Thursday, August 12, 2010

Drop Dhadows for Digi Noobs

I have just begun the journey down the Digital path. It’s a long winding road filled with tempting digital kits and loads of freebies! When I first started digital scrapbooking I didn’t know about drop shadows.  Here is a page I created the other day. The page has not had drop shadows applied and it looks a little flat.



Since I’m no expert on the topic, I’ve downloaded a free set of styles which add drop shadows to elements from Megan Turnridge Designs. I like that these styles have different settings based on the size of the element and Megan has set the light to come in at the same angle so if you use the set it all works together.

Adding a few shadows, really adds some drama to the page, don’t you think?



The styles above are for Photoshop CS if you use a different program, a Google search should yield actions or styles that will work with your program. To install styles in CS4, simply follow these simple directions. Happy Digi Scrappin'!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

May I offer you a free cocktail?

To celebrate the countdown to my birthday?  Three weeks from today, I will turn 40.  What better way to enjoy my day than with beverages?  Whether you prefer to lift a sweet tea or a sweet cocktail, raise a glass with me.

Since I created ScrapStreet as a 35th birthday present for myself, we will soon celebrate 5 fabulous years together.  Oh, the places we have been!  The changes we have seen.  The new friends we have met.  Together we have experienced sorrow, joy, frustration, growth, anger, contentment, and so many more emotions.  I am looking forward to the first day of our 6th year together!

To celebrate, I am giving away a full kit in three chunks over the next three Wednesdays.  Today, we begin with the paper pack.  It includes 12 textured papers in fun summer shades.  Download:  link expired.
Stop back next week for the next piece!  And if you are a Street member, keep an eye out on the boards for our annual Birthday Crop!  We will have a bunch of beverage fun and prizes!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Organizing Your Stash

We all do it, don't we? Spend hours organizing our stash, purging our stash, and trying to make it easier to use our stash. It's a bit overwhelming, don't you think?

A few years ago I decided to reorganize my entire room. Color really drives my scrapbook pages. I tend to pull from the colors in my photos and the products I'm using. My process is so color centric that I've organized my stash by color. As you can imagine this was a massive undertaking that took several weeks, I haven't regretted it though. It works for me!

I keep random bits and bobs by color in embroidery boxes and plastic baggies for the larger elements. Brads are in bead boxes separated by color. These containers, alphabets, and any other large items are put in IKEA Kassat boxes and stored in my Expedit. All of my buttons are sorted by color in these Target jars and placed up on a shelf where I can see them. While cardstock, sits on top of my Expedit sorted by color, I have not been able to give up sorting my patterned paper by manufacturer. I have an empty new items box that accummulates over time. I regularly go through and sort the items in it by color then add it to my boxes. I'm guilty of bribing my boys to help me too!

I do keep an assortment of brads, buttons, and other items separate to bring to crops. Recently, I took all of my spooled ribbon that was hanging on Target pant hangers off the spool and made this...



I purchased a large plastic makeup holder from the drug store for $5 and punched holes in it with my Crop-A-Dile. Then I threaded ribbon through the holes. It's in color order for now and it makes it easy to take my ribbon to crops!

I'd love to hear how you organize your supplies. What is your favorite organizational tool or tip?

Saturday, August 7, 2010


I have a confession: I have always had a weakness for games and puzzles.

I was the kid who was always taking over the dining room table with jigsaw puzzles, and carrying around a deck of cards just in case anyone had a sudden urge to play Go Fish.

My love for games grew as I did. I played video games on and off for a few years, but gave them up back in the Nintendo64 days after a severe addiction to Tetris and Dr. Mario.

Word games have always been faves of mine too. Word searches, word scrambles, crosswords...all FUN!

This week's challenge is just for fun: Get inspired by games and puzzles! You could scrap about a particular game. Board games, card games, video games...anything goes. You could include some sort of puzzle on your layout. Definitely open to interpretation with this one. Just have fun with it!

Oh...and if you are like me and NEED to know about this flower game....here are the instructions:

Using the letters in each flower petal (as well as the letter in the flower center, ‘E’, form six 7-letter words. The ‘E’ should not be used as the 1st letter of these words.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sweet Wednesday Freebie

Not content with giving you our free collaboration kit Sweet Summer Sorbet for August, this month's featured Discovery Designer (Carena Designs) has also joined in with a mini!


You can read all about Carena and see some of her lovely products here in our magazine.

Here is a layout I did using Carena's mini kit along with the rest of the Sweet Summer Sorbet minis.


You can download your copy *Link Removed* and please do let us see your creations either by linking us up in the comments or posting in our gallery!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Check out my layout!

Remember when I told you to come back to see how I used the button flowers on my layout? Well here it is! I just love it. From the misting, the bordered edges, the tags, and the flowers... so much to look at here. Hope you enjoy the layout as much as I do!


Have a wonderful day,


Nicole Martel

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Sweet Summer Sorbet

Welcome to August and our first kit collaboration with one of our Discovery designers! Sweet Summer Sorbet is a collaboration between some of the ScrapStreet designers and our July featured Discovery designer Beth Rimmer.

Full of sweet summer colors and goodness, this is perfect for your summer scrapping.

You can get your copy here in our store. Enjoy!