I have had a lot of people ask me how to get started with digital scrapbooking so I thought it would be helpful to have somewhere for people to come when they are curious to learn more about it. And thanks to my cousin for teaching me!
To start, here are a few reasons why I LOVE digital scrapbooking.
1. It is a LOT cheaper. So many papers and embellishments are available for free all over this great thing we call the internet. In addition, when you use an embellishment, you can use it, use it again, reuse it, resize it, change the color, etc... over and over and over again.
2. I don't have to leave my house! I can do everything from my computer and I just realized how much of a hermit that makes me sound... :)
3. No messes. Seriously. How great is that? No making a huge mess, no need for a 'craft room', no clean up afterwards.
4. If you damage a page, you can reprint it versus it being gone forever.
Ok, so if you are now convinced that digital scrapbooking is awesome, here is how to get started (printing info is down at the bottom):
FIRST:
You will need a photo editing program of some sort. I use Photoshop. But I believe that there are plenty of free downloadable programs out there. In fact, I am going to find out about some and come back to this...
First and a half: you need to learn how to use whatever program you choose. YouTube tutorials is a fantastic way to learn things - that is how I learned Photoshop! Spend some time getting to know your program as it could turn into a long-term relationship between the two of you.
SECOND:
And this is where you will spend a lot of time, is building up your digital supplies. Papers, embellishments, alphabets (although just regular fonts work so great, too!), accents, etc...
This part is fun!
Summer Driggs is a saint in the scrapbooking world, in my eyes. Check out her site at:
Summertime Designs
Summer has been making FREE (yay!) digital scrapbooking kits with tons of accessories that will cover nearly all of your digital scrapbooking needs. She has a list of all of her kits for download on her right sidebar. They are adorable and I have made many projects using her creations.
Here are some of my other favorite digital scrapbooking websites:
Pickleberry Pop
A Cherry On Top
Designer Digitals
Shabby Princess
Also, Etsy is a great place for inexpensive digital scrapbooking kits and there are some really darling designs on there.
THIRD:
Now it is time to use your supplies in your photo editing program to make your pages. This is the really fun part! There is inspiration for pages all over the internet and check out my galleries as well!
Two key points:
1: Make sure you size your pages correctly, I use 12x12. If you want to print the pages yourself, you could use 8x10 or whatever works with your plan.
2: Make sure that your image resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch. In Photoshop, I change this in the same place that I change the size of my image. Also, digital scrapbooking supplies will come to you in the 300 pixels per inch format. If you save random clip art from a Google search, it will most likely be only 72 pixels/inch. When you try to resize it, it gets blurry and is pretty much worthless by way of digi-scrapping. You have to get the good stuff in 300 pixels per inch.
LAST: PRINTING
When you are done with your project, you have a lot of options for printing your pages.
My personal favorite is to print my pages in a book from Blurb.com. There are a lot of sites that do these kinds of books, I have only used Blurb so I can only speak from my experience with them. The books are great and very high quality (but not exactly cheap, boo). I make my pages 12x12 inches and the book that I create is also 12x12 inches and so they fit perfectly. That is just my personal preference. :)
Another method to making your pages physical is to print them. You can do this at home if they are small enough. I would print my 12x12 inch pages at Costco and they are $2.99 per page in my area. My 2009 family scrapbook was nearly 200 pages (My first child was a baby, lots of pictures, I am sure you can understand) and so it was much, much cheaper for me to do a Blurb book than to print each page, get the clear cover for the page and the binder (or 2, or 3...) to hold them.
I hope that this is helpful and if I think of anything else...
I'll be back...
Enjoy!
SECOND:
And this is where you will spend a lot of time, is building up your digital supplies. Papers, embellishments, alphabets (although just regular fonts work so great, too!), accents, etc...
This part is fun!
Summer Driggs is a saint in the scrapbooking world, in my eyes. Check out her site at:
Summertime Designs
Summer has been making FREE (yay!) digital scrapbooking kits with tons of accessories that will cover nearly all of your digital scrapbooking needs. She has a list of all of her kits for download on her right sidebar. They are adorable and I have made many projects using her creations.
Here are some of my other favorite digital scrapbooking websites:
Pickleberry Pop
A Cherry On Top
Designer Digitals
Shabby Princess
Also, Etsy is a great place for inexpensive digital scrapbooking kits and there are some really darling designs on there.
THIRD:
Now it is time to use your supplies in your photo editing program to make your pages. This is the really fun part! There is inspiration for pages all over the internet and check out my galleries as well!
Two key points:
1: Make sure you size your pages correctly, I use 12x12. If you want to print the pages yourself, you could use 8x10 or whatever works with your plan.
2: Make sure that your image resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch. In Photoshop, I change this in the same place that I change the size of my image. Also, digital scrapbooking supplies will come to you in the 300 pixels per inch format. If you save random clip art from a Google search, it will most likely be only 72 pixels/inch. When you try to resize it, it gets blurry and is pretty much worthless by way of digi-scrapping. You have to get the good stuff in 300 pixels per inch.
LAST: PRINTING
When you are done with your project, you have a lot of options for printing your pages.
My personal favorite is to print my pages in a book from Blurb.com. There are a lot of sites that do these kinds of books, I have only used Blurb so I can only speak from my experience with them. The books are great and very high quality (but not exactly cheap, boo). I make my pages 12x12 inches and the book that I create is also 12x12 inches and so they fit perfectly. That is just my personal preference. :)
Another method to making your pages physical is to print them. You can do this at home if they are small enough. I would print my 12x12 inch pages at Costco and they are $2.99 per page in my area. My 2009 family scrapbook was nearly 200 pages (My first child was a baby, lots of pictures, I am sure you can understand) and so it was much, much cheaper for me to do a Blurb book than to print each page, get the clear cover for the page and the binder (or 2, or 3...) to hold them.
I hope that this is helpful and if I think of anything else...
I'll be back...
Enjoy!
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