Bannerwoman Designs

Bannerwoman is a prolific designer who has products available at Digital Freebies, 3Scrapateers, Digitals, Scrappin Freestyle, Commercial Use and Digiscrap Warehouse. Her unique creations are mostly designed to help digiscrappers make their own pages and embelishments, and her offerings are available in both personal and commercial use versions.

In addtion to the occasional freebie on her personal site, she also has a nice selection of tutorials for Paint Shop Pro (PSP) mostly written using PSP8. The resource page is a treasure trove of links that is very neatly oragnized. I particularly like the quoatation and sayings links.

DigiScrapDesigner

Are you a digital designer currently selling your work? Are you a digital artist who wants to sell your work in the future? Perhaps you just want to know how to create your own elements effectively! Then you should check out DigiScrapDesigner.com

This is a Subscription only site. To participate you must purchase a yearly subscription. The cost is currently $35.00 per year. Subscribers have access to forums, downloads, tutorials and special features. They may advertise their own kits or digital products in the Product Ads gallery for no additional charge.

Currently, the available tutorials are written for PhotoshopCS/2. There are Subscribers who are using the tutorials with Photoshop Elements 4, and Paint Shop Pro. However, you will need to know your software very well. Subscribers help each other, so assistance is available.

While this community is designed specifically for those graphic artists who are selling their products, or those who are thinking about creating kits for sale to the public, it is open to anyone who wants to subscribe.

Not surprisingly the site store has a large selection of commercial use items for both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, as well as a hundred or so personal use kits.

01-05-08 ETA: This was site closed abruptly 12-25-07, and to date subscribers have not heard from the store owner. You can read more about it here.

1-23-08 ETA: The site has reopened but not in the format it was previously.  You can read more about it here. 

Misty Cato Designs

Misty Cato creates some very nice designs which can be seen at Scrapbook-Elements and Scrapbook-bytes. On her blog she shares freebie previews that include both pieces from her kits and templates.

One of the best things about her site is the selection of PSE and CS2 tutorials. They cover everything from basic getting started tutorials to more advanced “create your own” ones. And they are nicely indexed so it is easy to find them all in one place.

The Ephemeral Victorian

The Ephemeral Victorian is a unique blog that provides “free designer resources for freebie designers”. Items on the site are also available for personal use.

There are a lot of high quality items available in this nicely organized site. The scrolling previews at the top of the site are there to tempt you and the catgory listings make it easy to find a particular type of item. There is also a small tutorial section for Photoshop, Elements and Paint Shop Pro users that has some very helpful tutorials complete with screen shots.

Share your digital layouts with a custom photobook

Heidi, of DigiScrapInfo, has been blogging about her experience creating a custom photobook at Viovio. She had done an excellent job of outlining the necessary steps in a clear and precise manner, complete with screen shots.

Custom photobooks are a great way to share your digital layouts and Viovio makes it a very affordable option. Prices for a 20 page square foramt softcover book start at just $10!

It’s not too late to create a custom photobook from Viovio in time for Christmas! Depending on which cover you choose and the shipping method you could order as late as December 17^th and still get your book in time, but of course it is always better to beat the rush and order sooner than later! Check out their holiday shipping schedule for more details.

What’s on your scrapping wish list?

My family has a tradition of handing over wish lists on Thanksgiving day – I’m emailing mine this year since it is full of links to scrapping stuff. Last year I asked for and received both volumes of Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking by Becky Higgins. They are so handy for jump starting the creative process. I keep one in my van to look at when I have to wait for anything.

This year I returned to the Creating Keepsakes site to polulate my wish list. There are so many great looking titles to choose from, here are four that made my list:

Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking by Jessica Sprague
A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking by Ali Edwards
A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper by Ali Edwards
Photography for Scrapbookers by Tracy White

So what’s on your wish list?

Buy.com fails to deliver!

I recieved an email notice yesterday that my order for OnOne Essentials 2 for Photoshop Elements had been canceled because it “is no longer available from that supplier.” Interstingly the product is still for sale at Buy.com- although at double the cost.

I must stay that I am more than a little disappointed in the poor business practice exhibited by Buy.com and although it probably won’t do a lot of good, I do intend to lodge a compliant with the better business bureau.

Lindsay Jane Designs

Lindsay Jane of Adelaide Australia is a designer for Elemental Scraps. Her popular blog, Lindsay Jane Designs, features free original digital scrapbooking downloads almost every day along with previews of new releases in her store.

In addition to an assortment of kits and bits she also offers some very creative templates, so if you need a little creative jumpstart this is a blog worth spending some time at.

FishScraps is CLOSING shop!

Designer Carrie Stephens has announced that after 2 1/2 years she is going to be closing her shop at FishScraps for good on December 30th. Right now she is having a 55% off sale on everything in the store. Her store at Scrapbook Graphics will also be closed.

No word yet on how or if this will affect “Top DigiBlogs” which is also run by FishScraps.

Scrapbook Elements

The forum at Scrapbook Elements (SBE) appears to be moderately active with a number of challenges and contests being run. They also have chat room and a Yahoo! group. I encountered numerous error messages when attempting to register for the forum and finally gave up trying.

The site offers tutorials in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo Impact, ACDSee, and other programs as well. Most of these are for older versions of the software, but the are still useful. There is also a free newsletter available.

The shop has a nice selection from a large number of designers and there are a lot of items in their designer resource section that are worth your time taking a look at if you are interested in becoming a designer yourself.