Letter
From Team Digital
I think
Spring is just about here! All around my house I see leaves budding and
trees blossoming, daffodils with their happy yellow faces, and delicate
hyacinths blooming (a particular favorite of mine). I love the feeling
of Spring, the rebirth and the joy, the sensation of a fresh new start.
A lot of us feel energized, some of us do the whole “spring cleaning”
routine, others start a new exercise regime, still others take on new
hobbies or begin their gardening.
Thinking along these lines, it would also be a great time of year to shake up your scrapbooking too! You could try something fresh and new, perhaps a technique or style that you’ve long been admiring and simply hadn’t had the time to try. Or you could dust off some photos that you’ve been wanting to scrap but just had neither the time nor the inspiration, and make a fresh start with them. If you normally scrap square layouts, you might possibly put together a shaped album, or make a small memory book in a different size. Whatever you choose to do, it’s the perfect time of year for it, dive right in and channel that newfound burst of Spring Fever into something clever and creative!
Becky
Soto
DSP Designer
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It is a wonderful opportunity to ask questions about DSP and digital scrapbooking. Whether it’s a question about navigating the site or how to get started, the girls are on hand to give you some answers. And everyone who attends the chat will get a link to a free kit! Trying out digital Scrapbooking for the first time? Use your free kit and try your hand at a layout . . . we know you will love it!! More details here including how to use the chat room!
Are you thinking about posting your first layout? There's a special first layout challenge for you. Post your first layout to DSP this month and you may be a random winner for a free page kit!!
Welcome to DSP! We
know you will love it!
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Club
Digital
Are you a member of the club?
Want monthly content delivered straight to your email inbox? Club
Digital is the deal for you! Snag this month's content while you can.
It won't be available again for a quite a while and then you will pay
a premium price. The only way to get this month's content now is to buy
a subscription.
April's Club Digital Content will delight you with its great range of content to get some spring colour and modern styling into your layouts. This months content includes:
- Melon and Ginger Page Kit
- You Are Page kit
- Outdoor Experiences Plopper
- Carved Clock Alpha
- Funky Frame Stamps (PNG Format)
- Spring Alliterations Word Art
- DSP Font - DSP Shelly
- Three on Three Quick Click
Here are some sample layouts done by our designers with this month's Club Digital!
Click here to subscribe to Club Digital today!
Featured
Designer: Lauren Bavin
April
will mark the 4th Birthday of DSP. Those 4 years have certainly flown
by for me but they have also marked a complete change in my life. Whilst
I had been a digital scrapbook designer before joining DSP it was very
much a part time "hobby" job. In fact I joke about the fact
that my husband still calls this my "pretend" job and asks
( now jokingly ) when I am going to get a "real" job.
I certainly had dreams and goals 4 years ago - I dreamed that I could earn more than pocket money doing what I loved. I dreamed that I could spend my days scrapbooking on my computer and that I could share my passion with others. I dreamed that maybe - perhaps- one day I might even get to the USA to meet up with some of the people I was working for and maybe even meet some of the members of the site.
Well 4 years and 5 trips to the USA later those dreams are more than a reality for me and my passion for digital scrapbooking and DSP has not waned one bit. In fact with each trip, and each laptop crop where I meet up with the incredible members we have here at DSP my enthusiasm grows.
Many of the members here, have become more than customers, more than faceless names in a chat room, they have become my life long friends and I know this experience is a common one at DSP.
DSP is not just a business, it is a community full of passionate, and devoted people who truly care about the other members and this is what makes it such a unique and irreplaceable part of my life .
And with that I raise my glass and would like to propose a toast - to you the DSP community. Thank you for your contribution to making my dreams come true. I hope in some small way we can do the same for you.
Cheers,
Lauren
Bavin
DSP Senior Designer
(Be sure to check the bottom of the newsletter for a special freebie
from Lauren to our newsletter readers!)
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Member
Spotlight: scamptx
The Spotlight
Member for the month of April is the ever fabulous Shirley, or, as you
may know her, scamptx! Her gallery
is packed with an eye-catching array of super creative layouts. Check
out her amazing heritage pages, or take a peek at the adorable grandchild,
and right around the corner something surprising could pop up, you never
know what she's going to scrap about!
Read more about Shirley here and see her wonderful gallery here. Then be sure to check out the April Scraplift the Spotlight Challenge!
Thank you for being
our April Spotlight Member!
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It's
Shop Time!
It’s time to
SHOP …let’s get those baskets at the ready.
Shop Time Inspiration by Erica
DSP
4th Birthday Celebrations… 31st of March until April 5th
Be sure to keep a look out for some awesome goodies in the shop.
“Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.” ~James Thurber
Sometimes it can seem like little boys (and not so little boys) get a raw deal when it comes to ‘things’ made especially for them. I know when I go shopping for clothes for my grandson there’s always many more racks of clothing for little girls! And I had a hard time of it at Christmas when looking for an Action Man type figure for Lee, plenty of Barbies of course. So I was elated when I discovered the new All Boy CD in the shop. Being the proud Grandma that I am, I’m always ready to show of a new layout of my darling grandson and what better way than with this wonderful new CD. Lee loves anything that involves movement; running, biking, swimming etc, a typical boy really!! You’ll find wonderful kits full of just the right theme and colour combination for the men in your life – big and small. Have you checked out the Boy/Masculine theme gallery lately, you’ll find lots more kits plus some awesome word art, ploppers, alphas and wow – loads more ideas.
“Boys are God's way of telling you that your house is too neat!” Author Unknown
Happy Shopping…
Here is just a peek at some of the kits you get on the All Boy CD.
Scraps
of Life : All Boy
Scraps
of Life: All Boy Downloadable
Digi-Scrapper
Inspiration by Mandy
Birthday Cards, Invitations, Thank You Notes and beyond…
Don't waste money - use your DSP goodies and create something special.
In today's world of mass-produced products, your digital scrapbook skills can, and should be put to good use. Why pay good money for those ghastly preprinted invitations, and those lackluster, generic, birthday cards? Rather use your DSP goodies to create something that will be unique and special. You effort is likely to be appreciated and possibly even a talking point for those that see it.
There are lovely card kits and craft kits and templates in the DSP store for you to personalize. Another option is to do a mini layout that you will print out 6x4 sized.
I
have a confession to make. I love birthdays. NOT my own of course, but
my children's. Generally my birthday parties were very low-key. The
birthday party I remember best was one organized by one of my mother's
friends, with party games that were fun. Because of that, I try to make
each of my children's birthdays special.
For children's parties, I choose my kits and elements to match the party theme, using the kit and elements for: the invitations; printed out on labels for the party packs; and for the thank you notes. DSP kits have even come to my rescue when my children have wanted a party with a theme I know was unavailable in the shops.
The
cherry on the top is the cake. I save the layout I used for the invitation
(or modify it slightly) onto a CD and take to the craft/cake shop where
the layout is printed out using edible ink on icing to make a personalized,
unique birthday cake! My children love seeing their faces and the layout
on the cake - and usually their friends are amazed too! (A word of caution:
If the child's face features prominently on the invitation, it is vital
to establish if the child is going to have a problem with their face
being sliced up and someone eating their eyes - before you turn it into
a cake!)
If you are stumped for a design idea, consider a template. If you really like a 12x12 layout, but want to print out postcard sized 6x4 invitations, you can adapt the design to meet your needs. The only consideration is that you need to choose a simple design with only a single, or couple of photographs for the card. Anything fussy or cluttered will not have the same impact on a small scale! Even a simple timesaving groupie works beautifully with the addition of a matching background and some word art!
Your digital scrapbooking supplies are also a fantastic treasure trove for making birthday, anniversary, Christmas or cards for any occasion that will stand out from the rest, and best of all, you can use the money you would have spent on those purchases to buy some new kits - and not even feel guilty!
Top Tips
-
When creating a layout that will be printed 6x4, I choose to open a 12x8 document to work in - and resize when I am happy with the finished layout. I do this to save resizing individual elements and backgrounds from kits, groupies and templates that are created for 12x12 layouts. When working with templates though, you will have to move and position the layers to suit a different sized/shaped layout - but even this is not difficult to do. When I am happy with the layout, I merge, re-size and save-as a different name - which allows me to go back and edit easily, should I ever need to.
-
Create your own 'Plopper' Thank You card that you can simply plop photos of the party guests behind and print out 6x4.
- Check out Megs class on Card Making: Digital to Hybrid - DSU193
Digi-Scrapper
Inspiration by Meg
Weeding Through the Photos!
If your family is like mine, for each holiday and birthday
you have a huge file full of photos. If you're like me, the sheer
number of photos is so overwhelming you put off making layouts of those
events. My scrapbook albums are full of pages of everyday moments, but
only one or two per year of the big, photo-filled events. Add to that,
the fact that I am usually not the one behind the camera if I'm busy
organizing kids and food and presents. So the photos taken are an assortment
taken from someone else's point of view. All one hundred and ninety
six of them.
That's right, I have 196 photos of my daughter's birthday celebrations this year. Yikes! So how do you wade through that many photos and come out the other end with a layout that truly represents the day? In my opinion, it's all about focus. I went through my photos and put aside all the ones that were of my daughter's friends, her brother, etc. I wanted to make a page that was all about her and her experience. Since food (or rather cake) is a big part of our celebrations, I chose a couple of pictures of the decorated cake and cupcakes. Then I chose a few pictures of my daughter that represented different activities of the day.
You
always, of course, have the option of making a two-page layout or multiple
pages with many photos, but I wanted a representative single page layout
that captured the essence of the day. And for me, that means adding
journaling. Together with the five photos I had chosen, I wrote quick,
list-style journaling of the fun things she experienced throughout the
day. Tucking that in beside the photos really gave all the details the
page needed. Later I may go back to do pages showing her friends playing
or her brother eating only the frosting off the cupcakes, but they weren't
the focus of the story I wanted to convey. Her story was all about energy,
and love, and fun. And it only took five of the available 196 photos
to tell that story well.
So next time you have a file full of photos and don't know where to
start, choose the focus of your story first. Then go quickly through
your photos to weed out the ones that are truly necessary for that
story. Have fun!
For
more inspiration be sure to check out the DSP
Blog and sign up for the DSP
Store Newsletter! (To receive the store newsletter, after logging
into the store,
click on My Account. Scroll down to Email Notifications and click on
subscribe to newsletter and be sure you are checked to receive the emails.)
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Inspiration
Station Calls
INSPIRATION
– A stimulus
to creativity in thought or action.
This
is a call to all dedicated DSP scrapper to ‘strut your stuff’
and inspire us with your creations. Just choose any or all of the calls
for layouts this month and you could be showcased in our Newsletter or
Blog. We have a few rules
so check them out and then join in the fun.
Calls this month
will include ones for April Club Digital and the new All Boy CD. Also
look for the color green, shabby style, boys, and birthdays to be featured!
Check out the Inspiration
Station for all the details and the deadlines!
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When I first joined DSP I just wanted to devour every little bit of information I could; what’s happening at DSP I wondered? This is the first place I looked and I was blown away, this page is packed full of information and from here you can check out the Daily, Weekly or Monthly activities and all the challenges that DSP has going on.
Coming Events
DSP 4th Birthday Celebrations: 31 of March until April 5
A week filled with fun forum challenges and contests. Birthday week wraps up with an entire day of chats Saturday, April 5. Look out for the thread in the forum with all the fun details.Are you a Trend Setter? Sign up deadline 3 April.
What makes a trendsetter? Someone that initiates or popularizes a trend using creative and new techniques.
What are we looking for? Layouts that follow solid design principles or break those rules in an inventive way. Gallery appeal is paramount. We're looking for new, fresh ideas. Layouts that make the viewer stop, look, and say - yes, that's something I want to do! Something that I want to learn! A layout that will inspire the viewer to push themselves to new levels.
Even if you don't sign-up, be sure to check out the layouts for plenty of inspiration!
Contests, Challenges and Chats
Designer Exclusives: Our Designers are the best there are and they are really generous, if you enter one of their challenges you’re more than likely to receive a chat and/or posting bonus just by using their nominated kit for the challenge. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain – like more stash for less bucks with these great challenges.
Featured Newsletter Designer: Lauren Bavin - Gimme More Crops
Lauren’s Designs
Lauren’s GalleryTeam Letter: Becky Soto – Becky’s Chats and Challenges
Becky’s Designs
Becky’s GalleryScrap with the DET – Digital Elite Team and DET Alumni
Our past and current Elite group of scrappers have some great challenges going at the moment and you’re sure to get well chosen CC should you need it – learn from the best.Featured Designer Challenge – FormbyGirl and Cathiemarie (Luvaducks)
This challenge uses, exclusively, items from the Designer of the Month featured in the DSP Monthly Newsletter. You get posting bonus for the amount of LO’s you create and there’s also a random draw for a free page kit at the end of the month.A Year of Memories 2008 – With Mandy (mandy@netlive)
This is a year long scrapping adventure, scrapping your year/your family's year/your child's school year/your home/nature/pets - but on a monthly basis...DET Boot Camp – Run fortnightly with different leaders
This is great training ground for all DET hopefuls; it’s about honing your skills ready for the next DET Contest. It’s also the place if you just want to get some really great CC to help you move to your next level of accomplishment.IOTW - Item Of The Week with Abby
The Item Of The Week is priced to sell and generally cost only a few cents so create a LO using only the IOTW and be in the draw to win a free kit.
This is just a small selection of popular challenges that DSP currently has running but be sure to check all of them out here. And we have a special blinkie to place in your signature to always remind you where to find the best scrapbooking challenges on the web. Check the end of the first post in the What's Happening thread for the blinkie code.
Happy Scrapping!
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It's officially spring and I couldn't be more excited. Flowers blooming, birds singing, and my kids get to go outside and play! Here at DSU spring has brought something else really exciting- a new class by Kim Liddiard! We are debuting DSU120- Adobe Lightroom 1.3: Creative Photo Editing and Organization. This class is running in April and if you haven't signed up for it, late registration will continue through April 5th.
For more information about DSU120 or any of the other classes we are offering, please visit our classes page.
To sign up for our classes, please register here.
Here is our line up of classes for May. Make plans to take one of these now!
-
DSU130 -Corel Paint Shop Pro: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
-
DSU160 -Adobe Photoshop Elements: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
-
DSU221 - Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements: Montage (Pre-requisites: DSU 110/160 , DSU 220/270)
-
DSU231 -Corel/Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Creating Digital Elements for Beginners (Pre-requisite DSU130 or similar experience)
-
DSU361- Adobe Photoshop Elements: Creating Digital Elements for Advanced Users (Prerequisite DSU 261)
We would love to hear your suggestions on future classes! Send your suggestions and comments to me at dsu@digitalscrapbookplace.com.
Amber
Dean of DSU
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Desktop
Calendar PlopperA newsletter exclusive! Specially designed ploppers for your computer desktop. This month's offering is by Lauren Bavin made mostly from her beautiful Paper Posies page kit. Download the plopper here! (Both 1024x768 and 800x600 are included.)
And just like any
of our ploppers, put your photos on a layer underneath the desktop plopper.
Angle and size them as you please, add journaling, and save it as a
jpg. Then update your desktop wallpaper background by browsing to your
new image! Voilà! Favorite photos matched with this month's calendar
to help keep you up-to-date all month! Look for a new one each month
in our newsletter!
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All new members receive a free gift. Feel free to pass this on to your friends!
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