Digital Scrapbooking Thread

[2sunshines]

Here's our new digital scrapbooking page, since we have acquired quite a few people here interested.

This thread is to share your work, ask questions or solicit help for pages that you are working on, etc. Or whatever else... :)

[Mama Bird]

Umm...what is digital scrapbooking? Is it as expensive as paper scrapbooking? :spit

[DogwoodMama]

OK, I'll share. :) This is the first page of a two-page layout for Thanksgiving 2003.

http://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL294/1893299/7010494/93811454.jpg

The journalling reads: "Charlotte was one week old when Grandaddy came to see her. It was my first holiday as a mother, and our first Thanksgiving away from NC. Charlotte dozed happily on our chests as we celebrated together and gave thanks for our many many blessings".

Oops, discovered a typo! I wrote "camee" & I have already merged, not sure if I can fix it... :/

Credits: "Shabby Fall" kit from shabbyprincess.com, flower element by silly bird nut @ scrapbook-bytes.com.

[snlmama]

Hi! I'm wanting to start this so thought I'd pop in and say hi. Just ordered some new software and all our pics are digital anyway so can't wait to get something done and share it. I may need a lot of tips and advice before then. :) We're getting Photoshop Elements which I've heard is good for this. any tips on how to get started?

[DogwoodMama]

I have Photoshop Elements 3.0, I love it. :) It's got a lot of capabilities, plus it's got really cool organizational features- you can "tag" your pictures and such so you can search for them easily. :tu You can have multiple "tags" too, I find it much easier than putting everything in "folders".

I started out by getting a magazine that was about Digital Scrapbooking to get inspiration... then I hung out at scrapbook-bytes.com... I downloaded free kits from different places, and just took the plunge... really the challenge for me is learning to use Photoshop, which I'm feeling much more confident with now that I'm working on my 4th layout! There are also tutorials available on different websites too. :)

If you have specific questions, ask away! I've probably had the same ones myself recently. :mrgreen

[DogwoodMama]

OK, here are my two Thanksgiving layouts together... I'm not *as pleased* with the second one, but hey, I finished it! :O

http://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL294/1893299/7010494/93811454.jpghttp://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL294/1893299/7010494/93943655.jpg

[tree_hugger]

Elizabeth! That is beautiful! About how long would it take you to do those layouts?

[DogwoodMama]

Ummm, it still takes 2-3 hours, but I'm getting faster now... :O It's really fun & relaxing, though! :tu

[2sunshines]

Elizabeth, I think they both look great!!!

I have some pages done that I would be willing to share but I hate putting pics of my kids in a public forum (which I just realized that this one is...). I am a bit of a worrier... :blush Anyway, maybe we could start a "show your digital scrapbooking work here in a more private forum. Isn't there a picture forum under personal issues or something? :shrug

[DogwoodMama]

I think it'd be easy enough to start a thread like that in personal issues... :)

[2sunshines]

Okay, I'll go ahead and post some of my pages over in the Pictures subforum of Personal Issues.

Let's keep this thread going for questions and other stuff. I :heart having a GCM community of digital scrappers!!!

[DogwoodMama]

Ummm... do you ever get about half-way through with a layout and decide you totally hate it and scrap the whole thing? :banghead

I am *not* having a very inspired day today... :O

[2sunshines]

Ummm... do you ever get about half-way through with a layout and decide you totally hate it and scrap the whole thing?

Yep, I hate that... :banghead

[SillyMommy]

I decided to do Mother's Day Cards - here's the one I did tonight for my MIL:

http://www.craftymommy.com/image.php?productid=211

My other scrapped pages are at www.craftymommy.com/gallery

[ArmsOfLove]

Great idea, Christy! I'm gonna do that--thanks!

And yours looks great :tu

[2sunshines]

That is such a great idea!!!

I think I will do one for my mother and mil. :)

[DogwoodMama]

I've recently started trying to learn how to make my own elements... I've found a couple of tutorials and have learned how to make "slides" and grosgain ribbons... I think this is really cool as well, and once I get some more tricks under my belt I think I might want to try making my own kit to share! :lol

[snlmama]

OK, I finally got the program. I did a couple of pages w/ the "preset" program. It was fun and dh was impressed. Obviously he's easily impressed. Anyway, I'm hoping to figure out how to do it myself using that.

[DogwoodMama]

Cool! :cool Before long you may be addicted! :mrgreen

[2sunshines]

Elizabeth, you are so cool. I haven't even ventured into making my own elements.

If you come up with a cool kit, let me know!!!

My brother had a baby on Saturday. When we visited I took a bunch of pictures and I have already made 3 pages for him. I thought that maybe I would make a scrapbook over time and give it to them for the baby's frist birthday or for Christmas or whenever I have enough pictures...

When I get them converted to jpeg, I'll share some of the work...

[gamomof2]

Ok, I am totally wanting to do this now, but do not have Photoshop or any other type of software. I found a site- photomix.com that has downloadable software, but I am wondering if it would be as good? Anyone else not have Photoshop or similar and having luck w/ scrapping?
I can't wait to get started!!! :highfive

[2sunshines]

We have Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

I'm pretty confident that any free program is not as good as other programs (I mean, if it were no one would buy one right? :D) but it's worth a shot to get started. You can at least get a feel for what you want to do and whether or not it would be something that you would do enough to warrant purchasing a program.

[bostonsmama]

ok, so im downloading the trial version of the adobe photo elements 3.0 (i think thats the name?) and ive been lurking at the scrapbook-bytes. com but i still dont really understand all of this---once we make a layout, do you print it on paper, or does it just stay online?

and, i noticed on some of the paper packs, that some look like the 11x13 sheets, and some look like the 8.5x11 sheets....how would you print the big sheets? i dont want to, im just curious.

also--can you use pics from shutterfly?

and....how much ink does it take to print a layout? :eek i still want to do it, but i have oh so many questions. btw-- everyones pages look sooooooo super cute :) :) :tu

also--great idea on the mothers day card...now how do you make it into a card, doesnt it print the entire size of the paper?

**sorry for all the Q's!**

[2sunshines]

Whether you keep it on the computer or print it out is up to your personal preference. I print all mine out and put them into a album because I think it's more useful so that people can sit down and look at the album. But I also keep them all on my computer and am planning to burn them do a CD (when I get around to it) so that I will have that back up copy.

You can scrap in any size that you want. If you want to print larger than 8.5 by 11, you need to buy a special printer that takes larger paper or you can get it printed professionally at a store like Kinkos. I do the 8.5 by 11 just for that reason (so that I can print at home). Some people scrap in 12 by 12 but then print it out in 8 by 8 so that they can print on their own printer.

You can use pictures from anywhere, as long as they are digital (or you can scan them in to make them digital). I am currently making a scrapbook for a friend who just had a baby and posted a bunch of pictures to the internet. I just save them to my computer somewhere, edit them and add them directly to my scrapping.

If you are going to print out your own pages, depending on what kind of printer you currently own, you might want to invest in a decent printer that specializes in printing photographs. It's not expensive. We just bought an HP photo printer from Walmart for $80.00. Of course, you can get ones that are even better that are much more expensive. But it's really just a matter of what you're happy with. I always print on photo paper because it looks better. I don't know what you have right now... Try printing with your current printer and see if you're happy with how it looks.

As to how much ink, I'm sure it takes a lot because it's pure color everywhere!! But it's not too problematic, considering that your only expense is basically ink. COmparing that to the cost of traditional scrapbooking, you are still saving tons of money... Since we put our new cartridges in, I have printed off about 25 pages and there's no indication that the ink is low or anything so I'm assuming that I still have lots of ink to go... I'm sure that varies from brand to brand though...

[DogwoodMama]

I scrap in a 12x12 format... my In-laws have printed some of my pages out as 8x8 and say they look good. :) When I have the $$ I'm going to send mine to Mpix.com and have them printed there- it's around $5 a page depending on how you calculate it. Our goal is to replace our current printer with a special larger-format printer but that'll be down the line a bit. :)