Aloha everyone–Andrea here. Well we started our party a little early, so scroll down to read all about the happenings at SM! We’re having a fabulous blog train around the world filled with the SM team members ideas of paradise. There are 35 stops along the way. Each stop you’ll receive either an 8×8 quick page or a 5×7 brag book-sized quick page created from Hawaiian Happy Hour, SM’s newest collab filled with tropical colors. It’s free this week with a $15 purchase in the SM shop and with everything* on sale today for 40% and 30% through Thursday night you’re bound to be able to find lots of products you want to earn this beauty.

I love our blog trains so much, it gives me a good reason to go visit everyone on the team’s blog all in one day!

So here’s the itinerary:

1. Andrea http://andilynn.wordpress.com
2. Britt http://brittishdesigns.blogspot.com
3. Heather L http://joyrevisited.blogspot.com
4. Denise http://www.denisebeattyoriginals.blogspot.com/
5. Tater http://taterscraps.blogspot.com/
6. Kimbytx http://kimbytx.blogspot.com/
7. Melanie http://melanie3boys.blogspot.com/
8. Kim http://geekydiva.wordpress.com
9. Emilee http://morelovemorejoy.blogspot.com
10.Chia http://keepingupwiththekunzs.blogspot.com/
11. Jaime http://jaimeward.blogspot.com
12. Krista http://sahlinstudio.blogspot.com/
13. Wendy http://wendys-craftycreations.blogspot.com/
14. Sya http://scrap-stuff.blogspot.com
15. Stacy H http://stacysbackdoor.blogspot.com/
16.Tracie http://traciescrapsofmylife.blogspot.com/
17. Michelle http://mickeybdesigns.blogspot.com
18. Christy http://thewerners.wordpress.com
19. Cyndi http://cyndi146.blogspot.com/
20. Natasha http://bcnatty.blogspot.com
21. Stefanie http://stefgonedigi.blogspot.com
22. Maria http://scrapmuss.blogspot.com/
23. Heather Nay http://haynay.blogspot.com
24. Mary http://plumdumplingdesigns.blogspot.com
25. Kari http://karistamps.blogspot.com
26. Dawn http://winkasheartscraps.blogspot.com
27. Heather B.http://heb1976.blogspot.com
28. Leslie http://ggdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
29. Kelly http://insprink.blogspot.com/
30. Jeni http://www.jeniscraftyblog.blogspot.com
31. Anna http://annabvdesigns.blogspot.com/
32. Sharon http://www.digitalcreations.typepad.com
33. Kelly K http://kkklatt.blogspot.com/
34. Happy http://happyscrapgirldesigns.blogspot.com/
35. Rachelle http://www.chelles-creations.blogspot.com/

Have fun! Please report broken links in the comments here (hopefully there aren’t any, but you never know in this age of computers!)

ScrapMatters has so many terrific things planned for [inter]National Scrapbook Day (NSD) that I don’t know where to start. First off we are having a sale—40% off all personal use digital scrapbook products, except grab bags and clearance, on Friday, May 1st and Saturday, May 2nd. The sale continues at 30% off throughout Thursday, May 7th. Commercial use products will also be on sale for various discounts.

Did you notice the phrase, “except grab bags” in the above paragraph? Many of our designers have put together fabulous grab bags for you! We also have a new mega-collab kit called Hawaiian Happy Hour FREE with a $15 purchase in the shop. It is just fabulous—see for yourself:

Hawaiian Happy Hour Mega Kit

We are having a blog train featuring quick pages made by our CT/DT using Hawaiian Happy Hour as well. It will start on Saturday, May 2nd at 7am Pacific time on my blog: http://andilynn.wordpress.com. You might find some other little goodies as you hop on and off the blog train as well. ;D

We are having lots of speed scraps, challenges and games throughout the week as well. We had so much fun last year during NSD that I can hardly wait for the good times ahead starting this weekend.

We are announcing the winners of the Design Star Contest on Friday, May 1st. We are so excited with the talented new batch of apprentices that we have. It was such a great contest with so many good applications that it was really hard to choose who to take onto our team.

May 1st is also the start of the Queen of Scrap Competition (QOS).

Throughout the contest there will be chances for everyone to win free template sets, free kits and more. Natural Wonders, the mega kit pictured below, is one of the amazing participation prizes.

Denise Beatty, our reigning Queen, and Happy Scrap Girl are in charge of this year’s QOS competition and I know that they have lots more fun things planned. Look for additional details to be revealed soon!

The best part of NSD and QOS is getting to know and spend time with you! Hopefully you will take time to drop by, make some new friends and enjoy the fun.

Hi all, Andrea here. Thanks to our fabulous tech team at webSeitler our blog now looks like the rest of the site and is so much easier to navigate. So tell us what you think about our blogs new look. Do you like it? Did you even notice? I will draw one lucky winner from all of the comments on this post on Sunday night, April 19th and award one lucky winner a $5.00 gift code to the shop and two winner will each receive my latest kit for free. So three chances to win just for leaving a comment!

Also a heads up that we will be moving to a bigger, faster server starting around April 21st. We hope we won’t be down for long, but it could take a few days until we are all the way up and running. We will post the exact date and time on the blog as it gets closer. I am so stoked about getting a server that will speed things up during high volume times. This should also make downloads of products and freebies from the site less prone to errors.

Mark your calendars for our [inter]National Scrapbook Day extravaganza. We are starting our celebration on Friday, May 1st and the party will continue for a week. We’re having a free with purchase kit, a sale (gotta have a sale), a blog train, speed scraps, grab bags, challenges, games and more fun. Stayed tuned for more information.

The Queen of Scrap competition is coming soon too! We had a blast last year and are planning even more fun this year.

The SM newsletter was delivered yesterday to all of our subscribers. A special thanks to Jeni Hopewell and the newsletter team for working hard to get you another fabulous issue. If you didn’t receive yours in your email (check your spam) please sign up again here on this blog, your subscription will start with the next issue. You can also hop over to my blog and get links for the current issue.

The Design Star contest is coming to a close shortly, make sure that you go check out the freebies while they are still available. If you haven’t registered for the forum/gallery yet, now would be a fantastic time to do so, because that’s the only way you can see the freebies. Remember you have to be logged into the forum first, then click on the gallery tab. And once they’re gone you might not see them again! The 10 Design Star finalists have come up with some fabulous challenges with terrific participation prizes too.

Hopefully by now I’ve written enough for you to have something to comment on. I love hearing how you are inspired by each other and by our CT and DT. You are what makes the SM community so special! Thanks so much for being our inspiration.

Keep reading for Photography Phriday and What’s New at ScrapMatters!

Hello friends, Heather (hedderlee) here. I want to let you in on a fun little project that some of the ScrapMatters creative team members and designers were involved in recently. 20 of us participated in a worldwide Valentine’s Day Swap! From Malaysia to Australia, to all corners of the United States, we exchanged personalized hybrid gifts with a secret pal. As Valentine’s Day approached, each of us anxiously checked our mailboxes to see who our secret pal was, and what goodies she had sent. And every time a gift arrived at one home, photos were gleefully posted for the rest of us to marvel at. We really became more connected to one another through this act of friendship.

Mailboxes and love notebooks were the most popular gifts, as well as an overabundance of chocolate. Who can do without chocolate? Certainly not this group! There were also magnet sets, an address Rolodex, a Countdown to Valentine’s Day calendar, shirts, you name it! Take a peek at the amazing goodies – inspiration oozes from each lovingly created project.

This personal touch to gift giving is what I enjoy most about hybrid scrapping. Once paper meets pixel in your life, you may never be the same again.

Be sure to upload your hybrid projects to the ScrapMatters Gallery – who knows, it may be highlighted here soon!

Hi Andrea here and welcome to our Black Friday Extravaganza.

There is indeed a huge blog train getting ready to roll, just look at the list below!  Along the ride you’ll find quick pages, Christmas photo cards, tags and easy gift ideas.  First stop is at my blog here.

Here is a list of all of the stops on the train just in case you get lost or sidetracked along the way.  All of these goodies will be available through the weekend, so snatch them up while you can.

1. Andrea  http://andilynn.wordpress.com
2. Britt  http://brittishdesigns.blogspot.com/
3. Heather  www.joyrevisited.blogspot.com
4. Sharon  http://www.digitalcreations.typepad.com
5. Jaime  http://jaimeward.blogspot.com
6. Wendy  http://wendys-craftycreations.blogspot.com/
7. Dacia  www.fluffybunnyfeet.blogspot.com
8. Erica  http://zane-escraps.blogspot.com/
9. Mary  http://plumdumplingdesigns.blogspot.com
10. Natasha  http://bcnatty.blogspot.com
11. Dawn  http://winkasheartscraps.blogspot.com
12. Kim  http://kimbytx.blogspot.com/
13. Bree http://scrapitbybreeza.blogspot.com
14. Tater  http://taterscraps.blogspot.com
15. Kari  http://karistamps.blogspot.com
16. Cyndi  http://cyndi146.blogspot.com
17. Maria  http://scrapmuss.blogspot.com/
18. Haynay www.haynay.blogspot.com
19. Sya http://scrap-stuff.blogspot.com
20. Scrappy Kate http://scrappykate.blogspot.com/
21. Denise  www.neeceebeedesigns.blogspot.com
22. Jeni http://www.jeniscraftyblog.blogspot.com
23. Michelle http://mickeybdesigns.blogspot.com
24. Lina http://ldragdesigns.blogspot.com/
25. Kim http://www.simplysweetdesigns.blogspot.com/
26. Leslie http://ggdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com
27. Fliffy http://funwithfliffy.blogspot.com
28. Monica  http://digikeepsakesbymonica.blogspot.com
29. Melanie http://melanie3boys.blogspot.com
30. Christy http://thewerners.wordpress.com/
31. Kim S.  http://geekydiva.wordpress.com
32. Alma http://almadesigns.blogspot.com/
33. Jenn http://www.jenlindesigns.wordpress.com

Introducing our fabulous Fall/Winter Creative Team -

Digital artists

Amber (southernmother)
Andrea (chia)
Christine (alamamma)
Cyndi (cyndi146)
Denise (neeceebee)
Fliffy
Holly (mamaholly05)
Jennifer (virginiajen)
Julie (julydesigns)
Kathleen (k2vav)
Kim (kimbytx)
Krista (sahlinka)
Linz (l-i-n-z)
Lisa (ljonezy)
Mary (littlehiccup)
Monique (monsu)
Natasha (bcnatty)
Sharon (syke_zak)
Stefanie
Stephanie

Hybrid artists

Dawn (winkasheart)
Jaime (ocmath)
Kari (karistamps)
Kate (scrappykate)
Kimberly (tgmousechick)

A big welcome to all of you, we are so excited to have you on our team!

Thank you to all who applied.  We had so many qualified applicants it was extremely difficult to narrow it down. Thanks again for taking time to apply, please visit often and join in the fun. We hope you will take the time to apply next time we have a call.

CT CAll for ScrapMatters
We are looking for talented hybrid and digital layout artists to join the ScrapMatters Creative Team!
We want you to:
-Be a team member for 6 months
-Create 4 layouts/projects each month
-Post in 4 galleries: SM, DST, and 2 of your choice
-Participate in site challenges, the team blog, and the forums
As a Creative team member, you will receive:
-complete access to the ScrapMatters Store!
Please email the following to Andrea at andilynn [at] scrapmatters [dot] com:
-A short bio
-Gallery link
-Link to your blog
-Link to our most active forum

Please specify which team you are applying for HYBRID or DIGITAL LAYOUT or you don’t care EITHER ONE IS FINE!
This call closes at midnight on August 24th.
We can’t wait to meet you and look forward to your reply!

Isn’t that call poster gorgeous?  It was created by Heather, hedderlee, with our latest Mega collab kit, Friday Flea Market.  I’d like to introduce Heather as our new Hybrid Team Leader. When we decided that we wanted ScrapMatters to have a hybrid team, we immediately thought of Heather, our resident hybrid queen, to be the leader.  We have been wowed with the hybrid projects she has shared here on the blog and were thrilled when she accepted.

We have made another staffing change as well.  Kate, kateypie, will be our new Blog Editor.  She has already been hard at work, she is the talented layout designer who created our new daily blog headers. Kate has also started a facebook profile for ScrapMatters, so if you’re on facebook we’d love to be your friend.

Hello everyone, Lina here with Saturday Special!

Ok Let’s think a little about it! Mmmmm,what could one scrap about this time when so many themes have been posed already. So, since choosing a new theme has been a pretty difficult task I decided to make Saturday Special a little different this time.
So, your theme for today is “Complete Makeover“.

Well, here is your task. I want you to dig you files and find one of your early or old LOs that you would love to scrap again and give me a “complete makeover“. The only thing you ‘ll keep is going to be the photo /photos in the first LO. Everything else should be completely different!

One requirement though! You must post your old LO as well so that we can understand the difference.

Entries must be placed in the gallery and linked to this thread. They are due July 25 at midnight.

There will be two prizes. The first is a $5 GC for the store which will be awarded to my favourite “makeover”.

The second prize will be awarded to EVERYONE who participates. And guess it is a paper pack created by me!

Here’s the preview of the paper pack:

And here are my LOs to get an idea of what you are expected to do!

Before and after makeover.

In both cases I have used Britt’s fantastic kits but I think that you can understand the difference!!

And here what our wonderful team has come up with to give you more inspiration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Katie (aka Ktkadoo)  made two makeovers for you

the first set before and after makeover

and the second set before and after makeover

Our designer Brittney

before and after makeover

Erica

before and after

Linz (aka Mikelinz)

before and after makeover

and Kate (aka Kateypie)

before and after makeover

Wow girls you are all fantastic. Thank you for all the layouts you made for the challenge!!!

I can’t wait to see those complete makeovers in the gallery. Remember you have untill midnight Friday 25 July to complete your LO.

I will send you a PM with the link for the participation prize after you post you LO in the gallery and link it back to the forum.

Love

Lina

Hi ladies! Happy belated 4th of July! Hope you had a fun-filled day with your families

Zakirah here with this week’s Saturday Special challenge. This week we’re going to reflect back on our past and dig deep into our hearts. Are you ready? OK, so here goes my challenge!

I’m a bit in a reflective mood this week. I’ve been thinking about how I’ve changed from the past few years, from my early high school days to my early college days and until today. So many things had changed. Some of them happened without me realizing it; good and bad.

So for this week’s challenge, I want you to think about what had changed in you, good or bad, since high school or college years, or even since you’re a kid. Perhaps an event that happened in the past affected you in some ways and made you become the person you are today? Maybe there’s some tragedies or happy moments in your life that took place in the past and had given a big impact on you? You can choose the mood – sweet, happy, sad, melancholic, neutral, reflective. Dig deep in your heart and scrap it!!

To give you some inspiration, here’s what our fab CT’s come up with:

Mine:

Credits: My Independence by SHARIng Creations; Doodle kit by LG Perspective.

Sya:

Credits: I’m A Dreamer by Britt-ish Designs.

shutch:

Credits: Just Married by Britt-ish Designs.

We’ll have 2 winners this week, as usual. One random winner will get a $5 gift certificate good for anything at ScrapMatters’ store (except for commercial use and Bella’s Scrap magazines), and my favorite layout will win a free kit of her choice from my store.

Layouts must be uploaded to the ScrapMatters gallery and linked up at the challenge thread by Friday, June 11. Winners will be announced on Saturday, June 12, before the new challenge started.

That’s it.  Come on and play along!! Can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!!

Hello everyone–Jeni here! As I was thinking about what to write about for today’s post I came across a little section of great advice in one of my paper scrapping magazines (July 2008 issue of Scrapbooks, Etc., by Better Homes and Gardens) that came straight from their readers – fellow scrapbookers. I thought all of these bits of advice were applicable to any scrapbook page and any scrapper, no matter what your style or experience level. These are all great ideas so I just had to share them.

“The best advice I ever received was from a friend shortly after I started scrapbooking. I was continually asking about the ‘right’ way to do something. She told me, ‘There is no right or wrong way to scrapbook. Use your imagination and go for it. If you like it, you did it right.’” – Judy Crosby, St. Paul, Minnesota

“Don’t worry about catching up. You’ll never be caught up because the whole point is to continually chronicle your life experiences! Just enjoy all the steps you take to get to the wonderful finished product.” – Laura Wilson, Canton, Michigan

“Remember, it’s better done than perfect. I absolutely love some of my pages, while others are just so-so. But my family is looking for the memories, not perfection.” - Dana Lowry, Hickory, North Carolina

“My husband loves graphic design, so I often ask his advice. He always tells me the same thing: ‘Keep it simple!’ Yes, elaborate layouts are beautiful, but when you want to focus on that picture you love so much, there’s nothing like a simple layout!” - Marta Egea, Barcelona, Spain

” Don’t forget the journaling – it’s the most important part when you’re looking back at your scrapbooks. With all the wonderful embellishments available, we sometimes get so carried away we forget to tell the story – or we don’t put as much effort into the telling. But it’s the journaling and the picture that we’ll really want to focus on in the future.” - Anne Nugent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Such great advice, right? There were lots more listed in the magazine. I still LOVE my paper scrapping magazines even though I hardly ever touch my paper supplies anymore! : ) They have tons of ideas that can easily translate to digi, and now most of them even have a whole section written just for digiscrapping. Definitely worth checking out! (I guess that’s my little piece of advice!) Although we’ve probably all heard these things a million times, I know it always helps me to hear them again. I often forget about these little things sometimes – and those little things can make a BIG difference.

So now it’s your turn. Got any great pieces of advice for us? Please leave us a comment – we’d love to hear it!