Digital Scapbooking...where to start?

Hi all - I want to get started on digital scrapbooking. I have 1000's of photos on my computer and want to do something with them :) I have lots of questions, but to get started just a few...

What software do you use and why do you like it? I am overwhelmed by how much is out there...

Do you print your pages? Indiviually? As photo books? - I would like to be able to do both

Do you use the free tempates and images etc? What are your fave sites? I know no links but give me something to google if you can

Thanks :)

Oh buggar. My PC hard drive has packed it in and is in for repair or I'd be able to send you a heap more.
My favourite sites are ScrapGirls, and ShabbyPrincess, but there are heaps of free sites where you sign up to their newsletter and they send you free bits and pieces regularly. I have used both free and bought.
I use an old version of photoshop. It's a bit complex to start but once you do a few tutorials and get the hang of a few techniques it's pretty easy.
I am ashamed to admit i've never printed any of mine. I have a few photo books with of pages waiting to be processed but have just never got around to it. I'm really not a fan of printer printed pages - I do traditional sbs as well and the home printer just doesn't compare to my 'real' pages, no matter advanced I print them.

:bump:

I use Photoshop Elements - it is a cheaper version of Photoshop and will still do basic photo editing as well as Digital Scrapbooking - I use it to make announcement cards, birthday invites and Christmas cards as well as it is all very similar so once you get the hang of it, it is very easy. Unless you want to merge two photos together or do complex editing, Photoshop Elements would be all you need to get started. It also requires a less advanced computer system than Photoshop and the upgrades are much cheaper.

I just search for free digital scrapbooking and download anything I like the look of. If you use Photoshop Elements, you can open the digital scrapbooking kits as PSD files and that makes them to much easier to edit because you can auto select whole sections and make them transparent if you need to.

You can download a 30 day free trial of Elements off the internet if you need to have a go. Don't be overwhelmed by it because it does take some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to make up pages quite quickly. A double page for a photobook takes me about an hour now.

I upload my finished pages to whichever photobook site I want to order through (I do it when there are sales on - a few months ago Snapfish had a buy one get one free sale, at the moment Harvey Norman have 40% off their photobooks until 22nd August). I then just choose a whole page display and load the page as a photo into the photobooks that way. I haven't printed off single pages because I just want them in books so I don't need to. However, if I am making birthday invites etc, I will print them off as photos so I can get invitations for 12c each once they are finished and they look quite good. Family like them because they get a photo of the kids from year to year around their birthdays. I also do party thank-you cards with photos from the birthday party on them.

Another great program to try is Momento - if you google search Momento, you should find it. The software is free. The photobooks themselves cost a bit more but the quality is excellent and totally worth it. They have scrapbooking kits that you can download for free once you download the software. Their kits are lovely. You can also import elements of other kits and put them on the page - though you have to do it as JPEG file and the program recognises it as a photo. Momento is great software to start with if you have never scrapbooked digitially before. Many of the applications are very similar to Elements, but far more simple to use if you are just learning. Elements offers more flexibility later on once you get the hang of basic digi-scrap.

There is another thread in here with links to the two most recent books I have finished - I think it is called Baby Record Book or something. If you want to see what sorts of things I did using Elements, you can check that out. I have found templates on the internet that are compatible with PSD (Momento software has numerous templates attached to it as well - you just pick how many photos you want to place on a page and it gives you the options and away you go). Most of my work though is shameless plagerism - I look at pages that other people have created that I like and copy what they have done. Some of them are original work, but I run out of ideas pretty quickly. It is not too hard to recreate a look from online samples that you like.

I hope all that answers some of your questions :)

i use the creative memories storybook program - you can download a basic version for free from their site, but i have paid for the full version of it. allows you to customise page size, do whatever layouts you want, import anything and everything you can find. i tend to be a bit frugal and download only free stuff. have bought some (don't get me wrong!) but i have to really really need something to buy it (or get a really good deal - one i got was to get everything in someone's "shop" for $20 - it worked out to $700 worth if i paid for each piece - so definitely worth it)

here is the book i did for DD's first birthday party. (please excuse the multiple first pages - was looking to get it right and asking for advice). some of it is using layouts from creative memories and just playing with colors, other stuff is things i've done myself. a lot of "free" stuff from the internet on there too

Thanks everyone!
Kim - thanks for those scapbooking sites - I'm still researching software - but that's my next step! Photoshop sounds like it may be the one though
Just me - I'm looking at PS elements now. I'm a teacher with the NSW DET and can buy the adobe CS5 for $82.50 - so I'm just looking to see if photoshop is part of that package. Your books look beautiful! I am not very creative so will definitely be looking for ideas on the net to copy :)
BG - I have downloaded the free version of CM Storybook 3 - All I can do with it is drop my own photos into their setups - but I get the gist - it seems really easy. Just a qn - they have their own printing service but can I get it printed elsewhere - they seem a bit $$$

that's why i purchased the full version - well, was given it as a present and paid for the later version update. if you have the full version, you can do everything you want, can use templates or do your own layouts (i do a mix of both) and then instead of sending to them, you can "save pages as" - then transfer those to cheaper printing options. i have printed using the 8*8 books at snapfish and BigW (so very cheap) - they're not bad quality, but i'm going to redo them through CM or momento for the archival quality prints.
as gifts though, the cheaper ones are all i do. the program has paid for itself well and truly already. i've used it to do invites, christmas cards, thankyou cards (printed through bigw), photo books for gifts, created fantasy scenes for Zarava Flutterby. it's a very simple program to use really. and you can get a lot of basic stuff from the CM website to work from

having said that, it isn't a "manipulation" program. you can do very basic stuff, but it doesn't allow you to cut people out or anything like that. i use GIMP (which is a freebie on the net) for stuff like that

Thanks BG - we have GIMP on DH's computer so I'll have a play with that too. I think I'll upgrade to CM full version - it seems a good place to find my feet and I can always move onto more powerful software later - like photoshop. I have some snapfish photo books so its good to know I can use those! I'm starting to get excited!!!

yeah snap fish isn't bad at all - i have a couple that i got for nothing with the golden crumpets freebies. i just did 8*8 pages in CM, dumped them across to snap fish and made them full page pics. they came up pretty well.

i have so many pages bookmarked for downloading stuff - every month when i get close to the end of the month for my download limit, i go and find more stuff - and if i find i have a project on the go, i find myself looking for unique stuff. it's funny how much unrelated stuff you find and go oooooooooooh gotta have that when you're looking for something completely different (like looking for unicorn pics and finding something related to moon and stars lol)

i agree with the PP that said shabby princess is pretty good. ummm digital design divas (i think it is) have a forum with a monthly free kit that you download either in weekly parts or (like this month) it is all made available early. i usually put in a key word (like unicorn) and free digital scrapbooking elements etc

Ive just started digital scrapbooking, I have heaps of the traditional way, and I was looking at those programs.

I came across a fantastic program called "Digital Scrapbook Artist 2" by Serif distributed by Manaccom. There is a free version on the web if you google without the 2 it comes up about fourth down the list. I have the full paid version and it allows you to import all your finds into the program and then you can manipulate them (even if you didnt create them originally), it also has a photo manipulation prgram where you can crop things out, change tones etc, and its much more easier to operate then GIMP to do so. You can export to a pdf or any of the other major picture file types. Its by far the most versitile program I have come across yet to do everything I want and more.

The only draw back is every so often it does crash, just the program, however that could just be my hard drive on its last second legs :lol:.

I got the full version from Harvey Norman and it cost less than the other programs I was looking at including the creative memories storybook. At the moment I couldnt recommend it enough as a great first starting program. Its very straight forward to use :)