DSDI Blog Hop Freebie - Celebrate This!

It's been a year since the Grand Opening of Digi Scraps Drive-In. It has been quite an amazing year and it is most definitely time to celebrate!

First up in our month-long Birthday Bash, we are hosting a Progressive Blog Hop Challenge. Here is how it works:

• Follow our Progressive Blog Hop, picking up each mini along the way.
• Create a layout using at least one piece from each mini (more if you wish)
• Upload your LO to our Birthday Bash gallery, and link it back to the Progressive Blog Hop Challenge thread.
  

The prize for the challenge is a loot bag that coordinates with the blog hop minis.

But that's not all! We will be hosting challenges and events all month long and you can pick up several more loot bags, and have a huge celebration themed mega kit when the month is done. We will be posting new challenges all month, so keep your eyes on the Birthday Bash forum.

You'll probably want to keep a close watch on the store, too. Each week will have a new sale starting with a Toonie sale. (If you aren't Canadian and haven't heard of the Toonie, it is $2 - I guess doubling the $1 coin called a loonie? Hard to say... Our Canadian friends are a bit kooky - but we love them!). There are different awesome sales each week but you'll just have to check back to find out what they are.

Okay, here is my contribution - an upper case alpha, numbers and some common punctuation.

:: download ::

And here are the rest of the participants. You will be visiting designers and other site team members. Remember to snag all the pieces, and check into this thread with your layout. Also, be patient for the downloads since we are scattered all over the world!

Digi Scraps Drive In
Mad Genius Designs
Red Genius Enterprises
Jen C Designs
Melly Scraps
Gail's Moments In Time
DaphadillyArt
Bonnie Blue Designs
Kerry Scraps <~~~~~~ you are here
Graphics Illusions
Charlize Creations

DSDI Daily Download

Great news – the DSDI daily download starts tomorrow! The kit is awesome so make sure you stop by the forum every day to pick up a part. Here is the sneak preview – aren’t the colors fun and summery?

I made a layout with it too – this is J2 at the Children’s Museum. The Children’s Museum has so many cool things to do and look at and both of my boys wanted to spend all their time in this room! They barely looked at anything else.

Also, there are a few more days to learn some stuff at Scrapbook School so check it out – there are some really great tutorials!

Timeless and Timeless Modern

JanetB Designs has done it again! She makes the most beautiful kits and this pair are no exception. The first one, Timeless, is full of soft, neutral colors with small pops of color. The flowered papers are great and the flowers are lovely.

This is my mom and dad on their wedding day – the crop and angle were not my doing but I do love it!

The next kit is sort of a companion kit called Timeless Modern. They go together perfectly but this one definitely adds a modern twist.

This is me and the mister on top of the cruise ship in Hawaii. For the photo, I used a technique Melly of Melly Scraps taught us in a speed scrap. You take a photo, and a copy of the photo, layer them on top of each other and make the top one either black & white or sepia. Change the opacity of the top photo to suit you. I like this because it leaves some of the colors but still gives it a sepia look.

The DSDI daily download starts on Thursday the 19th and I’ll have a layout for you tomorrow so you get a special sort of sneak peek. It is a fabulous kit so you’ll definitely want to mark your calendars so you don’t miss a day!

Space Cowboy

Isn’t that just a fun name? Melly Scraps has an awesome new kit that I just *had* to have. It’s called Space Cowboy and is perfect for all your Buzz and Woody layouts. And believe me, I have a lot of pictures. Check it out. There are distinct elements for space and cowboy but the whole kit works together great. I love the variety of papers and don’t you love those cacti?

It also comes with this great alpha set but you can purchase it separately if you like.

Toy Story was a favorite of J1’s (until Star Wars took over) so we have some great pictures that I was excited to get to scrap. First my cowboy one. J1 was actually supposed to be a pirate this year. J2 was only 5 months old and I found the *cutest* pirate costume for him so I picked one up for J1 as well – so they would match. Well, J1 *refused* to put on the pirate costume – would not try it on even once! Luckily my BFF had passed these chaps, vest, hat and bandana on to us and it was in the attic. It was a bit big but he was pleased to wear it so there you go.

Last year he was Buzz. He picked it out and we got it cheap off eBay so we were all happy. Incidentally, J2 was a skeleton since that was J1’s costume from a couple years back, so again, no matching. This year J1 wants to be Anakin (no surprise there) so I am thinking some sort of fab Star Wars costume is in order for J2 as well. I found a super cute R2D2 costume and in the Clone Wars cartoon, Anakin and R2D2 are great pals so maybe…

Tomorrow I’ll have JanetB’s new kits highlighted – they are truly beautiful!

Seaside Serenity – AKA We Love the Beach!

AnDi Designs has this wonderful new kit called Seaside Serenity. I chose this kit because the mister and I have been going to Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast every year since we met. Aren’t the colors perfect for all your beach photos? And I just love the sparkle and the fish! Make sure to check out the rest of her store while there. I have my eye on quite a few!

There is also a lovely coordinating alpha

I did the layout with pictures of one of our trips – when J1 was just a baby. We started out going in March for the weekend – my boss liked us to take one weekend off in March just to refresh during tax season and prepare for the final push. Later we started going in September for our anniversary. The mister has a friend who owns a house on a lake in Lincoln City and they let us stay there for free – and they are dog friendly so when we had Sitka she could come too. My MIL has a timeshare, also in Lincoln City and coincidentally, usually the same time we are there. This works out wonderfully as she is right on the beach and will also watch the boys so we can go to out to a nice dinner for our anniversary. A lot of times the mister’s sisters also come for the weekend so we get to see them too. Anyway, here is my layout:

We are right in the middle of Scrapbook School over at DSDI and there are some great tutorials. We had a sort of free-for-all chat the first night where quite a few topics were covered. You can read the transcript here. There are also many other great tutorials so head over and join us!

Scrapbook School – it’s time!

Yay, school is in session at DSDI tonight and the lineup of tutorials and challenges looks great! You can check out the list of events here and start your tracker as well and read the nuts and bolts here. I think I am most looking forward to doing some things in PSE that I haven’t done – which for me is pretty much everything since I mostly scrap in Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus! Remember to pick up the kit too – it isn’t necessary but it does qualify you for prizes and it is just fab! The first chat is tonight at 9 EST – come join us!

It's time to celebrate - Manda's Scrappin' Creations is back!

Manda's Scrappin' Creations is BACK and is having a grand opening SALE! Everything in her store is $2.00 through August the 15.

(Image is linked to her store)

She is also having a giveaway on her Facebook page. On Aug 13 all the "Likers" on her Facebook page will get this full Template Pack.


You can get to her Facebook page HERE
She will also have coupons with every release. So make sure you become a "Liker" today!

Scrapbook School – you know you want to go!

DSDI is having a fun event in a week called Scrapbook School – you can read more about it here. There will be a bunch of tutorials hosted by the great Pink Ladies and after each there will be a challenge. If you used this fabulous kit called Scrap to School to complete the challenges you can even win prizes! I love prizes and I love this kit. The colors are the best (I am a sucker for anything red) and I love the old fashioned school elements. What fun layouts wait to be made with this one! Anyway, it starts on the 12th (next Thursday) so I’ll post a reminder when it is closer. Hope you’ll join us. And there is a whole slew of new challenges up (including my template challenge) so head to the forum and start earning points towards even more kits!

August Template Challenge/Freebie

I am hosting the template challenge (Made in the Shade) over at DSDI again this month. I again used a paper layout I did as my inspiration. I think paper is a different style than the digital layouts so I am hoping my templates are a bit outside the norm.

Here is the paper layout:

and my template:

and my digital version:

You need to go to the Drive By Freebies section of DSDI to pick it up – head there now!! And get the word art I posted a couple of days ago (blogged about here) while you are there.

Flea Market Finds

C.W. Picket & Co. has a new (well newly revamped) kit called Flea Market Finds. It was the first kit she made – two years ago – so she updated it and released it again. I sure am glad she did since it is so awesome! The colors are so great and I love the patterns and the cool and unique elements.

This my niece and I think the kit just made the picture better. I also used a template from DigiDesigns by Denise called On the Grid.

Well, it is a brand new month of challenges over at DSDI. I have my template posted and I’ll blog about it soon. Head to the forums and join in!