I am currently 10 months behind on my scrapbooking. Sad I know. A couple of weeks ago I was over a year behind, so I’ve actually been making some progress! I have really enjoyed looking back at all the pictures from last year, so I thought you might like to look at them too.
I don’t scrap everything, like I blog. I just scrap some of my favorite pictures/moments/activities and put them in a book for each of my kids.
They LOVE having a book that is all about them. It is one of their favorite things to pull down their particular book and look at pictures of themselves.
I scrap digitally. For several reasons.
1. Less Mess. No glue, no scissors, no paper required.
2. Takes up less storage space. I don’t have to have a lot scrapbooking stuff in storage. It is all stored on my computer. I don’t have to have any special crafting tools to create special effects on the pages.
3. Back-up copy. I print out the pages and put them in a 3 ring binder for viewing. But I also have a copy of it on my computer AND on my external hard drive.
4. Interruptions. When I find that I don’t have time to finish a page, it is not a big deal because I can just click save. I don’t have to worry about putting up a bunch of stuff that I pulled out and then pulling it out again later.
5. Multiple copy pages. When we do an activity as a family that I want each of my kids to have a copy of the “family” picture, I can do 1 layout and then switch out the photos of the individual child to personalize it for each of them in less than a minute. So easy!
6. Free stuff. There is SO much digital scrapbooking stuff available all over the net. It is awesome!
7. I love manipulating my photos to match the layout. If after I put a page together I decide it would look better in black and white – I can change it with just a few clicks of the mouse!
There are of course a few down sides. The printed product is not quite as nice as as a paper scrapped page because you loose that three dimensional layered effect, but it still looks pretty darn good. Also to do it well, you really need to have good software like Photoshop Elements or something equivalent.
Since I have been so behind in my scrapbooking, to kick myself into gear I decided to team up with a digital scrapbooking elements designer.
So once a month, she sends me a set of scrapbooking papers and elements to use. I make a couple of layouts and then post them to a few online scrapbooking galleries with a link to her store. I get free stuff and she gets free advertising. Works great for both of us.
She sent me this really cute kit called Animalia this month. I had lots of fun with it!
Hope you enjoyed all those! Now I’ve got to get busy on the last 10 months of photos!!!!!!
12 comments:
I do a seperate book for each of my kids too, but I still do the good ole regular scrapbooking. I guess I've done it for so long, it is just easier for me. I do other things with digiscrap, but I just love getting my hands into the "stuff" too much and I like that I actually cut and glued and tied, etc.
I had actually considered becoming a CT as well for the freebies, but hadn't decided. You've inspired me!
I love it!! I am in the middle of paper scrapbooking some old photo's of Justin and I. Then the plan is to move to digital scrapbooking as well, for all the same reasons you mentioned. My kitchen table is currently 2/3 full of scrapbooking stuff. My goal is to finish it all before my trip home in one week. Wish me luck!!
You do a great job with this. I am even further behind than you so don't feel bad....I too do paper scrapbooking and it is hard to find the creativity at night which is my only time I could do it. FB and blog is much more mindless:) Great job though, I enjoyed looking at your pages. Maybe something to consider in the future for me.
I still do some paper scrapping occasionally too. Like when I have professional photos done, I usually paper scrap those pages. But they are always very basic, becuase like I said I don't have a lot of scraping tools to create all the nice little effects. And usually it is a hybrid effort because I'll often print out the titles or journaling from the computer.
I love the pages. But I fell so overwhelmed when I think about scrap booking because I've fallen so far behind. Julia is up to a year in her book and Haley doesn’t have one. SO that’s 4 1/2 years behind on Julia 2 1/2 behind in Haley’s and now Cameron. Can I ever catch up??? Plus I've had all my moms pictures of me and siblings for 5 years that I haven't but into books. And I wanted to do a book about my grandparents and great grandparents before they pass away and still haven't done that. I'm a slacker. Is there another word for overwhelmed? After looking at yours I want to start working on it again!
WOW... Those were the Cutest pages! What a LUCKY family! That is such a TREASURE! I love each one of you! Wish I was up to date on my scrap book... I have a book for McKinnley and her first 2 years and that is it... The rest of them are all screwed! Oh well we will manage! You are Amazing!
LOVED that wedding post! Loved the photo.. loved how you added the truth with the few fights... few tears... lots of laughs... lots of3Love.. (can't remember what you said) but When I read I LOVED it! You are the Best! Nathan is a Lucky Man! You two are Pefect for each other! Happy Many More to Come!
With lots more yummy Dinner Dates with us! Hoo Hoo!
So cute!!! I had no idea that the digital pages could be so cute!! I love the page with the family you look great!! Your family is so cute! I have to say I love may paper scrapping but those were some great pros! Your kids are going to love all the blogs and scrapbooks that you do. Thanks for sharing!!
I think I've stuck with traditional scrapbooking because I honestly haven't been able to figure out how to do it digital. And I can never get those free online scrapbooking things to work. How do you download them? You should host a class... well, when I'm in Florida!
It is kind of nice to know that I am not the only one who is really far behind on scrapbooking :)
Stacy - I don't know about hosting a class, but the next time you come for a visit, if you want to come over, I can sit down with you for an hour or so and show you how to do it all. Well, at least show what I know how to do. There is still a lot I don't know!
Stacy - there is a website digifree.blogspot.com that I check every morning. It runs through all of the digital scrapbooking sites for freebies and posts them all together. That way I don't have to look through hundreds of sites. I usually only see 2 or 3 kits that are worth downloading each day, but that's still great! I have quite a collection now and I've only been doing it for a few months. I can recommend some of my very favorite designers if you want, or I can make a cd of the ones that I've found.
I am sooo far behind. Emma is about a month old in hers, Jake doesn't have one, and Grady has a fantastic book that Mandi made for him with only a couple of pictures in it.
I need to come visit with my laptop one day so you can impart all your wisdom on me!
Erin, come on over. I'll show you all I know!
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