Digital Scrapbooking Now

What kind of scrapbook album is best for digital scrapbooking?

That is a really difficult question to answer, since it’s up to personal preferences. There are many sizes of albums from 6 x 6 up to larger than 12 x 12. Most scrapbooks are in 8.5 x 11 or 12 x 12 binders, probably because more products are made in these sizes.

Size is only one difference in albums. The way the album’s binder is configured is another big consideration. There are strap-hinge, accordion, postbound and 3-ring binder albums. The decision as to which is best can be determined by what you like or don’t like. For example, some people find putting strap hinge albums together too much of a pain. Any of these systems are limited to the number of pages that can a binder can hold.

Here is a picture of a strap-hinge album (below):

Postbound or post-bound albums Post bound albums use actual posts to hold your in the binder. The image on the below shows what those posts look like. For those albums, various depths of posts can be purchased.

There are more and more 3-ring albums made for scrapbooking. It used to be that these types of albums were used in offices or business presentations and were in the boring, standard corporate looking colors. Now, the products available include all kinds of cover materials and colors, so these are very popular with scrapbookers. They are easy to use, since adding or removing pages only requires you to open and close the rings. Page protectors are handy to use with these (they are 3-hole punched plastic sleeves that you insert your pages into). This way all the pages are protected from the oils on people’s hands and any other likely accidents, such as having a drink spilled on the pages.

So it’s possible the album to choose will be based on the type of binding or it could be that the type of cover the album has will be the reason you choose it. Album covers can have plastic, fabrics such as denim or corduroy, faux leather and genuine leather.

Some of my favorite places to buy albums:

My Art and Craft Supplies has lots of scrapbook albums (look on the left menu for the albums, 12 x 12 or Smaller than 12 x 12).

Scrapbook.com: Thousands of scrapbooking supplies. A Cherry On Top, Scrapbooking Shoppe  

Is Digital Scrapbooking for You?

For those who are involved in digital scrapbooking, it’s no secret that it’s an addicting hobby. The numbers of people making traditional scrapbooks is growing every day. Now there are options to have more design control by making digital scrapbooks.

Digital scrapbooking is the best way to make your memory books if you want to create your own page designs and layouts usng your computer. They allow you to get creative and make custom scrapbooks or memory books.

What’s so great about it? Well, you don’t need to buy expensive paper or cardstock. And, you don’t have to use scissors and glue to paste in your photos. Another plus is that you’ll need far less materials and less storage space. There are very inexpensive digital scrapbook downloads you can buy and many people offer stuff for free, too. Using your digital photos (taken directly from your camera to your computer) you can place them on your digital pagees, crop them, re-size them, create collages and even change the colors. Then you can print them out and insert them into an album.

There are times when you may still want to use the traditional paper products or embellishments, stickers, ribbons, buttons, etc. and add them to your pages. This is called hybrid scrapbooking (when you use computerized images along with traditional (store-bought) elements. Be sure to use archival quality glue or adhesives when doing this.

What holds people back from doing digital scrapbooks or hybrid scrapbooking? Besides the time it takes to create your own backgrounds, the number one reason more people don’t do it is the technology learning curve involved with using scrapbooking or photo editing software.

If you think you are ready to take the plunge into making scrapbooks this way, here is what you need to start:

1 - A decent computer (desktop or laptop)

2 - Digital scrapbook software (page layout or photo editing software)

3 - Digital photos on your computer

4 - A color printer (an inkjet printer will work fine) and the appropriate paper and toner inks.

5 - Time and creativity!

Some recommendations for software: Page layout software used by digital scrappers: Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Designer Deluxe, and LumaPix FotoFusion. Memory Mixer, Bazzill Basics, and other software is made just for scrapbooks. Some photo editing software used by scrapbookers:  Adobe Photoshop Elements is really, really good. It isn’t too expensive, either. The full Adobe Photoshop is also used, as is Corel Photo Paint. ACADSee makes scrapbook and photo editing software, As I type this, there are probably some new ones. There will be more, you can bet on it, due to the popularity of this new way to create great looking scrapbooks.