Digital Scrapping Newbie - Basic Questions

[LMDisneygirl]

Hi Everyone!

I have done a bit of "regular" scrapbooking - the print out pictures and cut things up kind. I've enjoyed doing it, but like many people I fell very behind and don't often find the time to pull everything out to start or work on a project (we have a small-ish place, so there is no room to set up a scrapbooking station). Recently my sister-in-law and I worked on an online memory album for my in-laws 50th anniversary. We uploaded all our pics to Costco and made a Photo Book. I liked doing it, so I uploaded the pics from our 15th anniversary trip to Disney and I made an online Photo Book that I am going to have printed. I enjoyed doing that better than the cutting and gluing, so I'm considering doing more albums online. BUT I have some questions, and I'm hoping I can get answers from some of you with experience in this area.

I liked making the album at Walgreens, but I'm assuming that there are also places (websites, software, etc.) where you can create pages that look more like what I'd make with the traditional "hands on" style. IS THAT TRUE?

If it is true......how do you print the pages? Do you print (for example) 12x12 pictures and then put them into sleeves, or do you get them bound into books, or something else?

Depending on how you print your books, how do you find the cost to be? I'm thinking that the money spent printing what was created online is probably somewhat offset by not printing pictures, buying albums, and then getting paper, stickers, etc. I have a lot of it, but you know there's always the excitement of buying more when you are working on an album!

Any other thoughts or tips you could give me would be appreciated. Other than the "choose how many pictures you want on the page and put in a caption" kind of online Photo Book making I don't have a clue.

THANKS!!!!

 

[labdogs42]

Shutterfly has some pretty nice photo book templates that are a lot more "scrapbook - y" than the other sites. If you want to go full on Digital Scrapbook style (see link in my siggy for an example), get a software program like Panstoria Artisan, My Digital Studio, or Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus.

I make my pages in SBC+ (it is actually the same software as artisan, long story), save them as .jpgs and upload them to shutterfly to print as books. I find the cost reasonable, especially considering how much I am saving on having prints made, buying albums, etc. I LOVE digital scrapbooking! There are some older threads on here about it, you'll find them if you do a search.

Oh yeah, word of warning, digi scrapping is totally addictive!

 

[CJsMommy]

Do a google search for "photo books" and "digital scrapbooks" and you'll have a ton to pick from. We've used Shutterfly and Artscow for projects before and they were really nice. There was one (and I can't remember the name now) that I had wanted to try but the software was incompatible with a temporary software I had on my computer already for something else. I had intentions of going back to try it, but I have to find the site again. It was definitely more along the lines of traditional scrapbooking designs, but you could choose to order them just like a photobook. Good luck.

 

[Princess Yellow]

I also started doing traditional scrapbooking, but switched to digital scrapbooking for the most part after my twins were born. Digital makes it easier to print multiple copies of each page for their individual baby books and an extra copy for grandma.

I have been using Photoshop Elements to make my pages, but recently upgraded to Photoshop CS5 when Adobe offered it to me for $299 (which is several hundred $$$ less than the regular price). I have been doing most of my pages using free stuff from such places as http://blogtrainblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.scrappincop.com/, but recently I have started buying some kits to use on our upcoming Disney vacation.

I have my pages printed as 12x12s and put them in albums for a couple of reasons. First, I don't get that much time to scrapbook (did I mention I have twins) and I would hate to wait until I finish an album to start seeing pages. Second, it allows me to mix "totally digital" pages with pages that include actual memorabilia (a scanned lock of hair wouldn't cut it for me).

This is my favorite so far. Background was scanned from their dresses and embellishments were the appliques from the dresses.

 

[lynner]

You can send your digital pages to Costco and get them printed out as 12 x 12 pages, then they can go into a traditional page protector in a scrapbook. Costco's photo center does a great job; I have never been disappointed in their quality, and they are very reasonable ($2.99/page? much less than a traditional scrapbook page, when you add up the cardstock, embellishments and adhesives!) You can upload to the Costco photo center and then pick your order up in-store.

I have done both sides of the equation - individual pages and photo books. Photo books are more suited, in my mind, to vacation trips or a "year in review" type album, where pages are more my everyday type pages, and since sometimes I scrap older pictures digitally after scanning them into my system, I can put them in whatever album they fit into.

I also use SBC+ and love it.

 

[LMDisneygirl]

Thanks for the responses everyone. And "Princess Yellow", your girls are ADORABLE!

There are so many options to choose from that it makes it confusing. I'll keep at it though, and look into some of your suggestions.

If anyone has any other thoughts, feel free to pass them along.

Thanks!

 

[toontownnutter]

I rarely buy digital supplies and get layouts printed for USD.99. I have had albums printed at Artscow with coupons, be aware though there are lots of bad reviews I think they're a bit hit and miss with their album printing. But I was happy and would use them again.

Go to the adobe website and download Photoshop Elements trial for 30 days.

Google "PSE tutorial scrapbooking beginner" or other similar strings.

This lady freebie hunts and posts links to freebies (note, freebies are only usually available for a few days so don't bother going back through months of posts) http://suzee-q-stuff.blogspot.com.au/

Have a real good play for your 30 day trial.

Welcome to the dark side. If you google "digital scrapbooking forums" you'll find many message boards dedicated to digi scrapping.