Yeah! Its only 5 months into 2008, and I’m finally done with my scrapbook for 2007!! So, in honor, I’ve decided to leave my contribution to the world! I’ve had quite a few people ask me about my digital scrapbooking, so I’m going to copy my friend Brinn, and impart all my wisdom here on my blog!
Now, I’m not a professional, but I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know a thing or two. So, first I’m going to go through what I think are the advantages of traditional vs. digi scrap.
Traditional:
*No Computer Skills needed!! Now, you don’t have to be a computer wiz to digi scrap, but if you don’t know where the “turn on” button is, or you can’t open a file to save your life...you might have some trouble.
*The look and feel of paper. Some people enjoy working with paper, (cutting, gluing, handwriting..) and they like the way the final products looks and feels. If you are one of these, digi scrapping might be a little disappointing. *Note* the products you use to digi scrap look great! They look 3-D!
To me, those are the only reasons someone would stay with traditional.
Digital
*No mess! Its all on your computer! No paper everywhere, you kids can’t get into your stuff and ruin it...and no clean up!
Easy! Some may be skeptical at this, but once you get going, its so easy!
*Fool proof! Two words, spell check! Don’t worry about glueing down a paper, or sticker then thinking...ahh!! Its not right! Place things on your page, and move them around till you like it! I’ve even finished an entire page, and thought “ ugly!” then switched things up and I didn’t ruin anything.
*Cheaper!! I’ll get into this more, but buy the time you get the software, supplies, and printing, I promise its cheaper than traditional version!
*Save it forever!! I know people who have told their kids, “if there’s a fire, grab the scrapbooks and run!” Once you’ve finished a project, burn a copy on a disk, then keep it in your fire proof safe. Then, if something ever happens to your scrapbook, you will always have a back up!
S*harable. You can email your pictures, burn disks and give grandparents a copy. I have printed my scrapbook twice. One is mine, with all the family pictures, then other is Leahs, and when she’s grown up she will be able to take her copy with her.
*Compatible with your pictures. Your pictures are already digital, so why go and get them printed? Just drag and drop them. You can make them bigger, smaller, crop them however you want!
Ok, so now your convinced that you want to digi scrap, how do you do it? Heres how I do it!
First you need software.
I have 2 programs that I use. The first is called Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 4.0. (make sure you get the latest version) This is by far the best and easiest program to digi scrap with! You can get it at most computer stores, or online. Its very affordable, only $30-40! (I swear these guys should pay me for all my advertising) The software is set with all the tools to scrapbook with. It has tons of papers, embellishments ( flowers, ribbions, stiches, stamps, buttons....) fonts, letters & the best, pre done layouts! Now, I will be honest, some things they are are so adorable, others, not so cute...but its totally worth it. Its very user friendly, I call it the dumbed down version, you don’t have to be a techie to use it. Its very easy.
You can do one of 3 things to make your pages.
1- use one of their many of pre-done layouts. All you have to do is choose a layout, pop in your pictures, and change the text, and your done! Really its that easy.
2- Start with one of their layouts, and customize. I love doing this. The pre-done layout gives you a great head start, then you can change the color, move things around, add this, take out that to make it your own.
3 Scrap from Scratch! Get really creative and use all their supplies to make a totally new and unique page!!
I love this program and would completely recommend it to anyone who is a novice digi scrapper.
The 2nd program you need is a photo editing program. I use Photoshop, only because I already had it, and know how to work it. If you are new to this, and want a photoediting program, I wouldn’t go buy photoshop. Its very expensive, and it has so many features that I never touch. Its overkill if you only want to edit photos. Adobe makes a program called photoshop elements. Now, I’ve never tried it, but I’m told its just a simplified version of photoshop made mostly to edit photos. (If any of you know more about this program, feel free to comment) I don’t know the prices, but I know its cheaper then photoshop.
Why do you need this program? Well, photo editing is an entire subject in and of itself. But in a nutshell....you can use your program to crop, resize, change resolution(I’ll explain) Do any editing...red eye, black & white, touch ups, change color...
Now, if you were to grab a picture from your camera and drop it onto a scrapbook page, then stretch it to the size you want....all thats going to do is stretch the pixels. You image will not print very nicely. If you are going to increase the size of a picture, you need to change the image size along with the resolution. What this will do is take your 4 x6 picture and enlarge it to a 5x7 (for example) and ADD pixels instead of stretching them. Your image will then print out very nicely.
The other reason to get a good photo editing program is for your supplies. (Now, this might just be a matter of my opinion, but this is based on my experience.) I will tell you more about supplies below. But when I use my digital supplies in my scrapbook factory deluxe program, it tends to slow down the program. (and I have a very fast computer) I usually overload a page with tons of elements (papers, pictures, ribbons...) So I find that if I’m making a page purely with my supplies, I use photoshop, because that program is made to handle large files. You might not have the same problem. But that is my experience.
My main recommendation is to get the program and start messing with it. I promise once you do, you will be addicted!
Ok, now that you have your programs, you will want supplies. If you just starting out with Scrapbook Factory Deluxe, you might want to play with it a little before you go and get tons of stuff. I made my first scrapbook (over 200 pages) all with the stuff from the program, then I got bored (because I’d used everything in there 5 times) so I started looking to find other things to get creative with!!!
Digital scrapbooking is taking over (wha hahaha!!!) and you can find on the internet the digital equivalent of any thing you would find in a scrapbook store. ( Papers, letters, stickers, stitches, stamps, ribbons, flowers.....) They can come as separate elements, or in kits, with all coordinating stuff. You can purchase these and download them to your hard drive and then have a ball.
Here are the wonderful things about digi scrap supplies....
*Waaayyy cheaper. I bought an adorable kit for $8 with tons of stuff. If I were to buy the same stuff at the store, I would have paid $15-20 easy. Plus, if you look, you can find tons of freebies! I currently have 5-6 gb. of supplies (by the way, thats alot) and 98% of it was free!
You can customize it. Using your photo editing program, you can change the color, shape, size.. of your elements. Like the pattern on the paper, but not the color? No problem, just change it!
And the best part...
*Unlimited usage!!! Traditional stuff, you buy, use, and its gone. Digi...not so!!! Use a paper in one layout, then use it again, and again, and again, and again.....
Its unlimited. You can reuse these things a million times over!!!! Which really makes it fun and a lot cheaper!!
Ok, so I’m going to give you some of my favorite places to go for supplies. (Again, these people should be paying me!)
*The Shabby Princess http://www.shabbyprincess.com/
This place is one of the cutest!!! They have great kits! And they currently have 21 freebies. Just download them! And they are all adorable!
Digital Design Essentials www.digitaldesignessentials.com/
Great kits, not too many freebies, but one of my favorite kits came from here.
Two peas in a bucket http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/
This has both traditional and digi, so you have to go to the digital link.
They have cute kits and currently have 56 freebies. They are mostly smaller kits, and some are definitely cuter than others, but its a great place to get a head start.
Some others I’ve looked at, but don’t know too much about
Heather Ann Designs, http://www.heatheranndesigns.com/
Cottage Arts, http://www.cottagearts.net/
Digital Scrapbooking Place
Designer Digitals
http://www.designerdigitals.com
So look around, and see what you can find. It is so much fun!!
*If you know of any other great sites, leave a comment!*
Ok, so now you have everything you need and your ready to get started.
Here are just a few last minute tips.
Just play! The best thing to do is just start messing around with it! To a few “test runs” or just start designing a page. You’ll find how easy and fun it is!
Hit the save button. I hate it when I’m, in the middle of a big, intense design, and my computer freaks out, then I’ve lost it!!
BACK UP!!!!! (This applies to anything.) Take it from someone who knows!!! You don’t want to be that looser who lost 5 months worth of work, and tons of digital kits just because you didn’t take the time to back up your work! Burn a disk frequently. Save things to an external hard drive. Once you’ve downloaded all your digital kits, burn them to a disk, and put it away (mind you, digital piracy is not ok, don’t share the kits you’ve bought, burn it only to save it.) Luckily, when my hard drive crashed, most of my kits were freebies, so I didn’t have to pay for them again, I just had to go through the time to download them again.
*Have fun! Once you’ve got the hang of Digital Scrapbooking, just have fun!!!
Well there you go! If you have any questions, or have any thing to share, please feel free to leave a comment!!
Happy Scrapping!!
I have a ton of pages that I've finished, if you would like to see a few of them, just follow the link.
http://web.mac.com/tahshie/Ford_Family_Web_Site/Tahshas_Scrapbooking.html
