Congratulations to Bevland2010! Her photo POTD 4 - 13 was voted the best entry by our CT for the DesignerDigitals April Photo Contest where she won a $ 25 gift certificate from B&H! Way to go!

There is so much inspirational goodness on iTunes you know, not just the CD artwork but audio books, TV shows and movies too… its nonstop!

This week we’re using a Movie poster as a starting point.

Its perfect Perfect for tweaking a little, or a lot, and making your own. You can take one part or the whole thing as your inspiration.
This is the page I made, a Daisy and the iPhone moment. again I’m starting to think that could a be whole theme album - Daisy and the iPhone!! Catchy dont you think?!

Remember to post your challenge pages to the special iTunes Inspiration gallery. Cant wait to see them!

Hello friends!  It’s my pleasure today to be able to share with everyone a little bit about our dear friend Deanie!

Deanie has been an active member of Designer Digitals since October 2007 and has most definitely been inspiring everyone ever since. 
I asked Deanie to tell me a little about her life and here’s what she had to say:
“I’m a Mom to three adult kids, grandmother to four delightful grandpeople and wife of almost forty one years to husband John. We met in college in Tennessee and moved to California after college so he could attend graduate school. Sometime during my first year of teaching I took an Interior Design class and decided to go back to school to do something I really loved. I worked a few days a week until my third child was born and was then a SAHM until she went to school. I loved my job because I could arrange my time so I could be home when the kids came home from school. As my daughter got older she would go with me to the shop and “help”. She was one of the few eight year olds that knew what a damask fabric looked. We’ve lived in California, Georgia, California and Georgia, Arizona and now Georgia again. We moved here to be with our daughter after her husband died in a crash of a small plane in 2004. My guess is that we will stay here until we decide when and where to retire.”

Here are her answers to my interview questions:
1. How did you get started digital scrapbooking? What brought you do Designer Digitals?
During one particularly difficult period my DH shipped me off to my brother’s house for a week of R &R. My sweet SIL is a paper scrapper and told me to come with photos of our first grandchild and we would scrap together. It was fun, but I kept running to the computer to do this or that-and watched my brother edit the photos in Elements. When I got home, I discovered that we already had Elements. I went looking for some information and came across Jessica Sprague’s Computer Tips for Scrapbooking. With that in hand I Googled “digital scrapbooking” and found DD—for which I will be forever grateful!

2. Who or what are your favorite subjects for your scrapbook pages?
The grandchildren, Ava, Johnny, Drew and Noah, are my favorite subjects to photograph and scrap! Since they live on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast, I only get to see them about four times a year so I take a lot of photos when I am with them. Their parents post photos on Phanfare that I use to fill in the gaps between my visits with them. I’m doing better at documenting their lives than I did with my own children!

3. What are three things are your wishlist that you would like to have?
With three grandboys aged, 3, 2, and 1 Katie’s new Little Layette Kit and Supplement paper pack went on my wish list very quickly! Katie’s All Set Alpha, and Jesse’s Bicycle Ride Paper Pack are high on the list, too.

4. Do you plan your pages before you start or do you let the design evolve after you place the photo on the page?
When I am scrapping individual pages for the grandchildren, I usually take my inspiration from the photo and just let things happen on their own. I love using templates as a starting point as well, especially when mojo is in short supply. However, when I make a travel or special occasion book it has to be coordinated throughout. A rule that has helped me with this type of format is one I learned in design school—“unity with variety”.

5. Other than scrapbooking, what are your other interests/hobbies?
Reading is another passion I enjoy. My favorite genre is historic fiction, but lately my reading list has included such things as Half the Sky, Stones into Schools and Mountains to Mountains. These books are incredible stories of how one person, education or a small amount of money can change the awful plight of women and others in the developing world. I am very actively involved at church, from the decorating committee to the one to three year old Bible class. My other great love is architectural history which will be satiated during a “Stately Homes” visit to the UK in the fall.

Since Deanie said she couldn’t choose between any her grandchildren, she chose this layout as one of her favorites (and it just so happens to be one of mine too!):

Thank you Deanie for being such a wonderful part of our community here at Designer Digitals!
-Brittany

This week’s Adobe Photoshop or Elements tip of the week is now available on video. This weeks tip is on How to Save Project Pieces to a New Folder.

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
~  Emilie Buchwald

Do you remember when you first began to love books?  Can you remember learning to read . . . going to the library . . . being read to?

I vividly remember sitting in my grandmother’s lap while she read Bible stories of baby Moses & baby Samuel aloud to me . . . I couldn’t have been more than three years old.  I remember too my mother bringing a new book home to me in a sack after she had been shopping.  And, I can almost smell the memories that I have of going to our tiny public library when I was probably four years old.  I know that each of you must have similar memories of the books that you loved as a child & maybe a story tied to those memories . . . so, for the heritage challenge this week you can travel back in time and love those books all over again.

Merrilee { digigrandma } has a book shelf in her home where she can visit her old favorites . . . and some of those are the books that she loved as a child.  I love that the photograph in Merr’s layout is a stack of those very books!  Check out Merr’s “From My Book Shelf” and see for yourself!

Merr’s supplies: Scrap Express no. 51,  Petite Botanicals No. 04,  Petite Botanicals No. 02,  Indigo Paper Pack,  Indigo Solids Paper Pack,  Library Card Collection: Botanicals No. 01,  Paper Textures No. 01 Brush Set,  Buttoned Up Vintage &  Calligraphic Brushes { coming soon }.

I really do love what Mel { Britgirl } has done with the layout that she created with the books that she loved as a child too.  Some of Mel’s favorites were mine as well . . . and some of Mel’s are some I am not familiar with.  Isn’t it fun to find old friends & make new friends through books?  You are going to love “this one, and all the ones you haven’t read yet . . .” from Mel.

Mel’s supplies:  Reader Brushes and Stamps,  Worn Photo Edges No. 03, From My Bookshelf Element Packbook,  All Set Alpha No. 02 (coming soon),  Clipper Paper Pack,  Vintage Journal Spots No. 02,  Krafty Bits Alphabet,  Recollections: Book Covers,    Vintage Journals No. 02,  Vintage Journals No. 03 & Vintage Journals.

Paula { PaulaSG }  said that she got a bit carried away, but I must disagree . . . I think that Paula was transported back to the books that she loved as a child!  You are going to just love Paula’s journaling in her fab layout “read”.

Paula’s supplies:  From My Bookshelf No. 01 Kit, Spring Candy Solid Paper Pack,  Stamped Blocks No. 13 Brushes and Stamps &  Stuffed Edge Documents No. 01.

I enjoyed reading Aino’s journaling so much . . . I can just visualize a small Aino alphabetizing her books and pretending that she was a librarian.  And, I love that Aino, who grew up in Norway remembers when she learned to read in English and could then read English books as well as the ones in her native tongue.  This layout “Read”, will go into a book that Aino is compiling of childhood memories.

Aino’s supplies:  Roughed Up Maps Paper Pack,  Purely Happy Paper Pack,  Roughed Up Notebook Paper Pack No. 02,  Ribbon Frames,  Torn Ends Photo Masks &  All Set Alphabet No. 02 (coming soon).

Anke’s layout “Reading is an Adventure”  is all about one series of books from her childhood that she loved so much that she as found copies of them on ebay for her children to read!  These are the same books that Paula & Mel loved . . .  I am going to seek them out through the internet for my grandchildren . . . and perhaps I’ll read them myself too.

Anke’s supplies:  Abstract Fotoblendz #1, ArtPlay Sting and Bite, Adventure WordART No. 01,  ArtPlay Palette MiniKit No. 10,  ArtPlay Palette Obsession No. 01 ValueSet,  ArtPlay Palette No. 12 ValueSet,  ArtPlay Palette MiniKit No. 11,  ArtPlay Palette Mermaids MiniKit & Hinged Photo Frames No. 03.

Steph, Lynnie & I hope that you will draw inspiration from Merrilee, Mel, Paula, Aino & Anke this week for Heritage Challenge No. 27.  We would love to see your “Childhood Books” pages in the Heritage Gallery here at Designer Digitals.  Now, I am off to post my layout about the “books in my childhood” in the Heritage Gallery too!