It’s time for another Design Center Week introduction! We are introducing you to our new designers who are providing high-quality, stunning graphics for your print projects. Today we are meeting LaSheaDzines.

“I’m young, single, and have no kids! I just love art and to scrap about my thoughts, my friends, and my family. My mom got me into this as a hobby recently and I enjoy creating layouts with her digital kits. I’m still in school so my spare time is limited but when I have some I indulge my Twilight obsession or hang out with friends. My quick pages are created with permission, using digital kits created by Rachael Hudnall at http://www.inspiredscraps.com.”

Story Book Tales 10 Pack #2

Tales of fantasy quickly give way to real world for our daughters. Remember these precious times with your little princess using these adorable scrapbook pages. This set includes backgrounds and frames for five 2-page layouts in 3 sizes: 12×12, 10×10, and 8×8 (Includes Story Book Tales Sets 06-10).

LaShea is offering one commenter a free set of quickpages: Belgian Chocolate Truffle Set 03, so leave a comment for your chance to win!

With our new Design Center open, we thought it would be fun to bring you some graphics from the best digital scrapbooking designers around. We are proud to bring you an exculsive mini-kit and add-on by Flergs from Scrapbookgraphics.

Freakazoid is a fun and whimsical graphics pack with bright papers, frames, fun elements, an alpha and predesigned frame clusters. Because the download is so big, we’ve split this into two parts. The papers and elements are only 3 credits, and the frame clusters and alpha are sold separately for 2 credits. Pick up both or just one. Either way, you get a lot for your money.

The Cluster frames and Alpha come together in one set.

Use the graphics directly in our software, or use them in your own software to create scrapbook pages, cards, calendars or other fun projects. And, elements come in both plain and shadowed versions, and together, total up to over 134 MB of graphics. Thanks Flergs for bringing us this fun kit!

WIN A COPY OF FREAKAZOID!

Stop by the MyPicTales blog during Design Center Week this week and next and leave a comment for your choice to win one of many prizes, including a copy of Freakazoid! We will also be giving away graphics from our other designers, and some free prints too!

STEP 1:
Start a new Calendar, and add your layouts to the photo bin.

STEP 2:
Delete all the extra graphics from the templates. Below, I clicked on the blue box, and press the delete key on the keyboard, or select EDIT>DELETE. Do this for  everything on the page.

STEP 3:
Next, we want to minimize the existing grid. UNLOCK the grid by clicking PREFERENCES>CALENDAR LOOK>UNLOCK DATE GRID.

With the grid unlocked, click on a corner anchor and reduce the size of the calendar grid to get it out of the way. You can even drag it off the canvas if you want.

STEP 4:
Drag your photo onto the blank page.

STEP 5:

Click on the corner anchor of your layout and enlarge it to completely fill out the page. You want to enlarge it enough that it falls off the page by at least 1/8” on each side. This is the bleed area, and should be filled with the layout as well.

STEP 6:
Click SEND TO MYPICTALES. On the next screen, click VIEW to see your proof. Your calendar will open up in Adobe Acrobat reader. If you see any white paper around your page, you have not enlarged it enough to fill the bleed area. Click cancel to return to the layout and enlarge it more. If the enlarge handles are off the screen, simply move the layout over, grab the handle, resize it bigger, then move it back in place.

If the calendar fills the entire page in the proof, you can check the APPROVED box and click CONTINUE.

Your calendar will now upload to our site, and you will be sent to your web browser to complete your order.
CREDITS: Shabby Princess Calendars, stock photo

Divine Digital Boutique • Digitals Boutique • DSW Boutique

Wetfish Designs is offering one lucky commenter her new “A Touch of Nature” quickpage set, which includes 4 backgrounds, 2 elements and 1 embellished frame. Simply leave a comment during Design Center Week and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win this prize and more!

Albums To Remember is bringing us quick pages based on her adorable kits for sale at Elemental Scraps. Her store is full of fun and whimsical designs. Our favorite is this adorable word art pack, called “I’m Scared Monsters.”

Here’s a little bit about Albums To Remember:

I have been scrapbooking for 14 years, 12 traditionally and 2 digitally. I started digitally designing several months ago and have not looked back since! I enjoy creating quickpages to help people document their memories quickly and easily. I am looking forward to working with MyPicTales.

Comment & Win!

And, she’s generous too! Here’s a wonderful set of Boy Quick Pages up for grabs to one lucky commenter. Simply leave a comment any time during our Design Center launch and you might win. This ten page album is perfect for highlighting the men in your life! Download includes backgrounds and frames to create ten 5×7 pages.

Are you passionate about digital scrapbooking? Are you inspired by the layouts and kits around you? Do you enjoy looking through galleries and browsing a variety of shoppes? If so, we have a fantastic opportunity for you. MyPicTales is looking for a small team of scrappers to help us share inspiring layouts and kits on the MPT Blog. Wordpress experience a plus, but not required.

Email your application to BlogTeam@mypictales.com. Include your:
screename
email address
short bio
existing CT/design commitments

This is an open call until all available spots are filled. Each team member will be responsible for one blog post a week, and will receive 10 Design Center credits and $10 in MyPicTales Gift Cards each month.

Thanks for applying!

We are pleased to bring you a brand new feature at MyPicTales: The Design Center. The Design Center, formerly the Backgrounds Community, previously offered hundreds of free backgrounds for use in your photobooks, cards and calendars. Now, we are offering premium designs, including predesigned pages that make creating your keepsakes quicker and easier than before. You can purchase single pages, or multi-packs, all designed to coordinate and mix and match. This quick page albums are a great resource when you are short on time, or can’t find the mojo to design something from scratch. We have a few designers who continue to load the shop up with fantastic designs for you. We will be featuring one designer every day this week. We hope you’ll stop by to see what they have to offer, and for the chance to win some prizes generously donated by the designers.

How To Use Quick Pages

The quick pages you will find at MyPicTales are slightly different that what you may be used to. We’ve optimized them for use with our software, by providing each page with a JPG background and frame cluster overlay. Simply drag the background, the frame and your photo into the photo bin.

Drag the background onto your page, choosing SINGLE PAGE BACKGROUND from the pop-up menu.

Drag your photo onto the page, and click ADD PICTURE.

Then, drag your frame onto the page next to it. If you try to drag it on top, it will replace the photo, so drop it next to it. You can reposition it later.

Now, resize and arrange them both so the frame overlays on top of the photo. You may have to crop your photo to fit behind the frame. I actually find that placing the photo on top of the frame helps to position and crop it. When you are done, just rearrange it by choosing LAYOUT>ORDER>SEND BACKWARD.

Just add journaling and your stunning page is complete.

Some of the designers have opted to provide you backgrounds in several sizes, ready for printing in any book size you choose. You can also assemble these pages in your photo editing software, like Photoshop Elements or CS. If you do, simply flatten and save a JPG, and drop the entire page as a background within our software. Either way, you can have stunning pages complete in just a few minutes.

You can purchase this quick page in the Belgian Chocolate Truffle Set 3 from LaShea Dzines from the Design Center.

Let’s Talk Credits

Why does MyPicTales Design Center use credits? Since purchases of digital files are in very small dollar amounts, the percentage of fees for processing the tranactions can get quite high. By using credits, we keep the transaction fees down, allowing us to pass that savings along to you. In addition, this allows us to pass on more of the sales price to the hard working designers who are sharing their creations with us. As an added benefit, the more credits you prebuy, the more you save. So, purchase your credits now, and cash them in later for as few as one credit at a time.

How do I purchase credits?
It’s simple. Just log in, and click CREDITS on the left side bar. If you have an existing credit balance, you can find it at the top of the new screen. You can then select the number of credits you’d like to purchase, and checkout using PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account to use your credit card. Simply click PayPal and enter your credit card information without logging into PayPal.

How do I redeem credits?
That is simple too. Find a product you’d like to purchase with your credits. Below the product description, click ADD TO CART.

After you click, you will see your shopping cart summary on the left of the screen. Click VIEW SHOPPING CART to complete the transaction.

You will now see the entire contents of your shopping cart. Click CHECKOUT to finalize your transaction. Your credits will be deducted from your existing balance. Any additional credits not used will be left on your account for future purchases, valid for one year from purchase date.

We hope you are as excited about our new Design Center as we are. We hope we can help you create even better memory books, cards and calendars with these new graphics.

Check out our newest cover options, including leather, linen and suede, in a variety of colors, for a variety of budgets. Simply create a standard hardcover book, and choose your cover when you checkout.

Congratulations Andra! You were randomly drawn from all comments here and on Facebook to win a free MyPicTales poster calendar. You will receive a coupon by email shortly.

Thank you to each one of you who has stopped by during Calendar week. Keep checking back for another fun promotion very soon!