American Patriot 2012 - Free for a Limited Time

Last summer I created a kit called American Patriot. I released it as a freebie in 2 parts - the first for Memorial Day and the second for the Fourth of July. This year I decided to revisit the kit. I added new papers and elements and reworked others. I am releasing the entire kit as a freebie for 1 week in celebration of the Memorial Day Holiday here in the United States. Here is the preview:

The kit contains 12 full-sized (12x12 inch) papers and 24 elements: a metal frame, a paper frame, a stamp frame, a wooden cross, a straight ribbon, a folded ribbon, a length of rick-rack, a stitched paper star border, 3 unique flowers, 3 unique bows, a wooden button, a wooden arch, a butterfly, a firefly, a puffy star, a circle of stars, a scatter of stars, a tag, a leaf and a sprig of foliage. All are created at 300ppi and suitable for printed layouts. While patriotically themed for Memorial Day, the kit is versatile enough for a variety of layouts.

If you like it, there are 3 zip files to download accessible from [this link]. Grab them soon as they will only be available for a week.  Sorry, this freebie is retired.

Enjoy the kit and the Holiday!

Some Recent Layouts

The Art Paper that I made back at the end of January has been the inspiration for an ever-expanding and evolving kit that I have been using frequently for my personal scrapping. In February I created a heritage layout for the 151st wedding anniversary of my 2x's great-grandparents Charles and Emma James. I posted that one on my genealogy blog. I liked that layout so much that I used it as the basis for creating a wedding page of my niece's wedding. I first altered the color tone slightly and then modified the cluster. Both versions appear below. (I know that I could have used a different background paper and different elements, but I just really like the original and wanted to make a new page quickly!)

And the last layout I wanted to share is another heritage page. It was made with my current free mini-kit, Spring Is In The Air.

Thanks for looking -- and don't forget to grab Spring Is In The Air!

Spring Is In the Air - Free for a Limited Time

Well, it certainly has been a while, but I decided to join in the color challenge at the Studio and create a mini-kit this month. The kit contains 6 papers (12x12 inches) and 12 elements: three unique flowers, a frame, 2 unique intertwined ribbon sets, a button, a tag, a bead scatter, a bead chain wrap for the frame, a paper butterfly and a torn paper border. Here's the preview:

This kit can be downloaded at skydrive: [link] but it will only be available for a limited time - so if you like it, grab it soon!

Sorry, freebie retired.

Creating "Art Paper" from Photographs

Teri Hanson of DigiZines by Teri has (for one more day) an Art Paper challenge on her blog [here]. Basically, she has posted a short tutorial on creating "art paper" starting with a photograph and overlaying texture and digi-scrap papers and elements. I gave it a try, and came up with this:

If you like it, check back in a few days. I am planning to incorporate it into a free mini kit. In the meantime, hop on over to Teri's blog and join in the challenge.

Blog Facelift and New Facebook Page

Well it seems like forever since I last posted to this blog, so I thought an update was in order. Since winning the Second Chance Contest at theStudio I've been plugging away going through the tutorials and videos at the digi design academy. It's been a lot of fun and extremely valuable watching Sherah. She not only demonstrates the mechanics of designing various kit components, but the videos also give insight into her design philosophy, digital organization and work flow and processes. I've definitely picked up some new ideas and techniques which I've incorporated into a new kit that I'll be posting here very soon -- so check back for that.

In the meantime, I've implemented some of the "marketing-type" changes -- including the redesign of my blog header to add clickable buttons as well as the creation of a facebook page for designs by jmdt. I'm working on getting the facebook page integrated with my blog postings, so hopefully that will happen beginning with this post. (Next on my list is integration with google+)

That's about it for now -- I'll be back soon with a blog freebie!

Great news plus Just for Fun Mini - Free for a Limited Time

First of all, I have to say that I am totally thrilled about winning the Second Chance Contest at DSS! I thought all five of the designers in the final round created awesome kits so it was quite an honor to be selected. The prize is a scholarship to their Digital Design Academy. I am hoping that what I learn from the Academy combined with the skills I've been acquiring from the ps4all learning group and various online photoshop tutorials will enable me to really kick my designs up a couple of notches!

With the contest being over, I have deactivated the links for the three kits I created: Summer Afternoon, The Way it Was and Dancing Under the Stars. So if you have come here from a freebie engine and are looking for one of those kits, I apologize for the inconvenience. However, for the next month or so I have a new blog freebie - Just for Fun. It's one of my standard minis consisting of 5 papers and 10 elements.

I created Just for Fun to try out some new techniques and actions. It's a bit of a departure from my usual style, but I'm actually very happy with how it turned out. It's got the look and feel of paper scrapping. The elements are: a frame, a clip, a bow, rickrack, a stencil, a curly ribbon, a paper bird, a rolled paper flower, a paper leaf and a button. The papers are 12 x 12. All elements and papers are 300 ppi so that completed layouts are print-quality. And here's the preview:

If you like it, it's available on my skydrive account: [link]  Sorry, freebie retired.

Dancing Under the Stars - Free for a Limited Time

Here is my entry in the final round of the Second Chance Contest at DSS. The requirements for this round  were to tie into a theme of midnight, include an alpha and create a kit of with a maximum of 14 papers and 40 elements. Other than that, it was a free-for-all. This round was particularly hard for me because it takes me much longer than 4-5 days to create a kit of this size. I also had several other commitments this past weekend, so time was a very limiting factor.

My midnight theme was "Dancing Under the Stars." I recently read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and the Damned" and "Bright Young Things" by Anna Godberson. Both are set in New York City in the jazz age of the 1920s. So I was thinking of speakeasys and flappers and cigarette girls as inspiration. The kit mixes glamour and romance with a little bit of shabby.


You get 12 full size papers, 28 elements and alpha (upper case, lower case and numbers). The elements include: 3 bows, 2 button bows, 2 curled ribbons, a disco ball, 2 dress forms (one plain, one with a dress), 3 flowers, 3 frames, a glitter border, the moon, stars, iron flourish border, 2 pins, ribbon lace strip, pleated ribbon lace, a pocket watch, a 6-pointed star, a tag and a candle. I created several of the elements (including the dress and dress form, the moon, stars, candle and disco ball) entirely in photoshop. And here's the preview.

Download links are in the DDS gallery here: [link] Sorry - this freebie has been retired

Enjoy and download soon as it will only be available for a short time!