(inter)National Scrapbook Day: Blog Hop Freebie!

We're kicking off the (i)NSD festivities at Design House Digital with a blog hop, a free kit, and a layout challenge! So let's get started with a look at the most recent collaboration from the DHD Designers, Retrospect.

This kit is FREE for you if you play along with our DHD Blog Hop, which starts on the DHD Blog. From there, just hop from blog to blog, picking up letters along the way, which you'll plug in at the end to grab a coupon code which will allow you to download the full kit from the shop. My letter for you is: 

I was lucky enough to participate in the April 2012 class at Masterful Scrapbook Design recently called Artful Embellishing. As I was preparing my layouts for the course, I spent a lot of time thinking about scrapbook embellishments and digital kits. I'm a one-kit scrapper, for the most part, and I've talked before about the pros and cons of scrapping with just one kit. I keep an ongoing list of stories that I need to tell, with photo notes alongside, so that when I get a creative team assignment or just some time to scrap on my own, I have stories ready to be scrapped. 

But what do you do when you're faced with a themed kit (perhaps by assignment, or perhaps simply because you just LOVE the kit too much not to purchase it) and no photos that fit it? Here are some tips for using themed-kits for non-themed layout pages.

FOCUS ON THE COLORS: 
I pretty much buy any kit that uses the colors red, white, gray, and light blue because those are my kids' school colors. Both of my girls are involved in multiple sports and other extracurricular activities, so layouts with papers and elements in these colors can come in quite handy. The layout above was made with a Christmas kit, but you'd never know that by looking at it. (Here are a couple more that use Christmas kits for sports pages: Run Like You Mean It and Run Like Girls.)

FOCUS ON THE SHAPES AND PATTERNS:
Just about every kit comes with a set of common patterns (stripes, dots, chevrons), along with patterns that are more thematically-focused. If you focus creating a certain mood with your paper choices, themed kits can still be extremely useful. In the case above, the patterned paper and elements are from a 4th of July kit, but the circles and stars help capture the movement and energy of the photos. The hand-drawn, comic-book touches also tie in nicely with the track photos. 

FOCUS ON THE WORDS AND STORIES:
For this layout, I was assigned to work with a spring/Easter-themed collab. Sadly, we've almost outgrown the Easter bunny at my house, so I didn't really have anything that fit. When I was flipping through the elements, I found a word art that said "Faith" and was inspired to tell the story of my oldest daughter's youth group, her family in faith. Word art, titles, quotes, and other textual elements from themed kits can be a great starting point for a layout about a variety of topics. Here's a link to a page I did where I was inspired by the "Start the Journey" elements to use a travel/vacation kit for a graduation layout. 

Leave a comment on this post and share with me a link to a layout you've created (or one you've been inspired by) that uses themed products for non-themed layouts. I'll choose a winner via random.org and that person will recieve all of my May product releases for FREE! That's right! Each week when the new releases go live at DHD, you'll get a coupon code allowing you to purchase them for FREE!

Want additional chances to win? Here's how:
1. Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter and post a link to your tweet in the comments.
2. Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway and then post a link in the comments here.
3. Blog about the giveaway and then link me to your blog post in the comments.

THAT'S 4 WAYS TO WIN! All comments must be posted by midnight EST on May 6th, 2012. I'll post the winner on Monday.

If you are playing along with the Design House Digital LAYOUT CHALLENGE, to be entered into the drawing for a digital photo frame, you will need to complete a layout meeting all 26 of the challenges by Tuesday, May 8 at 11:59 MST. These challenges should be gathered as you visit each blog for the iNSD blog hop. Here's my challenge for you:

Now you're ready to head over to the lovely Gen Bursett's blog for a great post on what to do with your layouts once you've finished them, plus another letter and layout challenge. HAPPY iNSD!!!

Comments

[elan]

Lord, I would love to win a whole month of your stuff, but I don't know if I have a layout that fills the bill. I'll check through my stuff and see what I can find. Great tips. Thanks so much.
Joy and blessings, elan

[Kait]

I posted about it on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/kaitlyn.gonzalez.9/posts/325280110875072

Thank you for the tips and for the chance to win.

[aud neal]

Remember, there are other ways to enter to win -- Tweeting, posting on Facebook, posting on your blog...dont forget about those!

[Rosalie]

Here's a link to my travel page using Erica's travel kit. http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/member-gallery/p17837-faces-of-nicargua.html

[Meagan]

So cool! A month of your products! Cool!
I find that most of my LOs are using product for what they are intended (Christmas for Christmas, etc), but here is one:
http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/super-gallery-bowl-2012/p15957-super-bowltrain.html
4th of July kits for a football game pre-game show.

[Laura]

New to scrapbooking, but I would love this to get started! Love the bright "edgy" colors :) Thanks!

[Melissa Rhodes]

http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/super-gallery-bowl-2012/p15888-no-holds-barred.html

Here is one I did! Thanks for tha chance! off to share!

[Melissa Rhodes]

I tweeted!

[Melissa Rhodes]

I posted in Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/scraphappyrhodes

[Melissa Rhodes]

I posted on my blog! http://idahorhodesfamily.blogspot.com/2012/05/audaciouse-designs-giveaway.html

[Denise Reid Wright]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1250383791

I posted on facebook, I hope this link works :)

[Melanie C]

Great layouts!!!

[LeeAnn]

I posted on Facebook-- http://www.facebook.com/lasnare

[stacey]

thanks for the awesome giveaway!

[stacey]

I posted on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Faudneal.typepad.com%2Fmy_weblog%2F2012%2F05%2Finternational-scrapbook-day-blog-hop-freebie.html&h=rAQGiQTujAQF-sX5qRy0dZPvgWBWcqUw5wX52JTFAF-wrjQ

[Arimaciasnyc]

i am doing my first round of the hop:)

[cara]

Thank you! That class looked amazing. :)

[JenRichards]

Here's a layout that uses a dinosaur theme for the dentist. :)

http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/member-gallery/p5631-dentist.html

[Lindzie H]

posted on facebook! https://www.facebook.com/lindzie

[JenRichards]

Posted on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenaddairrichards/posts/430136877015008

Thanks for the generous giveaway!

[DoggiNo]

Great tips for looking different at any kit ! Thanks.

[Margie Visnick]

Thanks for all of the awesome ideas and tips!

[Liz J]

Talk about an awesome prize - having all your releases in a month!

Here's one LO I did where the kit was called Retro Americana, a 4th of July kit. I made a school LO: http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=689861&title=last-day-of-2nd-grade&cat=500
In this LO, I used a kit called Birthday Girl, which had a lot of pink in it, but I managed to not use pink: http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=664176&title=messy-face&cat=500

[Becca Dickson]

I used a Patriotic kit (Sara Schmutz's Star Spangled kit) for a layout of my daughter's birthday.

[Jennyfer L]

I tweeted https://twitter.com/#!/scrapalajen/status/198095948369506305

[Arielle]

This is probably the closest layout I have, the kit was for couponing, which I don't do half the time, so I found some cute pics of my kids playing with a toy shopping cart. Does this count? http://snappystamper.blogspot.com/2011/10/going-to-walmart-miss-mis-new-release.html

Love the new collab by the way - it's awesome!!! Thanks for the chance to win!

[Sandy H.]

Sandy Henderson ‏ @slcspagirl
@audneal is hosting a drawing to win her each release of her May kits! Go to site http://audneal.typepad.com/my_weblog/.

My tweet!

[Anna]

I would love to win!!! Thanks for the chance :o
Here's my layout http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/member-gallery/p17839-life-without-love.html

[Kim (Freckles)]

Wonderful chance! Thanks! I did this layout with a dinosaur kit. It turned out to be one of my favorite pages! http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1562472&title=ladybug&cat=8117

[Angeleann]

Here's a page/calendar I did using a valentine's day kit. I also made a birthday party invite with it that I LOVED (but you all weren't invited so I didn't post it...) :)

http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/member-gallery/p18879-days-of-the-week.html

[Stacy]

What a great prize. Thanks so much for a chance to win.

[AJ]

I'm not able to win your fabulous giveaway (I am new to the digital side of scrapping and haven't got the nerve up to post anything yet) but I wanted to say thanks for sharing such great info! AJ@queenofmynest

[lawyerlyn]

here's a layout I made where the kit is called "Blue Winter Mega Kit" but I didn't use it for wintry pictures.

http://gratefulforlifeslittleblessings.blogspot.com/2012/01/somebodys-reason-to-smile.html
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SzVKY34X-7k/TyADOAKgk9I/AAAAAAAAE6U/7qts88UtJ68/s400/smile.jpg