Digital Scrapbooking Blog and Scrapbook Inspiration
from DesignerDigitals

It’s 3 Kits 3 Ways time on the blog!  Today I have chosen three bright and cheerful products from the DD Store that I think you will enjoy using together. . . . I know that I’ve had fun with them.  I thought that I would try something a little different today . . . and challenge myself to create the three layouts all alone.  At first, I had trouble . . . the second page I did was too similar to the first one . . . and the third page too much like the second page!  So two of them went in the trash and I started over again.  I was having a hard time getting my mind to move on to a new style.  After a few false starts, I came up with three pages that I like . . . and three ways that were a bit different than the previous one.

Yes . . . I know that I have two alphabet kits . . . but, I thought that they would be such fun to pull together for titles!  I will be watching the 3K3W Gallery to see what you do with the two of them!

The three kits for this week are:

Carissa Kit - Michelle Martin

Sketchy Alphabet - Jesse Edwards

DIY Sticker Alphabet - Pattie Knox

Yes . . . I know that I have two alphabet kits . . . but, I thought that they would be such fun to pull together for titles! 

Here are my three ways:

My first page is the recipe for my Mother’s Chili that I had cooked a few days earlier.  It uses the three kits plus only one extra . . . the background paper is Pina Solids Paper Pack by AndreaVictoria.  I love that the patterned paper I used from Michelle’s Carissa Kit picked up the colors from the photos so well.  And, I really liked using Pattie’s DIY Sticker Alpha in some of the colors from the paper too.

Next I made my Day’s of December album cover using the three challenge kits plus Ali’s Holiday Word Art No. 02, the red brads from the new Lovisa Kit and Jesse’s Hand Drawn Trees.  The two alphas worked perfectly for the simple look I wanted to coordinate with my pages.  Now if I could only finish the scrapping the days of December and sent it off to Shutterfly!

My last layout using the kits is “Sewing Basket Toy’s” which uses only Naturally Krafty No. 07 by Katie in addition to the three kits.

It such fun using these three kits in three ways for the challenge today . . . I hope to see your pages posted in the 3 Kits 3 Ways Gallery.  My blog partner, Merrilee love looking over the new & inspiring ways that so many people use the challenge kits. 

We are at the beginning of the third week of the new year.  I am still setting my own intentions for my pages during this turn around the sun. In the continuing effort to nurture my writing I want to jump start writing meaningfully on my pages. 

The method of assigning myself one word “seeds”, using one each month, seemed like a good way to move the process along.  I have chosen words which reflect the idea of planting, growing, harvesting and integration, an annual cycle.

I remember telling my daughter when she was very young and frustrated with trying to express herself …“Use your words, sugar.  Use your words.”  Words let us name things, describe reality and hold story. 

I want to be more fluent this year in using my words.  There are recommendations for journaling and excellent tools for writing in the DD shop. This year I will be highlighting some of these great products for our ongoing effort to “word the page”.

I just thought a few assignments would be useful for me to actually fulfill my goal.  Maybe you would like to give yourself your own thought map for wording this year.  Play along.  It will be fun.  Add your pages to the PageKraft Gallery and we can go with you, too.

Here is my first page for this year’s project.  My intention is to enjoy, learn about writing and capture a bit of my own view of the world.

Seed Words

I Declare Paper Pack
Underlined Months Brushes and Stamps
Chronicles Hand Drawn Words Brushes and Stamps
Year 2011 No. 01 WordART
Felt Directives
2nd Hand Memories Element Pack
Vintage Book Paper Pack No. 01
Taped Together Paper Pack No. 04
Scrap Express No. 91

Congratulations to Melissa Hill. Her layout baby in the works has been selected as the featured layout of the week where she won a $ 5 DesignerDigitals Gift Certificate for product of her choice!

I wanted to feature a terrific page by one of our male members of the DD community.  Snibber has a gallery full of the most amazing travel shots which he displays so beautifully, they could be from the pages of a glossy travel magazine.  But amongst his travel pages is this recent gem of a page which I would imagine shows a lot of his personality.  He probably has stepped way outside his comfort zone, obviously has a sense of humour and has created a terrific story for us to follow.

What a great way to use a lot of fun elements you have collected over the time.  Also great way to push your own boundaries and perhaps comfort zone in trying a different style of scrapping.

Linda and Esther had a lot of fun playing along with me.  I do hope you’ll join us and tell your story in a slightly different way.

Layout by Linda, Credits:  Pattie Knox: Felt Board Friends: Precious Princess.  Jesse Edwards: Princess Nina Kit.  Katie Pertiet: Notebook Paper Pack No. 02, Drawn Blossoms No. 01, DoodleDo Titles No. 01, Rounded Word Strips, Paper Cuts No. 01, Elastic Ribbons and Bows.  Michelle Martin: Frog Prince Kit.  The Grunge Source: Drawn Hearts Brushes and Stamps.

Layout by Esther, Credits:  Beachy Clusters Brushes and Stamps No. 02, Stapled Photos Layered Templates,  Library Card Collection: Seaside, Portholes Photo Frames, For The Love Of Words, Hipster Plumes No. 05 BrushSet, Journey WordTransfers No. 01, Spackle Textured No. 01 BrushSet, Stamped Stitched: Summer Brushes and Stamps, Yellow Word Bits No. 01, Notebook Paper Pack No. 05, Lynn Grieveson what-do-I-see-freebie.  Coming soon: Vintage Book Paper Pack No. 1, Easy TornEdges Layered Templates No. 2.

Layout by Carol, Credits:  Jesse Edwards: Golden Silence Solids Paper Pack.  Katie Pertiet: Notebook Paper Pack No. 05, Basic Notebook Edge Masks No. 01 Brushes and Stamps, Twiggy, Curled Photo Frames 4x6, Negative Sleeves No. 03, Metal Clip Assortment, Tailed Journalers, Lifted Wings No. 03, Little Round Tabs.  Anna Aspnes: LoopDaLoop ArtStrokes No. 04 BrushSet.  Lynn Grieveson: Natures Best Flowers.

I’m sure we have an enjoyable week ahead seeing the lifts of snibber’s great page.

How scrapbooking can help your resolutions stay well.. resolute!

I was recently reading a list of the top ten resolutions made every New Year, and it got me to thinking you can scrap these.
So if saying it out loud can help, then having it on a layout can too! It can give you some emphasis, some support -or at the very least something to answer to

1) Spend more time with family and friends. Smile and feel a little smug there fellow scrapbookers, because we DO spend time with family and friends. We take their photos, we record the memories and we make a fabulous layout of it.

2) Make time for fitness. Apparently *ahem*  the world is full of people saying they just cant fit in getting fit. Well, I’m not going to tell you how to get fit, but I am going to point you towards Cathy’s fitness journal pages, again!

3) Lose weight. Just about everybody wants to lose weight. But getting started and keeping going are tough. You need to step up and be brave, and make your own page/pages like this one. {Bravo Kelly! And thanks for letting me link!}

4) Quit smoking. How about a pro and con page of this? A diary page spanning several weeks of cutting down? Just think of the support that would be coming from the gallery!

5) Enjoy life more. Stress, plus to-do lists longer than your arm?… mmm, me too. Did you know spending time on your hobby is good for you? And spending time outside is too? Which means you need go and take photos outside, then come in and scrap then!  I think we might have a head start here ladies

6) Manage money better.  Thankfully digital scrapping is much better value than paper scrapping. You can use, recolour and alter every single thing you already own.  You can buy the specials -over 350 items at 30% off, form Wednesday night to Friday morning!  Plus you can enjoy the quarterly sales!

7) Learn something new. OH YES we can do this one Cassie has a billion and ten (or something like that!) amazing tutorials in the store. Katrina has the photography and lightroom help you always wanted, and theres a whole mountain of DD tips right under your nose. Have you thought about making a page saying when and how you learnt to use photoshop or the computer generally?

8) Meet the perfect partner. I think theres a joke here about whether your perfect partner is Canon or Nikon…;) Otherwise; lets see those pages about how you met who you’ve met, or who you’d like to meet, fill up the gallery in time for Valentines day!

9) Get organized. Personally, I think life is messy, and you can spend a lot of time trying to tidy it up far too much… BUT if we are talking about digital supplies then that might be somewhat easier   If you’ve found a great way, share it. Or if you’re moving things around and wonder where the heck we keep all our stash {answer on MANY hard drives!} And if you get stuck with something, shout out and see what others do. Pagewise; scrap a picture of your desk/brand new hard drive! If I ever get a tidy desk I’ll join you!

10) Help others. You more than likely already do. If you take the time to answer a question in our forum or leave praise in the gallery, then youre already making a difference to someone here Thanks for that

If none of these are your personal resolution, or if you just don’t do resolutions, period, then I hope you can see inspiration for a page or two anyway