Hurry over to Hewlett Packard's free online class for getting started with Adobe Photoshop. The course runs until 8 August and enrollment closes today. They say, "This course for the basic Photoshop CS2 user explains how to use Photoshop to make key image corrections and enhancements, combine photos into robust compositions and use special effects to the best advantage—all with hobby and pro photographers' needs and challenges in mind." HP have a lot of different classes on offer, worth a look if you're wanting to improve your skills.

Every issue I write a little column in the news section of the magazine highlighting blogs we're enjoying. I include all sorts of blogs - not just scrappy ones - and it's really fun to choose every month. I thought I'd start to post the links here on the blog too - if you're anything like me you're always seeing links in magazines you mean to look up, but often forget! So, without further ado, here's is August's blog love:

Eye candy Christina Clouse’s blog “about pretty things” is packed with fresh and delicious designs. This summery mini book (above) caught our eye, but we were spoilt for choice. Take a look for yourself at coffee-girl-crafts.blogspot.com

Cosmo Cricket If you’ve ever looked at its company website (cosmocricket.com) you’ll know that the Cosmo Cricket blog (cosmocricket.blogspot.com) is bound to be something special! We love the beautiful projects made using its ranges and Jon, the warehouse guy is our new office pin-up!

Mini book heaven Art ed and mini book fan Jane Toft is loving Ginie Wurtz’s blog giniew.canalblog.com. It’s all in French, but the gorgeous pictures speak for themselves (above).

Crafting for charity Want to indulge in a spot of crafting for a worthy cause? Take a look at littleredpens.blogspot.com. Sam Reeves is a student looking for creative types to donate items inspired by her little red pen, which will then be sold off for her nominated charity, Friends Of Treetops School.

Do you have a blog you'd like to share with us? Post a comment below or email me, Rosie, at scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk. I'll include our favourites in the magazine, so get sending!

Digi scrapbooking (sort of!) for kids from an unlikely source: Persil's virtual scrapbook.

Looking for something a little different to inspire you this weekend? Try Design For Mankind blogger Erin Loechner's ezine. Every issue is a collection beautiful words and pictures from all sorts of creative people - designers, photographers, bloggers and artists. The most-recent issue, number five, is all about drawing inspiration from nature. You can read a little more about it here, or just take a virtual flick through the pages. Hope you all have a gorgeous weekend.

A scrapbooker and her camera are rarely parted, so here's a chance to share your photos with an even wider audience. Our sister title Digital Camera Magazine are on the hunt for talented photographers to enter The Digital Camera Photographer of the Year. It's the leading contest for anyone with a passion for digital photography and is open to both amateur and professional photographers of any nationality. The aim is to reveal the most inspirational and imaginative photographers from around the globe. Last year, the competition attracted a staggering 81,000+ entries from around the world.

It’s completely free to enter and there is a main prize of £15,000 up for grabs.

There are ten categories, these include the usual: People and Portraits, Animals, and Landscapes. We have a few interesting categories this year, Hidden Britain which should expose the real character or spirit of Britain and Creative Vision; the 'anything goes' category.

For more info, go to www.photographeroftheyear2008.com. Under 17s should also check out www.youngphotographeroftheyear.com.

Ooops! Unfortunately we printed the wrong sketch in the August issue - I blame the scrapbook gremlins (ahem). So if you're wondering why the layouts don't match the sketch pad, that's why! We're very sorry for the mix up, and without further ado, we bring you Mary Anne's fabby sketch:

Have you been inspired to give it a go? We'd very much like to see your layouts! Get in touch by email, scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk or post a link in the comments below.

Fancy learning a new crafty skill? Why not try crocheting your own mini rainbows to embellish layouts and mini books?

You may have spotted Jen Van Cauter's digital layout in the June issue of ScrapBook inspirations which featured a wonderful vibrant design by rainbow-pro Enfys. Enfys has very generous put together a detailed tutorial so you can make your own crochet rainbows.

There are two patterns, one for small rainbows and one for larger ones. The patterns are quite long so we've saved them as a PDF.

The Rainbow PDF
The PDF is 6.6MB so it may take a little while to download. Need help? Get downloading tips here.

You can also visit Enfys' MSN group to see tutorials for both the small rainbow and larger version.

If you're a crochet newbie, try this helpful guide to getting started.

Finally, if like me you find crochet endlessly baffling(!) you can buy ready-made crochet lovelies from Enfys - phew!

We'd love to see your crochet rainbows or any indeed any ubercrafty embellishments you've been making. Leave a comment below, or email me at the usual address: scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk. Thank you!

We've got ten pairs of tickets to give away to the Craft 4 Crafter's show at the Newark & Notts County Showground, 5-7 September 2008. For your chance to win a pair you need to get hold of a copy of the August issue of ScrapBook inspirations and make a note of the keyword on page 11. When you've got it, you can enter at this website https://www.futurecompetitions.com/sbk43/. Good luck!

The August issue (43) of ScrapBook inspirations is on sale Friday 25th July.

In this issue you'll find...
* Travel layouts great ideas for documenting your summer trips
* Photography tips creative ways to improve your photos
* Holiday adventure mini book by US designer Elise Blaha
* Crop-a-Dile Big Bite reviewed for you
* Your designs a reader gallery of what's hot!
* Best of British Scrapbooking see the fabulous prizes on offer!

All this plus lots more - don't miss out!

Inspired by the 'bootleg' sneak peek of Fiskars' new MP3 playing 'Rock Paper Trimmer', here's our top ten tunes to rock out to while trimming...

1 Paper Roses by Marie Osmond
2 The Cutter by Echo & the Bunnymen
3 The First Cut is the Deepest (we prefer Rod Stewart's version)
4 Anything by the Cutting Crew (but preferably (I Just) Died in your Arms!)
5 Paper Cuts by Nirvana
6 My Paper Heart by All American Rejects
7 Trim by Underworld
8 The Final Cut by Pink Floyd
9 Cut Here by The Cure
10 Any Way You Slice it by Kiss

Got an idea? Let us know in the comments below!