Well, is has now been nearly a month since I did a “soft-launch” of DigiScrapQuickPages.com to Digital Scrapbook Designers. My goal was to sign up 25 designers for the site, the newsletter, and for them to upload some products. Plus I asked them to “like” my site or my Facebook page. Well, I learned a lesson….I made it too complicated! I came close to my goal, I have 23 designers registered at the site! Thank-you for making my launch a success!

But, I only had ten people that followed through on all of my way too complicated requests!

My month anniversary is actually Monday, but that is the same day the Shutterfly codes expire. So, I’m ending the contest today to give the winners a chance to use their codes. As mentioned in a previous post, Janet Lawrence won the first book.

As promised I did a drawing among the second set of five designers…and the winner is…

Designs by CRK

Next I decided to give all ten of the people who so patiently followed all of my requests a second chance to win! And the winner is…

Jill Dzines

Finally, I drew two more names among everyone who has registered for my site and/or newsletter.  The winners were:

Litabells

Sweet Tomato Designs

Congratulations to everyone! And thank you for supporting the launch of DigiScrapQuickPages.com

You only have through June 14th to redeem your coupons! I will email them to you! Thanks to Shutterfly for picking me to host a House Party and providing the gifts. I had extras which worked out great for all of you!

Kiki is bringing something fresh and new to digi-land. I can’t wait to share it with you. But, for now all I can say is she is looking for some new talent! Please think about applying for her CT, she is great to work with!

There is something about making a Dandelion necklace in Spring that brings back magical childhood memories. I remember playing in the woods at our summer cabin. (We lived the rest of the year in the Middle East because my dad was in the Oil Business.) And we would do things like fold notes up into tiny bundles and hide them in the knot of a tree. I remember actually believing a tiny little person might find the note.

When I watch my kids play I hope they are building lots of happy memories. This day I tried to show my four year old how to make a Dandelion necklace. She liked picking the flowers, but she was a little too impatient to learn how. I was happy to get her to lay down in the flower bed for this photo. I only wish I’d done it the week before when it was covered with little purple flowers!

To create the photo I played with all kinds of artistic filters and blending options. The middle of the photo was selected with a messy painterly mask and then I applied the woodcut filter. Then another copy of the photo on the layer behind has a couple of different filters applied. Next I clipped it to an aged piece of paper and also used that paper as an overlay.

I really wanted the necklace to pop, so I painted it back in from the original photo, duplicated that layer and applied another art filter. Then, I applied a shadow to the necklace layer. Dawn Inskip’s child-like doodles were the perfect finishing touch, they really helped capture the magic of playing outside in spring time!

Here is the original photo of my daughter Raeleigh:

Credits: Several kits from Dawn Inskip, Bokeh paper from MK Designs,  Sunburst Overlay from Spinky Dinky Scraps, Scallop frame from MMullens, glitter style from Flergs, Ribbons by Amanda Heimann

The designers in the digital scrapbook industry are forever generous, giving away kits and gift certificates. This time YOU get to be the winner!

The purpose of this contest is to promote the Beta launch of my new web property “DigiScrapQuickPages.com.” The site will remain in “Beta” while I promote it to the Designer community. But anyone can visit the site now! And even register to participate in voting and comments on the product.

Designers, please accept this invitation to go and check out what DigiScrapQuickPages.com has to offer your business. And, help me get the word out about this launch promotion! The odds rarely get better than a 1 in 5 chance of winning! For every 5 designers that complete all four steps I’m giving away a 8×8 Shutterfly coupon code. I have 5 codes left over from my House Party event. But, hurry, they expire June 14th! By the way, I have A LOT of designers that have done at least one of the steps but very few who have done them ALL! I’m thinking you did not see the announcements at DST or Twitter #digiscrap!

1. Register at DigiScrapQuickPages.com
2. Sign up for the Designer Newsletter, the link is in the FAQ
3. Upload at least one Quick Page or Template
4. Click the FB “like” button on my website’s home page AND/OR click the “like” button on my Facebook page. Note, evidently, if you click the button at my website I can’t tell who clicked it. So, I picked the first set of winners without this criteria. But, I’d really appreciate the Designers helping me get the word out by spreading the word to your friends on Facebook.

WINNERS WILL BE UPDATED HERE:

1. The first winner is Janet Lawrence of As You Wish Designs! Here are the screenshots from Random Number Generator:Congratulations to Janet and MUCH gratitude to her for her feedback about DigiScrapQuickPages.com to date!
2. TBD
3. TBD
4. TBD
5. TBD

In the middle of launching my new digital scrapbooking web property (watch for an announcement soon) I somehow volunteered to do a video scrapbook for my Father-In-Law’s church. Knowing I’d be crunched for time my husband suggested I make a single background design to match the music video that would play beforehand.

I didn’t get to watch the video and slide show, but I’m sure it was touching because the music video was fantastic. Here is the link to the “Thank-You Mom” video from “Sermon Spice.”

Here is the end of the video with only the photos from our family. Sorry about the quality of this web version!

Credits: Photo Corners-Mira Designs, Vintage Photo Frame-Katie Pertiet, Flowers/Butterfly-Kasia Designs, Glitter/Glitter Gel styles and “sparks”-Flergs, scroll stamps by BitBox, papers were by too many people that I can’t remember but they are un-discernible because it is about 5 blended layers.

Well, I missed getting photos in the Daffodils this year. But, I did get some quick snapshots with the Azealias. It was kind of impromptu. My sister called to see if we wanted to have a playdate while she watched my other sister’s kids. Danielle had worn this pink wig to school for “hat day” and I wanted a photo of her in it. So, I grabbed my camera as we headed out the door. Good thing, because I think the Azealias will be almost gone by next weekend!

This kit was a freebie collaboration that a slew of artists put together for Digi Shop Talk in honor of (inter)National Scrapbook Day. If you are a member at Digi Shop Talk and have at least 5 posts in the forum you can upload a layout using the kit by midnight tonight for a chance to win a fantastic prize. A lifetime membership to the forum where you will get a free kit each month.

The layout also uses a template by Bella Gypsy that I found on sale yesterday, and an AWESOME glitter gel style by Flergs. I love to use styles and actions on fonts because it is so much easier than grabbing one Alpha at a time to build your title!

My husband’s college buddy had a baby a couple of weeks ago. He is a basketball coach and high school Principal. And, just like my husband, a huge Michael Jordan fan. So, my husband went out and bought a cute set of Jordan infant clothes and he asked me to make a special tag with the baby’s name.

That day I happened to have seen a door hanger template….I’m sorry, I wish I could remember where. So, I thought I’d try and use it.

I gave the hanger a “stroke” and printed the stroke on the back of orange cardstock. After cutting it out by hand I ran it through the Cuttlebug to emboss the “basketball” texture. I put some orange distress ink on the embossing folder first, although it was almost the same color and you can’t really see it. I also cut a backing out of very heavy duty orange glitter paper.

The baby is from the Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge, and his face is a stamp by Peachy King. I found another newborn Jordan outfit on the internet and messed around with warping it until it would fit my baby. I literally made my Photoshop screen show “actual size” and kept holding the baby up there to the screen to check and see if the outfit would “fit” him yet.

The “crib” is actually part of a “fence”, I think from New Life Dreams? I clipped a blue polka-dot paper over it and played with blending modes till it looked right. After making the name tag I adhered it with a cute button brad. Then covered the backside with the glitter card stock piece.

Finally I distressed the edges and tied bits of ribbon around the top. I think it turned out adorable, although the “real” Beau has a beautiful thick head of black hair!

I’d been wanting an excuse to buy this fabulous Alice in Wonderland kit from Tangie Baxter called “Impossible Things.” So, when I needed to make a quick card for a friend on the same day I got a coupon from Tangie I knew exactly what I was buying!

This card is for Elizabeth Montgomery, a sweet friend who has an amazing voice. She sings her own music in little church concerts around the country. She also turned a poem about our son Gabe, written by my Father In Law Jack Nester into a beautiful song about his life in Heaven.

The words to one of Elizabeth’s songs surround the image:
“Now is the time to worship the Lord. Gathered together in one accord. No other place we’d rather be than in the Father’s Sanctuary. If we don’t praise Him the rocks will cry out. Heaven and Earth will lift up our shout.”

Here it is assembled into a card:

You can listen to the song on her Facebook page.

I thought it was appropriate for Easter. I’m just now posting it because I wanted to give it time to reach her in the mail.

Credits: Kit-Tangie Baxter. The skinny frame is by Christina Renee and the flower/jewel are Prima. Ribbon is Michael’s dollar bin. Elizabeth’s face is used for “Alice” instead of the face in Tangie’s kit.

Tangie Baxter’s prompt was “Tickled Pink” for week 14 of the Art Journal Caravan. Of course my first thought was our girls. The journalling is on my heart, not evident in the “artwork.” It is about being tickled pink with my house full of girls. But, at the same time, I’ll never know what it would have been like to have my middle child, a boy, thrown into the daily craziness. His sixth birthday is tomorrow. He died during childbirth. He is on the other side of grace, and we are on the other side of grief. We have a happy household. But we do miss Gabe, he still shows up in most of the family portraits my girls draw. Right in the middle of them where he belongs.

The vintage dolls are a freebie stamp I found. But they looked a little scary, even for a bittersweet subject. So, I gave them Manga eyes from another free brush set I found. There are a lot of blending effects here with the four papers used, so most of them don’t look like the original. I love the black and white curtains, they are from Tangie Baxter’s Impossible Things kit. And Anne DeJong’s paper feather was the perfect finishing touch!

Credits: Tangie Baxter, Dianne Rigdon, Anne De Jong, http://visionofviolet.deviantart.com/art/Manga-eyes-for-Newbies-77930122, http://brushes.500ml.org/list2.php (vintage toy brushes)

Can I say something without sounding like I’m knocking my parents? When I was growing up, I kid you not, it was hard to find a blank piece of paper to draw on. I remember looking at my dad’s legal pads from work hoping there would be a blank page somewhere in there.

I’ve kind of taken the opposite approach with my girls. They don’t have permission to use my supplies. But, they have a little table and chairs next to mine. And a cart full of their own supplies.  I let them paint whenever they want to. The only problem is they get really messy. We need to work on clean up time, I know!

My oldest daughter and I had a whole lot of fun making Junk Journals last month. I just have not gotten around to posting the photos on my blog. She really enjoyed watching Tangie’s videos, picking supplies, and following Tangie’s directions. I let her use my Tim Holtz ink pads for this project because her stamp pads are recessed and would not work. You can see even the little one got into the action…I let her glue the “scraps” together. It kept her entertained most of the time we were working on our books.

If you want to learn more about Junk Journals watch these videos by Tangie Baxter. Danielle was so proud of how “fat” her journal is, she kept talking about it so her dad finally said, “I take it *fat* books is the goal here?” Yep, and imagine how fat they will be when they are filled with all the “junk”!

Tangie Baxter’s Supply List:
*Composition Notebook
*Ink Pads
*Scrapbook Paper
*Glue (Aleen’s Tacky Glue, Tombow multi-tip, UHU glue stick)
*Thin Ribbons
*Binder Clips

My comments…I didn’t find the UHU glue stick tacky enough to suit me. Aleen’s glue worked better but it was wet and took longer to dry. I’m a big fan of Tombow, if I’d found the multi-tip I bet I would have liked it. Also, I used some “post it” style plastic tabs…very cool. I just stuck them on and pasted a scrapbook page over it.