Digital Scrapbooking

I love digital scrapbooking. It's a fun way for me to be creative with all the gazillion pictures we have of Scarlett. I never did get into regular paper scrapbooking. That takes too much effort and time. Digital scrapbooking is quicker, cheaper, your pictures can't get ruined, and there's never any mistakes!  I am definitely still learning. People out there can do some amazing stuff! Here's what I do:

Step One:
Buy a scrapbook kit online. *I also use these kits to create my own blog designs. I make my own blog headers and backgrounds. You can also use the kits to make cards, invitations, calendars...the possibilities are really endless!

I like:
The Shabby Shoppe
Scrap Orchard
Sweet Shoppe Designs
Two Peas in a Bucket
Scrap Artist

Step Two:
Design a scrapbook page in Photoshop (I use Photoshop Elements 8) using the elements from the kit. This is the part that takes some learning, but it gets easier.

Step Three:
Send off the pages to be printed! M PIX, Shutterfly and even Walgreens print scrapbook pages. I've also heard that Costco prints them very nicely, but I don't go there. Basically, in order to fit in scrapbook albums, scrapbook book pages are sized 8 x8, 10x10, or 12x12 so you just have to find a place that prints that size..

I've been working on albums for my mom and mother-in-law. Here's some of the pages that I've made for them. I'm pretty proud of these! They were so much fun to make, but Photoshop isn't always that easy to figure out. I think the finished albums will make really nice gifts for them.

I'm also working on a birthday album for Scarlett. My plan is to add about 5 pages each year after her birthday parties then I'll have one big album just of her birthday celebrations. I've only got some done from her first birthday so far...

I hope I've inspired someone to give this little hobby a try! If you ever have any questions, I'd love to try to help you!