Monday, Monday...

It's the beginning of a new week around here. May kicked off a really fun challenge last week -- I hope to see some great layouts linked up here in the coming days.

One of my favorite things about working on this book with May was being able to get some of the best designers in the digital scrapbooking industry to create EXCLUSIVE digital kits for the book. We wanted to be able to offer our readers everything they would need to get started right away -- that meant no wasted time trying to find downloadable digital elements and kits. These 10 kits are packed with a variety of styles, and I know you're going to love being able to have kits by Michelle Coleman and Jackie Eckles (both of whom design for Fancy Pants), Jen Wilson (who designs for My Mind's Eye) and Katie Pertiet (who designs for Autumn Leaves), plus the other fantastic designers we've included -- kits that aren't available anywhere else.

Speaking of Michelle Coleman, here is a really quick and easy hybrid project that I created using a new product that's available in her store at Little Dreamer Designs. These "Cheeky Little Notebook Covers" make altering small flip-style or composition-style notebooks a breeze, and they are the perfect size to stick in your purse or pocket. They come with instructions on how to create them in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but I'm here to tell you that you can also open these .png files in Microsoft Word, resize them, and print them out. Just open a new Word document, choose Insert>Picture>From file and then navigate to the correct folder. Remember, if you are resizing an image in Word, you want to hold down the shift button while you manipulate the corner handles so that you don't stretch the proportions.  You can even add your own text to the front cover by inserting a text box (make sure you change the line and fill options to no line and no fill to make it transparent). Have fun!

Altered-notebook