September Yummies!

Hopefully you can find some inspiration! All from Jessica Sprague!

in a comic book phase here...

Happy Scrapping!

DESIGN HOUSE DIGITAL CREATIVE TEAM CALL!

Creative Team Call

September 22, 2011

That’s right, we’re looking to add more Decorators, and we’re very excited!
Are you a digital or hybrid papercrafter? Would you like to receive the latest and greatest digital kits released at Design House Digital for free? We thought so! This is your chance to become a part of the amazing Decorator team at DHD! What does a Decorator do, you ask?
Digital Team:

• Create at least four projects featuring the Design House Digital designs. You can choose which kits you’d like to use, and you’ll receive these kits for free!

Hybrid Team:

• Create two hybrid projects per month using Design House Digital designs, and post them on our blog.

All Decorators:

• Post projects created in the Design House Digital gallery, plus any other galleries you are active in (minimum of 1) and your personal blog.
• Participate in the DHD message board and gallery regularly.
• Host a challenge once every three months, on a sign-up basis.
• Be willing to sign up periodically for additional blog posts, challenges, chats, etc.

Interested? To be considered for a position as a DHD Decorator, please e-mail gennifer.bursett [at] designhousedigital.com. Include your name, contact information, DHD username, a link to your work, and the link to your personal blog. Questions can also be sent to the same e-mail.
We can’t wait to hear from you! For consideration, entries from interested applicants must be received by Friday, October 7, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. MST. Our new CT members will be announced on or before Friday, October 14, 2011.

Journaling with SONG...

Welcome back everyone! So let’s get right to the next lesson shall we? I’ll admit it, I’m no poet. Not even close. So when creating a layout I often try to write something meaningful but sometimes that ends up falling flat. That is why I have a secret weapon I use when I need to find the ‘perfect’ saying to capture the moment! I’m going to share it with you, so get your pencils and notebooks out for today’s lesson and write this down:  Song Lyrics.
Think about it, you have thousands of poetic and witty words at your disposal! Here’s an example of part of a Billy Joel song lyric which I used to describe how I was feeling about my daughter. In Just the Way You Are the lyrics said it better than I ever could!

For more journaling with song ideas visit my School of Design Blog: Journaling with Song Lyrics! Hope you enjoy!

DHD School of Design for all of September!

Welcome to Design House Digital’s School of Design. Today, and every single day in September, we’ll have new blog posts; informative, detailed, and FREE classes that will take your digital scrapbooking to the next level. Each subject will have a new post weekly, and at the end of the month you won’t believe how much you’ve learned! Our schedule is as follows:

• Thursdays – Journaling From the Heart with Jen Papadimitriou
• Fridays - Photography Tips and Tricks with Lori Pickens
• Saturdays – Standout Shadows with Gennifer Bursett
• Sundays – You and Your Camera with Allison Waken & Shannon Dombkowski
• Mondays – Design Theory with Tiffany Tillman
• Tuesdays – Blogging Secrets with Mary Shaw
• Wednesdays – Maximizing Templates with Renee Fink

We’re so excited about this, and hope you will be, too!

Okay everybody, quiet down and take your seats… welcome to the first day of class! My name is Mrs. Papadimitriou and I will be your teacher today! Our first subject for September will be about effectively using journaling on your layouts. I know, some of you may be moaning right now because the mere thought of trying to commit meaningful words to paper is a daunting perhaps intimidating task. No fear. We are going to take baby steps until you feel more confident in your ability to record your special moments.

Our first lesson will be to journal with a list. Remember, not all layouts need a novel to convey an emotion or explain an event. And let’s face it, sometimes you may not feel like journaling, but still want to put ‘something’ down! A list can be a fun way to record your memories without the fuss about what to say.

Here’s  a page I created called ‘A Bad Day’. Based on the photo I thought it would be beneficial to use a list to instantly convey the overall emotion I wanted to create. Not all moments have to be happy ones. It’s important to document all the important events when creating memory albums – the good and the bad.

I still added a novel journaling to the page describing what happened at the hospital, but the list was a dramatic way of introducing the event.
My next layout ‘Meltdown’ showcases  a progression of my daughter’s tantrums (gee, you know, I DO scrapbook happy moments too!). Using a list with checkmarks was a visual, pleasing way to add journaling and instantly get the message across without using too many words.

Easy peasy right? Are you feeling a little less anxious now? Well, if not here are a few more examples from some of our peers to get the juices flowing…
Shannon gives us a very in-depth look into her life by creating a list of who she is with her ‘Me @ 25’ layout.

Kym’s fun layout lets the reader know why they had the ‘Best Day Ever’ by giving us eight highlights of the day.

Here is another by Shannon called ‘10 Things I Love About You‘ and at first glance it appears to have a lot of journaling. But if you actually read it you realize she has made a list – a sentence for each – of the 10 things she loves about her daughter.

Okay, so let’s recap. A list can be a very effective journaling tool in the following ways:
* It effectively tells a story without overwhelming the page with words
* It is pleasing to the eye and allows you to create a unique look to your page
* It becomes a perfect solution to those who tend to leave blank spots with the ‘intention’ of writing something (guilty!)
* It highlights and summarizes our favourite moments

Okay, well our time is up for today. Your homework assignment is to try using a list on a future layout! I’m sure you’ll find it can be a great tool for effective journaling! I hope you found this helpful!
Our next class will focus on another aspect of journaling, so be sure to check back next week because I will be taking attendance!

Red River Paper Co. Review

If you're looking for some great quality glossy and matte photo paper I just recently tried out a sample pack from Red River Papers. Here is my review below:

I thought I would try out the photo paper from Red River Paper company while completing a hybrid layout recently.

I needed three 4x6 photos and chose the 53 lb Premium Gloss photo paper. The nice thing about this paper is it is compatible with any dye based printer so it worked well with my HP.

The first thing I noticed was the paper was thick and sturdy. I liked that it was glossy, but not too shiny.
It went through my printer with no issues and the finished photo quality was fabulous - even better than some of the 'big' photo companies I've gotten prints from. There was no smudging and the ink dried very quickly.

Here is my finished product. As you can see the photos turned out great. I would definitely choose photo paper from this company again for any future scrapbooking.

To see more of the Red River Paper products visit www.redrivercatalog.com/scrapbook-central