In This Edition

A Letter from Team Digital

Hello Everyone!

Wow I can not believe its already June! This has to be one of my favorite times of the year. June holds both my birthday and wedding anniversary and usually lots of sunshine. These past few days I have found myself going out into the beautiful gardens that my husband has planted and cared for, taking gorgeous snapshot after snapshot of all the pretty blooms and even creating a bouquet or two.

There are many great photos to take outdoors at this time of year and so many wonderful saturated colors.

Two days ago we set up the kiddie pool for the first time this year. My 2 year old little girl was having so much fun …and there mommy was again ….taking snapshot after snapshot! Later that evening, I sat down and looked at my scrapbooks from last year with her in the kiddie pool…sigh…and thought to myself "Oh dear, where has my baby gone?" The change in her from last year to this year is incredible! How special it is to live in a time and age where scrapbooking is so prominent in our lives! I can not tell you how wonderful it has been to be able to chronicle the memories of my family and literally almost watch my daughter grow right before my very eyes! …and the icing on the cake is that I have also journalled so much that I will be able to hold onto her childhood years from now. I've never been one to keep a diary so of course there's one more reason that scrapbooking has changed me! I really can not imagine my life now without it.

…and that brings me to talking about DSP. You know, ever since I first laid eyes on this site back in January of 2006, I have set goals for myself…first to learn to create digital pages and then become challenged in my creation of them. Then, later on, these goals evolved into something I had only dreamed of …designing!

What a wonderful community we have here! We have the friendliest members around and the best Designers and Mods! (I really do brag all of the time that I get to work with the "Best of the Best"!)

If you happen to be a newcomer here at DSP we have great tutorials to get you started, terrific galleries for inspiration, regular chats and even classes! If you are not new then I am sure you know that around here it's never a dull moment. There is always something fun to learn or do at DSP and always some way to broaden your knowledge of this fantastic craft, all while keeping our memories alive!

Here's to wishing everyone a wonderful summer and I am so looking forward to seeing the galleries filled to the rim of fun, family and happiness!

Linda Rechtin
Designer

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Digital Scrapbooking Instructors Wanted

Do you enjoy teaching digital scrapbooking to others? Do you have advanced computer and scrapbooking software skills? If the answer is yes, then this opportunity may be right for you. Scrapbook, photo, and craft stores in your area may be looking for digital scrapbooking instructors.

These stores are looking for individuals with the following skills and abilities:

• Teaching in a group setting
• Solid personal computer skills
• Advanced digital scrapbooking software skills (I.e. Pixel Magic, Adobe Photoshop Elements - the instructor should teach the software the store is selling)
• Willingness to encourage other people to use the store's products and services (both digital and traditional)

You can find more info here and there's a thread here with more info.

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New to DSP?

Posting your first layout in June?? Then be sure to check out the First Layout in June Challenge!! Post a link to your first layout and you could win!! 

Are your new to DSP? New to digital scrapbooking?  Then there's a great place for you to start and find the answers to any questions you may have about getting around DSP!! Come to the "New to DSP Chat" on Tuesday June 19th at 10pm EST.  The chat is hosted by DSP Designers Elizabeth Weaver (Z) and Beth Nixon (Bethy). They'll answer any questions you may have about getting around the site, point out some wonderful tutorials, and tell you the best ways to jump in and get scrapping! The chat ends up with a link to a kit created just for our new members!  So, come, chat, meet some other new members, and get a freebie!  More information here.

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Featured Challenge: Freebs with Tina

From Tina:
What is Freebs? It's simply a challenge to use a featured product (chosen by members via a forum poll), discuss your bonus, and decide what goes in it! Freebs chats are on Thursday nights at 11 pm ET and are a fun and casual kind of chat. We laugh, share stories and enjoy each others company all while dreaming up new word art ideas. Hope you can join us! More info

From dogartist:
"Freebs" is without a shadow of a doubt my favorite challenge at DSP and that is saying a lot! The Freebs chat is fast and fun and you get a super freebie at the end! (who doesn't like that?!)

I love using Tina's creations and make a point to participate every week.

Just one of my favorite LOs for Freebs: So Happy

From MarsOlson:
Wow where to begin to sing Tina's praises and what a wonderful designer she is and how much I enjoy her Freebs Challenge!

I have participated in Tina's fabulous Freebs challenges since the first one and it is always a favourite! Her chats are so much fun with tons of laughs and suggestions flying around the room. There's an added bonus with a super chat freebie!

I would be lost without her fantastic wordart, there is always the perfect one for any layout I am working on. I especially love that she is now doing kits too! Her designs are beautifully classy with a refined elegance and delicate simplicity, a lot like the lovely Tina herself.

Almost every one of my layouts has something of Tina on it with all her word art but lately with her making kits and great quick clicks I find I am using even more of her work. Here is one of my most recent layouts for Freebs using only elements made by Tina. These Moments

From sammdc:
I love freebs with Tina because of the variety and versatility of the challenges. Firstly if it's word art I get to use any kit I want too so you know the kit that you simply had to have then haven't got around to using it well with Tina's word art I can use it. Then some weeks we use a quick click and again I get to choose the Page Kit to match the photos I want to scrap with. Then of course we also get to use the beautiful Page Kits designed by Tina which are just beautiful and nearly always contain some awesome word art. So all up it's the variety and the totally fabulous bonuses we get for attending the chats and participating in the challenges. One last thing too is Tina always gives such wonderful feedback on any layouts you do.

This layout combines Tina's backpack her wordart and her quickclick. Breaktaking Moments

From sandygb:
Tina's Freebs Chat are wonderful for so many reasons. Tina is so good natured and manages to keep her cool and keep us in line at the same time. She takes our suggestions and creates a FREEBIE kit that is amazing. I love the versatility of Tina's artistry too. Whether we choose Word Art, a Quick Click or a Page kit, it's always something fun to use and Tina always treats us to a fabulous posting bonus in return! Here is one of my favorite Freebs layouts: Puppy Child

From the3chickens:
What do I like about Freebs? Well, apart from Tina herself whom I just love (despite her occasional nuttiness and extreme Potter-geekism :D wait, no, those are the main reasons why I do love her! :D), I'm simply addicted to her awesome wordart and frequently feel that something's missing if I don't have 1 (or 2 or 3 or 4 :D) of them somewhere in a LO. They just add so much, either as a main focus or as a finishing touch, to express an emotion or used as an element and I simply can't do without my "Tina stash". I also love her kits which she recently started doing as well - I find them both beautiful and versatile and you can get many different looks just from one of her kits. She is just such a talented designer besides being a fabulous person!

This is one of my fave Freebs LO and it uses Tina's Together Forever Wordart: Love You Forever

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Club Digital
Are you a member of the club?

Ever wished for a monthly fix of the best digital scrapbook products money can buy delivered direct to your inbox? Well now you can have it. Club Digital is the hottest club in town.

Each month you receive a wonderful selection of scrapbooking products. Something to suit every style and level of digital scrapper.

This month you will find a great variety of items to get your spring scrapbooking off to a roaring start: two wonderful and very different page kits, one soft and elegant and one bright and funky, an set of elegant versatile overlays, a funky clear stamp style alphabet, and useful geometric border stamps. In addition you will find some Mother's Day word art, a really useful multiple photo quick click template and, of course, a brand new exclusive font.

All this for the incredible price of $5.99 a month or even less!!!

See more samples and sign up for the club here.

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Member Spotlight

The May 2007 Spotlight is Stephanie aka PurdueLiz. Be sure to check out her Scraplift the Spotlight challenge and scraplift one of her many creative layouts! She has a distinctive and wonderful style! Her use of elements and white space is fantastically inspiring!!

Find out more about this inspiring scrapper!  You can read more about her here.

Congratulations Ann! You are a true scrapping inspiration!

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Featured Designer: Lauren Bavin

While DSP is certainly the biggest and best digital scrapbooking website in the world, the one thing that makes it stand out amongst all the rest is the deep sense of community and bonding that is evident in the chat room, forums and gallery.

DSP has become a huge part of my life; obviously it helps pay my bills at home, and has given me a career that I had never dreamed possible, but if I had to choose the one thing that DSP has given me that I wouldn't give up it would be the friendships that I have developed and I know that I am not alone in that feeling.

Many of you have fast and firm friendships with women from all over the globe - some of whom you will probably never get to meet, but these are likely to be friendships that will last the test of time because they are formed on mutual respect and passion for a common goal - the preservation of family memories and the desire to share our lives, the highs and the lows with those people who understand us the best.

It has been my greatest joy to meet some of the team on the 2 occasions I've had the opportunity to travel to the US to work for DSP.

Those meetings were more like meeting long lost friends rather than people who I had never met before - because through our work and communications and sharing of our lives through our layouts I believe I probably knew them better than I do some of my friends who are much closer geographically.

I have personally now attended 2 laptop crops - one in Anaheim and one in Auckland NZ, where I've had the great honour of meeting up with some of the wonderful members at DSP and what an excitement that was, and an experience that I can't wait to repeat.

If you have the opportunity to attend any of the laptop crops that DSP is involved in over the coming months it is an experience that I'm sure you will never forget and you will form more friendships that could well be lifelong, and you never know - maybe I will see you there!!!

Lauren Bavin
Senior Designer

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DSU Information

We have another great line up of classes for July! If you would like to register for any of these classes, click here!

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

DSU151– Photography: Taking Better Snapshots

DSU160 – Adobe Photoshop Elements: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking

DSU215 – Adobe Photoshop Actions and Automations ( Photoshop v.7 and above) (Pre-requisite- DSU 110 or similar experience)
**NOTE: This class is not for Photoshop Elements.**

DSU225 – Adobe Photoshop: Paths ( Photoshop v.7 and above) (Pre-requisite- DSU 110 or similar experience)
**NOTE: This class is not for Photoshop Elements.**

DSU231– Corel/Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Creating Digital Elements for Beginners (Pre-requisite DSU130 or similar experience)

DSU361 – Adobe Photoshop Elements: Creating Digital Elements for Advanced Users (Pre-requisite- DSU 261)

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

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Challenges/Contests/Events

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

The All for One with Linda Challenge is a weekly challenge/chat hosted by designer Linda Rechtin on Wednesdays, 9:00pm ET. Every week Linda gives out a chat freebie, and assigns a featured kit for the week. In the chat there's loads of fun with talk of everything from upcoming kits and scrapbooking, to chocolate! Members have one week from the date of the chat, midnight, to purchase and create a layout using the featured kit and then post it in the All for One with Linda Gallery. After that, she sends a PM with a posting bonus to all participants! This way, members end up with all three items - All for One price! Be sure to check out the All for One with Linda forum for the latest featured kit and freebie previews, along with some great inspirations in her gallery.

DET Bootcamp
Join in to stretch your scrapping skills in a friendly, supportive atmosphere. (Come join even if you don't plan to enter the DET contest - the Bootcamp is open to all!)

Our Heritage Chat with Meryl at 10.00p.m. every Wednesday, join us to work on your Heritage album – each week we have a new challenge and award a page kit voucher as a prize.

Tea for Two & Two for Tea with Meryl at 11.00 a.m every Thursday – each week we tackle a different scrapbooking technique, and your prize is a sneak preview of Meryl’s latest products.

René's super fun Virtual Bingo Chat just got Super Sized!! Come play Super Bonus Bingo in the chat room May 11th at 10PM EST and win even more! Check René's Challenges and Chats thread for details!

Beginnings with Bethy
The Beginnings with Bethy forum, with DSP Designer Beth Nixon, will be featuring the Watermelon Picnic page kit this month (in store June 4th). Be sure to stop by the forum and see this fun kit that'll be perfect for scrapping any summer fun memory!  Watermelon, corn on the cob, and watermelon seeds! Details will be in the forum here. Watermelon Picnic (in store June 4th).  For June there is a fantastic coordinating add-on and, rumor is, a coordinating watermelon seed alpha will be the posting bonus in July!

Props and Prompts
DSP Designers Elizabeth Weaver and Beth Nixon, team up for their monthly challenge: Props and Prompts with Z and Bethy for another fun challenge!  See the details in the forum. Join the chat on June 5th and join the challenge from June 5-19 featuring Tear It Up by Beth Nixon and Flirty Flowers by Elizabeth Weaver both in store on June 4th! Be sure to stop by and check out the chat and posting bonuses!

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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!

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Item 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 May 27th is the DSP Brilliance font by Suzanne Walker.

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What's New in the DSP Store?

June is Super Summer Surprise Shopping Month! Look for details in the Store.
Scraps of Words - Heritage Wordart Scraps of Words - Heritage Wordart (downloadable)	Scraps of Style - Days Gone By Scraps of Style - Days Gone By (downloadable)

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The Newsletter Desktop Calendar Plopper

A newsletter exclusive! Specially designed ploppers for your computer desktop. This month's offering is by Lauren Bavin.

Download your choice here:
1024x768 or 800x600

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!

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