating your own calendar overlays. For personal and commercial use!

The 2012 kit includes everything you need to put together a beautiful calendar that you’ll love to have displayed all year long. The kit includes a customizable calendar cover and a set of coordinating gift tags (also customizable!). The calendar is available in both the US format (Sunday – Saturday and the European format (Monday – Sunday).

If you’re looking for fast, easy gifts, then give the Calendar Quick Pages a try. (Calendar Quick Pages cater to US seasons/holidays). If you’re not in the US, or if you’d like to customize your calendar, then try the Pocket Calendar Kit – You can choose which of the 14 backgrounds to use for each month, place the month titles, grids and elements of your choice on each page to create a truly custom Pocket Calendar.

So Much to Remember and Do by Michelle Batton are fun, doodled monthly stamps (including a leap year February) that can be used to remember activities, birthdays, special events or appointments and can be used on your month-in-review layouts, desktops or printable projects. More brand new 2012 calendars can be found in Michelle’s store.

These calendars are 12×18 when finished. Simply open one of the calendar templates, slide in your already-completed 12×12 layout, decorate your calendar bottom– using the same kit you used for your page or another one altogether. Then, print your 12×18 pages. After that month is over, simply cut off the bottom strip and the binding strip and slip your 12×12 layouts into an album. This makes a perfect gift for family and friends, or even yourself!

Printing

As far as printing goes, I can only talk about what I have tried. Last year, I looked all over for somewhere that printed custom calendar bottoms. I emailed just about every printer that offers calendar printing. I found out that Mpix does allow custom designed bottoms, but you have to download their software and order through that in order to get the customization feature. If you try to just upload on their site, it won’t work. I used them for printing last year and will use them again this year.

Typically, I have printed my CD calendars at Costco and cut them myself but last year, I discovered that Persnickety Prints will print them, cut them, and send them with a CD case all for around $10. Great deal and they do a great job printing. You will want to download their template first though, to make sure your sizing is right, not all CD calendars in digiland are the same size (I couldn’t find the template on their site, but will link to it when they send it over).

Tutorial

If you don’t know how to use calendar quick pages, here is a step-by-step tutorial for you:

I love creating digital calendars and if I could think of more people that might want one of my family, I would make a bunch! They are super fun and really great gifts!

What about you, will you be creating calendars this year?

October 14, 2011November 27, 2013

Every Friday Is Funtastic

Two great re-releases this week in Chelle’s shop! Perfect for those football games and all your craft projects! Also, check out the CT call Chelle is having right now!

Jennifer Labre has a sweet and girly new kit out today. Grab Paisley Princess for 20% off all weekend! Also make sure to check out the ScrapMatters clearance sale – select items at 50% off!

I {heart} Collection!
65 flairs, 25 papers, 3 templates only $6.79 (save 41%!)

For a limited time, get some spooktacular Halloween Party Printables from Danielle Young for FREE with $3 purchase of her designs at Oscraps!

Cindy Schneider has a new template freebie on her Facebook page, perfect for scrapping lots of photos!

Liz has a new set of hybrid envelope templates for you. These are so easy & fun to use. The coin envelope is great for holding gift cards & the mini-envelope is great for gift tags. The CD envelope would be fun to personalize & go with a CD of your digital scrapbook pages. You could even give them as gifts.

Have a dazzling Halloween with this new kit from Secret Stash! With over 60 elements, this kit is not only chock full of all the delicious spookiness you’d expect, but also comes with plenty of everyday necessities to making scrapping a cinch. Plus, for one week only, you will receive all the coordinating Bewitching Extras free with your purchase of the kit! 20% off Friday and Saturday!

Kaye Winiecki is introducing a new product line on Friday . . . some digital stamps. They will be 31% OFF all weekend. Great for card makers!

The 2011 Fall CatScrap Catwalk Collection was just released this week:

This sort of messy, hand-lettered alpha by Michelle Batton looks like it would be a lot of fun!

Wendy released a new set of Scrap It actions this week. And, she’s giving The Daily Digi readers a bonus 10% coupon on top of the special introductory price (good through 10-31-11)! This set of actions will lead you through creating a 20-page album. (There are templates included for those afflicted with actionophobia.)

Danielle Engebretson has this adorable Halloween kit as well as a coordinating freebie on her blog:

Heather T.’ newest kit is FILLED (packed, bursting, overflowing) with luscious patterned papers & unique elements–perfect for documenting the more elegant times of your life! Make sure to pick up the coordinating alpha on her blog, too!

Anna BV Designs has an exclusive coupon code for Daily Digi readers and it will give you 10% off her Spook Alley bundle, or any of the individual products included in the bundle.

The Lily Pad and Oscraps have a giant collab you will probably want to grab:

NettioDesigns released a brand-new set of FAVE-O-RITES templates this week which are 20% off thru today.

Studio Rosey Posey has a special coupon for The Daily Digi readers on her new collection “About You”.
Warm neutral colours make this a very versatile kit to have in your stash!
Use code: DD4YOUSRP to save an extra 20% off the collection!
code expires October 16, 2011

Kate Hadfield has a new set of Halloween themed printables out today at The Lilypad that would add a touch of spooky fun to your parties and trick or treating! As part of the Lilypad’s Halloween Bash, all Halloween products are 31% off all weekend!

If you concentrate, you can just smell the cooling season with the rich hues and damp textures and walks in the rain with plans for warm pie in the making…just a lovely stopover somewhere lost between summer and winter.
Includes: 7 patterned papers, 7 solid papers, 67 elements, 8 word art, 20 art bits, 1 alpha, 1 card art kit, and a 16 page bracket album with bonus title page. Packs also available for individual sale.

We released a new episode of The Digi Show last night. It was a super fun and very geeky discussion all about our hardware and software for digiscrapping. I did a little creative editing this go around too 😉

Be sure to check out The Digi Files if you aren’t a member; it really is the best deal in digital scrapbooking.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow, I’ll be posting our annual calendar post and I’m sure you won’t want to miss it!

P.S. The random winner chosen from the comments from Zoe’s feature yesterday was Majda who won $10 in product from Zoe! 🙂