This guide is your introduction to the amazing world of digital scrapbooking and all of the advantages and creative opportunities it can offer you versus the traditional paper techniques you may already be familiar with.

As many of us are transitioning from film to digital photgraphy, we are faced with the dilemma that instead of shoeboxes overflowing with pictures, we now have hard drives clogged with our families' treasured memories. Either way, our memories suffer the same fate: hidden from view and unable to be shared.

In the past, the solution was to drag out the boxes of photos, stacks of cardstock and decorative papers, runners of tape, pens of glue, binders of stickers, and little tins of various embellishments. After commandeering the dining table, kitchen table, coffee table, family room floor or other large clear area of space, we would then proceed to crop, glue, and trim our way to a neat little scrapbook page which we could then add journaling and a page protector to for a completed layout.

Of course, that all depended on the dining table not needing to used used for actual dining, and that the boxes, binders, and piles of supplies would remain undisturbed by the menagerie of dogs, cats, and kids which inhabit all of our homes. Sound familiar? Ever found the little pull tabs from the back of adhesive photo splits in the baby's crib? We've all been there.

Enter: digital scrapbooking! By scrapbooking digitally, we can overcome all of these obstacles and open up even more advantages and creative opportunities over traditional paper scrapping. Here is a rundown of the top advantages for switching to digital:

LIMITED SPACE REQUIREMENTS:
All you need is your computer workspace. No boxes, piles, binders, or "stashes" of supplies you may never use. You will, however, need some sort of graphics program, but you may already have one that came bundled with a printer, digital camera, or other software you already own. These would be something like Adobe PhotoShop Elements (what I use), Microsoft Picture It!, Paint Shop Pro, and others. You may also like a photo printer to print out your creations, some great printers from HP, Epson and others can be had very reasonably around $100 or so. Search eBay for software, or printers now!

If you choose not print your own pages, there are many options for printing elsewhere. Locally any Walgreens or Wal-Mart can do your printing. Online outlets such as SnapFish and iPhoto can transform your photos into prints and bound books and other gifts, while a site like Lulu can help you self-publish anything from a calendar to hard cover coffee table book of your photos. The samples below show the cover and a month's page from our family calendar I gave as gifts last Christmas.

     

UNLIMITED SUPPLIES:
All digital supplies will NEVER run out! You can use them over and over and over again. Short of actually deleting the original files, your digital supplies can be used, trimmed, resized, and altered to fit multiple projects forever. In paper scrapping, if you cut a piece wrong you have wasted the paper. In digital, you hit "undo" and try again. I sell digital scrapbooking supplies in my eBay store, and even more are available from other eBay sellers.

CUSTOMIZABLE SUPPLIES:
Besides being endlessly reusable, one of the coolest features of digital supplies is that they are customizable! For example, you can resize elements to fit different layouts. The same embellishment can be scaled for an 8x8 or 12x12 or 8x10 or any other layout size you may need. The elements also can be recolored to coordinate with your layouts. In paper scrapping if you are working with a pink paper you are stuck with it just like it is, in digital you can lighten it, darken it, or even change its color altogether to match your photos. Within your editing program you will also have special effects and styles that can be applied to your layouts for even more unique options.

These two layouts show one of my paper layouts on the left, and a digital one on the right. The difference is staggering. It's like seeing a newspaper versus a magazine.

            

Once you master the basics, you can even create your own elements and papers. These pictures below all feature a paper of my design. It is the same paper, but I have altered its color for each separate layout. The swirly "tattoo" that accents the lower right corner of each photo is also the same element, recolored three ways to fit each layout.

         

SUPPORT & EDUCATION:
The web is full of online digital scrapbooking communities that feature supplies, tips, tools, techniques, galleries, chat rooms and user forums. Two of the best are ScrapGirls and Digital Freebies. Being online they are available 24/7 so you can scrap at your own schedule.

SPEED TOOLS ARE AVAILABLE:
Just as in paper scrapping, speed tools are available to help with page layout and album creation. Designers like myself offer many items from the page kits which include the papers and embellishments, to alpha sets, and page and album templates. The wide variety of fonts available today adds interest to your journaling, too. See the products in my store. 

An example of how a page template is used is shown below. A page template is combined with the kit elements to create a finished page. It is super quick and super easy!

       

MORE CRAFT OPTIONS ABOUND
Your digital scrapbooking creations can be used traditionally to print out and showcase in the family album, or you can now create things like the calendars above, greeting cards or postcards, or ?????? The possibilities are endless.

What are you waiting for? Let's get scrapping!

by: Christy from KayCee Studios

P.S. Stay tuned for the next issue, which will include a glossary of common digital scrapbooking terms and how they'll apply to your creations! Also check back for future issues where we'll delve into some tips and techniques for using your software to create stunning pages!

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