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In this Issue
Letter from Team Digital - Margie Lundy
2011 has flown by for me. Maybe it's because 18 states have flown by my window this year in our quest to
Scrap the Map!
Or maybe it's because we reached a big milestone in the shop as
ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS
have flown off our shelves! Or maybe it's all the new things around DSP, new members,new designers, new products, new projects, new events, new scrapbook pages... Yep, I think all of the above have made 2011 fast AND fun!
We now have over 178,000 members in the forum, friendly faces that are helpful and fun to hang out with online.
We love seeing new designers Jeanet Almhøj and Lora Speiser's great products in the shop. We've added great new products and entire categories to the shop. Check out our creative
home decor category, featuring vinyl wall art, photo alphas, photo words, and hand-crafted signs. Don't just keep these works of art in your scrapbooks, decorate your entire home! We even have lovely artisan necklaces you can wear. Of course all of these make great gifts too!
As always, our designers continue to create amazing graphics for your pages. Some of this year's popular Mega Kits are Genealogy,
Wedding Day,
Photographers Essentials,
School Days, and
Being Grateful.
My favorite CDs are
Sports,
Friends, and
Christmas Memories. Check out all the designs in the shop. With over 10,000, you're sure to find what you need!
Try the search box on the top right to find just the right graphics for your photos.
This year saw some creative Project 365 endeavors in the gallery (and lots of P365 products in the shop!). Check out Designer Lauren Bavin's weekly
Auckland New Zealand beach layouts, CarolAnn Gary's You Know You Are In Portland If weekly series, and Christine Gundersen's weekly
Life As We Know It pages. Check out all of the different ways of documenting daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly photos. We've also been inspired daily by Layouts of the Day, member-chosen Wonders of the Week and participants in contests like the Scrappy Awards (check out overall winner Terryl's layout!), all showcasing the amazing talent we have in the gallery thanks to all of YOU!
There's just SO much happening at DSP. No wonder the year has passed by so quickly! We hope your 2011 was wonderful and your 2012 is even better!
Margie's Links:
Team Digital Bio
Personal Gallery
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Site News and Features
New
to DSP?
Posting
Your First Layout:
Are you thinking about
posting your first layout? There's a special first layout
challenge each month for you. Post your first layout to DSP this month
and you may be a random winner for a free page kit!!
You'll find all the information here.
What's Going On
If you need to
know what is going on, you need the What's Happening at DSP
thread or the Calendar. You
can also find out what contests and challenges are due in the What's Due
thread.
What's
DUE
If
you are
looking to find out what challenges are due when then the What’s Due
thread is the thread you need to check out. In this thread,
you can find out what contests and challenges are coming
up. So
- get going on a few challenges, Ladies, there are tons of great ones :)
The
Buzz for Newbees and Oldbees
Chat for new members (and old members too!)
Every Wednesday at
10 pm EST
Everyone Welcome!
If you are new to digital scrapbooking or new to DSP, or if you've been
around DSP for a while but love to meet and help new members, join us
in
chat!
DSP is a big busy site! Are you beewildered? Do you have questions? How
to get around the site? How to enter challenges? Where to start? Join
us in chat to find out more about the site and digi-scrapping! We'll
orient you to some of the features of DSP and answer questions to help
you feel more comfortable getting around and finding what you need.
Welcome
to DSP! We know you will love it!
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The 2012 Scrappy Awards
Each January, the
digital scrapbooking community and fans around the
world turn their attention to the Scrappy Awards. Interest and
anticipation builds to a fevered pitch leading up to the live
chat on January 28th, when
hundreds of millions of scrapbooking lovers log in to participate in
the glamorous ceremony and learn who will receive the highest honors in
digital scrapbooking.
The Scrappies reward the previous year’s greatest digital
scrapbooking achievements as determined by some of the
world’s most accomplished digital designers.
Awards
are presented for outstanding individual efforts in 18 categories.
Judges select winners from three nominees in each category, the only
exception being the Best Overall Layout category, for which the winner
is selected from the nominees of all other categories.
[NOTE: As the Scrappies were previously held in June, this year's
Awards will include ONLY layouts made in the last six months, since the
last ceremony.]
[NOTE
2: My thanks and apologies to the Oscar Awards website, from which I
blatantly plagiarized and altered their informational write up!]
Please
join us for what is sure to be Digital Scrapbook Place's most glamorous
Awards ceremony yet!
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New
Kids on the Block
What
is a New
Kid? Who ARE the New Kids? Are YOU a New Kid?
New
Kids on the
Block (NKOTB) is a contest for those who are new to digital
scrapbooking and
want to learn more based on quality feedback and constructive critiques
from experienced scrappers. It is also a chance to meet new friends,
become part of the DSP community and belong to an alumni group when
it's over. The contest begins in February, but look for signups and
more information early in January.
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Member
Spotlight – Jennilynn10
DSP Member Spotlight for
January is Jennifer a.k.a. jennilynn10 Check out her gallery here.
Starting off the New
Year, the spotlight falls on a super talented member, jennilynn10. For
some insight into the woman behind the gallery of lovely layouts:
Jennifer is as a devoted mother and wife, who says she tries to be a
caring and compassionate person, but admits that she also really enjoys
being a total goofball at times.
Jennifer's gallery reflects that fact
that she generally creates paper-style
layouts with the occasional fantasy-style page thrown in for good
measure. “That versatility is one of the things I love most
about digital scrapbooking,” says Jennifer, who made her
first digital layout following a DSP tutorial and never went back to
paper scrapping after that.
“My inspiration usually comes from photos of my children. I
am also very inspired by the wonderful digital kits at DSP and the
layouts posted by other DSP members. I usually start with the photo and
find the kit to match. Sometimes I find a DSP kit that I just HAVE to
buy, and then I'll find a photo to go with it.”
As for a favorite layout, Jennifer says she can't pick just one
favorite among her layouts explaining: “For me it's like
trying to pick a favorite among many friends.”
Congratulations and
thank you Jennifer for sharing you wonderful talent as our first DSP
Member Spotlight of 2012. Read more about Jennifer on the Spotlight Page,
visit Jennifer’s Gallery.
Then join the Scraplift the Spotlight Challenge
for your chance to win a lucky draw DSP Store Voucher. With a gallery
that is just simply packed with outstanding layouts I know Jennifer
will provide DSP members with inspiration to kick-start their
digi-scrapping for the year!
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to the top)
Featured Designers
Erica Belton
Making a realistic water droplet.
Using Photoshop CS3 and a photo of your choice, I'm going to show you
how to create a realistic water droplet.
This tutorial should work with any PS programmes that have the mentioned processes available.
Step 1 Choose a photo that you think will look good with water droplets; I have chosen a photo of leaves.
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Step 2 Next Duplicate your photo by right clicking on it and selecting Duplicate Layer from the drop down menu. This gives us a background copy to work on, never work on the original. You can switch the original off if you want to.
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Step 3
Create a new Layer above your background copy.
On your new layer and using the Elliptical Marquee Tool draw an oval shape.
This is our basic water droplet.
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Using the Gradient Tool and the black/white gradient, drag inside the
selection from a black gradient to grey, see example. In the Layers
Blend Mode panel choose Overlay.
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Step 4 Keeping the oval droplet layer selected go to your
Layers Style Menu and select Drop Shadow and apply the parameters shown here. |
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Next choose the Layer Style Inner Shadow with the parameters shown here.
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The next Layer Style we are going to apply is Inner Glow.
Change from the default colour and click on the Gradient button and choose black grading
to clear and the parameters shown here. |
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Step 5 With the water droplet layer still selected, go to Filters,
Blur, Gaussian Blur and apply the parameters as shown here to soften the edge. About 1.8.
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Step 6
Create a new layer above the water droplet and select a Soft Round brush
from your brush tools, the size you choose will depend on the size of your
droplet. Select white as your foreground colour and just dot your droplet
with the brush to replicate a highlighted source. You can add a Gaussian Blur
if the brush isn't soft enough.
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Step 7
We need to add a bit of shape to our droplet to make it more
realistic. With the water droplet layer selected, go to Filters,
Distort, Wave and apply the parameters as shown here. You can play
around with these parameters to get the shape you like. You may have to
reposition the white brush highlight after reshaping the droplet.
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And here is the finished water droplet on our leaf.
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Tutorial Created by Erica Belton – Senior Designer
Erica's Links:
Team Digital Bio
Personal Gallery
Forum
DSP Products
Kim Liddiard
Welcome 2012 - A New Year for More Memories Happy New Year!
Another year of memories has just begun! I would like to encourage you
in your quest to preserve those memories for your loved ones and friends.
The following list are some items I think are important as you
commemorate the events of your lives this year. I hope they serve as an
inspiration and help to you whether you scrapbook, life book, or just journal.
Memory preservation is an art form. But, don't think you have to be an
artist master to create beautiful pages that everyone will love and enjoy!
1. Clear the Slate / Empty your Mind
I think the biggest hurdle most of us face in the creative process is
just clearing our slate/palette, whatever you want to call it.
Sometimes what hinders us most in our artistic process is all of the
day to day junk we have rolling around in the steel trap that is our
mind.
If you find you are creatively blocked, just take a quick 5 minutes to
sit down and dump out all the cares and woes on a blank piece of paper.
This process can be in sentence form like journaling, a mind map,
doodles, scribbles, a to-do list, rambling thoughts, whatever is on
your mind at the moment. The important thing to remember is to just get
it out of your head and on to paper. You'd be surprised at how this
little exercise can increase your creative thinking!
2. Capture Those Moments - Big or Small
Our memories are made up of all kinds of moments. Take time to
celebrate the moments from the everyday to the big events. Photos are
generally the easiest way to capture these snips of time. Many of us
now have cell phone cameras that take decent pictures and can help us
record the moment if we don't have our more serious cameras available.
If you find yourself without a means to take a photo, take some time to
just jot the moment down and date it. Have a box of some sort you can
put these memories in until such time as you can bring them into your
layouts. Just think of how fun it would be to open a box of memories
and read through them at a later date.
While we are talking about capturing moments, please remember that
there is more to life than just happiness or fun. We all have times of
sorrow, fear, and other emotions. Just like journaling, it is good for
us to remember these times and how we came through them. And the best
part is, you don't have to share them with everyone or anyone if you
choose.
You can create layouts that talk about your life journey that no one
hasto see. These are the things that shape our lives and make us who and
what we are. I would encourage you to preserve (even if it is briefly)
some of the tough times.
3. Get Organized
Now that we have talked about the creative process and the events,
let's talk about the process of gathering and organizing our materials
for preservation. One of the biggest things I find helpful is having a
good system of organization for photos, artwork, memory scraps and
journaling.
There are physical items as well as digital items (or if you are like
me, almost 98% is digital). Pick a system that works well for you and
will help you meet your goals which we will talk about next.
Here is what I do for digital organization. Most of my work is saved to
an external hard drive which is backed up by another external hard
drive. This allows access for other family members to photos and
documents as well.
For my photos, I have a main folder which houses them organized by a
folder for each year, then inside the folder all of the days I took
photos in. So, my folder would look like this: Parent Folder Name -
2011, SubFolder Name - 20110101 (this indicates year 2011, first month,
first day).
Whatever you decide to do, be consistent. I have been consistent with
this throughout my organization and find it fairly easy to get where I
need to go in my folders. If I find I need further hints along the way,
I add a description to the subfolders name, like, "20110621 Trip to
Utah with Nephews." Just so the description comes after the date so I
can continue to sort as needed.
There are other ways to help you get through your photos in powerful
programs like Bridge, Lightroom, Picasa, and many more such as
keywording, tagging and more. If you are interested in these, you might
do a search online for more information. It is a vast subject, so don't
get too tied up in it. Your goal is to get your photos and memories
preserved and out there. Don't get worn out in organizing. It is easy
to do!!
For jotted notes and journaling (again - I am digital), I use simple
things like Evernote to jot down little thoughts and memories here and
there and I also make use of notepad to do the same. You can file the
notepad text document in the folder with the photos or timeframe you
are referencing to keep things together. Then, when it comes time to
make a layout, you can easily copy and paste the text from your file on
to your layout. I think this was a trick I learned in Margie's
PowerScrapping method some years ago!
My method may not work for all, but I hope it inspires you to have a
look at how you can make things easy for you.
4. Set Goals
Goals big or small can help direct your journey in memory preservation.
Set goals but make sure they are reasonable and not so big that you
won't see them through.
Sit down and make a list of what you want to see in your memory
preservation. This list can include: an album for the year, an album of
each child's life, an album of a vacation you recently took, a photo
for every day of the year, a layout of photos from each month, and so
on. The options are wide open and shopping around for inspiration can
give you an idea of all the things you can do!
Divide your goals out. Maybe set a goal for so many pages each month or
week. Give yourself room for life and to breathe in your goals so you
don't get discouraged!!
5. Don't get Caught Up in Perfection
I have really elaborated on the other points in this article, but I
feel this one needs to be short and sweet! We have all seen beautiful
pages that appear to have taken hours for the artist to complete. While
we admire the art form, this kind of scrapbooking isn't for everyone.
If you find yourself frustrated with a layout, close it and come back to
it when you are refreshed. Maybe go back to the first item in this
article and clear your mind through 5 minutes of journaling.
6. Most Importantly - Be Inspired!
Inspiration comes in many forms. Just looking around Digital Scrapbook
Place is a great way to start! Check out the galleries - There is no
shortage of inspiration here! Bookmark things that inspire you so you
can come back to them later. Read books, watch ads, thumb through
magazines, the world is full of inspiration!
I wish for all of you and your family and friends a prosperous and a healthy and Happy
New Year! Here's to 2012!
Kim Liddiard, Senior Designer & DSP Store Administrator
Kim's Links:
Team Digital Bio
Personal Gallery
Forum
DSP Products
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blogger
facebook
flickr
twitter
New Products •
Club Digital •
Freebies •
Mentoring •
Contact Us
Forum Search •
FAQ •
Site Map •
Team Digital •
DSP Blog •
Tutorials •
DSP Calendar •
DSP Terms of Use •
The Shop
Product Information •
Shop Site Map •
Store Search •
What's Happening at DSP •
Challenges and Contests •
Questions
Scrap the Map •
DSP Scrap the Map Forum •
WHAT'S DUE
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Store News
Follow us on Twitter!
**************** Sales *****************
1 – New Year's Day Sale
5-6
– Product Showcase Sale
11 –
Worth A Look Wednesday
19-22
– Erica
Belton and Kim Liddiard Featured Designers Sale
30
– Missed 'Em Monday Sale
****************January Fun *****************
Hobby Month
Thank You Month
1 – New Year's Day
5 – National Bird Day
6 – Cuddle Up Day
10 – Peculiar People Day
13 – Blame Someone Else Day
13 – Friday the 13th
15 – National Hat Day
26 – Spouse's Day
31 – Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
Be
sure you are signed up for the store newsletter to receive notice of
other sales!
Make sure you are logged in to your store account to
access the store newsletter info.
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Club Digital
Are you a member of the club?
Start 2012 with a splash
of colour and style with January's club digital selection. With two
funky bright kits and the coordinating back pack that will add some
punch to your winter photos, the very versatile and awesome
plopper and the alphabet and geometric and bold filled circle
stamps you will find yourself reaching for this collection time and
time again whether January sees you deep in snow or at the beach. In
addition there is a versatile 5 photo quick click template and simple
pleasures word art to round out what has to be one of our best Club
digital selections yet.
This month's content includes
- Divalicious Page Kit
- Winter Play Page Kit
- Awesome Beauty Plopper
- January Sticker Alphabet
- Filled Circle Stamps
- Simple Pleasures Word
Art
- Winter Sunshine Backpack
- Corner Blossom Quick
Click
Club Digital is the hottest club in town!
Get your monthly fix of the best digital scrapbook products for an
incredible price! Something to suit every style and level of digital
scrapper!
Every issue of Club Digital includes two page kits, one plopper or overlay, a quick click
template, an alphabet, some wordart, a font, and png stamps! As a Club member, you also
receive an exclusive coupon for the DSP Shop and can enter an
exclusive contest
just for members (with great prizes)!
Over $27 in value for the incredible price of only $5.99/month! (Or
as low as $4.99 with longer subscriptions!)
Club Digital is just $17.97 for three months ($5.99/month), $33.00 for six months
($5.50/month), or $59.88 for a full year ($4.99/month)!
Plus,
Club members can WIN!
Purchase a
three month subscription and you're entered to win a free
upgrade to a six month subscription!
Purchase a six month subscription and you're entered to win a free
upgrade to a twelve month subscription!
Purchase a twelve month subscription and you're entered to win a $30
coupon for the DSP store!
Here
is a selection of layouts created by the DSP Team Digital using this
month's Club Digital Selection.
Click here
to find out more about Club Digital
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Shop Time Inspiration
It's time to SHOP... let's get those baskets at the ready.
You
know you can do a search for anything using the advanced search feature
located at the top right of your store page, right above the search
box. For example "green Lauren" will just
return Lauren's kits that have green in them,
"hearts tina" will return Tina's kits
with hearts in them. Try it, you'll like it!! You can also check out the
Site Map
for some fabulous links.
Gift Certificates.
Send anyone the perfect gift!! Gift Certificates are a wonderful way to
say Merry Christmas! Or Happy Birthday...or I Love You... or even Just Because!
Did You Know...
...you can get to the store by typing shop.dsp.me in your browser URL
bar? Get to the store even faster!
Do you love the product you just purchased and want to tell others?
Please consider doing a review...
pass the good word along! We love to hear from you.
Here's some store inspiration for this month.
Simplicity in the New Year
After the previous
months of shopping, lugging bags, shipping boxes, and generally feeling
like a pack mule, I'm ready to lighten my load. Every January I
rediscover and redesign my Make
It Mine 5 x 7 Photo Purse. It's
the perfect size for my wallet,
keys, phone, and maybe a chapstick. Just right! I update it with
current photos (usually ones that do NOT include the colors red or
green!) and a Word
Art that helps me focus on the year ahead.
The 5
x 7 purse has both a long strap for wearing over your shoulder and shorter straps if you like to "grab & go". The inside pocket fits ID or credit cards, receipts, or business cards. Its magnetic snap closure closes securely, so you won't lose anything when you toss your purse on the passenger seat and drive off.
Design your own
Make It Mine 5 x 7 Photo Purse (or 8
x 10 Purse, if you prefer a
little more room) with DSP's newest
graphics and show off your digital scrapbooking skills! You'll be
amazed by how often people stop you in the stores to ask you about it!
My
Make it Mine 5 x 7 Photo Purse created with designs from DSP's January Club Digital.
Happy shopping!
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Artful Activities – Creating Memories from Moments
When you first join DSP you want to devour every little bit of information there is and it seems a bit overwhelming at first but the absolutely best place to visit first off is the
'What's Happening'
page, it's packed with useful information to help you choose to participate in a designer run challenge or contest or make a date to be at one of our awesome chat sessions. To find out the daily and weekly fun at DSP check out the calendar
of activities, there's never a dull moment at DSP and you're sure to find something to your taste to challenge
you artistically.
Contests, Challenges and Chats
Stay current on challenges with the What’s Due thread, which will keep you up to date on all the challenges on the site and
when they are due.
-
Designer Exclusives
– Our Designers are the best there are and they are really generous, if
you enter one of their challenges you’re more than likely to receive a chat and/or posting bonus just by using their nominated kit for the challenge. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain – like more stash for less bucks with these great challenges.
Inspiration Station (IS News)
This is a call to all dedicated DSP scrappers to "strut your stuff" and inspire us with your creations. Just choose any or all of the calls for layouts the current month and you could be showcased in our Newsletter or Blog. We have a few rules so check them out and then join in the fun. Check out the current edition of Inspiration Station News or
here for Previous Issues.
- Project 365
– a project for how YOU scrap. Check out our Project 365 chats and the Project 365 store category.
- Scrap with the DET
–Digital Elite Team and DET Alumni
Our past and current Elite group of scrappers have some great
challenges going at the moment and you’re sure to get well
chosen CC should you need it – learn from the best
- Elite Challenges - be sure to
check out the challenges run by our DET Alumni and DET.
- The Grannies If
you’re a Granny or a Granny In Training (GIT) or just a
Wannabe, you might like to see what other Grannies are up to, what
challenges they have going. There is never a dull moment when you join
this happy band of digi-scrappers.
- IOTW – Item of the week
– Abby
The Item Of The Week is priced to sell, so create a LO using the IOTW
and be in a draw to win a free kit.
- SNL –
Saturday Night Live – Renee S
This is where anyone can create their own digital scrapbook kits to
share with other SNLers, from elements and papers to word
art.
- Odds and Ends -
Mars and nekobus
There's always something a little different going on in the Odds and Ends
forum. With a variety of challenges
and a little bit of off the wall fun, there's something for everyone.
This
is just a small selection of popular challenges that DSP currently has running
but be sure to check all of them out here.
And we have a special blinkie to place in your signature to always
remind you where to find the best scrapbooking challenges on the web.
Check the end of the first post in the What's Happening thread
for the blinkie code.
Happy Scrapping!
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DSU Information
Start here! This free class is an online article that walks you through
digital scrapbooking step-by-step and explains all the basics from
software and graphics to printing and sharing. It is always available
from this page and www.digitalscrapbooking101.com!
CURRENT CLASS SCHEDULE
(Click here
to see all DSU class descriptions)
January Classes
 DSU130
–
Corel Paint Shop
Pro: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
DSU151
– Taking Better
Snapshots
DSU152
– Delving Into
Exposure
DSU160
– Adobe
Photoshop Elements:
Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
DSU195
– Wacom & Creative
Fun
DSU198
– Storytelling
DSU220
– Adobe
Photoshop: Brushes(Pre-requisite- DSU 110 or similar
experience)
DSU221/321
– Adobe Photoshop:
Montage and Advanced Montage (self-paced)
DSU261
– Adobe Photoshop
Elements: Creating Digital Elements for Beginners
(Pre-requisite - DSU 160 or similar experience)
February
Classes
DSU110
– Adobe
Photoshop:
Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
DSU151
– Taking Better
Snapshots
DSU152
– Delving into
Exposure
DSU160
– Adobe
Photoshop Elements: Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
DSU195
– Wacom &
Creative
Fun
DSU211/311
– Adobe
Photoshop:
Creating Digital Elements for Beginners and Advanced Users
(self-paced)
DSU220
– Adobe
Photoshop: Intro to Brushes
DSU361
– Adobe
Photoshop Elements: Creating Digital Elements for Advanced Users
Be
sure to
visit DSU
for information
regarding these and our other great classes!
We
would love to
hear your suggestions on future classes too.
Send your ideas to dsu@digitalscrapbookplace.com.
DSU
Dean
www.digitalscrapbooku.com
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Desktop
Calendar Plopper
January
2012
Specially designed
ploppers for your computer desktop. These calendars were made by Senior Designer Erica Belton.
Download the ploppers by clicking on the image above (Sizes: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900
and 1680x1050 are included.)
Add your picture, angle and size 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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Newsletter
Challenge
We
are always striving to 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. 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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Newsletter Freebie
For our newsletter readers, download
this exclusive DigiPaint Grunge Set by Kim Liddiard here!
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to the top)
Many
thanks to the newsletter Team:
Erica, Kim, Lauren, Lynnette, Mandy, Margie,
Mars, Meg and
Chris.
If you're not a registered member of our site why not
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
www.digitalscrapbookplace.com.
You can subscribe or UN-subscribe from this newsletter on our site.
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