Thursday, February 26, 2009

And the Winners Are....

So, I took this video of the kids drawing names and now that I watch it back, I realize there is no audio. I'm not sure what happened, the audio was turned on, but something wasn't working right. Sorry about that. I've put it up anyway as evidence of the winners, but it's probably not worth watching this year.



So, without further ado, the winners are:













Second runners up:

Team 33 - Lost Chicks

First runners up:

Team 66 - PSP Mama's

And the grand prize winners:

Team 217 - scrappin' angels

Congratulations everyone and thanks to all of our racers for another great season!

Keep an eye on the blog because we're already in the pre-planning stages for Season 5. We'll be posting regular updates over the course of the next 6+ months as we count down to the next race.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

ADSR4 - by the numbers

1 super amazingly awesome Theresa who hides behind the curtain working furiously on all things ADSR and NDISB (which still has to run properly during the race)
2 disasters - the ice storm in the US and the bush fires in Australia
7 weeks of fun, friendship, frenzy and (hopefully) all-around good times
13 challenge host sites bringing new perspectives, new ideas and new insight to your scrapbooking
14 ADSR4 volunteers (some of whom didn't really know what they were in for, but did a fantastically wonderful job through their (unfortunately) many personal tribulations during the race)
203 teams that finished the race
236 teams that started (or were created during) the race
734 (and counting) forum threads created during the race
4,662 wonderfully creative and inspiring layouts created during the race! 4,662!
17,805 comments (and counting) on the above layouts
27,990 forum posts to the ADSR4 forums and sub-forums during the race (apparently we all talk a lot!)
Unknown - the number of clarification questions asked about all of the challenges!

While Theresa is making ready to announce the Grand Prize drawing and runner up winners, I would just like to take the opportunity to thank each and every racer that took part in the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race - Season 4! When we undertook this four years ago, we had no idea that it would grow into such a powerful engine of friendship and community. With so many racers joining us from so many places around the world, we truly do hope that the ADSR can in some small way help to bring people together in a positive way. Our thanks to each of you for making the ADSR what it has become!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

And the tension mounts!

Now that the final challenge has been completed... the submit button hit one last time for ADSR4... the time has almost arrived for the Grand Prize drawing.

As you can see by the previous post, prizes are still rolling in for what is turning out to be quite an attractive package of goodies! Make sure you scroll back through the previous blog entries if you haven't been keeping up. I am confident that you will be impressed by the array of gifts that Theresa has been able to accumulate on your behalf. In order to make the final event more fun for more people, we have elected to divide up the pool of prizes into one large and two smaller portions of the pool. The large portion will go to our Grand Prize drawing winners, with two other lucky teams also being drawn for runner up portions of the prize pool. With any luck, we may even be able to put together an itemized list so everything can be seen in one blog post.

While Theresa is working on getting the Grand Prize finalized, I will be doing some homework on the numbers of ADSR4. This always provides an interesting perspective on the past 7 weeks or so. As they say in the news biz... "Stay tuned".

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Grand Prizes - Little Dragon Designs

Little Dragon Designs is offering 2 $20.00 coupons into the huge pot for the Grand Prize of the 4th season of the ADSR.

Ailsa, the amazing designer behind Little Dragon Designs, is a loving wife and wonderful mother to a beautiful 2 year old boy. She makes her home outside of Vancouver, Canada. Ailsa has been digiscrapping for several years, and found her home at NDISB after the 2nd ADSR as part of their CT. She started designing last year, and it was only natural to join up with the store in the place she calls her digihome. She has developed a loyal following of Little Dragon Designs in the few short months she has been designing....one that is sure to grow quickly over time!!

Her designs are...well...incredible!! From her soft, natural elements to her worn, shabby papers in rich bold colors each kit has an ease about them that makes scrapping with them nothing short of a pleasure. These kits are perfect for heritage LOs, a favorite of Ailsa's, or for fun LOs about children and everyday life. Incredible in their versatility, Little Dragon Designs kits are essential for the stunning capture of those precious memories.

Here are just a few examples of her amazing work:


Friday, February 20, 2009

The clock is now reset!

My apologies for not getting to this before now.

As some of you know, I travel a great deal on business, and I am currently in the middle of a training program for Infiniti, the automobile manufacturer. Since Tuesday I've gone from Cincinnati, Ohio to Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, St. Louis, Missouri, Des Moines, Iowa and tonight I am in Omaha, Nebraska. I had to call the store yesterday morning to ask what time it was, to find out what time zone I was in!

And by now you all know that the challenges end on Sunday. And Challenge 13's deadline has been well publicized as well. But we all come to rely on comfortable routines and reliable parameters. I had meant to get to the clock before now, but I knew that I had a couple days to work with. With that tale, you now know, as Paul Harvey is wont to say, the rest of the story.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Grand Prizes - Randi Oh Designs

Randi Oh Designs is offering two $10 coupons to the grand prize winners and $5 each to all the runners up!! We asked Randi to tell us a little bit about herself:

I live in New Jersey with my best friend, my rock and my balance -- and our son, who who will be 2 at the end of February. I spend a lot of time with family, as we all live very close to each other.

I am a bit hippy, a bit city chic, and totally down to earth. I am a WAHM (work-at-home-Mom) as a Graphic Digital Scrapbook Designer and an Interior Designer, doing a few houses a year. I have found that my love of fabrics, colors and especially texture make digital design a perfect match for me. I'm particularly fond of making papers and love to take clues from nature, magazines, media – I'm inspired by everything around me! Have you ever really looked at a concrete sidewalk through a photo lens?! I am usually found with a camera in hand, snapping away at anything that intrigues me. I am a published poet and have had 4 Layouts published in magazines.

I discovered Digital Scrapbooking while searching for materials to create a book for my son. It wasn't long before I became totally addicted… It was love at first try! When I found myself altering the items I bought, I knew it was time for me to start designing from scratch. I now sell my Digital Scrapbook products A Cherry on Top.

I also took a peek at Randi's store over at ACOT and found some stuff I just love!! Stop by and see what you can find.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The grand Prizes - Traci Reed

Traci Reed is a 24 year old mom of 2 boys, Karsten is 4 and Josiah is 3! She and her husband Patrick live in the foothills of Northern California, where they were born and raised. Almost 5 years ago, after the birth of her first son, Traci stumbled on to digital scrapbooking and was soon designing thereafter. One of the "veterans" of the industry, she's weathered the storm of this beautiful and creative industry, learning and growing her craft every step along the way! She is now proud to have called the Sweet Shoppe her home for almost a year and a half and feels she's found her niche in the land of beautiful, bold colors, hand drawn designs and sugary sweet fun!

For the past two years (almost) she's also been running The Digi Dares (http://www.digidares.com), a fun and inspirational weekly challenge site that is open to everyone, with no required product usage or store affiliation! They also give out a coupon each week from their featured designer and $50 in prizes every week too!

When she's not designing or scrapping, Traci is also a full time student in Applied Art and Design, carting her kids back and forth to their various school functions and sports (already!?!?), cooking or knitting! She's thrilled to be sponsoring ADSR for the third year in a row!

We asked Traci what some of her favorite products were that she created, and frankly, we love 'em too!






Monday, February 16, 2009

The Grand Prizes - Scrapping Whispers and Digi Scrap Mania

The designers of Scrapping Whispers and Digi Scrap Mania got together and are offering up some amazing prizes:

Each member of one of the three teams drawn will receive a coupon good for any of the Scrapping Whispers mega kits.
Aquarius Designs is offing 2 50% Off coupons to her Scrapping Whispers store.

Sol Oliveira Designs is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Scrapping Whispers store.

JIC Creations is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Scrapping Whispers store.
EAL Designs is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Scrapping Whispers store.

MIP Scraps is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Digi Scrap Mania store.
Darlene H is offering up two "All The Elements Mini Kit" from her Digi Scrap Mania Store.
Mary Designs is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Digi Scrap Mania store.

PatStiloScrap is offering two $5.00 coupons to her Digi Scrap Mania store.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Challenge 13 is optional

We have received several questions about this, and although it was not originally planned to be optional, we have changed our position due to a couple of factors.

Prior to the race, we said that the race was 6 weeks long, and that there would be up to 12 challenges in this post. Based on this, and the fact that we had only 12 challenge galleries made ready in the gallery would lead a reasonable person to expect that the race would be six weeks long with 12 challenges. So Challenge 13, hosted by Natural Designs is optional.

We sincerely apologize for the confusion wrought by this additional challenge. We were looking to add an additional element of fun, along with a surprise to the end of the race, but we realize that some plans had been made around the original 6 week expectation.

The Grand Prize drawing will be held after the conclusion of the checkin process for Challenge 13. We expect that the Grand Prize drawing will be held sometime during the week of February 22. Good luck!

The Grand Prizes - Deco Pages

Deco Pages is offering a 1 Year Club Deco subscription to the Grand Prize Winners, 3 month Club Deco subscription to the runners up and a 1 month Club Deco Subscription to all the participants of the race, (Subscriptions to all participants for the one month trial will begin on March 1, 2009).

Dedicated to helping it’s members to Always Remember, Deco Pages is your online Digital Resource for digital kits, tips, tutorials and more. Deco Pages provides a warm, friendly, supportive and informational resource for new and experienced digital scrapbookers. We offer unique digital scrapbook kits, a dedicated volunteer staff, talented designers and a gallery full of love as well as a variety of challenges that help you to scrap your life and preserve those memories for generations to come. Coupled with the sister site “Digital Scrapbook Connection” which is dedicated to those just starting out in the digital scrapbooking arena, Deco Pages is a wonderful resource for Digital Scrapbookers.

There’s a wide variety of prizes offered in the challenges from the talented designers and moderators as well as a variety of other resources and benefits. Club Deco members receive a monthly themed collaborative mega kit with contributions from various designers. They also receive starter kits for a variety of challenges that are offered in the forum and special designer discounts in the store. There are participation prizes for the challenges and a variety of fun and games to play. Our gallery is full of inspirational pages that tell the stories of our lives and our dedicated members spread warm thoughts and love throughout.

Visit us today at:

http://www.deco-pages.com (store)
http://www.digitalscrapbookconnection.com/ (sister site)
http://board.deco-pages.com/forums/index.php (forum)
http://board.deco-pages.com/ (gallery)

Additional information... to receive your free month of the club during March, you need to come to Deco-Pages (the sooner the better!!!), sign up and after you are registered, send a PM to either DebAmmerman or PatinParis giving us your user name at Deco-Pages. We will then get you set for March 1 for Club-Deco!! Thanks everyone!

Friday, February 13, 2009

What Happend to Challenge #12?

I posted a link to it on Tuesday and now the post is gone? Thanks for the heads up from a kind person letting me know it's gone.

Here is the link for challenge #12 again. Sorry about anyone who missed it.

Challenge #13

Yes, you read that right. Challenge #13. So here you go, you can access it right here.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Well, this IS surprising!

We've made it this far into the race, and nobody (as near as my grey matter can recall) has commented on the fact that there are thirteen "Host Sites" blinkies on the right hand side of the blog.

Hmmmmm... what could this mean!?

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Grand Prizes - {we are} storytellers

Not only are they a host of Challenge 12, but also donating toward the grand prize. They're giving away $20 gift certificates to the grand prize winners and $10 to the runners up. Here's just a little bit about this fabulous site:

At {we are} storytellers, we believe everyone has a story to tell and we're here to help! We not only have high quality, unique digital scrapbooking supplies, but we provide inspiration, education and support to help you on your storytelling journey. We believe in the importance of capturing and preserving your memories. We know that it's not always easy, so we offer daily inspiration, education, challenges, contest and more on our blog and in our forums to help you along the way.

Along with all the activities on our blog and forums, we invite you to visit our gallery. You'll find amazing layouts that capture our philosophy of storytelling and celebrating everyday (which we believe is where life really happens, those quiet moments tucked in between the significant events and milestone celebrations). You will also find our unique {footnotes} -- tips and techniques, nuggets of information and education in an easy to understand format.

Each day is special at {wst}, but some days might be a bit more special than others, at least our customers might think so! We offer Page Turner Tuesdays where most all of the boutique is marked down 25% along with the weekly debut of Cover Stories, one of our weekly challenges with a fabulous free gift. Also, our Book Fair comes into town each Thursday. Book Fair offers a brand new kit for only$2, plus a discount of 35% on two other products of your choice.

Please visit us often and share your stories -- we are so inspired by the work you all are doing during this race and daily! Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter Storytelling. We are launching a completely new format starting Feb 15, offering education, inspiration, gifts and coupons -- you do not want to miss out on that!

You can find everything you need at the following links:
links:

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Prizes for Challenges 7 and 8

Since the deadlines for Challenges 7 and 8 were extended to tonight, the prize threads for Challenges 7 and 8 will not be posted until this week, when the prize threads for Challenges 9 and 10 are posted. This will be by Wednesday, February 11. With the extension of the deadline, we can't put the prize codes up until all of the layouts are properly verified. Just think of it as a week chock full of prizes. Thanks!

Challenge #11

Is being hosted by the fabulous fun and funky Scrap Orchard and you can find the challenge here.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Grand Prizes - Tracey Rennemo Designs

Scrap-Illuzion Designs by Tracey Rennemo is generously donating two $30 gift certificates to the grand prize winners, two $20 gift certificates to the first runners up and two $10 gift certificates to the second runners up to her Scrapbook-Bytes store. We asked Tracey to tell us a little bit about herself:

In 2004 I started out at Scrapbook-bytes as a Design Team Member writing tutorials for PSP users. Which inspired me try my hand as a designer in late 2007. I owe a lot to Amy, the owner of SBB for having faith in me and giving me the chance.

I have only sold in one store and sell exclusively at Scrapbook-bytes.com

I am proud to be a recognized quality designer who creates many unique resources for use in Paint Shop Pro. Whenever possible I try to create a great number of my PSP products that can be used in all the digital programs.

I enjoy pushing my limits while designing and I attempt to create unusual elements, which are my favorite products to create.

You can check out my design quality by downloading a few sample products available at my own personal store Scrap Illuzion Designs where you will always be able to find my current TOU and contact info. I believe in making myself available to my wonderful customers because without you, I wouldn’t have a reason to do what I love doing!

Here are some of her products to you to ooo and ahhhh over:

3D Folders and Tags are perfect to file little goodies into!

4 different styles to choose from and create, just your own digital papers and textures to fill in the .psd templates, add your own text and embellishments and you are ready to use the 3D Files and Tags on your layouts.

8 .psd files included (4 Black & White Templates & 4 Colored Templates)
11 completed tags ready to use on your Personal, S4O & S4H projects.

This product is available for Designer Use, S4H, S4O and Personal Use.



Create your own Custom Spiral Notebooks:

Have you ever wanted to create that perfect notebook for your layouts?
This complete set is all you will ever need to create any type of notebook with spiral bindings.
You create the size and shape of your notebook, either create it folded or have an open face notebook to journal on.
Use your own papers, textures embellishments to complete your notebook.
I have included 4 notebook templates to get you started, along with 6 completed notebooks.

I have included so many types of spiral bindings with so many different hole options, that I can't even begin to list all of them.
The PSP version is 93MB's, the PSD version is 130MB's. There are no Bloated files,

these are layered individual unique files, THIS IS A HUGE COLLECTION!

The PSP version comes with an additional 16 bonus Tubes for easier placement as only PSP Tubes can do!

I have included completed spirals for the Adobe Photoshop users in different sizes and lengths for your convenience; otherwise you also have all the files and layered images as the PSP product.
These products are available for Designer Use, S4H, S4O and Personal Use.



Cardstock Shaped Flowers:

10 .psd flower shaped templates including inner bevel, texture, shadows and flower shape layers to customize and colorize.
There are no colored flowers in this pack of card stock flowers. Use them as they are, fill them with a patterned paper or deco art to match your layout. Add decorations to them, stack and or tack them to unto anything.
Created at 300PPI Available to use as Personal and Designer use.




Ooops, Challenge 10

I just realized I totally forgot to post the link to Challenge 10, although it appears everyone has found it even without me...

You can find it here at Pixel Gypsy Designs. This is the second roadblock.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Grand Prizes - Ginger Scraps

Ginger Scraps is donating two $5 gift certificates to the pool! Here is a little bit about Ginger.

I started scrapping about 11 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. Of course it was paper scrapping. I was hooked immediately!! I love everything about scrapping. It lets my creativity run wild while preserving and showcasing my memories. I started Digi scrapping about 3 years ago. At first I was sure I would still paper scrap as well. But as I have gotten more and more into digi I am absolutely in love with it!! It is so exciting to challenge myself and learning new techniques. What I love the most is that Digi has no limits- I feel like anything I dream up I can put into a scrap page.

The designing bug bit me, and now that is what I spend 80% of my scrapping time doing. I am having so much fun!! I love seeing all the beautiful creations other ladies make with my designs!!

Here are a few of my favorite products...

Eat Your Veggies


This was such a fun kit to make!!

This is a super cute kit for photos of your little ones... All those great pics of your little ones eating their first baby food, or chomping on some corn on the cob. Pics of working in the garden, or showing off your harvest. Or if you just love veggies!! :) It is bright and fun, and a little funky.

Wild Cherry Tea


I designed it with my sister Julie in mind. She loves Cherries and Tea so I thought I would combine them in a kit just for her. And you all too. Enjoy!! Can't wait to see your LO's!!!

Kayla's Quilt


Kayla's Quilt was inspired after my Niece Kayla. She made this beautiful quit and right when I saw it I wanted to make a scrapping kit!! Almost everything in this kit are real things that my sister and I took pictures of and then I extracted and embellished. The rich colors and wonderful textures make it perfect for scrapping sepia photos and all your heritage photos as well!!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Congratulations!

To team Jungle Babes for being the first to complete and upload their Challenge 8 layouts! As Challenge 8 was a Fast Forward challenge, this will allow them to bypass Challenge 9 (if they wish), but still receive the Challenge 9 participation gift. How cool is that!

Extension for Challenges 7 and 8

Due to the ice storm that hit a major portion of the United States this week, and as the majority of our racers live in the United States, after significant racer input and long discussion, Natural Designs has chosen to extend the deadline for Challenges 7 and 8 for all racers to next Sunday, February 8 to coincide with the deadline for Challenges 9 and 10. So just to be clear, Challenges 7, 8, 9 and 10 will all be due on Sunday, February 8.

Yes, we understand that many racers completed the challenges by the original deadline, and that some may benefit that were not impacted by the ice storm. We are not generally in favor of exceptions to the rules, due to the large numbers involved in the race and the difficulty of trying to manage individual exceptions. If an individual racer were to miss a deadline due to, as someone referred to this, "a natural disaster", we would not make an exception. But because of the scope of this particular issue, the only fair way to deal with it is to extend the deadline not only for those impacted, but for all racers. On an individual basis, there is little that we can do to verify a claim. In this situation, it is pretty apparent that an ice storm did occur, and that a significant part of the country was impacted. We hope that an extra seven days will allow everyone affected with an opportunity to complete and upload their challenge.

On a separate note, the deadlines for redeeming challenge prize coupons has been extended by Anita Stergiou Designs until February 7 and by Inspiration Lane until February 28. We urge you to take advantage of these offers sooner rather than later to ensure that you have no problems accessing your challenge gifts.

Challenge #9

Can be found here at KB and Friends. Good luck!