This is a limited time list that will only run as we countdown to Christmas.  I’ll be sending out a few emails a week to let you know when I’ve found a great gift idea or a fantastic price on a popular gift item.  I’ll also give you some gifts ideas for your holiday shopping list.  Have someone who is hard to buy for?  My Holiday Ideas 2010 list will give you some help as you shop for your family and friends.

As a special gift to you for trying out my Holiday Ideas list, you will also receive my special report, Christmas Planning 2010.

As always, if you decide this list isn’t for you, simply unsubscribe.  The Christmas Planning report is yours to keep.

Happy Holidays!

It’s no secret that I love online scrapbooking classes.  I’ve reviewed a few of them on this site.  Over on the Daily Digi, Katie has listed and reviewed several of the best places to find online scrapbooking classes.  It’s a comprehensive list that includes her reviews of classes she’s taken, the basic information like the URL and instructors, an overview of the site, current or upcoming classes, and classes she has taken or would recommend.  Also check the comments section of this post for more reviews from readers.

Here’s a brief review of some of my favorite online scrapbooking classes.

Jessica Sprague – I’ve already reviewed her learn digital photo editing course and the beginning digital scrapbooking class, but I’ve taken many classes at Jessica’s site.  I have to say that her classes are the best to learn digital scrapbooking.  Her classes have become more expensive, but she also offers free ones as well.  These free classes are shorter than the others, but no less informative.  I recently took her Pen Tablet Basic for Scrapbookers course. I highly recommend that if you own a pen tablet.  If you’d like to broaden your journaling skills, Type + Writer 1&2 are excellent classes.

Big Picture Scrapbooking – I’ve only taken one class at this site. It was the 12-week Design Your Life course with Cathy Zielske.  It’s an awesome class, and Cathy is fantastic!  Unfortunately, this class is no longer offered.  If you ever have an opportunity to take a class by Cathy, don’t even hesitate.  She’s an amazing teacher.

Renee Pearson – I’ve taken 3 classes at this site.  Album Magic by Anna Aspnes is currently available for registration.  I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about planning and creating albums.  She provides a ton of information.  I’ve taken 2 classes by Tiffany Tillman, The Photoshop Brushshop and 25 Days of Templates.  Tiffany is also an excellent teacher.  My favorite part of her classes were her template training videos.  I learned so much about how to get the most from digital scrapbooking templates.

Creative Techs – I’ve only listened to some the live webcasts of the Photography classes and the Photoshop classes.  Both instructors were very good.  These don’t have the same interactions that the sites above have.  However, one feature I do like is that if you purchase the classes you can watch them on your Ipod.

Shemille – I’ve taken 2 classes with Shimelle, Blogging for Scrapbookers and Learn Something New.  I love how affordable her classes are.  She doesn’t teach in video as the other sites do, but her pdf handouts are very easy to follow, and there’s lots of interaction in the forum.

Be sure to check out the list of free courses that each site offers.  You’ll find these listed on the Daily Digi post.

You definitely don’t want to miss the giveaway!  There’s a list of courses that The Daily Digi will be giving away in a random drawing.  You just need to leave a comment on the post telling them something you would like to learn about scrapbooking.

Have you taken any online scrapbooking classes that you really liked?

This is a great opportunity to win a Cricut die cut machine.  Pagemaps is hosting a contest that starts today through midnight (MST) March 28th.   The Cricut machine is sponsored by A Cherry On Top who is only authorized to sell Cricut in the US, making the contest only open to US citizens.  To enter, you need to create a layout based on the contest rules at Pagemaps. The theme of the page needs to be Appreciation.  For more details, check out Pagemaps’ blog.

If you’d like to know more about Cricut die cut machines, you can also check out these articles:

Cricut Design Studio

Using a Die Cut Machine

Scrapbooking Die Cut Machine Reviews

Who knew there was so much to think about when redesigning a site?  After lots of decisions and tweaks, the site has a brand new look!  OK, there are still a lot of tweaks left to do, but the majority of the site is up and running again.  If you should have any problems, errors or suggestions for the new look, please let me know!

One of the most important choices to make for the new look was the color scheme.  I also find this is one of the hardest to settle on when designing a scrapbooking page.  At least with a layout I have the photos as a reference point.  For this site, I had a only blank white page.  I did find some fantastic resources for finding color schemes during the redesign process.  My favorite is Adobe Kuler.  Definitely check this site out.  I think you will find it very helpful for your scrapbooking layouts.  If you are a digital scrapbooker, did you know you can take a screen shot of the Kuler color theme you like and open it in Photoshop?  Then you can use it to sample color for your digital scrapbooking layout.

I hope you like Into Scrapbooking’s new look.  I’ve got lots of plans for the site for 2010!

Jen Gormly gave me a review copy of her ebook 50 Card Making Sketches. You can read my full review of the ebook and the 3 bonus books here:

50 Card Making Sketches

This is a perfect time to try using card sketches while you are busy with your Christmas card making. Making cards is an economical way to use your scrapbooking scraps as well. Don’t forget how much money you will save on buying greeting cards.

Jen is offering 50 Card Making Sketches at a reduced price for a limited time only. She hasn’t given a specific date for when the pricing will increase. Thank you to Jen for the opportunity to review 50 Card Making Sketches.

50 Card Making Sketches website
Review of 50 Card Making Sketches

• New Product Releases
• News from Your Favorite Scrapbooking Designers
• Scrapbooking Events
• Online Scrapbook Happenings
• Monthly Scrapbooking Kit Club News
• Lots of Scrapbooking Tips
• And Much More!

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