Scrapbooking at Craftse.com

It took me a while to try out digital scrapbooking. However, once I did I was hooked! I love the finished pages and the look and it has saved me a ton of time!

Digital Scrapbooking: Less Time, Less Mess Turns Traditional Scrapbooking on Its Head

(ARA) - Every year scrapbooking hobbyists spend money on fancy paper, ribbons, stamps, fabrics and other supplies to make family mementos, photos and other ephemera into hulking scrapbooks.  

Even though the scrapbooks are lovely to look at, give and cherish, in reality, their ingredients can often take over an entire room, or worse, a whole house. That’s why many traditional scrapbook enthusiasts have turned to a digital format. It’s less expensive, invasive and the options for creating, storing and sharing are endless.

According to Heather Ward, a graphic design instructor at The Art Institute of Indianapolis, one of the best ways to start digital scrapbooking is by investing in a good scrapbooking program such as Memory Mixer, Scrapbook Factory Deluxe or Scrapbook MAX.

“Once you have one of these programs you should begin by using the provided templates or tutorials until you feel secure enough to explore and create using the software on your own. There are also many support places on the Web where you can chat with other scrappers, get involved in a scrapping forum or ask an  individual program’s support staff your questions,” says Ward.

Going digital doesn’t have to mean impersonal or mass-produced. In fact, as with traditional scrap booking, any fonts, themes and graphics being used depend entirely on the individual creating the book. According to Ward, “Scrapbooks are most interesting when the personality of the artists is seen in the work. A benefit of using digital scrap is that everything you need to make your final product special and memorable is included in the program. No need to run out to a craft store to buy supplies.”

Jason Stanford, a fashion design instructor at The Art Institute of Dallas says that “Putting a digital scrapbook together is not much different than creating one in the real world sense. All you need to do is think in terms of computer presentation instead of through traditional ‘book’ format.” Stanford recommends presenting digital scrapbooks by using Microsoft PowerPoint where you create a presentation of “pages” that you design in Adobe Photoshop in a format that is pleasing to look at and compelling for the readers.  

Following that, Stanford recommends Adobe Photoshop to create from scratch “pages” by using paint attributes, shapes and other affects. By capturing digital photographs or scanning you can also incorporate real-world moments and other memorabilia within your “pages.”  

Finally, traditional scrapbooks can be damaged or fade with age (although many traditional scrap-booking products guard against this). Digital scrapbooks can be posted on the Internet to share with others and also to be preserved without risk of damage — a sort of blog. In addition, scrap bookers can even add sound or music to go along with a page or an entire “book.” Anyone who has watched a slide show or some sort of visual work that has music attached to it knows that sound can completely change and influence the message and emotion behind the work.  

To learn more about The Art Institutes visit www.artinstitutes.edu/nz.  

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), a system of 35 locations throughout North America, provide an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.

Each one of you has a set of good and bad memories. Usually those good memories paint smiles on your faces while the bad ones sadden your hearts. Whichever kind of memory it is, these things occur in your life when you least expect them.

Keeping pictures of whatever event in your life with whoever the persona is with you is one way of keeping those memories alive. Most people love to take pictures during field trips, holidays, vacations, birthdays, graduations, weddings, and many other occasions. With these photos, the memory is kept to be lingering in the minds of those who get to take a glimpse of those. But would you rather let your photos lie still in plain and traditionally-looking photo albums? Don’t you want to spice them up? Why not work on scrapbooks?

You need not be an expert photographer or an experienced artist to create scrapbooks. All you need is the concept of the design and layout for the scrapbook plus of course the photos which you want to include.

Have you ever heard of the term accordion albums? You may have encountered these things or you likely keep one in your bedroom. An accordion album is not that standard photo album size. It is smaller. Accordion albums are also best for keeping alive those memories of your loved ones. Love relationship accordion albums are the most common of all. As lovers, you have certainly spent several good times together and you would want such memory to live on forever. In this way, creating an accordion album for scrapbooking will work out just perfect!

The number of photos to be included in the scrapbook determines the size and layout to be employed in your accordion album for scrapbooking. To keep the memories more alive, you can make use of poems, quotes, love songs, or simple statements expressing your love to the person as captions for the photos. In this way, the intimate feeling will be manifested in your work of art.

When writing down the journal, you can recall some funny or memorable incidents about the photo in order to make the caption more expressive and alive. The colors will also have to play a great role in the journal. Softer colors such as cream and blue or silver and gold are mostly used. These colors make the pages of the scrapbook more attractive and lively.

Worthy Topics for the Accordion Album

Among the topics which you can employ for your accordion album include the “Ten Things I Love about You” or “The History of Our Relationship”. Whichever more personal topic you would want to employ can be as long as it will make an intimate impression on your scrapbook.

More so, the accordion album for scrapbooking may also serve as a memorabilia of the items such as cards, love letters, restaurant menu dined at, concerts attended, dried flowers, and many other things which both of you have given for each other. You may likewise have a question and answer portion that both of you will answer. The questions may revolve around your favorite food, pet peeves, traditions, future goals, favorite pastimes, and the things which you mostly agree and disagree on.

The Importance of the Accordion Album for Scrapbooking

The accordion album for scrapbooking is one quick and easy way of recording special memories that you and your lover share. Doing it entails a lot of fun too. You can even laugh by yourself as you remember particular incidents associated with the pictures. As you show it to your partner, rest assured that he or she would also be very happy with your output.

Some Valuable Steps to Follow

Before finally starting with the scrapbooking, first get all the pictures that you will include in the craft. Sort them out according to events and according to chronology. Before pasting the photos, make sure that you’ve already conceptualized the sequence of those as they will appear in the pages. Once in a while, put in artistic embellishments to the pages. Never fail to include the captions too. Do this all throughout the pages of the scrapbook. By carefully following the ins and outs of the steps, you are on your way to a desirable accordion album for scrapbooking!

Princess scrapbooks are very popular with girls of all ages. It’s lots of fun to create imaginative and creative princess scrapbook pages and it is not too difficult with all the princess themed scrapbook products available now. Here are some princess scrapbook tips to help get you started.

1. Choose a princess who suits your personality. Some people like to choose a princess based on the color of her dress but it is more fun to choose the princess with whom you personally (or your child) identifies with.

2. Research the princess characters. Make sure you know their story lines and what makes them unique.

3. Create a balanced princess scrapbook. Focus on incorporating one or two key items and let your pictures tell the rest of the story. Every page does not need to be plastered with princess stickers, paper, and ribbon. Less is actually best.

4. Tell the details of your princess. Remember that the details are what count - let your fabulous photos be the highlight of the princess scrapbook.

These are just a few tips to get you started on your own princess scrapbook. Have fun making it perfect for your little princess.

With the Christmas season drawing closer, I thought I would highlight some of my favorite Christmas scrapbook printables from around the web:

1. Christmas party/gift scrapbook tag: Perfect to adorn that special gift!

2. Free Printable Religious Christmas Cards - Great for making your own cards!

3. From one of my favorite scrapbooking sites, here is an entire page of free Christmas scrapbook printables.

4. Another great collection of Christmas scrapbook layouts - perfect for gift giving or keeping for yourself!

5. Adorable Christmas gift tags - put them on gifts or on your scrapbook pages!

There are quite a few ways that you can make your scrapbook pages unique. You may be tired of using the same old layouts, or may be drawing a blank when considering a new page. Sometimes a way to jump start your creative processess again is to try using a new scrapbooking tool. Scrapbooking charms can lend some uniqueness to your pages and help to spark your creativity once again.

Scrapbooking Charms are one of the newest additions to the field of scrapbook embellishments. They add another dimension to your scrapbook pages and can provide just the detail you’ve been looking for.

Scrapbook charms are one of the favorites among scrapbook enthusiasts. A visit to any local craft store will show you how big of a market they are now and that they can be found to fit almost any design theme.

From plain designs to themed choices, a scrapbooking charm will be a nice addition to any scrapbook. Even the digital scrapbooking programs have jumped on the bandwagon and now offer charms that can be placed digitally on your scrapbook page - and with a dimensional effect no less!

Scrapbooking charms can be adhered onto cardstock, tags, papers, or even the album covers themselves. Be sure to use proper adhesives for the best results. .