Creativity: May it last forever!

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." I have definitely been experiencing that thrill lately! My ideas for new products are flying fast and furious right now! It is all I can do to keep up with them! I hope you are enjoying this spurt of creativity as much as I am!

Today I am pleased to launch Page Ruffles, Volume 2: Glitter.

Following close on the heels of Page Ruffles, Volume 1, “Page Ruffles, Volume 2: Glitter,” by DreamScrapper, are perfectly unique elements to add that finishing glitz to your layouts! These glitter page ruffles come in your favorite three styles: kraft paper, denim and quad paper. Each style comes in six fun colors: blue, green, lilac, turquoise, pink, and orange. The page ruffles measure just shy of 12 inches to allow the presence of a drop shadow to show on your layout, but they may easily be enlarged to the edges of your layout without loss in quality. What can you do with page ruffles? Resize and layer them, mix and match them, rotate them, shrink them and use as frames . . . the possibilities are endless! Be sure to check out Page Ruffles, Volume 1 for even more fun. Thank you to Tandika Star and DigiScrapDesigner for items used in the creation of this product.

If you haven't yet bought either volume of Page Ruffles, I have bundled the two together so that you may save!

Of course, I have a sweet little FREEBIE for you to go with this new release. Click on the image below to download.

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I also found some time to scrap this week, and used my new kit, Denim 'n' Daisies as well as one of my page ruffles from Volume 1 to create the following layout. To show you how versatile the page ruffles can be, I decided that I wanted a page ruffle for this layout, but I wanted to use it as a frame. I duplicated the distressed quad paper ruffle a few times and then moved the pieces and used masking to create a new page ruffle that was frame size. Once I had what I needed, I merged the pieces together into one frame and then added my shadowing. This was necessary or else the shadowing would not have looked right where the pieces of the frame overlapped.

Click image for larger size and full credits.

I also have some beautiful layouts to share with you from both my Dream Team and by a customer.

By Kayre

Click image for full credits.

By Kristin

Click image for full credits.

By Cat Hotelling

Credits - Everything from Denim 'n' Daisies except for the unknown background paper.

Thanks for sending me your layout, Cat! I love to see what my customers have created.

Denim 'n' Daisies

“Denim ‘n’ Daisies,” by DreamScrapper, is a casual spring kit, perfect for all your everyday scrapbooking layouts! The kit colors include denim blues, daisy white, pristine pink, and a splash of spring green. Eight denim papers with a variety of overlay designs are included in faded, regular, dark and pink denim. Papers are created at 12" by 12" at 300ppi and saved as high-quality jpg files ensuring excellent print quality. Contained in "Denim ‘n’ Daisies" you will find a lace page border with inner bracket shape, a glittered denim page ruffle, an patterned blue enamel set of brackets, daisy-patterned clear acrylic brackets, a lovely page width ribbon and bow combo, a braided cord in three colors, matching cord bow in three colors, a lace bracket matte, a fluffy pink bow adorned with blue daisies perfect to wrap around the bracket matte or your favorite frame, daisies in blue, pink, and white, a unique bracket shaped frame, adorned with flowers and with an acrylic insert, a frayed denim journal spot, two jewelry tags, and two button adorned tags. Some elements come in both shadowed and unshadowed versions. Completing this page kit is a daisy patterned acrylic alpha. Special tip sheet details how to use a drop shadow style for best results. Alpha has a complete upper and lowercase set, numerals 0 to 9, as well as 11 other punctuation marks. Alpha is provided as individual letters so you may open only those that you need. If preferred, a single alpha sheet can be provided upon request. All elements are created at 300ppi and saved as png files to preserve transparency. Drop shadows are applied only where layering of pieces makes shadowing necessary for realism. Special thanks to Atomic Cupcake. Thank you to Tandika Star and DigiScrapDesigner for items used in the creation of this product.

Finally, I have a little Word Art FREEBIE for you! Click image to download.

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How to Make a Designer's Day

Over on Digishoptalk, a question was posed to the designers as to whether they would enjoy receiving an email from a customer showing them a layout that had been created using the designer's products. The reason that this person was enquiring was because she doesn't really post her layouts to a galleries online because she doesn't want to have to keep track of all the designer credits.

Several designers, including myself, responded positively to her question. Being able to see what others have done with a product we have created is a very joyful experience!

Cat Hotelling sent me a lovely layout that she created using my new Page Ruffles, Volume 1.

Credits: background paper - Wallpaper_1 happyscrappy.jpg; doodle at the bottom - Vanilla Designz doodles32.png; doodles added to the frame - ornament2.png

Thank you, Cat! I really appreciated seeing what you had created with my designs!

What about the rest of you? How about sending me either a link to a layout in a online gallery or an attached image in an email? If you do email me, please resize the image so that it is no larger than 600 x 600 pixels. If you are not sure how to do this, email me first and I will guide you through the process.

Go ahead. Make my day. :)

Sketches: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

Back in October, I wrote Using Sketches as a Launching Point For Your Layout, a review of a book that I found useful in creating layouts. Just yesterday I picked up another useful resource on sketches - an issue of Scrapbooks Etc. by Better Homes and Gardens.

This is one of the BEST scrapbooking resources I have seen in awhile. This magazine would be suitable for both paper and digital scrappers and starts off by explaining the anatomy of a sketch. It also points out that sketches are invaluable because layout styles may come and go but the sketch, as the building block of a layout, can be reused over and over by changing the sketch's rotation, embellishments, and/or paper choice.

The magazine details how to scraplift any layout by identifying its underlying structure and then make it your own by stretching it or shrinking it to fit your desired scrapping size and modifying it according to your scrapping style. It shows several examples of layouts using the same basic sketch yet making it look completely different each time! Both paper and digital layouts are featured in this issue.

Most useful to paper scrappers is the fact that the photo spots in the sketches have the size detailed so that you can print or crop your photos to fit the layout.

The issue offers a summary of all the sketches contained in the magazine with accompanying page numbers so you can quickly flip to the pages detailing the sketch.

If you have ever wanted to use sketches to help you in your scrapbooking, don't miss getting this magazine! I picked mine up at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg for $15.95 but you can get it at Amazon or other major retailers. This magazine will prove a useful tool in your scrapbooking arsenal.

Add the Finishing Touch to Your Layouts!

“Page Ruffles, Volume I,” by DreamScrapper, are unique elements, perfect to finish off your favorite layouts! The page ruffles come in five styles: kraft paper, newspaper, ruled paper, quad paper, and denim. Each style comes in both a pristine and a distressed finish. In addition, there is a matching inner section for each ruffle that comes separately to allow you to mix and match! The page ruffles measure just shy of 12 inches to allow the presence of a drop shadow to show on your layout, but they may easily be enlarged to the edges of your layout without loss in quality. What can you do with page ruffles? Resize and layer them, mix and match them, rotate them, shrink them and use as frames . . . the possibilities are endless! Show me what you can do with your very own Page Ruffles! Thank you to Tandika Star and DigiScrapDesigner for items used in the creation of this product.

Check below to see some of the many ways you can use Page Ruffles in your layouts! Click images for full credits.

In addition to this new release, I have a very special FREEBIE for you! Click on the image below to download. Special thanks to Darcy Baldwin @TheDigichick.com for the font used in the preview.

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I would love to see what you do with Page Ruffles! Please send me a link to your layouts.

Scrapbooking: Full Circle?

When I first took up paper scrapbooking, over 10 years ago, I was totally excited! Going to the local scrapbooking store was like going to the candy store for me! I enjoyed browsing through all the new papers, punches, adhesives, as well as being intrigued with different techniques such as chalking. I accumulated quite a stash of papers, punches, pens and other scrapbooking paraphernalia. Of course, books and magazines were also a must-have items!

Though I never took a scrapbooking class or even attended a "crop," I enjoyed exploring on my own through books and magazines on the topic. No technique was too hard for me . . . if I liked something, I dove right in! This included using an X-acto knife to cut out the spaces between a lattice background paper so it really looked like lattice as well as experimenting with vellum and other varied techniques. I completed a very nice wedding album for my parents with my new scrapbooking knowledge and was very pleased with my accomplishment!

After awhile, getting out all the supplies just to have to put them all away again because our dining room table was needed for such a mundane thing as EATING, my scrapbooking took a back seat to other pursuits.

Purchasing my first digital camera in 2000 and later joining a local camera club in 2003 when I bought my second digital camera firmly entrenched me in the digital world. From exploring the Internet, I learned about digital scrapbooking. Since I was already very knowledgeable in Photoshop, digital scrapbooking became the perfect fit for me! There was no mess to clean up so that our family could eat and digital meant never having to "mess up" a page because of that handy Undo button!

Unlike paper scrapbooking, I did take some courses in digital scrapbooking. Since books on digital were almost non-existent at the time, online classes were the way to go. I also completed a wealth of tutorials found at different digi sites and hung around the many digital scrapbooking forums to learn even more tips to improve my digital layouts. I have even attended a paper "crop" where I took my laptop, extra monitor, and EHD to scrap with, even though I was the only digital scrapper in attendance!

As I became more and more adept at digital layouts, I started teaching digital scrapbooking classes, in real life, through Continuing Education courses. Everyone I talked to and everywhere I went I promoted digital scrapbooking!

Just last September, I took the leap and became both an online store owner and a designer. This has been a very exciting and rewarding pursuit!

As I continued to pursue my love for digital scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking finally seemed to ARRIVE in the print world! More and more magazines carried articles on digital scrapbooking and even one magazine dedicated to digital scrapbooking arrived on the scene! It was interesting to see layouts in the magazine done by some of my fellow online scrappers!

Talking to paper scrapbooking store employees, several were now aware of digital scrapbooking. Eventually, with the help of CHA, digital scrapbooking really started to make an impact on scrapbooking store owners. For the first time, I started to see digital scrapbooking CDs and books arrive in the stores . . . and these contained more than just clip art!

Conversely, in the digital scrapbooking world, the newest trend seems to be toward Hybrid scrapbooking . . . the combination of both digital and paper scrapbooking techniques. The stores are overflowing now with Bracket and Luggage Tag albums (as well as many others) that are designed to be adhered to the Basic Grey or Maya Road chipboard albums using various adhesives. Real embellishments can also be adhered to these completed pages. As well, several other hybrid projects seem to abound.

So, it has taken such a long time for us digiscrappers to get digital scrapbooking recognized and yet now it seems that we are returning, at least somewhat, to paper scrapbooking! Is this a bad thing? I don't think so. Will I be returning to paper scrapbooking? I may dabble with various hybrid projects but my love for digi is a strong one so I feel that most of my scrapbooking will still be done on the computer. However, scrapbooking is a creative and rewarding hobby, no matter how you complete the pages so enjoy it!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject! Leave me a comment below.

NSD Round-Up

Well, what a whirlwind weekend! The forum at DST was constantly changing with the many posts about freebies, sales, contests and chatter . . . it was hard to keep up with it all! DST had several layout contests and I found it very useful to bookmark the threads so that I could go back and note several unique and imaginative layouts for future scraplifting.

There was a lot of new product released, on sale, and lots of other great sales across the digi world. Here's a roundup of my purchases during the weekend.

Won't this alpha be great for scrapping heritage layouts? You can find it at CG Essentials.

Another cute alpha I couldn't resist. This one is from Scrap Kitten.

Next, I went organic and picked up this great collection of leaves from PickleBerryPop. I look forward to using these on a number of layouts, combined with the many flowers in my collection!

These cute acrylic borders caught my eye as soon as I saw them advertised on DST. They were available at Elemental Scraps. Won't they be fun to use?

More borders attracted me, this time by Flergs and MGL Scraps. These coordinate with her new kit, What Dreams May Come, and are available at Scrapbook Graphics.

Of course, I had to have the matching kit!

I also picked up Flergs' Build a Bracket. This will be a fun way to accessorize a number of different layouts!

I also picked up She's So Charming by CT member turned designer, Holly. Great stuff! You can find Holly at Shabby Pickle. I just love the product previews at their store!

Last, but not least, I picked up Journal Ons by Helena Jole. Again, something very useful for a number of layouts.

I used the Journal Ons in this layout about one of my old cats:

Click photo for larger version and full credits.

Well, that takes care of the shopping!

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If you were hanging out on the DST forum, you may have seen my post about winning a favorite kit from my store. I gave away FIVE kits to these lucky recipients: Jaquescrapper, Buge, Veronova, Tadeasek, and mimi1166. Enjoy your kits!

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On a somewhat disappointing note, the Layout Competition I ran received only ONE entry! I know that people are buying my products . . . it would be nice to see your layouts. Though the competition is over, I would love to see what you are creating with DreamScrapper products. Feel free to contact me and send me a link to what you have created.

Congratulations to Mariska who has won the $15 coupon for DreamScrapper.com! Unfortunately, the $10 and $5 coupons will not be awarded since there were no other participants. Be sure to click on her layout for full credit details.

And that takes care of National Scrapbooking Day for another year! Time to rest up, back up my purchases, and plan some new layouts using the bargains I got! I'd love to hear about what products you found. Leave me a comment below.

National Scrapbooking Day Savings For You!

The weather outside may be lovely but don't forget to go online this weekend and take advantage of the great sales and activities planned for National Scrapbooking Day 2008!

At DreamScrapper.com, you will save 40% on all products! The 40% will be deducted from your total at checkout. This makes it the perfect time to stock up on all Dreamscrapper products that you have been adding to your Wish List!

Also, remember to enter the Layout Competition for a chance to win one of three great prizes! Winners will be randomly selected so EVERYONE has the chance to win!

Have a great weekend and happy shopping!