I was just browsing over at Facebook & it’s exciting to see how the number of digiscrapping groups at Facebook had increased! I’ve also received some emails from groups about new products available & most recently a Creative Team call. I’m trying to join each group to keep up with how you’re using this quickly growing space. Feel free to add me as a friend. Then you can browse my list of friends and I’m sure you’ll find some people that you know!

Are you enjoying it there? I’m getting requests to add applications (like 45 now), so many must be playing with them. It’s kind of addictive. The Facebook mail is nice. Announce it in your forum & link to my post on how to get started, so more of your members can join in. Maybe they’re already members there? I’ll be posting some tips soon on using Facebook on a regular basis.

Here’s an updated list of digiscrapping groups:

• ACDSee
• Amys Images
• Butternug Squash Designs
• Dallas Digiscrappers
• Digi S4O - For people who digitally scrapbook for other people.
• Digital Addiction
• Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
• We love digital scrapbooking at DSAG!
• Digital-Scrapbooking.org
• Digital Scrapping.com
• Digital Scrapbooking (Ottawa, Ontario)
• Gypsy Chick Digital Scrapbook Designs
• Kutnkudlys Kreations
• Launch Pads Fanclub
• Missouri Digital Scrapbookers
• Minnesota Digital Scrapbookers - and area states
• New to Digital Scrapbooking & Paint Shop Pro
• Nuts4Digi
• NW Houston Scrapbooking
• panraven.com
• Photo Walking with Hummie
• Retrodiva Digital Scrapbook Designs
• Scrap Outside the Box
• Scrapbook-Bytes
• ScrapbookGraphics.com
• Scrapbooking Addict
• ScrapGypsies
• Sheila Rushton’s Creative Imagery
• Utah Digiscrappers
• Ztampfans

Magazines & Resource Sites

• Digital Scrapbooking Magazine
• DigiShopTalk.com
• Digital Scrapbook Printing
• Pink Ink by Holly McCaig - Photography

ACDSee Photo Manager 9 is on sale thru midnite tonite for $23.99. 

Links and cart instructions are here.

Heidi found this for you:

If your currency isn’t listed, you can use Paypal and use your currency and then it will be adjusted correctly  Paypal Multiple Currencies

Please email us at digiscrapinfo@gmail.com if you need assistance. 

When my sister & I created this site last January, our goal was to offer resources & give back to the community. We hold a strong belief in that. Around March I started blogging about marketing tips, helpful software, blogging tips, etc. That focus has grown to the point where we now offer two options for newsletters. And we have found our focus to be broader than planned but I love exploring & sharing these venues with our readers.

Yesterday when I was at Facebook, I noticed a new site, Web Community Forum was launched on the weekend. In browsing it, this list made my heart stop. My name links back to this site:

Here’s some background info on some of those listed:

• Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR agency in Silicon Valley.
• Charlene Li works with Forrester Research, and Jeremiah Owyang has accepted a position there.
• Robert Scoble is a prolific blogger on tech related items. He reads over 700 blogs a day!

I’m truly honored to be listed as a Voice amongst those great ones! Teresa posted about my Facebook Series today. A huge thank you to the folks behind Web Community Forum! I hope that all of you realize what a voice your blogs are in celebrating your passion for recording memories of your family’s lives & your work if you’re a designer.

Heidi & I have been invited to Digitals for an ACDSee chat on Wednesday. Join us and bring your questions! ACDSee software will be given out courtesy of ACDSee.

And we have more chats scheduled! Four more, in fact! Come join the fun!

This tutorial shows 2 ways to crop a shape in ACDSee Photo Editor.

Under Select, choose the Marquee Tool or the Oval depending on if you want a rectangle or circle/oval.

Click & drag to create the shape to desired size. 

If it isn’t what you want, then click on the selection tool (arrow on right just under File)

Under Edit | Invert Selection

Click on the delete key & it will be cropped to the shape.

Click on the selection tool (arrow on right just under File)

To create the ring I’m going to show you another way to crop.  Either can be used twice, because they accomplish the same thing. This second method allows one more control in selecting the area, because it’s adjustable.

Under Create | Oval Tool

Make sure that both border & inside colors are dark.

Click & drag to create a circle. Click on the handles to readjust size & move it.

Select the first circle by holding the shift key down & clicking on the first circle.

Under Object | Combine | Punch

And you’ll end up with a ring to use for embellishment.

You can use either method in two steps to arrive at this, or combine them.

There are limitless options - for example:

crop a circle & crop a rectangle inside it

crop a rectangle & put a circle in it

If you choose Create | Shape tool, then on the right you will have a large number of options to choose from!  Each choice offers a number of images.

Have fun!

A shoutout goes to Christine Smith, another Minnesota gal & owner of Scrapquick Designs. Way to go girl! She is realizing the power of building community & I see her moving around doing a great job. Those efforts will gain her far more exposure than traditional advertising. You have to read her blog post from Aug 25th. She was promoting the DigitalScrap Wiki. She is encouraging people to join her in building up the wiki as a community resource. She said:

The reason I am jumping on this bandwagon is that I am moving my design and promotion efforts AWAY from large sites and toward open resources that are mostly free from the constraints of the desires of site owners and advertisers. Even a site like DigiShopTalk has posting limits, size limits, forum moderators and a responsibility to its advertisers. That’s all good for certain reasons but just doesn’t serve the needs of everyone. So I like the DigitalScrapWiki because it is formed through contributions from people who are involved in and interested in digital scrapbooking on all levels from scrappers to hobbyist designers to FT designers and site owners.

So what are open resources? Well, social networks fit the bill. If you’re interested in what Christine is suggesting, it can reduce the amount spent on traditional advertising. (Granted you probably want to find a mix of the two that works for you. Please ask if you have questions on that). And I believe that if you take the time to do some reading here, I’ve provided ideas on ways you can promote your designs in very cost effective ways by building community. Here are some helps from our blog:

• info on wikis
• using social networking for promotion

And this all ties into Web Strategy. I see Christine & many others using the tips that I’ve offered here. You ladies are truly great entrepreneurs! And I enjoy making online tools known & teaching how they can be applicable to digiscrappers & designers. On Friday, Jeremiah O. gave me a huge compliment by referring to me as a Web Strategist. He has devoted so much energy to promoting the importance of communities & utilizing web tools creatively. His focus is on corporations, but I believe it’s applicable to a business of any size. (He quoted my ideas about how Walmart should change their online promotional strategy. What are your thoughts about how the public perceives Walmart? Could it be shifted do you think if a woman were helping them promote?)

Here’s an update on the Facebook groups list - join your friends:

• Scrap Outside the Box
• Scrapbook-Bytes
  
• ACDSee
• Nuts4Digi
• Photo Walking with Hummie
• Butternug Squash Designs
• Ztampfans
• Missouri Digital Scrapbookers
• Minnesota Digital Scrapbookers - and area states
• Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
• Dallas Digiscrappers
• Digi S4O - For people who digitally scrapbook for other people.
• Launch Pads Fanclub

Sign up for our newsletter if you want to receive a monthly list of our marketing ideas by email.

So have you figured out how to use Kaboodle & add items & create lists? If you would like screenshots or instructions please post a comment & I’ll put something together.

I’ve seen questions about how to use Kaboodle creatively. Here are a bunch of ideas.

For Digiscrappers, here are some ideas to maximize Kaboodle:

• Tag items as you add them - add designer name
• Get your lists organized
  • Hollie (Holliewood stores) suggests: … you can have several lists, like digi-shopping, things already bought, stuff for the house, or even inspiration. you can organize those lists into catagories, like my digi list is then arranged by store. its a really super way to catalog your shopping.
• To find new friends
  • Look thru the lists of your friends & add people (it works in Facebook too)
  • Search people for digital scrapbooking
  • Post a link to your Kaboodle profile in your signatures with a note asking people to add you - In Kaboodle, click on ‘My Profile’ tab & use that URL.

  Add me!

• To find new items - read the email that Kaboodle sends of what your friends like
  • Someone suggested: Adding friends is great! That is where I find most of the new items. I read the email they send of what your friends have added. Then you can copy the item to your kaboodle. Ok, I think I may be an addict. LOL
• Keep track of purchases - personally I check what I have in ACDSee 9, but many are making a folder called ‘own it’, ‘recently purchased’ or ‘bought it’.
• Take advantage of sales - if you have your lists by stores, when a store has a sale, then you can quickly decide if you should buy
• lists used for gift giving
  • You can buy a gift card at that store, or contact the owner and have them set up a coupon for you.
  • your lists can help your husbands & others find gifts for you

Ideas for Designers & site owners:

1. What does it mean to be RAK’ed by a designer? Here’s how it works (please leave a comment if you have other ways)

• create your list of items & tag them with designer name
• A designer goes to Kaboodle & does an item search for name of item or designer name
• pm that person to communicate your (random act of kindness) - need to be registered
• To see how easy it is, here’s a search for items by Shabby Princess

2. Games - here are some examples of how people have used Kaboodle

• Can I Kaboodle you? encourage people to put things on their Kaboodle list & show you, then choose a winner
• Scavenger hunt - It’s all in the clues Designers from Plain Digital Wrapper provided clues that correponded to their Kaboodle list but required players to find answers at their store.

• Elemental Scraps Kaboodle Bingo was played in June - does someone have details for us?

• Let us know what ideas you come up with to use Kaboodle to promote your store.

And this is one other thing I noticed. I saw an ad for the LilyPad Shoppe at Kaboodle in the banner. I think it was a google ad? It was very eye catching & well done. Kudos girls!

Today we helped our daughter move to college for her freshman year.  I have a feeling that signifies a shift in the family scrapbooking projects.  (Although I need to get caught up, so I won’t feel the empty nest syndrome in regard to my scrapbooking too soon).

Wow! Moving in day certainly has changed since I went 20 yrs ago.  The radio station had a local radio station complete with DJ’s and they were giving away iPods.  Massages were being given for free & Domino’s was cooking pizza there & that was also free (& MUCH appreciated!).  And we thought it was college students helping move boxes, but no! the group of young men that helped us were from a local computer store.  The poor guy led the way carrying a not so small fridge & we got to the 4th floor (up the stairs) & he realized we were in the wrong wing.  So he handed it off to his co-worker & we went down & up again.  What an AWESOME community effort to volunteer their time to incoming freshman.

Speaking of community, the RA’s (resident assistants) were wearing t-shirts that read ‘Communities Under Construction’.  I loved it!  It was so descriptive of residential life.  I was an RA for a few years & enjoyed that job.

Then we made our list & headed over to Walmart to buy a printer, cables, etc.  Walmart’s parking lot was packed & network cables & printers were in short supply.  (My daughter has a 50 foot ethernet cable & can take her laptop for quite a walk with it’s long umbilical cord! :) ).

And I must fairwarn all of you parents of young children - start setting aside money early on.  My saying at the moment is that paying for college is like buying a new car every year.  My other advice is to raise your children with the expectation of going to college.  Lifelong learning is such a gift & will allow your child to be flexible in life & choose their path.  Aren’t I just really philosophical tonite?!  and adusting to the empty nest syndrome…

…or too much?!!  Are you getting value for your time invested?

Dianne Rigdon posted 2 comments today.  The first one is an excellent point. 

Connie I am loving all these great marketing tips and links and concepts. I?d love to hear an overall opinion about all the different social networks?whether we should try to be active in multiple groups such as facebook and twitter and kaboodle in addition to the digital scrapbooking forums and groups that we are already active in. It?s overwhelming to think of doing more, esp that which takes me away from design, but I love these concepts. Just trying to figure out how to fit it all in!

We are always juggling how to ‘fit it all in’.  Someone else had asked a similar question too, expect she said she was just getting into blogging.   I think that the wonderful thing about the web is that there are socialization opportunites just by powering up your PC.  We share our love of our hobby with each other & grow & learn together.

But there has also been talk of ’social network fatigue’.  How much is too much?!  Dianne questions how much she should be involved in?  And that underlines my efforts here.  My goal is to introduce our readers to the myriad of social networking options.  I’m outlining the ones that I’ve tried and trying to save everyone time by providing ideas for utilizing them for marketing your designs as well as the digiscrapper to enjoy. 

Please note that I’m not proposing that you use them all!  That is an individual decision.  Today, I think Dianne noticed my note to her on Kaboodle that said, ‘I don’t use Kaboodle for lists, but rather Evernote.’  I’m willing to be a hub for people starting out there though.  But I’ve been participating in the digiscrapping group there & enjoying that conversation.

My advice is to treat these social networking sites as places to experiment at.  Choose one & give it a chance.  I will provide you with the information to get started & suggestions for making it applicable.  You get to decide if it fits into your needs.  If you want to read an interesting article, this one on Social Networking Fatigue is quite in-depth & interesting. Brian Solis has some excellent points that I’ve extracted to save you reading it if you don’t have time.

1. Start with listening & watching, then participation becomes clear. (I have done this for you).
2. Monitor the guys on the front lines (again I’m doing this for you)
3. Why start with Facebook?  it experienced 270% growth in one year’s time!
4. Get involved & participate

“But, of them all, Facebook is the most interesting and so far, the most rewarding and engaging of the bunch. It’s not just about the ability to connect with people. It’s about creating, cultivating, and promoting a strategic online presence and personal brand.
Remember, participation is marketing.”

The option to have “…embedded feeds that represent all of my online activity for those who visit my profile, all in one window.”

And this is a great summary,

And what about Social Network Fatigue?
Well, that’s for everyone else. Your job is to not only promote your expertise, but also engage in conversations and discussions that matter to you and to your business.
Facebook is one of many social networks that require your attention. To truly engage in social media, you need to be wherever the people that matter to you congregate, even if it requires your participation across many different locations.

Well, Dianne made a decision before I had time to respond, and this is what she said:

Well I am just gonna try it all - facebook and twitter and delicious and kaboodle…play as I get time and see what works for me. So far I really like the interactive nature of facebook and that I can import links to my blog with it. I am also trying out the wordpress blog too just for fun lol.

And I think she answered her own question!  Try as you have time.  She realized like Brian stated that you can bring your other platforms like Twitter & your blog into Facebook.  But, the interactions at forums & your stores can’t, but maybe you can find a way to export your galleries as RSS feeds?  That’s a great idea!  In Brian’s conclusion, he says that you need to be where your people congregate, so it’s definitely important to be involved in the digiscrapping communities.  I’m not suggesting giving that up.  What I am offering are suggestions for sharing our digiscrapping hobby with the world & possible marketing opportunites for designers.  But as pointed out, you need to be a person first and develop meaningful relationships.  (and we’re very good at that - that’s why we love this community so much!)  

As I introduce these social networking sites, you’ll find that each has it’s own unique spirit. 

• Facebook is a platform where the masses are gathering.  (and I see you’re having fun with the over 2000 app’s  :)  ) 
• Kaboodle is a shopper’s dream site. (it’s in beta & growing quickly)
• Twitter is like mini blogging (I’m more of a listener there - Julie Ann Shahin is using it in a cool way though!)
• Flickr is about photography (there are also others like Fotki & others)
• Stumbleupon is a unique approach to finding new sites

Do I use them all?  Remember that I work full time & maintain this site with my sister, so no.  But I’ve been playing with them so that I can know what’s out there & in turn save all of you time.  That is our goal here to provide information.

If you have comments, please add them.  I really enjoyed discussing Dianne’s comments & I’m thinking that many of you were wondering the same thing?!

Shopping is the main purpose of Kaboodle! It’s also a social networking site, so you can create a profile, add friends, and people can see what you are adding to your lists. And like Facebook there are groups with discussion threads.

Are you ready to be Kaboodled?! I’ve seen Kaboodle used in many creative ways. And there is a lot of potential yet I think. So let’s explore it. Because I haven’t played there much, I interviewed an awesome Kaboodler! Jen agreed to share how she uses Kaboodle. She describes many ways that she’s using Kaboodle & if you look at her profile you’ll see how highly organized she is!

Connie: How does using Kaboodle help your digiscrapping?

Jen: Kaboodle has been very beneficial for me not only in digiscrapping, but also for my checking account LOL It helps me to stop all the impulse buying. When I get newsletters from all the stores with their new products in them, I save my absolute favorites to Kaboodle. Then as I’m working on a layout and I think to myself that I knew I saw something that would work perfect on this page, I go and buy it. I also have my lists broken up into each individual store so that when a site is having a sale, I can shop more effectively and productively for what I want.

Connie: How do you manage your lists & categories - adding & deleting after purchase?

Jen: As previously mentioned, my lists are broken up by each store. When I add items to the list, I put my very best favorites on top so that when hubby occasionally picks up some goodies from my list for me, I won’t be disappointed. Most of my purchases will end up in my Ultimate Favorites list so that hopefully I can help promote for my favorite designers. I always try to support other designers such as myself.

Connie: As a designer, how do you use it to promote your creations? or do you?

Jen: I never would have thought to make a list for my own creations before but I noticed another designer did that so I tried it. It can’t hurt to have my own list on there right? Even if it gives me a little more exposure, every little bit helps. You never know when someone on Kaboodle will come across your list that may have never heard of you before so it definitely can help get your name out there a little more. I have also searched for my name to see if any of my stuff is on someone else’s list. This, as well as my sales, can help me determine what people like and dislike.

Connie: Are you interested in exploring creative ideas on that? joining a group of designers to share thoughts on that?

Jen: It all depends, I don’t have a lot of time to post in forums or chat anymore. If it was occasional and not very time consuming then yes I would definitely love to try that.

Connie: Do you use groups & network there?

Jen: I have joined a group on Kaboodle before but I’m not so sure about how it works really. I looked around on their page a little and was kinda lost in there so I just left. I don’t join too many groups anymore, not even yahoo groups because I don’t know what’s going on half the time and I would much rather just not be bothered with the emails.

Connie: Do you look at what other people are adding?

Jen: I definitely look at what other people are adding to their lists. It’s mostly when I add something to my list and I see the list on the right side of related items. I love that feature because it’s shown me a few things that I may not have noticed otherwise. There is sooooo much going on in the digiscrap world every day and so many new kits and trends etc, it’s almost impossible to keep up with this rapidly changing online community. So anything that helps keep everything simplified and in one place is definitely an asset.

Connie: What other things do you love about Kaboodle?
Jen: Well, that’s just it, I love Kaboodle too much. It’s so versatile and there’s definitely a ton of other shopping you can do on there besides digiscrap shopping but I try to stay away from that because A) it’s too expensive and B) it’s too expensive LOL If I start shopping on sites like walmart, target, or penney’s etc, it would be just like my digiscrap shopping and it would be too much. At least digital stuff is a little cheaper and you can use it over and over again but with stuff from those other stores, well, there’s not much you can find for a couple bucks that would be worth very much. I still prefer to go out to Walmart and pick up what I need when I need it. And if I need something I can’t find there, then and only then will I come home and search for it online. I shopped on ebay for over a year and spent well over $1,000 so I’m trying to stay away from that for just a little while. I feel the need to simplify things in my life lately. So another reason i love Kaboodle is that it keeps my wishlist in one place rather than one on each store. Before when I wanted to find something to buy that I saved in my wishlist, if I didn’t remember which store it was in, I had to search a bunch of different places until i found it and sometimes I didn’t find it.

~Jen (Jen is a designer & has a blog)

So how do you get started?

1. Register at Kaboodle
2. Add me as a friend if you’d like & I can be a central point like in Facebook. Look thru Jen’s friends to see if you see any mutual friends to add.
3. Then you will be ready to start adding items to your lists. Look at how Jen set her’s up. She has 35 lists based on stores. You can organize your lists any way you want.
4. And if you’re a designer, then you can RAK people (random acts of kindness). More coming on this too.