A Designer's Life: Julie White

After my husband and I got married, I wanted to create some holiday traditions for us to share. These new traditions would be a way for us to celebrate our life together in the most joyous season. When I realized that we didn't have enough ornaments to decorate a Christmas tree that first year, I came up with the idea of a theme tree, and a new tradition was born. Each year, we would pick a theme related to our life at the time and decorate our tree that way. The goal was to be able to decorate the tree on a shoestring budget and slowly be able to build up an ornament collection. What I didn't know then was just how much anticipation and fun would surround the themes and decorating.

Life Muses by Ro: Consider Your Options

Consider all of the options...

Life Muses by Ro: Anything New, Dear?

He: I just got home in a little under an hour. There wasn't much traffic.

She: That's nice.

Scrap Girls, Etc: Holiday Kit Overload! – Fun & Funky

So, I don't know about you, but I absolutely love this time of year in the Scrap Girls Boutique. It seems like our designers have pulled out all the stops and are creating absolutely breathtaking, must-have holiday digital scrapbooking kits and collections. I can't help it! I want them all, even though I know I will never have as many pictures to use with that many kits as I would like.

Life Muses by Ro: Did You Know You Are Fine Fabric?

Have you ever noticed that prayers are sometimes answered in unusual ways? The night before I found the tag containing this bit of wisdom on the floor, I had been on my knees begging for forgiveness for an enormous laundry list of flaws. I felt overcome with my inability to improve because most of the issues seemed to be associated with my personality. Changing your personality is hard – if not impossible.

Customer Muse by Claudia

I started thinking of new ways of saving money. I began with the things I can do for myself instead of buying them – clothes, for example. In this hemisphere, summer is gone, and I spent a good part of it sewing. I made two pairs of jeans (it's the first time I've sewed trousers that didn't look like a bag of potatoes!), a T-shirt, and I'm finishing a skirt and black cotton cargo pants.

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.

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!

Want to see more cute layouts? Go to the bottom right of our Home Page and check out our newsletter links.

Monday, November 29, 2010

"Life Adventure" by Amy Flanagan
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:

For this layout, I wanted the "Life" portion of the title to look as if it was cut and pasted onto the different patches of paper. To do this, I made multiple copies of the word art from Inspired Child Collection Biggie. Then, I placed each copy over the appropriate layer of paper below and used a clipping mask to attach it to the layer below. This allowed the word art to take on the shape of the paper, creating the layered and shadowed effect so that the title looks layered onto the layout. The bottommost layer of the word art was not clipped to anything. Lastly, I used a layer mask and painted away the top extender of the letter L so that it would look like it slid right on up under the flap of yellow torn paper.

Commercial license versions of Inspired Child Collection Biggie, Inspired Collection Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photo Basics 5001 and ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Pretty Packages are also available.

Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS4

Name of challenge: Create a layout using older, scanned photos.

Journaling: This picture of Fritzy and me was always a favorite. It was taken while I was giving a presentation on birds at SDSU back in the early 80's. I like this picture because it's the best I have of Fritzy and me. We've been together 30 years! Fritzy was with me when I graduated from college, when I started my job, when I met my husband, when my kids were born and when my Dad died. He's my very special boy who I've known longer than anyone else!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Layout by Amanda McGee
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Commercial license versions of Merry and Bright Collection Biggie, Merry Little Collection Mini and Lettering Delights Hoopla Font 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.

SCRAP GIRLS CLUB

Join the Scrap Girls Monthly Club and you can have fun with the newest traditional digital and printable scrapbooking looks while saving! (A $27.94 value for $9.99 or less!)

The Scrap Girls Club contents are released on the 1st day of the month (or the closest business day to the 1st).

With the Scrap Girls Club, you will receive:

1 Collection Biggie
1 Paper Super Mini
1 8.5x11 Sheet of Word Art
1 Embellishment Set
1 Assemble Your Own Zoom Page Set
1 Designer's Choice Item

Layout by Caroline Kaiser using December's Scrap Girls Club
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Created for you by Caroline Kaiser

If you prefer not to join a club, the Scrap Girls Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The Scrap Girls Club contents are always available for sale elsewhere in the Boutique at their regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never-seen-before product releases for each month!

SCRAPSIMPLE CLUB

Join the ScrapSimple Monthly Club and you can enjoy the newest ScrapSimple looks while saving! (A $13.95 value for $6.99 or less!)

The new ScrapSimple Club contents are released on the 15th day of the month (or the closest business day to the 15th).

With the ScrapSimple Club, you will receive:

1 ScrapSimple Paper Template Set
1 ScrapSimple Embellishment Template
1 Brush Set
2 Designer's Choice Item

A commercially licensed version of the ScrapSimple Club is also available here.

Layout by Erica Hite using November's ScrapSimple Club
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Created for you by Erica Hite and Caroline Kaiser

If you prefer not to join a club, the ScrapSimple Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The ScrapSimple Club contents are always available for sale in the Boutique at regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never-seen-before product releases for each month!

Scrap Girls Club Comments

Scrap Girls love our monthly Scrap Girls Club and ScrapSimple Club subscriptions. A Club subscription is the best deal around for getting a huge amount of digital scrapbooking materials for one low price! Read what a few of our customers have to say about the recent Club offerings.

Best of the Message Board

See how our message board members are helping each other with questions about zipping files, Photoshop patterns, shaping photo corners, and more!

Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial: How to Adjust Photoshop Layer Styles Easily

Styles! We love them. We can't get enough of them. Every now and then, we click that Style button only to find that the style we've chosen doesn't quite work the way we hoped it would on a particular text or embellishment on our digital scrapbooking layout. This tutorial will help you adjust your styles in a quick and easy way, making them even more versatile and exciting than before.

Way Cool Stuff - Digital Scrapbooking Product Review: Easy Page Pro Albums

Believe it or not, before writing this article, I had never used an Easy Page! I have always loved the freedom of creating my own custom digital scrapbooking layouts, so I just never had an interest in them. So when I got this assignment to do an article on Scrap Girls Easy Page Pro Albums, I was a little perplexed as to what to write about.

Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial: Adjusting Separate Shadow Layers

Plenty of Scrap Girls devotees are lucky, too, when it comes to finding little goodies tucked into their product files; unzipping their folders to uncover layout samples, or color palettes, or a separate drop shadow layer for those tricky dimensional embellishments. What a treat to realize a designer has saved me the trouble of masking out portions of a peek-a-boo element or figured out how to make a twisted ribbon look like it pops off the page. On these occasions, the shadow in question often appears in a nice safe gray - the digital equivalent of Switzerland - to apply to most color situations. But how do you, as a digital scrapbooker, make adjustments to a pre-saved shadow layer when it honestly doesn't work? Well, friends, let me show you how.

Online Class Round-Up

Once a month, we give you a round-up here of recent classes that have been held at Scrap Girls. Today, I'd like to share with you a bit about one of the classes that Katherine taught called “Understanding and Creating Color Sets."

Layout and Contest Winners

Congratulations to our Weekly Layout Winners, November's Monthly Layout Contest Winners, and more! Check them out! Congratulations!

For more great ideas on creating beautiful digital scrapbooking layouts, using brushes, embellishments, and lots more, check out the incredible tutorials on Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed and MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

FREE STARTER KIT

Free eBook "starter kit" turns your dreams of digital scrapbooking into reality today!

This dynamite eBook is 65 pages - packed full of the information, ideas, and help people need when they are about to dive into this great hobby. It answers all of the important questions new digital scrapbookers have. They are all here for you - in one easy to use eBook!

Bonus! Download the free "Warning" Label, too. It was created for you by Valerie Randall as a little bit of extra fun!

Would you like a chance to try digital scrapbooking yourself?

Scrap Girls' Refresh Collection Biggie offers you free samples of some of our most popular product types. Try making a layout, your own paper with a ScrapSimple Paper Template, a fast layout with a ScrapSimple Digital Layout Template, or experiment with a brush.

We know you'll love digital scrapbooking as much as we do, and we have thousands of products to feed your new addiction!

Ready to Take Off? In-depth Tutorials Help You Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker

Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop
NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements
Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Paint Shop Pro X (XI)

Find out what tens of thousands of people have already learned: Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed is the fastest way to learn how to create digital scrapbooking layouts. And because this series covers so many topics with one purchase, it is a bargain!

In the tutorials, you'll see Ro working on her computer and hear her talking about why she is doing what she is doing. It's like having Ro come to your home and give you private scrapbooking lessons. You can create digital scrapbooking layouts today!

Download and CD versions available.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements users receive:

30-33 movie tutorials
Companion eBook(s)
Collections
Other supplies

Paint Shop Pro users receive 31 movie tutorials.

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop
MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop Elements

Now that you've learned the basics of digital scrapbooking with Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you are ready to learn advanced skills for having even more fun while you create digital scrapbooking layouts!

Get a big boost learning how to use ScrapSimple products to make your own backgrounds, embellishments, and alphas with the MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements movie tutorial series. You'll learn so much that your digital scrapbooking layouts will never be the same!

eBooks

Scrap Girls offers a large catalog of eBooks covering topics that will expand your digital scrapbooking abilities to new heights. Here are just a few samples:

Scrapbook Quotes: The right quote for your scrapbook layouts

Looking for scrapbooking quotes or quotes to use for greeting cards? Here's your solution. This packed eBook contains hundreds of quotes, collected over many years by Rozanne Paxman specifically for use on scrapbooking layouts.

Inspirations eBook

What happens when you move digital scrapbooking beyond the basic page? What happens when you allow the layout to blur the edges between keepsake and art? Find your answers and take the next step in Inspirations: Celebrating Life's Joys With Digital Scrapbooking eBook. This eBook is meant to highlight the hopes and loves, the faith and joys, the simple days and big events that give our lives meaning and inspire us - and the pages we create about them. There are different layouts in a wide range of styles and techniques to be found in the book, and there are a multitude of ideas to be culled from the pages.

Scrap Girls Tutorials & Way Cool Stuff eBook Set - 2010 1st Quarter

Subscribers to the Scrap Girls Newsletter have one thing in common: they love to learn new techniques! Each issue shares ideas, tutorials, and new ways to use Scrap Girls quality digital scrapbooking products. Now you can have all those past tutorials and Way Cool Stuff articles of the 1st Quarter of 2010 in one convenient PDF format. It's easy to find those helpful hints with just the click of your mouse. You get two eBooks for the price of one!

Mastering Brushes for Photoshop

Whether you are just finding out about brushes, or have been using them for a while, this eBook will help you see and understand the creative power that brushes contain and give you new ideas for using them in your digital scrapbooking layouts.

See more titles

Layout by Caroline Kaiser
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Designer Freebie by Caroline Kaiser coordinates with her Winter Mountains Collection Biggie

Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Winter Mountains, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Blended 8201 Super Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Color Isolation 8501, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glitter Edge 6301 Biggie and AMC_Chatty Font are also available.

* 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.

CROPS AND CHATS

ScrapSimple Club Chat
Tuesday, December 7th - 5:00PM MT

Join April (April Showers) and Angela (angelaNussbaum) on Tuesday, December 7th at 5pm MT for a chat and challenge using this month's ScrapSimple Club. Did you know that every time you create a layout with the ScrapSimple Club and upload it into the ScrapSimple Club Gallery that you could be chosen to be featured in the Newsletter and receive a prize? Well, join us for the chat so we can encourage and inspire you and help with any questions that you may have. Let's get those ScrapSimple Club layouts done and uploaded!

Creative Cards Chat
Tuesday, December 7th - 6:00PM MT

Do you use your digital supplies to make cards? Do you want to? Instead of going to the store every time you need a card, you can save money and have fun making cards with your digi-stash! Make a note of any cards you might need for the upcoming month and join April (April Showers) and Theresa (tiza126) for the once-a-month Card Chat on Tuesday, December 7th at 6pm MT. Can't wait to see you there!

East Coast High Noon Crop
Wednesday, December 8th - 10:00AM MT

Join April (April Showers) each Wednesday at 12 Noon Eastern Time for the East Coast High Noon Crop. All coasts and time zones are welcome! 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 December 8th, we'll do a photo-manipulation challenge! Change a photo to sepia, cut out a background, use actions, play with filters, or just try something new with your photos! You'll be amazed what you can get done in just one hour, but there is no High Noon Sheriff timing you!

Baby Theme Crop and Chat
Wednesday, December 8th - 7:00PM MT

Join Carla (CRS) and Thersea (tiza126) for a new twist on the Baby Theme Crop! This month we want to hear the stories and see the photos from the holidays! Any holiday, not just the winter holidays. You can scrap your own photos, your children's or grandchildren's, or nieces and nephews! We'll see you in the chat room on Wednesday, December 8th at 7pm MT!

Sketch Challenge Crop and Chat
Thursday, December 9th - 7:00PM MT

Join Marnie (sprinklz) for the Sketch Challenge and Crop on Thursday, December 9th at 7pm MT in the Scrap Girls Chat Room! Like getting a little jump start on your layouts? Then this challenge is for you! A few hours before the challenge begins, Marnie post a sketch for you to use as the starting point for your page. You can be inspired by the basic arrangement, the amount of photos, or copy it literally. All interpretations are welcome and encouraged!

What's New in the Scrap Girls Boutique Chat
Friday, December 10th - 9:00AM MT

Join April (April Showers) at 9am MT on Friday mornings to chat about all the cool new things in the boutique. You never know who else is going to show up! What are you getting? What did you kaboodle? And most importantly, show us the layouts or other projects you made with your new goodies! There's a thread every Thursday and now there's a chat too!

Hybrid Craft Chat
Friday, December 10th - 7:00PM MT

Come and join Carla (CRS) and Shannon (tinkerbell11) in the Chat Room at 7pm MT to learn how to combine your digital scrapbook supplies with paper supplies to create quick and easy holiday gifts. We will have four different project ideas to share. Hybrid crafts are a fun way to still play with glue, ribbons and glitter - oh my!

Calendar Chat
Saturday, December 11th - 6:00PM MT

Join Debbie (B&K Mom) and Shannon (tinkerbell11) for a Calendar Chat at 6pm MT. If you have questions on where to start, how to get organized, or just need motivation to work on your Calendars, be sure to join us!

Journaling Challenge Chat
Monday, December 13th - 6:00PM MT

Join Angela (angelaNussbaum) and Lei (Bride) for a Journaling Chat at 6pm MT on Monday, December 13th. Struggle to find the right words for your layouts? Are your layouts more decorative than descriptive of the moments you're trying to capture? Then you won't want to miss this chat - we'll have a special challenge to encourage you to journal on your pages more! See you there!

New Member Chat
Tuesday, December 14th - 7:00PM MT

Join Pat (PBarnes) and Angela (angelaNussbaum) for the New Member Chat at 7pm MT 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.

DECEMBER EVENTS

A Sweet December Challenge!

During the month of December, all chats and challenges will be a little sweeter. Each time you attend a chat and post a layout for the chat's challenge or post a layout for a Message Board challenge, you will be entered into a weekly drawing for a $10 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

To participate, upload a layout to the Message Board Gallery and post a link to your layout in the corresponding Message Board thread by Saturday at Midnight MT. Each week, the Welcoming Committee will compile all of the participating names and do a random drawing for the $10 Gift Certificate. That's right - ONE $10 Gift Certificate for EACH WEEK of December! Winners will be announced in the following Saturday's Newsletter.

December Message Board Game: BINGO!

Join us for an exciting game of Holiday BINGO on the Message Board Forum in December! Pick 25 words from the list provided and send them in an email to [email protected] with a subject line that says "BINGO CARD - your Scrap Girls Message Board username" by Friday, December 3rd (Midnight MST) in order to play in the first round. The first round will begin on Saturday, December 4th. If you miss the first round deadline, you can still play! Just send in your BINGO card at any time during the month, and you'll be eligible to begin playing when the next new round starts.

Each day, a member of the Welcoming Committee will call five random words from the BINGO list. Match just 15 of those words to win a BINGO. You must be first to call "BINGO!" in the game thread to win that round. After a winner is called, the boards will be cleared and a new round will begin the following day.

Each winner will receive a $5 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique! We like to see lots of winners, so please remember that each person can only win one round during the month. Have fun!

For complete details, visit the Monthly Message Board Games folder on the Scrap Girls Message Board.

Layout Contests:

December Monthly Layout Contest: For this month's contest we want you to scrap a layout using a Christmas carol or Hanukkah song as inspiration. You can use just the title or include some of the verses. If the song has a particular memory or meaning for you, journal about that. Share with us a favorite holiday song. Post your layouts in the December Gallery before Midnight MT on December 31st. Be sure to list your credits in the description or under the EXIF Properties. If your layout is one of the two chosen, you will win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Club Concepts Layout Contest: Post your new layout using the current club selection (either the Scrap Girls Club or the ScrapSimple Club) in our Scrap Girls Club Members Gallery or the ScrapSimple Club Members' Gallery. Be sure to list all of the Scrap Girls products you used. If your layout is chosen, it will be showcased as a Club Concepts layout winner, and you will win a $5 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 Mountain Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-Utah-Salt Lake City' as the location for the Mountain time zone.)

Haven't received your prize as a contest winner? Please send an email to [email protected] and we'll get it out to you right away!