February 2007, Volume 4, Issue 2
 

digitalscrapbookplace.com
The Digital Scrapbook Place

N e w s l e t t e r
 


In This Edition


A Letter from Team Digital
Becky SotoI found myself on the plane to Anaheim the end of January, on my way to meet some of the wonderful people that make this place what it is. But instead of the anticipation and excitement, I was sitting there worrying about details. Had I forgotten something, double check the schedule, did I make sure the kids' schedules were posted clearly for my husband, had I fed the cat? Right then, I had an epiphany in the form of the plane rocking around and dropping. I've felt turbulance before, but this was by far the worst. The first thing I thought of was my children, my family, how much I loved them. I'd been so busy the last couple days, obsessing over those details, had I paid enough attention to them? Shown them enough love? Once the plane (and my pulse rate!) leveled out, I remembered why I had started scrapbooking in the first place. To preserve my memories, and those moments in our lives, for my children, so that they will know how much I loved them, and remember.

So with the hustle and bustle of the holidays behind us, February is upon us. The month of flowers, chocolate, words of love and devotion.  I think that it is the perfect month to remember the reasons you began scrapbooking. It's time to get back in touch with your loved ones, show them how much you care, and don't let the little details of your busy life interfere with your life.

Becky Soto
Designer

(back to top)


Club Digital
Are you a member of the club?
If you haven't joined the hippest club in town, you are missing out! Club Digital is full of great digi-scrapping goodies for a great price! For just $2 more than a page kit (when you buy a three-month subscription) you get two Page Kits, a Plopper or Overlay, an Alpha, four Word Art files, a Quick Click, a Font and a Stamp set every month! There's also an exclusive store saving coupon just for Club Digital members. You don't want to be left out! Just look what the DSP Designers did with this month's club goodies.

See samples and sign up for the club here.

This month's Club Digital has: two Page Kits (Lady Jane and A Letter from Grandma ), a Plopper, an Alpha, a Stamp Set, Word Art, a Dingbat Font, and a Quick Click! Don't miss out!

Club Digital
(back to top)


SCRAP-A-FAIRE

SCRAP-A-FAIREDSP is partnering with Better Homes & Gardens Scrapbooks Etc. as a sponsor of SCRAP-A-FAIRE, a virtual festival for paper and digital scrapbookers.  Scrap, shop, learn, chat!  Click here for more details.


February Holiday
Inspirations

Here are some fun and unusual events and holidays around the world that just may inspire a layout!

All Month:
American Heart Month
Int'l Boost Self-Esteem Month
Library Lovers Month
Black History Month
Return Shoppings Carts to the Supermarket Month

First Week of February:
Solo Diners Eat Out Week

Second Week of February:
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us from Getting Dizzy
Week

Feb 1 Robinson Crusoe Day
Feb 2 Candlemas & Ground Hog Day
Feb 6 Pay a Compliment Day
Feb 8 Laugh & Get Rich Day
Feb 11 Shut-In Visitation Day
Feb 13 Get Different Name Day
Feb 17 Who Shall I Be? Day
Feb 19 Spunky Old Broads Day
Feb 20 Pancake Day
Feb 23 Curling is Cool Day
Feb 26 For Pete's Sake Day

Make Your Own Holiday

As I searched for the February Holiday Inspirations this month, it occurred to me that someone had to have made up most of these holidays. Invented them all themselves - for fun, for profit (I don't list many of those!) to spread news and health warnings, or to commemorate events.

And I thought about how my nephew created Monkey Day for a school project. (There are several waiting-to-be-scrapped moments from this story!)

On Monkey Day, you eat monkey food, play monkey games, and watch monkey videos. It's become a floating recurring holiday (whenever the "girls" are out of the house - or just because!)

So - do any of you have family holidays? How about sitting down with the kids and inventing one? Have a special breakfast the first morning you see the bare ground again. Commemorate the day (pick one if necessary) that your ancestors arrived in your family's hometown. Create a little ritual to celebrate especially good grades. Or ask a 2nd grader and celebrate something like Monkey Day!

If you have a family holiday - or if you create one - make a layout about it, post it in your gallery, and send the link to comments@dsplace.com. I'll choose 4 or 5 to feature in next month's newsletter. Go on - have fun!

(back to top)


Member Spotlight
The February 2007 Spotlight member is MarsOlson. If you spend anytime in the forums, you can't miss Mars with her wonderful sense of humor and her involvement in challenges! She's a wonderful asset to the DSP community and a very talented scrapper.  Just take a few minutes to look through her gallery and you'll come away inspired!! Her wonderful style is inventive and varied.  Her layouts are rich with detail and wonderfully designed!!

So, take a look at her gallery and then scraplift her! Join in the Scraplift the Spotlight challenge of Mars and get inspired!

Read more about her here. Congratulations, Mars!

(back to top)


GEM - Guest Elite Member
The competition for the Digital Elite Team was so strong this time, that the designers have created a DET Special Guest position that will rotate each month. The Guest this month is JamieStillwagon.

You can view her gallery here - and watch for her DET layouts throughout February. Congratulations, Jamie!


(back to top)


Featured Designer: Valeri Brumfield

If you look through her gallery, you can see that Valeri is inspired by her son, her cats, her family and beautiful Idaho. And while the son is into typical teen things like skateboards, he's also an artist in his own right. And given to sweet gestures at just the right time - as evidenced by more than one layout in Valeri's gallery.

Valeri's been at DSP from the very beginning and has been designing since late 2004. Her style is rich with color and texture and her current favorite - Buttons & Blues with a Page Kit & two Add-Ons - shows off her talent to perfection.


(back to top)


DSU Information
Its February which means my baby boy will be turning 2! Where does the time go? Why do they have to grow up so fast? And I’m not even caught up with his baby book.

This month is also bringing some excitement at DSU! We are debuting one of our newest classes by Lauren Bavin and Sharon Topliss - DSU290- Exploring Digital Design Styles! If you are interested in this classes or any of our other classes, please visit our classes page for more information. You can register for any of these classes here.

Here is our March line up so you can start making plans now!

March classes

DSU110 – Adobe Photoshop: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking

DSU130 – Corel/Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking

DSU190 – Layout Design (2 week class)

DSU220 – Adobe Photoshop: Brushes (Pre-requisite- DSU 110 or similar experience)

DSU270 – Adobe Photoshop Elements: Brushes

DSU331 – Corel/Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Creating Digital Elements for Advanced Users (Pre-requisite DSU231 or similar experience)

DSU351 – Photography: Home Lighting (Pre-requisite DSU151 and DSU350)

Be sure to visit our classes page for more information regarding these classes and our other great classes at DSU!

We would love to hear your suggestions on future classes! Send your suggestions and comments to me at dsu@digitalscrapbookplace.com.

We’re also looking for qualified DSU instructors! If you would be interested in teaching, please contact me for more information.

Amber, Dean of DSU
dsu@digitalscrapbookplace.com

(back to top)


More Challenges
Here are a few more of the ongoing challenges here at DSP! Check the site for a full list of all the challenges, contests, and events!

All For Fun and All for Naught with Lauren at 9 PM Wed

Amber's Scrapalicious Chat with Amber Gray at 11 PM Wed

Club Digital Challenge with Karen
Scrap with the current Club Digital and win!

Digital De*Lights with Kim
Inspiration and freebies in this weekly chat!

Freebs with Tina
Come chat, create, and get freebies!

Friday Night Bingo Chat with René
1st and 3rd Friday at 10 pm ET

Item of the Week Challenges
with Abby

Grab a kit for 99 cents with prizes!

Scrapblog Challenges with Meg
Follow Meg's prompts to update your blog. New prompt everyday! Jump in at any time!!

West Coast Crop with Kristen
Every Tues, midnight ET
Hosted by MommySpice in February

Challenges/Contests/Events
Check our Calendar of Events and the February Links thread for a complete list of all events and challenges. Here are a just a few of our exciting Challenges!

New to DSP?? Looking to post your first layout in February? Then be sure to check out this challenge and you could win!!

Hall of Fame Gallery.
Check here for the best layouts at DSP - nominated by our designers.

New Kids on the Block 7 - Are you new to digital scrapping? Looking for a friendly and challenging contest that's both educational and fun? It's not too late to join in with the New Kids on the Block! Round 1 (of 3) has just started. Find out "How Does New Kids Work?", sign-up, and join in!

Are you a Not-So-New-Kid anymore? Come cheer on your "younger" siblings by going comment-crazy!!

DET Bootcamp
Join in to stretch your scrapping skills in preparation for the next DET Contest coming up in March 2007. (Come join even if you don't plan to enter the DET contest - the Bootcamp is open to all!)

Freestyle Fandango with Suzanne
The Freestyle Fandango is our fabulous-fun-frivolous term for an ongoing set of challenges where we explore freestyle-style layouts. We begin a new challenge every Monday. It's a really fun way to stretch and explore new styles! We would LOVE to have you come dance with us in the Fandango!!!

Prompts & Props with Bethy and Z
Prompts are a challenge idea, something for you to scrap about. Props are a freebie, something for you to scrap with! From now to the end of the year we're going to focus on gift making, so that you can have a few easy quick things done and in the bag at Christmastime.

Join Jamie and Samara every other Friday (next one Feb 16th) for a night of improv kit building! Every chat will feature fabulous backgrounds created by either Jamie or Samara and you get to shout out your suggestions for elements, themes and colors to build a kit! Check out the Friday Night Improv thread for dates, times and more information!

Join in René's "Come On Get Happy Challenge" February 4 - 11. Use the word "Happy" in your layout along with her new kit series "Lavendar Dreams" and get a challenge exclusive posting bonus!

Beginnings with Bethy is changing things up in February! Instead of a prompt to inspire a layout, we're going to talk about different design concepts and then challenge each other use them in a layout.  First up is contrast. Come read, learn, share, and be inspired!! The featured kit for the first half of February will be Wildflower Whimsy! Come
check out the forum for more info!

Lisa Carter's Member's Choice Double Take has had a name change to SUPRIZE BY DESIGN. Still Thursdays at 10pm ET. Still the same challenge. But watch for Surprizes!

(back to top)


Newsletter Challenge!
We are striving make our newsletter more interesting and useful. If you have an idea, let us know about it! If it's an article idea, a feature, even something you'd like to write, shout it out to us. If we incorporate your idea into the newsletter, you could win a free page kit! So, put your thinking caps on and come up with some new features, article ideas, or something fun you'd like to see in our monthly newsletter. Then email it to comments@dsplace.com. (Please type "Newsletter IDEA" in the subject line of your email.) We can't wait to see your ideas!
(back to top)

iotwItems Of The Week (IOTW)
Each week a new item goes on sale for only 99 cents. Check out the IOTW challenge starting each Sunday. Buy the kit, use it to make a layout, post it to the IOTW gallery and the designer will have different prizes for you! It could be a posting bonus, a random drawing, chances at a free fonting, you never know! Check it out this week!
The Item of the Week for February 4th is the Loves Blush Page Kit by Marcee Duggar.

 


(back to top)


What's New at DSP?

Just the greatest Valentine CDs - Love is in the Air and Love Word Art Volume II!

Scraps of Life: Love is in the Air - Downloadable - CD

Scraps of Words: Love Word Art II- Downloadable - CD

CD

CD


The Newsletter Desktop Calendar Plopper
Desktop PlopperA newsletter exclusive! Specially designed ploppers for your computer desktop. This month's offering is from our featured designer Valeri Brumfield. She used her Buttons & Blues kit. The Calendar grid is Wide Simple 2007 Calendar Stamps from Lauren Bavin & Kim Liddiard.

Download the PNG file of your choice here: 1024x768 hires version and 800x600 regular version. And just like any of our ploppers, put your photo on a layer underneath the desktop plopper. Angle and size it as you please, add journaling, and save it as a jpg. Then update your desktop wallpaper background by browsing to your new image! Voilà! Favorite photos matched with this month's calendar to help keep you up-to-date all month! Look for a new one each month in our newsletter!!
(back to top)


Newsletter Freebie
Weekly Freebie

newsletter freebie
These shiny flowers are the newsletter freebie, by our featured designer, Valeri Brumfield. Grab it here!

weekly freebie
Lisa Carter provides this week's freebie - this pretty paper in two sizes. Be sure to check every Monday for new freebies!

(back to top)
note: top logo was made using a photo taken by Kristen Skold.

Are you not a registered member of our site? Join now!
All new members receive a free gift.
Feel free to pass this on to your friends!

 

 
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive it at digitalscrapbookplace.com.
You can subscribe or un-subscribe from this newsletter on our site.