1 Kit, 4 Ways: Under the Boardwalk

This week’s new collab is definitely heading into my cart, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Under the Boardwalk, by Shannon Hegarty and Deena Rutter, is a super fun kit, perfect for so many of your summer vacation photos. Let’s take a look at what the Decorators have to share with us.

Layout by Jen Flaherty

Jen says: “I LOVED playing with this kit. There is so much eye candy, I knew that a clean and simple page just wouldn’t cut it for me. I wanted to use everything! So I decided to use a blocked template by Audrey to help me showcase the beautiful papers and elements which also helped me tell the story of all the fun things we did in Myrtle Beach. I literally had to stop myself from adding everything. This kit is awesome!”

Layout by Christy Carlson

Christy says: “Loved the colors in this kit! I knew it would go perfect with pictures from our trip to Nassau, Bahamas. I’ve been in a rut with layouts lately but I went back to some of my old paper layouts for inspiration and came up with this! I love that I can make a whole new page based off of something I’ve already created! Loved the elements from this collab and those hexagons were so much fun!”

Layout by Liz Jutila

Liz says: “I knew as soon as I saw this fabulous kit that this was the kit for this memory. Deena’s ferris wheel pp reminded me of this funny story (well, if you can call waiting in lots of lines funny!), and her elements and pp really worked for the telling. I loved Shannon’s button cluster, and used a few of them randomly to give some dimension to the lo. The tickets and the swirl were really fun to work with! Love, love, love this kit! “

Layout by Carey Bridges

Carey says: “I just love the colors and sun-bleached feel to this kit! Plus, I can’t stop singing the song…under the boardwalk! I knew the papers and embellishments would be the perfect accents to some vacation photos from Cocoa Beach, Florida. For the layout design, I combined two templates from Robyn Meierotto, which allowed me to add several of the amazing patterns. This kit included so many great embellishments, but I chose to use only a few of them to frame the photos and draw your eye to the center of the page. The “Catch a Wave” word block made the perfect title for my little surfer!”

Are you ready for your chance to win both Part 1 and Part 2 of this kit? Comment here, and answer this:

Do you know the song “Under the Boardwalk”? Which version is your favorite?

We’ll be back with our winner (and another great collaboration) next week, but be sure to stop by this weekend when you can score some great deals in Shannon’s and Deena’s shops. You can also catch up with them in our chat room Saturday night, at 8 PM (MST), where you might just score a little something extra.

(Congrats to Ann, who wins last week’s collab. Can’t wait to see even more sublime layouts in your gallery!)

1 Kit, MANY Ways: Spring Celebration Elements

Today is very bittersweet for me. I’m sad to announce that Lori Whitlock is leaving the DHD shop, but I’m happy to announce that you can get some amazing deals (50% OFF!) on her kits for the next few days, before they’re gone forever.

Lori’s style definitely leans toward a fun, whimsical product, and her Spring Celebrations Elements really demonstrate that. Let’s take a look at some projects done by the Design House Decorators, using this great kit!

Layout by Missy Backues

Tag by Janell Nugent

Layout by Celeste Smith

Layout by Tiffany Bodily

Wall Hanging by Arielle Gordon

Layout by Jennifer Hignite

Layout by Jeryn Carlisi

Be sure to check out Lori Whitlock’s shop, because her kits will only be available through Wednesday, May 16th. We’ll miss her style, that’s for sure!

(Don’t worry! We’ve got a new designer heading this way… she’ll be debuting her shop on May 28th, and you won’t believe the gorgeous kits she’s loading up already! I can’t wait!)

4 Play

Hello everyone, it’s Jennifer Valencia here with another exciting 4 Play!  This time around I chose kits with lots of bright, vibrant colors; however, there are so many choices in these rockin’ kits that you easily do something neutral or subdued as well.

This Week's 4-Play Choices

First up is my layout.  I’ve been itching to scrap some of my Hawaii (Kauai) trip photos,  and these kits – since they have everything! -  fit the bill.  I started out with the photos of my trip that I wanted to highlight, and added some frames and papers and embellies in coordinating colors.  I was disappointed that I couldn’t cram MORE goodies onto my page, but I’m more minimalist than maximalist (it’s a word NOW)…so I will have to save the kits for more pages.

4-Play Layout by Jennifer Valencia

Next up is a page by the very talented Celeste Smith. Celeste says, “I approached the 4 play a little differently this time. Two of the kits are quite large and I knew I’d have a hard time switching between folders to see what I had to work with. I unzipped all the kits and put them in one folder. This made mixing it all up so much easier! It’s amazing how well these four bright and cheery kits go together so well.” (<– GREAT tip on organizing 4-play kits!)

Celeste's 4-Play Layout

Here’s one by the very talented Missy Backues. Missy says, “So many bright papers, I just had to use one for my background. I picked a couple of more papers to layer with all the interesting and unique elements. I changed my photo to black & white and kept everything kinda clustered together. Truth be told, I actually scraplifted this design from a paper layout by Kelly Purkey. If you’re in the mood to scrap happy, these kits will help a lot!”

Missy's 4-Play Page

And here’s one by the very talented Rachel Alles, one of our newest creative team members!  Keep an eye out for more of her gorgeous work in the gallery.  Rachel says,  “The chosen papers and elements grabbed me and I knew right away that I wanted to create a page documenting my daughter’s diva-licious spirit. I had such a hard time narrowing down all of the great papers, so I chose to use several and created layered strips behind the pictures. The bright colors definitely made the page feel very playful, which is exactly the feel I was going for.”

4-Play Layout by Rachel Alles

Did you notice that I called everyone “very talented?”  I just love being on this team with all these amazing people.  Yes, my post is sugary sweet today.    I guess the bright colors and cheerfulness of this kit just put me into a loving, caring kind of mood!

Here are the names of the kits and the links to find them:

• Let Them Eat Cake by Gennifer Bursett
• Day Glo Papers by Shannon Hegarty
• Happy Day Digital Elements by Robyn Meierotto
• Eye Candy 2 by Angie Hinksman

Congratulations to slcspagirl for winning this week’s DHD Gift Certificate for participating in last week’s challenge with her layout I See You – Stew

Don’t forget that today only (ends Monday at midnight PST), you can get each of these kits for only a dollar, and one is even FREE!  So go grab them, and then play along.  Upload a layout using these four kits to the DHD gallery by next Sunday, then come back here and post a link to it.  Not only will you learn to stretch your kits, but you could win a gift certificate to DHD!

Featured Designers Tiffany Tillman and Angie Hinksman

Tiffany and Angie are our featured designers this weekend.  Join them in our chat room Sunday at 5pm Mountain/7pm Eastern!  Then join us again for our Speed Scrap tonight at 8pm Mountain/10pm Eastern!

Oh Joy Template No. 8 - FREE May 12-13

Layered Looks Template No. 7 - $1 May 12-13

True Romantics Elements - FREE May 12-13

Cool Britannia Papers - $1 May 12-13

Clara - Embellishments - $1 May 12-13

Sublime - Alpha Set - $1 May 12-13

Mobile Mini Album

I am really excited to share with y’all a little project I have been working on. I have spent the past several weeks trying to think of a good present to give to my mom on Mother’s Day. I finally decided on creating a mini album with photographs of all of her grandchildren.

I had originally set out to create a traditional or hybrid album, but in the end decided that I wanted to do something completely digital. My mom loves her iPhone and has it with her all of the time—so having a mini album on her phone would be perfect. That way she will be able to easily share the layouts with others, and be able to look through them whenever and wherever she is at.

Here is what I did to create a ‘Mobile Min Album’ for my mom:

First, I looked at the iPhone specs to find out the resolution, which is 960 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi. I then created a 960 x 640 px (3 x 2 in) photoshop document and started creating layouts. Super easy, quick and fun! I saved all of my layouts as jpeg files and on Mother’s day I will upload the photos onto my moms phone—I can’t wait for her to see the album!

Here are a few of the layouts that I created:

Aren’t they cute? This could also be done with other mobile devices (iPad, kindle fire, nook tablet etc.) as well. All you have to do is find out the resolution of the screen. A mobile mini album is great for a gift, or to make for yourself and is a fun and easy way to share memories with others.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a layout for the iphone:

• Don’t crop the photos too small or they will be hard to see on the small screen
• Don’t set your type too small
• Make sure that all of your album pages have the same orientation
• Keep the layout simple
• Work at 100%—this helps in making sure that type and photos don’t get too small. Because of the small size, if you zoom in beyond 100% you will start to see pixelation.
• To keep my layouts nice crisp, I flattened my document and sharpened it a bit before saving as a jpeg.
• To keep your colors as true as possible, make sure that you are saving the jpeg with the correct color space (sRGB)