If you are a digital scrapbooker you have gotta love the Shabby Princess. What cute, cute digi kits she has over there. I just love them. And you just have to get on her mailing list so you can get notified when she sends out a link to a free digital scrapbooking kit, like this one:

That’s right. Free. No strings attached and it is beee-u-ti-ful! Well, gotta go so I can get mine downloaded. Hurry over, she won’t leave it up forever.

Remember, get on her mail list while you’re there.

I have discovered the wonder of online photo albums! I’ve investigated Flickr before, but it hasn’t really caught me. Something just didn’t “fit” me. A couple days ago I tried Picasa Web Albums and it is safe to say I am HOOKED. I’ve already created two private albums to share with family and friends.

Over coffee this morning I was thinking about what else I can do with Picasa. A digital scrapbooking album came to mind. It is the perfect way to share my digi creations. Here’s my sample album:

Scrappin Cabinet Picasa Web Album

If you want to get your own Picasa Web Album (aka Digital Scrapbooking Web Album) you can get it free here.

Since we’re officially in the shopping season (although I am in a great deal of denial about this) I thought over the next littlet bit I would share a few ideas for gifts for scrapbookers.

First up is Angie Pedersen’s Book of Me series of books. She’s offering free shipping and personalized signing of all books. I have to say that I just love the thought of doing “me” stuff around the holidays. After all, the whole season is so busy that it is a nice break to stop and think about my “ME” album. And if that means bringing a friend scrapper into the fold, then so be it.

See ya at Angie’s…

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Even if you don’t know what a podcast is (don’t worry, you’re not alone) you should head on over to Angie Pedersen’s new podcast - Wholly Scrap! The Scrapbooking Podcast.

SIDE NOTE:
A podcast is like a radio show you listen to on your computer, save to CD or move to your MP3 player. When you get to Angie’s podcast the easiest way to listen is to just click on the grey POD button and it will play right on your computer automatically.

I just finished listening to the first issue of Wholly Scrap! and am very impressed with it. Angie did a great job. In this episode she shares some insider secrets of CHA (Craft & Hobby Association). It is so exciting to know about the new scrapbooking supplies coming out. Then she interviews Angie Warhurst of www.boxerscrapbooks.com.

Very cool. Very fun. Plus you’ll feel very technologically savvy for listening to a podcast.

I saw the greatest idea in the new Top Ten 2006 issue of Creating Keepsakes this weekend. Faye Morrow Bell, who always has such great ideas, suggested creating an Idea Index to keep track of all the creative, fun and gotta-do-it ideas you come across.

She suggested creating a spreadsheet and listing the ideas in it with details as to where to find these great ideas again. Sheer brilliance!

I created a Scrapbooking Idea Index spreadsheet and thought maybe you’d like to grab mine so you don’t have to start from scratch with yours. I also created a second tab to list each source as you use it (so you don’t have to wonder if you have already cataloged something).

A final bit of advice from Faye:

Do not attempt to index five years worth of magazines and idea books in one sitting! Start with this Top 10 issue and build from there.

Thanks, Faye, for the great idea and the solid advice (as usual!).

Here’s my Scrapbooking Idea Index file. It is an Excel spreadsheet file. Feel free to share it with anyone - just don’t start selling it and please leave the credit lines to Faye and me intact. Enjoy!

I have figured out the fine art of getting free digital scrapbook kits. And, a fun art it is, I tell you. I compiled a list of 11 Places to Get Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits and thought you might appreciate it. (It took me more than a few hours to find all these sites and get this list organized - enjoy!)

When you go to these sites remember that one of the main reasons they are giving you free stuff is so that you will come back to their site when you decide to buy something. The best way to remember to do that is to sign up for their newsletters when you’re at these sites.

11 Places to Get Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits
Digital Scrapbooking Freebies List

1.
Digital Scrapbook Place
Weekly freebies, posted on Mondays. Register to get access to all freebies. Easy to find in the Freebie Gallery. Some freebies are associated with challenges. You do the challenge, submit your work and you receive the kit free. Lots of cool stuff free. THE best place to get free digital scrapbook stuff and also a great place to buy stuff too.

2.
ShabbyPrincess
Holy mother-load of freebie kits! Each month the Shabby Princess offers up a free digital scrapbooking kit. These are GIANT kits with tons of stuff in them and they are beautiful. Sign up for her newsletter too. The newsletter alone is so pretty you’ll get a scrappin “lift” just reading it.

3.
Designer Digitals
creative. innovative. fresh. digital.
Very cute digital scrapbook stuff! Don’t have to register to get it, but I highly recommend getting on Katie’s newsletter anyway.

4.
Scrapbook-Bytes
Tons of freebies. but they’re a bit hard to get to at first. You have to Register and then go to the Downloads area. Once there I recommend going to the Elements section. When you find a digital kit you like you’ll have to download a bunch of files to get the whole kit.

5.
DigiChick
You have to register to see the free kits in the Downloads section. Once there they are in the Designer Samples section of the forum. The coolest thing about DigiChick is their de-zine (a designers e-zine chock full of cool stuff). Wait, I just got it. Design. De-sign. De-zine. Oh, cute. The de-zine includes a free kit too!

6.
ScrapGirls
A smaller selection of freebies and not full kits. But very cute, fun stuff. Also have free digital tutorials. Their freebies change out often and the best way to stay up to date on them is subscribe to their newsletter. They will email you with the latest freebies.

7.
ScrapKitchen
Delicious designs for your digital appetite. Only one freebie kit at a time, but very easy to find, download and maneuver around the site. Her kits are very nice too.

8.
RAK Scraps
Each month they release a new free mega kit which is free to registered members. The pieces to the kit are released a few at a time and you must look through a thread in the forum to find the links. If you plan to participate in the forum anyway, this is probably worth it.

9.
GottaPixel
You do have to register and click on the email confirmation just to see the freebies, but they are cute and plentiful. Worth registering. They have daily downloads with kits broken up into daily pieces.

10.
Matter of Scrap
Cool stuff here, but only a couple Free Samples at a time. Worth registering and checking out the Boutique.

11.
Three Scrapateers
Have to register and come back every day for another free piece of the kit. Cute stuff though.

UPDATED TO ADD:

12.
Scrapbook-Elements
Another great place to get some free kits is Scrapbook Elements. The catch is that they give away their free stuff inside their newsletter. The good news is that the newsletter is full of great ideas and the freebies are plentiful. I highly recommend signing up for this newsletter! Well worth it.

Did I miss any great freebie digital scrapbooking kits? I would be happy to add any others if you know of them.

I just signed up for Angie Pedersen’s (the author of three bestselling scrapbooking books - see below) free class at Barnes&Noble University. The class, called Scrapbooking Basics, is taught online and is totally free. You can read more about Angie’s class here.

These B&N University classes are pretty fun and are very easy technology-wise. Try it - you’ll like it. =:)

Here are Angie’s books: