Category — Digital scrapbooking

As some of you may know we’ve got a fair few digital kits and products available in our online digi store…. We have also teamed up with Scrap HD to offer an online digital scrapbook builder with amazing products! Only a few companies have been asked to join – Jenni Bowlin, SEI, My Minds Eye and American Crafts, are just a few….

To celebrate the official launch they’re allowing us to give away a FREE MONTH of ScrapHD club membership!

So you know the prize… want to know how to win?

Go ahead and create a free account at ScrapHD and try it out for FREE! Create  a layout using the numourous freebies available and them post a link to your page in THIS blog post! We will pick a random winner on Tuesday next week at 4pm (ADST).

A Club Membership gives you- UNLIMITED access to the Kaisercraft designs in the builder, print from home, the ability to upload .png files, and other advanced features.

So go ahead and create a page and post a link in comments section of this blog post!

Happy Scrapping!

Hi scrappers! Yet another sketch and not one, not two… but THREE layouts as inspiration from our talented Design Team!

From top to bottom:

‘Birthday party’ layout created by Pam Thorburn: Sugar sugar papers, ribbon, chipboard alphas, rhinestones.
Pam has used stitching just inside the edges of the centre circle

‘Tatoo’ layout created by Fran Tynan: Journal paper, brads, chipboard alphas, die cut elements, rubons

‘Perfect in every way’ layout created by Elizna Parsons: Garden arabesque papers, ribbon, paper flowers, rhinestones, rubons, clear stamps, brads

Don’t forget to share your creations into our January sketch gallery – you can win a $25 collection pack!

At the end of each month this year we will be selecting a winner from each sketch gallery to win a $25 collection pack of their choice (6 patterned papers, die cut elements, alpha stickers and rubon pack)!

See terms and conditions for more information.

You only have 8 days left – you gotta be in it to win it!!

And take note, digi scrappers – from today, you too will be included in the Saturday Sketch fun as we bring you brand new, original templates designed by our creative team girls.

Our first sketch, by Brittney, is a simple layout with plenty of space to showcase whichever cute paper you opt to use – simply choose your papers, elements and photos, drop them in the spaces provided and you’re all done!

We even have a sample layout using our Daydreams and Doodles mega kit, by Brittney, to demonstrate what you can expect to see when you’ve finished with this groovy little number.

Sandra also used the template to create this funky, bright layout using our new School Days kit.

And we also have an angelic layout from Carole featuring her daughter, Kimberlee, with her grandmother.

Show us how you’ve used our digital template for your chance to win two digi mega kits of your choice, valued at $19.98…that’s two collections you can use over and over again, just for uploading your creation here!

See terms and conditions for more information.

We’ll be picking a winner at the end of the month so start downloading the template and get scrapping – it could be worth free product!

It’s a tough job but someone has to do it…and it’s even better if that someone isn’t us!

Today we bring you three – that’s right, THREE – School Days quick pages, hot off the press and ready to be downloaded and turned into layouts in the blink of an eye!

Carole, our quick page master and digital CT member, couldn’t get enough of School Days, and decided to get even more creative than usual…so for your scrapping pleasure, check out the first her three quick pages now!

Now, we know this is fairly specific to pics of kids starting first grade (or prep, as we call it in Aussie-land) but we’re guessing there’s at least a few of you proud mummies out there who are already thinking about which pic would fit the layout best.

If your little one hasn’t yet hit first grade or has already moved past it, though, don’t write off the quick page…because here we have the exact same design, minus the mention of first grade!

Or, if you prefer scrapping with cheerful bright colours, try this gorgeous creation – colourful, packed full of cute elements and with enough space for some short journalling, this is our personal favourite and the one we’re already thinking about how to use!

We think this is about the sweetest thing we’ve ever seen…now all we need are some school photos to add and we’ll have our own memory-filled layout!

And speaking of layouts, check out this little beauty by Leah – it shows her youngest son, Ethan, copying his brother doing schoolwork.

This would have to be one of the best School Days layouts we’ve seen so far – the fantastic use of colour and perfectly-placed combinations on patterned and plain papers give it a very lively feel, and we can just tell how much Leah loves this collection.

She says School Days’ fun colours and doodles make it perfect for a “messier look” and worked well for journalling…we have to say, we agree. So darn cute!

Onto to something totally different with Chrissy’s offering, and here we have an alternative to kids and school-related themes. Chrissy thought about all the notebooks she has stashed around the house when she saw the notebook paper in this collection, and it fits perfectly!

To create the layout, Chrissy says she played with blending modes for the background paper and eventually chose “exclusion” as she liked the colour it produced. She removed the white background under the punched holes in the notepaper using the magic wand tool to select the white patches, which she then deleted.

And if that doesn’t go to show how School Days can be used for any kind of photo, not just school snaps, check out Brittney’s awesomely funky layout, which shows her daughter, Ali, learning which foot each shoe goes on.

We would NEVER have thought to darken the notepaper to a greyish hue to contrast with all the bright blues, reds and greens, but we LOVE it! Imaginative, innovative and commemorating what is definitely a rite of passage for lots of children – definitely a winner.

Brittney filled in some of the brushes but kept them a bit rough-looking, then added them to the paper as elements, almost like stickers. She layered strips of paper underneath her photos and clustered the elements all around to create a seriously striking and commanding layout.

We’ve really been impressed with what the CT has produced with School Days but more importantly, we want to know what you think…do you like the minimal number of papers and extra transparencies? Do the colours work for you? Have you enjoyed scrapping some of those special moments in your kids’ lives?

It’s that time of year again, and Kaisercraft knows how to help celebrate your little darling’s foray into the exciting world of school!

Whether you’re the proud mother of a brand new preppie or sending your experienced little learner back into the jungle of classrooms and playgrounds, we know you love nothing more than scrapping cute pictures of their special moments. And what could be more momentous than the first day of a whole new year, to be filled with play, knowledge and new experiences?

And there’s no need to worry about whether or not the School Days kit will suit your child’s school colours, with four papers in a range of colours and 12 – that’s right, 12 – transparencies that can be mixed and matched to any colour you require! Incorporating elements we’ve never released before, such as paper clips, push pins, bulldog clips and first prize rosettes, you definitely won’t struggle to perfectly complement your layout or hybrid project.

Check out our CT’s little pieces of gorgeousness below for inspiration on how to whip up your own School Days layout.

Kathleen utilised the collection’s cool notepaper to create a layout that looks as though it could have been torn out of any child’s notebook – if the notebook boasted such killer artwork, that is!

We’ve counted more than 10 little elements, ranging from paperclips and ribbon to brads and tags, but Kathleen’s has still managed to compress the content and leave plenty of “white space”, giving the layout a hand-drawn, doodly sort of feel. She’s used some simple brushes and swirly handwriting to add dimension and told the story with a simple title – we’re loving its fun feel and the fact she’s used non-school-related photos of Holly and Drew. Very cool!

Now, we seem to recall it’s been a while since we showed you a cool hybrid project from the digital CT, so today we have Sandra to thank for her initiative in playing around with Schoool Days. She used a 4×6″ photo album and basic stationary kit (including a pencil box, eraser, sharpener and ruler) from her local discount store and, in her words, “pimped these with the School Days kit!”.

On the top and inside of the pencil box, Sandra glued sections of paper; she then glued sections onto the ruler as well. She replaced the plastic wrapping around the eraser with a tag from the School Days elements set, measured the size and then created a grid in Photoshop Elements to make sure she had the right sizing. Sandra ’stamped’  some brushes onto the tag and printed it, then printed one of the round elements to fit the round shape of the pencil sharpener.

For the photo album, she printed a section of paper, glued it on top of the album’s original packaging and prettied it up with tags, flower and paperclips. She also printed some round elements and glued them onto cardstock to give them more body, before setting an eyelet in each and lacing them through a small metallic ball chain and attaching it to the cover. Sandra finished it off with a ribbon, which she tied around the album.

And for inside? Well, you know the saying “a mother’s work is never over”, and in this case it’s true – Sandra then made some layouts using her son’s school pictures, including this little gem, for which she cut cardstock to 4×6″ and made mini layouts with scraps of printed papers and elements.

We are actually giving her a standing ovation right now while marvelling at how easy she makes it sound…what a fantastic idea for cute and unique school stationary! We’d love to know if anyone else is confident enough to try this project…be sure to post it in the gallery if you are!

And finally, we have an adorable layout from Donna, who used transparencies to create the background, including one which was set with Overlay blending mode and 25 per cent opacity.

Donna then erased the middle part with the eraser brush set to 50 per cent opacity and flow so it didn’t have hard edges or lines when erased. The second transparency is on the top layer with the same settings.

She made the ribbon swing by cutting different lengths of ribbon and adding drops shadows of varying lengths to create the illusion that her niece was actually sitting on the swing, and tilted the yellow paper just to add interest.

Donna says the rest of the layout is simply layering and adding drop shadows to create depth and varied dimensions.

For more awesome – and inspiring! – School Days layouts, check out our mega kit page here…we hope your little treasures are looking forward to going back to school and you manage to snap a few pics on the first day!

We promised it would be on the blog yesterday but due to server issues, we had to go back on our word (sorry, digi fans!)…but here it is, our latest Camp Stoneybrook digital layouts post, pretty as a picture and including tips from the CT team!

Feast your eyes on Donna’s intricate and so cute Stoneybrook layout, which we think features the most gorgeous little smile this side of anywhere.

Donna says she used a transparency over her background paper and set the blending mode of the transparency to “Color burn”, as well as increasing the opacity to 25 per cent.

The black border is also a transparency, from which she erased the bottom and duplicated it, then changed the border layer’s orientation to vertical by selecting Edit>Transform>Flip vertical. This changes the black border, not the entire layout.

For the title, Donna says she erased the ’s’ from the “Happy Campers” word art and repositioned the exclamation mark closer to the final word.

Just personally, we’re really feeling the flourishes (we can’t remember when we last noticed flourishes used in a layout like this) and the wonky stitching border – not to mention all that rustic-y layering. Donna, we think your gorgeous photos must give you an inspiration overload because everything we see from you is just gold!

Now onto a different kettle of fish by Kathleen, who included a strip of felt down the side of the matting and a series of three very different photos that immediately piqued our interest.

Outdoorsy, au natural and reminiscent of lazy afternoons spent picnicking by the river, this is one layout that takes you back to that special day last spring. Roll on adventures, we say, and show us more of what we love using our mellow Camp Stoneybrook mega kit!

And if you doubted it could be used for scrapping any other kind of photos, guess again…Brittney shows us how the collection can be used for something a little more unusual.

Brittney says she hasn’t been camping in many years so she chose to scrap about autumn (or as US scrappers would say, fall) and football – to quote our resourcesful CT member, “Just because you don’t have pictures to match the exact theme doesn’t mean you can’t use the kit”.

She says she tried to keep her layout fairly simple, first using the quick selection tool in Photoshop CS3 to extract the player and ball from her photo, then copying them and colouring the new image black and white.

Brittney blended it by changing its overlay and capacity as well as adding a large but lighter shadow to make the football player stand out from the page.

For the title she added a white stroke around the letters with a soft drop shadow and then mimicked the main photo with a similar stroke.

Just goes to show, with a little creativity, some know-how and the confidence to think outside the square, any digi scrapper can pull off some slightly left-of-centre ideas for just about any layout using whichever collection takes your fancy!

Check out Camp Stoneybrook here and tell us what you think – which elements and brushes do you like and what else do you think we could have included in the mega kit?