Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild

“The Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild is dedicated to teaching and inspiring people in the craft of digital scrapbook design.” Membership to the Guild entitles members to a monthly Guild kit and a subscription to our monthly on-line magazine “The Artisan Notebook“. The cost for a 3 month membership is $17.50.

In affiliation with Natural Designs in Scrapbooking they offer a complete curriculum of design and program classes that teach how to use photo editing programs (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro) to create digital scrapbook layouts. Class are $29.99 – $49.99 and run 4-6 weeks depending on the class. During that time period you have an instructor who is at your disposal. In addition you receive written pdf files that are an ongoing reference resource for you.

The Guild’s online community is dedicated to creating an environment of learning and encouragement that helps advance the craft of digital scrapbooking. Regisitered members have acess to a few free tutorails for Elements, Paint Shop Pro and Digital Image Pro.

Digital Scrap Connection

Digital Scrap Connection started in October and is a resource for digi-scrappers to see what is happening in the digital community as far as sales, specials, free samples, coupons and newest product previews. Designers can list on any or all of the five listing pages and also in the Designer Directory.

The listing pages are updated daily and are sorted by end date or release date. Scrappers no longer have to wade through email messages and forum postings to find out what is new. There is a search feature, a Top Digital Deals posted weekly and periodic contests.

DigiscrapDesigner has closed

On November 29th of this year I reviewed DigiscrapDesigner, but I was unware until now that there had been increasing problems with tutorials and actions being removed, without explanation or compensation to subscribers.

Then on Christmas day the site was closed without any notice to subscribers or to designers. It has been rumored that the site was closed due to some of the tutorials being pirated, but since no explanation has been forth-coming from the site owner as of this posting her customers are left feeling very much out in the cold.

To my readers I appologize for sending you to a site with an owner that demonstates such poor business skills. Unfortunately one persons behavior is reflecting badly on many good designers that had nothing to do with the abrupt closure of the site.

Family Yearbook

You have no doubt created a lot of beauitful layouts over this past year, but do you have a plan yet on how to get them off your computer and onto your family coffee table? A family yearbook is one of the best ways to do just that.

You can take inspiration from your old high school year book and layout your family year book so that it focuses on one family member at a time, or you can do a chronological book that covers the whole family throughout the year.

And no matter what your preferred scrapping size is, Viovio has the right size custom photobook for the project at a very affordable price. The “Step-by-Step Instructions” and “Design Guidelines” sections have a lot of very useful tips on designing and ordering your perfect family memory.

Create Digital Art

Create Digital Art offers professionally designed themed digital art collections. And while they may not have a huge variety of collections, what they do offer is very stunning and unique.

Most items are available as digital downloads, and there are a few collections like the “Wedding Rose” and “Travel Adventure” that are also available in an extended versions on CD. Any of the themed collections on CD’s would make for a great coordinated album.

3Scrapateers

3Scrapateers is an active site with lots to offer digital scrappers. There is a community forum that features a variety of challenges and tutorials as well as fun and friendly folks that are happy to answer any questions.

But the most interesting feature of 3Scrapateers is the shear variety of items in their store. A few of the highlights:

• Individual pages printed in three different sizes including 12×12.
• Ready-to-Go blank board books
• 3S ScrapStyle Ezine
• 3s Academy on-line classes
• Exclusive digiscrap kits

You can easily spend an hour or two browsing through all the offerings. Oh and don’t forget to sign up for their free newsletter while you are there.

Easy Elements

Easy Elements is the website of university student and digital art enthusiast Robert Redwood. The site has a wealth of tutorials from the very basic “how to get started” to more advanced photo restoration techniques.

There is also a nice selection of free brushes, and free brush viewing software that makes it easy to see what is in brush set at a glance. Additional brush sets are available to those that subscribe to the free newsletter. And if all that weren’t enough he has compiled a very nice list of sources for free brush sets. There is also an extensive collection of textures available including some great texture papers that lend themselves very nicely to scrapping.

Right now Easy Elements is hosting its first competition – with a $100 US as the prize! All you have to do is send in a themed brush set that you’ve made in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and write a few lines about it. It can be a brush set that you’ve made in the past, or you could construct one especially for the competition!

My Janee – Photoshop Resources

MyJanee.com is a great resource for all things Photoshop! While all the tutorials are written specifically for Photoshop, many of them can also be used in Elements. The site is very well organized and the wealth of information available is amazing.

In addition to all of the great tutorials, there are also online Photoshop classes taught by certified teachers, who are accomplished and certified Photoshop instructors. Upon your successful completion of the requirements of the course, you’ll receive a Certificate displaying the Adobe Certified Instructor logo. Only an instructor who has passed a rigorous set of criteria can put this logo onto your Certificate.

And if you fancy challenging yourself to create better art, and to have it critiqued by an international community then by all means sign up to enter the Art Challenge. Finally drop by the community forum for more great tricks and tips.

Action FX – Photoshop Resources

Action Fx is the personal website of Photoshop Author and Trainer Al Ward. While the primary focus of this site is Photoshop, there are tutorials, actions and layer styles for Elements as well.

While there are a few freebies available this site is primarily geared toward a yearly membership ($69.95). Members have access to over 100,000 add-ons and special effects, as well as training videos. (As an added bonus all items are “commercial use” and do not require any mention in TOU’s) There are even tutorials specifically for Digital Scrappers.

Eventually there will be a pay-per-view section for tutorials and a pay-per-download for actions, so that it won’t be necessary to subscribe for an entire year just to get a single tutorial or for that matter a set of actions or styles. Right now there are some nice frames in the pay-per-download section of the store.

Scrappin’ Freestyle

Scrappin’ Freestyle features a gallery, forum, chatroom and a small boutique that features some innovative designers. The boutique includes digital scrapbooking classes for Elements, a large selection of commercial use items, overlays, kits and some great actions for Photoshop (unfortunately there are none for Elements). The forum is moderately active with a variety of challenges available.

The related Scrapping Freestyle Blog features kit introductions and freebies as well as info about the designers.