Digital Scrapbooking

I am really excited about digital scrapbooking. I am sure my mom and sisters are getting a little tired of me talking about it all the time to then in our MSN chats. I had done a few pages in a scrapbooking program, but this month have been doing everything straight in Photoshop Elements. It is more challenging but also provides a lot more options and opportunities for learning.

I have found a few digital scrapbooking sites which offer many downloads of background papers, embellishments, etc. Some even offer free downloads on certain items. My favorites so far are:

• DigitalScrapbookPlace.com – this site offers a lot of free downloads and has a huge library of downloads.
• ComputerScrapbook.com – this site also has a large library of downloads and a few freebies. Many of their downloads are designed for printing so that you can use them in regular scrapbooking as well.
• DigiChick.com – I just discovered this site so I am still learning how it works. But they seem to have a nice variety of downloads and I have seen some beautiful layouts in their gallery.

Each of the three sites also offers a free gallery for its members, which makes up for a nice community and a great place to get inspiration while viewing others’ layouts. Other members can comment on the layouts submitted so it is also a way of getting constructive criticism if you want it, although I haven’t been brave enough to ask for it yet from anyone other than Greg. The comments I have received so far have been positive, but I think that is mostly due to it being comprised of other people like me who are excited about scrapbooking and thrilled to see new people try it too.

As I have been frequenting these sites, I am realizing that I have a lot to learn, but I am inspired too. Some of the people design their own embellishment and backgrounds. Art has never been my strong suit, but I really would like to learn how to do some of that myself. So here is my first attempt:

I made the background paper myself! Hooray! It wasn’t hard or anything, but I am still proud of myself. I am also excited about the stockings and the manger scene. Those were carefully “extracted” from a picture of our stockings hung on our fireplace mantle. So now I can upload a page to the scrapbooking galleries and not have to give credit to any other designer. The page is completely my own in all respects.