The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race Season 4

ADSR5 is now open!

2010-01-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

Registration information and rules for ADSR5 can be found here.

And the Winners Are....

2009-02-26T18:07:00.000-08:00

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.

ADSR4 - by the numbers

2009-02-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

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!

And the tension mounts!

2009-02-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

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".

The Grand Prizes - Little Dragon Designs

2009-02-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

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:

The clock is now reset!

2009-02-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

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.

The Grand Prizes - Randi Oh Designs

2009-02-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

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.

The grand Prizes - Traci Reed

2009-02-17T18:53:00.001-08:00

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!

The Grand Prizes - Scrapping Whispers and Digi Scrap Mania

2009-02-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

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.

Challenge 13 is optional

2009-02-14T17:34:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-14T09:07:00.000-08:00

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!

What Happend to Challenge #12?

2009-02-13T20:48:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

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

Well, this IS surprising!

2009-02-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

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!?

The Grand Prizes - {we are} storytellers

2009-02-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

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:

our boutique - http://www.wearestorytellers.net/boutique/home.php

our blog - http://wearestorytellers.typepad.com/

our forums - http://www.wearestorytellers.com/tales/

our gallery - http://www.wearestorytellers.com/stories/

our newsletter sign up - http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101957897386&p=oi

Prizes for Challenges 7 and 8

2009-02-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

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

The Grand Prizes - Tracey Rennemo Designs

2009-02-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-07T12:03:00.001-08:00

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.

The Grand Prizes - Ginger Scraps

2009-02-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

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!!

Congratulations!

2009-02-01T23:38:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

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

A request from Tangie Baxter

2009-01-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

Tangie would just like to remind everyone that the coupon for Challenge Four expires on Saturday, January 31st at 11:59 EST. If you don't visit the forum regularly, I've posted a link to Tangie's post over there. She is asking that you try to use the coupon today just in case there are any issues that need to be resolved, hopefully they can be addressed by tomorrow.

Thanks!

Moving right along!

2009-01-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

I don't really have anything to say, but just updated the countdown timer in the left hand border, and noticed that Theresa has been making all of the blog posts lately. In the interest of fair representation, I am making a blog post too. Because I can.

But... as this is a short blog post, and I'm sure that you are in the reading mood, you can go to my blog and read my latest entry. Or you can just ignore me and go about the rest of your day!

The Grand Prizes - Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild

2009-01-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

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.

The Guild's online community is dedicated to creating an environment of learning and encouragement that helps advance the craft of digital scrapbooking. We invite you to come and be a part of this special place!

They have generously donated two 3-month month memberships to the first place team, two 2-month memberships for the first runners up and two 1-month memberships to the second runners up.

To give you an idea of what membership gets you, these are just examples of January's mega kit and the Artisan Notebook:

The Grand Prizes - Jodie McNally

2009-01-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

Jodie McNally is a Word Art Designer at Oscraps! She creates grungy, stampy word art and has recently started creating papers, too! In honor of Challenge #8 and its requirement of using the word dream on your layout, she put her "Sleepy Time Word Art" on sale for just $1.00! She also has a new newsletter and you get a gift for signing up! Check out her blog for details and to sign up!

I recently just discovered this heavenly word art designer myself and did a little shopping last night. I picked up just a few things, but have already used one in this layout.

Challenge #8

2009-01-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

Is being hosted by none other than Oscraps and it's not only fun, it's relatively easy! You can find it here.

The Grand Prizes - Digi Web Studio

2009-01-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

Digi Web Studio is offering up two $10 gift certificates.

Digi Web Studio offers clipart collections, digi scrap graphics (CU/S4H/S4O) and much more for immediate download - *and you don't have to pay any license fees*!

Here is just a sampling of some of the great products you'll find on this unique site:

Also be sure to check out the Whimsy Primsy collection for some other great artwork. And right now, there's a huge sale going on. So stop by and check out this fantastic site.

Challenge #7

2009-01-24T21:40:00.001-08:00

Is right here at Sunshine Studios.

The Grand Prizes Start to Roll In

2009-01-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing with you the wonderful designers and sites that are contributing to our grand prize pool. First up is the lovely and talented Kari Hentzelt. Kari is donating two $10 gift certificates to her Scrapbook-Bytes! store. Here is just a little bit about Kari:

Kari Hentzelt Digital Designs
...at Scrapbook-Bytes!

Though I began designing in the Autumn of 2006, I still foremost consider myself a scrapbooker. I thrive upon knowing that I am preserving my family's important memories and every day events for years to come. The digital evolution has made this task even easier!

In my designs, you will find gorgeous color combinations and beautiful texture that I so much enjoy. There's something for everyone, whether you have sons or daughters, whether you like deep color or just a splash of softness or playfulness! I enjoy creating immensely, and even more, I enjoy seeing what fellow scrapbookers have done with my designs!

Remember, you really never know when you're making a memory, so enjoy each moment, always keep your camera close-by, and remember to include meaningful journalling so that you can re-live those special moments for a lifetime!

Happy Scrapping, everyone!

I did a little perusing in Kari's store and below are just a few of my favorite designs that I found there.

Go see what you can find to fal in love with! She's having a sale now too, so you can pick up some gorgeous goodness and save at the same time! Does it really get any better than that?

Just some little tid-bits for you

2009-01-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

Did you realize that when you get done with Challenge Six this week, you'll be halfway done with the race! Now that this steamroller got moving, it's going by pretty quickly, isn't it?

I often have things rattling around inside my head, and occasionally they just seem to fall out. (Sometimes they get stuck, which can really be painful...) But here are some of the things that fell out, so I thought that I'd pass them along.

Not all of you frequent the NDISB Forums to just hang out. (Shame on you!) If you do, you may have seen a reference to this already. Each month, NDISB puts together a huge mega-kit that most of our designers contribute to - typically a pretty good sized package that has some pretty cool stuff in it. A couple of days ago the January Customer Appreciation Kit was placed in the store. A $10.99 value, this mega-kit is available free to you with any $8.00 purchase. That's the equivalent of something better than 50% off! (I was never very good at math...)

And for those of you that said "Man... I wish I'd known about that before I went shopping yesterday", I've got something for you too!

If you go here, you will see all of the free products that are currently available from NDISB! Several designers are currently represented, with a variety of scrapping styles. I daresay, you might have been able to use some of them on some of the challenges that have been issued so far (and perhaps some still to come!). You might wish to bookmark that page of the store as these products will change and you might get to try out some of our other designers' products as well - you know - kind of like taking them for a test drive?

Oh... and one other thing that I was thinking about. We really need to do a better job next year of letting people know what the ADSR is not. Although it is called a Race, it is not a competition! It is a series of challenges, offered up by various digital scrapbooking sites that you may or may not be familiar with, hosted by Natural Designs in Scrapbooking (which you have already come to know and love!). And although we've talked about the Grand Prize, that conjures up the idea that it is a competition with a winner. That's not precisely correct.

What is correct, is that each team that completes all of the challenges by the proper deadlines, then has their name put into a hat. (Or more likely, one of our kids' sand buckets!). And we have a drawing for the Grand Prize. So I guess you could say that the "cost" of the entry into the Grand Prize drawing, is the completion of all of the challenges. No judging. No winners. No Losers. So whether you are a first time digi-scrapper (and we have at least one racer this year whose first layout ever published online was for Challenge One. So for Challenge Three, she had to re-do her Challenge One layout!) or whether you have been at it for years, we hope that you find something fun and inspiring about our little race. And even if your teams' name isn't pulled out of the hat at the end of the race, you will have received lots of scrapping experience, made some new friends, and collected some really cool gifts along the way (which many of you have taken advantage of already!).

So with that, good luck as we roll toward the second half of ADSR Season 4!

Challenge #6

2009-01-20T16:11:00.001-08:00

Can be found here at Inspiration Lane!

About those Darn Rules

2009-01-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

I know there is some frustration over the timing of the fifth challenge posting and I do understand it. I know everyone has gotten pretty used to challenges being posted closer to the midnight Saturday going into Sunday time frame. I also know that everyone understands that the rules merely state that it will be posted on Sunday.

We really are a very international site. We have designers, creative team members, scrappers and customers from all over the world, in nearly every conceivable time zone. But, for the sake of OUR convenience, being a pacific coast time zone company, we based our official days on the eastern time zone of the United States. So Sunday officially begins and ends, for the purposes of this race, at 12:00 AM EST and 11:59 PM respectively.

That said, I know and get the frustration over the timing of the posting of this particular challenge. Because of our international presence, we have sites participating from other parts of the world too. And they are aware of the Sunday posting requirement. They were not contractually obligated to post at midnight eastern US time, just between the hours of 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM EST.

With an international presence, this likely can and will happen again; where the challenge isn't posted exactly at midnight, or even by noon. But it will always be posted on Sunday. Just as you must have your layouts in by Sunday before midnight, we promise we will give you the full 24 hours on Sunday to do so!

And, as long as we're talking about international time zones, I thought I'd throw in a little trivia... Did you know that Australia only has three official time zones, but those time zones are offset by only 30 minutes instead of an hour? So if it's noon in the west, it's 11:30 in the central and 11:00 in the east. They also have some unofficial timezones that are offset by 15 minutes. Talk about trying to figure out what time it is somewhere else!

Now that we have the pesky rules out of the way, I wanted to address something else. I know some people feel that our staff haven't addressed their concerns in the most polite manner possible. Our staff are volunteers and working their tails off to help everyone, but we're also cognizant that the apparent tone of the written word can and does come across more harsh sometimes than intended. So, we're reminding everyone to take deep breaths after reading and before answering posts. Stressed out racers who have been scrapping their little hearts out and meeting deadlines while changing diapers, working two jobs and dealing with sick family members need a little extra TLC and that's what we're here for.

So, know we've heard you and understand your frustrations and we'll do what we can, within the rules of course. We can always reevaluate our rules for next season. We always take your suggestions into consideration. It's really helped shape our race so far and made it the best little digi race on the net!

Challenge #5

2009-01-18T18:00:00.001-08:00

Is here!!!

Getting to Know Our Hosts - Elemental Scraps

2009-01-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

Have you checked out ES lately? There have been lots of changed in the last couple months! New owner, new challenges, new designers, and more!

We've recently switched to having new releases only on Mondays - which makes it so much more exciting to see what new stuff shows up in the store. (And we post sneak peeks on the forums all weekend, just to stir up trouble ) But that's not all we do on Mondays - every Monday in the store we have something ELSE fun to do! Sometimes it's dollar day, sometimes it's Free With Purchase day, or Build Your Own Mega, or a storewide sale, you just never know what you'll find!

Our new challenge forum also struts its stuff on Mondays with brand new challenges every week. Complete a challenge, earn 5 points. Use current ES goodies, earn 5 more. What's more exciting is that at the end of the month, the points get added to your store account and can be spent! Check out the challenge forum rules for more info on that.

We have a great group of folks that are always willing to help with a layout, welcome you to the forum, or lend an ear if you need to vent! Stop by and say Hi sometime.

Challenge #4

2009-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Challenge #4 can be found here. Enjoy!!

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days!

Woke up this morning with kids crawling all over me. Pretty standard wake-up call.

Stumble into the office (short commute... just down the hall) to find PMs and emails and forum posts about the Team Links forum having gone missing.

Then, find out that the gallery has been hacked!

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Theresa kindly brings me some coffee, as she is now aware of what's going on too.

Frantic exploration to discover the extent of the problem. Changing passwords everywhere. Consider possibility of having to restore from backup.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

More coffee (which I made, and even made a second cup for T!).

OK... now that my heart is beating at something less than 1000 beats per minute, and my head is clearing, I start thinking a little more rationally. Well, as rationally as an Ogre ever can think.

Make my way into the innards of the site and discover that hackers have indeed modified the gallery, but it was an easy fix, so was able to take care of it myself.

Now, onto the disappearing forum.

Late last night, I created the prize forum that everyone has been so anxiously asking about (which will be viewable later today). Also created a new user group. In my tired state, I changed permissions on the wrong forum. Went in this morning and returned it to its rightful state.

Deep breath...

Now I am posting to the world the ineptitude of your NDISB webmaster - namely... me.

Thank you all for your understanding as we continue to provide you with an interesting ADSR experience!

btw, it was pointed out to me that the Time in New York clock is based on your computer time, so if your computer time is wrong, so will be the New York time. But... the "click here" link taking you to the countdown clock is still valid, as that does not reside on your computer. E

Getting to Know Our Hosts - Hummie's World

2009-01-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

We wanted to provide you an opportunity, between challenges, to learn a little more about the generous sites that have offered to be stops on Season 4 of the ADSR. Your first destination was a little corner of the internet known as Hummie's World. Here is just a little bit about Hummie's World that you may or may not have already known. Be sure to stop by and poke around a bit more to see everything they have to offer:

Hummie’s World is a site focused on learning and inspiration.

1. Learning – Hummie teaches in Photoshop Elements. There are many free .pdf tutorials available for the beginner to advanced users. There are currently over 188 video tutorials, some free as samples and the rest in the Subscriber Area. Hummie continues to record videos each week, adding new content. Many more experienced PSE users have exclaimed how much they have learned even in the basic tutorials. To view the indexes of the tutorials, see this page: http://www.hummiesworld.com/Tutorials.html.

2. Inspiration – The site is full of challenges. Most challenges are available for all in the main area of the forum. The gallery is an open gallery to all that are participating in the challenges and the community (in that you can use products from anywhere). Anyone may create a challenge and post it (not just Hummie). There is even an away section to share challenges found at other sites. Do you like designing and sharing what you make? The site also offers these challenges.

The Subscriber Area contains the technique challenges with videos. There will always be something new to learn and this is what keeps our hobby so addictive. Be motivated to scrap pages by trying new techniques on pages. The Subscriber Area also contains the template challenges with currently 50 available templates and more being made each month. Do a template a day!

Need help improving your layouts? Be sure to utilize the Layout Suggestion threads in the Subscriber Area where Hummie will share design principles with you. Others are welcome to help each other too.

Hidden away in the Resource threads of the forum is the Resource Jamboree, full of links to other sites and blogs sure to keep you busy for weeks. In addition, there is an extensive list of links to tutorials and resources at other sites on the link pages. Don’t miss them!

3. Products – Hummie’s World does not have a shop. All products are shared as free downloads in the Subscriber Area, including full kits, templates, and small items used in tutorials, all shared to help those who are learning. There are currently over 125 downloadable folders in the Subscriber Area.

Although advertising is not welcome on the site, there is a forum area for enabling. In this area you may share great finds at other sites for purchase. There is also an area for sharing freebies available at other sites. The site is supportive of all other sites, but without the motive to advertise.

The Subscriber Area is only $5.50 a month. I suppose one could subscribe for one month, grab all the templates and freebies, and unsubscribe. However, I do hope that those that subscribe become active participants in the lessons, technique challenges, and template challenges. For more information on Subscribing, read here: http://www.hummiesworld.com/Subscriber.html

Hummie just wants to get people excited to always learn new things and to just get some pages done to preserve our memories. She stresses journaling to create treasures that are sure to be there for a lifetime to come.

Can you say crazy?!

2009-01-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

That pretty much describes week one of ADSR4!

Challenge One, brought to us by Hummies World, was a nice easy warm-up to the race, with only two real requirements. Tear a photo into three pieces, and include some journaling. Sounds simple enough, right? Who knew that everyone has their own idea of what journaling is?! Isn't it amazing how seemingly simple things aren't so simple once they are looked at a little more closely?

And then came Challenge Two! (Thank you Elemental Scraps!)

Challenge Two was certainly an exercise in interpretation! While a photo and journaling is one thing, the definition of an element is in the eye of the beholder! LOL

Which brings me to my next point. Please remember that Natural Designs is hosting the race, but we are not the creators of the challenges. Why is this information important? Because we don't necessarily know what the challenge creator had in mind when the challenge was written. So when you have a challenge specific question, please ask it at the challenge host site. While we can certainly help with guidance and assistance in completing the challenge, and we will do everything we can to help you, any question regarding interpretation of a challenge guideline will be referred back to the challenge host. I understand that we did answer questions on Challenge Two, but in the future, please refer questions to the challenge host. Also, we are reviewing future challenges to try to clear up any possibly confusing interpretations before the challenge is posted. While this will certainly not resolve every question, we hope to reduce some of the avalanche!

Finally, we are drawn, once again, to the countdown clock link. As late posted layouts were always a concern in previous races, and the question always came down to not knowing if a racer was converting time properly we took three steps to resolve this as an issue. The countdown clock link exists so that all racers know exactly how much time is left until the deadline. Also, right above the link is the time in New York. In addition, we have set the time of the gallery to properly reflect when a layout is uploaded, based on Eastern Standard Time. If a layout was uploaded by the deadline for week one, underneath the layout in the gallery it will say Sunday, January 11, 2009. If it was uploaded after the deadline it will say Monday, January 12, 2009. Certain layouts may have been uploaded prior to the deadline, but may have not met the challenge requirements. We do understand that the world does not revolve around ADSR (although we're not really sure why not...), so in that instance, they were given a chance to correct the layout and re-upload the corrected layout. If they were not notified by our staff until Sunday that a correction was required, the deadline was extended to Monday for that layout only. We are keeping track on our spreadsheet of all of this information.

Also, it appears that at least one of our racers has already lost her partner! If any of you find yourselves in this situation by Sunday, you can join her and both continue on and still be eligible for the Grand Prize.

Good luck!

Challenge #3

2009-01-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

This one sounds like so much fun!

You can find it here.

Challenge #2

2009-01-06T21:16:00.001-08:00

Can be found right here. Have fun!

My Goodness!

2009-01-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

I don't know where to start!

The race gets started... the Chargers beat the Colts... I took the kids to the Car Show... so much to talk about and so little time! :)

First, I can see by all of the activity in the NDISB forum that you all have found the challenge and are off and racing. Congratulations! Let the fun begin!

Just a couple things that I wanted to mention. Of all the tips that I've seen from veteran racers, the one that seems to pop up most often is "Don't procrastinate". Since they've done this before, I'd say you might want to listen to them!

All teams should have found their thread in this forum, to post links to their challenge layouts. You have all been assigned a volunteer who will be checking with you on the completion of your layouts. They should be dropping in to introduce themselves shortly. Please feel free to ask them any questions also. You might also see me every once in a while!

The challenge prize forums are private forums. You cannot see them yet. All layouts need to be verified before you will be given access to these forums. Each challenge will have its own prize forum, so if one team drops out part way through for whatever reason, they will not have access to future challenge prizes. When your team successfully completes the challenges, and when all layouts are verified for all teams, you will be granted access. This is generally by Wednesday of the week following the challenges. (So for example: this weeks challenges (1 and 2) are due by Sunday at midnight. Prize forums for challenge 1 and challenge 2 will be made available to you by Wednesday of next week.) Also, each team will be granted access individually. You will be notified (probably both via this blog, and the NDISB ADSR4 forum) when access is made available.

The ADSR4 FAQ thread is continually being updated as new questions are asked. New questions are added to the top of the questions list. Please take a look at this list to see if your question has been asked. Speaking of questions - we are still getting many questions that are answered in the rules. Please read the rules if you haven't done so yet. With over 230 teams racing, that is over 450 individuals running the race. That's a lot of repeat questions. Your cooperation really is appreciated!

We have updated the rules to clarify the challenge qualifications. All challenges are for both team mates unless otherwise specified. So, for challenge 1, both of you do your own version of the challenge, and each team mate would post a link to their layout in your thread.

You will notice that if you click the "click here" link under the clock in the upper left hand corner of the blog, it now reflects how much time you have until midnight next Sunday night (EST). We will reset this every week. Also, the Natural Designs forum and gallery time zone may not accurately reflect the time that you make a post. This is intentional. Because of the physical location of the server, we have the timing of the forum/gallery such that when you upload a layout, the date of the upload accurately reflects Eastern Standard Time. Why is this important? Because if you really do upload your layout by Sunday night at midnight, your layout will say Sunday, January 11, 2009 under it. So you see... we have learned a few things from previous races!

Oh yeah... the Chargers beat the Colts, and I took the kids to the car show!

Good Luck!

We're Officially Off!

2009-01-03T22:26:00.001-08:00

You can find the first challenge here.

And congratulations to the Pixel Packin' Mamas from the Ogre for, in his view, selecting the most clever name for Season 4. Each team member will receive a $15 gift certificate to the NDISB store. Congratulations!

More About the Chat

2009-01-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

I know the chat room was full last night. We were there for nearly two hours to try and accommodate everyone, but know that still might not have worked in some cases. If you tried to get in last night and were unable to, send an e-mail to RaceHost with your team number and the time you tried to get into the chat room and I'll get you the code. But please be patient. We're on our way to the playoffs (Chargers vs. Colts) so I may not get back to you until tomorrow.

Go BOLTS!!!!!!!

The Chat Kit

2009-01-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Those who were able to attend the chat were given a code to get this kit for free. Just click on the image to go to the kit in the store:

The coupon is only good through January 10. If you haven't had a chance to get it by then, e-mail me and I'll get you a new code.

The Kickoff Chat

2009-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

Okay... here's the deal.

If you click on the "academy" link at the top of the forum, under the header, that will take you to the host of the chat. Roll your mouse over "Community" and click "chat". One of two things will happen, it will allow you to log in (as guest), or it will say something about Max Sessions Exceeded. It seems like the limit is actually 50 people, not 200.

Theresa is going to ask early arrivers to leave by the top of the hour. And... the chat will continue beyond the top of the hour. Apparently Theresa forgot that the rules (that she wrote ) said 10PM Eastern. Anyway, anyone that wants to participate should get to participate. If you still can't get in, please post to this forum by 10:45PM EST tonight, and we will ensure that you get the chat prize. Thanks!

(Posted by Ernie while logged in as Theresa!)

Try This Link Instead!!

2009-01-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

For some reason, when I linked directly to the chat room, it gives an error, chatroom full. So try this link instead:

http://www.digitalscrapbookartisanguild.com/academy/academy.shtml

then, click on Community/Chat from the academy page to get to the chat room. Sign in as a guest. The chat room allows 200 guests, and right now we have less than 50. So that should work.

Also, the rules stated the chat would kick off at 10:00 but after a week on vacation, my brain is mush and I forgot. So I'll be hanging out until at least 10:30 EST with the coupon code.

A link to the kit in the store that the coupon code will work towards will be posted on this blog as well.

Kick off Chat Tonight!!

2009-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

The race kicks off tonight with a chat in the DSAG chat room. The chat begins at 9:00 PM EST and everyone in attendance will receive a free kit. The first challenge will be posted on Sunday, January 4.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Theresa has taken the boys to see Bolt 3D, our little girl is taking a nap as she didn't get to bed until after midnight last night (several hours past her bedtime!) and I think that I am about to follow suit.

But I couldn't let the day pass without wishing well to everyone for this new year. Take a moment to take stock of how fortunate we are, to be able to do what we do (whatever that might be).

I'll be back tomorrow with more race news!

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

2008-12-31T18:13:00.001-08:00

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.

And now for something completely different

2008-12-30T20:01:00.000-08:00

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!?) :)

And we're back!

2008-12-29T21:15:00.001-08:00

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...

Please forgive our absence!

2008-12-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

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!

Less than a week to go!

2008-12-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

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!

206!

2008-12-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

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! :)

180 Teams!

2008-12-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

Will we make it to 200?!?!

Merry Christmas!

Four more days!

2008-12-22T21:46:00.000-08:00

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?) :)

Still counting!

2008-12-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

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 :))

Wow!

2008-12-17T20:31:00.000-08:00

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!

I haven't received my confirmation email yet!

2008-12-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

We know!

Please see this post in the ADSR4 forum. Thanks!

Updated Rules

2008-12-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

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!

And the floodgates have opened!

2008-12-03T21:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

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!

Season 4 Rules

2008-11-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

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:

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

Still doing a bit of housekeeping

2008-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

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!

New Blog Graphics!

2008-11-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

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!

So what is The Amazing Digi Scrapping Race?

2008-11-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

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!

Sites of Season 4

2008-11-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-08T16:39:00.001-08:00

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!

Not quite there yet

2008-10-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

But we are getting closer!

Nope

2008-08-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Not yet!

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

2008-04-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-10T18:36:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-04-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

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!

The Rest of the Prizes

2008-04-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

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!

The Grand Prizes Keep on Coming

2008-04-08T13:30:00.001-07:00

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!

The Amazing Digi Scraping Race - Season 3: The Numbers

2008-04-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

Challenge #13!!!

2008-04-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

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!

More Grand Prizes Still

2008-04-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

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.

More Grand Prizes

2008-04-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

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

Challenge #11

2008-03-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

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!!!

A Little about Our Grand Prize Sponsors - Part 1

2008-03-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

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

Further Clarifications

2008-03-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Challenge 10 additional information

2008-03-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

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!

Challenge #10

2008-03-25T13:56:00.001-07:00

Is up, and it's at Plain Digital Wrapper!

Week Four is done. Finally!

2008-03-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

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!

More news about Challenge #7

2008-03-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-23T19:18:00.001-07:00

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.

A request, if you please

2008-03-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Challenge #8 has been spotted...

2008-03-17T21:14:00.001-07:00

at none other than Natural Designs in Scrapbooking. Go check it out!

The challenge of Challenge #7!

2008-03-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

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!

Challenge #7 Has Just been Posted!!

2008-03-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

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!

Did Someone Ask About Grand Prizes?

2008-03-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

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!

Clarification on Due Date

2008-03-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

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.