PAGES: MAIN TOPICS I WRITE ON

Friday, November 22, 2013

Capturing Memories

It's always a special treat when I have time for digital scrapbooking - and earlier this month when we were at our Mahoney Getaway, I had time to do a bunch of pages. Here are a few of the many pages I did during our vacation week ...

This one capturing some memories from August - photos shared with us from TX, as we were not able to be there to celebrate our granddaughter's birthday ...


And this next page, memories from September - as we celebrated two family birthdays together, a dear daughter's and mine, sharing a birthday month ...


And a page from October - time for grandkids, and also a fun Cru meeting, both on Halloween Day ...


Recently I've had a few friends ask me for some info on digital scrapbooking, so I thought I'd share a bit of my experience. I made the big switch several years ago from paper scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking. It was a difficult decision for me, but I have been so thankful that I made the change! There are quite a few advantages for me to create my pages digitally: it is quicker and easier than paper scrapbooking, it requires less supplies to pull out and use, there are so many digital papers, templates, and embellishments to use (downloadable right when you wish, and they are re-usable), and I can easily create pages while sitting on a couch, while on a trip, or wherever I have my laptop. 

There are so many great ways to create pages online (using any of the numerous photo book sites such as Shutterfly, Mixbook, etc.) but I chose to make my own pages on my laptop with software that I purchased. 

It turned out to be quite a process for me to make the switch, as I needed to allow time to learn this new method. I create my pages in PhotoShop Elements (I started out with PSE 9 and now have PSE 11), and I took probably about half a year to learn how to scrapbook with PhotoShop Elements. (In the midst of a busy life!) I used some excellent online training - click here for some great lessons that are available through Digital Scrapper. 

I also needed to purchase an external hard drive (for space to store all the digital supplies), and needed to add some extra RAM for my laptop, so it could process things a bit faster. 

Another plus for scrapbooking digitally is that it is easy to share the pages online, in addition to printing them out for albums at home. I create the pages in 12x12 size, but choose to print them out in 8x8 size for my albums.

Let me know if you have any more questions - obviously, I love this form of scrapbooking, and am continually learning more. Such a great way to preserve memories - a story of God's love and presence in our lives. 

(Digital scrapbooking credits: 1st page: Page Template: Sweet Shoppe Designs mcato-simplebeauty1; Embellishments: Flower-DS Premier April 2013-SweetShoppe hop along kit; Fonts: Title-Noteworthy; Text-Lao Sangam MN. 2nd page:  Page Template: ABR_SSOLAlb; Paper & Embellishments: Digital Scrapper PSE 11 manual kit Digilicious-Flutter. 3rd page: Page Template: ABR SSDLOT; 'Background Paper: nrj-fallcolorwash: Paper & embellishment: DS Premier 88-autumndays; Font: Champagne & Limousines.)

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2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing, Cherry! I hope to start this as well. I've made a photo album for our son's 1st year in the Navy and was quite pleased with it. Of course I didn't use their standard layout and was constantly searching for a new layout or trying a full page photo and sometimes a full page photo screen. It took a long time but I love it. Bought one for myself, too.
    My question for you is how do you print out your own pages? Do you use your home printer or do you have something like Shutterfly print out your pages and then you put it in an album?
    I'll have to bookmark this page for reference.
    Thank you,
    Janis

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    1. Janis, I print out my own 8x8 pages on our printer at home - it just seems faster and easier for me to do it myself. I purchase good quality photo paper at an office supply store. Have fun with scrapbooking - and let me know if you have any more questions that I'd be able to help with.

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