Digital Scrapping FAQ

[RweTHEREyet]

Newbie here. I have not done any pages, and so far, all I have done is gather graphics to use in making signs for the door of our cabin on our cruise. I have accumulated a lot of stuff, and I am wondering how you keep this all organized and just where you store all this stuff so that you can find thins easily?

 

[Fran98765]

I organize by Site then Designer then kit name. It really helps when giving proper credit. It is courteous and customary to credit the designers when you post at forums, so this makes it easy.

My folders look like this:

3 Scrapateers
designer
kit a
kit b
designer
kit
Digitals
Glenda Ketcham
Mouse Scraps
Mouse Scraps Addon
Tiggeriffic
Seebee - Chris Beasley
kit a
kit b

and so forth... you get the idea. When a designer sells at more then 1 store, I keep them in one store to stay together, unless I don't realize they sell in more then one, then I have 2 folders for them! LOL It really gets fun when they change stores! haha

Being on several CTs I find that I usually use a kit exclusively, so keeping the kits together is extremely helpful for me. When I started, I read somewhere that you should separate by pieces, all blue backgrounds in a folder, then all green ones, and brads and flowers all in diff folders, but you know what? Designer A and Designer B kept naming their stinking flowers with the same names and it was ridiculous! That and I didn't know who had what stuff. Writing up my credits took longer then making the layout!

You may want to invest in ACDSee Photo Manager. You put labels on your pics and it will do a search for you. For example if you wanted a blue background, you plug that in and it will pull up all your labelled blue backgrounds in all directories. I NEED that!!!

 

[labdogs42]

Britt-ish Designs just came out with an awesome Disney freebie and a HUGE mega-kit of Disney-esque stuff. You can find them both here and in the store at ScrapMatters

I got them both today and I can't WAIT to play!!

 

[grumpalina]

I've used www.polkadotpotato.com for printing and been VERY happy with the results. Shutterfly does some scrapbook printing but their prices are high.

I also organize by site, designer and kit name. for designers i buy a lot from (or if they sell at a few places), i give them their own master folder.

 

[SUZI]

I just started to scrapbook (thanks to all of you for inspiration!!)
I wanted to email a page to my sister; however, I tried to attach the scrap page to my email, and my email account could not "read" it. I am using PhotoShop Elements and I saved my scrap page using photoshop PSD.PDD format. I thought the format might be the problem -- does anyone know? If I re-save the project as a JPEG, would the quality decrease when printed?

I truly appreciate any thoughts and advice! Thank you!

 

[Fran98765]

Always keep the original .psd of your file. You won't believe when you realize you put the dates wrong on some layout and you need those layers!!

In addition to keeping my original file (it's .pspimage for PSP), I save a small jpg for sharing. Those .psd and .psp files are HUGE, I'm talking like 50MG HUGE! If you are ever considering posting layouts to a scrap site or even here, resize your image to 600x600 and then for PSE you save for web, in PSP you export jpeg. This will give you a web friendly image, which will look just fine on the computer. The jpg will be super reduced and cannot be printed, tho so don't lose the original!

 

[disneyfan2]

Always keep the original .psd of your file. You won't believe when you realize you put the dates wrong on some layout and you need those layers!!

i realized this too late after completing some Disney pages, then came across some really cool Disny background stuff, and had to start from scratch. I found that keeping the PSD files were slowing my computer down. so now, i will transfter the PSD files to my external hard drive and only keeping the Jpg pages so i can make them into a digital book when i get enough done

 

[SUZI]

Always keep the original .psd of your file. You won't believe when you realize you put the dates wrong on some layout and you need those layers!!

In addition to keeping my original file (it's .pspimage for PSP), I save a small jpg for sharing. Those .psd and .psp files are HUGE, I'm talking like 50MG HUGE! If you are ever considering posting layouts to a scrap site or even here, resize your image to 600x600 and then for PSE you save for web, in PSP you export jpeg. This will give you a web friendly image, which will look just fine on the computer. The jpg will be super reduced and cannot be printed, tho so don't lose the original!

i realized this too late after completing some Disney pages, then came across some really cool Disny background stuff, and had to start from scratch. I found that keeping the PSD files were slowing my computer down. so now, i will transfter the PSD files to my external hard drive and only keeping the Jpg pages so i can make them into a digital book when i get enough done

Thanks for advice -- very helpful!! One more question about formats:
If I convert my pages to jpeg and send them to a company to print (such as Scrapbook to Share), will the quality of my pages be poor? Or, should I send them in their orginal .psd format? Thanks again!

 

[Fran98765]

Companies want the full size .jpg's. That means you don't do the reducing part. When you "save for the web" in PSE, you are reducing the resolution of your image as well, so you would just use "save as" and then change to .jpg. You would also use the full size, either 12x12 or 8x8 or whatever size you want printed. When you reduce the image to 600x600 prior to saving for the web, you are making your image 2x2. Don't ever print that unless you want a sheet of thumbnails! LOL

I've printed 2 Shutterfly books at 8x8. Even though I create at 12x12. I reduced each original image to just under 8x8 (they trim edges) and then used "save as" and saved them as jpg's. Then I uploaded those images to the website and got the books printed.

 

[SUZI]

Companies want the full size .jpg's. That means you don't do the reducing part. When you "save for the web" in PSE, you are reducing the resolution of your image as well, so you would just use "save as" and then change to .jpg. You would also use the full size, either 12x12 or 8x8 or whatever size you want printed. When you reduce the image to 600x600 prior to saving for the web, you are making your image 2x2. Don't ever print that unless you want a sheet of thumbnails! LOL

I've printed 2 Shutterfly books at 8x8. Even though I create at 12x12. I reduced each original image to just under 8x8 (they trim edges) and then used "save as" and saved them as jpg's. Then I uploaded those images to the website and got the books printed.

Thanks again! Where would I be without all of you (probably stuck with a sheet of thumbnails . . . ) By the way, Fran98765, I see you're from Kokomo. I grew up in Marion and now live just outside of Indianapolis. Small World!

 

[Fran98765]

Glad to help! I love digital scrapping so I'm happy to share my knowledge! It is a small world! Especially living in Kokomo! HAHA

 

[saxonleslie]

Hey! I just joined today because I noticed traffic from this site to mine... I am part-owner of sophiasarducci, and I would like to thank you for promoting all the digital kits out there for Disney Scrappers! I know Brittish Designs has some, as well as Glenda Ketchum and myself. THANKS for all the great references!

 

[labdogs42]

Hey! I just joined today because I noticed traffic from this site to mine... I am part-owner of sophiasarducci, and I would like to thank you for promoting all the digital kits out there for Disney Scrappers! I know Brittish Designs has some, as well as Glenda Ketchum and myself. THANKS for all the great references!

Cool. The more digital designers we can lure over here to the DIS, the more Disney scrapping stuff we'll find out there! Welcome! Check out our layouts thread, too!!

 

[Caitsmama]

Fran, Can you add Sweet Shoppe Designs to the challenges? They have LOTS and such awesome designers!
www.sweetshoppedesigns.com

 

[saxonleslie]

Thanks for the warm welcome - I tried to post some pages on the digital pages thread but it says my post count is too low to put them on there.

Anyway - as matthewsmom (my business partner at sophias) is a vested member here, maybe I can get her to post them so you all can see our stuffs!

 

[Fran98765]

Sure thing.

 

[labdogs42]

Thanks for the warm welcome - I tried to post some pages on the digital pages thread but it says my post count is too low to put them on there.

Anyway - as matthewsmom (my business partner at sophias) is a vested member here, maybe I can get her to post them so you all can see our stuffs!

Well, surf around a bit, find something to post about, and come back and let us see those layouts! There's always something to chat about on the DIS! Try the photography board for fun!

 

[wenrob]

Just wanted to thank you all for this thread. Even though I've just joined it has been a big help to me for awhile.

 

[dznyscrapper]

How does everyone save their original scrapbook page? When I first started I read to save the original as a TIFF file since most programs can read that. But I have since see a couple other sources that say to save the original as a PSD. (I'm working with PSE 5.0) So I was just wondering if anyone knows if one is actually better than the other.
Amanda

 

[wenrob]

I save a copy of the original file format and then flatten and save a full size jpg. I move the original formats to my external hard drive for safe keeping in case I need to fix something before printing. Once I have a collection I burn them to a DVD just to be safe. It may seem a little much but if you read the help threads in the digi forums you will come across more then a few stories in every single one where someone has lost everything to a crash. Anyway, for printing, you want a flattened full res jpg or tiff and for editing purposes your original format.