Unleashing Your Creativity

Evolution of the Scrapbook

2008-08-13T17:08:00Z

What are the roots of today’s digital scrapbook? A scrapbook is a visual method of storytelling to preserve a legacy of history in the form of photographs, printed media and memorabilia presented artistically in decorated albums. The digital scrapbook can be traced back to ancient Greece, where a special notebook known as a “hypomnemata” was used to record events people had heard, seen or read that they wanted to preserve and remember.

In early America, some of the most well-known scrapbookers included Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain. An avid scrapbooker, Mark Twain devoted entire Sundays to the hobby and then sold his books through Montgomery Ward.

In the 15th century, books called commonplace books, often used by students, were used to record prayers, poems and information such as weights and medical formulas. Eventually, commonplace books also held illustrations, newspaper clippings and recipes, and proved to be a valuable way to share information.

With the advent of photography, scrapbooks began to feature mounted photos with handwritten captions. A scrapbook layout might include letters, newspaper articles and other mementos. Young women in the Victorian period created memory books, friendship albums or visitor’s albums containing signatures, cards, locks of hair, poetry and pictures of their family and friends to give as gifts or preserve memories.

The Traditional Scrapbook
In the United States, Utah’s Marielen Christensen is often credited with reviving interest in scrapbooking. She began designing creative pages and three-ring binders for her family's photo memories and displayed them at the World Conference on Records. She and her husband published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened a scrapbook store in 1981 that remains open today.

The traditional art of scrapbooking has often brought women together socially to make scrapbooks and share their work and memories. These hobbyists, known as scrapbookers or scrappers, still gather at each other's homes, local scrapbook stores, scrapbooking conventions and retreat centers. The term "crop," a reference to cropping or trimming printed photos, was coined to describe these events.

In the late 1990s, many U.S. scrappers opened stores to turn their hobby into a business. Between 2001 and 2004, the scrapbooking industry doubled in size to $2.5 billion, with more than 1,600 companies creating scrapbooking products by 2003. In America, the hobby has surpassed golf in popularity: One in four households has a golf enthusiast; one in three has a scrapbooking enthusiast!

Scrapping Goes Digital
Naturally, scrapbooking has modernized with the computer age. Creating a digital scrapbook is the process of using a scrapbook layout to create pages using photo- or image-editing software. Digital scrappers import electronic photos and scrapbooking graphics into their image-editing programs and arrange them to create digital scrapbook pages.

Digital scrapping was inspired by the methods, style and culture of traditional scrapbooking. Today’s scrapbook layout and computer programs are designed to capture the look and feel of traditional scrapbooking and provide creative control over all the elements--even ones on premade templates.

And the social element remains intact in the digital scrapping world. Many digital scrappers get together to share their digital resources and knowledge about editing programs. They read blogs, attend scrapbook conventions and meet others in online digital scrapbooking chat rooms and forums. It’s easier than ever to share a digital scrapbook with anyone, anywhere!

Time and money savings are among other benefits digital scrapbookers realize over glue-and-paper scrapping. In addition, while a traditional scrapbook layout and photos can fade or yellow over time, a computer-generated scrapbook layout is archived in a digital format where it’s kept safe from the effects of time, heat, oxidation and other factors. A digital scrapbook layout never loses its detail or color.

Another feature people love about the digital scrapbook is that they can add small notes or embellishments to each photo in the scrapbook layout to convey the story more vividly. This allows them to add their own creativity to the scrapbook layout.

With digital photography rising quickly, many scrapbookers edit all their photos on the computer before they ever put them in an album. They remove red eyes, crop distracting backgrounds and enhance the color of images, sharpening the overall effect of their digital scrapbook and giving it a professional look.

Traditional scrappers are realizing they don’t have to learn programming to create a digital scrapbook or photo collage. This part of the digital scrapbook has been catered to by professionals and is served to the scrapper on a platter in the form of a premade template and scrapbook layout, often featuring themes carrying mass appeal.

Scrapbooking has come a long way since ancient Greece, but its purpose and effects remain the same, and the digital scrapbook will only boost the popularity of this ancient art, helping preserve special memories for centuries to come!

Your Pet’s First Photo Collage

2008-08-13T12:57:00Z

When Meadow’s cage opened, she jumped out and sped around the living room, claws audibly gripping the carpet as she turned the corners. Suddenly she hopped high into the air, spun around, landed facing the opposite direction, and zigzagged across the floor before flopping onto her side for a rest. Digital camera in hand, her guardian snapped photos of the whole scene to use in what would later become an adorable digital photo collage of the bunnies.

Companion animals are an important part of the family, with many people framing photos of their pets and some carrying pictures of their furry friends in their wallets. When you adopt a new family pet, regardless of species, remember to include them in your scrapbook albums. Just like your children, they deserve a photo collage and can often be more photogenic than human children!

Creating a photo collage specifically about our animal companions can be a wonderful way to capture, share and remember their unique personalities. Whether you live with dogs, cats, house rabbits or birds, follow these tips to create a digital photo collage full of treasured memories that will last a lifetime.

As you contemplate subjects for your pet’s first photo collage, consider the following, and be sure your camera is charged and ready for action!

Firsts. Whenever you adopt a new companion animal, be sure to photograph the event and document the animal’s story before she came to live with you, and take lots of photos of her first day in your home.

Babies grow up so fast … especially those of the furry variety! Capture these precious days by snapping lots of pictures before it’s too late. Just like a new baby, a puppy or kitten’s first year can be documented. First bark, first bone, first treat, first solid food, first housebreaking success. Preserve special events, such as the first walk, first trip to the vet, birthdays, vacations and trips to the park.

You! Don’t forget to get some pictures of you and your pet together. Sometimes we get so busy behind the camera lens that we forget how nice it will be to have some good shots of us with our furry family member.

Daily life. Preserve the everyday happenings involving your dog or cat that put a smile on your face … or theirs!

Favorites. Consider your animal’s favorite toys, favorite place or favorite foods, and photograph him enjoying those things.

Interspecies relationships. Document your pet’s relationship with family members – both human and animal. A photo of the cat and dog together can make a great candidate for a photo collage.

When your pet has died. A photo collage of your missed pet can be even more meaningful. Before your memories of him fade, capture them in a photo collage. Choose a layout about the things you miss in particular and journal to reflect on and record the pet's life to memorialize him. A digital photo collage can be a cathartic way to celebrate your pet's life and capture those special memories forever.

Keep these tips in mind when you embark on the creation of your pet’s first photo collage:

Focus your photo collage. Decide how many you want. Some people create a separate photo collage for each phase of their pet’s life. Ornaments featuring a small collage frame and photo collage of your pet can also make nice holiday gifts.
Gather the photographs you’ve taken of your pets and make a list of the kinds of pictures you might like to feature in each photo collage.
Get on the Internet for ideas. With the advent of collage maker programs, you can try out different types of backgrounds, designs, formats and embellishments before you commit to one style of collage frame for your photo collage.
Get scrapping. Put all the photos you’ve chosen in one file for each collage, and start your first page by opening the layout or collage frame you wish and then dragging and dropping your first photo into it.
Leave a place to journal. After you’ve put together the page, write a little to describe your pet, the image, your feelings about the pet or the inspiration for the page.

You’ll soon find there’s no end to the products available for scrapbooking cat and dog lovers. Congratulations on beginning a project you’ll likely cherish for years to come.

Debunking the Myths About Digital Scrapbooks

2008-08-12T21:22:00Z

Many traditional scrapbookers resist the temptation to experiment with digital scrapping because of some prevalent myths about going digital. This article will debunk these notions and explain the advantages of dipping your toes in the digital scrapping world.

Digital Myth #1.
To create digital scrapbooks, I need to be a computer guru and learn complicated software.

Fact.
Today’s digital scrapbooking software is easier than ever to use—even for the amateur. Most programs offer free 30-day trial downloads, which is generally enough time to give it a try. And while it might take a little time to learn, you’ll find that the endless array of beautiful, innovative scrapbook designs and photo collage frames is well worth the minimal effort.

Digital Myth #2.
My digital scrapbooks will look amateurish because I lack experience with them.

Fact.
Even the beginner digital scrapper can produce professional-looking photo collages with the wide variety of easy-to-use scrapbook designs and collage frames available today. Electronically edited photos are of higher quality, computer text is consistently straight, and computer font is always legible. Generally, digital scrapbook pages look more professional than traditional creations and boost the pride scrappers feel in their projects.

Digital Myth #3.
Digital scrapbooking is more expensive than traditional scrapbooking.

Fact.
By switching to digital scrapbook designs, you can actually save yourself money ... and time. If you already own a computer, all you need to buy is the scrapbook layout software and digital scrapbook kits, which are fairly inexpensive. The equivalent in paper, scissors, glue, embellishments and albums is far more expensive, and once you use them, they’re gone. Digital scrapbook designs and collage frames, on the other hand, can be used indefinitely. Think of the money you'll save on gas driving to and from the craft stores, and the money you could save on gifts by giving personalized photo collages to friends and family.

Digital Myth #4.
Switching to digital scrapbook designs will limit my creativity.

Fact.
You can take your creativity to exciting new levels with the variety of digital scrapbook designs and collage frames available now. Choose any design you like and turn it into just about anything you want. You can mix and match or create your own unique styles. Adjust the colors, sizes, patterns, arrangements ... add audio and even video … your options are limitless.

Digital Myth #5.
I don’t have time to learn how to make digital scrapbooks.

Fact.
Today’s digital scrapbooking software programs are so user-friendly and intuitive that they make learning them a breeze. Once you get the hang of it, digital scrapbooking is a great timesaver. Correcting mistakes, editing, moving items around and revising are much easier and quicker to do digitally than they are by hand. You can size and resize your backgrounds and photo collage frames with a few simple mouse clicks and create beautiful keepsakes in no time.

Digital Myth #6.
I need to own a digital camera to create digital scrapbooks.

Fact.
Even if you only have a film camera, you can still create digital scrapbooks by scanning your images onto a computer or having your film images put on a CD. And you can finally put to use those electronic photos your friends and family members have e-mailed to you. Of course, with today’s digital camera prices going down all the time, you may find you’d like to buy a digital camera anyway!

Digital Myth #7.
If I move to digital scrapbooks, I’ll have to give up the traditional art of scrapbooking and the social and bonding aspects that come with joining my friends and family in making scrapbooks.

Fact.
On the contrary, digital scrapbooking broadens social circles. Many digital scrappers get together to share their digital resources and knowledge about editing programs. They go to scrapbook conventions and meet others in online digital scrapbooking chat rooms. Plus, you can take advantage of the digital scrapbook’s ability to help you keep in touch with faraway friends and relatives via e-mail, Web sites and easily printed copies of scrapbook pages that you can mail to them. You can also burn them to CDs and DVDs.

Of course, you can still make traditional albums and consider integrating your digital scrapbook designs into them. And as you learn new techniques and tricks digitally, you’re apt to spark your creativity with traditional scrapbooking.

You don’t need to become an expert digital scrapbooker overnight. Start out small by making a simple digital photo album, then work your way up to a full-fledged scrapbook. Happy scrapping!

Preserving Your Child’s Memories With a Photo Collage

2008-08-12T20:58:00Z

“They grow up so fast,” every parent bemoans. Scrapbooking is one of the most effective and enjoyable ways to keep childhood memories intact and fun to share. Whether you have one child or several, you’ll want to capture many of those precious moments forever in an album or photo collage.

A child's scrapbook is among the most prized possessions a parent can create, so if you choose a paper scrapbook, you may want to put it in a fireproof safe for safekeeping. Easier yet is to create a digital photo collage.

Today it’s easier than ever for anyone to become a collage maker. All it takes is a camera and computer. You can create wonderful scrapbook pages on your computer and print them out to add to your traditional homemade scrapbook so you have a mixture of homemade and digital pages. With the advent of the Internet and computers, this is only natural; even traditional scrapbookers have begun to combine the ancient art of scrapbooking with some digital downloads integrated into their layouts and albums.

With collage maker programs, you can try out different types of backgrounds, designs, formats and embellishments before you commit to one style. Anything you do to your page can be redone many times over until you choose the perfect photo collage to help preserve your child’s memories.

Below are tips that will help you chronicle and preserve those moments so you and your family can view them over and over again. Many parents create a separate album and photo collage for each phase of their child's life.

The baby book. Your child’s baby book may feature items such as baby pictures, locks of your baby's hair, cards you received before and after the birth, and various journal entries made by the proud parent, including entries during your pregnancy. You can also include when he began to walk and talk, and memories of his first birthday. To help protect this priceless heirloom, consider using a collage maker to create a photo collage and then integrating these digital or scanned photos of your baby into your book.

The toddler book. Since most children are quite photogenic and active during this stage, you will probably accumulate many photos to fill this album. Increase the vitality, organization and interest in these pictures by creating a photo collage. Make journal entries that help the pictures tell a story in such a way that anyone reading it can easily imagine being there.

The young student book. As your child gets older, be sure to photograph important moments such as graduations, birthday parties and any other important occasions. You can also save and scan drawings your child creates at this time and add them to a photo collage. Many digital photo collage templates feature themes such as birthdays, school days and holidays.

Consider teaching your child to be a collage maker too. A photo collage can be a bonding family project and provide a positive learning experience for your child, teaching them the principles of creativity, inspiration and patience. Encourage your child to choose photos and suggest ideas. A young collage maker will add personality to the photo collage and help make it more special to both of you.

The student book. Create a photo collage chronicling your child’s junior high and high school years. Include pictures taken at school functions and family events, providing appropriate captions for each.

The photo collage for your grown child. Naturally, a photo collage is ideal to help remember your child’s momentous occasions such as her first job, college graduation and wedding. If your children have taken part in the photo collage process, creating a photo collage might even become a family tradition that they will take with them throughout their lives.

It is likely these albums will be viewed many times and can make treasured gifts for your children and your parents. Choosing a digital photo collage allows you to duplicate each album as it is created so you can easily print and share copies. After all, your child isn't the only one who will wish to look back on these special times. Your child’s grandparents and godparents, and even your future grandchildren, may wish to own copies of the photo collage collection you create now.

Top 10 Reasons to Digitize Your Scrapbook

2008-08-12T20:53:00Z

Digital scrapbook pages have become all the rage in scrapbooking. Even diehard traditional scrappers have begun to integrate some digital scrapbook pages into their layouts and albums. More and more, they’re realizing it's an exciting, yet simple way to expand and enhance creativity while helping to preserve their memories for generations to come.

To create your first digital scrapbook pages, you don’t need to be a computer guru, nor do you have to learn complicated software.

Moreover, unlike traditional scrapbooking, digital scrapbook layouts enable you to easily try out different types of backgrounds, designs and embellishments before you commit. Anything you do to your page can be redone many times over without wasting time, effort and money. And that’s only the beginning of the advantages that going digital has to offer the modern-day scrapper.

Top 10 Reasons to Go Digital

1. Timesaver
Implementing digital scrapbook pages will save you time. It’s no longer necessary to print your pictures before you put them into your scrapbook pages. Just download your digital pictures to your computer or scan your hard copy photos. You can buy premade scrapbook layouts with spaces for your photos and then simply drag and drop your digital pictures onto the scrapbook pages. No need to redo handmade scrapbook pages; no need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper.

2. Tidier
Traditional scrappers have required a permanent space in their homes for their volumes of paper, ribbon, lace and other embellishments, along with unfinished projects vulnerable to accidents. Digital scrapping means no mess on your dining room table, no need for extra physical storage space, no cutting your photos. Save all your layouts and supplies directly to your computer or external storage device.

3. Greener
Digital scrapbook pages allow you to literally reuse any digital scrapbook element as many times as you like, so say goodbye to buying extra paper to avoid running out of a certain pattern or color. Goodbye to the glue and piles of leftover paper scraps and unrecyclable materials. Good riddance, reject scrapbook pages—you can quickly fix them before printing!

4. Cheaper
If you already own a computer, all you need to buy is the scrapbook layout software and digital scrapbook kits, which are fairly inexpensive and include paper and embellishments. The equivalent in physical materials is far more expensive, and once you use them, they’re gone. Digital kits can be used indefinitely. And because there's no need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper, you’ll save money in gas too!

5. Goof Proof
Photos are often the most precious items in your scrapbooks, so why risk butchering them with scissors? With digital scrapbooking, there's no chance of destroying the only photo you have of your mom’s mom’s mom. Scan the photo and make as many copies as you like. Digital scrapbook pages allow you to experiment with infinite combinations until they look just the way you want. And if you misspell a word in your journaling, you're free to correct it without damaging your scrapbook layouts.

6. Photo Doctor
Basic photo editing programs allow you to restore old photos to make them look just like new. Conversely, you can take current photos and make them looked aged. Vanish wrinkles, blemishes and moles, and fix that pervasive red eye. Resize, crop, sharpen, and correct lighting. Nearly every photo you take can be improved with a little doctoring.

7. Professional
Cropped photos always have perfect edges, computer text is always straight, and computer font is always legible! Digital scrapbook pages look professional and boost the pride we feel in our creations.

8. Versatile
Take any design you like and turn it into just about anything you want. Adjust the colors, sizes, patterns, arrangements ... your options are limitless.

9. Easy to Share
One of the biggest advantages of digital scrapbook pages is that they can be easily shared in so many ways. Print multiple copies to share with family, upload pages to a family Web site or blog, or e-mail pages to relatives wherever they live.

10. Endless Supplies
You’ll always have what you need in the right size, color and style, and you’ll never need to worry about running out of glue. With digital scrapbook layouts, you’ll always have the supplies you need.

With both traditional and digital scrapbook layouts, you’re limited by only one thing: your imagination. If you're a scrapper, you owe it to your craft to try digital scrapbooking! An infinite assortment of exciting new scrapbook layouts awaits, and it’s only a few clicks away.

Remembering Family Vacations Through Digital Scrapbooking

2008-08-12T18:56:00Z

Sigh. You’re back from your family vacation and faced with unpacking, doing laundry and returning to the daily routine. As your family settles into the daily grind at home, photo collages can help keep the memories of those special family moments from fading.

Creating photo collages not only helps preserve those treasured moments forever … it can also be a fun family project or a creative, therapeutic outlet for self-expression. You may have returned from your trip, but your digital camera’s card can take you back. And making photo collages is one post-vacation activity that can be very enjoyable. Some even look forward to it while they’re still on vacation!

More and more, families today are discovering that the easiest, most innovative and enjoyable way to preserve their vacation memories is through digital photo collages. Many busy families lack the time, space, money, materials and sheer patience to create paper scrapbooks. Plus, in our digital age, we all want to download our digital pictures and share them over e-mail. Photo collages—also known as a digital scrapbook—take photo sharing a step further.

When you consider the user-friendly scrapbook software programs available, the fun graphics, quality printability and ease of sharing electronic photos with friends and loved ones , the booming popularity of the digital scrapbook is no surprise.

Photographing Your Vacation to Optimize Your Digital Scrapbook

You can use a still camera and then scan in your photos later, although a digital camera is most conducive to making photo collages. Be sure you charge your camera’s battery before you go and bring a charger or extra battery, camera bag and at least two camera cards with plenty of shots available.

Today’s scrapbook software programs allow you to choose your backgrounds, collage frames and special effects such as words, scrapbook clipart and collage art. Scrapbook page layouts range from simple drag-and-drop images into a readymade scrapbook template to blank scrapbook layouts you can design from scratch. Either way, collage makers can check out the wide range of options available for photo collages and keep them in mind when looking through the camera lens.

Many vacation destinations feature signs welcoming tourists to the area, and some collage makers photograph these signs to include in their digital scrapbook. Another useful tool is to take a general background shot of an empty beach or other unencumbered scenery to use as the scrapbook background. Small details such as flowers, birds and butterflies can also make pretty accents on your digital scrapbook.

Of course, you’ll want shots of the whole family and individual family members enjoying vacation activities, as well as pictures featuring your family in a setting that reveals a unique aspect of your destination. Often these will comprise the star images of your personalized photo collages to help you look back on your vacation.

How to Make a Collage

Once you’ve returned from your trip and wish to start preserving your vacation memories, keep the following tips in mind as you embark on your digital scrapbook:

Create your photo collages while your vacation is still fresh in your mind, if possible.
Import your photos onto your computer and keep them organized in a folder.
Create a subfolder of your favorite pictures and name it “Digital Scrapbook” or “Photo Collages.”
Choose a photo editing program that senses whether each photo should be horizontal or vertical and automatically adjusts it as necessary while importing; this will save you from having to manually rotate all your vertical pictures later.
Adjust lighting where possible and delete fuzzy, unflattering, uninteresting, poor-quality and redundant photos.
Edit your photos to zoom in on attractive faces and crop out excessive, uninteresting backgrounds. Cropping can also conveniently erase saggy beach bellies and that random tourist’s bald head in the corner.
Consider whether your partner or child will approve of their photos before including them in your photo collages and sending them to your friends and extended family. Your family’s digital scrapbook should be shared and enjoyed by all.
When choosing your scrapbook layout, keep in mind which photo collages are most apt to be universally favored by your family. A pink, flower-laden background may not appeal to your teenage son for a family photo, although it might make a nice personalized photo collage to print and frame for your daughter’s bedroom wall. Create several scrapbook designs to ensure that each member of your family can appreciate at least one of your photo collages.
Choose a scrapbook layout large enough to accommodate the number of photos you wish to feature in one digital scrapbook, and keep in mind that less can be better when choosing accents and scrapbook clipart.

When you feel satisfied with your photo collages and have received the approval of your discerning featured family members, it’s time to share your vacation memories with your friends and family who care to see your digital scrapbook. Be sure to include a description of your vacation destination and date somewhere in the e-mail, such as in the subject line, if you have not included this information in the digital scrapbook itself. And don’t forget to print copies of select photo collages for your parents and others who may not have Internet access.

Now prepare yourself for many compliments on your family vacation photo collages!