WHAT EXACTLY IS DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING?

The term "digital" seemed so foreign to me at first. I saw the layouts online and loved what I saw! In some of the layouts, the children had wings. In others, the images were blended into the background. I adored paper scrapbooking (and still do!) but wondered, "Just exactly how are these ladies doing this?"

That was around the beginning of 2006, and I was playing with graphics on a Yahoo group board. I was playing with Photoshop Elements 2.0 (just 'cause that's what I had) and creating simple graphics and with inserting and linking them to different parts of the web. I'm crazy, but I actually ENJOY the challenge of it! I didn't realize at the time that I was actually teaching myself to scrapbook digitally, too.

So what is meant by "digitally" scrapbooking? Simply layering digital images together (yep!, just like paper) together and "gluing" them together by saving the layered stack as a single file. Sounds easy, huh? Well, it is...once you have taught yourself to get around in your graphics program. That's the worst part...learning whatever software you might be using or would want to use.

And the best part?? You can easily "undo" any mistakes, and they're history! Now try that with real scissors and glue!

Please feel free to view the lessons here at your own pace. In the next lesson, we'll discuss several digital scrapbooking resources.

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING RESOURCES

There are many great resources online which I'd like to mention here.

Scrap Girls www.scrapgirls.com offers the free e-book "15 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker" and also free downloads featuring samples of their products.

Digi Scrap Depot www.digiscrapdepot.com offers tons of "freebies," or free downloads from many various designers. You'll find lots of wonderful graphics there. Also Free Digital Scrapbooking www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com has many "freebies" to download.

The gallery at Digi Shop Talk www.digishoptalk.com is just wonderful to browse. It must be the largest online gallery, and if you can't find inspiration there, you must have your eyes closed!

You'll also find lots of ideas and tutorials at Digital Scrapbooking Magazine www.digitalscrapbooking.com, which is now no longer in print but offered online only (which makes me sad! It was my favorite!) You can sign up to automatically receive their newsletters if you'd like.

There are several wonderful tutorials and free downloads on Jessica Sprague's website www.jessicasprague.com. This is a wonderful site!

ABOUT THE FONTS

There are fonts to match every mood, theme, situation...you name it! And the majority of them are free! Some great sites to browse are DaFont www.dafont.com, Font Space www.fontspace.com, Scrap Village www.scrapvillage.com (click on the Library link and then Fonts), 1001 Free Fonts www.1001freefonts.com and Urban Fonts www.urbanfonts.com, to name a few. There are so many neat fonts I believe you could use a different font for each layout you make and never use two of 'em twice!

There are many more great sites on the 'net; those I've mentioned here are a sampling to get you started. In the next lesson, we'll discuss different types of software.

SELECTING SCRAPBOOKING SOFTWARE

There seems to be as many programs for digital scrapbooking as there are stars in the night sky! Just Google "scrapbooking software" and see the results...whoo!

I've seen several programs mentioned, but the most widely used I think would be the different software packages from Adobe. They make both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (on message boards, you'll see these written as PS and PSE).

Adobe's Photoshop (PS) is a professional graphic designer program www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/. I've always used the easier software from Adobe, Photoshop Elements www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/. My understanding is that they call it "elements" because it features graphics "recipes." What takes several steps (and the knowledge to know what you're doing!) in PS has been set up to take only one step in PSE. I've used PSE version 2.0 and then purchased 5.0 but still go back to 2.0 'cause I like it so much! Adobe has just come out with version 7.0, which you can purchase for $79 with a $20 rebate now through amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65026616-Photoshop-Elements-7/dp/B001DMBWXS. All in all, PS and PSE are good for designing digital products as well as scrapbooking. If you're not interested in creating graphics, you may not want to invest the money or time (headaches?!) in this software. If you are considering PSE and would like to investigate more, I just found a good reference manual online for version 2.0: http://www.photocourse.com/download/PSE2-samples.pdf.

I also have Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.0 (which I purchased when version 11.0 was just coming out). PSP (as you will see it written) is not near as user friendly as PSE. I've had a hard time trying to figure out all the bells and whistles of 9.0 but purchased it because it's very popular with a few designers over Corel's versions of PSP. (Corel bought PSP from Jasc, and everyone says that Corel's versions are not nearly as good as Jasc's.) It is quite an intense program, and I use it for adding textures, etc. The manual that came with the software is about 2" thick, and perhaps someday I'll sit down and learn the software! To be honest, I wouldn't recommend spending the money for PSP to anyone.

Scrapbook Max www.scrapbookmax.com is another popular program ($40) I've seen mentioned a lot. Its popularity comes from the free trial and online tutorials, plus there is a helpful forum where you can ask questions. Acdsee www.acdsee.com/offers/acdsee10pe also seems popular and also offers a free trial ($30).

Other digital scrapbooking software includes Memory Mixer www.memorymixer.com, Ulead's My Scrapbook http://www.ulead.com/mse, Photomix www.photomix.com and Lumapix's FotoFusion www.lumapix.com or www.scrapbook.com/lumapix for a free trial.

You can even download free software! Scrapbook Flair www.scrapbookflairsoftware.com or www.scrapbookflair.com is a free program to download with a community to support it!

You may have software on your computer right now which you can use to scrapbook. Most photo-editing programs should be able to work with layers. If you already have software like this, you're in business!

Choosing the program that is right for you is a hard decision to make, that's for sure. The good news is that most of them work with the same types of commands.

Questions or comments? Please email me at sondra@sondra-scraps.com, and I'd be happy to help!

In the next lesson, we'll talk about the main program commands necessary to get started.

PRIMARY COMMANDS AND TYPES OF FILES

Okay...so now at this point perhaps you've either just removed the plastic from around your new software CD, found software to use on your computer, or possibly downloaded a free trial of one of the programs to try. After installing it, you'll need to locate a few commands to get started.

All Windows-based programs usually look pretty much the same. You should see a menu across the top of your screen. For example, here's what I view in PSE 2.0:

FILE . EDIT . IMAGE . ENHANCE . LAYER . SELECT . FILTER . VIEW . WINDOW . HELP

And here's the menu for PSP 9.0:

FILE . EDIT . VIEW . IMAGE . EFFECTS . ADJUST . LAYERS . OBJECTS . SELECTIONS . WINDOW . HELP

So please look at the top of your screen and locate your software's menu. One of the primary menus you'll be using is:

FILE

Please locate this and click on the word. The commands we'll be using in the short run are NEW, OPEN, SAVE and SAVE AS. Now please locate and click on:

EDIT

The commands we'll be using are CUT, COPY, COPY MERGED and PASTE.

SELECT

The commands we'll be using are ALL and DESELECT.

LAYER

The commands we'll be using are NEW, ARRANGE, BRING TO FRONT, SEND BACKWARD and SEND TO BACK.

There are two primary types of files we'll be working with: .jpg (which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group) and .png (which stands for Portable Network Graphics). Who cares! The bottom line is that a .jpg ("jay peg") file will not have any transparency to it, and a .png file keeps its transparency.

In the next lesson, we'll quit all this nonsense and get to work downloading a quick page!

STARTING A FOLDER AND DOWNLOADING FILES

Now we're going to create a main scrapbooking folder and download a quick page or two so you can get scrappin'!

Here is a preview of a "quick page" I created. It is 8.5x11 inches in size. The orientation is termed "landscape." It's usually called a quick page because you just layer your photo or photos underneath (your photo will be in the large 5x7 white areas) and your journaling on top...and you're done.

First, you'll need to create a folder in your computer in which to download files and put it in a place where you can easily locate it. To create a folder, decide in which directory you'd like to place your new folder, simply click on FILE, then NEW, then FOLDER. Name your new folder (such as "scrapbooking" or "digital scrapbooking").

Now you're ready to download the quick page folder. (I keep my files at a site called www.4shared.com. They offer file storage and a great way to share downloads with others.) RIGHT CLICK on the link below and select either OPEN IN NEW TAB or OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to take you to the download screen.

http://www.4shared.com/file/77295902/841dc09/teer_lesson1_QP.html

You'll then see a "Download Now" button. Click on it, then click on Click here to download this file. At this point, a File Download window will pop up, and you will have three options: OPEN, SAVE or CANCEL. Click on SAVE. At this point, you can then locate your scrapbooking folder, click on it to enter it, and then SAVE to download the file there. This will begin the file transfer.

Once you've downloaded the folder, you'll notice that it appears to have a zipper on it. You'll need to "unzip" it before going any further. (Most folders you'll come across are compressed before they are shared or sold.) It's easy to unzip a folder. Simply RIGHT CLICK with your mouse on top of the folder. You'll then see a small popup menu that begins with OPEN, and a few lines below that you'll see EXTRACT ALL.

Once you've clicked on EXTRACT ALL, you'll then see another popup window that reads "Select a Destination and Extract Files." Locate your scrapbooking folder and click the EXTRACT button.

A completely new folder (without any compression) will be created. Click on it to open it. You'll see a low-resolution preview (.jpg) and the high-resolution quick page file. Since you'll be placing your photo underneath this high-resolution page, it has been saved as a .png file so it remains transparent.

Questions or comments? Please email me at sondra@sondra-scraps.com, and I'd be happy to help!

Next we'll get to work adding your photo and journaling on a quick page!

LET'S GET TO WORK ON A QUICKPAGE

Yea! Now we'll have some fun!

Using your scrapbooking software, click FILE and OPEN and locate the unzipped folder teer_lesson1_QP. Click on it to highlight it and then click on the OPEN button. Now, click FILE and OPEN and locate your photo (you may have to use the green "up" arrow to find it). Click on it to highlight it and then click on the OPEN button. In Adobe PSE 2.0, my screen looks like this:

You can see that my photo and the quick page are two separate files. And you can see the hole in the quick page (the gray and white checkerboard is my background).

Now click on your photo. Go to the top menu, click SELECT and ALL. Now click EDIT and COPY. You've now placed your photo into your computer's "clipboard." Click on the quick page and click EDIT and PASTE. Your photo will appear over the quick page. To move the photo layer underneath the quick page layer, click LAYER and ARRANGE, then SEND BACKWARD or SEND TO BACK. Here's what my screen looks like:

At this point, I've finished with my photo, so I can click on the red "X" in the upper right corner to remove the file from my work area. However, the photo on my quick page is off center. To move it, I simply click on it to "highlight" it (see the faint box around it above?) and move it where I need it.

You should have some type of tool bar for your software. Adobe PSE's looks like this:

I show you this now because you'll need to locate your tool bar and have it displayed in your work area. I click on WINDOW and TOOLS to display the tool bar in Adobe PSE.

Now it's time to add journaling. Click on LAYER, NEW and LAYER to create a new layer on your quickpage. Now locate the large "T" in your toolbar; this is your type tool. To begin journaling, click on the type tool and begin typing on your new layer. For my page, I chose a font called Sue Ellen Francisco. (There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of great fonts to use on your pages. You'll have a lot of fun with these! We'll talk about that in a later lesson.) The font size is 18 points in black.

PLEASE NOTE that if you're typing and do not see this layer, click LAYER, ARRANGE and BRING TO FRONT so you can see this layer.

Now my page looks like this:

To align the font with the tag, I simply click on it (see the faint box around it above?) and move it where I want it. I aligned the edges of the box with the lines of the tag to look as if I wrote on the tag myself.

Now I want to save it. BE CAREFUL HERE! Don't just save it; if you do, you'll mess up your original file. Instead, click on FILE and SAVE AS. At this point, in the "Save As" window, you'll see "File Name:" and "Format:"--this is where you name your layout and change the format. For this layout, I chose the name "newfriend" and saved the file as a .jpg.

By saving the file as a .jpg, the three layers were automatically flattened. I should note here that I also save all my pages as .psd files to keep the different layers intact, in case I want to make any changes later (.pdf files will also retain their layers). I then have the two files "newfriend.jpg" and "newfriend.psd" in my folder.

In review, we simply created three layers...

...and realigned the photo and journaling.

Please let me know how your page turns out! Email me at sondra@sondra-scraps.com with any questions or comments.

Next we'll talk about managing all those files you'll be wading around in before too long!

WHAT ABOUT PRINTING MY LAYOUTS?

When it comes to printing your photos, whether you have a lot of choices depends on what size albums you're using. If you're printing rectangles, there are so many choices, from in-town drugstores to Wal-Mart and Sams and Target. There're also online places such as Shutterfly www.shutterfly.com, Snapfish www.snapfish.com and Winkflash www.winkflash.com, to name a few. But if you're going to create square layouts, such as 12x12, 8x8, or 6x6, your choices begin to shrink. I've used Scrapbook Pictures www.scrapbookpictures.com in the past with amazing results. I've just sent my first order to Persnickety Prints www.persnicketyprints.com; I have several online friends who swear by them.

I've used 8.5x11 landscape albums and have found very few companies to will print in this side. Those are Scrapbook Pictures www.scrapbookpictures.com and Persnickety Prints www.persnicketyprints.com.

There are many good inks on the market right now. Epson makes DURABrite (which is virtually instant drying and water resistant). And their ink IS actually waterproof, just as they claim! (Don't ask me how I know this!) Canon makes ChromaLife 100 (which claims to have an album life of 100 years and to be lightfast for 30 years). However, it has been my experience that it costs way more to print pages at home, and I don't get near the outcome that I do using the online companies.

There are several other online shops which I should mention: Scrapbooks Please www.scrapbooksplease.com, Print My Scrapbook www.printmyscrapbook.com, Scrapbook Max www.scrapbookbookmax.com/prints.php and Scrapbooks to Share www.sbtoshare.com, to name a few. With all of these companies, you'll find various types of prints (glossy, matte, lustre), various types of papers (lightweight, heavyweight, linen), and various types of inks (some carry 100-year and 200-year inks). Be sure and look at the type of paper you're selecting: Is it cardstock? Is it photo paper? Even though the cost is low, cardstock prints may not have the look that you'll want for your album(s). And each shop varies in their shipping costs, so this is something else to factor in. Will you print just a few layouts at a time, or will you need $5.00 flat shipping on your large order? So take some time and surf a bit to see which site fits your needs.

MANAGING YOUR FILES

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LET'S GET INTO MORE LAYERING!

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Questions or comments? Please email me at sondra@sondra-scraps.com, and I'd be happy to help!

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