Have you scrapped any spring pages, yet? At least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, spring is definitely upon us. So, with all the digiscrap goodies, it should be easy to capture some of the season’s beauties on a layout. I’m not going to showcase any spring themed scrapkits today, though, since there are so many out there … where should I even begin? And if you are like me, you have a few favorite stores that you keep an eye on their new releases, which means, you already know what they have to offer. I will, however, give you some inspiration today, that maybe – hopefully – will get you inspired to scrap your own spring pages. Here is a double page spread using some pictures I took exactly one year ago (on Easter Sunday, which was April 4th, 2010). For these layouts, I combined two kits – “Sunday Best” by Lauren Grier (unfortunately retired) and Felicity, a collab by Libby Pritchett, Misty Cato & Krystal Hartley (still available at SSD). I …

Sorry, this is a day late. The internet over here was so slow last night that I gave up trying to post. But here it is: I’ve told you before that I really love it when pages look realistic. The more realistic, the better. One cool way to give our pages a little more realism (and add a touch of something extra, too) is to use extra elements such as stitches. Now, I know that there are tons of stitch-packs on the market – I do have some of them myself. But some of my favorite stitches are those by Anna Aspnes. She has a whole lot of stitch packs in her store over at designer digitals, and they come in all kinds of fashion – simply white, black, or colored, multi-stitched (black & white, red & white, etc.), straight lines of stitching, squares, corners, … you name it. All you need to do is check out her store, and you’ll have plenty of choice. Over time, I’ve invested in three of her stitch packs …

Who of us digi-scrappers doesn’t aspire to make our scrapbook pages look as realistic as possible? Well, I found a great tool to give your page a fun slant that is a wee bit different than our typical scrapbook layouts. I’m talking about the Magazine Stand templates by Amanda Taylor (taylormade designs at Oscraps). She has two volumes out that are super-easy to work with, and yet highly editable, which means you can pretty much use them any way you want. Magazine Stand Vol. 1 by taylormade designs     True, those of you who digiscrap in order to print an album, probably won’t find much use in these templates. But if you simply are looking for a fun way to document your memories, and make them stand out in the galleries, too, these templates might be just what you are looking for. They come in two versions. One layered template that includes frames and guides (though you have to create your own textpaths), the other version is just a blank page template, which means …

Something I’ve seen popping up in the galleries more often recently (but which I’ve been in love with for a long time), are photo pockets. You know, the page protector thingies that are so common in traditional scrapbooking. While it is true, that photo pockets can make your page look at little faded (since they are usually placed on top of everything else on your page), it also is true that they can give your layout a fun twist. Photo pockets are so much fun to work with. And they are really versatile, too. You can fill them with photos, papers, elements or with a bit of everything. Photo pockets come in various styles and formats. Like this sample by Joanne Brisebois: While these protectors have a strong reflection (which can distract a little from whatever it is that you want to showcase), I still like them, because they are not like the traditional square format, and the way Joanne divided the various pockets makes them interesting to work with and look at.   Emily …

For those of you who have never heard of Owl Tree Studios before, I’d like to take a brief moment of introduction today. OTS started out purely as a digital scrapbooking club – you subscribe to them, pay a monthly fee and get a whole set of digital scrapbook products (similar to The Daily Digi). Recently, however, they’ve opened their store to just anyone who is interested in getting their products without subscribing to the club membership. They also added a couple more designers, and in the last week they opened their new gallery. It’s an open gallery that allows you to post any digital scrapbook layouts (provided you don’t link any products in the credits, except OTS products). Some of my most recent layouts using their products are:

I’m sure, those of you who stopped by my little digiscrap corner last week were in for some disappointment, since there wasn’t much happening at all this past week. Can you tell that school has started, and I got a little busier than than the last two months? On top of that, ever since everyone got back to school the internet has gotten really bad here, so that trying to post something takes a lot of extra efforts. But I’m trying my best, and am back on track for this week (have you checked the new template freebie, yet, it’s up now), so, today I want to tell you about the Sweetshoppe Quarterly Assortments. Four times a year the SSD designers release a flood of papers and elements, all neatly packaged into some pretty little mini-kit collection they call the Quarterly Assortment. It’s true, each kit only comes with a few papers (most of them highly patterned) and a couple of elements. In my eyes, the QA still is a great deal, however, since we …

Usually, I bring you some SSD products in the Monday Highlight, as SSD is my favorite scrap-store in the world. But I also have some favorite designers in other stores. Peppermint Granberg for one. Some of you probably know who I mean when I say “One Little Bird Designs.” As much as I like to load up a page with bold elements, photos and papers, just as much do I like to work with clean, simple designs and lots of “white space.” Peppermint Granberg creates products that work just perfectly for the latter kind of layouts. So, today I’m going to bring you … Instinct by One Little Bird Designs This kit is a feast of papers and patterns. It’s very versatile and can be used for bright, happy pages, as well as dark, subdued layouts. Instinct has a lovely theme with leaves in various ways (papers, scatters, branches), and comes with a uniquely stitched floral ornament, which looks great on any page. Of course, a product by One Little Bird Designs wouldn’t be complete, …

It’s been a while since I did my last Monday Highlight. But today I have another product I want to point out to you. It’s not a new release as it hit the store at SSD about a year ago. However, it’s a great kit to use for all these wintery pages, and as we still are in the middle of winter (at least in that part of the world where I am), I thought I’d talk a little about … Chill Out! by Dani Mogstad First of all, I love the color scheme of different shades of blue, brown, red. Another thing that stands out to me is the “doodled/handdrawn” elements and paper patterns. This kit comes with a great set of elements and papers, and also includes a large number of word strips that really can help make your journaling pop! In addition to that Chill Out! provides a set of four felt alphas, matching the color palette. Look at what I was able to create recently, using this kit:

I hope everyone made it well through the holidays, and since things finally are somewhat getting back to normal for me, I’m bringing you the Monday Highlight on time. With the holidays just past, I still want to stay on the Christmas side of things and therefore present you with another Christmas themed kit today: Better Not Pout by Julie Billingsley It’s a bright and merry kit, that makes the Christmas happiness jump off every page. I love the bright greens and reds that make it perfect for any traditional Christmas pages, but it also comes with a blue and black color scheme included, making this kit very versatile. Better Not Pout is jam-packed with cute Christmas themed embellishments and the clean alpha included is just a cherry on top! Look at what I created with this kit: Going, Going, Gone Sale Don’t forget that the big holiday sale is still going on this week, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, hop on over to the Sweetshoppe to make sure you’ll get your …

After skipping last week’s Monday Highlight (sorry for that, was out of town and previously had been caught up with my December Daily project), it’s about time to show off another product I recently fell in love with. Since the Christmas season is in full swing it is another Christmas themed kit: Christmas Past by ScrapKitchen Designs Let me tell you, what I love the most about this kit are the papers! The color palette reaches from traditional Christmas greens and reds to cream, blue and brown, which makes it quite versatile to work with. One paper comes with a pretty Christmas themed wordart printed all over it, another one has a tiny holly leaf pattern (I love holly leaves, don’t know why!), and the one I love most is the background with the very vintage style paintings in the corner! Check it out: As soon as I discovered this paper in the stash of backgrounds, I was all over it! It works perfectly for those old vintage style pages to scrap those memories from …