There are tons of great deals on digital scrapbooking websites, you just need to know where to look!
1. Set up an email address just for scrapbooking.
2. Once you set up an account with a digital site, you will have access to freebies. The best sites I have found are: Shabby Princess, Designer Digitals, Scrapartist, and Little Dreamer Designs.
3. Sign up for newsletters and weekly adds from your favorite sites.
4. Make a wish list at your favorite sites so that when you are searching for that right kit you’ll already have some favorites to choose from.
5. Watch for big sales around the holidays, lots of sites have 40-50% off (also national scrapbook day).
6. Little dreamer has $1 Wednesday -you can get great products and kits for a buck. Scrapartist has Fab Friday -they have great deals on super cute stuff. Designer Digitals has three freebies every Saturday and a .25 Thursday item.
7. Have fun and start building a stash now!

Scanned Scrapbook Page

Scanned Scrapbook Page

We offer a 12×12 scanning service using the Epson Expression 10000XL- Photo scanner. This high quality scanner can scan 3D items, even above the glass and allow great quality scans of your chunky elements! Scan your albums and have them safely preserved, printed, or made into a DVD!

Advantages:

1. Safely preserve your precious memories from damage or fire.

2. Share your albums and layouts with your children, family and friends by having your scanned pages printed, put on disc or uploaded to your facebook page!

Quality:

1. The Epson Scanner is so great, I have scanned pages with Jolee’s Boutique items and you can’t tell the difference from the scanned and printed page and the original-you’ll have to touch it!

2. Because it has a 12×18 flat bed, you can scan heritage items that are oversize.

3. The fine details like the texture on a solid paper stay true and make the scan look like the original!

For more information and pricing, klik on the “scanning” page.

It’s time to get out and get active….taking photos! It was a long winter and I can say that my creativity froze along with the falling temperatures! Well, spring is here and it’s time to get reenergized and get scrapping. Some helpful hints for spring photos:

1. Pay attention to the light source-don’t take the photo with the sun directly behind your subject. If you are shooting people, be careful that they are not not looking right into the sun, causing them to squint!

2. If you are taking Easter or Passover pictures, don’t just take photos of the people, take interesting pictures of the elements that make up your celebration. i.e. flowers, baskets or sedar plate. These will make great supporting photos for your layout.

3. Did you go somewhere special? Take a photo of the sign, home or invitation (or scan) to remember where your celebration took place.

4. Make it interesting and take some close-ups and funky angles.

Have fun and record the beautiful creation and feasts that our Maker made for us to enjoy!

I had so much fun using the “knocking on winter’s door” kit to make this holiday card! I added a glitter snowflake that we made in previous years by scanning it and dropping a shadow behind (to the right of the Stafford tag). I also scanned the star of david ornament that my son made for Chanukah and placed that next to the 2008 tag. My oldest son took the picture of the two of us together and we snapped the boys outside near our fence…with a sheet draped over. Our youngest was healing from the chicken pox, so the photoshop elements healing tool came in handy to get rid of the “pox”. He was wondering if I could also erase them off of his face, too bad they haven’t come up with that technology yet! Costco made it easy to upload and have the 5×7’s printed, just like any photo that you would bebdeveloped….I just love digital scrapbooking!

Have a wonderful holiday celebrating God’s faithfulness. Praise Him for sending the Messiah of Israel in order to make peace between God and man. The Messiah for all nations, making His salvation a light to all the earth giving eternal blessings to all who trust in Yeshua-Jesus!

Yesterday I was blessed to be a vendor at a huge paper scrap crop to help fight against breast cancer. The gals in Avon’s Taboob team (isn’t that so cute?) put on a fantastic event to include cropping, vendor’s and great donated prizes. I was the only full time digiscrapper there, but I was able to show some ladies what all the excitement is about! I was also launching my “Keep it digi” business for scanning 12×12 pages. It’s 3D capabilitis were excellent. I put so much time and effort (not to mention money) putting my paper pages together, so I am excited to now safely store them digitally out of harms way.

I am sorry to say that many of the ladies took one look at the computer and walked as far away from my table as possible. I hope that they will someday realize that paper scrappers too need the Photoshop Elements photo organizer! I will be having photo organization crops so that we can all learn the software better and keep all of the thousands of photos at an easy reach.

Digiscrapping is the way for me, I love how quick and easy it is. I can reproduce my pages instantly and make as many books as I want. I will definately be making lots of “photo” gifts and cards for the upcoming holidays. If you aren’t so sure about all of the “computer” stuff, let me assure you that after 3 crop/lessons you will be well on your way.

I was introduced to Photoshop Elements in August of 2007 and at that time I was so computer illiterate that I could not even open an email attachment! I really started digital scrapbooking in December of 2007 (7months ago) and have taught myself how to use the program. I realize that it will not be as easy for everyone to get into the digital groove, but the hard work was worth the feeling of accomplishment!

I started my digiklik studio business in order to have the girls over for laptop crops. I want to teach the program and provide a beautifully decorated, fun, and “scrap” free place to work on preserving our memories.

If you are not sure that Elements 6.0 is the best digiscrapbooking program, just look in the magazines or google it, you will find that it is the industry standard (with the exception of full photoshop). You can be as simple or as creative as you want; there are no gimmicks that trap you into proprietary digi-elements.

I don’t sell this product, but I do recommend it because I hate to see people getting started in a program that will not grow with your future creativity. To see some of my digi layouts, check out the gallery tab in the navigation bar.

I ask this question because I realize that many of my friends are paralyzed when it comes to technology! My son is entering the 5th grade this year and has already made a couple of digital scrapbook pages! It is really not that hard if you give it a try.

I am offering instructions and laptop crops to make it easier to transition into the digital world. There are so many great templates out there to get you started so that you will look like a pro even before you know what you are doing.

Digital Scrapbooking will sharpen your mind while you are having fun & preserving your family memories. Learning technology can be fun if you have great layouts to prove your progress. Give it a try…………..my 5th grader did it, you can too!

How many times have you gone on a family trip and realized when you got home that you only had close up photos of your kids and no backdrop of your location or all backdrop and tiny people! I just went on a trip to Disney and Sea World and took about 600 pictures! On this trip I decided ahead of time to make sure to take photos of my surroundings (with no people) and lots of close ups of the ones I love! The key is to get context…my layout of the kids swimming at the pool will have a seperate picture of the beautiful clubhouse and palm trees. I also took close up photos at “Minnie’s house” in Toon Town, I was able to crop the fun “paintbrushes” in her art room and use them as a page element! I even took close ups of the adorable ride signs at Sea World and will crop those to use on the page of them riding that ride!

Most of my photos of the kids are close up, catching their excited expressions.  I am delighted that I did not end up with a bunch of pictures where my children are tiny dots. With the separate “location” photo, I don’t  have to lose my background just to zoom in on the kids! Get creative and take lots of closeups of flowers, architecture, landscape or even a sand toy at the beach and make your own unique decorative elements that have meaning! With digital, it opens a whole new world of opportunity using the selection, zoom and crop tools.

Look for some of the layouts from our trip in the coming weeks in my gallery.

Today in the wacky world of mothering 4 boys, I found myself up at 5:45am in long johns and five layers of clothing! Today was “homeschool day” at the ski slope two hours from our home. This year I took my 4th grader and my 1st grader and left the five and three year old with my husband (who works from home). It was a long day, but so much fun! It is great to get out of the routine once in a while and let loose.

Here are three things that I tried today and highly recommend:

1. Get yourself a pink spiky hat…it’s fun, and the kids can see you from anywhere! (my spikes are 8″ long and the front of the hat says “mental”…which is embarrassingly true!)

2. Hike any distance to get a photo…even if you are putting your life in the “skis” of out of control beginners (you can’t miss getting the shots of their first ski…I consider myself a rebel)

3. Make sure to yell “yeeee haaaaa” at the top of your lungs . This was the best feeling, I highly recommend it. For those of you who do not live in the South you can just say “waaaaah whooooo,” I bet it will give the same desired effect.

Have fun when fun happens! Love ya, Mama

I love, love, love all the fabulous designs and colors of all the elements and backgrounds that I can choose from to make the perfect digital layout. I enjoy searching galleries and seeing all the countless ways to make a unique design out of the same freebie web challenge!

Imagine the creativity of our Creator! He is an artist, just like you and me. He loves the unique; His creations are special and designed for a specific purpose. He made it all for us to enjoy! I hope that you will take a look around you and see all the creativity made by the Hands of the Father who loves us enough to make such beauty for our delight!

Isaiah 45:18