Make and Share Monday - July 20th

Time for another Make and Share Monday..... This week is hosted by Kristy. Run over and join in!

Of course I have digital layouts to share, and we'll start talking digital scrapbooking. Today will just be a little intro....

Let's take a look at these layouts I did this last week and we'll go from there.

What is digital scrapbooking?

Basically digital scrapbooking is making scrapbook pages on the computer in a photo editing program that can be printed out later. No paper to cut, mess to make, everything is 100% on the computer until it's time to print.

Why digital scrap? What are the benefits?

• No mess. Nothing to store, leave out on the table, no mess. It's all on the screen in front of you. Nothing for a two year old to decide would be great to pour his glass of milk on.
  
• Undo (lol) You can undo every mistake. I love love love this :)
• Price. It can be downright cheap to free to do this!
  
• AND you can reuse those supplies ENDLESSLY. Nothing EVER gets used up!!! I can use the same kit 14,998 times if I want.
• and of course you can change the color of things.... so it can match perfectly... or hey that cool flower you used the other day? Recolor it to match this new layout you're doing. Twice the bang for you buck.
• You can easily print copies of your pages for family members.
  
• If your scrapbook gets wet or colored on with Sharpie by a two year old, you can reprint them!
• I'm sure I'm missing a million more things!
  

What do you need to digital scrapbook?

• Digital Camera or Scanner to scan hard copy pictures
• A photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop (PS), Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE), Jasc Paint Shop Pro (PSP), Microsoft Digital Image Pro (DIP), Ulead Photo Impact (PI), Corel Draw, Lumix Foto Fusion, Memory Mixer or any kind of program that supports .png files & layers. If you have any of those already you could feasibly get started. There is a free program called gimp that you can download at gimp.org. (I should note that my personal suggestion to everyone is to use Photoshop Elements from the beginning if they can afford the $70 to buy it)
• Patience to learn a new program
• That's it! Maybe some creativity, but hey even then, do your best and move on

How does it work?

In many ways digital scrapbooking mimics paper scrapbooking. You choose your pictures, your papers, your decorative elements, and arrange them on a page to your liking. Add a title and journaling and done. But in digital, you will be using digital versions of papers and embellishments. The photo editing programs work in layers just like in real life so you can move a paper under a photo, put a ribbon above the photo and so on. Then it can be printed out and put into the sleeve of a normal scrapbook.

How much does it cost?

Aside from the startup should you choose to buy a program (which is under $100 for a great great program), digital scrapbooking can be as cheap or expensive as you'd like. There are endless free resources, kits, embellishments out there. You could do the actual page making for free if you choose. Over time, it becomes more and more fun and tempting to buy kits now and then but at $3-$6 for something that can be used indefinitely. Some people spend hundreds a month, while another can spend nothing!
What about printing?

As we talk about cost, let's talk printing. You CAN print at home, but I don't and never will. It's just not economical. Digital scrapbook layouts print just like a normal digital photo! So you can print them at your local photo center! Costco, Walgreens, Walmart, whatever. I like to print in 8x8 so a cheap 8x10 picture which is about a buck a layout. If you want to print 12x12 for a big scrapbook, you can print those from many online sources, and even at Costco! They cost around $2.50-$3 at Costco. Less on sale at places like scrapbookpictures.com when they have sales.

And there's photo books! You can for less than a dollar a layout print them into nice NICE bound books from places like snapfish, winkflash, shutterfly, all dot coms.

So there's our little introduction into digital scrapbooking. Next week hopefully I'll nab a few tutorials, show you the best places to find good quality free digiscrap goodies, etc.