Scrap Girls Chit Chat Newsletter: September 10, 2008

If you are using an online mail client such as GMail, you will find the newsletter far more enjoyable to read if you view it online.
You can find it here:
http://www.scrapgirls.com/NL/Chit_Chat_080910_Wed_Life.htm

What's New in the Scrap Girls Boutique?

Computer scrapbook layout by Paula Wright

Layout by Paula Wright
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Burned, Brush Set: Messy Mats, Brush Set: Botanical and Brush Set: Paint Stroke are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Amanda Sok

Layout by Amanda Sok
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Layered: Fanciful Masks, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Micro Glitter 6401 Super Biggie and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glitter Sparks 6401 Super Biggie are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Debbie Layden

Layout by Debbie Layden
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Halloween Hijinks, Brush Set: Oodles of Doodles: Frames, Lettering Delights Hallmark Font, Brush Set: Jot It Down and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Sanded Edge 6301 are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Valerie Randall

Layout by Valerie Randall
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set - 4x6: Inky, Brush Set: Decorative Swirls Grunged, Brush Set: Nearly Taped, Brush Set: Princess, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Paper 4901-Biggie and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: 14K 4104 are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Christy Vanderwall

Layout by Christy Vanderwall
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Make a Wish 2, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Scattered Pictures, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Sketch It PS 8501 and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Chipboard Distressed 4103 Mini are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Anna Mansfield

Layout by Anna Mansfield
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Photo Folds 2, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Stapled Ribbon, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Neutral Shadows 2801 Super Biggie and ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Paper Tears PSE 5001 are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Amanda Sok

Layout by Amanda Sok
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Iridescent Glass Brights 6402, Brush Set: Bitsy BOLD and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Iridescent Glass 6401 are also available.

If you have praise, comments, or questions for any of our Product Designers or Layout Artists, did you know you can send them a PM (private message) using the message board? It's easy!

If you are a registered user of the message board, just click on the “PM” box at the bottom of any of their posts to send them a message. Or, to check out more of your favorite designer's layouts, visit the Scrap Girls Design Team section of the Layout Gallery.

Life Muses by Ro: Real Life

If my life was an episode of “Leave it to Beaver,” Wade would be sitting on the porch with one of my sons giving him some piece of sage advice which would alter the course of their lives for the better. I would make roast beef and chocolate cake while wearing pearls. But, this is real life and my sons don’t sit on porches, rarely listen to anyone over forty who doesn’t hand them a pay check, and are determined to decide what to do with their own lives, even if that means they periodically run into a ditch. The only pearls I own were made in a factory.

If my life were an episode of “Happy Days,” I would wear beautiful dresses while cleaning the house, my hair would never be out of place, and the Fonz would be my partner in a dance contest. But, this is my real life. I wear jeans and Polo shirts, have a wash-and-wear hairdo, and I haven’t danced with anyone since I was in the theatre.

If my life were an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” Gary and Andy would go fishing and Aunt Bea would bring me pie when she hears that I am not feeling well. But, this is my real life. Gary scans the luggage of people who go fishing in Alaska and if I want pie, I have to make it or buy it.

If my life were an episode of “Gunsmoke,” I’d probably be on the stagecoach that was robbed and would pass out because women pass out when they are robbed on stagecoaches. But, this is my real life. My money is in the bank. I drive a car. And, the only time I have fainted was when I was in the hospital with a 104 degree fever.

If my life was an episode of “I Love Lucy,” I would be Fred. Fred has a front row seat on the action and rarely has to clean things up when they go wrong. Fred goes everywhere the Ricardos go – even if the Ricardos go to Europe. Fred was smart enough to buy an apartment building which provides passive income. But, this is my real life. The only real estate I own is the home I have mortgaged, I clean up my own messes, and nothing happens unless I make it happen.

My life isn’t an episode of anything, but I like it. I think I’ll keep it.

- Ro

Muse: To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation. Not intended to solve the world's problems, another person's problems, or to cover topics completely. One does not have to agree with musings to enjoy them, just as one does not have to be the same as someone else to appreciate who they are.

Note from Ro: Would you like to earn a $20 Gift Certificate? Send your own muse to [email protected]. If it is selected for publication in the Scrap Girls newsletter, you'll get to have fun shopping!

Ro is now spotlighting various Scrap Girls members, showing layouts, and running contests in her blog. If you end up being spotlighted in it, you'll get a little gift from her. Subscribe to her blog so you don't miss what is going on!

Ro has recently spotlighted Pireps, CharleneJ and Soozlou.

Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial: Recreate the Look

Note: Tutorial created using Adobe Photoshop CS3 on a PC running Windows Vista.

I know that I am not alone when it comes to my love of Scrap Girls' ScrapSimple Styles! Who wouldn’t love the ease of adding textures, colors, materials and effects with just the click of a mouse?

A few months back, I did a layout for my ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Mother and added one of my favorite styles to one of the templates. It created such a beautiful effect that it makes the template opaque and appear as if it’s almost floating on the page. I had so many people asking me how I created that effect that I thought a short tutorial on recreating it would be the easiest way to go. I hope it inspires you to play with your styles in new ways!

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Original layout

Here is the original layout as it appeared in the newsletter.

We are going to create a new layout using the same technique.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Open files

First, I open my background paper and a template. I am using a background paper from my Butterfly Dream kit and a template from ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Fancy That.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Add style to template

Next, I add a style from Melissa’s ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Aged Folds to my paper template. She has six wonderful styles in this set. Try applying each one to your template to see the different effects you can come up with. I use the yellowed style on my template.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Option - Use style on photo frame

Another great way to use this technique is to use the template with the style applied as a frame to your photo. There are many great 4x6 frame brush sets and templates that would work wonderfully as well.

I continue to add embellishments and word art to complete my layout.

OK, now it’s time for you to get out your digital scrapbooking templates and see what you can cook up!

Happy day!

Computer scrapbook layout by Syndee Nuckles

Layout by Syndee Nuckles
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Fancy That, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Aged Folds 5001, ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Mother and ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Dreamy Photos 6301 are also available.

Syndee Nuckles

Tutorial written by Syndee Nuckles

What's Happening at Scrap Girls?

If you have never been to the Scrap Girls Chat Room before or have questions about it, this tutorial, Chat Basics, will provide lots of helpful information.

Crops and Chats

High Noon Crop
Wednesday, September 10th - 12:00Noon ET

Join your host Betsy for the High Noon Crop every Wednesday at Noon eastern time. These crops are designed to allow you to work on your own photos and themes, simply giving participants a one hour goal, and a fun, new challenge each week!

On September 10, we'll do a geometric challenge! Create a layout using at leat one triangle somewhere on your page!

You'll have one hour to create a layout and upload to the special High Noon Crop gallery. You'd be amazed what you can get done in just one hour! Meet new friends and have fun in the chat room! We hope you'll join us!

Recipe Swap Crop
Thursday, September 11th - 8:00PM ET

Join AprilShowers in the Chat Room Thursday, September 11 at 8 PM ET for our monthly Recipe Challenge Chat.

Check the message board on Thursday morning for this month's theme and Recipe Swap details. Hope to see you there!

Scraplift Chat
Sunday, September 14th - 5:00PM ET

Join TysMommy and angelaNussbaum for a Scraplifting Crop.

A few hours before the crop we will tell you the name of a Scrap Girls Team Member, and you will be able to choose one of their layouts to be your inspiration. During the crop we will also help explain about scraplifting, how to use a layout as inspiration, and the importance of giving credit.

Scraplifting is a lot of fun! So come join us, you're sure to enjoy it!

Get Published Chat
Tuesday, September 16th - 8:00PM ET

Join Angela (angelaNussbaum), Amy (tysMommy) and Christy (christyVW) for the Get Published Chat on September 16th at 8 PM EST.

Do you want to see your layouts in magazines, but you are not quite sure how? Do you need a little more confidence with your layouts? During the Get Published Chat, we will talk about current calls, give constructive criticism on requested layouts, and we will answer your questions about submitting to magazines.

As with most of our chats, there will also be a challenge. To help you further your chances of being published, we will select a magazine, and challenge you to do a layout with one of their calls!

Be sure you come to this informative Monthly chat, you will be glad you did!

Life Moments Crop
Tuesday, September 16th - 9:00PM ET

Join Carla (crs) for our next Life Moments Crop and Chat. These Crops are about building a scrapbook all about you, one layout at a time.

This week we will be revisiting our childhoods, specifically, extra-curricular activities! Was anyone else a Scout or belong to 4H? How about gymnastics or ballet classes? I hope to see you on Tuesday, September 16th, at 9 PM ET in the chat room!

High Noon Crop
Wednesday, September 17th - 12:00Noon ET

On Sept. 17, we'll do a Back to School challenge! Create a layout about going back to school - whether it's your child's first day of kndergarten, you going back to college after a break, your favorite school day memories, whatever! Have an academic-oriented page!

Ad Inspiration Crop
Wednesday, September 17th - 9:00PM ET

Join Pat & Launa for an Ad Inspiration Chat and Crop in the Scrap Girls Chat Room Wednesday, September 17th, at 9:00 ET.

We will use a magazine ad to inspire a layout, there is no wrong answer!! Come join the fun! The Ad will be posted a couple of hours before the challenge. Come join us for some chattin', croppin', and FUN!

NSBR Chat - Early Edition
Thursday, September 18th - 1:00PM ET

What is NSBR? It’s a non-scrapbooking related chat! We talk about everything, including some scrapbooking and usually chocolate. It’s a great chance to meet new friends, catch up on what everyone is up to, and just relax! If you have a problem, we’ll lend an ear or a shoulder to cry on. Have some great news to share? We’d love to celebrate with you.

So, join me, Shari (PV Mom of 2), on September 18th, at 1 PM ET, in the chat room Lobby! Hope to see you there!

September Events

September Board Game: Guess that Scrap Girl!

It's Back-to-School time and with it come memories of our own childhood. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you dream big? This month, join us on the Message Board for a game of "Guess that ScrapGirl!" and find out what our ScrapGirls team members dreamed of becoming when they were little girls.

Every day during the month of September, a member of the Welcoming Committee will post a school-aged photo of one of the ScrapGirls team members. Identify the team member and then create and keep an ongoing list with your answers on it, and send your completed list to [email protected] no later than midnight October 2nd. (You can find current photos of all team members in the About Us section of the ScrapGirls home page.)

Everyone who correctly identifies all 30 team members will be entered in a drawing for one of three $10 Gift Certificates! Correctly identify 20+ team members and be entered in a drawing for one of two $5 Gift Certificates! Identify 10+ and be entered in a drawing for one of two $3 Gift Certificates!

Layout Contests:

September Layout Contest: All too often we get caught up in the things that bring us down in life. We sometimes take for granted all of the fun and wonderful things that happen on a daily basis. Here’s your chance to stop, smell the roses and appreciate the good things you have in your life right now. It might be the warm smile of a child each morning, or seeing your best friend on a fall afternoon to reconnect. Let’s pay tribute to the good things in our lives. We want to see your layouts about something positive in your life right now uploaded to the September Gallery. If your layout is chosen, you will win a $10 Gift Certificate to the boutique!

August Mid-Month Layout Contest: The story of your life is unwritten. We’d love to see a layout that has a story of something in your life most people don’t know about you. Do you have a hidden talent to share, a special award you received, or maybe an embarrassing moment? Upload your layouts to the August Mid-month Layout Gallery by September 15th at midnight and you will win a $10 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique if your layout is chosen!

Check our message board calendar if you have any questions about what is happening at Scrap Girls. All event times are given in Eastern Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-New York' as the location for the Eastern time zone.)

Today's Freebie

Computer scrapbook layout by Angela Blanchard

Layout by Angela Blanchard
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Designer Freebie by Angela Blanchard coordinates with her Touches of Mexico Collection

* There is a “free download” button on the details page for each gift. You don't need to put them in your shopping cart unless you are shopping for other items. Also note that if you are slow reading your newsletter, you may find this freebie has already been retired, as the freebies are only available as gifts for about two newsletter cycles.

Create your own digital scrapbook layouts using the latest, most popular techniques

Manage all of the important basics that digital scrapbook enthusiasts need to know to get started

Understand how to save your files for printing or sharing them with your friends and family over the Internet

Make your own textured brush

Learn how to install and use purchased brushes

Make your own simple backgrounds

See how easy it is to manage transparent embellishment files that allow digital scrapbooking layouts to look like they are “real”

Become a pro at managing the drop-shadowing techniques

Learn about transparency and lighting effects

Make your own digital torn paper edges

Be able to isolate a single item in an embellishment or alpha and be able to change the color to suit your fancy

Become a pro at repairing damaged photos

Know the secret of putting text on a curve or in a circle

Laugh at how simple it is to make rounded edges on your photos

Use keyboard and tool shortcuts that make digital scrapbooking a breeze

Be able to place digital embellishments on your digital scrapbook layout with ease

Unlock the mystery of how to clip a digital paper clip onto your layout so that it looks real

Learn how to install and use purchased textures

Understand some advanced techniques such as how to keep blue eyes blue on a black and white photo

Learn how to adjust black and white photos to sepia

Take the world's easiest shortcuts to creating your own backgrounds, embellishments, and alphas.

Make sure that you don't make the biggest mistakes that digital scrapbookers make when they create layouts.

Learn fantastic tricks for using Scrap Girls ScrapSimple products.

Dip your digital scrapbooking self into some of those “other” cool tools that are sitting there waiting in your software for you to use such as paths, masks, the drawing pen, and more.

See how easy it is to install and manage new Custom Shapes and Styles in Photoshop so that you can make things that are creative and unique.

Learn advanced tricks for using tools that you already know and love.

Watch me make some beautiful papers and get a chance to peek inside of my layers. (Oh dear... That is the last frontier and I might be out of my mind to let you do it... NOBODY likes people to see inside of their layers. It is like having visitors peek inside of your dresser drawers. Very private stuff.)

See a new way for coloring doodles. (I'm betting that it will surprise you what tool I've used to do that with, too...)

Get “IN” on creating your own brush sets. (You do NOT have to have those impossibly long brush sets frustrating you anymore. In fact, when you learn this trick, you will wonder why you haven't been using it all along.)

Find out why Custom Shapes are so importantto you. (Bet you didn't know...)

Learn how to cut out a title from a background or a photo.

1 8.5x11 Sheet of Word Art

1 Assemble Your Own Zoom Page Set

1 Designer's Choice Item

1 ScrapSimple Paper Template Set

1 ScrapSimple Embellishment Template Set

1 ScrapSimple Layer Your Own Brush Set

1 Designer's Choice Item