I have some neighborhood friends who want to get into digital scrapbooking. I promised them that I would help them get started but I’ve let everyday life get in the way and I haven’t gotten around to it. Teaching someone to digital scrapbook is a bit tricky though, it’s not like regular scrapbooking where you can just show them the papers and some idea books. With digital there has to be some comfort with using the computer and the big decision is what program to use and the learning curve involved with that. It can be overwhelming for sure so I’m hoping to make this information very accessible here for everyone.
Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s 10 things to know about Digital Scrapbooking:
1. Get some digital pictures uploaded into your computer, or scan some regular photos to use. You can use your own scanner but if you have a lot of pictures you want in digital form I really recommend using scanmyphotos.com – I was very happy with the results and you can read about my experience here. Don’t worry about having every photo you’ve ever taken organized on your hard drive, just have some photos available to work with to get you started.
2. Pick a photo editing program to use. This is what you will use for digital scrapbooking and for editing your photos. Even if you decide that you can’t stand digital scrapbooking, you will still be happy to use the program for editing your photos. What, you don’t edit your photos? No worries for now… but I bet you will want to after you see all the cool things you can do with them. I’ll cover more about that a later post about photography.
I personally learned on Microsoft Digital Image Suite which I still love. But, it’s not being made anymore. The majority of digital scrapbookers use Adobe Photoshop Elements or even the full Photoshop (which is very expensive, I don’t recommend that for beginners). Photoshop Elements is a great program (I use PSE 8 and I love it!) It really has everything you should ever need unless you want to become a digital designer, but don’t put the cart before the horse here!
There are other programs out there and I’m sure most of them are great, I just don’t know much about the other programs so I’m not going to cover them here. You can also buy digital scrapbooking programs at craft stores and these can be a great way to get started. After awhile you will want to branch out beyond these so you can get even more creative.
If you are hesitant to buy a photo editing program right off the bat you can try a free trial period which is a great way to test drive a program.
3. Learn how to use the photo editing program you pick. This is the most intimidating part of the whole process and it is tempting to want to give up if you over think this step. Don’t panic! It isn’t as bad as it looks, you just need to take it step by step and there is a lot of help out there. And most of it is free! There are so many resources and tutorials that I’m going to tell you to visit this blog entry for a listing of them.
4. Find digital designs to use on your pages. There are tons of free ones which you can read about in this entry and then when you’re ready to go shopping I have a big list of the digiscrap stores I love to visit. I really suggest you start with the free stuff so you can minimize your initial investment. I also am a firm believer in keeping things very simple especially in the beginning so don’t worry about putting a ton of embellishments or patterned papers on your first layouts just get familiar with how to put pages together.
As you work on your pages you will need to decide what size of layout you are going to use. If you aren’t sure then you should create them in a bigger size like 12x12 because it is easier to reduce the size of a finished layout than it is to later try and increase the size. You will lose print quality if you try and increase the size too much later on. The most popular scrapbook layout sizes are 12x12, 8x8, 6x6, and 8.5x11 (standard paper size). There are also several smaller brag book sizes to work with. My favorite size is 8x8.
5. Print your pages. After you have finished some pages you will probably want to print them. I really wasn’t “hooked” on digi scrapping until I printed out some pages and saw how they turned out so I hope you will print some of them. I love to use professional printing for my pages. You can print on your own home printer but you will use a ton of ink and your pictures will have a flat look to them. It’s worth spending the money on printing and you will still be spending less per page than even the most frugal paper scrapbooker because you don’t have to print out your pictures AND buy supplies that you can only use once. You can use digital scrapbook supplies over and over again and even print out multiple copies of the same page (no more duplicate scrapping!)
When you go to print your pages you will need to decide what size of layout you want and what kind of album you want to use. If you are going to be adding pages to an album as you go then you will want to find an album with plenty of page protectors. I use an 8x8 postbound album for mine – you can read about my albums here. If you are doing a project that has a clear beginning and an end such as an album about a particular vacation, a baby book, or other specialized scrapbook you might want to consider a bound book from Shutterfly – check out these inspiring albums . They are really nice and you can have multiple copies made for gifts.
I print all my layouts in size 8x8 from scrapbookpictures.com . The prices are reasonable and the layouts are mailed to your home. They run sales occasionally so I wait for one of those before ordering. I have also uploaded my pictures to Costco and either picked them up or had them mailed to me. They do a wonderful job also but most Costco photo centers only have canvas sizes of 8x10 or 12x18 so you have to be sure you don’t have your photo fill the entire canvas or it will be distorted.
6. Share your layouts with others. Besides printing them out, you can email them to your Mom in another state, post them on a family or public blog, post them in a public gallery to get feedback from other digi scrappers or even submit them to magazines. Of course you don’t have to do any of this, the layouts are first and foremost for you and your loved ones, but it can be fun to share them with a larger audience. Just be careful about including any personal information such as full names, addresses, or other info that might be compromising. You should have permission from everyone in the pictures (or their parents) if you want to put the layouts in a public gallery or a magazine. Respect others rights to privacy.
To share with far away friends or family members simply attach the layout to an email like you would a picture. If you are worried about their email capacity you can save a lower resolution version to use for web purposes but if they try and print it out the quality won’t be great.
All blog programs have a way to include picture files so that makes sharing layouts very easy.
Most larger digi sites have their own galleries and communities to participate in. I love to post my layouts to my Digi Scrappin Fun Flickr group. Feel free to join!
Digi Scrappin Fun Flickr group
Katie’s Digi Shop Talk gallery
7. Keep looking for new ideas and inspiration. It’s everywhere! I hope you will find a lot of scrapbooking ideas from my blog here but there are plenty of other great resources also. Look through online galleries and save your favorite layouts for a future “scraplift” – yes, it’s ok to copy others, in fact it’s a compliment! Just be sure to give them credit for the original idea if you post your layout online – say something like “this is a lift of this layout by Katie the Scrapbook Lady” ;)
Subscribe to newsletters, most are free.
I have one that you can sign up for here.
The Daily Digi is a place where you will want to visit every day and they send out a newsletter each month.
Digi Shop Talk puts out a HUGE newsletter every month – you do have to be a member.
The Shabby Princess has a wonderful newsletter that is really inspiring.
Many other digi sites have their own newsletter so sign up wherever you like to shop so you know about their sales and freebies.
And then there are blogs – tons of them! When you find a scrapbooker or designer who inspires you, check their signature lines for a blog link. Or you can do a google search to try and find them. My very favorite scrapbooking blogs are:
Of course I also hope you will read my blog – I try to post something new every day!
8. Backup! Backup! Backup! With all your photos and layouts on your computer hard drive you may forget about this important step. But what if something happens to your computer? It will. Backup your files regularly! You can backup to cds, dvds, flash drives or even an external hard drive. I would suggest 2 forms of backup when possible in case the first one fails (external hard drives are notorious for this!) Oh, and don’t forget to back up all those digital purchases also – your spending good money on them after all.
I backup all my pictures once a month to cd or dvd. At the end of each year I make a complete year backup of pictures on DVD. I do this as part of my monthly roundup tasks. I’m not as religious about backing up my digital purchases. I try to do a full backup of all my files at least a few times a year. In the meantime I try to backup newer purchases if I get a lot of new stuff.
I also upload ALL of my photos to flickr.com. I have a pro account there so I can upload an unlimited number of files. I currently have more than 6,400 pictures uploaded there and I’m just getting started! Most of them are marked private so only my family can view them. However, I participate in flickr as a community so I have a lot of public photos stored there as well. There are plenty of other photo sites you can use but I LOVE flickr because with a pro account you can access the full size resolution photo at any time. See my blog entry here for more details. For me this is like having an external hard drive that is available anywhere I have an internet connection.
9. Organization is important. Once you are digital, you don’t have to worry about taking over the dining room table with scrapbook supplies anymore. You don’t have to hunt for brads and stickers in your craft closet. But you do have to be organized – at least on your computer. You are still welcome to have dishes piled up and laundry waiting in hampers though, I know I do!
What does it mean to be organized on your computer? It means that you need to know where to find things. Just like socks should go in a sock drawer, you should have files for photos and digital designs. Some people buy programs for this but I just prefer to use the basic system on my computer for this. All you need to know is how to create a new folder (just use the right click button on your mouse and choose “new folder”) and how to change the view in the folder (go to “view” at the top of the screen in the folder and pick either “thumbnails” or “filmstrip”) so you can easily view what is in your folder.
I’ll show you more about it in this post about organizing.
10. Have fun! Don’t stress about creating the perfect page, just enjoy the pages you make. Keep the focus on the photos and the words that go with them and the layouts you create will be meaningful treasures. Get as creative as you want to but don’t let the pressure of needing to create a “masterpiece” each time slow you down. There is no way you can scrapbook every picture. I don’t even try to do that. Just have fun recording your memories and sharing them with others. That is what it’s all about!
