Digital Scrapbook Designers Unite

October Magic and Spooky Halloween ©Lindsay Jane; template by AimeeMomof2

This is actually a plea for digital scrapbook designers to help us help them by giving proper credit whether it be for purchased kits, collaborations or for free kits and especially blog train kits. I have spent the better part of this past week trying to clean up, clean out and just organize my multitude of digital scrapbooking kits (and I thought I had gone overboard with paper, lol). So bear with me and lend me an ear.

These are just a few simple suggestions that I have found would really be beneficial. They would be most useful with collaboration (purchases) and blog trains (freebies); but would work as well with just individual kits.

1. Always put a notepad TOU in with the kit. If you want to include a link TOU, a jpg or png, fine. Just make sure that a notepad is in there. More about this in #2.

2. In the notepad TOU, include exactly how you want to be credited, i.e. (c)Tink's Tribulations or ©Tink's Tribulations. It helps to have the copyright symbol so there is no confusion. And please don't make it extremely long. Either use your name or the business, but let's not get out of hand and insist on both or more. Use the one that people can do a search on and find you easily. I use to put links on the kits, but have found that designers are constantly on the move and kits are constantly being retired. I now prefer to have an easily recognizable credit name that can be searched.

Another advantage to the copyright symbol (at least for me), is I can copy and paste. No worrying about if I got it wrong (something I can't count on when there is a jpg or png TOU). As for the shortcut links, if I like you, you are going to be in my favorites, but I am not going to run over to a TOU link every time I want to give credit. If I have to do that, chances are I'm not going to put the credit down correctly or I won't use the kit.

3. And please (this one gives me the biggest headache), always start your zip, TOUs, pages and elements the same... i.e.:

     t2z TOU                            or tinkstribulations TOU
     t2z-Kit name.zip               or tinkstribulations-Kit name.zip
     t2z-Kit name-paper           or tinkstribulations-Kit name-paper
     t2z-Kit name-element       or tinkstribulations-Kit name-element

Initials, name, business name, doesn't matter as long as it is consistent. And remember in collaborations and blog trains, this will ensure your stuff stays together and the user will know exactly which parts of the kit are yours and which TOU to use for credit.

Just remember, by using these 3 simple steps you can be assured of getting the credit you deserve. And that is exactly what I would like to see.

There is one final thing, but it is just because it would be beneficial to me personally (and maybe a few others) and that is the elements. They are normally packaged as png (sometimes as psd or psp) and it would truly be nice if they were named according to what they are, i.e. t2z-Kit name-Snail.

Silly, I know, I can look at it and tell what it is.... most times. Other times, I have no clue. And it would be nice to just be able to do a search for a particular item and find it immediately. Guess who's kits I use the most often?

Thanks for listening.

SIDE NOTE: Yeah...... he's here. Got in at 1 a.m., stayed up until 2. All wound up I guess, but that means I'm now wound up and can't sleep, LOL. Looking forward to fun times today. Wish you all could have heard him talking to his mom. He wanted to get her a planet, a special planet just for them. So sweet.