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 .
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
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