Create some postage stamps that your Mom or Grandma would be excited to put on her letters.   

The cost is the same as buying a regular postage stamps at the post office.  (which goes up to .42 cents in early May by the way.)   You do have to pay postage & handling though.

With PhotoStamps you can turn your own digital photos into real US postage! Create yours today.

I was so excited when Heidi told me that Jeanine Baechtold & Jen Reed were going to be at CHA! We looked for them & later used the internet to track them down under their new business name of Kristy Valshan. Once we found Jeanine she explained that together they created a new business under a new name using their middle names.

Jeanine - Heidi did warn you that the photo would probably show up on our blog!

Jeanine & I have been following each other for quite awhile. She said she stalks us - well I admitted to stalking her too. We laughed about Facebook (something about throwing cows). For some reason she blames me for that addiction. It was great to meet her in person!

These girls have taken their digital designing skills to a new level! Their gorgeous designs decorated many items around their booth (including the curtains!).

Jen Valshan Reed and Jeanine Kristy Baechtold are the artistic duo behind Kristy Valshan, Inc. Working together since 2005, the two women actively promote and brand their popular digital artwork under the Kristy Valshan licensing label.
The artists’ bold color selections, intricate patterns and unique style are the signature elements found in each of their distinctive collections.
Kristy Valshan products are now available at Archiver’s, Costco, Sam’s Club and other fine retailers near you. KV’s digital scrapbooking line and coordinating virtual products are also available at http://www.kristyvalshan.com.

Check out their website & sign up for their newsletter. They’re offering a free digital kit …

And you can visit them on Facebook

Congratulations on your new enterprise!

Heidi & I were excited to realize that we’d attend CHA. CHA stands for Craft & Hobby Association & is the trade show for all things crafting. You know when your craft stores have their bi-annual ‘The boss went to market sale’? That’s where they’ve gone to. The local scrapbook store owners can view the new products and order inventory.

Heidi & I went with some others from ACDSee. I’ve been to library conventions before so the 3,200 exhibit booths and the 20,000 people wasn’t daunting. Anaheim CA was a nice location when you live in Minnesota! We had great weather & enjoyed the sun during our walks to & from the hotel (ok, well we may have commented on the 90 degree difference from back home a couple of times).

It was quite interesting meeting with editors from various scrapbooking/craft magazines. I demo’ed ACDSee Photo Manager 10 & ACDSee Photo Editor for them. We’re inviting everyone to try out ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 which will be available on February 25th.

The highlight of CHA for me was the people. If you’ve been with our blog for awhile, you know that I like to connect with others. And it was really exciting to meet people in real life. We came back with some new ideas & look forward to sharing them with you!

Yesterday I posted: Soon you can View & Catalog ABR brushes in ACDSee 10

There are coupons to upgrade to ACDSee 10 that expire October 31st. So now’s a great time to upgrade if you’d like to.

Download a FREE Trial of ACDSee 10 Photo Manager Today ! See below for a coupon of 25% off the regular price of $49.99

Already own an ACDSee product? Previous ACDSee Customers Get 30% off regular price of $34.99 (click on Upgrade from a previous version and look for coupons below to get additional 25% off $34.99)

and SAVE on the new version of ACDSee 10:
In addition here are some coupon codes, only 1 coupon can be used:

• New ACDSee Customers:
  • Get 25% off the regular price of $49.99: “en10oct“
• Customers upgrading from previous versions of ACDSee:
  • Get an additional 25% off the upgrade price of $34.99: “en10ugoct“

Codes for ACDSee in other languages:

French

Upgrade – fr10ugoct

New Customer - fr10oct

German

Upgrade – de10ugokt

New Customer - de10okt

The coupons are valid for the month of October only. They expire at midnight Pacific time on October 31. They are not valid in conjunction with any other offer, and are valid only online at the ACDSee website. They are limited to one use per customer.

I did come back … even though I haven’t blogged here. I have at the other two blogs though.

I had a restful time at the retreat & probably did the least (or that’s what they kept telling me anyway!).

I brought plenty with to work with/on. There are 6 bags there (including laptop bag), a milk crate full of paper & a flatpanel monitor that Heidi helped me set up. I did finish one paper album. It’s an album of my baby photos up to school age. I had put a lot of time into it & it just needed the finishing touches. (so I did DO something, girls!)

My best friend moved away a year ago & this was our first time back together so we had lots of catching up to do.

It was ironic that Christine Smith was at a scrapbooking retreat the same weekend & within 60 miles of ours! Small world eh?!

It’s been a busy week since we came back! ACDSee Photo Manager 10 debuted on Monday. Heidi has been busy making videos of the new features & keeping up with instructions. I am learning all kinds of things about the behind the scenes aspects which is quite interesting. Next week I will fly out to the home office in Victoria, BC & spend the week getting orientated.

My big news is that I kind of went on a shopping spree this week. My sister-in-law (who lives only a mile away) sometimes gets news here first!  Well Nancy, I ordered a Nikon D80 & a Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens. The lens is here! I also ordered a 4 gig memory card so I can play with RAW images. The camera should be here before I travel.

Today I did a hybrid project for Julie Ann Shahin’s Everyday Scrapbooking Blog. I’ll link you when she has it posted. I’m the Guest Designer for the month of October. This means that I need to do another project in the next week for her, too!

My brilliant sister, Heidi, has done it again! She has added a chat calendar in the left sidebar. So you can check when we’re having chats & find out where we’re at!

We will be having an ACDSee chat at Rakscraps at 9 pm est on Saturday Oct 6th.

ACDSee is providing software for prizes & it should be a lively chat as usual!

We answer as many questions as possible.

Have you ever packed for a scrapbooking retreat? That question translates into do you have a lot of stuff? Then the next question is how much does one take?

So we need to back up and assess what projects are needed to work on… and I knew the answer to this one.

4 paper albums (and a couple more that need journaling) - sigh

I’m waiting for that magic day when I will sit down & journal them all at once!  uh huh That’s what I love about digital scrapbooking, the journaling is done with the page.

So in looking over my unfinished albums, I decided to take three of them. And I have a milk crate of paper (but I did take out 1/4 of it). Then I pulled out the rubbermaid tub & found some blank pages. I was a Creative Memories consultant for awhile & umm have supplies. So I only have 3 items - but they definitely exceed the weight limit in true scrapbooking style! My husband will need to help carry them upstairs. Maybe he’s right about ebay?!!

Our retreat is at a resort & there will be 8 or so. My sister-in-law & I are driving together. Only two people can go in our car because of the ’stuff’ factor. Oh, I’m bringing my flat panel for my sister to set up for me & my 2 EHD’s. She set them up at Christmas, but I didn’t finish the file transfer. (I’m really not as geeky as you think!). Funny story on that - when I said that I was joining ACDSee a friend said, “It couldn’t have happened to a better geek”. Ahem, that’s a compliment, I think?

This is our fourth retreat. It’s a great way to scrapbook without interruptions & leave your ’stuff’ out for days. We bring our own groceries & rotate cooking/cleaning duties.  The menu is decided upon in advance. Heidi had talked about the wiki she created for this last one. Let us know if you’d like to hear our favorite group meals. We eat pretty healthy! And then there is the beverages. My life has been so hectic the only thing I put on the meal list was Margaritas. Don’t worry though - they will let me eat. At the last retreat, I gave away stickers quite liberally. And I remember doing it! But the next morning the girls asked if I wanted them back…LOL so it must’ve been pretty funny to someone.

I’m excited because my best friend whom I haven’t seen for over a year decided to come! So we’ll have our usual giggly time. We can laugh about pretty much anything. We got in trouble on a retreat because we were giggling too early. Heidi may have to tell you about the 9 am rule. Her mother-in-law & I are up at 7 though… because we are.

Do you go on scrapbooking crops & retreats? Have fun stories to tell? Blog about them & link in our comments - do tell!

hmmm I bet I could blog from the retreat! It just may happen. We needed internet so we can keep track of the forums. It’s like milking cows.  Heidi & I grew up on a dairy farm, so we’re well aware of the 24/7 commitment. But you may notice us just a little more quiet than usual….

I am excited to announce that on Monday, I will begin a new position as Community Manager for ACD Systems! It is a wonderful opportunity for me to expand my support of their products & community. I will also be able to follow my passion in exploring social media, it’s tools, the various aspects of social networking in depth and web strategy.

ACD Systems is an industry leader in digital imaging systems. They have many great products: ACDSee Photo Manager (available in both standard and professional versions) is my favorite photo management program for organizing, enhancing and sharing digital photographs. ACDSee Photo Editor offers creativity that’s unbelievably easy. Canvas combines all the features of other graphics editors, technical illustration programs, and publishing tools, enabling users to create professional and precise images and graphics, and a superior Web presence.

For almost a year, my sister & I have been creating third party tutorials, videos & plug-ins that are available at our site at DigiScrapInfo.com. We have provided tech support & connected users to ACD when necessary. I have utilized our blog for fostering community, exploring creative marketing strategies, and software solutions to make everyone’s busy lives easier. Recently I’ve helped our community explore social media & its tools as avenues to maximize their hobbies & online businesses.  In this new role I look forward to communicating your needs as digiscrappers & photographers to the company for new features & improve product functionality. Together we can make great products even better!

My responsibilities will be:

Connie Bensen will serve as Community Manager for ACDSee. In this role, she is the “voice of the customer,” maintaining a constant dialog with photographers and memory keepers to ensure that the company’s products and services are directly in line with the needs of the people who use them. This conversation is fostered through regular engagement in community events, as well as her enthusiastic participation in online social networks. She also shares her passion, ideas and discoveries related to digital scrapbooking and photography through the ACDSee blog.

My blogging will continue at each place as it has been. I will continue teaching & sharing with my sister at DigiScrapInfo.com This blog will be for My Conversations, a place to explore ideas with everyone. The ACDSee blog will continue to be a group blog.

I have so many people to thank!

• Jason Kiwaluk - who introduced us to & got us hooked on SEO & utilizing social media
• Heidi, my sister - of course! I keep telling her she’ll have a city built on the web soon & now she’s building for other people - you go girl!
• My staff that I’ve just left - thank you for your support & I’ll come & use your wireless that I pushed for for so many years!  Love you guys!
• Sue, Cam, Nav, Paul, & Gen - you guys are the best & I look forward to working with you!
• The digiscrapping & blogging communities - thank you for teaching us so much & Heidi & I look forward to continuing to give back!

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. 

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!