Home Based Business Ideas – Digital Scrapbooking

Many talented digital scrapbooking fanatics are wanting to work from home and get paid with their hobby. It is a good time to consider starting a business in which you can work from home in the digital scrapbooking field, due to the growth taking place in this industry.Starting a digital scrapbooking business may not be as hard as you think.

For those who don’t feel they are expert enough yet, keep on studying the online tutorials and lessons that are available. You’ll get better as you keep working on your skills. The main thing anyone needs to start a business is a passion – the skills can be gained, but passion is not something that can be learned.

Also, for any home business, there are things to learn about running a business, keeping track of financial accounts and budgeting. You also would need to be sure you have an up-to-date computer (PC or MAC is fine), and a high speed internet connection.

Next on the list of things to do to prepare for a home business as a scrapbook designer would be to decide if you will try to work for individuals you know or if you would like to try to find customers through the internet. For marketing yourself, you could look for clients locally, through schools, churches and other people you know. Making flyers, having a business card and coming up with a name for your business would be some of the first steps to take.

With the lower cost of internet websites and hosting, many digital scrapbook artists have websites. If you aren’t knowledgeable about creating a website, you can find many graphic designers and web designers who can help you get a website started – and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

The newest trend in websites is with the use of content management platforms, such as Wordpress. What is so great about these blog formats is that anyone can post information in them (no dependency on a web developer is needed). Again, you may need a web designer to help get your blog set up with customized banner artwork that uses your company logo. After a blog (such as a Wordpress blog) is created, the tools that are built in to write posts and upload or insert pictures is very easy to learn.

So, consider starting your own business – what can it hurt? If you want to buy a domain name, these days it only costs about 9 dollars a year. Hosting can cost as little as 5 dollars a month. Other options are to join some of the sites that offer a website where you can sell your products, such as digital scrapbook kits. Some of the sites I have seen for this are Etsy or Plumbdrop. These sites are growing quickly and many people who used to use Ebay to sell their products have branched out to other selling sites like these.

Basically, just don’t limit yourself. If you have a dream, pursue it! You really can do so much today with very little monetary investment. Mostly your time and interest will be what is needed to get started, keep going and to eventually make a digital scrapbooking business.

Technorati Tags: business, design, digital kits, digital scrapbooking, etsy, website, work from home

A fun online scrapbook and photo book making site is Picaboo. Just upload your digital photos and make your custom photo book. Choose from a variety of beautiful binders and they have lay flat albums that are neat and slim. You can completely customize your book with a few clicks.

This is a great service for anyone who isn’t technical – no hard-to-understand software. No tutorials to study. Just go to the site and use their help and tools. Use custom backgrounds from your own digital images or select pre-loaded backgrounds for your pages. There is even a background community – other people’s images are available for you to use!

You can customize your book further by adding comments, names, years and journaling with text boxes. There are layouts for you to use as a guide to make your scrapbook or digital photo book look like a professional created it. If you need a gift idea, check out the book ideas, for help with topical or themed scrapbook and greeting cards for weddings, babies, pets, graduation, travel, Mother’s Day, vacations, holidays, Christmas, Easter, family history, genealogy and more.

Try Picaboo – you can easily see their pricing – which is very reasonable for the quality and speed of creation of your custom books.

Technorati Tags: albums, binders, digital-photos, gift, gifts, online printing, photo books, picaboo, scrapbooking, scrapbooks

Have you bought Adobe Elements yet? Here the latest on prices for Adobe Photoshop Elements software:

Adobe has finally figured out that many scrapbooking fanatics are using their software. You should go see how the site has changed (to include tips and help for scrapbookers). Photoshop Elements 7 costs $99.99 or Photoshop Elements 7 with Photoshop.com Plus membership for $139.99.

For Mac – Photoshop Elements 6 is on sale. It’s their Dad’s and Grads sale – $89.99 for the full version or $69.99 for the upgrade. These discounts never last for long, so act fast if buying Adobe Photoshop Elements was on your “to-do” list!

What is the Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 with Photoshop.com Plus* membership?

Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7 software combines power and simplicity so you can make ordinary photos extraordinary, tell amazing stories, and share them virtually everywhere. And now, extend the capabilities of your software with new Photoshop.com Plus* membership that includes:

• Ongoing delivery of tutorials, artwork, and templates
• 20GB of online storage
• Access to your photos and videos virtually anywhere you are
• And fun, interactive photo-sharing experiences for friends and family

So, for a little more money you get a lot more with storage space, tutorials, templates and photo-shareing tools.

Technorati Tags: adobe, coupon, Digital, discount, photo editing, photoshop elements 7, sale

This is printable and downloadable graph paper maker is cool! And it is free (gotta love that). Have you ever wanted to make your digital scrapbook look like graph paper? I found a place to download digital graph paper as a PDF that you can print or use in your photo editing software for your layouts. You can download some pre-made graph paper or set up the type of grid you want to make custom papers.

You can create other geometric patterns such as dots or hex graphs to download, too. There is even an option for trapezoid paper. What is so cool about this is: you can even do custom page sizes (such as 12 x12), which is great for scrapbooking. These would be interesting to use in a scrapbook with a school theme. I don’t know if anyone has ever made an engineering or architecture scrapbook, but if you were going to, graph paper backgrounds would be a nice touch.

So, when you try to make your paper, you can change the line colors or dot colors to red, blue, black, gray, green or use a custom color.

So go play with this tool: graph paper and see what you can come up with for your digital scrapbooks. Or, use this for school projects or to use a drawing and sketching paper. Whatever you do, go be creative!

Technorati Tags: dots, graph paper, grids, hex, hexagon, printable paper, trapezoid

Photoshop brushes help you create custom effects in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Here is an example of bubbles created using a free custom brush (created by Shelby Kate Schmitz):

As soon as I saw that, I wanted to make bubbles in Photoshop! So, I am going to downlad the free brush and try it out. I have downloaded other people’s brushes before and then totally forgot I had them. So, this time I am actually going try using this brush set before I forget! These free brushes will work with Photoshop 7 and later versions and Photoshop Elements 2 and up. See my step-by-step instructions on loading and using a Photoshop brush.

You can find the brush sets and instructions here: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshopbrushes/ss/sksbrushes.htm. But I am going to go into some detail about downloading and using them (in case it will help anyone).

I started out by creating a folder (called photoshop brushes) to download them to (so I could know where the download went!). Then I went to the folder and saw a file named SKS-bubbles.abr. I just copied that file (select the file, right click and then select copy). Next I navigated to the Photoshop presets\brushes folder (see below for the exact location for the PC). I made sure I was in that folder and used right click, paste. Voila, the file is there now.

Note: If you cannot find some of the folders I mentioned above, go to the Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab, and make sure “Hidden files and folders” is set to Show, then click OK.

How to install free brushes in Photoshop:

• Put the *.abr file into: Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Brushes where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.
• Go to the Brushes Pallette in Photoshop, find the little down arrow and select load brushes to add them to your set of brushes.

Instructions for Photoshop Elements – You buy a program called Add-O-Matic!
(if you use Photoshop Elements 5, 6, or 7). The link to graphicssoft earlier on this page will take you to information about that. But I will walk through the free way to add the brushes to Photoshop Elements below.

How to install Photoshop Elements Brushes:

Note: You have to close Photoshop Elements first.

Windows: Download and place the *.abr files into the program files on your computer. If you are in the file manager look for: Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements X\Presets\Brushes where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop Elements.

Mac: Place the *.abr files into: Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 6/Presets/Brushes

Brushes created in Photoshop 7 or later will not work in older versions of Photoshop Elements (such as version 2 and earlier). Any Photoshop brushes should work in Photoshop Elements 3 and later.

Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: Place the *.asl files in: Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 6/Presets/Styles

You can also check out other free brushes, custom shapes and custom layer styles on the website I referenced above. The instructions are good and they cover Photoshop and Photoshop Elements for the PC and for the MAC.

Have fun (and see the detailed instructions here)!

Technorati Tags: add a brush, bubbles, free brushes, installing, photoshop, photoshop elements

In a previous post I wrote about a place to download free Photoshop and Photoshop Elements brushes. I promised to actually try installing one. So, I am going to use the free bubble brush I downloaded. I documented each step and will show you how load and to use the brush.

First, a review of downloading – I created a folder to save my downloads in. You don’t have to do this, you can just download the file to the program files: 

Step 1: Download or add brush file.

• Download to or place the *.abr file (brush file) into: Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Brushes where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

Step 2: View the Photoshop Brushes Palette

• View the brushes pallete from the Photoshop “Window” menu, or press F5 to view it.

Step 3: Load a New Brush

• If Photoshop was open, close the program reopen it.  Go to the Brushes Pallette in Photoshop, find the little down arrow and select “load brushes” to add them. (you’ll have to select the file – in my example it’s called SKS-bubbles.abr – shown in step 1).

Step 4: Click on the Brush Tool

• You have to be using the brush tool (see the toolbar above) to use brushes.

Step 5: Select the Brush (now that it’s been loaded)

• This shows how I select a brush in the brush pallete.

Step 6: Using the new brush!

• Just change the colors, select a brush size and click on the page – you have a cool bubble. I changed the colors and brush sizes to make these three bubbles. (Very fun!)

I hope you have as much fun with your new brush as I did!

Technorati Tags: how to install photoshop brushes, photoshop custom brush, step-by-step, using a brush

I guess it is no secret that this website is made using WordPress. I am experimenting with using a blog format for my site, rather than creating everything with just HTML pages.

A blog platform is easier and you can write your posts quickly and be up-to-date. The drawbacks are learning how to use the tools and widgets and plug ins!  But so far, playing with templates or themes is fun. I think this bright new theme fits my mood today. I’ve been watching the inauguration and it seemed to upbeat and positive, I just wanted this site to reflect that!

I hope our country will make the necessary changes to improve the lives of those being hurt by this recession. And I want to improve lots of things in my own life. I’m starting with learning about Wordpress themes! I am sure not an expert, but I figured out how to do some CSS editing and I’m proud about that. It’s a start anyway.

So, here’s to a sunny administration for the new President, and to all of you who read this page.

Technorati Tags: blogging, CSS, Digital scrapbooking now, edit, themes, website, wordpress

A question that comes up a lot is this: “Now that i have made a digital scrapbook, how do I print it and put it in a binder?”

That is a really good question! Of course there is no ONE correct answer – which is what I love about creativity! Many people buy their scrapbook album or binder before they design their pages. It gets kind of tricky if you are using a 12 x 12 album because not many home ink jet printers will print paper that large. If you have a printer that prints 11 x 17 (or tabloid size) you can print on that size paper and crop down the pages to 11 x 11 or 11 x 12 to insert into a 12 x 12 binder. (In europe, the closest paper size is A3 which is 11.69 x 16.54 inches.)

If you don’t have a printer with the larger sized paper capapbilities, you can go to a print shop or Kinkos and get your pages printed on 11 x 17 paper. (You’ll still have to crop the pages down because there will be extra white areas on the page.)

If you are lucky enough to have a photo printer that prints 13″ x 19″ photo enlargements, you would get some good results for digital layouts. (The photo printers that print that size are: Epson Stylus Photo 1400 or Epson Stylus Photo R1900, HP Photo Smart, Canon PIXMA Pro9000 and PIXMA Pro9500 (and probably some others).

Many scrapbookers design their layouts for 8.5 x 11 pages (or “letter” size in the U.S.) which are comparable to A4 paper in europe (which measures 8.27 x 11.69 inches). I can’t even imagine what european scrapbookers do to get pages to fit 8.5 x 11 albums! I’ve read that many people print to this size love the borderless printers which allow your print area to go to the edge of the paper (so you don’t have to trim off excess paper after printing).

Of course, if you are making layouts for a smaller album, say at 8 x 8 inches, any printer will be able to output pages that allow for that size, but cropping the final pages will be necessary. Tip: if you DO have 11 x 17 or 13 x 19 printing capabilities, you can “gang up” two 8 x 8 pages and print them on one page, then cut them apart.

So there are some ideas for printing your digital scrapbooks. Maybe you got a new printer and can test it out soon!

Oh yeah, it’s 2009, can you believe it!  Happy New Year scrappers!!

Technorati Tags: 13 x 19, Canon Pixma, digital scrapbookings, Epson, HP photo printer, photo printing, scrapbooks

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  

Technorati Tags: 3-ring binder, binders, post bound, postbound, scrapbook albums, strap hinge

I just found a great website with tons of free pictures (I love free clip art!) to use for digital scrapbooking. I am kind of excited about it, so I thought I better share this! The site is http://www.fromoldbooks.org. It has pictures from old books like the images below (for a Christmas or Winter theme)  You can see that there are color images and engravings in black and white.

This cherub would be nice for a Valentine’s Day scrapbooking:

Or take a look at this rustic border or frame:

What is so cool about these are that you can download them and when then use a photo editor to change them or add color. Well, have fun with that site, and really, you can’t beat the price – they are free!  Of course, if you really like them, you can make a donation to the site as a way to say “thank you” for the free images.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, digital images, engravings, free clipart, pictures, Valentine's day