I remember the first December that I was a digital scrapbooker (2005) and I was sort of surprised at how many fun things went on in digiland during the month of December. Six years later, it’s snowballed to become a month filled with sales, freebies, events, and more to help us all countdown through the holiday season. There are many more virtual goodies to enjoy and a lot of ways to find them. It can be a bit overwhelming, especially if it’s your first holiday season in digi, so I’ll share the methods that I use to keep track of it all.
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTERS
If you have a favorite digi store (or several of them) now is a good time to be sure you are subscribed to their newsletters. Many free gifts, sales, and bonus items are announced through newsletters and they are usually the very best way to find out what’s going on at that site. I subscribe to the Scrap Orchard newsletter so I’m receiving daily news this month about which one of their designers is having a 50% off sale that day.
Many individual designers also send out newsletters so be sure to subscribe to your favorites!
VISIT THE STOREFRONT OF YOUR FAVORITE SITE REGULARLY
Some stores will post their daily happenings right on the main page of their storefront. You can also keep track of the newest products added to the site by checking the main page of the store. Catscrap is a site that I make sure to visit each day in December for their annual Advent Calendar event.
Several other digi sites do an advent sale of featuring a different category or designer each day.
CHECK SHOP FORUMS
I don’t hang out in forums as much as I used to, but I make an extra effort to visit a few favorites during this time of year so I can participate in some of the events and contests. For me, it’s just a fun little treat to enjoy. This year, I was excited to find this Pinterest Cookie Party put together by The Lily Pad. I’ve had fun with this challenge because it made me gather up 5 of my tried-and-true holiday favorites to add to my Pinterest boards. I can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!
Forums are also a great place to hear about what other scrappers are finding on the site.
READ BLOGS
Many stores and designers have blogs where they post about their latest promotions. O Scraps has been promoting their 12 Days O Christmas on their blog so I check it each day to find out what deals are going on.
WATCH SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter and Facebook have given us more ways to share our digi finds with each other. Even if you don’t want to post on twitter or facebook, you can still use them as tools for keeping track of special deals and giveaways. I had almost forgotten about the annual cookie exchange (free templates) at the Sweet Shoppe until I saw this tweet
Of course, the best resource I have for keeping up on digi stuff is The Daily Digi twitter feed. Steph does a great job of tweeting and retweeting all the good things a digi scrapper needs to know about!
RELY ON US
We eat, sleep, and breathe all things digi so let us help you out! Our Funtastic Friday posts are always full of the latest news and products and we will have posts all month long that will help you stay in touch with the digital scrapbooking community. We do the hard work of finding resources and ideas so you don’t have to! You might want to even bookmark this post to refer to throughout the month. Here are some December fun things you’ll want to know about:
Inspiration:
- Plant Your Story – Documenting December posts
- December Daily – see our post, check out our pinboard, and follow along with Ali on her blog
- December 365 Inspiration list from Katrina Kennedy
- Organize Your December Album by Theme – Anna Aspnes guest post on Get It Scrapped
Sales:
- After Five Designs will be having a 12 Days of Christmas sale starting on December 13th and going through Christmas Eve. We will have a different surprise sale every day that can only be revealed by clicking on the date on our special Christmas tree that will be on the front page of our store.
- The Lily Pad December Deals– a different category of products on sale each day
- Scrap Orchard Advent – a different designer on sale each day until Christmas
Twelve Days of Christmas:
- Connie Prince is doing a 12 days of Christmas (12 Days of Freebies) on her blog from December 12-24.
- Twelve Days O Christmas on the O Scraps blog
- Mari Koegelenberg still has her 12 Days of Christmas category up on her blog from last year if you are looking for some great inspiration.
Free Goodies:
- Sweet Shoppe Designs Cookie Exchange – a free template to download every day every day in December. Or buy the whole pack and donate to a great charity!
- CatScrap Advent Calendar – different gifts to download every day until Christmas
- Template a day Holiday Album from Roadside Designs
- Twenty-five days of free gifts from Darcy Baldwin
- Free PDF of holiday scrapping ideas from Nettio Designs
As always, we’ll keep you updated if we find more December digi fun to share!