Wow – I go MIA for about a month, and now I have to play catch-up! So, let’s just dive right in shall we?

First up, my good friend and fab-designer, Jodiann Cates is having a TCT (Test/Creative Team) call on her blog – she’s looking for a few talented people to work with her Photoshop styles.  I love them and have had the pleasure of working with several of them.  In fact, I used her Mini Stripe Lite style to create one of my freebies – you can find it here. Check her blog for all of the details and then apply!

Let’s see, what’s next – oh I know, another friend and uber-talented designer, Kristine of Designs by Kristine has just launched her own Newsletter – complete with sales info, coupons, and even exclusive freebies.  You definitely DON’T want to miss out.  You can find all of the deets here or sign up here.

For my crafting friends, as most of you know, I blog-stalk Suzanne Dean – her coloring skills are nothing short of amazing!  When I first heard about Copic markers, I headed to her blog for tutorials and color suggestions since buying all 300+ colors at once just wasn’t and still isn’t going to happen!  Well, now she’s launching Color Me Creative, an online classroom where she’ll teach all things Copic – everything from the basic to advanced mixed-media techniques.  Classes start March 15, but since they are all self-paced, you’ll have an entire year to complete them, plus have PDF and video files that can be downloaded and saved for future reference.  There’s an early-bird discount before March 14 – so be sure to check it out if you’re like me – new to Copics (plus I won’t be attending any of the Copic Certification classes as they are never near here nor are they in my price range) and in love the with the potential these (and all alcohol markers) have!  I can’t wait to get started.  Suzanne is also offering a refer-a-friend discount aka Copic Bucks, so you can earn a little something for spreading the word.

Looking for a challenge to get your creativity off the ground?  Since March as arrived, that means there are new challenges up at the DSO challenge blog – stop by and play awhile!

I guess that’s all from me – oh wait – you wanted a peak at our activities from last month?  Alright – just a peak:

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Nadya enjoying a visit to the park while while in Oklahoma.

Have a great Tuesday!

DSO is preparing for an online make-over – aka Bunny and Kim, our creative Goddesses, are going to play! In order for them to create effectively (aka update all of  the techie and creative stuff), our fearless leader, Bunny, is going to have to make some changes and take a few things offline. Last weekend the Private Messaging area was hit with a lot of SPAM (and I don’t mean the horrid stuff in a can), so Bunny will be starting with our Forum work earlier than scheduled. What does this mean to you?  It means the DSO Forums, Private Messages, and  Gallery will be starting their computer spa-day on February 1st.

While we don’t anticipate any issues, we cannot guarantee that our Gallery will be able to be saved and re-uploaded successfully as it must be separated from the Forum postings (as those will not be saved).  The goal is for the entire Gallery to be re-loaded all refreshed and ready to go but, just in case it doesn’t behave nicely,  we HIGHLY recommend that if do not have your Layouts saved on your computer that you back them up before February 1.

Courtesy of our own Jodiann – panic is not necessary – help is below:

How to back up Gallery Pictures:

Navigate to your Gallery at DSO, Right Click> Save As on each LO one at a time. If you want to re-up your Gallery photos easily  make a file on your hard drive and save each one there.  You can add a number 01, 02, 03 in front of each file name so you can keep the order straight. If you don’t care about that, don’t add the numbers.

Saving Signatures:

Go to  DSO>Gallery>User CP> Edit Signature. The preview screen has a HTML option. Click it. Highlight>Copy> Save in a email and send it to yourself or paste the info into a blank Notepad file. When its time to add it back. Get the email and do the steps in reverse. Highlight>Copy>Signature HTML code> Go to DSO> Gallery> User CP and paste the code in to the preview screen.

See – that wasn’t so bad now was it.

At least it is at DSO – here’s a small sampling of the stellar Personal or Commercial use products our Designers have to offer:

Charlie is having a special CU sale on some of her products.

Stunning Personal Use kits by our fabulous Designers:

Create the perfect Page Title or Card Sentiment with Jazzy’s WordArt:

Want to create your own kits or freebies with Quality products? Checkout these awesome CU-friendly goodies:

So what are you waiting for?!? Head to the store! (Special thanks to LouCee for doing the “legwork” for this post – you RAWK sweetie)!