How to Scrapbook…Digitally

In the pre-children days I was a full fledged Creative Memories girl.  I even sold the stuff for a short amount of time.  I had the albums, pages, colored paper, stickers, scissors, markers, stencils, die cuts, adhesive, and along with all of this scrapbook stuff I had storage bags and containers.  Yes, when you scrapbook like that, you’d better have a big closet for storage.  Not only do the supplies take up room, but the albums are HUGE when completed.  You had better also have some substantial shelf space somewhere.

It didn’t take me long after Gabriel was born to realize that I was not going to have the time to scrapbook in this way any longer.  I was getting sick of spending 30 minutes of my scrapbook time getting out all of my stuff and arranging it on the table.  Then you’ve got to clean up all this stuff too!  So I started doing a little research.  It was 2006 and photo books were becoming popular; they seemed like a great alternative.  I can’t remember how I exactly stumbled upon digital scrapbooking, but I loved the look of the books!

After a little research, digital scrapbooking seemed to be the way to go.  It was cheaper than traditional scrapbooking and didn’t require a large amount of storage space (physical storage space, that is)!  Here is a picture showing the differences in size.  A traditional scrapbook album on the left vs. a digital photo book on the right, each with 24 pages.

I found some great digital scrapbooking sites where I could buy scrapbook supplies on-line and download them.  And you can use digital supplies again and again!  Yes, it’s not only cheaper than traditional scrapbooking, but you can reuse the stuff forever!!!  Several different sites offer photo books, but so far I’ve found that Shutterfly is the only one who will allow you to upload your own digital scrapbook and print it for you.  So, I made the move.  I sold all of my Creative Memories stuff on eBay for a nice chunk of change and started digital scrapbooking.

First I went to the scrapbooking sites I liked. Here are some that have really cute stuff, and offer freebies too!

• Scrap Girls
• Two Peas in a Bucket
• Shabby Princess

I love that you can buy kits where all of the paper, alphabet, ribbons, paper clips, buttons, everything, coordinates!  You’d be surprised at the cute stuff you can find and how 3D it all looks!

You need some sort of image editing software to make your page layouts.  I bought Microsoft Digital Image Suite at eBay and taught myself to use it.  (This program is included with Vista.) I like it, but it doesn’t have all of the professional capabilities of Adobe Photoshop or something similar.  But, it’s easy to use.  Take a look at some of my page layouts.

When I’m ready to scrapbook I don’t have to get anything out!  I just sit down at my computer and open up my Digital Image Suite and go! I always try to scrapbook in chronological order because it’s just easier for me.  So after I complete a page I save it as the page 1, and then I start working on page 2, and so on.  I even design my covers! When I’m done with an album I just upload it to Shutterfly.  (TIP: Wait until there is a discount or coupon code on photo books.) Then Shutterfly prints it for me as a hard bound book and ships it to my door.  Let me tell you, these books look great and I’ve gotten lots of compliments!  And, they don’t take up much room on your bookshelf at all!

If this all seems way more involved or overwhelming for you, then choose from the albums at Shutterfly that already have page designs and you just pop in your pictures.  They have some really great new ones that I’m thinking about trying out.

If you’ve been thinking about going the digital route, I say go for it!  It’s really fun and is much less time-consuming than traditional scrapbooking.  I’m no pro, but if you have any questions, please ask away.