One of our talented Creative Team members is offering a limited addition RAK. The lovely Angela of Toucan Scraps has offered to put your photos inside one of her fabulous layouts. You can see her gallery here.

But be quick, the offer is limited to the first 3 posters, and 2 have now been taken. Will the third blessed person be you?

And the March 2010 Add On Kit - by our own Angela of Toucan Scraps also available!  Angela, this add on kit is fabulous!

This March Mega Add On Kit is available now at ScrapWow and is automatically delivered to RAKStar members, straight to their account! 

Make sure that you get your March 2010 RAKScraps Mega Kit before the end of this month!  What a great collection of digital scrapbooking goodies!  Again, a big “THANK YOU”  to all the creative team and our guest designers: Doris Castle, Cynthia Powell, Erika Miller (Steadfast), and Winks Art for giving us such a great digital kit once again!

Whew!  With all those new digital scrapbooking kits, it is a wonder I have time to write about them today, instead of happily scrapping with them!

With the release of the RAKScraps March 2010 Mega Kit and the Mega Add On Kit comes the Quickpage Challenge with Snackpackgu!  After you have downloaded all your new digital scrapbooking goodies, the challenge is to put together some quickpages and upload them for all of us to ohh and ahh over and get to download and use.  See the challenge here!

As always, there are a ton of other challenges and games going on on the RAKScraps Messageboard! There are some great RAKS to go along with the challenges!  For fun and more, make sure you are registered so that you can participate in all that is going on! It is easy to register, it only takes a moment, and the best part is all the friends you will make and all the fun you will have at RAKScraps, and it is FREE!  

Also, remember to check out 3Scrapateers and Scrapwow, our sister sites, to check out the awesome spring specials they have for all of your digital scrapbooking needs!

I know this is a short post, but the DSO is ready to go get the groceries and the supplies to build me a new light box for my designing work!  I can hardly wait as I want to be able to put up a special RAK in the very near future, just for all of my friends here at RAKScraps!  He is such a good guy for doing that for me! (He has no clue as to what all the fuss is about, but is happy to help!)  Gotta love that!  And the fact that I am fixing him  steak for dinner goes a long way too!  Enough on the home front!

I do hope you will all hop over to RAKScraps and hang out with us!  Visit the Gallery for great inspiration!  Jump in on the conversations on the messageboard and post some of your layouts for us all to see.  The more the merrier!  At RAKScraps, it is all about Random Acts of Kindness!  Hope to see you soon!

Thank you from all of us here at RAKScraps!  See you next Wednesday!

Now, with that out of the way, on to the good stuff!  This week, Im gonna dig into the CT Raks for All Forum and the RAKs for All forums.  There are so many goodies, previews, and links to goodies here that you can build a stash rather quickly with regular visits!  It is a great way to participate and get some wonderful digiscrapping goodies!

This week in the Creative Team Raks for All forum our own Angela of Toucan Scraps has put up a darling desktop QP for us to snag! Here is a preview:

And she has included 3 different sizes!  How sweet is Toucan Scraps (Angela)!

You can get this lovely QP at the Creative Teams Raks for All forum.

 You need to be a member to view the download, but membership is free. And please don’t forget - a little thank you makes a designer very happy.

There is a tutorial here  on how to post a reply to the designer’s RAK.

And just in time too, as in April, I will be giving you all a great chance to use it!!! Along with another 2 or 3 RAKS in this catagory for you!  (I love tossing out tidbits of info to keep you wondering!)

Moving on over to the RAKS for All forum! Lets see all the goodies here!

**LilyBelle has a lovely Quickpage titled “Unforgettable”  available in this thread.  And LilyBelle has her True Love Papers link here!  (Ive already grabbed them and they are fab!)  She also has available some freebies for those Olympic pics you may have snapped during the airing of the Winter Olympics this year available here and here.

Unforgettable Quickpages

True Love

**Ladyofthethorns has a sweet freebie kit available here as well!

**Ann_Ominous has some freebie add-ons she has relisted.  Visit this thread to get your hook up on these! (there is some pet items, plaids, feminine, pinks, blues, oranges, greens, a really nice mix of something for everyone! There is also another Freebie by Ann_Ominous here!  Make sure you check it out!

**KB5785  (and I promise to get her name as soon as possible!) has a lovely St Patricks Day kit link up here.  Just in time for the St Patrick’s day holiday!  (Im part Irish, so I know I will be getting this lovely little kit!)

As you can see, the Creative Team Raks for All and the RAKS for All forums are just bursting with great free digital scrapbooking gifts!  When downloading all these great freebies, please be sure to follow the designer’s TOU’s and read through the RAKS For All Guidelines as well.  And a little note on their designs goes a long way to letting them know how much we appreciate them sharing their time and talent with us here at RAKScraps! 

An update on the challenges I think is in order as well.  We have so many going on each month! 

**Journaling Challenge With Bernadette - Each month Bernadette brings us new ideas to challenge us with our journaling, to help us make our layouts more meaningful and to help remember those special times, and thoughts.  This Months theme has to do with “Lists”.  Pop on over to read more and take part in this great challenge!

**Scrap From the Heart - Heather (Sparklyduck75 is presenting this challenge this month) and it deals with Healing.  Heather has listed some prose as well as some scripture for you to peruse and use in a layout about healing, whatever kind you may be experiencing!  A great way to continue the healing process through digital art (and that is just what digital scrapbooking is…ART!)  Make sure to post a link when you upload your layout, and you may just make the Tour De Gallery Challenge! (another fun challenge that is doing really well!)

**Sketch Challenge with Crosstown - Another lovely, inspiring sketch has been posted to give us some inspiration in our scrapping!  Use it as you wish, for ideas on placement, number of elements or photos, however it inspires you.  Make sure you leave a link when you upload your layout so we can all leave some love for you!

Also, the Members Mega Kit Challenge is still going on until the 14th of this month, so all you members who would like to design a kit to go along with the February Mega Kit, you still have time to get those in!  The ones so far have been fabulous!  And remember, these additional kits from our members are available for download to compliment the Mega Kit!

The February QuickPages from the Members are available in the RAK Center for you to download as well!  Make sure you are registered with the RAK Center to get the February Quickpages (and the ones that will be coming when the March Mega Kit comes out!)  With all of these, the Member’s challenge, and the Mega Kit, you will have a ton of digital scrapping supplies right at your fingertips, and the best part it, they are FREE!  I have seen no other digital scrapbooking site that does so much by, for, and with it’s members!  RAKScraps is a one-of-a-kind Digital Scrapbooking site!

As a final note, make sure you stop by 3Scrapateers and Scrapwow, our sister sites to see all the great digital scrapbooking supplies that they have to offer!

**A special note:  For all of you that follow Daylight Savings time, remember to turn your clocks forward at 2 a.m. Sunday morning!  (yep, losing an hour of sleep, but gaining an hour of daylight,  its a toss up here, we have been in the gray for so long, I am really looking forward to it this year!)

Until Next Wednesday!  Happy Scrapping from the Team at RAKScraps!

Just to let you all know I have a new card template pack in my digital store at Scrapwow! Set #13 in the card DiAGRAM series. This set contains 6 cards in PSD and PNG formats. Card sizes are 6″x 4″ and 5.5″x 4.25″ you get BOTH sizes for each card!!! Perfect for any card lover! Would also work well for brag books!
S4O/S4H OK!

Don’t forget there are more great products in the Scrapwow store so check it out!

Di

The March 2010 RAKScraps Digital Scrapbooking Newsletter is out and it is just full of info, links to Newsletter freebies, challenges and a great tutorial on QuickPages! 

 And we have a new challenge, Tour De Gallery.  Tour De Gallery is a fun challenge that invites us all to get into the gallery more and look at all the great layouts and leave a little love and positive comments on them.  The challenge is laid out in the first post so be sure to jump on in and Tour De Gallery!  And the tour will take many different routes, with gallery hunts, games, and other fun activities each month!  And the prize for participation this month is an alpha set created by Floppy Latte Designs that will coordinate with the other great RAKS given out in the month of March! 

Designer Highlights:

We have two new Designers to highlight this month - Meredith Cardall and Garden Girl Designs. Be sure to stop by the forum and say hello, and check back frequently for challenges from these highlighted Designers!  Let them know how much we appreciate them.

Meredith has a freebie in the newsletter for all of us to download!  It is a great kit called  “Sweet Spring Sampler”.   Download this great freebie, create a layout and upload it to the Meredith Cardall Gallery and the lucky participants will recieve a great prize from Meredith!

Garden Girls Designs, our other highlighted Designer also has a freebie in the newsletter - a sweet little scrapkit called “Rachel”.  Download this free scrapkit and upload your layout to the Garden Girls Gallery and at the end of the month, the lucky participants will recieve a great prize from Garden Girls!

As always, there are a ton of challenges in the Forums at RAKScraps!  I try to list several each week:

This week, along with the Tou De Gallery challenge we have the -

**March RAKfile Challenge - What a way to put those freebies and RAKs prizes to use!  This month’s challenge, hosted by teddyprayer, is to use one of your prize kits to scrap a layout.  Any prize kit is fair game, and for you all who are new to RAKScraps, you can use a freebie from the RAKS for all Forum.  There are a lot of great kits there for you!  And for your participation, you will recieve this lovely collection from our very own Angela of Toucan Scraps!

 Thank you Angela for such a lovely RAK!  I can almost feel spring time!

**Quote Challenge with Heather - Heather and Joanne have put together some great word art relating to Spring for us to use in this challenge.  All about Spring Flowers!  Just download the word art and scrap some Springtime!

Have you ever wanted to make a Quickpage to scrap with or to enter the Quickpage Exchange?  Well, this month in the Newsletter there is a great tutorial on how to make a Quickpage.  It is a wonderful tutorial that walks you through, step by step how to create a quickpage from a favorite layout!  QuickPages are a great way to quickly scrap a page!

Remember the Quickpage exchange Quickpages are up in the RAK Center for all registered members to download as well!

The March Mega Kit will be available in the RAK Center for download starting on the 15th of this month!  Make sure that you get yours while it is available for 0 points!

And, when you have a moment, be sure to stop by 3Scrapateers and Scrapwow to see the great offerings at our sister sites!

Until my next post, have a great week!

Thank you for your support of RAKScraps, 3Scrapateers and Scrapwow!

The Team at RAKScraps.

So, if you would like to get entered into this drawing, hop  on over to the forum for KissThisDesigns and list your favorite springtime flower!  Thats it, and you will be entered into the drawing.  You can bet I have put in my entry.  I love give-a-ways, and I love coupons!

Thank you to KissThisDesigns for helping us get into that spring time spirit!

Until next Wednesday, or sooner!

Thank you all,

The Team at RAKScraps.com

** Members Mega Kit Challenge with Connie  - Members are encouraged to try their hand at designing!!!  Check out Connies challenge for all the details and create a kit the coordinates with the February Mega Kit!  And the kits that are created by the members can be shared by all!  Below is one Member’s kit that is available!

It is still early so be sure to check The RAKScraps Challenges forum to check out what pops in.  And there will be links so that you can download them!

**  RAKScraps QuickPage Challenge with Snackpackgu - Debbi has her QuickPage Challenge running as well.  Using the RAKScraps February Mega Kit, Add on Kit, and member kits if you like, create a quickpage to share with all of the members at RAKScraps.  Quickpages are a really fast way to get your photos scrapped and our members and Creative Team really put out some beautiful Quickpages.

And dont forget about the great RAK for the QuickPage Challenge:

What a wonderful participation prize!  Thank you Snackpackgu!

If you have downloaded the February Mega Kit stop on over at the RAKScraps Mega Kit Discussion  forum to let the designers and Guest Designers know how much we appreciate the time and talent they put in to making this wonderful collection!  And if you haven’t had the chance to download your February Mega Kit head on over to the RAK Center and get yours.  It is just lovely!

**  Recipe Swap/Crop Challenge with Floppy Latte Designs - The Recip Swap Crop will end on February 28th, but there is still time for you to download the recipe templates and scrap your favorite dessert recipe!  All participants get the recipe card templates and a bonus RAK - A brush set designed by Floppy Latte Designs to help you add some special touches to your recipe cards!  There are several great recipes already entered into the challenge.  If you have a sweet tooth, you will especially like the Almond Joy Cake.  It was just toooooo delish!

** KissThisDesigns Newsletter Challenge - One of our Featured Designers - KissThisDesigns, is giving a way a sweet kit as a RAK for participation in her Newsletter challenge.  Hop over to the February Edition of the RAKScraps Newsletter and download the freebie, use it in a layout and post to this gallery and recieve the following as your RAK:

Its just a sneak peek - the full view is a surprise.

** One Month At A Time Challenge with Crosstown - As the title suggests, this month’s challenge is to Scrap a layout with a photo taken in February  - of any year.  There are a few other requirements that need to go in your layout.  This is a great challenge to get those photos off of the To Scrap List!  Check out the challenge, post your layout and claim your RAK!

Such a pretty RAK!   Thank you Patricia!

I think over this month I have covered all the challenges that are going on at RAKScraps.  But I do know that there is going to be a NEW Challenge coming in March, so you will need to stay tuned to see what is coming up!  It is going to be a fun one.

Also, I will be bringing the BLOG Challenge back in Mid March!!!  Watch the RAKScraps Blog and newsletter for all the info.  I am excited to be helping out with the BLOG challenge.  There will be tutorials, games, gallery hunts, and more! 

Well, this draws to a close another Wednesday Blog Post!  I hope you all have a a great day and make sure to stop by 3Scrapateers and ScrapWow to see all the great things that are on display for you to add to your scrapping stash!

See you next Wednesday!!!!  Happy Scrapping from all of us at RAKScraps.

See what I mean!!!!  Again, twelve thumbs up to all the designers that contributed to this month’s Mega Kit!  And remember, the Add on Kit is available at ScrapWow, and for RAKStar Members in the RAK Center!

Now for a little stroll though RAKScraps, just to keep you all up on the going’s on! 

**Members MegaKit Challenge with Connie - Connie has posted the next challenge using the colors of the mega kit for February and its a chance for all the members to get in on designing Member kits to compliment the MegaKit.  It is always so nice to see what our members put together!  With the Mega KIt, the Add on Kit, and the Member MegaKits from the challenge, you could scrap for days and days and days and still have goodies left over!!!!

**February QuickPage Challenge with Snackpackgu - We love quick pages because they are a fantastic way to put together a layout in a matter of minutes!  And this month, using the Free RAKScraps MegaKit, Add on Kit, and even the members kits, put together a quickpage or two and post them for us to see and snag!  We love to see what other members do with the kits and share with us!

**February Rak File Challenge with teddyprayer - The February Rak File Challenge is still going on!  This months challenge is to scrap a Quickpage!  This would be a good go with to the Quickpage challenge.  A twofer!  I have yet to try a quick page, but I think I must do this months, especially with all the good quickpages that have been posted!

** There are many other challenges going on in the Forums.  If you are looking for a challenge to boost your creativity, hop on over and join in the fun!

Remember, each and every month there are new challenges, fun and games all around on the Forums!  I try to hit a few each week to keep you all updated.  There are so many to pick from that it can be a daunting task, but just jump on in, the water is fine, (maybe a bit chilly here in Kentucky, but I’m jumpin in anyway) and I hope to see you all in the challenges!  And remember, there are RAKS for all in the challenges.  It is a great way to keep up on your scrapping and get some fantastic products for your stash!

Also, remember to check out 3Scrapateers and Scrapwow for all the great products that are offered for your digital scrapbooking needs.  We look forward to seeing you on the messageboards. 

Til next Wednesday!  Happy Scrapping from RAKScraps and all the Creative Team!

This week’s post is centered around the RAKS for all section of the RAKScraps Forum.  There have been quite a few releases  of digital scrapbooking elements and mini kits this week and I wanted to let you all know about them, in case you have not had a chance to pop over to the messageboard yet!

LilyBelle has posted a beautiful collection of elements for us to download.  As Time Goes By  is such a beautiful collection!  It would work so well for heritage as well as wedding albums and pages.  Visit the RAKS for All Forum and get your downloads and let LilyBelle know how beautiful her digital Elements are!  There are three sets of elements posted at the time of this writing.  Here is a preview of the first set!  The second and third sets of elements are just as stunning!

Joni of Mooscrapworld has also left us a lovey RAK - Elegance.  Beautiful textured papers and floral elements along with some lovely metal work elements!  Thank you Joni, for sharing your wonderful kit with all of us.

Joni has another RAK - Lovestruck!  A great kit for Valentines Day!  And a large kit at that!  Wonderful papers and elements sure to compliment any photo!

Lori of Kreations by Sparky is getting us into the Valentines Day mood with her RAK - Love is in the Air!  What a great mini kit to scrap pictures of our loved ones on this sweetest of holidays!

Please stop by the RAKS for all Forum and check out these great offerings and let these talented designers know how much we appreciate them!

Make sure you are registered and logged in so that you can get all of these wonderful RAKS!  If you are not a member of RAKScraps yet, remember it is free to join and you too can recieve these wonderful RAKS!  That is the heart of RAKScraps - Random Acts of Kindness!  Its great!

And remember - please follow all guidelines listed for the RAKs.  These designers are kind enough to give them to us for free, lets repay that kindness and follow all TOU’s.  Its the right thing to do!

Challenges!

We still have a multitude of challenges going on the the Challenges section of the RAKScraps Messageboard.  Stop on over and jump into one or two.  You will be glad you did, and they all offer prizes for participation.

The Recipe Crop/Swap Challenge in the Impromptu Challenges forum is a great way to start.  I am hosting this challenge and have put up links to some really nice recipe card templates I created just for this challenge!  It runs until the end of February!  The theme this month is desserts - ’cause we all make them during Valentine’s Day!  At the end of the challenge, each partipant will recieve a file with all the recipe cards entered into the challenge and a bonus brush set for use in scrapping other recipes!  (I am making myself hungry just thinking about all the sweet treats that have shown up in the challenge already!).

If you are looking for more digital scrapbooking challenges, make sure to visit the Scrapbooking Challenges section of the messageboard!

Thank you all for stopping by and checking out the RAKScraps Blog!  Now just pop on over to RAKScraps and have a nice little visit! 

See you Next Wednesday with more news and info from RAKScraps!  Have a great day!!!!!!!

Challenges:

Before I give you a quick run down on the challenges, let me say that I love challenges.  It gives me a chance to jump out of the box and look at things from different angles.  It helps to bring a bit of freshness into my scrapping, and it can do the same for you too.  It is a fun way to get in on the action and get some great RAKS from the hosts of the challenges!  I have to tell you that Bunchie’s RAK prize for the posting challenge last month was AWESOME!  Thank you Bunchie!

Now, on to the good Stuff!

This month brings us Valentines Day and yes, you guessed it, we have some challenges with the theme of Love, Love, Love.   Heather (SparklyDuck75)  has a great challenge, Love, Love, Love,for us, using lyrics and scripture to get us started.  “Two for the Road” by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse has wonderful passages that will inspire you!  And the lovely scriptures that are posted are also very inspiring and beautiful.  As always, the prize for participating in the challenge is lovely as well!  Just take a look!

Thank you Angela for such a lovely Prize!  There are several entries into this challenge, and it is very interesting to see everyone’s interpretation.  Check out the thread in the forum to view the lovely layouts.

Quote Challenge with Heather

Heather is one busy lady!   She is also hosting the Quote Challenge and it is filled with CHOCOLATE!  There goes my diet!  Well, virtual Chocolate anyway!  AND to assist us in this challenge, Heather and Joanne have put together some really “sweet” word art for us to download.    Check out the Quote Gallery to see the fantastic layouts!  (I’ll not count any calories doing this challenge! )

Look at this “Sweet” WordArt for the Quote Challenge

Fantastic Job Joanne and Heather, and thank you!

February Avatar Challenge with Enableem

Continuing with the theme of Love, Enableem has posted her challenge for dressing up your Avatar for February.  Its all about the things we love!  Dress up your avatar in what you love best and post in the forum for all of us to check out your new “clothes”! 

Posting Challenge with Bunchie

Jump into the posting challenge with Bunchie!  This challenge is a great way to stay or be more active in our fun community!  Just drop a post in the forum with your post count and post away!  Hit the Games area of the forum!  It is a great way to get to know each other and have loads of fun!  Im a great fan of Bernadette1’s impromptu challenges (Challenge #10) with guessing what is in each picture  (this one has got me totally stumped!).   Besides having a lot of fun trying to guess what the pictures are, I learn a little something each day!  And it is a great way to build that post count without even realizing it!    And lets remember the Gallery as well.  Even though those posts do not count in our totals, the Gallery is a big part of RAKScraps!  We all get to show off our work and if you are anything like me, love to see that someone has commented on a layout that you have posted! 

There are many other challenges this month at RAKScraps, with prizes to be had by all!  Check out the Digital Scrapbooking Challenges Forum on the Messageboard and jump on in!  Its fun, and its a great way to give your creativity a giant boost!

Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

Text and Journaling are a very important part of any layout.  Whether it be one word or an entire story, text and journaling help to make our layouts more memorable!  And what better way to jazz up text in a layout than to bend and warp it around a photograph or element.  Check out the Featured Tutorial in this months Newsletter on Warping Text.  The tutorial explores the Warp Text tool in PSE and how it can be used to bend and shape text around photographs!  Give it a try in your next layout!

 Again, if you have not had the opportunity to check out the latest Newsletter, click on over!  It is packed with information on the happenings at RAKScraps!

 Reminders:

The January Mega Add on Kit is available at ScrapWow.com and also available to RAKStar members in the RakCenter!

The January QuickPages Exchange is also still available!  These are fabulous quick pages created by our members from the January Mega Kit and Add on Kit.  A fast way to finish a layout!  Be sure to grab yours before the 14th!

The February Mega Kit will be released on February 15th!!!!  It is, as always, sure to be a fantastic kit.  Make sure that you are registered so that you will be able to download the wonderful offerings! I personally can’t wait!  I know it will be just as wonderful as the January MegaKit! 

As always, I will see you next Wednesday with more updates on RAKScraps!  And you  just might see me before then if I find something new for you….Im always on the lookout!