Letter From Team Digital - Liz McCoy

Last weekend I had the AWESOME pleasure of attending the DSP Laptop Crop at Adobe Headquarters, San Jose California.

I arrived on Friday afternoon to join fellow Team Members on a tour of Adobe HQ.  What an awesome experience.  To see where the geniuses behind Photoshop (and other software) play…err work was so incredible.  The employees have some very nice perks, like in house workout facility, outdoor patios with a basketball and bocce ball courts, and great café’s.  Along with some absolutely beautiful architecture and interior design, definitely a beautiful place to work.   An interesting note is that Adobe is very earth conscience and has made great strides in constructing their buildings as Green as possible.  The lobbies we saw were well equipped with “tech-y” art installations.

On Friday afternoon Lauren Bavin & Kim Liddiard hosted the DSP Photowalk around San Jose staying close to our hotel and Adobe HQ.  About 40+ Professional photographers, novices, amateurs, and one totally confused wannabe (that’s me) walked around  snapping pictures and having a ball just getting to meet each other.  I stayed right on Kim's heals bugging her with oodles of questions on how to shoot this and that and she was incredibly patient and answered all my questions!!!  I finished the photo walk, beyond excited to have learned something about how to use my camera (that I've have for nearly 5 years!!!!!).  We concluded Friday night with a dinner of about 20 remaining photowalkers and a few of us team members.  You can see some photos and layouts from the weekend in the Adobe Laptop Crop Gallery.

Then came Saturday, CROP DAY!!!  I was so excited. I have never been to a DSP Laptop Crop so I had no clue what I was in for, but I knew I should be excited DSP throws awesome online parties IRL (in real life) parties have to be AWESOME...and it was!!  We had attendees lining up at the door well before 9am and we had people stay a good bit after 9pm.  The Adobe conference room where the crop was held was perfect for the number of people and the set up of the tables and chairs was just right for getting to know your neighbors all around you.  We had some great tutorial presentations by DSP Team Members, learning tips and techniques for all levels of scrappers.  Some of the attendees were honored with their own mini tours as they were invited to participate in focus groups for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  Can you imagine being able to give input directly to the people who matter!!!  What an honor and I hope to see some of their suggestions in future releases!!!  I had heard in the past that some of the Team Members provide great entertainment and had secretly hoped to see some table dancing...well Rene Bross,  Amanda Behrmann, and Meg Beverly definitely did not disappoint with their dance number inspired by the movie Mamma Mia (check out the DSP Blog for video).  I don't know of any other company that is more generous with freebies and prizes than DSP.  There were some really really awesome prizes given out during the crop.  There were Wacom Tablets, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements 6, CD's, T-shirts, Adobe Mousepads, pens, bags.  Everyone who wanted was able to get a 12 x 12 layout printed right there at the crop from the Epson 1900 Wide Format Printer.  Let me tell you I sat right next to that printer and was BLOWN away buy the gorgeous layouts printed throughout the day.  I couldn't believe how well that printer chugged out the FULL color pages one right after the other.  I couldn't believe how fast the day went and how much fun it was!!  I had hoped to get some scrapping done during the crop and I actually did, I was able to get 2 1/2 pages done the whole day (maybe not many pages for you but for me I've met my quota for 2 months!!!! HAHAHA).  There were some members there getting 6+ pages done and successfully chatting and eating and dancing!  Speaking of eating...DSP provided soooooo much food for the crop there was never an opportunity to be hungry the whole day.  Both lunch and dinner were included in the cost of the registration as well as lots of chocolate, soda, chips, cookies, candy, etc.  I couldn't believe all that came with the registration...what a treat!  Let me just say one of the most surreal moments of my life was watching avatars and screen names come to life.  It is so interesting to see "e-maginary friends" become real people! All the people I met were MORE AWESOME in real life than they are online.  Especially those grannies, my goodness they're quite a rowdy bunch :-) 

Sunday morning I headed out of town, still on a high from all the excitement.  I am happy to be home and recouping all the sleep I skipped so I could hang with everyone.  

I am just so thankful and blessed to have been able to attend this event, it was awesome and I highly encourage you to try your hardest to be at the next event whenever or where ever it may be. I look forward to meeting you all sometime soon!  (Maybe next year????)

Liz McCoy
Moderator

(back to the top)

Upcoming 2008 DSP crops and events:

Saturday, August 23 -  Atlanta GA (and Southeast US) Scrapbook Crop  more information on this event here.

Saturday, September 20 - Beaver, Pennsylvania

Monthly Crop – repeats first Friday of every month Troy, Ohio

Please check here for those interested in any crops that may be happening in your area.

(back to the top)

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 each months for you. Post your first layout to DSP this month and you may be a random winner for a free page kit!! You'll find all the information here

Welcome to DSP! We know you will love it!

(back to the top)

Club Digital 

Each month you receive a wonderful selection of scrapbooking products. Something to suit every style and level of digital scrapper.

You will always receive 2 complete page kits, one plopper or an overlay and an alphabet, some great word art and more - a font and a set of png "stamps" for your scrapping pleasure, and don't forget the quick click template included in each club digital pack. Now club digital subscribers get an extra gift of an exclusive coupon for use on future purchases in the store. 

All this for the incredible price of $5.99 or even less!!! Thats well over $23 value for such a great price - The longer you subscribe - the cheaper it becomes and the better value for you!!!!!

Buy a 3 month subscription and go into the draw to be upgraded to a 6 month subscription, by a 6 month and you might win an upgrade to a 12 month subscription, and all those who buy a 12 month sub will go into the draw for a $30 coupon for the DSP store. 

In addition every month there is an exclusive contest for club digital subscribers with great prizes.

This month you are in for a treat. Included are 2 fantastic kits  kits - both funky and fun but one very much all girl with pink and green tones and the other so full of fun unique elements in soft tones . This months plopper is a wonderful bright summery theme and the tiny black bead alphabet  will be one you will use over and over.  Also included are some great  doodley floral  stamps, some family themed word art and another great quick click.  Dont forget the Exclusive font either .

Here are some sample layouts done by our designers with this month's Club Digital!

Click here to subscribe to Club Digital today!

(back to the top)

It's Shop Time! 
Shop Time Inspiration by Erica

It’s time to SHOP… let’s get those baskets at the ready.

** Special on **

 Photobook Creator 

$125.99  $99.99 

Do you want a strong, permanently bound book that uses any type of paper?  Then take a look at Photobook Creator, it uses White or Black unique Photobook covers to create high quality hardbound books at home in just a few seconds and holds up to 40 sheets of 20lb paper!  The Photobook Creator means fast and easy but it doesn’t compromise the elegant look and feel of your albums.  

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works is the family.  ~ Lee Iacocca

Family is the heart and soul of a scrapbooker’s life, whether that family is made up of blood relations, a community of friends or the loving relationship of a pet, it’s what scrapbookers need to feel complete.  In this months Scraps of Life  - We are Family CD you’ll find some stunning designs to suite all your family scrapping needs. Your favourite DSP Designers have contributed to bring you this awesome We Are Family CD – you’ll get over 140 digital scrapbook graphics in 12 individual page kits so you’ll be able to mix and match to your hearts content. And to make your life a little easier we have just the thing, Matching Ploppers. So get those layouts uploaded into the galleries so we can all share in your wonderful family experiences.

Scraps of Life  - We Are Family - Shippable     -    Scraps of Life - We Are Family - Downloadable

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts.  ~ Author Unknown

Don’t forget our August Club Digital is now in the shop, the designers at DSP are the best there are and you get an awesome deal when subscribing to Club Digital – all your favourite designers delivered direct to your inbox at the beginning of each month, can’t get much better than that.

Happy shopping…

 (back to the top)

The Next Step - be sure to check the forum, this starts August 11 thru August 29 - the winner(s) will be announced the week of September 1.  
Keep watching for other upcoming events in August...

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:  Linda Rechtin –  
All for One with Linda
Linda's Designs
Linda's Gallery

Team Letter: Elizabeth McCoy - Moderator 
Elizabeth’s Gallery

Inspiration Station
This is a call to all dedicated DSP scrappers to ‘strut your stuff’ and inspire us with your creations. Just choose any or all of the calls for layouts the current 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.  

This month’s calls will include Purple pages, Pet pages, Crop Pages, White Space pages and more...

Be inspired some more - check out the current edition of  Inspiration Station News 

Click Here for Previous Issues
Click Here for Our Current Calls

Scrap 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.

Get it off Auto – Lauren and Jennifer
Weekly How To basics for everyone who wants to learn more about their camera capabilities.

The Grannies
If you’re a Granny or a Granny In Training (GIT) or just a Wannabee, you might like to see what other Grannies are up to, what challenges they have going. There is never a dull moment when you join this happy band of digi scrappers.

2008 Baby Albums – lianne99 (Tara)
You should go see some of these adorable albums of our future digi scrappers – join Tara and all the other mothers in celebrating your little ones life.

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 gets some really great CC to help you move to your next level of accomplishment.

IOTW - Item of the week – Abby
The Item Of The Week is a 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.

SNL - Saturday Night Live - MarsOlson & Debbers
This is where anyone can create their own digital scrapbook kits to share with other SNL’ers, from elements and papers to word art.

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!

(back to the top)

We are always striving to make our newsletter more interesting and useful. If you have an idea, let us know about it! If it's an article idea, a feature, even something you'd like to write, shout it out to us. So, put your thinking caps on and come up with some new features, article ideas, or something fun you'd like to see in our monthly newsletter. Then email it to comments@dsplace.com. (Please type "Newsletter IDEA" in the subject line of your email.) We can't wait to see your ideas!

(back to the top)

Newsletter Freebie

Exclusively for our newsletter readers, DSP Designer, Linda Rechtin has created this gorgeous Plopper! Grab it here! Thanks Linda!

(back to the top)