Digital scrapbook pages have become favorites of scrappers, and for good reason. They provide an exciting, yet simple way to expand and enhance creativity while helping to preserve memories for the future. Even the most diehard traditional scrappers have started integrating digital scrapbook pages into their scrapbook layouts and albums.
So where do you start? Well, the good news is that you don’t have to be a computer guru to create your first digital scrapbook pages … nor do you have to learn complicated software. Digital scrapbook layouts today are so user friendly that even the least computer savvy person can usually pick them up.
And unlike paper-and-glue scrapbooks, digital scrapbook layouts empower you to easily sample and experiment with different combinations of backgrounds, patterns and details before you commit to any one page or style. Anything you do to your scrapbook pages can be redone as many times over as you like without wasting time, effort or materials. Consider the following advice as you embark into the world of digital scrapping.
Top 5 Tips for Modern-Day Scrappers
- Leverage the Internet.
Go online for ideas. You’ll find a wealth of premade digital scrapbook layouts and templates that come as samples with themes carrying mass appeal as well as other, more obscure designs.
These scrapbook layouts require minimal effort from you. Just download the digital scrapbook template to your computer, open the software programs to use with the digital scrapbook layouts, and scan or import your pictures. Then open the scrapbook template that you like and drag and drop the digital pictures you select onto the scrapbook page. You may need to crop photos to fit in the space. When you have all the pieces presented in the way that you want, simply save the entire template as a new file and e-mail it to your friends.
- Play Photo Doctor.
Nearly every photo we take can be improved with a little doctoring. Basic photo editing programs allow you to restore old photos to make them look like new. Vanish wrinkles, blemishes or moles, and fix that red eye. Resize, crop, sharpen, and correct lighting. And by all means, zoom in on attractive faces and crop out excessive, uninteresting backgrounds and sagging stomachs. Your subjects will thank you (or would if they knew!).
- Keep It Together.
Gather the photographs you’ve taken and make a list of the kinds of pictures you might like to feature in each photo collage. Keep the digital photos you choose organized in a folder. Create a subfolder of your favorite pictures and name it “Scrapbook Pages” or “Photo Collages.” If you can’t doctor them, delete fuzzy, uninteresting, poor-quality, unflattering and redundant photos so they won’t take up space on your hard drive.
Start out small by making a simple digital photo collage, then work your way up to full-fledged scrapbook pages. With digital scrapbooking, it’s important to stay organized to keep from getting overwhelmed.
- Journal.
Leave a place to journal to convey your story or event more vividly. After you’ve put together a scrapbook page, write a little to describe the image, event, time period, feelings about it or the inspiration for the page. This enables you to really add personality to your scrapbook pages. The journaling, title and captions lend context to your pictures and complete the story. Future generations will want to know whom and what they’re seeing!
- Keep the Interests of Others in Mind.
Carefully consider whether the subjects of your photos will approve of their likeness before including them in your photo collages and sending them to your e-mail contact list. The digital scrapbook pages you create should be shared and enjoyed by all rather than be a source of embarrassment. You might even invite your family to become involved--while scrapbooking can be a creative, therapeutic outlet for self-expression, it can also be a fun family project.
Now get scrapping. Good luck, and have fun!
Posted
Aug 25 2008, 07:05 PM
by
Memory Lane