IN THIS ISSUE

Hot Topics by Stacey Mann. . . . . 2

Articles & Announcements. . . . . 4
Featured Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Filter Tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Featured layouts. . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Product Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Gifts from our designers. . . . . . 19

digitalscrapbookpages.com March 2008, Issue 5

featured designer daily download

PixelDiva
filter tutorials

Christine Smith
2 product reviews

Diana Burton &

LivingOutLoud
our designers donate
Five Gifts
 hot topics

on our team so I am taking this opportunity to edu-

cate those of you who may not know what the full
scope of what it means.

Here is the terms of use you agree to each

time you download a file from Digitals:

Terms of Use/User License Agreement.

(These apply to Free Downloads as Well as Pur-
chased Files. Absolutely no refunds will be given on
downloadable products once you have downloaded
the item.

All graphics images are copyrighted by the

designer(s) with all rights reserved. By purchasing
(or downloading a free product) from our store, you
are obtaining a “license to use” these graphics im-
ages and designs from the designer(s), and you are
agreeing to the terms of this user license as well as
their individual licenses contained in the zip file. All
graphics/images are copyrighted property and you
Hot Topics with are only allowed to use for your personal use unless
otherwise stated. They do not become your prop-
Stacey Mann erty, you are obtaining a license to use them in a
manner consistent with the terms listed here.

Only you are permitted to use the Content.

What is Digital Piracy?
Any additional persons who wish to use the Content
must purchase and download the items themselves
There has been quite a buzz lately about
from our site.
digital piracy as more and more individuals and
groups are outted.
This license agreement applies to all mate-
rials created by or authored by Digitals designers
Digital piracy does not involve Johnny Depp
including, but not limited to, graphics, elements,
or any other swashbuckling, eye-patch wearing
images, kits, layouts, fonts, free samples, and text
scoundrels, but a scoundrel of a different kind. In
(“Content”). Content may not be used for commer-
the digital scrapbooking world, pirating is a serious
cial purposes or claimed as your own without ex-
offense and means to share any files other than
press written permission from the designer.
your own creations, with anyone for any reason.
This includes both files downloaded for free and
PERMITTED USES. 1. You may: (a) use
those purchased at on-line stores.
and incorporate the Content in your personal scrap-
booking layouts; (b) alter Content by changing the
We take copyright issues very seriously and
size, color, adding to or deleting from said Content.
do not tolerate piracy of our designs or by anyone
(c) use portions of this kit in your layouts that are
submitted to scrapbooking and/or related maga-
zines and web sites for publication as long as proper
credit is given to the designer(s) and a link is
provided to Digitals, where permitted, or the store
name Digitals when no links are allowed.
... continued, next poage
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 hot topics, continued
hot topics, continued...
(d) print a hardcopy of Content to be used in your
personal scrapbooking projects. (e) make one (1)
copy of the Content solely for back-up purposes;
you must reproduce all proprietary notices on this
single back-up copy;
PROHIBITED USES. 2. You may not do
anything with the Content that is not expressly per-
mitted. You may not provide a copy of the Content,
or any portions thereof, to anyone or allow anyone
to gain access to the Content, or any portion there-
of, except as permitted above. For greater cer-
tainty, you may not: (a) use the Content in design
template applications for resale, including, without
limitation, website templates, flash templates, and
brochure design templates; (b) display the Con-
tent on websites designed to induce sales of “print
on demand” products, including postcards, mugs,
t-shirts, posters and other items (this includes
custom designed websites as well as sites such as
Cafe Press (c) claim Content or altered Content as
your own. You may not alter these graphics and call
them your own. You may not take any part of these
graphics and add it to your graphic and claim the
resulting graphic as your own. (d) use the Content
or any part thereof as part of a trade-mark, design-
mark, trade-name, business name, service mark,
or logo; (e) incorporate the Content in any prod-
uct that results in a re-distribution of the Content
(such as electronic greeting card web sites); (f) use
the Content in a fashion that is considered by the
designer(s) (acting reasonably) as pornographic,
obscene, defamatory or libelous in nature; (g) use
Page 
any image in the Content that depicts a person to
endorse a business, product or service; (h) use
Content to create obscene, defamatory, or immoral
works. (i) remove any notice of copyright, trade-
mark or other proprietary right from any place
where it appears on or in the Content or its ac-
companying materials; (j) sub-license, re-sell, rent,
lend, or otherwise distribute the Content on Ebay,
through Yahoo groups, or any other means (k) post
a copy of the Content on a network server or web
server for use by other users; or (m) transfer the
rights to the Content or accompanying materials
(if applicable), except as specifically provided for
elsewhere in this Agreement. (n) make any Content
into tubes or brushes and redistribute them in any
way. (o) offer Content on any webpage for down-
load, send them through a list such as a news or
Yahoo group or include them in any graphics collec-
tion either on the internet or otherwise. (p) link to
server - meaning you may not make the graphics
show up on your website by pulling them off any of
galleries or websites where purchased
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction
or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
Criminal copyright infringement, including infringe-
ment without monetary gain, is investigated by the
FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal
prison and a fine of $250,000.
If you are still not sure what digital piracy is,
please further educate yourself here. Thank you for
your compliance with our terms and for your busi-
ness.
 announcements

This Mega Kit is Yours Free It’s ELEMENTary (Elements)

For Completing the March Challenges Designer Elements (Elements from a
Digitals designer)
Come to Digitals for to participate in our Picture This (Photography)
challenges and you can earn the entire Shaping Me, My, Mine Challenge (About You)
Progress Mega kit shown here free by completing It’s Only Words (Word Art)
20 challenges listed below (there are 22 total chal- Calendar Page (Calendar page)
lenges, but 2 are swaps so don’t have bonuses). Scripture Challenge (Scripture word art)
Kit Coordinator Cristina of Scrap4Brains chose the Ad Challenge (Imitate the Ad in your Layout)
theme to coordinate with International Women’s Monthly Swap (Swap photos)
Day on March 8. You get a mini-kit for or coordi- Change it Up Challenge (Something different)
nating pieces for each challenge you complete, so Digitals Quickies (Make Quickpages)
even if you don’t get them all finished, you still earn Card Challenge (Make Cards)
prizes. Sign up at the forum. Digitals Diner (Recipe Cards)
Lets Talk About... (Journaling)
He Said, She Said (Quote) iChallenge (Themed Layout)
Sketchy Details (Sketch) Around the World (Location Layout)
Captivated by Color (Color Swatch) All in the Family (Heritage)
Font Free 4 All (Font) Scrap Therapy (Fun Layout)

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 announcements

Crop Schedule Get Ready for the Races

It’s that time again for a digital scrapbook
March 5: community favorite, the Amazing Digi Scrapping
9pm EST - Over the Hump with DeDe: Race! This season is the third and promises to ac-
Designer Spotlight tion-packed and fun. Make sure you keep your eye
out because Digitals is a host site so we will have
March 6: lots of racers battling it out during the fun challeng-
9pm EST - Calendar Crop with Amanda es soon. See this blog for more information on the
ADSR.
March 10:
9pm EST - Multi-Photo Layouts with Shawn

March 12:
9pm EST - Over the Hump: Scrap the Night Away

March 13:
7pm EST - Gettin’ to Know Scrappin’
with Karla & Diana
9pm EST - Leaving a Legacy with Stacey & Jen

March 19:
9pm EST - Over the Hump with DeDe: Speed Crop

March 20:
9pm EST - Scrap Therapy with Amanda

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 featured designer

Brigid Duncan
of PixelDiva DesignZ
Tell us about yourself and your family. I
am a young woman from a tiny island off the coast
of Venezuela, called Trinidad. And what may sur-
prise many people to know is that I can not speak
any Spanish. Our native tongue is 100% English; I
think I learned more Spanish living here in South
Florida than I did back home. My husband and I
met in college, and at the time we were both in-
volved with other people. I think what makes our
relationship really strong is that we were friends,
then best friends and then husband and wife in that
sequence, so the foundation of our love is in our by Photoshop. I took a class back in college and
friendship. He is my best friend in this world. And the professor had just received the software so he
out of that love God has allowed us to be parents of didn’t make learning this program really easy for
Josh and Abby and soon to our third baby coming in us. So when my husband had installed it on my lap-
fall 2008. top, the program was there for many many months
before I cranked it up for Jen’s class. True story! So
How long have you been scrapbook- I guess you can say I have little or no background
ing (paper & digital)? I sadly have never paper in design. It has all been self-taught or what I have
scrapped. But I came across digital scrapbooking learned from my class with Jen. Hopefully my plight
last year when I found out about Jen Maceyunas’s may help encourage people who may also shy away
“Design Fundamentals in Digital Scrapbooking” and from this program. The best advice: the more you
thought, “Wow, this looks like an awesome class to use it the better you get at it. As it is with anything
take.” And from there I was introduced to a whole in life, the more you practice the better you get!
new world of crafting, which I have always loved
doing. What software do you use? I still use
Photoshop 7, can you believe it? I have the CS2 in
What is your scrapbooking/design/craft the original wrapper on my bookshelf to be in-
background? Funny story is that I was intimidated stalled. But I will be getting it installed soon.

Page 
 featured designer
How many layouts do you average per
month? I have made a promise to myself this year
to make more layouts. And I find the best way to
do that is to get involved in the Digitals Challenges.
It really helps me to get a direction or some form of
scope as to how to scrap those millions and millions
of photos I have out there just waiting to be given
a new home. My other goal is to journal more with
my layouts, as my good friend Sharon of Nini’s No-
tions says, a scrapbook layout is like a partnership,
the pictures rely on the story to make the scrap-
book layout come alive and be more personable. So
that generations to come, can look back at these
moments in time and feel like that they were a part
of that event even though they weren’t actually
there.
Why do you like to create elements/
kits? For me I like helping people to create a story
book for their loved ones. And this is what scrap-
booking is to me, a storybook of events that hap-
pened for the scrapper and their loved ones. I try to
create beautiful and eye pleasing items that scrap-
pers would say, oh wow! I can see myself scrapping
many many layouts with this kit. That to me is my
ultimate goal for designing kits, to get scrappers
“motivated” to scrap about their family’s photos.
How would you describe your style? This
is my hardest question because I too ask myself
what is my style. I can’t say that I have one par-
ticular style, say shabby or vintage as I have tried
that along with grunge and distressed, along with
realism. So I guess to answer this question you can
say I like to work in various mediums. I try not to
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get labeled into one particular genre as I like scrap-
pers to see how dynamic my designing is overall
Who/what inspires you when you cre-
ate? For many designers this is a hard topic, to
find inspiration. I can honestly say that as a young
girl growing up my dad always taught me that we
can be inspired by all that is around us, and that
when we least expect it something will set off that
light bulb in our heads. So for me, I find inspira-
tion all around me, from the socks on my kids’
dinosaur comforter, to the painting of the muse in
my husband’s office, to a song lyric or even a com-
mercial ad. Like for this new kit I am giving away in
the featured designer download, I was watching a
commercial and the words Eco-Magination flashed
and I thought that will be my next kit. And so it is
my interpretation of what all the many gifts Mother
Nature has given us today.
What is the best thing about scrapbook-
ing? Meeting the scrappers! I host crops 3 times
a week and to me hearing what scrappers like, or
recommend that I do next time, is the best thing
to scrapbooking. In addition to scrapbooking of
course! But to hear how people interpret your de-
signs and then to see what they come up with is to
me more amazing that designing the kits.
Show us your favorite of your own lay-
outs. May 25, 2002; Me Now and Then and Cher-
ish the Moment. All my products are 35% OFF so
check out my store! I am also offering you the daily
download until March 19th.
 filter tuts

Layering Filters in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements

by Christine Smith

Did you know you could layer more than one filter in Photoshop or Elements? It’s fun and easy to
use the Filter Gallery to add interesting effects to your photos or digital scrapbook pages…or even create
your own textured background papers. This mini tutorial will show you how to get started layering filters
and then I’ll leave it up to you to start playing with all those amazing filters to see how many different and
amazing things you can create with your photos and digital stash.

To begin with, I have created a new docu-

ment that is 3600px x 3600px and filled it with
my foreground color in order to make some
cardstock that matches a page I want to work
on. Start by opening the filter gallery: it is
accessed with menu commands filter > filter
gallery. You will now see all the available filters
plus a preview of what your filter does on the
left.
For this example, I am starting with the
texturizer filter, which is a common one for
making texture cardstock. I am using the
settings shown in the figure below. Now, I will
add a second filter on top of that one. There
is a layers palette in the filter gallery, just like
in the basic Photoshop/Elements workspace:
to add a new filter, just click on the familiar
new layer icon at the bottom right of the filter
gallery screen (it should be right next to the
... continued, next page

Page 
 tutorial

delete (garbage can) icon). This will duplicate the existing filter layer and now you can adjust that one! I
chose to change this filter layer to Sprayed Strokes with the settings shown in fig. 3.

fig. 2

fig. 3

... continued, next page

Page 
 tutorial

Now if you want to see what the difference is, use the little eyeball icon next to each of the filter layers to
turn the visibility of filter layer on and off. If you turn them all off, you will see your original document. The
final filter layer I’m going to add to the document is underpainting with the following settings (shown in
fig. 4) The final result? A background paper with texture and mottling just like in figure 5.

fig. 5
fig. 4
Now that you know you can layer the filters, start playing
to see what YOU can come up with!

Page 10
featured layouts

Designer Silvia Romeo is featuring a

layout done by Demetria White, (aka
ladydsw00), entitled Pageant Prin-
cess. Silvia writes, “What I love about
this layout is again the composition.
Demetria is a natural and she has an eye
for placement. The use of negative space
is very effective and the cluster on the
photos is artistic. A great layout!”
Demetria used Silvia Romeo’s
Arabesque Add-On Lavender Kit
with Bonus Quick page.

Designer Lynne Simmons is featuring

a layout done by Cindy Ball entitled
My Mom. Lynne writes, “I just fell in love
with this layout created by Cindy Ball. I am
a sap for the ‘good ol’ days’ and was very
moved when I saw this layout showcasing
classic photos of Cindy’s mother as a child.
She has chosen a lovely quote to enhance
the innocence in these pictures. Cindy has
used my kit, Days Gone By, a kit that is
well-suited to nostalgic photographs and
days gone by.”

Page 11
featured layouts

Designer Kathryn Estry is featuring

this layout by ccmentor
called A Little Boy is...
I love this layout by ccmentor! This face
is just so sweet, and his eyes are cap-
tivating. Any of us who has ever had a
special little guy in our lives knows the
truth in this title. I also think the “white
space” draws even more attention to his
face. The layered look with the folded
notebook paper and the corner element
are just enough to make this layout worth
framing. It’s made with Cute Stuff with
Daisies, a kit I created with girls in mind.
I like that Linda showed me just how per-
fect it was for little boys as well.

Designer Jennifer Maceyunas is featuring a

layout by lsl_scrapper called Building Snow-
castles. Jen writes, “Kim’s layout is just too
cute!  I love the different shaped photos
as well as how she really brought the page
together with the strips of patterned paper,
beads, and sticker.” Kim used Jen’s Frosty
FaLaLa Kit.

Page 12
featured layouts

Designer Diana Burton is featuring a

layout she did entitled Sweet & Sassy!
Diana writes, “The Jennifer Robin Col-
lection is based on my niece’s favorite
colors. The elements are just the right mix
of sweet and sassy, just like she is! Kris-
ten, the subject of my layout, is another
young lady whose personality combines
these two qualities to perfection!

Designer Amanda Thorderson is fea-

turing a layout she made entitled
“Rutha.” Amanda writes, “Last August, I
attended my 25th high school reunion. I
was from a racially divided small town in
Florida and in 25 years, no white person
had ever attended our high school reun-
ion. After 25 years, I felt that streak had
to end! Journaling says, ‘It was important
to me to attend my high school reunion
and show my solidarity with my class
and to my friends. A lot of people asked
why I would go since I would be the only
white person there. My answer to them
was because I would be the only white
person there. It is unbelievable to me
that in 2007--25 years after graduation,
there would still be this crazy racial divide.
Rutha was the first African-American I
ever met, so this photo was a necessity!
What a dear friend she is.’ I used my new
kit, Les Jardins du Manoir. Be sure to grab
the freebie in this newsletter!”

Page 13
 product review

Photomix Review
by Diana Burton

Photomix is a nifty little program that would be great for the beginning scrapper. It uses basic lay-
ers like all the other programs, but in a much less complicated manner. Everything you need to make a
layout can be accessed by using the seven tabs that are located on the right side of the screen.

...continued

Page 14
 product review

The program comes preloaded with a few backgrounds, some borders and some simple clip art.
The included collection is not extensive, but other product can be purchased at the website and you can
also add pieces from your purchased kits through the “Photos” tab. Once you click on the tab, simply
choose “add photos” and you can search your computer through an explorer-like interface for the kit piec-
es you want to use. When dragging my own elements into the program I found they had a black frame
around them. To get rid of this you go to the layers palette and at the bottom of the element layer just
click the x to turn off the border.

The “compositions” tab is a feature that some scrappers will truly love. Click on the tab and it
brings up a menu of 59 different scrapbooking sketches. Choose one and drag it to your layout and all of
the spaces for your photos will be nicely arranged. Choose the “photos” tab and drag your photos onto the
spaces as desired. The best part is that the composition is not set in stone. Each space can be resized or
moved if you prefer. When you click on a photo after it has been dragged to your layout the tools for edit-
ing your photo appear around the top right corner. On the upper right side of your work space are addi-
tional editing tools. There are photo correction tools and artist tools, although the menu trees seem to be
reversed for these two buttons. The correction tools include auto correct along with several other options
(you’ll have to click the artist tools button). The artist tools (you’ll have to click the correction tools but-
ton) allow you to change your photo to grayscale, sepia, image negative or an embossed image.
...continued

Page 15
 product review

The borders tab includes some interesting photo edges. Just choose a border and drag it to your
photo and it will automatically resize itself to fit the image. Your image can then be moved within the edge
by using the “hand” tool around the upper right corner of the image. You can add text by using the “text”
tool located in the upper right portion of your work space. Once you’ve added a text box, the text tools
will appear around the upper right corner of the box. The only real downside I found with this program
is that only your text can be drop shadowed. But for some scrappers, especially beginners, that is not a
huge problem. This program is simple to learn and with little time and little effort you can be turning out

beautiful pages of your own. Priced at only $29 it would be a great program to get started with to find out
if digital scrapbooking is really your thing, but let me warn you in advance—it’s a totally addicting hobby.

Page 16
 product review
PhotoMix Version 5.3
by livingoutloud
PhotoMix Version 5.3 is a software package
designed to make layout creation quick and easy.
The main screen has a set of tabs that appear in
the logical order for layout creation - getting the
photos you want to use, selecting pre-determined
layout templates, and adding borders, backgrounds,
and clipart. There is also a feature to work with lay-
ers within your creations.
For the most part, PhotoMix was, in fact,
easy to use. There are many page sizes to choose
from, as well as the ability to set a custom page
size - 8x8 was not included in their list, but it was
easy to set that size up. Photos can be moved
around the layout screen with no problem, and
there are great crop and zoom features. I really
Page 17
liked the fact that using the crop and zoom features
did not allow you to distort the picture. And the
undo button is right at the top of the screen (always
a favorite of mine in any software program!).
The software contains a selection of back-
grounds and clip art, and there are more available
as free downloads on the web - with a convenient
link to click right onscreen. There are also kits for
sale, similarly priced to digital kits in other places.
And selecting clipart and backgrounds happens with
just a double click. Once the element is displayed in
the layout area, it is just as easy to size and reposi-
tion as were the pictures.
Printing happens easily and quickly, at a
nice resolution - my printed copy was acceptable,
...continued
 product review
although I only used standard settings and regular
copy paper. Photo paper and setting changes can be
handled through your regular printer software.
I did not work extensively with the layers feature,
but it is available.
There are many features that are not availa-
ble that you would find in the Big Guys - Photoshop
or PSP among others. But this is not designed to
replace Photoshop. It does its designated task in a
way that seems quite easy.
When entering text, I could choose from any
of the fonts that are loaded on my computer (which
is WAY TOO MANY!). There are also basic photo
editing tools, allowing you to edit with such things
as grayscale, sepia, or negative image. For making
quick, easy, basic layouts, this is a great choice. I
always think of my 75-year-old mother when I look
at new software packages - she would love to make
Page 18
digital pages, but she needs something really sim-
ple. This package, I think, would be something she
could learn to work with.
I was unable to find an easy way to
add in my own papers and elements, and I did not
find any information on the help files about import-
ing those things, although I did not explore deeply.
And speaking of the help files, there are several
tutorials, written as well as video, in the online sec-
tion.
This software is available as a free trial
download, although you are limited in the ability to
print and share layouts. I would say this package is
one I will use when I want to dash off a quick layout
with no muss and no fuss, and I think it would be
great for those who don’t want or need to become
photo editing gurus. Give it a shot - with a free
trial, what can you lose?
 gifts from our designers

Candy Bar Wrap Les Jardins du Manoir QP by Linda Hanson

by Beth Rimmer from Amanda Thorderson

Page 19
Freebie from
Twisted Sisters

Stranded Snappy Scrap Easter Freebie

by Scrap4Brains from Handmaid Designs