Digital Scrapbooking: How to Get Started

On my last post, Thais asked how I learned how to digital scrapbook. I thought I would answer her questions in a new post in case someone else is curious.

What software do you use to scrapbook with?

When I first started, I used Adobe Illustrator. Now I use Adobe Photoshop CS2 (PS). It seems like most people use either Adobe PS or Photoshop Elements (PSE), which give you a lot of flexibility with your layouts, but of course you don't have to use those. According to the Designer Digitals website, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Digital Image Suite, ACDSee Systems Photo Editor, and LumaPix FotoFusion Scrapbook Essentials are other common photo-editing programs.

And how the heck did you learn it? Books? Tips? Anything. I REALLY want to get into it.

I learned mostly by trial and error. I used a few online tutorials, which I will get to in a second, but for me, the biggest thing was finding out where to get free materials. A friend pointed me toward Two Peas in a Bucket, and I found other freebie sites on my own (see my "Goodies" sidebar).

Once I had materials, I just started layering things on top of each other in Illustrator. There are tutorials out there that will walk you through each step of making a digital page, like this first digital layout tutorial from Designer Digitals.

One of the most important things I did learn through a website was how to use a template. I think it's safe to say that 99% of the layouts I've made in the past year were created using templates. They are just so easy to use...once you know how!

This seems like a pretty good tutorial on how to use a PSD template. If you don't have PS or PSE, you'll need to use a software that can work with layers to use a template.

Here's an example of a page I made using a template I downloaded for free.





I made the lemon meringue pie page using the Circled Template 2 from Fei Fei's Stuff. Easy as pie, and the results are so pretty (in my humble opinion).

So, the main thing is purchasing a photo-editing software (or you can try trials of PS and PSE) if you don't have one already, and then, once you learn a few things you'll be right on your way!

July and August

Yay for new layouts! This July page is special because in completing it, I completed a whole year's worth of 12 of 12 layouts. July 2008-July 2009...and beyond.

Do you remember my very first page? I've come a long way. It's been fun. I doubt I'll ever go back to paper scrapbooking now.






Since you can't really read the journaling on the August page, this is what it says:

"This was a fun day. Post-advanced diagnostics and pre-job. I got to sleep in, but then I got a
message from my UT supervisor saying I needed to come in to the clinic one last time to destroy a soft file.
Surprise, surprise--I couldn’t find the file anywhere in the clinic. It turned out that Melissa shredded it the night before. I snapped one last picture of my car sitting in front of Littlefield, my freshman dorm; my college days are officially over. It was also a special day because Alifia was in Austin. We went to Tx Land and Cattle and snagged a free lunch for “being cute,” and later we went to the mall with Sarah. That evening, Henry and I went to Hula Hut for Amy A.’s going away party. A raccoon ran around on the deck! So fun to see the SLP girls."