What Matters Monday
Hi Everyone!
Denise (neeceebee) here to bring you another edition of “What Matters Monday.” And today, I want to talk about credits. Credits matter.
Have you ever seen a great layout and wanted to know who made that fabulous alpha? or that awesome paper? And you went to check, and…no credits!!!
I just wanted to say a word about how important it is to credit all those fabulous designers who work so hard to bring us all the amazing goodness that is digiscrap! I know that each and every item that these designers create is given all the love and care that they have, and we should do all that we can to give credit where credit is due.
This goes the same for templates and fonts. I know that it is easy to forget that we started with a template and by the end it’s all we can do to remember the kit that we used, let alone the name of the template. But, a template is someone’s creation, and we should remember to give credit.
And I have to admit that I am terrible about listing what fonts I use, but I really am trying to get better about writing it down and posting the information. Again, these are someone’s creations, and giving credit is the right thing to do.
And, while we are talking about credit, I want to remind us all that credit is important, not just for the products that we use, but also for the ideas we borrow. Have you ever seen a layout that was so fabulous, you felt the need to re-create it in some fashion? Well, when you do, this is what we call a scraplift…and the best way to honor the person who you lifted is to give them credit for their ideas.
How do you do that?
Well, you can say: “Scraplift of (insert person’s name here)’s layout (insert the name of the layout here),” or, even better, you could link us to that person’s layout so we can see for ourselves where your inspiration came from.
And how do you do that?
You simply type: Scraplift of (insert person’s here) [url=insert layout's URL here]type name of layout here[/url
(And, don’t forgot to close the bracket at the end of /url. I couldn’t do it here because it would actually make my example linked, and then you wouldn’t be able to see what to type.)
I really love the digiscrap community. Everyone is so generous and giving, and in addition to selling their products, a lot of designers give away things for free. This kind of generosity deserves our respect, and the best way to do that is with our credits.
I will work on remembering, I hope you will too.
Happy Scrapping!!!
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:15 am
Thanks for the comment on fonts. I usually have to pm when I see a font I like. And yes, I forget too half the time.
So it’s okay to link to another gallery/site when scraplifting. I think sometimes people get confused about that.
Great post Denise.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
So true, Denise, thanks for posting!
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Fantastic post Denise, so true, and so important!!
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Thank you for this very important post. I have a few questions and I’ll post them here and perhaps someone could PM me?? Candi1973 is my user name….
Okay, so I have some beautiful scrap stuff that I have gathered along the way. I have found in a select few, there is no TOU, no “preview” or anything that indicates who designed this lovely item… No that I have been doing this for a bit longer, I always try to remember to make sure the file goes into a folder that has the designers name that is shown on their blog….
Secondly, if you use a template, but revise it drastically, or just use the template to “get your creative juices going” do you state that, “This layout was inspired by designer XXX’s template titled XXX. ?
Last, but not least, if you create a layout that is from a blog train where a ton of different designers have participated in, and you just grab items as you’re working on your layount, would you: a) note each designers acutal product, e.g., paper, element item, etc. for every single piece you’ve used?
These are questions that I have had for awhile and I am so glad you posted this, hopefully I’ll be able to get my questions answered.
Warm regards,
Candi
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
ETA: from paragraph 4…. or b) would you just credit the blog train as a whole?
sorrry about that…. I was going way too fast there thinking about all of my questions!
Thanks,
Candi
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
timely reminder Denise. I once saw a scraplift of one of my layouts with no credit and was a bit.. huffy i guess is the best word. And it is nice to feel like you have inspired someone!! I have to admit that my fonts tend to get forgotten too… will work harder on that one.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
So many great reminders in this one!!! I’m a font junkie myself so I love to see new fonts to add to my collection!