We want to wish Traci Reed a very happy birthday today! Here are a few birthday wishes we put together for you!

From Michelle:

From Justine:

From Kitty:

From Denise:

From Melinda:

Happy Altered Tuesday Everyone! Cindy here, with today’s project which is fun and easy (don’t you love that?)! Find a favorite summer photo because its time to frame it up! Dani’s Heat Wave Kit is just perfect for all those summer photos so that’s I what I decided to use. I started with a blank paper mache photo frame (a flat wooden frame would work great too). Here’s mine before I started – plain and simple:

I started by measuring the sides of the frame and then planned the layout of the papers and embellishments I would use. Many times I will do a digital mock-up prior to working on an altered project so I will know how large to print the papers and embellishments to fit the project. It also saves ink to digitally cut out the size you need and just print that (another reason why I LOVE digi so much – less wasted paper!). After I knew how I wanted to arrange the papers and embellishments, I printed them, cut them out and assembled them:

The rest is easy – add embellishments to the frame and find your favorite photo! I added a date to the “Summer Fun” tag and also used some brads, a button and a bit of ribbon.

So there you have it, a fun and easy frame for your summer memories. As always, I’d love to see what you’ve been working on so post a link in the comments section if you have a project using one of Dani’s fabulous kits. See you next week for another Altered Tuesday!

Hi gals! Rachelle here, with my first debut with you. First off all big, BIG, CHEERS for Dani! I L-O-V-E her new MVP kit!!!! I’t couldn’t have come at a better time as my 2 favorite cousins are gearing up to head off to play BASEBALL at college! I am all about “action shots” these days, I just can’t take enough. When that baseball is being thrown at 90+ miles an hour, you pratically just have time to blink. You have to get right in there, when taking that perfect shot. If only that umpire would let me wear his gear, and I could stand right behind him. LOL! Now, that would be a scrapbooking page to remember!

So, I would like to share some of my favorite shots with you. Shoot through the fence so you don’t get the metal in the shots. Smiles are great….but, look at the determination on Jeff’s face!

And, a couple of layouts to inspire you:

Good Luck Jeff – he’s on his way to Tennessee, and Cody is heading to Green River Community College! GO Gett’m BOYS!

Have an “ACTION”-packed day! Cheers…..

Sometimes you have a photo that perfectly portrays a moment, a memory, but unfortunately it is not a “good” photo. What to do?

Well, first of all, the obvious, try to fix it. Try to erase the “junk” or extra people you don’t want in the picture. The message here is if you are not happy with the picture, why settle for less?

In this example, I used the clone tool to erase that extra person in the picture that wasn’t really adding anything of value.
The other option you have is to extract the main image so you can get rid of a busy background, like I did here:

And lastly, if you don’t want too much work, just be creative. If the picture doesn’t have the right colours, turn it black and white or sepia, if there is too much “white” space in your picture, put embellishments or journaling on top of the white space. Remember that clever cropping can turn a boring picture into a stunning one.

In this example I had too much white space in this rather boring picture, so a bit of tinting and creative placement of the journaling turned the layout around for me.
I hope I gave you some scrapping ideas Have a great weekend!

good morning everyone!!! Ashley here with some gallery standouts!! I have loved looking at LO in our gallery and I thought I would share a few with you guys! So it is like WAY early here…. 3:43 to be exact…I woke up to get to work! I go at 4 a.m. to bake bread! *yawn* k here they are!

Alright…time for work!! it’s been fun being with you guys!

Hi! This is Missy and my first post among the Design By Dani Creative Team.  I thought I would highlight one of Dani’s fabulous Christmas kits since Christmas in July is always super fun.   A great time to get caught up on those Christmas pictures that you never scrapped.  I know I have quite a few.  Maybe alot…hehehe. 

Dani Mogstad and Shawna Clingerman’s Kit “A Year of Memories 2007: December Page Kit” is available at Design by Dani store.

This kit is so great.  It has that touch of soft christmas color without overpowering your holiday photos. 

Here are a few Lo’s using this kit.  I looked through Dani’s galleries and found quite a few wonderful examples.

Thanks for looking and I hope you got some inspiration to catch up on those holiday photos.

Hi ladies! Denise here, with my first project to share with you. I found these signs in the $1 bins at Michaels and decided to alter them into signs for my kids bedrooms.

Materials needed:

Pre-painted wooden sign with wire hanger (approx. 9 x 3″)
sand paper
Modge Podge
Glossy photo paper
buttons (optional)
ribbons (optional)

I composed the signs in Photoshop using Dani’s kits, then printed them on Glossy Photo paper. The digital printouts are a little larger than the border, to cover them up.

I liked the paint colors on both signs, so to start I only sanded the area within the borders a little to help the glue. I applied a thin layer of Modge Podge to the sign and placed my digital printouts on top, smoothing from the middle to outside. The Rock star version has additional buttons glued to the top. I tied some ribbons to the wire and they are ready to hang.

A sign for Eliza’s room using Dani’s Cool Aid EP and Cool Aid PP, the butterfly is from Dani’s retired kit Love Sprung with Traci Reed.

A sign for Nolan’s room using Dani’s Rock Star EP and Rock Star PP, the strand of glitter from Dani’s Funky Free collaboration with Amy Martin.

These were a lot of fun to make & the kids LOVE them. I hope these inspire you to alter some finds from your local craft store!

Hello digiland! This is Kristine (aka: kriscrosby) with my first official post! I have the great pleasure of introducing you to some of the talented ladies that have been Dani’s guests for the past month. I’ve asked them to answer some random questions so we can all get to know them a little bit better! Without further ado….

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know these talented ladies as much as I have… good luck, girls! It’s been a blast hanging with you!

yep, that’s right- you all get a bonus altered project this month!

It has been so hot here at my house this last week. Summers with no air-conditioning are uncomfortable to say the least One of my family’s favorite things to do to beat the heat of high summer is to watch movies. Movies in air-conditioned theaters are the favorite option, but most of the time a DVD rental in our family room has to suffice. Movies at home in our darkened family room means we can have lots of munchies though, so those are good too!

Enjoy these templates to make a popcorn box that you can use to hold your favorite movie time munchies while you enjoy a new or favorite flick. You get two sizes of templates- the larger one is perfect for holding popcorn, and the smaller one can be used for a smaller amount of treats or as a vase or pencil holder.

I used my favorite kit, Clownin’ Around, to make the Popcorn Box, and Mahalo for the flower vase.

Download the template and instructions here. *link no longer available*
Have fun crafting and stay cool!

Hi Everyone! Vanessa here, are you ready for a great template and little challenge to go with it? Our very our Amy Blesser created this awesome template using the Dani’s new collab with Amy Martin called Funky Free.

All you have to do, is download the awesome template, use Dani’s fab kit, Funky Free and post your layout links in the comments section. I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday, July 25th.

So here it is, the templated and some great ideas from some of the girls using the template.

Download it here!