Give yourself the fun of digital scrapbooking with the Step by Step Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial Course.

Who knew learning could be this much fun?

Christmas is in sight.

You’ve spent the last month running around like a mad thing buying gifts for your nearest and dearest.

Now it’s time for you.

Give yourself this fabulous opportunity to learn how to digital scrapbook with these super easy to follow video tutorials.

My Step by Step Digital Scrapbook  is a ‘soup to nuts’ digital scrapbooking course which will take you from complete beginner to being an advanced digital scrapbooker in 25 easy lessons.

You’ll get 50 videos (2 per lesson) which will take you by the hand and guide you easily through all the tricks and techniques to creating your own fantastic, unique and super-personal digital scrapbook layouts in Photoshop Elements. And these special creations can then be easily shared with all your family and friends.

As well, each lesson comes with a full sized complementary digital scrapbooking kit which includes all the elements that are used in making the demonstration scrapbook layout as well as many more so that you can customize and personalize your own versions. That’s 25 complementary digital scrapbook kits!

Plus you’ll get a Techniques Sheet which you can print out and keep handy as you create your own digital scrapbook layouts .

And if you want to give this Special Christmas Gift to someone special in your life, you’ll also get this Gift Card which you can print out and give to your Special Someone.

Each of these tutorials sell for $4.50 when purchased individually ($112.50 in total) and if you purchase the whole Soup2Nuts Course the normal price is $99.50 saving $13.

But the Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Soup2Nuts Course can be yours for just $79.50 if you buy before 24 December 2011. That’s a further $20 reduction.

Bringing your total saving to a massive $33!

I’ve only ever made this special price offer once before and that was last Christmas. Chances are you won’t see it again before Christmas 2012

So if you’ve been toying with the idea of joining in all the fun of digital scrapbooking and making wonderful scrapbook layouts that you can share with all your firends and family, there’s never going to be a better time.

Remember on Christmas Day the price will bounce right back to the full price.

So don’t miss out because the price will definitely be going back up again on Christmas Day.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Giving is always a good feeling and it’s an extra good feeling at Christmas Time.

Once again Antoinette has rallied the Christmas spirit and organised a massive digital scrapbooking Christmas freebie site at Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies.

All through December you can pick up any and all of these wonderful digital scrapbooking freebies

. . . starting here!

Click on the image below to download a bunch of free Christmas Word Art and papers that you can use on your Christmas cards, decorations or scrapbook layouts.

To download right mouse click on the image and choose

Save Target as… or Save Link as…

And once you’ve done that you can carol yourself over to Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies and browse through a massive selection of Christmas digital scrapbooking freebies to your heart’s content.

Just a gentle reminder. All of the designers who contribute to Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies put in a lot of their time and creativity to bring you these wonderful freebies. Please remember to leave a little note of appreciation when you download. It costs you nothing and it means a lot to the giver.

Other related articles:

Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies 2010

Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies 2009

Want to learn how to Digital Scrapbook? Click on the banner below for easy to learn Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Tutorials.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

From December 1st the Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies will be back in operation all through the month of December.

So get your download finger ready and come back to Scraps of Mind on the 1st of the month for your first Christmas Digital Scrapbook Freebie and your gateway into the Wonderful Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies.

This is a massive gathering of digital scrapbook designers who contribute their creativity and time to bring you truckloads of Christmas scrapbooking freebies.

So don’t miss out.

Come back here on December 1 and scoop up all the glorious freebies.

Christmas Digital Scrapbook Freebie Bonanza

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Well in case you hadn’t noticed it’s that spooky time of year again.

So here’s some free Halloween Word Art to adorn your Halloween scrapbook layouts. I’m not sure if this comes under the heading of trick or treat. You be the judge.

If you post any of your Halloween creations using my word art on the Internet please post the link in the comments section below. I’d love to go and see them.

To download the word art just right mouse click on the image and choose Save Target as… or Save Link as…

Hope you enjoy the word art and have a seriously spooky Halloween.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

I’ve been a bit distracted in recent weeks as I’m in the middle of a kitchen renovation.

If you’ve been there you’ll know how it goes.

It all started with a small, simple idea. I’d freshen up my kitchen by re-cladding the cupboard doors and panels. I was happy with the bench-tops and tile splash-back. As a project this shouldn’t be too demanding. How hard could it be?

Then I got seduced by all the wonderful IKEA storage options and next thing you know I have a three ring circus on my hands.

So now my old kitchen is all stacked up in my living room waiting to go to the tip. and we’re in the middle of installing my lovely new IKEA cupboards. Some of them have to have modifications to deal with some ‘special’ features of my kitchen area such as a central heating intake air vent which needs to be accommodated in one of the cupboards.

Where's my Wall - y?

The tiles are no more and will be replaced with pressed aluminium splashbacks. Sadly when we took them off the wall they brought the plaster board with them so now I have a big hole where my wall should be.

And now that I’ve decided to replace my peninsula style bench with an island I’ve got a patch of floorboards that’s unvarnished and matching it to the rest of the floor may prove to be a bit of a challenge.

But I’m not fazed. despite all this the project is progressing well and I’m looking forward to having a fully functioning kitchen in a couple of weeks. By which time I will be well and truly over making the tea on the bathroom vanity top and doing the washing up in the bathroom basin.

Now here’s the bit where I ask for your help.

Not with my kitchen renovation. But with the scrapbooking of it.

I want to make a scrapbook layout covering the whole kitchen renovation experience.

I’ll be using lots of photos and I’m looking for some innovative ideas on how I might design the scrapbnook page.

I wrote an article a while ago about scrapbooking with multiple photos but those ideas are not what I want for this layout. I’m looking for something different.

So if you’ve got some ideas you could share with me I’d really really appreciate it. Just put them in the comments below.

And thanks a lot for your help.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Read to the end for a fantastic offer!

A lot of people ask me “Is there a way I can get into digital scrapbooking without having to spend time and effort learning how to use a graphics software program like Photoshop?”

Well  as a devoted fan of Photoshop Elements I would always recommend you invest the time in learning how to use a fully functional graphics program. But if you really are seeking instant gratification then there are some options open to you.

My Memories Suite is just such an option.

My Memories is a software package specifically designed for digital scrapbooking. That’s a plus at the start because all its functions are focussed on things that help you to create a scrapbook layout.

Everything that you need to do is presented to you in your workspace and all the editing and enhancement options are easily accessed by a button click so you don’t have to start working out where things are in drop down menus.

When you open the program you can choose whether you want to use their templates or whether you want to take a more creative path and design your own layout.

It makes it easy to load your photos into the layout and size them as you want. And the templates offer you a range of positioning options. Just click on the photo boxes to easily load and crop your photos to size.

If you don’t like the colors provided in the templates it’s easy to change them using the color changing button.

You can also use your own digital scrapbook papers, such as the Scraps of Mind Garden Party Kit so you’re not confined to the software’s library.

And you can add a music sound track to your album if you want or even video.

The software comes with a library of scrapbooking elements which are easy to find and use. But you also get access to the My Memories website where you can find lots of extra elements which you can download: and many of them are free.

But most of all, My Memories is very easy to use. You can have your first digital scrapbook layout done in a matter of minutes (half an hour, tops).

“But are there any downsides to all this perfection?”  I hear you say.

Well of course there are. Nothing in life is totally perfect.

The other side of the ‘easy to use’ coin is that you don’t get the same level of scope and flexibility to design and tweak your scrapbook layouts that you would get in a full-on graphics editing program. My Memories is not Photoshop. But then it doesn’t pretend to be.

And did I mention that it doesn’t come with a Photoshop price tag either. You can pick up this digital scrapbooking software package for the great value price of $37.97.

I’m impressed with this product as a quick and easy way to get into digital scrapbooking and I’m happy to endorse it.

So here’s a fantastic limited offer for Scraps of Mind readers .

Buy My Memories using the link on this page and I’ll give you FIVE (yes that’s right, 5!) Bonus Digital Scrapbook Kits.

Bonus Digital Scrapbook Kit Limited Offer with My Memories purchase

Just send me a copy of your receipt I’ll give you this bonus digital  scrapbook kit package for FREE!!

But wait, there’s more…

Paste my special Scraps of Mind promotion code into the Promo Code box in the shopping cart

and you’ll get a whopping $10 discount of f the price of your My Memories Suite

PLUS you’ll get a $10 gift certificate to spend in their store.

I’m a bit gobsmacked by this offer and I’m thrilled to be able to give it to you.

So click here to go to My Memories Suite

Paste this code into the Promo Code box:

STMMMS70328

Grab your MyMemories digital scrapbooking software package at your special $10 off price, and before you start shopping with your $10 gift voucher, send me a copy of your receipt and you can get my bonus digital scrapbooking kit package.

Ahhh . . . how sweet it is.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Today’s article is a Guest Post from Dee who’ll be sharing some ideas on making collages that will hopefully spark your creative imagination.

Collages and Colors

A collage is similar to a mosaic style piece of artwork, crafted from paper, card, moving boxes, photos or any other paper-based medium (and if you’re digitally minded you can create great collaged scrapbook layouts on your computer, but that’s another article). The pieces are glued together, on a larger piece of card stock or plywood to create a bigger over-all picture. Paper-based collages can be an extremely effective medium and a wonderful form of self-expression.

Photo Collages

Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Intermediate Tutorial 9 shows you how to make this photo collage layout. Just click on the layout to go there.

Photo collages are a fun way to create a montage of your pictures of your favourite people, places or landmarks. Take a photo showing a person you want in the collage and cut out the person, along with any background that you wish to keep. Place the cut-out on a piece of clean card or paper and leave it where you would like it to sit in the final draft. Cut out all your other favourite items and place them in the best possible position on the card, until it is totally filled up. Move the pieces about until you are happy with their positioning and the way they overlap each other, then use a safe (acid-free) glue to stick them to the card. Once they are all stuck down you can use a photo frame with glass to protect your photo collage and have it remain in excellent condition for many years. If you’re making a scrapbook layout one of the elements you should incorporate into your collage design is your title. You might print this out on your computer and cut it out, mount it on some card and add to the mix. Or you might use some chipboard alphas which you can cover with paper or paint. If you use large alphas it’s a nice idea to use them for your journaling too. Just keep is short and simple so it doesn’t become too crowded.

Color Collages

Abstract art is mostly color and shape based and is a great way to teach children how to be artistic. You can use colored construction paper for these types of collages and you can either make up a picture or just stick random colored pieces to the artwork. There doesn’t need to be a real sense of composition on these kinds of collages because what you are trying to create is a colourful, eye-catching collage. You can choose either pastel or primary colors, pattern wallpaper or gift wrapping paper. The choice is yours. Anything which is bright and contrasting, effective and eye-catching and highly artistic will capture yours and other people imaginations. If you use paper which is sealed—like wallpaper—you can also opt to varnish it afterward and protect it.

Fabric Collages

Fabric is another brilliant medium for making collages. You can choose any type of fabric that you prefer, whether it be old sheets and pillow cases, old dresses and shirts or old jeans and trousers. Drapes material is also another idea. It really can be anything suitable. The best form of backing for a fabric collage is ply wood or hard board. You should always use a suitable glue that will not burn the fabric or cause it to discolor. You can also use staples around the edges and complete the piece of artwork by adding beading, to make a make-shift frame—or simply use a picture frame.

There is no limit to what you can create when you make a collage. It really is about what comes out of your imagination and what you want your finished piece to look like. You can make a collage to fit an entire wall, or just make smaller version to use as pictures or scrapbook layouts.

Dee is a travel writer and amateur photographer who loves a good scrapbooking session, especially when she feels the need to reminisce about the time when photos weren’t all stored digitally (God rest polaroids!)

Other related articles:

Capture the moment in a photo collage

Scrapbooking Techniques & Tips – Make a Photo Collage Layout

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Garden Party Cupcake Mini Album Template

I had this cool idea for making a cup cake shaped mini album and I just had to share it with you.

I’ve taken the cup cake element from the Garden Party Mega Scrapbook Kit and turned it into a digital scrapbooking template which you can download by clicking on the image below (And if you’re not a member of the Garden Party you really should be. Just enter your first name and email address in the box at the top right of this page and you’ll start receiving heaps of cool digital scrapbook freebies) . Please note this is a PSD file so it will work with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I can’t guarantee it to work with other programs.

To make this cute mini album you just open the free digital scrapbooking template file and duplicate the file .

Now drag the digital paper of your choice onto the duplicate template.

Position your paper layer over the ‘frosting’ layer of the template and clip them together (Ctrl+G then Ctrl+E)

Do the same thing for the base of the cake.

Now merge the two layers together (Layer>Merge Visible)

Tip: If you’d like to get a visual step by step instruction of this technique you can find it in Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Intermediate Tutorials 11.

Duplicate this file and flip the image horizontally (Image>Rotate>Flip Horizontally)

You’ve now made a double page spread.

Repeat the above steps using the same papers or using complementary papers. I made my album using different papers from the Garden Party Kit as they all coordinate so well together.

You can now print and cut these pages out and add photos and embellishments using paper scrapbooking techniques, or you can use the cup cake shaped pages as backgrounds to create digitally scrapbook pages for your album before printing them out, as I have done.

Whichever approach you use I recommend you use a 190-240 gsm weight paper. I usually use a satin or gloss finish to get a really rich color. And make sure you choose the best quality print mode.

Once you’ve cut out your pages it’s time to assemble your album.

Arrange your pages in the order you want. You will notice that the left pages are different to the right pages. So make sure you match them up correctly.

Now glue the pages back to back

And finally punch a hole through all the pages at the edge where they meet in the centre. Insert a jump ring or tie with some ribbon and you’ve got a cute mini album.

This would make a great gift for a grandparent. You could theme it with photos from the grandchildren’s birthday parties or you might make a recipe book with all the  sweet treats your family loves. The choices are endless.

And if you make your album using The Garden Party I’d really love it if you’d post a picture on the Garden Party Facebook Page.

Let me know how you go.

Other related Articles:

The Ultimate Scrapbook Freebie

How to Digital Scrapbook – From Soup 2 Nuts

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Today is my daughter’s birthday (Happy Birthday Seona) and following our five year tradition I have hopped on the big silver bird to Sydney (Australia) to spend her birthday week with her.

And also following our five year tradition I have made a special birthday card for her and I’m sharing it with you here. I reckon you are practically one of the family by now.

I love all the different cards I’ve made for Seona’s birthday over the years and I particularly love the challenge of coming up with something fresh and new each year.

This year I took my inspiration from a card design I found in my DoCrafts Creativity magazine, which is my favourite papercraft magazine as it shows you projects that are beautiful, interesting and – most importantly – easily doable.

I’m a bit in love with these easel cards at the moment because they look complicated but they’re actually very easy to make.

How to make this Easel Card

• Open your blank card and fold one of the sides inwards to the centre fold.

• Cut three strips of patterned paper and stick them to three strips of cardstock that are just slightly larger than the paper. Tip: make sure your cardstock strips are no longer than the width of your card.

• Create a background piece by layering another piece of patterned paper onto some the same card stock you used for your three strips. Tip make sure that the size of the finished background piece is wider than the size of the three strips when laid on the card front. You want to be able to see see it peeking out behind them.

• I then made a custom background to sit immediately behind my focal image. Cut a piece of white cardstock to size. On a smooth non-porous surface (a sheet of acrylic transparency is perfect) make a couple or three swipes across with different colors of water based distress ink pads such as Tim Holtz Distressed Inks.

• Now the fun part. Start swiping your white cardstock around the inked surface until it’s covered by the inks. You should have a lovely marbled effect. If you’re a bit timid the first time you do it, don’t worry. Just do it over again until you’re happy with the result.

• Dry off the cardstock: either leave it to one side until it dries or speed the process along by using your heat gun. Don’t get too close with the tool and if the card curls up with the heat just turn it over and give it a burst on the back to straighten it out.

• Apply one of the colored inks around the edge of the cardstock to give it some extra definition and voila, you’ve made your own patterned background.

• I didn’t stop there though. I put the card through my embossing machine to add some extra texture. If you don’t have an embossing machine or hand embossing tool don’t worry. You’ve still got a great looking card without it.

I used some die cuts for the focal image of this card but you can create your own focal image by stamping onto cardsctock, coloring in the image and cutting around it.

• Place your blank card in front of you with the fold at the top. Mount the horizontal background strip onto the front.

• Now mount the three vertical strips on top of the background strip making sure that you only glue the bottom half so that nothing is stuck above the fold you created in the top of the card.

• And now mount the background you made yourself on top using foam mounts or foam tape to add dimension.

• Finally mount your focal images including a sentiment which you can stamp on a separate piece of cardstock and cut out.

For the inside.

• Cover the inside of the back of the card with a patterned paper.

• Stick a strip of grosgrain ribbon across the card just below the centre (remember the fold is at the top)at the point where you want your front panel to be supported.

• Add some little flowers and some bling and you’re done. I used white paper flowers which I colored by dabbing with the inks I used for the front of the card to coordinate the elements.

You may not have all the equipment I used to make this card. But even without it you will still get a magnificent looking card and it’s really quite simple to do.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Oh and don’t forget to wish Seona a Happy Birthday.

Other related articles:

5 Tips for making a Great Mini-Album

Hybrid Scrapbooking, Perfect for Card Making

Hybrid Scrapbooking a 50th Card

And if you think this is all a bit fiddly for you, why not try digital scrapbooking? you can find out all about it by clicking the image below.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Digital scrapbookers have color matching easy. If the color on an element’s not right . . . just change it with a couple of mouse clicks.

But it’s far more frustrating for paper scrapbookers. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve needed a certain color brad to finish off a scrapbook layout or card, but had to settle for silver or gold because I haven’t got the right color in my stash, I reckon I’d have enough money to redecorate my craft room.

But there is a way!

A couple of weeks ago I went to a small papercraft show and saw a demonstration of how you can match the color of your brads to your stamped images. And let’s face it, it only needs a couple of elements to match to link up the whole color scheme for the scrapbook layout.

So anyway I was talking about it to my friend Jackie, The Embossing Queen, and I suggested that she should write a tutorial on how it’s done. So she has.

Scrapbook idea - change the color of brads by embossing them

So all that remains is for me to give you the link to her tutorial and you can see for yourself how easy it is to change the color of your brads and make them match your scrapbook layouts and cards.

With this technique under you belt you just need to keep supplies of silver and gold brads and then color them up to whatever you want each time you need to use them. Brilliant!

If you like the tutorial make sure you let her know in the comments section.

Other related articles

Tips for making scrapbook embellishments

Scrapbook Organization – Ribbon Storage Ideas

10 Speedy Scrapbook Ideas

And if you’d like to find out more about how to do digital scrapbooking just click on the banner below.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking