A Blog hop? Sign me up!

I'm so excited. I've signed up to be a participant in my very first blog hop. I haven't received the confirmation yet but I'm really hoping I'm chosen. So far all I know is that there will be a sketch and I'm creating two things from it. It sounds so much fun. I love sharing my LOs and I also like using sketches as inspiration! If I am chosen, I'm also hoping to make something of my own design to use as an element or just as a freebie for anyone who stops by. Yippee!!

An Observation & A Test

I'm just testing something out but I will make an observation... shopping for digi supplies is almost more dangerous than shopping for traditional supplies. Perhaps more-so since you don't have to find room to fit all of your stuff when you get home from the store (and perhaps don't want to let a significant other realize how much you really have).

New Layouts

So I've actually managed to find some time to scrapbook recently... can you believe it? Here are some of my latest creations

LO design by TheDigitalScrapbookTeacher; papers and elements from the Little Buckaroo kit by MissMint at PeppermintCreative.com

LO design by TheDigitalScrapbookTeacher; papers and elements from the Penalty Box kit (some recolored) by Scraps N Pieces at Stufftoscrap.com

Credits: Fonts: Catholic School Girls BB (internet) and Alor (internet); Action: foam stamp by Atomic Cupcake; Papers: Digital Scrapbook Teacher (Summertime kit - polka dot & stripes), Mye DeLeon (AttaBoy kit - blue), Persnickety Prints (Crazy Love papers - blue/green hearts), Polka Dot Pixels (jingle jangle mini kit - green); Accents: Tia Bennett (Dude Totally kit - star/circle), Scraps N Pieces (Penalty Box kit - button)

LO design by TheDigitalScrapbookteacher.com; papers and elements from the Atta Boy kit by Mye DeLeon from Scrapmatters.com

Inspired by a LO by Trine Brandt-Lassen
Credits: From The Digital Scrapbook Teacher’s Funtime kit (thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com): Background paper, patterned papers, label tape words; From Shabby Princess’ Harvest Spice kit (shabbyprincess.com): Photo mat and journaling strips; Font: Tabitha (internet) and Tomo (internet); From Atomic Cupcake (atomiccupcake.com): Chipboard effect; From Chris Ford’s Future Rock Star kit (2peas): Ink “X’s” and Splotch strip (made into a frame); From Scraps N Pieces' Penalty Box kit (stufftoscrap.com): Pen style frame and goalie rub-on (made into faded)

Dabbling in Creating Digi Elements

OK, compared to all the amazing designers that are out there, I am an absolute novice but I've been having fun dabbling with what I can create in my Photoshop Elements  program. I've done background pages and stuff like that in the past and even textured (very simple texture) cardstock but today I tried my first digital "elements" and made some brads. I was playing with some of the layer filters that are in PSE and came up with these slightly transparent brads and gave them a solid white center. The various effects I used make them look a bit puffy. I've already shared with one friend but figure, what the heck, put a link to them on my blog and see what happens.

I'm really hoping to take a class in CS2/3 or Illustrator via a university extension or community college class sometime soon. That would be fun - and I may even be able to make it work related (so that I can design history themed posters for my classroom) and get some of my costs covered. Wouldn't that be nice? But for now, I'm just going to dabble. Enjoy!

Download Freebie Brads Here - PERSONAL USE ONLY! If you like them and want to share, send your friend(s) here instead. Thanks!

An interesting contest

I've found an interesting contest and you can win one of these - http://www.facebook.com/TheOriginalScrapbox?sk=app_4949752878 - it looks awesome and I'd love to have something like that to store all of my scrappy goodies in. The ScrapBox just looks so awesome and a white one would match the existing furniture in my scraproom/playroom perfectly. If I don't win, maybe I'll just start saving my bonuses.

I think it's awesome when companies do giveaways of their product and encourage customers to share about their product. It's a win-win for all involved... the company wins with the free advertising and the customer has a chance to win some free product. Coolness!

Digital Kits

Oh my, I never realized I have so many! I'm working hard on transferring them to my laptop and making sure each folder is imported and tagged with the name of the kit, artist, where I got it, and what each element it (paper, brush, tag, etc). It's taking forever but I think I'll be able to better utilize my "stash" then. I *THINK* I may have 250 kits on my computer, probably more though. And I know I have a few CDs with loads of stuff on it (and I just ordered two more).

I'm just glad that such a large chunk of my "stash" is digital otherwise I'd be drowning in supplies. I admit it, I'm a scrapaholic and a stashaholic. But being creative makes me happy. That and cooking/baking. But then again, that's creative too - just in a different way. Now I need to go be creative in the kitchen... tummies are rumbling. Hmm.... perhaps low sodium sloppy joe's tonight.

Online places I like

I have discovered the world of digital scrapbooking (ok, that was last year but I'm still amazed by all the awesome stuff that is out there). And since I'm going through and organizing all of my digital supplies, I've discovered that I have stuff from lots of different sources. Some are paid but many are free kits and samples. Here's a list of places I've found cool stuff (perhaps there's something new in here). Oh, and since there are so many, if anyone wants to check them out, just copy and paste the link into your browser. I'm not going to all the time of making each one a click-able link (at least, not today).

Ø  300dpi.com (Diecutswithaview)

Ø  Cassiquedesigns.com

Ø  Computerscrapbook.com

Ø  Crazyuniverse.com

Ø  Decopages.com

Ø  Digitalexpress.com

Ø  Digitalscrapbookexperts.com

Ø  Digitalscrapbookpages.com

Ø  Digitalscrapbookplace.com

Ø  Freedigitalscrapbooking.com

Ø  Jessicasprague.com

Ø  Matterofscrap.com

Ø  Peppermintcreative.com

Ø  Pingdesigns.com

Ø  Polkadotpotato.com

Ø  Scrapbookdimensions.com

Ø  Scrapbookflair.com

Ø  Scrapbookgraphics.com

Ø  Scrapgirls.com

Ø  Scrapmatters.com

Ø  Scrapoutsidethebox.com

Ø  Scrapstreet.com

Ø  Scrapwow.com

Ø  Shabbyprincess.com

Ø  Sweetshoppedesigns.com

Ø  Thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com

Ø  Twopeasinabucket.com

Ø  Ztampf.com