Scrap Girls Chit Chat Newsletter: September 18, 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_080918_Thurs_Scrapbooking.htm

What's New in the Scrap Girls Boutique?

Computer scrapbook layout by Brandy Murry

Layout by Brandy Murry
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Bows To Go I, Dynamic Brush Set: Star Bright Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photo Basics 5001, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Star Bright 5001 and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glittered Gelly 6401 Super Biggie are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Paula Wright

Layout by Paula Wright
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Crepe Paper Flowers and ScrapSimple Embellishment Template: Crepe Paper Biggie are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Trish Yochum

Layout by Trish Yochum
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: 4x6 2009 Frilly Calendar are also available.

Computer scrapbook project by Syndee Nuckles

Project by Syndee Nuckles
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Craft Templates: Coffee Tumbler are also available.

Computer scrapbook layout by Kara Swanson

Layout by Kara Swanson
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Edge Decor Embellishment Mini - Summer Flowers

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.

Scrap Girls Convention - Digital Scrap Link Information!

It's getting close now... can you believe there are less than 28 days until our Convention starts? The excitement is really building around our message board. We have some wonderful things lined up to share with you, and we're excited to tell you a bit about them here!

One of our special guest instructors will be none other than Nichole Van from nicholeV photography. She will be presenting, “Making Art Out of the Ordinary: Mastering Light, Location and Composition.” Here's a short description:

Ever wonder how those professional photographers manage to find such incredible locations? And how do they always get that amazing light in their photos? Wouldn’t it be fun to create art out of the everyday, ordinary things you see? Nichole will discuss how to assess and best photograph any given location and how to “see” and use natural light effectively, getting perfect light in your photos. She’ll also discuss how to compose artistic photographs based on principles of classic composition and then how to bring all these elements out when editing in Photoshop. Come learn how to create art out of your life!

Photo: Nichole Van Photography

Nichole has such wonderful photography skills, we know you'll be as excited as we are to have her come share her expertise with us!

Some of our other special guest speakers include April Anderton and Lynda Angelastro from Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. They will be giving pointers on how to get published!

If you'd like to come and learn from Nichole, April and Lynda, in addition to all the other great things we have planned for you, hurry and sign up now! We only have SIX spots left! Stay tuned to hear more about our Convention!

Life Muses by Ro: Digital Scrapbooking Event of the Year

Note from Ro: Look what I found on the Scrap Girls Blog. It was fun to read Brandie Valenzuela’s take on our upcoming convention. Can’t wait to meet you in person, Brandie! (It is so odd to have people working for you that you haven’t met in person before, don’t you think?)

I was looking through my photos the other day and I came across this one from October 2007 that I wanted to share with all of you. The image isn't the greatest quality - it's just a screenshot from a web cam - but it still clearly shows to me how much fun the Scrap Girls Convention is going to be! This photo is from last October when the Scrap Girls team held a small get-together. (MUCH smaller than the Scrap Girls Convention is going to be.) Some of the team wasn't able to join in the event, but a web cam was set up so absent team members could "spy" on the group. (Note: Because the Scrap Girls Convention is a paid event, we won't be able to set up a web cam. The only way to see it is to be there.)

I was unable to attend the retreat in 2007, but after seeing all of the fun on the web cam, I vowed to not miss another opportunity at some real life Scrap Girls fun! I was so excited when I learned of the planning for the October '08 Scrap Girls Convention - and even more excited to learn that our members would be attending, too! A chance to not only hang out with my awesome teammates, but to also be with our fabulous members. That's the greatest two-for-one deal I can think of!

If you've been on the fence about coming to the convention, I hope that you will decide to join us. We have so much great stuff planned and many awesome classes - even special guests from Creating Keepsakes will be there. For those already coming - I'm so looking forward to meeting you! It's truly going to be the digital scrapbooking event of the year!

- Brandie

Computer scrapbook layout by Brandie Valenzuela

Layout by Brandie Valenzuela


Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Grungelle are also available.

Brandie Valenzuela

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.

Way Cool Stuff Product Review: ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns

One of the most fabulous facets of digital scrapbooking is the ability to really customize the elements to suit your project. While an embellishment or paper may be perfect as it is for one layout, you might want to add a little pattern or texture to it for another. One of the tools I’ve found to be particularly useful when doing this is the selection of ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can change the look and feel of any element in your stash for a fresh and completely custom effect.

There are several ways to utilize this set of tools, but the one I’ll highlight here is the “Pattern Fill.” You’ll see how a simple embellishment can become dazzling with very little effort.

Lately, I have been really enjoying using organic-looking elements on my pages. Whether they’re flowers or leaves or any number of other nature-inspired things out there on the market, they add a lovely touch that can’t really be (realistically) achieved with paper scrapbooking. Using Amanda Sok’s Reawakening Collection Biggie, I was able to bring a fresh and rich feel (with a little bling) to my layout, which supported the “feel” of the photograph.

Let’s start now with how I used ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns to achieve this goal. The main element I used on this page was the leaf embellishment from Amanda’s kit.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Fill with pattern

I duplicated the embellishment to a new layer, Ctrl+Clicked on the layer icon of the new layer (you’ll get the “marching ants”) and then selected “Pattern” from my Edit> Fill dropdown menu. Once “Pattern” is selected, you can further choose which pattern set you wish to use. (Ensure that your patterns are located in the “Patterns” folder under your Photoshop Presets subfolder.) I used Valerie Randall’s ScrapSimple Tools - Patterns: Paper 2101 for this layout. I loved the choppy, yet organic, feel of these patterns. I selected the pattern I wanted, and then clicked “OK” to complete the fill.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Select and fill black areas

Once this was done, I used my Magic Wand Tool to select the black areas of my fill layer (make sure “Contiguous” is unchecked, or you’ll be clicking forever). I then copy/pasted this selection to a new layer and applied Amanda’s ScrapSimple Tools – Styles: Micro Glitter in a lovely olive green which coordinated beautifully with my layout.

Digital Scrapbook Tutorial Screenshot: Change Blend Mode

Then, moving back to my fill layer, I changed the Blend Mode to “Overlay” to allow the green color of the original embellishment to show through. You can see how, though the original leaf element was nice, this modified one glows with a color and texture that adds to the final layout. I duplicated the element, flipping and rearranging it until I got a border around the perimeter of my page.

I applied this same technique to the background paper (I skipped the glitter step, however).

Now that you’ve gotten a taste of what ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns can do for you, experiment with various sets, Blend Modes, and even using Patterns for texture fills to make your layouts truly custom creations!

*TIP: This photograph didn’t have a bit of green in it, so I used elements from another kit that combined the green with other colors within the photograph.

Computer scrapbook layout by Stefanie Harris

Layout by Stefanie Harris
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Patterns: Paper 2101, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Micro Glitter 6401 Super Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Painted Plastic 6401 Super Biggie and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Iridescent Glass 6401 are also available.

Stefanie Harris

Stefanie Harris lives in a small town in South Alabama with her husband, two daughters, and an insane dog. A traditional scrapbooker for years, she went 100% digital late in 2006, and is more prolific than ever. Stefanie counts herself lucky to have found Scrap Girls early on, and is honored to be a member of the Layout Artist Team. When she’s not scrapping, she works full-time as an Instructor at a local Army post.

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 17th - 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 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!

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!

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!

Heritage Crop
Thursday, September 18th - 8:00PM ET

Do you have boxes of heritage photos just waiting to be restored and scrapped? Are there family stories just waiting for you to write down and preserve? Then this is the crop for you!

Join April (April Showers) and Carla (CRS) for the Heritage Crop and Chat! We'll help you get motivated to scrap those heritage photos and record your family stories for future generations to enjoy. This month’s challenge is to use a brush or two in your layout. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

ATC Swap Crop
Sunday, September 21st - 7:00PM ET

Please join me, Pat Bowman, in the chat room for our September ATC Swap Chat at 7PM ET. For this month's challenge we are doing ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) that feature flowers and a quote.

Here's how it works:

Create your ATC with your interpretation of the theme. Your original ATC file should be 3.5 inches x 2.5 inches or 1050 pixels x 750 pixels (can be portrait or landscape orientation) at 300 pixels per inch. Be sure to sign and date your ATC - real name and user name (unless they're the same, of course!) Post your ATC to the gallery as well, to share with all of our members.
Email the full-res, flattened JPG version and a notepad file with the ingredients to me ([email protected]) by the 15th October. Please include your initials at the beginning of the filename to help me keep track of everyone's ATCs.
I will zip them all together and provide a download link on YouSendIt for everyone to download the file. I will email the link to everyone, and will try to do this by the 20th of that month.

Have fun exploring your creative genius!

Aussie Chat & Crop
Monday, 22 September - 8:30PM *Australian Eastern Standard Time*

Please join Jo (ScrappingJo) and Karen (kazbar73) for our next Aussie Chat on Monday, 22 September, 2008.

This week we will have a quote challange. What is a quote challenge you may ask? Karen will post a quote on the boards early Monday morning and it is up to you to create a layout incorporating that quote. We will meet in the Live Chat Lobby at 8.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time.

For those girls in the USA who love to come and chat with us Aussie girls, the chat will be on Monday, 22 September starting at 6.30am (New York time). Looking forward to seeing you all there.

New Member Chat
Tuesday, September 23rd - 9:00PM ET

Join Pat (PBarnes) and Carol Ann (Zaz) for the New Member Chat at 9 PM ET in the Live Chat room lobby. This is a great place to ask questions about getting around the Scrap Girls site or about digital scrapbooking in general - and a great place to make some new friends. All are welcome, new and long time members included.

You do need to have Java installed on your computer to access the Live Chat.

High Noon Crop
Wednesday, September 24th - 12:00Noon ET

On Sept. 24, we'll do a Black and White With a Twist challenge! Create a layout using black, white and hot pink! Any theme, any number of photos, just use black, white and hot pink!

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!

September Mid-Month Layout Contest: Dreams are one of the most fascinating things we can experience. Now is your chance to scrap one of the dreams you’ve had, or to create a “dreamy” layout. Maybe you have a dream that you’ve always had since you were a child, or a dream that you had a week ago. Let’s see those dreamy layouts uploaded to the Mid-September Gallery by midnight, October 15th, and if your layout is chosen, you will win a $10 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

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 Melanie Johnson

Layout by Melanie Johnson
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Designer Freebie by Melanie Johnson coordinates with her Childhood Memories 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