Wednesday, December 31, 2008

It is 2 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 3 seconds until Sunday, January 4, 2009

At least it was a few seconds ago! And you thought the countdown to New Years Eve was exciting! :) We know the time remaining thanks to www.timeanddate.com. The clock posted in the upper left hand corner of the blog is from the same source. So why do we have this information posted here? Good question.

Many of you already know the answer, right? :) OK. Let's all say it together (for those that still haven't read the rules!) ADSR4's official time zone is Eastern Standard Time (EST) US, and that's where you will find New York. Also, that is where you will find Cucuta, Columbia, which I did not know until I nosed around on timeandate.com. So why is the time in New York important? Well... a couple of reasons, actually.

The race officially kicks off at 00:00:01 on Sunday morning, January 4th, 2009 in New York. But... that doesn't mean that the first challenge will be posted then. (Speaking of the first challenge, where is it going to be? More on that later.) What that means is that it will be posted sometime during the 24 hour period that starts then. Our challenge sponsors are in varying time zones and all of them know the rules too! (Right challenge hosts! :) )

"OK... fine... but where do I find it?" I hear you saying. Officially, the challenge is posted here on the blog. But... see all those great blinkies, blinking at you in the right hand column? The ones under the label that says "Host Sites"? Some racers have been known to stalk those sites, looking for the challenge before it is officially posted here. And many friendly racers have then gone on to post in the NDISB ADSR4 forum that a new challenge is up, and where to find it! All that we ask is that if you do find it, and wish to share your new found knowledge with your fellow racers, please do not cut and paste the challenge into our forum. The whole idea is to visit places that you have (possibly) never been before. So it is okay to link to the challenge from our forum, but it is not okay to publish the challenge in our forum, or anywhere else please. So why do we even have to say this? Past experience!

Alright! So... what was the other reason? Oh yes. Uploading your challenge layouts to your official NDISB ADSR4 Gallery (which you all have already created, yes? :) ) It seems there is always some confusion about when the challenges are due. "I live in Dublin, Ireland, and I don't know what time it is in New York!" Now we can say "Yes, you do!". And the deadline is Sunday, midnight EST. Which is why we have the link to the countdown clock under the EST clock, so you will know how much time you have left. Both weekly challenges are due on Sunday! I'm going to say that again - Both weekly challenges are due on Sunday! If you want to make sure that you upload your layout to the proper place, just click on the link above to the ADSR4 Gallery (you may want to bookmark that page in your browser), then select the proper challenge (Challenge Number One, Challenge Number Two, etc), then click on the "Upload Photos" link. This will pre-populate the proper category for you. This will ensure that it is in the right place, and it will automatically show up in your personal gallery too! (By the way, you can also find a link in the left hand column of the blog under the label "Race Links" called ADSR4 Galleries. Yes... we do want to make sure you can find them!)

Oh, and thank you all for your continuing comments on the December 27th post, and for all of the feedback on the Celiac post! You can see that this disease affects many people in just this small community of racers. That is why I thought this information so important to pass along. And thanks for all of the great sites that you are pointing out to us. They've already proved helpful!

And I had almost forgotten already that this is New Year's Eve! (And for some, it is already the New Year.) We lost our daughter to friends this evening for a sleepover, so she'll be home (sleep deprived!) tomorrow. But we just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy new year this evening.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

And now for something completely different

Theresa just pointed out this article to me in Parents magazine, and I thought it important enough to share with all of you. It is about kids with Celiac disease.

The reason that Theresa pointed it out to me is that three out of our three children have Celiac disease. Although more information is available about it now, according to the article, for every child diagnosed with it, seven are not. And perhaps more importantly, it is a very common disease. One child in every 130 has it. Which is why I chose to highlight it in this blog post today.

We have 226 teams in the race, which means that we have 452 racers. Each racer has relatives - siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews. Many probably have grandkids. It is very likely that all of our racers and their families represent over 1300 children. Which means statistically that 10 of them have Celiac disease.

If you've never heard of it, Celiac is an autoimmune disease triggered by gluten, a protein found primarily in wheat. When gluten is ingested (even in extremely small amounts) the immune system attacks the small intestine. When this happens, nutrition cannot be absorbed. In Grayson's case (one of our twin sons) this caused malnutrition, lethargy, and intestinal disorders. We had to change pediatricians to get it diagnosed as our original pediatrician thought that being underweight was healthier than being overweight. But once diagnosed and placed on a gluten-free diet, he started thriving almost immediately.

I wanted to post this information, because Celiac is much more common than previously thought, and as was mentioned earlier, it is often misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all. Most confusing of all is that there are a wide variety of symptoms that might manifest themselves, lending additional difficulty to sorting it out. But if you have noticed unexplained symptoms in your children (or adults in your family, for that matter), you might consider this information. Also, the links above will take you to a couple of very informative web sites about this disease.

Well, enough of our Public Service Message for today! If you haven't read the comments responding to the December 27th post, you might want to do that. And if you haven't left a comment, please do! There have been some very helpful tips posted there, and it gave me an idea of a thread to start in the ADSR4 forum. And while there, I just saw that little dragon has started a poll! It'll just take a second to pop over and vote - and you can leave a comment if you wish. (Feeling a little anxious yet!?) :)

Monday, December 29, 2008

And we're back!

It looks like with the last minute registrants, we made it to 226 teams for The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race - Season 4! Woo Hoo!

So as the excitement builds, we still need to tend to some housekeeping issues, which we are taking care of as we type. But there is something that we would like to ask of each of you racers also. Please take a moment (right now, while you are reading this would be great!), and read through the rules one more time. For some of you, this will be the first time looking at them. To minimize confusion the first week, please pay particular attention to "First Challenge", "Subsequent Challenges" and "Qualification".

Also, many of you have not established a gallery at Natural Designs yet. According to the rules (which you just read, right? ;) ), your official gallery for the race is your gallery at NDISB. All you need to do is log in to our forum or our gallery (the two logins are linked together), go over to the gallery if not already there, click on the upload photos link on the extreme right hand side of the navigation bar, and upload a photo. Theresa will be sending out emails tomorrow to all of those from whom we still need this information. We learned last year that a very long description (or credits) may prevent the layout from uploading. What we ask now is that if you have a longer than average description due to journaling that you wish to type in, or if the challenge requires many products from many designers, please upload the layout with no credits or description. Once uploaded, click on the edit icon right under the layout (says "Edit Photo" when your mouse rolls over it) and add your extended description and/or credits.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank three women (that are not even affiliated with Natural Designs) for all of their talent and time freely given to race participants before the race even started. Trish (TrishB), Lisa (Kandy Kane) and Lilly (MissLilly) in this thread, offered to make ADSR4 blinkies for any team that wanted them. They chose to do this out of the goodness of their hearts to help out fellow racers that wanted blinkies, but did not know how (or have the time) to make them for themselves. They have closed up shop now, but I just thought that a little public acknowledgement would do them good!

We still have a kickoff chat to look forward to on Friday (which you saw addressed in the rules, right? :) ). And I seem to recall something about a surprise lurking in the shadows somehere. Stay tuned...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Please forgive our absence!

For just a few hours this afternoon, as we head to the Chargers/Broncos game this afternoon!



Ladainian Tomlinson catching some serious air versus the Tennessee Titans


We promise that we'll be back later to keep things moving along!

And thanks for the comments on the previous post so far. Keep them coming!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Less than a week to go!

According to our countdown clock posted in the left hand column.

Natural Designs would like to take a moment to thank all of the individuals that have joined together to make this the biggest ADSR yet! As of this moment, we officially have 223 teams registered, and Theresa may still have a few in her inbox that need to be addressed. If you've raced before, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you haven't, you might be a little excited, you could be just a touch nervous, and you very likely are wondering exactly what it is that you've gotten yourself into!

This is where you race veterans come in. We would like to ask you to post a brief comment here (if you wish) about your first race experience here!

Oh, and you might want to check back in every day or so for the next few days... word on the street is that there may be a little surprise before the race kicks off!

Friday, December 26, 2008

206!

And still counting!

We know that some of you are concerned about whether we have received your registration email or not and you are biting your fingernails waiting to see whether you "made the cut"! If you sent in your email, and you did not get a bounce-back message, that means that you very likely sent it to the correct email address. But because you waited 'til the last day, (along with about 25 other teams!), we are still wading through them and updating our database.

If you check this thread on our forum, we are updating it frequently as we update our database. But you should get an email from us about the same time that we update the thread. We know that we have about another dozen or so that we have yet to process.

Oh, and for the record, you still have about 3 hours and fifteen minutes to register! :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

180 Teams!

Will we make it to 200?!?!

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Four more days!

You still have four more days before registration closes for ADSR4. We still are receiving new registrations, and we have many looking for partners in our ADSR4 forum at NDISB. The existing "Looking for a partner" thread has become several pages long, and is not the easiest thing to navigate any more, so I will consolidate the remaining seekers into a new thread, and post the link here. If you see someone looking for a partner, left click on their name in their post and send them a PM!

UPDATE

Okay. Here is the link to the new "I REALLY need a partner" thread. Only one page long at the moment, and much easier to read. (And see how we really gave you two links to this thread? See how easy we want to make your life?) :)

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Still counting!

We're up to 147 teams with six days of registration remaining.

See your team name in lights here! (Or at least in a thread in our forum :))

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Wow!

As of this afternoon, we are up to 136 teams registered!

Yay ADSR4!

Eventually, we will have all of the team blinkies and names posted on the left side of the blog. But for now, you can check out the team names here.

Also, this is where you will post links to your ADSR4 layouts that you will post in the NDISB Gallery. Find your team number, and post the link to your challenge layout in that thread. Each team member is responsible for posting their own layouts to the gallery. We will have an ADSR4 Challenge gallery, and each challenge will have its own gallery. So Challenge One will be posted in the ADSR4 Challenge One Gallery, and so on. I will post links as soon as I have created these galleries.

Oh... so you've just wandered in here, 'cause you heard about the ADSR but don't really know what it is? GREAT! Scroll down a ways, and read some of our earlier posts, and follow some of the links and you will get a pretty good idea. Basically, it's a way to have a lot of fun, get a dozen or so digital scrapbook layouts done in six weeks, and get some really cool prizes along the way, with a chance to get some more uber cool stuff at the end. And guess what? No judging! Just finish a layout (according to the challenge) and keep on going. (And we don't kick out the last one done either!)

If you think that you would like to give it a go, but don't have a partner (we race in teams of two), you can look for a partner here. Many good friendships have been made in the race that have continued on. Hope to see you at the race!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I haven't received my confirmation email yet!

We know!

Please see this post in the ADSR4 forum. Thanks!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Updated Rules

Hey Racers!

We have updated the rules so we ask that you take a look below. To make your life easier, we highlighted the updated portion in red. Scroll down to the part that discusses "Qualification" and you will see item 3 highlighted in red. Instead of emailing us with the completion of your layouts, we are asking that you post a new reply in the forum indicated, and select your team number to post your reply. You may want to bookmark that page as you will be using it quite often during the race. You may also use your team thread to talk to your partner if you wish. Keep in mind that anyone can see these threads, and please remember to only post in your own team's thread.

If none of this makes sense at the moment, it will as soon as the race starts. If you have any questions, please post them in the "I have a question" thread in the ADSR4 forum. Thanks!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

And the floodgates have opened!

Day three, and we have already received over 40 entries into ADSR4! Thank you for your enthusiasm!

If you have already sent your registration in for the Race, and you followed the instructions in the rules below, then we have most likely received it, and are processing it. We will be sending out confirmation emails to let you know that your registration was received, and processed. But... please be patient. It may take a few days to process the registration, and get a confirmation email to you. (We actually do have real jobs, so all of this gets done in our "spare" time.) If more than a week goes by, and you still have not received a confirmation email, then we would ask that you follow up. But please allow us that time to attend to your initial email.

Once again, thank you for your enthusiasm, and make sure that you tell your friends about all of the fun (and prizes) that they will be missing out on if they don't join in!

ADSR4 Blinkies Here!

So you're thinking about playing along this time.

But you're thinking... "If I play along this time, I want people to know that I am playing along this time!"

So you need the Official ADSR4 Blinkie to include in your siggie wherever you hang out in cyberspace! That's right. Your very own, to wear proudly at all the hot spots in town!

Just scroll down the page, and you will find in the left hand column the Official ADSR4 Blinkie. Just right click on it and you can score it for your very own, right from here.

May you wear it in good health!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Season 4 Rules

At NDISB, we've come up with a cool internet digital scrapping game that will mirror the excitement of the TV reality show "The Amazing Race." Teams of two will traverse the digital scrapping world, site by site, completing challenges and collecting prizes along the way. Everyone who completes the week's challenges in the allotted time frame will move on to the next week, where they can collect even MORE prizes! And at the end of the race, everyone who has travelled around the digiworld and completed each and every challenge will be entered into a drawing for the GRAND prize!

REGISTRATION:

Team registration begins on Monday, December 1. So the first thing you have to do is find yourself a partner! Once you've done that, please send ONE email per team to RaceHost@ndisb.com with the following information:

Your Team Name:

Racer 1 Name:
Racer 1 Email:
Racer 1 NDISB gallery*:
Racer 1 NDISB Forum User name**:

Racer 2 Name:
Racer 2 Email:
Racer 2 NDISB gallery*:
Racer 2 NDISB Forum User name**:

OPTIONAL:
A team blinkie for the blog
A link to your team’s blog, if you have one

OFFICIAL GALLERY:

*You may upload to as many galleries as you like, but we need a link to your NDISB gallery. If you don’t have a gallery at NDISB yet, you will need to set one up. This is the one gallery where you will be sure to upload all of your challenge layouts so we can check to make sure you qualify for the next round.

By having a gallery at NDISB, we ensure two things. One, you have a single location where ALL of the race layouts will be posted for everyone to see. Two, if we don’t get your e-mail for whatever reason, we can still verify that your layout was posted by the deadline. During previous seasons, we had a number of sites down for maintenance, or other issues which prevented us from verifying layouts in time. This should alleviate that.

Each challenge will have its own sub-gallery at NDISB. You will upload your challenge layouts to the corresponding weekly challenge gallery. By default, they will also show in your member gallery. You may also upload any other layouts you wish directly to your member gallery.

GRAND PRIZE:

We will have a Grand Prize winning team as well as two runners up. The Grand Prize pool will be split with 50% going to the Grand Prize team and 25% each to the two runners up teams.

KICK-OFF CHAT:

We will be kicking off Season 4 with a fun chat on Friday, January 2 at 10:00 PM EST at our sister site, Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild, in the DSAG chat room. Everyone in attendance will receive a free mini kit; stay tuned to this blog for a preview.

FIRST CHALLENGE:

The first challenge will be posted on Sunday, January 4, 2009. A link to the challenge will be posted on the blog as soon as it is received by the Race Host. Each participating site will host a single challenge, but the rotation, dates and challenges are a secret until they are officially posted.

SUBSEQUENT CHALLENGES:

Subsequent challenges will be posted each Sunday and Tuesday, with Challenge Two posted on Tuesday, January 6, 2009. Both weekly challenges must be completed by midnight Eastern the following Sunday to qualify to continue in the Race. Each participating site will host a single challenge, but the rotation, dates and challenges are a secret until they are officially posted. The links to the challenges will be posted on the blog as soon as possible. You can also "stalk" the known sites and keep your eyes peeled for challenges before they're posted on the blog.

QUALIFICATION:

A challenge is considered complete when:

1. The challenge(s) have been completed according to the challenge rules,

2. The challenge(s) are posted to each Racer’s main gallery, and

3. Each racer has posted a link to their official layout in this thread. Each team will have their own thread, based on their team number. As you post your layouts to the NDISB Gallery, please post a new reply in your thread with the link to those galleries. No need to send e-mail now. And each partner may post to the thread as they post their layout. BUT - BOTH POSTS NEED TO BE BEFORE THE DEADLINE! To eliminate confusion, we have posted a clock in the upper left-hand corner of the ADSR Blog with the time in New York.

Everyone who has completed Week One will qualify to continue racing during Week Two, and the fun begins all over again. THERE IS NO JUDGING, AND THE ONLY WAY TO BE ELIMINATED IS TO FAIL TO COMPLETE THE WEEK'S CHALLENGES.

CHALLENGE PRIZES:

Each time you complete a challenge you will receive a prize from the host site. You may receive a direct link, or you may receive a coupon code. Prizes and delivery of said prizes are at the discretion of the site host only. The Race Host has no control over what the prizes will be or how the site host will choose to deliver them. You will never be required to sign up for newsletters, or purchase anything in order to participate in the Race. You may, however, be required to register in a site’s store in order to redeem a coupon.

There will be a hidden forum for posting of prize codes, download links, etc. When you register, you will need to send your NDISB Forum User name so we can add you to the hidden forum.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your application to participate in The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race constitutes an agreement that any prizes or codes obtained in the course of the Race are NOT to be distributed by any means. Terms of use in each prize MUST be honored by all Racers. Failure to comply will result in dismissal from the Race and your application for future Races will be denied. Digital piracy will not be tolerated.

CONTINUING ON SOLO:

If for some reason during the course of the Race your partner cannot continue, you have two options:

  1. Continue the race solo, completing the challenges alone and collecting the weekly prizes, but you are then ineligible for the Grand Prize drawing, or

  2. Find another partner who has also been displaced, but has not yet been disqualified. In this way, you are both still eligible for the Grand Prize drawing. For example, Team A has player 1 drop out due to unexpected illness and Team B has player 2 drop out due to computer hard drive crash. The remaining players from Teams A and B can form Team C and continue to race and be fully eligible.

So are you ready? If so, get those applications to me starting Monday, December 1. The deadline to register is midnight Pacific Standard Time Friday, December 26.Then start toning up and working on your endurance...you're going to need all the scrapping strength and mojo you can get if you want to win!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Still doing a bit of housekeeping

As you can see, we are cleaning out the cobwebs and doing a bit of dusting!

We have our new header in place with side column labels on the way.

We've cleaned out the ADSR 3 teams making space for all of our new ADSR 4 contenders.

Thanksgiving day turkey is still settling, but we are working feverishly to get registration set up soon. Keep your eyes open!

Friday, November 21, 2008

New Blog Graphics!

A big Natural Designs THANK YOU, to our very own Mellykat!

Melly updated our blog header to reflect Season 4 using some of Theresa's new products which you can find here. Stay tuned for updates. We'll be posting rules and registration information soon!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

So what is The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race?

Good question!

For a quick introduction to what the ADSR is, you can go to this forum post in the Natural Designs forums and read more about it.

Once you've read that, and you think you might want to play, but you've never done it before, please just wander around inside the ADSR - Season 4 forum, and you will find most of your questions are answered for you. If you need a partner, we have a thread where you can look for one. If you still have an unanswered question, you can ask it in the "I have a question" thread! While we may not have all of the answers yet, we have learned a few things the last three go arounds, and have continued to refine the race.

If you are still really wondering if this is something that you can do - you absolutely can! We have new racers every year, some who have never even scrapped a single page before. If they can do it, you can too!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Sites of Season 4

Scrounging through Theresa's posts in the ADSR4 forum over at NDISB, I found this little nugget here:

All of our sites have confirmed. So here is where you'll be visiting in ADSR 4:

Inspiration Lane

Anita Stergiou Designs

Pixel Gypsy Designs

Hummie's World

{we are} storytellers

Gotta Pixel

Scrap Orchard

Oscraps

Elemental Scraps

NDISB (of course)

Sunshine Scrap Studios

KB and Friends

It's Official!

Mark your calendars! The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race 4 will begin the first Sunday of 2009 (January 4, 2009)!

There is still much to do, and arrangements to be made, and ideas to capture, but at least now we know when it will get underway. For additional information, please check out the ADSR4 Forum at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking, the host of ADSR4. You need not register in the forum to read any of the posts, but registration is required if you wish to post in the forum. We have already started a FAQ thread, an "I need a partner!" thread, and other useful information will be posted as well.

In order to manage forum spam, new member moderation has been activated. This means zero spam on our forum, but it means there will be slight delay in approving you to post on our forum. We appreciate your understanding and know that you will enjoy our zero spam forum.

If you have questions, please post them in the "I have a question" thread so that we can find them and answer them in a timely manner.

If this if your first time to the race, we hope you enjoy your experience. If you are returning to the race, hopefully that means you had fun before! Welcome one and all to the most fun (and challenging) series of challenges around!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Not quite there yet

But we are getting closer!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Nope

Not yet!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

And Now Everyone Knows - The Winners Are....



The names have been drawn. If you don't want to wait for the video, scoll down...








































Second Runners Up - Two Chickie Moms (Team 62)
First Runners Up - I Don't Give a Scrap (Team 205)
Grand Prize Winners - Electric Harmony (Team 187)

Congrats to everyone and thanks so much for your participation in this race. All of you helped make this the best season yet! Be sure to check back here over the summer for emerging details on Season 4!

I know something you don't know!

Just moments ago, all eligible team names were placed in a hat, and our three children pulled out the winning teams for the second runner up, first runner up, and Grand Prize winners! It was very exciting! And I'd bet you would like to know those names.

I'd love to give them to you, but in the name of integrity, we are uploading a video of the drawing right now. Just so that everyone knows the procedure that was used, and you can see them as they come out of the hat.

So check back in about 30-60 minutes (one can never be sure how long these uploads will take), and we should have the video uploaded, with a link to the winners!

A Last Minute Grand Prize Donation!

We're thrilled to have Scrapbook MAX! jump in at the last minute and donate to the grand prize. They're giving away two copies of their Scrapbook MAX software to the grand prize winners!

Scrapbook MAX! is the fun and easy way to create great looking digital scrapbooks on your computer. You can combine photos, embellishments, journal text, music and more. Ready-to-use scrapbook themes and layouts help you get started. It even includes photo retouching tools like red-eye reduction, torn edges and shadows. When you're done designing, you can output your scrapbooks in a variety of easy-to-share formats like high-res color prints, JPG images for web, email, or even slideshows and movies for playback on computer or television! Visit our website at www.scrapbookmax.com and download a free trial version today!

And the drawing WILL happen tonight! The names have all be checked and re-checked, printed out and cut into individual strips. Over 130 little strips!! So you will know tonight who the lucky winners are. Good luck to everyone!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Rest of the Prizes

And now, here is the rest. And with any luck, we'll be doing the drawing tonight and I'll post a video on the blog of the winners being drawn by my most adorable children.

Grand Prize:
Natural Designs in Scrapbooking, your fabulous host of this most amazing of digital scrapbooking races, is offering two $25 gift certificates to the grand prize winners, two $15 gift certificates to the first runners up and two $10 gift certificates to the second runners up. If you haven't figured out yet that NDISB is THE place to hang out and have fun, well, now is the time!! We really hope all of you continue to hang with us after the race is over. We'll have more challenges, lots of fun and laughter, and all things ADSR Season 4 related. We also hope you'll continue to visit all of our sponsors of this race. Pop in and say hey from time to time and of course, visit their fabulous stores!

TumaSoft software, the software company founded by Plain Digital Wrapper owner, Betsy Tuma and her husband, is offering up two Preset Viewers to the grand prize winners. The Preset Viewer is a fabulous little utility that allows you to preview all of your Photoshop brushes, patterns, shapes and color swatches without loading them into your application! This is so huge if you're a user of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Users know that these applications slow down considerably the more presets you have loaded. By being able to view them BEFORE loading them, you can load just the presets you want now. Preset Viewer is the first piece of graphics software that will allow you to view, organize, keyword, sort and export Photoshop brush files, pattern files and custom shape files. Plus export as either abr brush or PNG files! Finally, a way for users of graphics software (like Paint Shop Pro) to easily export png files of popular Photoshop file formats, opening up an incredible wealth of graphic tools previously only available to Photoshop users.

Plain Digital Wrapper, in addition to being stop number 10 on the race, is offering two $20 gift certificates to the grand prize winners and four $15 gift certificates to each of the runners up. PDW has fabulously talented designer and a fun community to hang out in.

Bella Scraps Magazine is offering two 1-year subscriptions to their magazine; a $45 value!! BSMTM is a neutral, non-site-related online magazine bringing you the best and latest in digital scrapbooking and hybrid designers, scrappers, kits, techniques, projects, and more! Each month we will feature an outstanding designer—who has made a kit especially for subscribers—and scrapper and find out more about what inspires them in their designs. See the current month's kit HERE. We'll discuss the latest products, techniques, ideas, and what to do with them!

Sherrie Piegdon of Pixel Gypsy Designs is offering up two $30 gift certificates to the grand prize winners, two $15 gift certificates to the first runners up and two $10 gift certificates to the second runners up!! Pixel Gypsy Designs has instantly downloadable, high resolution digital scrapbooking products and tools! Hassle free shopping, with no limits or expiration dates on your downloads.

Kaye Winiecki Designs is offering two $10AUD gift certificates and four $5AUD gift certificates to her Pickleberrypop store. Kaye's designs are fresh and fun and always unique! If you haven't discovered her yet, be sure to stop by and see for yourself if you don't believe me!

Tangie Baxter
is generously offering up two $30 gift certificates to the grand prize winners and two $15 gift certificates to the first runners up! If you remember, Tangie stepped up and handed out altered art supplies for our impromptu challenge #9. So many of you are already familiar with this talented designer's work, but if you haven't stopped by her site yet, you simply must. Her home page is a delight, and that alone is worth the trip!

First Runners Up

Divine Digital is offering two gift certificates to their store. Divine Digital is a digital art crafting site dedicated to hybrid scrapbooking, paper and digital crafting, with a full range of digital and traditional products.

Tracy Ann Digital Art, the fabulous site that is all Tracy Ann, all the time, is offering two $25 gift certificates. TADA has simply stunning, original works of art that are almost too beautiful to scrap with... almost! But since they're digital, you can have your TADA and eat it too!

Aimee Designs is offering two $20 gift certificates. Aimee sells at Digi Scrap Warehouse, Studio Style, Scrapping Whispers and more.

Second Runners Up
Fabulous designer, lauraskathi is offering two $5 gift certificates. Not only is she a fabulous designer of truly beautiful and unique products that are instantly recognizable, but she's half of team #16 - Slaves of Carlessness. Sadly, they didn't quite make it to the finish line, but she had so much fun, she wanted to contribute to the grand prize pool.

Purple Paper Flowers is offering two gift certificates to their store. You bring the memories, they'll make them bloom. Whether you're a new digi scrapper, a veteran designer, or just looking for inspiration, PPF is the place for you. They have an online community that caters to your digital scrapbooking needs. And not just with digital downloads, but with physical products to make your digital experience complete; from fabulous laptop bags to Wacom tablets, external hard drives, CD burning services and everything in between!


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Grand Prizes Keep on Coming

Here is MORE that has been contributed:

Grand Prize:
Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild is donating two 3-month Guild memberships to the grand prize winning team and four 1-month memberships for each member of the first and second runners-up! The Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild is dedicated to teaching and inspiring people in the craft of digital scrapbook design. Membership to the Guild entitles members to a monthly Guild kit and a subscription to our monthly on-line magazine The Artisan Notebook (tm). In affiliation with Natural Designs in Scrapbooking we offer a complete curriculum of design and program classes that teach how to use photo editing programs (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro) to create digital scrapbook layouts. Additionally we have an extensive curriculum of design classes that help students grow in their artistic expression.

Becoming a member of the Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild helps to support the Guild site and the ongoing teaching and inspiration that occurs here. As an expression of appreciation each month Guild members receive a one of a kind collaborative kit and a subscription to the Guild's on-line magazine, The Artisan Notebook™.

Sweet Shoppe Designs is offering the $50 gift certificates to each member of the grand prize winning team plus four $15 gift certificates for each of the runners' up! Sweet Shoppe Designs is your one stop shoppe for some of the MOST delicious digital goodies out there! Every product created by the Sweet Shoppe designers is of the highest quality. All of their papers are 300dpi .jpg images and our embellishments are .png files. All brush packs come with an .abr file that can be used in many versions of Adobe programs in addition to including the .png files so you can make your own brushes in the program of your choice. All of their products are drop shadow free unless otherwise noted. They add new items to the Sweet Shoppe every Saturday so no matter what you are looking for, we're sure they have something to satisfy your digital appetite.

Elemental Scraps is offering up two $25 gift certificates to their store. Elemental Scraps is on the cutting edge of digital scrapping, with fresh new styles and a hip new look! Shop from over 25 designers and stop by their fun, energetic forum to see all the happenings.

First Runners Up
Traci Reed is offering two $20 gift certificates to her store. Traci's style is always fresh, a little funky and terribly hip! Check out the amazing work her Hawt Mamas do with her delicious products.

Kelley Mickus is giving out two $20 gift certificates to the All Things Visual store. All Things Visual has a passion for preserving memories that is reflected in their beautiful products. Kelley's designs are funky and fresh and richly detailed. If you haven discovered this amazing talent yet, be sure to stop on by.

Kelly Michales is giving away two $20 gift certificates to Inked Edges. Kelly's designs are rich, fun and unique. She has an eye for color and a flair for pulling together just the right items for a totally kicking kit!

Second Runners Up
Grace Bennett Designs is offering two gift certificates to her store. Grace is an incredibly talented designers with lots of trendy products for the oh-so-hip page!

Nuts4Digi is offering two $10 gift certificates. Nuts4Digi is the creation of Fiona Renwick and Debbie McKenzie, and is Australian owned and operated. BUT that doesn't mean you have to be an Aussie to be a nut! Anyone and everyone is welcome at Nuts4Digi.com. They have quite a diverse group of Digital Scrapbookers from all around the world.You’ll find they’re quite a friendly bunch, and would just love you to join their challenges and chats. And please, don't forget to stop by their digital scrapbooking store and take a look at their digital scrapbooking kits.

The fabulous Amanda Rockwell is offering up two gift certificates to her personal store. Her style is always fetching and her designs are to die for. We're delighted to have her as a sponsor of our race!

Now I know everyone wants to know WHEN the drawing will take place and the answer is...very soon. I'm making my list and checking it twice!

Monday, April 7, 2008

The Amazing Digi Scraping Race - Season 3: The Numbers

1 - team given two numbers (see, even we screw up sometimes!)
2 - babies born (that we know of)
4 - Phoenix teams (teams created from the ashes of former teams)
6 - weeks of ADSR3
33 - teams that were not able to complete the race
186 - teams left standing at the end
216 - number of teams that started the race
220 - total team numbers assigned
4,047 - challenge layouts uploaded
13,323 - comments left (and counting)
Unknown - number of those comments left by frani_54 (Thanks Fran!)
Also, number of hours logged by mummakat and Susan – s3js helping us verify layouts (Thanks Kat and Susan!)
Unknowable - number of elements used in Challenges 7 and 10!
Countless - Questions asked and (hopefully) answered
Still counting - Contributions to the Grand Prize and runner-up prizes

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Challenge #13!!!

Made you look! ;)

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to go to the NDISB forum and have some more fun! Yes, the race challenges are over, but come on down for some fun and get all the inside news for the next big season!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

More Grand Prizes Still

We have even more fabulous prizes in store for the grand prize pool.

Grand Prize:
Digital Scrapbooking Magazine is offering the Grand Prize winning team a 1-year subscription to Digital Scrapbooking Magazine AND a copy of Digital Designs 2 by Renee Pearson! Digital Scrapbooking Magazine is THE premier magazine for digital scrapbookers everywhere.

Coming Soon: Digital Designs for Scrapbooking 2
Renee Pearson’s long awaited Digital Designs for Scrapbooking 2 will be available May 1st and two lucky winners will get this as well. Her second book goes beyond basic layout design and gets into the good stuff. You’ll learn to make your own elements like chipboard, tags, bookplates and more. Check out the June/July issue of Digital Scrapbooking for an exclusive sneak peek!

Monica McLain is offering two small Memory Purses to the Grand Prize winners. And be sure to check the NDISB store soon for to purchase a Memory Purse. Show off your photos in a fun way with Memory Purses:
  • Measures 7.5in.W x 5.5in.T x 2.in.D
  • Features a snap closure and additional long shoulder strap on the inside
  • Outside straps measure 11 in. on each side
  • Both sides of this sturdy, well made purse have snap openings to hold your 7 x 5 photo or scrapbook page
  • The inside of this purse is lined with a black pin striped fabric
  • The inside contains a small slip in pocket
First Runners Up:
Bree Clarkson is offering two $10 gift certificates to her Sweet Shoppe Designs store. Bree is the queen of templates and the originator of her famous Scrap-Maps. I just bought one of her 4x6 templates last week to make my boys' birthday party invitations.

{we are} storytellers is offering two $10 gift certificates to their store. Everyone has a story to tell! We are here to provide you with high quality digital scrapbooking supplies, inspiration, education and support to help you on your storytelling journey. Whether your project starts with a photo, a word, a feeling, a thought...you will find everything you need at {we are} storytellers.

Second Runners Up:
Jill D-Zines is offering up two $10 gift certificates to her Scrap Dish store. Jill has fresh, clean designs that are perfect for every scrapper!

Kim Hill is offering two $6 gift certificates to her CG Essentials store. CG Essentials was also stop number 12 on your Amazing Digi Scrapping Race, so you should already be familiar with her wonderful, high-quality designs.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

More Grand Prizes

Here are more grand prizes donated from around the community:

Liz Pike of Strawberry Wine Designs is offering a 1-year subscription to her site to each of the Grand Prize winners. This is a $120 value EACH! Liz offers high-quality designs with incredible attention to detail. At Strawberry Wine Designs, Liz makes her digital scrapbooking supplies available in two formats. A monthly subscription with access to all products, including new releases, for one low price. Or the Strawberry Wine Designs Bistro, where you can purchase mini-sets of the full size products available to subscribers. Liz also offers other design services, so be sure to stop by and check out everything she has to offer.

Deco-Pages is offering two 1-year Club Deco memberships, a $36 value each, to the first runner up team. Deco-Pages is a digital scrapbooking web site, all about creativity and friendship! Their designers truly love digital scrapbooking and creating digital products to scrap with. They have a friendly and supportive community and invite you to come check them out. They also offer a Club Deco Membership. Members receive the Mega Kit each month for the duration of your membership which is created by a minimum of 10 designers each month. Each designer creates a mini-kit contribution, so it's not just a Mega Kit, it's much more. In addition, there are a variety of designer freebies and a starter kit for the color challenge each month. With freebies, participation rewards, challenges and chats, they have it all! Please stop by Deco-Pages today and join in the fun!

And Darlene Haughin is offering a kit to each of the second runner up team members from her Stone Accents Studio store. This is a $5 value. Darlene has a clean, fresh style that is suitable for all scrappers. Be sure to check her out.

Challenge #12

I'm sorry this is so late. I had the e-mail from CG Essentials and it somehow got routed to my spam folder. Without further ado, here is the FINAL challenge for Season 3. Enjoy!

Challenge #12

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Challenge #11

Wow, I can't believe it's the last week of the race and the second to last challenge. But, with mixed emotions, here it is at KB and Friends. This one is EASY and fun!!!

Friday, March 28, 2008

A Little about Our Grand Prize Sponsors - Part 1

With the race winding down, I thought it would be a good time to let you know about the Grand Prize sponsors. We have some amazing prizes being offered up by our sponsors and we'd like to let you get to know them just a little better.

First up is Gina Miller Designs. If you the handful of scrappers who have yet to discover this talented designer, now is the time. Gina has her own shoppe at Gina Miller Designs and also is one of the hand-picked designers to help Prima launch their digital division, Prima Hybrid. Gina's designs are unique and often trend-setting. She has an impeccable eye for color and her layouts inspire tons of scrappers, digital, paper and hybrid alike. And on top of that, she's one of the sweetest people in the digital scrapbooking community. Gina has offered a $30 gift certificate to each member of the Grand Prize winning team. So be sure to stop by GMD and say a special thanks!

Next we have Gotta Pixel. Gotta Pixel is a digital scrapbooking community. They provide a friendly, relaxed forum to get to know other digital scrappers, a dynamic and exciting gallery to post your layouts, and a store full of some incredible products that will enhance your next layout. They strive to provide a secure and reliable community for you to learn and grow with. And they'd love to have you stop by and say hello! Gotta Pixel is offering two $20 gift certificates; one for each member of the first runner up team.

And finally for today's post, we have Scrapping Whispers. Scrapping Whispers is the brain child of designer and owner Marta Pavluk, aka MIP Scraps. Together with her talented band of international designers, she's put together a fun site with forums, galleries and a store. Scrapping Whispers is offer any one of their team mega kits to the second runner up team, a value of $15 each! Sto

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Further Clarifications

Because there are still some questions about what "50 different elements" means, it means you can't use the same exact flower by the same designer 10 times to count as 50 different elements. It does mean you can use 10 different sequins by the same or different designers and that would equal 10 different sequins. It also means you can use 25 flowers. As long as it isn't the SAME flower copied 25 times.

I hope that makes it a little more clear and a little easier to complete!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Challenge 10 additional information

Here is the language of the challenge from Plain Digital Wrapper:

• Use at least 50 different elements from at least 10 different designers.
• You may do either a one or two page layout.

Many questions have been asked about this, so we are providing some clarification. One requirement is 50 different elements. If you use 1 sequin 50 times, that is not 50 different elements - that is one element used 50 times. However, the question has come up regarding papers as elements. From Theresa - if the papers are used as elements, they will count as elements. The question then becomes, when is a paper an element. For lack of a better way to put this, let your conscience be your guide. If you cut (real) paper up into strips and put it one a page, those would be elements on the page. If you cut it up into little boxes, those would be elements on the page. If it ends up looking like a quilt, I would have to say that those are all elements, which when taken together, make up the page.

Also, should you wish to use more than 50 elements, or more than 10 designers, you are welcome to!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Monday, March 24, 2008

Week Four is done. Finally!

I think week four was as challenging for us as it was for you!

Once again, the resilience of our racers has come through. I forgot to post this information last week so I don't know how much this number has changed from week 3, but it looks like we have 193 teams remaining in the running!

Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far!

Clarifications on Challenge 9

There were several questions posted about challenge 9. Here is some information we posted in our forums, and I think it's relevant to the questions asked here too. There is no one definition of what altered art is. But in my mind, I'm thinking a collage style.

Here are a couple of definitions I found on "altered art":

From Fragile Industries Studios:

"Altered art is a broad term that encompasses many styles and genres of art. At its most basic, it gives a new artistic life to old and/or used mundane, utilitarian items through the application of techniques and combinations, some recognized as standard artistic methods, some not. "

From Wikipedia although this is more about altered books, it can totally apply to a scrapbook page:

"An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into something else. An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to, collages, rebinds, gold-leafs, creates pop-ups, rubber-stamps, drills, bolts, and/or be-ribbons it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags, rocks, ephemera, or other three-dimensional objects. Some change the shape of the book, or use multiple books in the creation of the finished piece of art."

And from Altered-Art.Net:

"From what we have said it would seem that one answer to this question is that it involves altering or combining existing works of art to produce new pieces of artwork. However, most people would understand this expression to mean the transformation or 'alteration' of ordinary, everyday objects into artistic pieces using, for example, rubber stamps, fabric, paper, paint and fibres."

So I don't want to give you too many guidelines, because art is subjective. Basically, think collage, mixed media, mixing new and old, vintage and modern, etc. But it doesn't HAVE to be old, heritage of vintage. Just some examples.

And my apologies to David Adams of Altered-Art, somehow the link to his site didn't come through the first time I posted this. It has been properly added. Thanks for letting me know, David!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

More news about Challenge #7

We posted this information in the forum, but forgot to put this information on the blog. Our apologies!

As long as your layouts are uploaded on time, you will be able to continue on in the race. If we find that a correction needs to be made, we will allow you to correct it to meet the requirements of the challenge. Thanks!

Challenge #9

Challenge #9 was supposed to be ay Grace Bennett Designs. For reasons I'm still not sure about, Grace has not been able to respond to any of my e-mails in the last few days. So, at this time, I'm going to temporarily suspend Grace's challenge and we'll host another one at NDISB.

Your challenge 9 is to scrap an altered art page. It can be about anything you want. You choose the subject, you choose the products. The only requirement is that it be in the altered art style. Here are some examples to get you started:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/136/3...1f2ef2486d.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...remember2c.jpg

http://www.mosshillstudio.com/images/logorib.jpg

http://www.tattered-edge.com/Images/alookback.gif

http://www.solocraftstudio.co.uk/ima...0pages%202.jpg

I have to say, that this is a style I'm still trying to figure out for myself, so do the best you can and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

The NDISB CT is hard at work on a last-minute assignment. The prize for this challenge will be a set of quick pages from the Road Less Traveled mega kit to coordinate with your challenge #8 prize.

I want to offer my sincere apologies for this being so late. I was really hoping to hear from Grace before i posted this, but have not been able to reach her. I feel like we've had more than our share of mishaps this season of the ADSR and you've all been so fabulous about it. I want to thank you all very much for all your kind words of support. It means more to us than you realize.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

A request, if you please

When posting for Challenge #7 only, it would be appreciated if you would place your team number in your layout description when you upload your layout. Jo from Elemental Scraps is performing the layout verification. This would help her greatly in her quest to verify the correctness of all of the layouts.

If you have already uploaded your layout, you may edit the description using the small icons underneath your layout. Roll your mouse over the lower row of icons, and the one on the far left will let you edit your description when you click on it.

Thanks for the help!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The challenge of Challenge #7!

This is a tough one!

We have already read your comments in our forum about being new and not having supplies, or even being not so new but still having to buy supplies to meet the requirements of the challenge. So we are being proactive in responding to your needs. In fact, your fellow racers have already started helping you out. If you go to this thread on the Natural Designs forum, you will find that a fellow racer has offered her freebies, with enough variation in alphas in particular, to meet the challenge. One well known designer that offers a huge stockpile of freebies can be found here. Please be sure that they all come from the same designer though. There are also other freebie sources available - try entering the words "digital scrapbooking freebies blog" into Google, or your favorite search engine. In our own store we have several designers that have been around quite awhile and you may be able to compile what you need from their sampler packs. (Hint: NDISB designers that meet that profile, you might want to post in the above thread!)


So it seems that challenge #7 is not only challenging your scrapbooking skills, it is also challenging your detective abilities to get the items that you need without spending an arm and a leg, or perhaps anything at all. Who knows, maybe you'll find some more great sources for products!

Many questions regarding the challenge have already been asked and answered. You can find them here.

Racers, please keep in mind that the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race isn't a "contest". We are not awarding a prize to the best layout. We are not trying to narrow the field by weeding people out. Our desire it that everyone that starts the race, finishes the race. We want all participants to have a great time, stretch their boundaries, collect some cool stuff along the way, and be there at the finish to have a shot at the randomly presented Grand Prize or consolation prizes. Remember, if it were easy, it wouldn't be a challenge!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Challenge #7 Has Just been Posted!!

Over at Elemental Scraps. Rush over and check it out! Talk about a challenge that's actually challenging!

Making your life easier, one challenge at a time!

On the left, you will notice the top of the column now has a link to a world clock. All you need to do is to make sure you post before the time in New York goes to 12:00 AM Monday.

For week three, because of challenge clarifications, we have added one day to the deadline. So, for this week only, you have until it says New York 11:59 PM Monday. This may delay the prize postings until Wednesday.

Hope this helps!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Did Someone Ask About Grand Prizes?

We're still talking to designers and sites, but we have some amazing contributions so far. We'll be profiling each site/designer in the coming days, but here is who has signed on so far, in no particular order:

NDISB
Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
Gina Miller Designs
Tracy Ann Digital Art
Darlene Haughin
Inked Edges
Nuts4Digi
Grace Bennet Designs
DigiByDesign
Gotta Pixel
{we are} storytellers
Amanda Rockwell
Elemental Scraps
Scrapping Whispers
Deco-Pages
Pixel Gypsy Designs
Sweet Shoppe Designs
Tuma Soft
Plain Digital Wrapper
CG Essentials
Aimee Designs
Jill D-Zines
Purple Paper Flowers
Divine Digital
Traci Reed
All Things Visual

And we have the potential for some more exiting sponsors in the coming days, so check back often!

Posting the Code in Your Layout for Challenge 6

Here is what you need to know to put your partner's layout in your challenge 6 layout posting. To get the link to your partner's layout, if it is posted at NDISB, just right click on their layout and Copy Image Location. Then past this location between the image codes.*

Please post your layouts to the Challenge #6 Gallery at NDISB no later than the above noted deadline. You MUST include the image code for your partner's original layout in your description so their layout is displayed right under yours in the gallery.

To do this, upload your partner's layout sized to 500x500 to photopost or similar and in your layout's description use the following code to show off their original page alongside your credits in the gallery...

[ img]linktoyourpartnerslayout.com[ /img] (close up the spaces to display)

Click Here to see a sample layout in the gallery of exactly what we're looking for

*If it is posted at another gallery, we ask you to save it down and then either upload it to your gallery and copy the image location, or host it on a third-party site, such as photobucket. Other sites have to pay for all the bandwidth they use, so if you use the link for another digital site and link that back to NDISB, every time that layout is viewed, it is using that other site's bandwidth.

Challenges #5 and #6 are very, well, challenging!

Clarification - we checked with the challenge hosts (since they are their challenges and not ours).

Challenge 5: The interview subject may not be an animal, person or body parts. An example of an inanimate object would be a desk, chair, car, cell phone... you get the idea. And it must be an interview - questions with responses. If both of these aspects are not adhered to, the layout won't count.

Challenge 6: Opposites must be adhered to also. Examples: Happy/Sad, Winter/Summer, Sleeping/Awake. Also, the original layout must be spun, flipped or inverted per the rules. This is why an image posted below your layout is required - to be able to check this quickly.

On both of these challenges, since the journaling is an important part of the challenge, if it is not easily readable, please add it to your description. Click on the left most icon in the lower row of small icons under your layout to edit your original information.

As this clarification is not being posted until Friday, we are extending the layout deadline one day. The upload deadline for Challenges #5 and #6 is midnight Eastern Daylight Time Monday, March 17. You have until it says Monday, 11:59 PM here if you need help with the time zones.

Thanks!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Clarification on Due Date

A few people have asked about when layouts are due. They are due by midnight eastern on Sunday. This means Sunday going into Monday and not Saturday night (midnight) going into Sunday morning. And it's eastern time, which is 9:00 PM Pacific.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Week Three Update

After all of the tallying, checking and cross-checking, it seems that we have 201 teams continuing on.

And if Challenge #6 is upon us, that means we're already halfway through the Race! Congratulations to the 400-plus racers still hanging in with us.

And speaking of Challenge #6, we have had some questions regarding whether both team members could complete this challenge. We've checked with the judges (who are not nearly as nasty as Simon Cowell) and have come up with this ruling: While there is only one official submission per team, both racers may complete the challenge if you wish. Please remember to link to your partners original layout (per the example at Sweet Shoppe Designs). ALSO, please designate your teams "official" layout should both team members choose to complete this challenge.

Also, please remember that both challenges are due by midnight Sunday, Eastern Daylight Time. If you need a reference, here is a handy online world clock with many major cities in the world. Find your time zone, and then compare it to New York. Make sure to upload before it strikes 12:00 AM in New York!

Have fun!

Regarding Challenge No. 1 Prize

I know many of you don't use Photoshop as your preferred software and that makes the prize from Challenge 1, not particularly useful to you. The owner of Digital Scrapbooking Classes, Christy Haig, wanted me to pass this note along to you:

"I want to apologize that the things in my store are not usable for everyone. All of my templates are in PSD and TIF format because I know those file types can be used by most digital scrappers, including those who use Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and ACDSee. I realize however, that not everyone can access these files. To those who have contacted me with this concern, I have offered two alternatives. First of all, the calendar templates in the store are png files so these can be used by a broader audience. If these of not of interest to you, you can contact me and I will transfer the template(s) sets of your choice to png files that can then be reassembled in the program of your choice. I'm sorry that I don't have access to all of the scrapbooking programs out there to create files specific to all programs."

Thanks, Christy, for being so responsive to the racers!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Challenge #6 is UP!

Over at the delectable Sweet Shoppe Designs. Go check it out! It sounds fabulously fun!

Prize Incompatibilty Resolution

I got this from one of my CT members today and it sounds like a great solution for those of you that were unable to use any of those great templates from Challenge 1:

Theresa, I think there is a way everyone can enjoy their prizes, even if they don't use Photoshop. They can download a free 30 day trial of ACDSee Photo Editor here: http://store.acdsee.com/servlet/Cont...uctID=69658000

It will open Photoshop files. They can then save each of the individual layers as .PNG, or they can scrap with them in the program. They may decide they like the program an buy it, but if not, they can covnert anything for use later. I think it also opens PSP files in layers. It will NOT open DIS/DIP PNG Plus files in layers. I tired. It no workee!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Challenge #5 is Up!

Hop on over to Digitals to check it out. It sounds like a blast!

My gosh... it's Saturday. Where has the time gone?

Our last post was Tuesday, so we are way overdue for an update.

One of the reasons that we haven't posted is because things are generally going the way they are supposed to! What's the old saying... "No news is good news"? I think that definitely applies here.

There is still some confusion out there about the challenge three prize resolution. Look for a link in the "prize link" forum, email April at DSM, or contact us at NDISB. Somehow, all of you will get taken care of that chose to participate in challenge three. Did we learn some lessons? Absolutely! Did we find that we have a great community involved with us here in our little race? Without a doubt!

Also, one racer posed a comment about the unfairness of the prizes for the first few challenges, based upon the software that they use. That was a reasonable observation. Not everyone uses Photoshop, or a derivative.

One thing that we would like you to know - Natural Designs in Scrapbooking does not suggest, nor do we coordinate, the prizes for the weekly challenges. While NDISB hosts the race, we leave it to the challenge hosts to determine their own challenge, as well as their prize. Keeping that in mind, not every prize will necessarily be suitable for every racer. We thank you for your understanding and hope that all racers will see some benefit from all of the challenges. One idea that has been raised by several racers is that of taking a prize that they may not be personally able to use, and offering it as a gift to a friend or family member that may be interested in digital scrapbooking, but hasn't started yet. Just think... you might provide someone else's inspiration!

We'll keep you updated over the next few days as to the status of continuing teams, and anything else that seems appropriate. Please continue to enjoy the race, and let us know if there is anything that we can do to improve your experience.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Challenge 3 - Q&A

I had a couple more questions on this after we posted the resolution.

Q.) Is this optional or not? I' m still confused.
A.) Because we did say it was optional, I think we need to leave it optional at this point. It wouldn't be fair to go back and make it mandatory again. What this means is that if you complete the challenge, you will have your choice of the two prizes. If you do not complete the challenge, you won't get a prize, but you also won't be disqualified.

Q.) Do both partners need to complete the challenge?
A.) No. It's optional. Neither one needs to complete it. And just because one team member completes the challenge does NOT mean the other one also needs to.

Q.) How do I indicate which prize I'd like?
A.) Please notify April at DSM which prize you would like. This is their "contact us" form. No registration required. We'll work closely with April at DSM to keep this all straightened out. Also, be sure to see April's last post in this thread regarding buying additional CDs. And be sure to drop her a kind note of thanks for her generosity!!

Challenge and Grand Prize Clarification

Sometimes my fingers get ahead of my brain and I leave vital information out. Here is some additional information about the Challenge and Grand prizes.

When you go to the Challenge Prize links forum you will find a thread topic for each weekly challenge. You will find that Theresa has provided additional information about the prizes for each challenge completed so far. You will notice that the week one Bonus Challenge is not listed. Theresa will be addressing that via an email. Questions about the Bonus Challenge have been answered here. The Bonus Challenge itself can be found here.

Regarding the Grand Prize... well... we could tell you more about it... but we won't! :) At least not just yet... Rest assured, if you don't get it, you will wish you had. If you do, you will be the envy of everyone on your block!

Challenge 4 Has Been Spotted

At your lovely host for this challenge, Oscraps. To see the challenge, click here.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!

That bell rings to a close week one of the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race, Season Three!

The week started with 216 teams registered and raring to go. As often happens, life gets in the way of many things, and we had ten teams drop out for various reasons. So we start week two with 206 teams still in the running for the Grand Prize and the two consolation prizes. (If you need a refresher on the Grand Prize and consolation prizes, you can check the "Official ADSR3 Rules")

So, stretch out... take some deeeeeeeep breaths (innnnnnnn, out. innnnnnnn, out). That's better! (okay... how many of you actually did that just now!) ;)

Prize link information has been better explained in the description of the prize link forum. Links for week one challenges should be posted on Tuesday, US Pacific Standard Time. If you still have questions, please PM the Ogre. (He'll probably ignore you, but you can feel better knowing that you have done your part.) :)

Challenge 3 - The Resolution

I have finally had a chance to talk with April, owner of Digital Scrapbook Memories, about how to proceed with this challenge. First, we both feel bad about how this all worked out for everyone. I also want to make sure everyone is clear that April DID contact me just before the start of the race with her concerns. We talked about what to do, and this seemed like a fair compromise. I realize now, it was a bad judgment call on my part.

We really want everyone to have a fun time racing and have a positive experience with DSM and with the race overall. So, for those who complete the challenge, you will have the option of receiving a free template you can download, or pay the shipping to cover the cost of the $25 CD of digital products. She is also offering the drawing for 25 people to receive the CD free of any shipping charges for those who complete the challenge.

If you have any questions at all regarding these options, please let me or April know and we will do our best to clear up any further issues or concerns anyone has.

Challenge 3 update

We are continuing to work on a positive resolution to the challenge three prize situation.

If you have not been following the topic in the NDISB forum, a quick recap:

Digital Scrapbook Memories (DSM), the host of Challenge #3, only products are digital scrapbook products delivered via CD, and sold via their online store or through retail establishments. DSM has an agreement with their CD retailers that they will not offer their product available via download. It is for this reason that products on the CD can not be made available via download as a prize for the racers. DSM's current offer is to make a $24.95 CD available to racers for $5 to cover shipping costs. DSM has agreed to ship to any racer, in any country for $5.

As many racers have expressed disappointment in having to pay for any prize (the rules specifically state that no payment will be necessary for any portion of the race) we are currently evaluating alternatives that may prove to be suitable. As soon as we have additional information, it will be posted on this blog, and in the NDISB Forum.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to work toward an equitable resolution for all involved.