digital announcements
I'm so impressed. So many people are getting this digital thing figured out! Lately, it seems like about once a week we receive a baby announcement or some other type of announcement or invitation or something. And now, most of them are created digitally.
I think that's so great. It gives "mass production" a whole new meaning. As an avid card maker, I have loved the process - from beginning to end - of mass-producing our Christmas cards every year. This past Christmas was an experimental year for us in this department. I was extraordinarily busy with the book I was working on at the time and knew I wouldn't have time to mass-produce cards as I usually do.
The solution? A hybrid card, designed partly with physical materials - textured cardstock, patterned paper, brads, sewing machine stitching - and partly in Photoshop. The combined effort resulted in a jpg that I uploaded to Costco's one-hour printer ... and the easiest mass-production EVER! I'm telling you - it felt so liberating!
I still haven't "gone completely digital" as many have, but I really appreciate that digital scrapbooking is just as much an art as the traditional paper way of doing things. And I love mixing a little bit of the digital thing into my scrapbooks, namely with photo editing.
So I'm curious. Those of you who have gone completely digital with your scrapbooking, what was it that pushed you in that direction? What would you say to those contemplating digital scrapbooking?
I think that's so great. It gives "mass production" a whole new meaning. As an avid card maker, I have loved the process - from beginning to end - of mass-producing our Christmas cards every year. This past Christmas was an experimental year for us in this department. I was extraordinarily busy with the book I was working on at the time and knew I wouldn't have time to mass-produce cards as I usually do.
The solution? A hybrid card, designed partly with physical materials - textured cardstock, patterned paper, brads, sewing machine stitching - and partly in Photoshop. The combined effort resulted in a jpg that I uploaded to Costco's one-hour printer ... and the easiest mass-production EVER! I'm telling you - it felt so liberating!
I still haven't "gone completely digital" as many have, but I really appreciate that digital scrapbooking is just as much an art as the traditional paper way of doing things. And I love mixing a little bit of the digital thing into my scrapbooks, namely with photo editing.
So I'm curious. Those of you who have gone completely digital with your scrapbooking, what was it that pushed you in that direction? What would you say to those contemplating digital scrapbooking?
at
8:10 AM
20 Comments:
I went digital about a year ago. For me, the switch was motivated by the fact that I don't have a dedicated scrap space. I found that not having a dedicated space was really limiting how often I scrapbooked. I just didn't want to make the mess. So I tried a page digitally. I was pretty skeptical about if digi pages would look as nice in albums as paper pages, so I sent it to scrapbookpictures.com to be printed. It turned out beautifully. I still make paper pages when I want to play with paper and glue and Chatterbox, but it's nearly all digi for me now.
Becky,
Can you post a pic of that Christmas card you made so we can see how the combined effort turned out? I love making cards for friends and family, but this year I was going to have to limit to making cards for our top 20 family members or something silly like that (because of time) and then do just a picture for everyone else. If I could mass produce one that looked homemade...I would be in heaven! Ideas would help and my husband would thank you too! :)Thanks so much!
Love, Kirsten
i can't wait to read these comments because i am struggling with deciding to go digital. It seems like it would be easier on my budget!
Heather
www.inthebestworld.blogspot.com
I love the combination. I still love to play with paper and I'm not a fan of faux 3-D embellishments, but going hybrid has saved me so much time & money. It makes it much easier to use several photos on a page (easy cropping and easy grids).
Jessica Sprague's web site and Friday Photoshop mini-lessons were key. She gives just the right amount of info at a time (otherwise it is overwhelming).
And the free digi goods (which are abundant) are a great motivator---because you don't want to spend $ when you don't know what you are doing. Eventually, you know which designers suit your style best.
Lastly, with 2 little ones underfoot, it is great to get a little scrapping done without pulling out supplies or having kids get into your goods.
My 2cents! Cheers, DK
Nothing digital here! I do the Costco one-hour printing too, but just to get my prints. I would love to see your hybrid Christmas card, to give some of us that are timid to take the leap some fun ideas.
~Tanya
Hi Becky
I have never tried digital scrapbooking!!
My questions about digital scrapbooking is how everyone does the printing? And what size do you create??
I have a photo printer at home, but am never happy with the quality. Does Costco print a 12x12 or do you simply make your pages smaller??
Thanks
Cindy
Costco doesn't print 12x12 but what I do once my layout is done is flatten the image, save it as a jpeg and then open a new project in PSE at 12x18 inches which I can import my completed page to. This way I can be assured that no cropping is done on their end (distorting the layout). It's cheap - about $3.00 and all I have to do is cut off a little bit of excess. Digital scrapping is quick, I can do it easily while my daughter plays around me and not having to worry about her grabbing at scissors or putting scraps of paper in her mouth. I can also email layouts to family quite easily for them to print for their books.
I recently took Doing it Digi from bigpicturescrapbooking.com.It's an online class and was really great at giving you the basics if you want to learn more. I highly recommend it.
I am a traditional girl, but I do like to mix in the digital here and there. I especially love doing my journaling and/or titles in elements. I have a degree in print journalism and did a few magazine classes creating stuff etc, even work for a magazine for awhile... so I like having more control on certain elements of my text.
One of my biggest concerns about going digital would be the strain on my eyes. I feel liek I am already at my limit between e-mail, blogging, and photo-shopping. Digital is very tempting because the ability to crop photos though!
Hello Becky,
I went completely digi for a while because of the flexibility {matching exact colours, photo shapes, sizes, getting perfect shapes & no mess LOL!}
To those who want to try, give it a shot LOL! try adding text & brushes to photos & see where it takes you, it will be FUN!
I like the touchy feely stuff too even though I am a simple scrapper, so I make a lot of hybrid stuff, I love making cards too -here's my gallery TFL - Nisha
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=1104
I went digital three years ago. I love the freedom I have to experiment on a page without worrying about the cost of supplies, being able to get the latest designs immediately, being able to change the size and colour of my photos "in the fly" and the no clean up! I also love being able to easily share my pages with my family around the world. I do much more scrapbooking now than I did before - and that is what is most important for me.
Something really cool that I love about Digital Scrapbooking, especially with the Storybooks, is that many of the companies that you upload your books to for printing keep a back up copy of that book. So, for example, you happen to be in the thick of a natural disaster and lose everything you can feel grateful knowing that your memories (and hard work) haven't been lost forever. Once things get up and running again, you can order your books from their back ups! Just a thought!
Kate
OK - Silly question. How do you digitally scrapbook? I'm a little confused. (Obviously I am NOT a digital scrabooker) Hee! Hee!
I think for me the push was after having baby #2, I felt so accomplished that i could be caught up with my pictures . . . and the no mess scrapping hooked me for sure :)
I've used Photoshop Elements for a few years to edit my photos, but it wasn't until the past year that I started dabbling in digital. I loved the idea of not having to clean up scraps and being able to just sit down and get started (or wrap up) in a minute or two, rather than 5 or 10 minutes. Having a baby last fall is what finally pushed me to give it a try and I LOVE it!!!
I either get the 12x12 layouts printed at scrapbookpictures.com or shrink the layouts to 8x8, depending on what I'm doing. I love that I can either print the layout and mix it in with existing traditional/hybrid layouts I've already done in a scrapbook album, or that I can order a book at one of the photo printing sites, like Shutterfly, and can make several copies for myself and family who live far away. The backup aspect is nice too.
I don't see myself making any more of my chronological pages traditionally, just theme albums and cards. I get a lot more done in the same amount of time, which is important when trying to keep up on my son's life. I'd been afraid before I tried it that you couldn't get the look of depth and texture, like some early "flat" layouts I'd seen done, but you can. It probably helps that I definitely am a "simple" scrapbooking--I love the cleaner look, with limited patterns and embellishments.
ONe word - freedom! I still dabble in paper scrapping ( mostly because I still have so many supplies!) but the reason I went digital was the freedom to enlarge photographs at the touch of a button, customize digital embellishments and papers to match EXACTLY, add dozens of elements to a page at not extra cost, and the absoulte JOY of the "undo" button when I've decided I don't like something. If I don't like a particular crop - it's "undo" not (gee, now I've gotta use another paper, or order another print!) In the end, with digital I simply get more pages done, rather than raking up more a more supplies. There are so many reasons to go digital!
It was the best thing I ever did. I can print multiple layouts for each album (family, kids, events, etc..) without the extra work that paper scrapping requires.
You can reuse all your papers & elements over & over again and combine different kits from different designers to get a totally different look each & every time.
I think one of the biggest things is less mess - no more paper scraps hanging around - love that, especially since having kids.
One more thing...someone asked about printing. I get all of my printed at www.scrapbookpictures.com in an 8x8 format. Each layout is $1.99 to print plus a flat fee of $2.00 for shipping. Their prints are awesome & their customer service is second to none.
If you love paper, you'll have a hard time going completely digital, but using your computer as a tool can still be an option. It may be that you want to add borders to your photos or retouch your images - get rid of red eye, or blemishes.
If paper isn't your thing, and you want to scrapbook, try digital. It's easy to clean up, your albums stay flat and store easily, and you can make your images just about any size you want without having to cut anything. And it is super easy to make duplicates for grandparents. In fact I burn a CD of my pages every so often and send them to other family members, just incase something bad happened to my computer. And if you have a laptop, you can still enjoy your local neighborhood crop group get togethers!
Hi Becky!!
I switched to digital in 2003 after coming home from being in the hospital and rehab for 7 months. Being a paraplegic now I wasn't able to acess my paper supplies as easily as before so one while bored I began surfing the web. I stumbled on this new hobby called digital scrapbooking! I have not looked back since then! I do have all my paper goodies, which are enough to open a store but I can't bare to part with just yet- I was a paper scrapper for 10 yrs! LOL. Perhaps one day I will get my room all fixed for easy access but until then digital works! Love the fact it is so portable and reusable too.
I was one of your helpers at the Phoenix CK last year. I had a great time and have been able to incorporate alot of things into digital that you taught. Can't wait for this years again!
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