WahoO! Get ready, gang, because I have a whole bunch of new Dani products to share with you today! Grab a  cup of coffee and get ready to be WOWED!

First up are TWO new kits (I know, be still my heart…) Hard @ Play and Crazy Love. Totally different. Totally cool.

Here is Crazy Love:

 

I had such a great time with these bright colors and fun elements… perfect for Valentine’s Day, but also perfect for a LOT of other things, too. Love it when themed kits are so multifunctional!

And just in case you need to see a kit in action.. here are a few LOs!

By Natalie:

And Erica:

Want to see more LOs? Check this out!

Okay, next up… Hard @ Play

Great spring colors, loads of fun embellishments (so many, in fact that I have yet to use that FAB buckle… I am so coming for ya, buckle! hehe!) and fun, fun, fun!

Some LOs to inspire you:

By Dixi:

By Lindsay:

And lots more here!

Now, did you think I was done?? Think again! Dani is also releasing TWO new sets in her Scrapper’s Toolbox line. Creative Crops 2 and Say It!

 

Tons of ways you can use these… Lindsay used ‘em in her LO above and there are many other creative inspirations in the YFP gallery… so run on over and check ‘em out!

Ok I’m jumpin the gun a little bit. But I’m just so dang excited about the new products Dani is releasing on February 1st. Just two days away. I just can’t resist giving you a peaky peaky. And I also want to talk about inspiration and starting points for all the LOVEly photos you will be taking in February. Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. In our house we call in LOVE DAY. And Dani’s new kit, Crazy Love is just perfect for any theme of your layout from fun and whimsical to serious and elegant. Go here to see what Dani’s Girls have been creating with the new kit and get your paypal accounts loaded up for Feb. 1st. Dani is also releasing some new products to her Scrappers Toolbox series. Here is a photo I’ve created with the Crazy Love kit and the heart shaped SAY IT labels.

My inspiration for the title of this layout is from the famous Elvis song, Love Me Tender. ahhh… Does it get anymore romantic than Elvis?! LOL I’m not one of those people who can write eloquently or compose amazing poems so I often rely on songs to say just what I want to express to my family through my scrapbook. You can look up song lyrics at Get Lyrical. Their search engine allows you to find a song by Artist, Song title, or lyrics. When in doubt, I’ve found a good google search also does the trick but just putting in the few words I can remember!

One of the things I’ve noticed about scrapbooking is the further I get into it the more I want to have great pictures to scrap. So I bought this book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, and I’d have to say I recommend it highly.  Currently I only have a point and shoot camera but understanding things like aperature has allowed me to work in manual mode more often and rely less and less on Auto mode.

 So what is aperature??  Well the easiest way to explain it is to imagine your lense has a hole inside of it.  This hole can expand or contract according to the settings of your camera.  So, for example when your camera is at it’s highest “f stop” the hole is the smallest, and when it’s at it’s lowest “f stop” it’s wide open.

Now you may say well how does that help me?  Well that depends on what type of effect you want to achieve on any given picture.  The larger the “hole” in your cameras lense the more everything in your shot will be in focus.  The smaller the “hole” the more your subject will be in focus and the background will be blurred. 

When you are at a higher “f stop” you will create more depth in your pictures.  This is useful if you want the emphasis to be on your subject and not on what’s behind them.  However, if you are shooting something that is all at the same distance from your lense then a smaller “f stop” will make sure everything is in focus.

 So the other day I took a couple pictures to demonstrate the difference your aperature setting can make.  Please keep in mind that I only have a point and shoot camera and the results with a SLR or DSLR would be much more dramatic.

 F 3.2   S 1/1600

You can see that with my lense wide open all the colors in the background are rich and well defined.

F 8   S 1/400

Notice the trees in the upper left are more blurry and the sky is not as blue.  I know the difference is very minor but I do feel like my daughter pops out of the second picture a bit more than the first.

So go ahead….play around with your aperature settings and see what you get.  I would love to see what you do, so link me up in the comments section if you like!

One of our own is turning one year older today! Please join us in wishing Melinda a very Happy Birthday!

From Angie:

From Dixi:

From Erica:

From Lindsay:

From Meg:

From Sari:

From Robin:

From Natalie:

This project can be for Valentine’s Day – or any day. I personally like kisses year round.

The idea to turn a clipboard into a photo frame came from Donna Downey, on the Simple Scrapbooks website. I loved the idea and just had fun playing and making it my own. I used Dani’s “Stolen Kisses” kit from her “This Love” Collection. I first blocked out some papers and printed several on a page. I like to cut my hearts freehand. By printing several papers on the same page I was able to have a variety of hearts, with very little “scraps”. I also created the title word art “How to get a Kiss” on one square using a cute tag & string, and a word strip from the same kit. I printed out several fun embellishments from the Stolen Kisses kit as well. I decided whatever ones I did not use for this project, I could glue onto valentines soon. Here is what my two printed papers looked like.

I did change my mind after the papers were printed, and changed the brown on the title heart to a scarlet. I printed out a new paper and then got to work.

I first “distressed” the clipboard by painting the edges with white and then a little brown. Nothing fancy and super quick. I did a thin layer, so the paint dried within five minutes for each color.

Next I cut hearts and played around with the design until I was satisfied. There are many ways to approach an altered project. If you want to create the actual design in a photo editor and then print it out, that would, of course, work as well. I glued my hearts down and then brushed on a layer of Mod Podge as a sealer. The Mod Podge was completely dry within 15 minutes. Doable, even for impatient me. I then tied some yummy ribbons on the top of the clipboard.

I doodled some captions on 16 photos. To have a great variety and also because I couldn’t decide on just a few. My kiddos are so kissable!! Here are a few photos that can be interchanged:

Any theme could be used for the photos and clipboard – or no theme at all.

The photos were placed beneath glass for protection – and viola! the project was complete.

The layout above was also made with the “Stolen Kisses” kit by Dani, BlackJack font, and the hand-stamped alpha is by Michelle Coleman.

I hope you enjoy creating a similar project – or are inspired to try something all your own. If nothing else, try one of the ways to get a kiss – they are guaranteed!

Did you have grand plans to make a calendar for yourself or for gifts before Christmas and then run out of time? me too. I got the gift calendars done, but never got around to making a calendar for my own refrigerator door. I’ve decided that it’s not too late- there’s still 11 months of the year left and Dani and Shawna couldn’t have given us more options to choose from with their Year of Memories Collection! There is the Quick and Easy Calendar- predone, drop your photo in calendar pages- that will have you printing calendars in a snap. Once the pages are ready, take them to your local copy shop and ask them to spiral bind it for you. Or there is the Quick and Easy CD Calendar- drop your photos behind the pages and print out a beautiful CD case calendar for your desk in just minutes!

These are great choices, but what if you are a ‘do it yourself’ gal, like me? A friend of mine came up with a beautiful, quick solution for making personalized calendars- use your own LOs that you have already completed with the Year of Memories Calendar Stamps and Overlays! Open a new 8.5×11 inch document in your image editing program and drop a finished layout on one side of it. Fill the background with a matching color and the empty space next to the LO with lines for jotting down notes and appointments. Open a second 8.5×11 inch document, fill with the same color as the previous background and plop the appropriate calendar overlay on top and mark important dates and holidays with Shawna’s cute stamps. Print out the pages and taken them to get them bound. Here are the pages I put together for February. It only took a few minutes.

Have we teased you enough with snippets of Dani’s new kit yet? No, I thought not! I went to a stamping party at a friend’s house a few nights ago, and the consultant had the cutest little bags for the door prizes. My friend won one and she was kind enough to take the prize out and give me the bag so that I could figure out how to make it- how sweet was that? Last night I just couldn’t resist putting together one of my own of these cute things with Dani’s latest to show you all. Instructions for putting it together follow the pic of the completed bag, and if you keep reading you just might find a little treat.

And because I want to see what YOU can do with Dani’s stuff, paper, scissors and some glue, I am giving out the template for this simple little bag.

We are Sorry, this Download is NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Don’t forget to come back and leave me a link so that we can all see what you made with the template! Happy scrapping and crafting!

Sorry to interrupt altered week, haven’t all of these projects been WONDERFUL! I happen to know there is more GOOD stuff coming up! I am getting inspired to find my glue! LOL! This is just a quick post to inform you about a SALE I have at The Digi Shoppe this week!

I am sad to say after such a short duration, my time at The Digi Shoppe is over. I have loved the warm and welcoming community here and the wonderful atmosphere! As of Feb 1, I will officially be gone from the shop, so I thought I would have a little farewell sale.

Today through Sunday, when you spend $5 in my SHOP you will recieve my newest mini kit “Naughty or Nice” FREE!

Simply add it to your cart and use coupon code: “benice”

Thank you everyone for the amazing opportunity to be part of such a great community!

~ Dani

I am having so much fun using my scissors and glue! There is no way I will go back to paper scrapping but getting my hands sticky every now and then is cathartic. And printing out Dani’s designs and playing with them is just as much fun and doing a digital layout. And they print so beautifully! (is that a word?)

So here are a few of my creations:

A gift bag, card and pocket calendar and check book cover for my MIL.

I used Sassy Pants, Hopscotch and something new for your Scrapper’s Toolbox

Im sure alot of you know what a Journal Jar is. A jar that you have papers inside with ideas of things to write in your journal. Well i put a scrapbooking twist on the idea! instead of having papers with journaling ideas.. challenges with scrapbooking ideas! example: Create a layout using paint, create a layout with 6 pictures, etc. It was tons of fun to make and a blast to use! it helps me alot when im in a creative rut. i used dani’s awesome OLD SCHOOL KIT! love it!

Hi everyone! Melinda here this morning Today kicks off the new monthly ‘Altered week’ where the four of us Dani’s Girls who are on her altered project team will showcase what we’ve been creating with her delicious digital goodies off the computer! You’ve already seen Laura’s first project- that gorgeous Valentine takeout box. Wasn’t it great? Well, we have lots more in store!

‘To Alter’ simply means ‘to change’ and though some projects we will do will be more involved and time-consuming, I want to assure all of our “glue-challenged” readers that altered projects don’t have to be. Have you printed any of your digi scrapbook layouts? I was amazed at how gorgeous mine were the first time. All of those details on the papers and elements you have to zoom in so far to see on the computer are right there in front of you and you can take it all in at once. Printing a digital layout onto paper is in the simplest essense ‘altering’ as you are changing a digital project into a paper one. Of course there are lots more things you can do once you have it printed and we are here to instruct and encourage you to explore some of the possibilities!

I’m a chai tea addict. I love it! I drink one or two cups every morning, and that means that I have Mystic tea tins coming out my ears; I thought they would be good for ’something’, so I’ve saved quite a few LOL Brenna was carrying her ceramic piggy bank around after rediscovering it one day and left it in a bad place, and it broke. There was absolutely no hope of repair for the poor little piggy. I remembered my tea tin stash and had an idea to make her a new bank from one of those tins. I gathered a few simple supplies and set to work!

My computer and a Design by Dani digikit, a tea tin, inkjet printer, paper trimmer, scissors, a ruler, a cutting mat, spray adhesive, a couple of fun little extras like pop dots and glitter glue.

Start by measuring your tin. To make a wrapper for my tin, I used a canvas in PSE4 that was 8.5×11 inches since that was the size of paper I can print, and I selected an area on the paper slightly wider than my tin. I like to print things like this just a bit larger than I actually need them and then trim them down with the paper trimmer. I designed my wrapper within that area and used the leftover space on the page for extra matching embellishments. I also measured the lid of the tin and designed a cover for the lid. If you can’t print on paper long enough to wrap all the way around the tin, then also design a filler piece for the back. I used Dani’s January DigiShoppe Sampler, Pinky Swear, for this project with a glitter butterfly from the Year of Memories Spring Collection. Here’s what my finished printable page looked like:

After printing, I trimmed and cut out the pieces checking for size and trimming a bit more where needed. Don’t worry, if you mess it up you can always print again and give it another try! I then adhered my pieces to my tin. I chose to use a craft spray adhesive since it gives total adhesive coverage, but you can use double sided adhesive from your paper scrapbook stash if you like. If you need a filler piece for the backside, put that on first and then add the main wrapper. Adhere the lid cover to the top of the tin lid- again, I used spray adhesive. Cut a slot in the lid with an Xacto knife to drop in the funds. Now comes the fun part- embellishing! As you can see on the final digi page up there, I had an extra flower to put on the can. I ended up choosing not to use it on my project since I decided that it wouldn’t last when I gave it to Brenna, but I had intended to use the pop dots under it and place it on top of the flower on the main wrapper to give dimension. I did add some glitter glue to the glitter butterflies to give some extra sparkle.

Note for using glitter glue: the liquid in the glue will cause inkjet inks to run slightly around the edge of the glue line. If you don’t want this to happen (It does give a cool outlined effect!), then you need to seal the paper with sealer first. I found that two coats of a clear acrylic spray sealer for craft projects from the craft store was sufficient. One coat of sealer was not enough to stop the ink running, though it did reduce it. If the project will be handled a lot, you might consider putting on a coat or two of ModPodge. I would strongly suggest sealing the printout with a spray sealer to avoid the ink running, if you do this.
Here are some pics of the completed bank

Isn’t it cute?! Brenna loves it and I don’t have to worry about her destroying this one trying to get the money out to look at it. If something disastrous happens I can just make her a new one!

Using that same idea, I put together a cocoa gift tin for a friend. I used the same size tin and this time used the January kit from the Year of Memories Winter Collection. I just love that little snowman! I also used a few things from Dani’s Winter101 December sampler at the DigiShoppe on the tag. Here is what my finished page for printing looked like this time.

I followed the same procedure for putting the tin together that I outlined up above. I didn’t have a lid cover for this project. I did make an instruction card to tuck inside and a tag to attach. I cutout and pop-dotted the extra snowman and added glitter to the glitter swirls and snowman on the wrapper and to the snowflake on the tag.

and here are a couple of closeups so you can see a few more details.

I think this will be a cute little gift for a friend.

One last thing before I wrap it up for today. As well as being a Dani’s Girl, I am also a CT member at RAKscraps and I host a ‘digicraft’ challenge there once a month. I provide a template free to everyone for one week to make some sort of craft project from digital kits and I LOVE to see all of the different ways that people use them. The next challenge is Tuesday, February 6. I start it off with a chat in the RAKs chatroom at 9P EST/6P PST where I give out the link to the template and usually a goodie or two as well. February’s digicraft is a cube template. I used it to make this adorable set of valentine blocks with the February kit from the Year of Memories Winter collection (can you tell I love this whole calendar set??!). If you can’t make the chat you can find the template in the digicraft forum for a week. I would love to see some of you stop by and digicraft with me! I’ll post another reminder when the date gets closer.
I hope you all were inspired by my projects today! link us up to anything you’ve done in the comments section so we can go check them out! Happy scrapping and crafting!