Digital Scraptitude

So long ago I used to do the paper scrapbook thing … sorta. But I’d already been doing the digital image thing for long enough that the messiness of paper scrapbooking really bugged me. I also never liked the “overhead” involved in picking up and putting down a project. Digital is just my thing. So when Tabby was born, I tried to do some digital scrapbooking and I didn’t get too far. It was a good idea, but a few things plagued me. 1. I went too crazy and I got discouraged. I wanted to have all the photos and when I couldn’t find one, I’d get frustrated. And I wanted all my layouts perfect and super creative like the ones I saw online.  2. I got overwhelmed by volume – too much to catch up on!  3. I really didn’t have the time.

So this time around, I’ve taken a bit of a different tact. I’m going for the less is more theory. I’ve been creating layouts that are simple. I’ve been doing just a few pages per event/trip, not every single photo from it with narration – who wants to read that anyhow?? And I’ve been trying to do them as I go and only go back when I have a few extra minutes (like when we were in Vail). We’ll see how long I can keep this up.

So for each “event” I’ve been doing a sort of title page with fewer photos, a title and some narration and then a few other more just “snapshot” pages where I don’t do much but put up some photos and give little notes with them. I’ve also been doing some Instagram layouts to capture those sort of everyday moments, about once a month. They are awesome, but I also admire some of the things Kathy Zielske incorporates into her Project Life layouts and I’d love to incorporate a weekly page sometime. That would be a lot of work though!

I have purchased a few sets of coordinating digital “paper” (way cheaper than the real paper stuff!) from Shery K designs and Scrapbook.com for backgrounds and I did purchase another “kit” of camping-related graphics from After 5 Designs. There’s lots available out there, but while it’s relatively inexpensive, it sure could add up if you went crazy. So mostly, I’m using my own digital skills to pretty things up. Photoshop is my program, though probably most of the stuff I do in PS you could do with the (much cheaper). My layouts have all been 12″x12″ at 300 dpi. I like layering gradients, textures, etc. and fun brushes. I favor clipping paths as opposed to cropping my photos first – and I’d be happy to elaborate on Photoshop technique later if anyone’s interested, but there are tons of great tutorials out there probably much more detailed and eloquent than I’d ever write.

I hope at some point in time to get these pages printed. There are tons of good services out there for this, ranging from around a $1 per page (sometimes less if there’s a sale) to a couple of bucks per page. Some offer pre-bound books which would be great. Some offer variety of sizes too and I think the 8″x8″ size, for example, would be a nice gift size.