Digital Scrapbooking Software

Adobe PhotoShop CS Adobe Photoshop is a great application for everything from photo correction to website design. It can also be used for digital scrapbooking. Photoshop was created mostly for businesses and the price tag reflects this. Its MSRP of almost $650 leaves most consumers tugging at their pockets. Photoshop has been used by web masters and web designers for years. It is, no doubt, the most comprehensive image editing program available on the market. With standard features like color enhancement, cropping, re-sizing, and retouching and with new and improved functions like layering, filtering, and workspace customization, Adobe Photoshop is the perfect solution for any serious designer or digital scrapbooker. While Photoshop is very robust, it might be overkill for most digital scrapbookers. It's nice to have so much functionality, but it's easy to get overwhelmed by the vast array of options and the large price tag. Adobe PhotoShop Elements 2.0 Similar to Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 captures the best, most applicable features of the original Photoshop, but at a much friendlier price. While Photoshop CS was created for businesses and professionals, Elements was created specifically for consumers. This image editing software uses the same interface as Photoshop, and but with some significant limitations. At an MSRP of only $100, Photoshop elements is a good option. Paint Shop Pro 9 Paint Shop Pro provides a multitude of functions that will bring your photos to life and allow you to incorporate other images and animation into your layouts. PSP begins by removing noise and filtering imperfections from your photos. Then it goes a step further and provides tools that allow you to be the artist. From chalk and pastels, to a smear tool and mixing palette, you can create all sorts of special effects within your image. PSP offers a history palette and a 'selective undo' tool that will correct imperfections long after you may have made them. PSP's personalized configurations can help you to create a completely digital layout by using the photo correction software, graphics creation, and web-page design tools. This is a user-friendly, and pocket-friendly, application.

How to Make Photo Cards

One way to share photographs is with photo cards. Photo cards are envelope-sized greetings printed on high-quality cardstock and sent via postal mail. They can be made with or without a fold. Photo cards can be a greeting or an announcement for a birth, wedding or special day Photo cards can be created on a photograph-sharing website such as Shutterfly or Snapfish. Visit your favorite photograph-sharing website to learn more about creating and printing a customizable photo card. These sites have easy to follow directions for creating photo cards. Photo cards can also be created on your own computer. Here is an example of how to create a photo card of your own. Create a New Document. Open a new document in your photo-processing program, such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements. Make the document the same size as your intended photo card. The size of the photo card should be just a bit smaller than the size of your envelope. Mine will be 5 1/2" x 4". Add Photograph(s). Add your photograph or series of photographs to the document. Resize and arrange the photographs as you would like them to appear on the card. I wanted my photograph to stretch the length of the card so I sized it to fit accordingly.Add a Greeting. Use the text tool to create your own message and/or add a message using a digital stamp. I added a digital stamp, and then used the text tool to add the names. Get creative and make your own personalized photo card to share

Making Easter Decorations

If you love to make your own embellishments, making larger home decorations will be something that appeals to you . Essentially, your decoration is an embellishment, just on a larger scale. Here are some ideas when thinking about handmade banners and other decorations: - If you love making tags, try making a banner. It's simply a larger-scale project. - It's a great way to showcase a pretty piece of paper that you simply can't bring yourself to cut. - Add a special touch to a child's room by making a banner with his or her name on it and showcasing loved things with smaller embellishments to decorate it. - Tie your home decor projects into a season, holiday or your regular home decor. - It's also a great way to make party-themed decorations or for occasions that are hard to find decor for. Create a wedding banner that is the perfect color or theme.I used the Easter Seasonal cartridge to cut eggs, flowers and chicks, as well as the phrase 'Happy Easter', while the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge was used to cut my bunny and basket. I also used Tim Holtz Pewter Distress Paint to add some extra dimension to my project around the bunny. A bow and adhesive gems for a little sparkle finished it all off.

Design Your Own Unique Crafts and Printables with Free Clip Art

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 you can make unique gifts, greeting cards, home decor and crafts for friends and family with graphics, borders and clip art photos or pictures. The projects you design with clip art don't necessarily need to be printed paper crafts. You can use clip art images to make many types of creative arts and crafts, no just paper crafts.Free clip art is readily available on the Internet. If you're using it for your own clip art crafts projects - not to sell or collect and repackage - you can pick and choose from millions of delightful graphics in easy-to-view online collections.have fun and use your imagination

: How to Create a Photo Collage on your computer

Choose a software program or website to work with. You can make photo collages in a variety of design software programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, or you can download free software designed specifically for making photo collages. If you're not comfortable using Adobe Photoshop or similar programs, download collage-making software from shapecollage.com, snapfish.com, scrapblog.com or smilebox.com. You can use most of these programs for free.
Choose a template for your collage. If you're working with snapfish.com, scrapblog.com or smilebox.com, you can choose from a variety of decorative backgrounds and themes. Software from shapecollage.com allows you to arrange your photos in the shape of your choice, such as a cat, a world map or a butterfly.
Read more: How to Create a Photo Collage on the Computer | eHow.co.uk http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5855719_create-photo-collage-computer.html#ixzz13HILW15Pmport your own pictures to the collage-making software or website. Click "Get Photos" or "Add Photos" and browse your computer's documents for the photo files you want to add. Most programs will allow you to import more than one photo at a time.
Read more: How to Create a Photo Collage on the Computer | eHow.co.uk http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5855719_create-photo-collage-computer.html#ixzz13HIQdN7M #
Arrange your photos within the template by dragging and dropping them to different locations. Experiment with different arrangements until you find one you like. Add text to the collage if you wish.
Order printed products, such as mugs and posters, from the website you made the collage with. The collage-making software will remain linked with that site, and you can begin your purchase in the software program. Some programs will allow you to print your collage at home for free or save it as a JPG file. You can then burn your JPG file to a CD and take it to a store or copy center to have it printed. Print as many copies as you want.

Reasons to Try Digital Scrapbooking

Do you love taking photos with your digital camera? Do you ever wonder what to do with all of those photos collecting dust on your hard drive? One thing you can do to show off your favorite photos and memories is to try digital scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking is much like regular scrapbooking, except you will first design the pages on your computer before printing them.
Here are 5 reasons to give digital scrapbooking a try:
Costs Less: Scrapbooking supplies are expensive. When you switch to digital, your only expenses are what you pay to print them and if you decide to use any special software such as Adobe Photoshop. Best of all, you can use your digital supplies over and over again.
No Mess: You won't need to worry about having paper, glue and glitter all over your kitchen table - everything is done on your computer, meaning there is no mess to clean up when you are done!
Easy to Share: A physical book can be difficult to share with family and friends, especially if you are not able to see them often. When you go digital, you can easily share your pages on popular social networking sites as well as send them by email or upload to galleries online to show off your work.
No Talent Necessary: Even if you are not creative or have an eye for design you can still make amazing looking pages. This is because online there are thousands of free templates ready for you to use where all you need to do is add your photos.
Save on Time: With everything on your computer, you won't need to worry about how long it takes to cut pieces of paper or glue things together - it's just a matter of dragging and dropping your elements to where you want them to be.
Digital scrapbooking is a lot of fun, and once you try it you juust might be surprised at how easy it is and enjoyable to do. Just be warned: it can be addictive!

Easy Digital Scrapbooking Layout Programs: About Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist

f you've been thinking about making the transition to digital scrapbooking, keep in mind that you no longer need to have outstanding computer skills to create beautiful pages that showcase your family's precious memories. With Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist, you can choose to either begin with a pre-designed layout template or create a one-of-a-kind page using graphics from one of many different content packs. (The program comes with 2 digikits and a DVD with 10 bonus kits, but you can download additional freebies from the DaisyTrail Web site or choose to purchase CDs with larger kit collections.) Notable features of Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist include:

• The content pack manager makes it easy to quickly sort through all of your patterned papers and embellishments to see what designs best match your photos.
• You can mimic traditional scrapbooking techniques by using brushes to fake the look of handstitching, cutting tools to make decorative scissor borders, or punches to make your own creative embellishments.
• The text editor's built in spell check lets you avoid embarrassing errors in your journaling.
• Built-in photo editing tools let you crop your pictures and correct minor flaws without the hassle of opening a separate image editing file.
• An entire album can be created as one project file, so you can easily see how your book will look when it's finished

Scrapbook Factory Deluxe
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Due to its incredible collection of templates and embellishments, Scrapbook Factory Deluxe is a big favorite with digital scrapbookers – especially among novice and intermediate users. You can also use the software to create photo calendars and day planners as well as photo cubes, recipe cards, and many other items.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/58947.aspx#ixzz11jZBWcV9

Get Digital Scrapbooking Freebies.

Digital Scrapbooking has become extremely popular over the last few years, and for many like myself, it has replaced traditional scrapbooking because it is easier to maintain, and cheaper. Digiscraps is the common term for the collective word art, backgrounds, and elements you use to create your scrapbook pages with any photo editing software (I use MS Digital Image Pro). While you can purchase full kits online, once you've gotten started, you may prefer to add to your digiscrap collection a few elements at a time. Most digital scrapbooking sites offer FREEBIES on a weekly basis (in .jpg or .png format)   

You can find thousands of digital scrapbooking supplies online for any scrapbook theme or subject: baby, wedding, sports, heritage, holiday, school. Most freebies are for elements - quick pages, overlays, embellishments, alphabets, or background papers -- but occasionally, you'll find a great deal on an entire kit. Whether your style is grunge and altered, floral, or primary color based, there are freebies to be had for all!

At Best Scrap Freebies, you can browse through an entire list of "Top Sites" - these change frequently, so be sure to bookmark! Once you've become addicted, er...familiar with the world of Digiscrappers and Bloggers, I'm sure you'll want to create your own freebies to share, or at the very least, join a group of happy digiscrappers and participate in their group activities and contests. Soon you'll learn how to create other paper crafts

Go to SimplyCleanDigiscraps.com for a variety of free elements, alphabets, word art and background papers with a floral flair. Click on Resources once you've downloaded and you can get also get a great "How-to Get Started" tutorial.

If you are just starting out, or prefer to buy entire coordinating kits, check out CottageArts.net.  Cottagearts.net has some of the most beautiful mega kits for purchase, and if you are new to Digital Scrapbooking, then this is the site to create a good foundation of digital art and templates to use. Sign up for their newsletter (free) and you'll get lots of great tutorials, info and FREEBIES via email.

Scrapbooking Page Ideas and free clipart

You should not think of any other pastime in life that can enable you come out with something memorable like a scrapbook. In fact, this is a pastime, but it is equally one of these rare ways that you can use to recollect those happy moments and share them with those around you. Remember that scrapbook making is one of the simplest ways that you can use to blend pictures, captions and happy moments and relate them to a particular theme which should be pleasing and nostalgic to every viewer. It may only be through such an art that you will be able to tell people of what happened in the past. Therefore, the art of scrapbook making should be taken as something more important, even than a leisure activity.
Although it is true that making a scrapbook from scratch is one of the easiest pastimes, learners of this art are advised not to focus all their attentions on attempting to use all the materials they have and placing in on the pages. Always keep in mind that it is not much that will be placed on your scrapbook that should reflect some meaning in it. Little can be taken to mean much on the scrapbook. There should also be a balance between everything that will feature on your scrapbook. Remember that the pictures should not overshadow the messages or captions and the captions should in turn not overshadow the pictures.
As it is always said in life that overuse of something is an abuse, so too this is accurate when making a scrapbook. In reality, the greatest problem in making a scrapbook is not found in the paperwork. The real problem is in how you attempt to design your scrapbook so that it should be pleasing and attractive to both the eyes and the minds. Remember that if a lot of information and even beautifications are affixed to your scrapbook, this would not be different from any ordinary album. There would therefore be no need to have created the scrapbook. And of course, an overuse of these would make the scrapbook uninteresting. In another sense, too much representation of information may end up puzzling the viewer as to what subject matter you intend to represent in the scrapbook.
Your aim should be to create something neat and attractive. This is one of the simplest actions. But this seems to be one of the most difficult if you are new into scrapbook making. Remember that you should reasonably mix your pictures and texts. There is no limit as to what you will include in one single page. You can still blend in so much, yet the scrapbook will be fairly made. And you can also include one or two pictures, but with the wrong mixture. Always think of creating something that will not only be beautiful to you, but to the viewers. Keep in mind that the album is meant for them to view.

Simple Free Scrapbooking Sites for Beginners and free clipart graphics

 athe art of digital scrapbooking has exploded, in part because of imagining software like Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop, and the plethora of digital resources, workshops, magazines, web sites, and graphic design techniques that can help anyone put together some eye pleasing visual memories and artifacts.Scrapbooking is an art form of creating a paper-based collage centered around a memorable photo or set of photos. Traditionally, collages are created using an assortment of papers, markers, frames, rub-on letters, stickers, and other embellishment materials. But now in the age of digital software, scrapbooking can be more accessible for those who don’t want to spend a lot of money on paper resources.

If you’re looking to boost your skills as a photographer or graphic designer, digital scrapbooking is useful hobby for achieving these goals. The following is a sampling of free scrapbooking sites that provide tutorials and free downloads for those wanting to get started with digital scrapbooking.  here are a few sites too help

Free Digital Scrapbooking.com  2

CottageArts.net  3 

Computer Scrapbook.com

When you’re ready to get deeper into digital scrapbooking, Computer Scrapbook.com offers several dozen absolutely free starter kits. You sign up on the site, and the kits will be delivered from its supply page. The kits include assorted backgrounds, shapes, and other elements.

My Favorite Sites for Helpful Tutorials in Digital Scrapbooking

New to digital scrapbooking, or 'digi-scrapping'? Me too! Like traditional scrapbooking, I have found that digital scrapbooking is also a little overwhelming to me. There is so much information out there.  I'm trying not to get a case of information overload.   1. DigitalScrapbookPlace.com - As they say on their website, "go from clueless to glueless." This site offers straightforward information in learning the basics of this hobby. Everything is laid out in a non-confusing, step-by-step manner with links throughout to learn more about a certain area. Nice explanation on how to navigate their site.2. FreeDigitalScrapbooking.com - This site provides helpful explanations of the various types of software used in digital scrapbooking. They give a number of links to some free trials. A free downloadable Digital Basics Kit is offered to help you get started with the various elements of digital scrapbooking.3. ScrapGirls.com - This site is full of helpful information to better understand everything about the world of digital scrapbooking. Their free e-book, "15 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker" gives an overview of the basics of digital scrapbooking. 

Benefits of Digital Scrapbooking

1. Nothing is glued down. You can fix all mistakes with an undo button and never ruin a picture by cropping it too small again.
2. All of your digital Scrapbooking
supplies are on your computer. They are not taking up space in your living room or on your kitchen table.
3. You can make as many copies of your layouts as you wish and share them with family and friends.
4. You can send your pieces to family through email and on personal web pages.
5. Once you've learned how to scrap the digital way, it will take you less time to accomplish fantastic layouts and albums.
6. You can re-use your supplies over and over again!

7. You can save you pieces and preserve them forever in a digital format. No more yellowing.

Digital Scrapbooking and Making Money

Digital Scrapbooking is much faster than traditional scrapbooking. There is a learning curve involved before most people are really skilled at putting together the various elements into a pleasing scrapbook page. For some people this is something pleasing to learn as a hobby. They will learn by experimentation and accept failure as it happens. For others, there simply isn't the time to invest in learning this beautiful hobby. That doesn't mean they do not want a remarkable presentation of their cherished photographs within a scrapbook.
If you have the time and experience of putting scrapbooks together then you might consider advertising your services for others, either as your primary occupation or as a side line to existing at home work
. There are several ways that you could operate such a business.
A website is essential. Through a business website
you can show and suggest available layouts and themes for both pages and entire books. How customers order particular items will depend upon your billing system.
How will you know what photos to use? Customers can upload to your site or email the photos they want used to you, indicating the order in which they wish them to be used. Or else you may wish to make the option available to people to use their own photographs, mailing the set to you. In this case you would likely offer a minor price decrease because you would not have to print them yourself. You should also emphasize that any mailed photos could be lost. Remind customers to send only duplicate photos.
Materials used will include the pages themselves; any die casts and special papers, as well as the photographic paper. The costs for these will need to be covered with the fee you charge. A fee for your own time spent will also need to be added.
Once the layout is completed and any books are assembled, you would email them back to the customer. Here again they would perhaps have the choice of shipping options.
A variation on the traditional scrapbooking is digital scrapbooking where all layouts and themes are chosen in digital format and any images and other graphics are added all within an image manipulation program. Software such as Photoshop and GIMP work well for these kinds of functions, however you may have to purchase the royalty free graphics you wish to use on your sold items.
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