Digital Scrapbooking: What You Need to Know to Get Started

No doubt you are familiar with traditional scrapbooking done with paper and printed photos. But there are a growing number of people who are using their computers to create unique scrapbooking pages. If you're looking for a way to artfully preserve your photos in a digital format, digital scrapbooking may be right for you.

In contrast to traditional scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking doesn't require very many supplies. All you need to get started is digital imaging software that supports layers (such as Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro) as well as digital copies of your photos and digital scrapbooking templates. If you'd like to print out your own digitally created scrapbook pages, you will also need access to a high quality photo printer and photo paper.

While a traditional scrapbooker will collect piles of paper and dozens of types of embellishments, you can easily download free embellishments to your computer from different digital scrapbooking supply websites. At its most basic, there are not any supply costs, so digital scrapbooking can be an inexpensive alternative to traditional scrapbooking. Look for templates that will help you easily format your photos and coordinate your embellishments. These templates normally include background layers, fonts and embellishment choices. You can also find paid templates and sites that offer embellilshments. You can build a large library of embellishments for a very low price.

Select the photos you want to use in your layout and then edit them if you need to. You can use your digital imaging software to crop your photos, reduce red eye and adjust the color levels. Place the photos inside of the pre-made templates and then add your journaling and other decorations.

There are no limits to the creativity that you can use with digital scrapbooking. The pages are easy to edit, so you can tweak and adjust your pages based on what looks best. You can even create you own embellishments and offer them for other people to download and use.

As far as storage goes, you have a few different options. You can keep all of your digital scrapbooking pages on your computer. You can share them online in their digital format and even burn them to a CD to share with your friends and family. If you'd prefer to have hard copies of your pages, you can print them off on your computer or send them out to be printed. There are a number of online photo sites that specialize in printing the work of digital scrapbookers.

Many scrapbookers use a standard size of 12 X 12 inches, which is obviously larger than the standard printer. You can have your pages specially printed at that size, or simply create layouts on an 8 ½ X 11 inch template.

In addition to creating complete pages in a digital format, you can also combine your digitally created pages with traditional scrapbooking elements. This form of scrapbooking, called hybrid scrapbooking, allows you to use the pages you create on your computer and then add dimension with velum, flowers and other three dimensional elements.

No matter how you choose to use digital scrapbooking you can make use of this fun technique. It's easy to get started and relatively cheap. Whether you want to make entirely digital pages or use a hybrid scrapbooking technique, this is something that you owe it to yourself to try.