sei digital

Have you ever tried digital scrapbooking? If you want a quick solution to showcase your photos, you should give it a try. We want to give you a chance to test it out for free! You can create this digital layout at no charge by clicking on this link. We just added some new items to our trial downloads section. After you enter your basic information (you don't need a credit card number since it is free) the file will be sent to your e-mail.

You might be surprised to know how many different options are available for digital scrapbookers. For example, some people like to create a digital layout, print it out, add some 3-D embellishments & slip it into a sheet protector. Others use digital scrapbooking to showcase layouts on-line.

Above is what I did with the free trial download. It is amazing how much you can personalize digital layouts. One reason I love digital scrapbooking is I know the layouts are going to look good before I spend hours designing and sometimes wasting supplies. Don't forget to check out sei digital.

We love to hear from you. What do you like about digital scrapbooking? Do you have any tips for those who are new to digital scrapbooking? Do you have any great Mother's Day or digital ideas?

Happy Monday

Hope that you had a wonderful weekend. We wanted to thank you again for your comments when Maria visited us. From the feedback it looked like a lot of viewers enjoyed her inspiration sites. Sometimes it's nice just having eye candy and not having to buy anything. Just browsing through a few blogs can give you ideas on do-it-yourself projects, entertaining guests, picking up a new hobby... or just soak up a beautiful design. Whatever it is you like here are some of my favorite blogs to visit:

• If you like photography The Blog is Found is a wonderful blog about a husband and wife photography team that have the most amazing images.
• Jordan Ferney is a letterpress artist that has a lovely blog about entertaining, color palette ideas, letter pressed beauties and more.
• Inchmark is a blog created by a former senior art director for Martha Stewart, enough said. Look here for fun craft ideas, quirky books and baking recipes.
• A blog that I love to read through is Katie Did. If you have daughters or children in general you'll love it even more for crafts, patterns, blankets and other ideas to simply beautify your home and life.
• Bookhou is a couple's blog that have a home decor company. John and Arounna have such beautiful aesthetics. Their ideas are minimalist and timeless and their blog transforms their design process into everyday life tips and creations.
• The last one is my new favorite, Mer Mag. She is an amazing illustrator and artist and translates her ideas onto her blog in such a yummy manner.

I hope you like these blogs as much as I do. It's a wonderful way to get inspiration and create a lot out of a little. What are some of your everyday blog destinations?

-Dorthea

Club SEI's Tiny Money Holder

For all of you viewers out there who are Club SEI members, here is an idea for your May kit. Anyone can make these lovely money holders and they're so simple. Here are the 6 simple steps:

• Cut a 6 ¼” x 2 ¾” piece of Brocade (paper name)
• Score in from the edge 3” from each side, leaving a ¼” gutter in the center to create the spine of the book
• Cut a 1 ¼” piece of Brocade (back), score in ½” from each side, leaving a ¼” gutter in the center
• Attach the small piece to the larger piece, matching the gutters together
• Fold cash in half, creasing each piece
• Use ribbon to bind money to book, wrapping it around the spine and center fold of money, and knotting on the outside of the book

And you're done! If there are any questions, please comment!

Giveaway Winner!

We want to thank Maria Burke for being our guest blogger last week. Also thanks to all of our readers for your wonderful and oh so nice comments. We have a winner that we'd like to announce for our giveaway. Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to leave a comment and welcome our guest. Using random.org our winner is:


Congratulations Jenny! If you can email us your shipping address to seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com, we'll get that beautiful kit sent out. Thanks again Maria for all your inspirations and ideas!

Two Ways

Wasn't having Maria such a treat? We hope you enjoyed her ideas as much as we did!

Sometimes we hit walls when we're doing a layout. One way we've been able to power through is to do one layout in two ways. I mean literally picking some adorable layout you love, and making another version with different products. I'm sure this idea isn't new to you (scrap-lifting, yeah?) but it's amazing that by doing a second one you can find new techniques and ideas.

Our first one is made from Windsor:



shopping list: dover shimmer paper, maille textured cardstock, rochester foil paper, cardstock stickers, ribbons, dimensional elements, coaster tags, clear stamps, tobacco ink block, and rub on words.

And the re-make is a whole spring mix!



shopping list: morning meadow bouquet paper, lovebirds lovey dovey shimmer paper, mimosa cosmos pearl paper, morning meadow lace shimmer paper, mimosa chiplets, mimosa petals, mimosa cardstock stickers, mimosa designer brads, chick-a-dee ribbon, bridgeport rub on words, bridgeport clear stamps, and bordeaux ink block.

So find one of your old layouts you still love and see what you can do! These are the same basic layout, but each one has it's own unique flair. Good luck and let us see your results!

Give It Away!

We want to thank Maria for visiting with us this week. She brings a completely unique design to scrap booking. If you like the above layout as much as we do you're in for a treat. We're giving away the products used to make it, plus more!
All you need to do is:
• leave a comment with your name by Monday, April 13th at midnight telling us what your favorite Maria post was this week. A winner will be chosen at random.

Below is the giveaway picture along with a list of what the giveaway includes. (Not to sound like an infomercial, but it's almost a $40 value.) Comment away!

- Forest Floor (my favorite is the back side - the woodgrain pattern - works with EVERYTHING!)
- Sunday Brunch (pearl)
- Oceanfront (pearl)
- Mimosa cardstock stickers
- Black Orchid alphabet stickers
- Raisine (yes, it's spelled the French way) textured cardstock
- Shawl die-cut cardstock
- Bridgeport clear stamps
- Bridgeport designer brads
- Chocolat buttons
- Black Orchid buttons

Cards, yum!

It's always nice to have a little stash of handmade cards kicking around - and making cards and tags is the best way to use up your scraps.

SEI has the perfect rub ons for quick cards. Each of these cards took me about 5 minutes to make.

I also like to keep a little stash of simple tags or cards to pop in my daughters lunch kit. As soon as I finish a layout, I often just keep my little pile of scraps (paper, leftover bits of ribbons, the odd button, etc.) in a bag and then I've got stuff for making a couple quick cards or tags. Since I just used it all on a layout, I know that the paper, ribbon, chipboard, and whatever else I've got left over is all going to match.

Well, my week of guest blogging is up already - I had tons of fun and thanks so much to SEI for having me on here!

Check back this afternoon for an extra surprise from Maria & sei!

Inspire me...

When I'm feeling uninspired I like to wander through our local thrift store with 5 bucks in my pocket and see what treasures I can find. There's really nothing better than a funky little chotchkie to get me excited and perk my creativity.

I just found these mushroom salt & pepper shakers this morning. Something about them just makes me want to play around with 70's color combination's.



Doesn't this just make you want to play around with cute little forest animal stamps and embellishments?!



Mirrors that I've found at thrift and discount stores and painted.



I found every single one of these pictures at a thrift store and every single one evokes emotion and creativity for me. I painted each and every one of them and my poor husband hung them all on the wall - some of them more than once as I wanted to play around a bit with placement. Have I mentioned I have the most amazing patient and supportive husband in the world? Because I do.

Mixy Matchy

One of my favorite things about SEI is that they have the total package - cardstock, paper, ribbon, chipboard, alpha stickers, embellishments, albums, even stamps and ink. It's so easy to finish projects quickly this way - just grab a bunch of stuff from one line (my current favorite is Bridgeport) and go! You can truly get a mini album done in one evening this way.

OR if you're not into the 'matchy-matchy' look, the different SEI lines all work so well together when mixed and matched.
My personal favorite are the letter stickers - different colors all in the same font, begging to be played with.


I mixed and matched:
• Letter stickers from Dill Blossom and Glitzmas give this frame a funky and casual feel- perfect for my daughters room.
• Paper is from Alpine Frost and Lovebirds
• Button from Chick-a-doo
• Chipboard leaf from Bridgeport

In this layout I've used products from 4 different lines.


• Paper is from Bridgeport, Lovebirds and Alpine Frost
• Letter stickers are from Lovebirds
• Buttons are from Alpine Frost & Chick-a-doo
• Die cut bird from Lovebirds
• Chipboard journal tab is from Bridgeport

Not to give it away, but keep checking back this week if you like these layouts!

Go to's...

I thought I'd share with you some of favorite 'go to' sites when I need a little jump start to get my creative juices flowing (from left to right, top to bottom).


• Design*Sponge
• The Crafty Crow, millions of great crafty ideas for your kids - there's seriously nothing like watching your kids go crazy with paint, scissors & glue - how can you not pick up your own crafty supplies and start playing?
• Small Space Style, total eye candy!
• Anthropologie I know we all love the store, but even just playing around on the website makes me excited to take chances with different color combinations, create little collages, cover up some old frames with funky patterned paper ...
• Absolutely Beautiful Things, the name says it all

It just doesn't feel right to not post a photo, so ...



These are from a mini photoshoot I did with my youngest daughter hanging out in our front room (throw in a few jelly beans for bribery and we're good to go!)

My biggest source of inspiration ...



My girls :-)

Welcome, Maria!

This week we are so happy to have Maria Burke as our guest blogger. She has a lot to teach us, and I think we'll all be able to enjoy what she has to share. She currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). Below, she gives a link to her blog so be sure to look through the past few months to see projects and photos. Today's post is a little intro, so here she is, Maria Burke.

I'm super excited to be a guest blogger here for the next week. I can't wait to show you some new scrapbook projects I've been working on and share a bit about what inspires me. Since writing my own bio is just a little too frightening for me, I had my husband do it ;-). Check out my blog The Little Things to see more of what I've been up to.

(from Maria's husband, Phil)
"Maria Burke can hang a frame straight without using a level. That is something that has always impressed me. If I hang a picture up, using a level, there's still no guarantee it will be straight. Maria has always had an eye for design. She loves to play with paint colors and move furniture around in our house. We've painted every room in our house at least twice (some a lot more) and re-arranged furniture even more. She has always had a passion for photography, which she inherited from her dad who is an amazing photographer. He bought her her first SLR camera when she was in junior high.

"When our first daughter was born, Maria started to scrapbook. It was something that combined her eye for design, love of photography and a passion for documenting our lives. Maria has been scrapbooking for almost seven years now and our two daughters are following in her footsteps. I can already see their artistic sides developing and they have their mom to thank for that."

Guest Blogger- Maria Burke

Starting on Monday April 6th, we are going to have a guest blogger Maria Burke. She will be posting everyday until April 10th. Make sure to check back and if it's something you like, comment to make her feel welcome. Here is a little about her to get you excited for next week.

Okay ...
• I'm a stay at home mom with 2 girls (Sarah 7 yrs. and Anna 4 yrs.).
• I absolutely LOVE being home with them and having the time to create during the day. It's my absolute dream 'job'.
• I've been scrapbooking for almost 7 years and I've been published over 375 times in various scrapbooking magazines as well as done some freelance writing and design work
• Photography is another passion of mine, which goes hand in hand with scrapbooking

Visit her blog to read more about what makes her happy, beautiful layouts & photos and her adorable family.

Here are some examples we had from Paper Trends Magazine (now Simply Handmade Magazine) of Maria's published work. They're from an older edition but her pieces are pretty timeless, nonetheless.

Baby Animal Day

If you happen to be in the Logan, UT area from April 9th-11th, you have to see the cutest baby animals. The American West Heritage Center hosts one of the most enjoyable activities that all children and adults love, Baby Animal Days. You can hold and pet all different types of baby animals such as goats, cows, chicks, ducks and so much more. If you come to Logan, don't forget to come visit our SEI outlet store as well! It can't get any better than this.