A lovely layout by pkdoll that takes us back to the elegant parlours of yesterday. Thanks for sharing!

In the Groove

We’ve packed The Groove with your usual favorites, but we need to begin with some BIG news (drum roll please…)

Scrapbook MAX! now offers BOUND PHOTOBOOKS, and other amazing PRINTED PRODUCTS (think puzzles, keychains, stickers and more!!) with WORLDWIDE SHIPPING (and super low prices!). As a subscriber to The Groove, you’re among the first to hear! Find more information below ( we know, we know…this is HUGE!).

When we called for vintage layouts, many of you responded with incredible layouts featuring family memories from year’s past. We thank you for sharing these special moments with us, and want to congratulate you on telling a story with your photos by making a layout – this is the essence of scrapbooking, isn’t it?

Be sure to read on for a fabulous freebie offering and unique monthly challenge, both by designer Carena Scott. Look for a special discount on some of her featured kits!

Have fun reading The Groove (and get ready to do start checking off your Christmas list!).

Vintage Layouts, Family Memories

Below are a few of our favorite family memories vintage layouts. What they have in common, besides special family photos, are soft colors and elegant elements. We love how though the different pieces remind us of the past, they also have a timeless quality. And this reminds us that though the people in our vintage layouts may no longer be with us, the way they touched our hearts go on and on.

Thank you to twpclerk, bluevelvet and scrappymammawgf.

Cherished Collections

It’s really true that a picture is worth a thousand words. And if that’s the case, then a collection of treasured photos can hold a novel’s worth of memories. We loved these two layouts that combined several photos to paint a beautiful story – or a beautiful picture – of special lives lived. Thank you, sacannon and scrappyfrog for sharing these special layouts!

ALL NEW!

Scrapbook MAX! Now Offers Photobooks, Prints, and other Printed Products – Ships worldwide!!!

Hold on to your hats…THIS IS HUGE!!!

Scrapbook MAX! now offers bound photobooks and a wide variety of other amazing print products. You are going to be blown away by the items offered! 8 x 8 hardbound photobooks, gorgeous prints, personalized puzzles, mugs, t-shirts, key chains, stickers…and the list goes on!

Just go to http://prints.scrapbookmax.com and follow a few easy steps to add your layouts and photos to your favorite items. The quality is top-notch, and the prices are super low! You’re gonna love what you see!

Make stunning and original keepsakes for yourself, or heartfelt, personalized gifts for family and friends. (A GREAT way to start crossing off that growing Christmas list – easy to shop, and so meaningful to give! – For a step-by-step guide to purchasing printed products, click here.)

Best of all – products ordered ship anywhere in the world so all Scrapbook MAX! fans can take part. (Paypal and major credit cards accepted.)

So don’t wait another minute – check out our amazing printed products, and make them shine with your layouts and photos!

Scrapper Profile

Carena Scott (and lovely daughter!)

Get to know Carena Scott, a Scrapbook MAX! Booster Pack Store Designer (she supplied The Groove’s freebie and challenge this month – see below!), and friendly, knowledgeable, always-ready-to-help presence in our online community. Get to know a bit more about Carena (can you say “line dancing” and “Sean Connery”…?).

Q- Tell us a little about yourself.

A- Well I’m not that interesting really. I’m a single mum to my darling daughter – Caitlyn – whom you all must know quiet well as she is my favourite subject to scrap. I live in New Zealand. I had 17 years in Brisbane, Australia but am happy to now be back in my beautiful home land. When I left school I went into the banking and worked for Westpac Bank for a number of years both here in New Zealand and Australia. I think that is where some of my curiosity comes from in how to work out how something is done. I’ve always had an interest in numbers and analyzing things.

Q- How did you get started on digital scrapbooking?
A-I got interested in scrapbooking thanks to my neighbour. She wanted to put a collage of pictures together of her family and asked me how to do it. At that time I wasn’t scrapping but decided it could be done in “Word” and promptly went about putting my own collage of Caitlyn’s photos together. I somehow put this together and ended up searching scrapbooking on the internet and was totally hooked. My early pages I uploaded started from about the 10th April 2006. So really not that long ago. In about October 2007 I entered a designers competition and from then on there’s been no stopping me. With a lot of determination I find myself here today as a designer here at Scrapbook MAX!.

Q- What are your hobbies/interests (other than digital scrapbooking of course)?
A-Interest and hobbies other than scrapbooking…That’s hard as scrapbooking plays a huge part of my life now…but I used to dance. My interest in dancing started at 5 years when I started tap dancing but soon decided it wasn’t for me and ended up doing Highland dancing. At about 13 I’d had enough of hopping up and down on one foot and turned my interest to Ballroom Dancing. I danced and competed until about 19 years old. It was then we moved to Australia. In Australia I got hooked on Line Dancing – LOL yes, I joined the many thousand that danced with cowboy hats and boots. I loved it and ended up teaching in Brisbane for about 9 years. I gave that up when we moved back to New Zealand 4 years ago. Eventually I think I will go back to Ballroom Dancing when Caitlyn is a little older and hope she will join me in this adventure.

Q- Where do you get your layout ideas?
A- I’m inspired mostly by others layouts. I’m always keeping my eyes open and looking for those special layouts that catch my eye. Then it’s just a case of working out how on earth they did it and applying it to my own style of scrapping. I really enjoy adding lots of elements and clustering but my style has changed a lot since I first started out. Back then my layouts were simple and not many elements used on a single page.

Q-Tell us about the three layouts you are most proud of and why.
A- Layouts I’m most proud of mostly feature my daughter and also kits I’ve created myself.

Q- What do you think makes Scrapbook MAX! so popular?
A- Well that’s easy and been said over and over but I’m going to say it again. The program is so easy to use but at the same time can produce such excellent results with time and practice. Like most things you have to work at it to achieve excellence. I’m sure most of us can look back on our first layouts and then look at more recent layouts and see a huge difference but with practice comes great results in anything. Scrapbook MAX! is an awesome product and I’m still exploring and finding new things so the program also has room to grow with you.

Q- What is your favorite Scrapbook MAX! tip or trick?
A- I love photo overlays over paper as a background to the main image, as seen in one of my favourite layouts called “Romance”. Here is how I did it:

How I Did It:
This is a really easy to do and everyone can do it with Scrapbook MAX!.
Use a lighter plain texture paper for the background. Then choose your photo and place onto page. I changed the opacity slider – slide to just under the “e” in transparent. Youmay need to experiment with this depending on your photo and the paper used. I then changed to Sepia tone (under effects > sepia).
That’s it really. I enlarged the photo to fill most of the page. If you don’t do this you will see the edge of the photo or you will need to hide it by placing elements over it to cover. If anyone has any questions – feel free to message me!

Q- Who is your favorite movie star?
A- Sean Connery – loved him in Medicine Man.

Thanks for sharing, Carena!

Here are some of Carena’s favorite layouts:

Vintage Feel – Contemporary Photos!

We love how “vintage” can also mean great photos you took “yesterday” (and not just “yesteryear”!), combined with a tribute to the past. Wolvsie used elements and a background with an elegant, old-time feel to celebrate the love of her family. Naugle1 made a lovely layout with contemporary elements, but with a family tree that reaches back through the generations. Vintage can mean many things, and we love ’em all!

The Groove Monthly Freebie Challenge!

Mini-Bugs Freebies and Challenge by Carena Scott

The Freebie Part

Carena Scott has generously supplied a freebie collection of cool “buggie” elements based on her full kit, Bugs Delight, to all our Groove readers. Carena describes the full kit this way:

“Delightful pack for any child. Whether it be for photos, party invitations,
birthday cards, book labels, tags – limited only by your imagination.
Fabulous fantasy children’s kit. Huge – 60 items in total.”

Find the freebies in our Groove Monthly Freebie thread!

The Challenge Part

Carena has issued this challenge based on her freebie collection:

Using elements from the mini kit provided, make a birthday card, present tag, invite, label, bookmarks etc – use your imagination! “Normal” layouts also welcome but I’d love to see other alternatives for using scrapbooking kits. Also remember to use shapes ( hearts, stars etc) which will give you more to work with and makes layouts more interesting. Hope you have fun and looking forward to see what you
come up with!

Discount Coupon For
November 2008 “Featured Kits”

Love Carena’s freebie mini-kit? Looking for kits with a similar style?

This month, when you purchase any of Carena’s four Featured Kits (all pictured below), you’ll receive a discount for 10% off! Simply add any of the four Featured Kits to your cart until November 30, 2008, and type in the coupon code CSC-NOV to receive your 10% off discount (be sure to type in the code CSC-NOV exactly as shown).

Offer is good on new orders in the Featured Kits category only, until November 30, 2008. Coupon code must be used at the time of purchase and must be typed in exactly as shown.

Cannot be combined with other discounts or offers.

Bugs Delight Kit

Baby Soft A Kit

Baby Soft B Kit

Carena’s Wedding Kit

Retro-tastic!

When we think “vintage” we often think lace, elegance, and gracefully muted tones. But how about the 60s and 70s? – full of flowerpower, stylized graphics, and blocks of color? Knzus is no stranger to creativity – and when she heard the call for vintage layouts, she thought of the era of disco. WE LOVE IT (and the fab layout, too)!

Booster Pack Store:
New Releases

Have you been shopping lately? Dozens of new kits are added to the Scrapbook MAX! Booster Pack Store each month. Be sure to stop by and check out our awesome selection of embellishment kits and template sets, professionally-designed to work with Scrapbook MAX!.

Below is a small sample of some of new kits recently added to the store by various designers.

Deanne Gow-Smith – Indian Ink Kit

Diana Carmichael – Florette Flourish Kit

Fiona Storey – Resplendent Template

Look for the next issue of The Groove on December 1, 2008.
Not yet signed up for The Groove? Sign up for free today, and get a link to The Groove delivered to your inbox each month. Inspiration, freebies, challenges, scrapper profiles and more await!