Hey everyone!! How is your weekend going so far? I hope well! I thought it would be fun to take a break from all the weekly organizing and other things that go on and do some scrapbooking. I LOVE scrapbooking!! It’s so fun to create something that your family can look back on and enjoy as we keep moving forward.

I picked up digital scrapbooking in August of 2008. I was hooked from the first time I tried it!! At the time I was a mom to 2 crazy toddlers and scrapbooking was hard to do with them always running around and getting into things! So, when I finally decided to jump on the digital scrapbooking train I was gungho about it! I did it every day and got really caught up on my scrapping. It was so nice! I started making my layouts more artsy and fashionable.

One page layouts are always so breathtaking, but up to that point I had always tried to squeeze as many pictures on one page as I could. I took/take a LOT of pictures!! Everything we do has hundreds of pictures to remember the occasion by. It’s great! But at the same time I hate it because I want to scrapbook them all. I have a hard time narrowing them down to just a few!

Moving to digital scrapbooking allowed me to use a lot of pictures with a lot less hassle. I didn’t have to cut out pictures to just the right size or papers or whatever else needed to be cut or trimmed or glued on. I’m horrible with getting things to look right so with digi scrapping I can change things around as much as I want…until I print it. LOL

So, being a busy Mom, digital scrapbooking is WONDERFUL!! I love it! Plus, I’ve made a lot of new friends in the digi community that is around. It’s great!:)

Ok, so, enough about why I love digital… here is my layout:

What do you think? It’s not the best layout I’ve ever made, but I’m happy with it. And it only took about 15 minutes from start to finish!:) Getting all my photos together, picking out the papers and the elements and adding the shadows. Only 15 minutes! I love it!

Anyway, my cousin Aubry asked me how I learned to digital scrapbook. Well, I am going to tell you so hold onto your seats this is going to get exciting! hehe

I am a photography major. I am also a professional photographer so I use photoshop on a daily basis. Most of what I learned was from my classes, but I continue to learn new things all the time.

I bet you’re really curious to try digital scrapbooking out for yourself so I’ll help you get started…

First, you need a program to work with. I use Photoshop 5. I LOVE Photoshop!! (to abbreviate Photoshop I will use ‘PS’). I learn something new everyday and I’ve been using PS for about 8 years now. It’s wonderful.

Some other programs that are less money, or free, are: Photoshop Elements, Gimp, Paintshop Pro. Gimp is a free program you can download. You can usually get free trials of the other two programs. If you ever want to buy Elements or Pro after your trial is up they are a lot cheaper than Photoshop.

After you have a program to work with you’ll need to download a kit to use. I was a designer for a digital scrapbooking store earlier this year and I’ve been trying it out for the last year off and on. I’m not very good by any means, but I like a lot of what I’ve done. I have a kit for you to start out with:

It’s called ‘My Little Cupcake’ and I just LOVE this kit!! I had so much fun making it! I have yet to scrap with it, but I think since I’m giving this kit out as a freebie for you I’ll scrap with it too:) Here are the links where you can download it:

Elements

Paper

After you click on the download button it will take a few minutes, maybe less, for it to download. Then you’ll need to save the zip file somewhere.

I use WinRAR to extract the zip files, but you don’t have to do it that way. This is what my screen looked like after I clicked on the ‘Download file now’ button. After you save the files you can open them up and use whatever you want for your layout. I usually pick out the pictures I want to use first and then pick out the paper.

Once you’ve picked out your pictures I figure out how I want them arranged on my layout. I like to use templates sometimes, which are helpful because they already have everything laid out. All you have to do is drop it in:) I made up some templates so I have those up as freebies for you too. Click the image to download.

So, now that you have the pictures and a template you can start picking papers that will go on your layout. I usually figure out one or two papers than do some elements, then finish the papers out and continue with the elements. Everyone has their own way of doing things and you’ll definitely develop your own if you do it long enough.

Here is a layout I made with one of my templates above:

The kit I used on this layout out was by a retired designer. I can’t even think of her name right now… Mandy?? UGH I used a picture of a friends little girl because I only have boys so no scrapping with pretty pink and girly colors:(

After picking the template you want to use you can start dropping your pictures and papers and elements in:) This is when the fun part begins.

So you pick your first paper. Once it’s open in your program you drag it to your template file that you have opened. You’ll want to use the psd file, not the jpeg. If you want the first paper to be the background paper you have to be on the first layer/background in PS.

In the bottom right hand corner you’ll see all the layers of the layout. Each paper or element has it’s own layer so you can easily move it or put it on top or underneath something.

Drag your paper onto the template and hold the shift key. Let go of the mouse and keep holding the shift. This will center your paper automatically:) (These commands that I am telling you apply to PS. I’m not sure how they translate for any of the other programs I told you about here so you can try it, but you will most likely have to play around to figure it out.)

Drag your next paper onto the template. Now this is where it gets a little tricky. This paper isn’t all the way on the page and it’s at an angle. You can do it two different ways. The easiest way in my opinion is to click on the paper layer on the template:

Then drag your paper over to the template, while holding shift and let got of the mouse, just like before. After you do that since this new paper is on top of the background layer you have to make part of it disappear. To do that you hold down the ALT key while the mouse is over the line between your paper layer and the template paper layer. 2 circles will appear, one black and one clear, while still holding the ALT key, left click your mouse. Part of your paper will disappear. It’s really simple once you get the hang of it:)

Now lets add your pictures. Find the photo layer:

Drag your photo onto the template. If you don’t know which photo is the top or bottom you can click on the little eye to the left of the photo layer and it will turn that layer off. Whichever photo area disappears is the one you’re going to be dealing with:

The first photo is the top one. Move your picture over top of that layer. Do the same thing that you did with the paper. ALT, left mouse click and your picture fits perfectly in the space a lotted. If you need to make it smaller hit CTL+t. A box the size of your picture will appear, move the mouse to one of the corners, hold down the shift key and bring it in. If you want the image to be symmetrical hold the SHIFT+ALT key and bring it in. If you don’t hold the shift key your picture will be stretched unnaturally. I hate it when people do this!! It just looks horrible and I don’t know how anyone can’t see that! Maybe it’s just me, but it drives me crazy!

Do the same thing with the next picture. Then you can start adding your elements. With this one you just have to click and unclick layers to see what elements go where. This is just a template so you don’t have to do it exactly as it is. You can use your own creativity. Sometimes when I use templates my layouts look totally different than the original! I’m kinda weird like that. hehe

Remember to label your layers. This makes it easier to find a specific element when you have a bunch of one kind. Here’s what my original layout looked like with the layers labeled:

And you can see the I didn’t use the elements in the same way as I made the template. It’s nice to have the template as a guide.

Once you have all the elements on your layout and in the places you want you can do your journaling. I like to use cool and fun handwriting fonts. I get a lot of mine from kevinandamanda.com They are awesome!! Some of my favorite fonts from them are from the Pea collection: Pea Stacy Fancy, Pea Cherie Berie, Pea Schmashtastic, Pea Kensey, and Pea Jennifer Bea. You can also make your own handwriting a font, if you would like this. I have my handwriting as a font, but it’s weird. The way the program has you write the letters out makes my handwriting look ugly. I’m not a big fan. I think I just get nervous under pressure. lol

Finish up with anything else you want to add and you’re all done!! Woohoo!! You just made your first digital scrapbook page! And I want to see it!! You can email it to me at preparednesswithmegs at gmail dot com. Also, if you have any questions or anything, you can email me those too:) I’d be glad to help! I hope you fall in love with digi scrapping as much as I have!  And I hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks for stopping by!

I’m linking up here: Delightful Order, Tatertots & Jello, A Bowl Full of Lemons