On Your mark, Get Set, GO!!!!

Let the Amazing Digi Scrap Race begin! This is my first year racing, and my partner is the fabulous Tany aka Simple Girl's Scraps O' Life! I think is her first year too. I'm excited, but a little mervous because I have a lot on my plate these days! I think if I try to do my LOs on the day each challenge is released, I'll be OK. I just need to designate "jobs" for each evening...and then the trick will be staying on top of it all!

And even though this blog is SUPPOSED to be for designing only, I am breaking my rule by also posting info about the ADSR. Challenge #1 is hosted by Digital Scrapbooking Classes. Our challenge is...using the template provided, we are to scrap our favorite person or animal; at least half of the layout has to be in our favorite color; and we have to find one of our favorite elements and use it at least 3 times on the LO.

I decided to do my favorite animal (let's face it...I do plenty of LOs with Emerson as it is!), which is the elephant. And my favorite color is green (hmmm...green elephants....sounds familiar! lol). I really had a hard time choosing a favorite element, but finally decided on a piece of tape by Lara payton's kit "Amid Memories" because I find myself coming back to it over and over. It's perfect for heritage pages, grungy pages, "realistic" pages, etc. Here's the result:


The journaling reads: I started collecting elephants when I was in high school. There was something I just loved about the animal...its strength tempered with great gentleness, its massive bulk matched by the graceful movements of its trunk, its loyalty to family, its ability to remember and pass down those memories to new generations. Shortly after I began collecting, I found out that my great-grandmother also loved elephants. Once people found out abou my collection, Istarted receiving various pieces that my great-grandmother had given as gifts from her own collection. I hope to someday inherit all of them from theaunt who inherited them from my great-grandmother. Until then, I’ll continue to add to my stash, so I have even more to pass along to my grandchildren!

My First Grab Bag!

Clearly, I've lost my mind! $20 worth of goodies for only $1??!!! What was I thinking? I'll tell you--that everyone loves to get lots of stuff they can use for next to nothing! This being my first grab bag and all, I really had no idea what to include! How much was too much? How do I avoid disappointing people by putting in too little? I finally decided to err on the side of generosity and I crammed as much in there as my little bag could hold!

This bag is on sale at Bits2Kits along with lots of other grab bags--each for only $1!! This is in honor of the Trash to Treasure hunt at DST this weekend (the treasure hunt starts 6pm EST tonight...so go check it out!), and the bags are only going to be on sale until Monday night around midnight EST, so hurry over to get them before we open them up and stick the contents into the shop at regular price! We've figured out that if you buy all the bags, you'll bespending $11 and receiving over $100 worth of scrapping goodies! How can you pass that up???

I may not know what the other bags hold--and I wouldn't tell you if I did! LOL--but I can give you some hints as to what mine has hidden away. I have prepared 5 paper packs that contain 6 patterned papers (all the same pattern in various shades) and 6 coordinating solids. Can you do the math? (Hint: that's 60 papers! 30 patterned and 30 solids!) There's also 2 sets of Easter elements...22 elements total (11 in gold and 11 in silver). That's all I'm going to tell you about those except to say they're charming! Finally, there is a designer sampler pack that has 4 papers and 6 elements. let's run a tally on all this: that's 64 papers and 28 elements! Even if you're just curious, you can hardly pass up a deal like this!

Piracy

I don't know how many of you out there are really aware of the problems designers are currently dealing with in acts of piracy. Before I became a designer, I saw the No Piracy statements and thought they were all about friends who got together and swapped kits with each other. You know, each one buys a certain number of kits and then they get together and share them with one another. A definite No-No! But, man, was I naive when I thought this was what the problem was! But I'm here to tell you folks, it's much worse than that! There are computer hackers out there who think it's OK to go into someone's store and take every kit in there and then share it online with whoever happens to stumble upon it! There are people using Commercial Use items without paying for them to create their own things to sell! There are people who have been given special access to kits for free, who are then sharing them with people they know! No...I don't know names and I wouldn't name anyone anway because I'm not the one with proof of it all. But it's happening.

I feel so sorry for the designers and stores this is (and has) happened to. This isn't just a one time thing...it has happened before. They must have someone on the inside that is feeding them information. It's the only thing that makes sense to me! And these pirates are ruthless. They don't care about the people they're stealing from, they don't care what happens to that designer, that store. They actually think they have a RIGHT to do this! They think that the kits they steal should be shareware!! Let me tell you something...designers work DAMN HARD to make the things they sell. They pour there hearts and souls into their designs! What right is it of somebody else to come along and decide that it should be offered for free all over the web? The designers to whom this is happening have been violated, raped, abused...and none of us are going to stand for it!! To do this to a person and then laugh at the pain you inflict is cruel, heartless and insensitive. If you want to give something away to the digital scrapping world, then get off your butts and design it yourselves. Don't steal something that someone else has created and declare it free game!

I have read some statements by people (I'm not sure if they were pirates or just people complaining) that designers charge too much for their products...that they're greedy. You know what? Designers spend hours on they're kits...even days. Just be glad they're not charging an hourly rate!! Most digi sites have sales fairly frequently. Make a list of what you really like and then check the site regularly for a sale. That's how I did it when I first started scrapping. Or, like I said before, get off your lazy bum and design it yourself. Don't know how? There are plenty of tutorials out there. Find them.

Some of these designers use the money they earn as supplemental income because they're stay-at-home moms or, like me, come home after working 8 or 10 hours and spend the evening designing in order to earn a little extra money for spending or (in my case) saving up for household repairs, childrens' futures, a new vehicle, etc. For all I know, there might be some out there who rely on this as a main source of income! Why do these bandits think they can come in and take that away from us? Would you like me to come in and steal that painting you made for a client? That webpage design you just put together? Your paycheck???

Some of you may be thinking, what's the big deal if I share a kit I just bought with a friend? Well, it is a big deal. You purchased that kit for YOUR use. What if the friend you share it with shares it with her friend, and that friend shares it, and then that friend shares it too? You see the pattern here? How many potential sales are you taking away from that designer by "just sharing it with one friend" ?? If your friend likes a kit you bought, tell her where you got it. The same goes for freebies. A lot of designers give out freebies because it gets their name out there, it brings people to their blog or store or whatever to check whether or not there have been new freebies offered. It's how we generate interest in our work and a way that we give back to the community who supports us. Please don't take that away from us either!

Are you unsure about what exactly is considered an act of piracy? Check out this blog. It's an excellent source of information. Do you know a pirate? Have you seen a site that is offering free kits from designers other than themselves? Or is giving info on how to find kits for free? Report it. It doesn't matter which digi store you report it to...just tell someone so we can put an end to this. There are people out there getting seriously hurt by this, folks, and we all need to do our part in stopping it. Please help to put an end to piracy before more and more designers throw in the towel. We can't afford to lose any of that talent out there!