Scrapbooking Layouts - Creating the Perfect Memory

One of the benefits of scrapbooking is the organized and attractive way your memories are preserved. It's important to take your time with the initial layout because that's what really makes the core of your design. A good layout will be beautiful to look at and it will preserve your memories so you and the generations to come will truly enjoy them.

Your imagination is one of the best places to start your layouts. Just take a look at the number of pictures you have and the themes you'd like to create and go from there. But, if like everybody, you find yourself stuck for ideas sometimes that's OK. There are lots of places to look for inspiration.

Scrapbooking idea books and magazines are great for getting ideas. They have lots of layouts and you can often find them centering around a theme, such as "baby's first year" or "school days." This will help jump start your own creativity.

You can also find lots of layout ideas online. Spend time browsing scrapbooking sites and looking at galleries of the pages others have put together. You'll get some excellent ideas.

Don't limit yourself to just scrapbooking resources, though. Pay attention to the layouts of your favorite web pages and magazines. You'll find a wealth of beautiful layouts to draw inspiration from.

Kits and software are excellent sources of pre-made layouts. If you're just getting started with scrapbooking they can help you create beautiful pages right away. You will find that you can come up with your own ideas more easily as you gain experience.

Start planning your layout by taking stock of what you have to work with. How many pictures are you going to be using? Do you want to add a lot of words (journaling) to this particular page or spread? Is there children's artwork to be incorporated into the layout. How about mementos such as napkins, invitations, or programs? These things will all influence how you should lay your page out.

Are you going to have one picture be the focal point, or will you have many pictures and mementos working together to build your memory? Layouts often center on details of each photograph, in which case the pictures are cropped and several smaller pictures are used together. Then there are always classic pictures that deserve to be the focal point of your entire page.

Go with simple layouts. Pictures and words will get lost on a page that's too cluttered. It also helps to have a consistent look and feel for an entire album, so consider what will be going into it. Don't forget to leave space for journaling.

Remember that themed kits can be a great way to get started with scrapbooking. They're also wonderful if you're going to be creating your scrapbook as a gift for someone else. They contain a nice selection of stencils, card stock, and embellishments that match the overall theme of the kit. You'll find kits for everything from babies, to weddings, to anniversaries, to graduations, to birthdays, and more.

Taking the time to plan out your layouts before you actually start working on your scrapbook pages will help you create the perfect memory in an attractive and organized way. So spend a little while thinking about it and trying different things to get the look you want.

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Creating Digital Scrapbooking Layouts - Resizing Your Photos

If you are new to creating digital scrapbooking layouts, there are a few skills you will want to master early on. One of these is: How Do I Resize a Digital Photograph to fit the digital template I've chosen?

Let's look at a typical scenario:

• A new mom has taken tons of pictures of her child (what new mother doesn't?)
• She loves scrapbooking, and wants to create a mini-album with digital layouts featuring several small photos, or just part-photos, on each page.
• She plans to use mostly head shots, and the standard 6x4s are too large for use on her page.
• She wants to be able to print the multi-photo page(s) as a part of her mini-album.

She already has Photoshop Elements, but you'd follow the same overall process for most photo-editing software.

First, Open a Blank Canvas, then

• Define the size and resolution of the page (250-300 dpi should give a good result when printing the page)
• Choose RGB color mode, unless you want a monochrome grayscale finish
• Set background color to transparent

You now have a canvas and are ready to start scrapbooking

Side Note: I find the checkered background you see (when color is set to transparent) makes it very easy to align photos and embellishments.

In PhotoShop each part of your design will be placed on a separate layer and you can adjust how far forward an item is by moving it up and down the layers.

Next, Open the Photo File to be resized.

There are now several options to resize your photo:

1. Simply make the whole photo larger or smaller.
2. Crop to a section of the photograph, thereby removing all that extra sky or foreground, then sizing the cropped image to what you need.
3. Use a mask which is an easy way to create identically sized photographs in a multi-photo layout.

1. Resize your whole Photograph:

• Go to Image, resize, image size
• in the 'Document size' section select your units (inches, mm, cm, pixels, etc) and enter the width or height you want
• you will want a resolution of 250-300 dpi to get good printing results

2. Crop a Section of the Photo:

• Select the crop tool and define the area to be kept
• Drag the crop 'window' around your photo to make the best selection

Side Note: if you want several photos exactly the same size in a layout I recommend using one of the fixed options instead of the freehand ones.

3. Use a Mask to Reveal only the Part of your Photos You Want to Display:

This is a technique I wish I'd learned about much earlier in my journey into Digital Scrapbooking...

• Create a new layer and select the Marquee Tool
• Select the size you want (choose from freehand, fixed ratio, or fixed size options)

if you chose either the fixed ratio or freehand option:

• Draw your mask shape on the new layer while holding down the left button on your mouse;

If you chose the fixed size option: (good when you want multiple images the same size)

• Click on your new layer, and the fixed size you've chosen will appear in outline with the 'marching ants'

Whichever style you used, the next stage is to

• Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the shape with color (just so that its easier to see while you are working)

Now you have a photo mask layer ready for use in your current project. You can also duplicate the layer for as many photos as you plan to use.

• Place your photo on the layer above the photo mask, and clip the two layers together. You can still move your photo to select the best part, and you can grab a corner to adjust the size.

Do this for each photo until you have all you need for your digital scrapbooking layouts.

Genie Balfour: As a paper crafter and scrapbooker for many years, Genie is well-versed in the ins and outs of paper and digital scrapbooking. As the founder of the popular website ScrapbookingGems.com, she writes regularly on paper and digital scrapbooking topics. Click this link to read Genie's step by step photo resizing instructions and other digital scrapbooking layout tips. Or click here and check out her free scrapbook sketches and layouts series.

Premade Scrapbook Layouts - A Variety to Add Personalization

It cannot be denied that mothers and young people from all over the world are getting more and more engrossed with the hobby of scrapbooking. When you go to bookstores and craft stores these days, you would notice that there would always be scrapbooking kits for both the beginners and the experts. Most of these kits already include premade scrapbook layouts.

But have you ever heard of the new and more modern concept of scrapbooking? Digital scrapbooking is the term used when you plan to make scrapbook albums without having to leave your seat in front of your computer. It offers a wide range of available premade scrapbook layouts that you can use to incorporate your photos with.

To get started with this modern way of scrapbooking, all you have to do is to choose first from the many premade scrapbook layouts that you will be presented to online. Then you can start creating your very own embellishments by using graphic and photo programs along with your selected photos. Nowadays, there are many interactive websites which can give you more ideas on this new innovation in scrapbooking.

The hobby of scrapbooking has been known all over the world for encouraging majority of the female market into getting involved with it. For mothers, it has contributed to improve their lives by adding variety to their everyday routine and for some, has even become a form of additional income. This can be said true for the young female market.

Teenagers have also fallen in love with this idea of scrapbooking that they have even formed clubs and organizations that encourage everyone to be an enthusiasts as well as a member. In nursing homes for the elderly people, scrapbooking has also taken a place of its own as a form of hobby for those who have been starting to lose their capacity to remember memories in their lives.

Do you need Scrapbooking Ideas? Check out Premade Scrapbook Pages and Scrapbook Page Ideas

Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants Cricut Cartridge

Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants Cricut cartridge includes fun and exciting images of Spongebob and his friends which you can now more easily cut and paste and use as design for your custom made scrapbooks. It is a package of bright and amusing pictures and letter fonts that pertains to Nickelodeon's longest running Nicktoon show next to The Rugrats.

For the customer's excitement and delight, this cartridge has included the following features that let you choose from a wider variety of Spongebob icons: Body/Detail 1, Outfit/Detail 2, Eyes/Detail 3, Icon, Icon Layers, and Shadow creative features.

These very special features can only be found when you buy Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants cartridge by Cricut. This package has been enjoyed by buyers, especially to children who love Spongebob Squarepants because they can now easily create and cut his likeness without the use of computers.

With only one click of Cricut's button, the compact cutting machine will do everything you want to do from accurate and artistic cutting to producing the icons exactly how you like them to be.

In addition to this, this cartridge also contains lots of different cool shapes and letters. His friends' shapes and images are also available such as Patrick Star, Squid Q. J. Tentacles, Sandy Cheeks, Eugene H. Krabs, Sheldon J. Plankton, Gary, and many, many more!

You can now cut out letters, names, and fun phrases exactly the way you see them on TV while watching your favorite Nicktoon show. Not only that, they are also available in the precise colors and layouts the way they are shown on TV.

The Spongebob Squarepants Cricut Cartridge is designed for children who want to make not only scrapbooking projects, but also greeting cards, paper crafts, beautiful designs, artistic alphabets, home or room decors, and a lot more using pictures, logos, and signs from the Spongebob series.

Those who still want to purchase a Spongebob Squarepants Cartridge are advised to do so as soon as possible. Cricut has been receiving thousands and thousands of orders because of the popularity of Spongebob amongst children and youngsters.

Digital Scrapbooking

A growing number of people are skipping the paper photos and putting their entire scrapbook together online. We found a Sioux Falls mom who says for her, it's the perfect fit.

Melanie Zeman and her husband have four kids under the age of six, and she says for her, traditional scrapbooking just isn't an option. Melanie says, "Last year, a friend of mine who sells Creative Memories came to me and showed me some of her scrapbooks, and I loved them.

I fell in love with them, and I thought, this I could do." Now, Melanie does almost all of her scrapbooking online, with photos her husband downloads to the computer. She says, "There are options of pages that area already set up for you, that you can just pretty much put a picture in the different frames, or you can custom create a page, if you want to."

If you choose to have more creative input, it's a lot like traditional scrapbooking. You pick your background, borders, anything that would personalize your page. But Melanie says you have even more options than going the old-fashioned way. She says, "I can do the entire layout and decide the background paper is not the one I want, and I can change it."

Jennifer Nelson is a consultant for Creative Memories, one of the scrapbook companies that offers digital programs. Scrapbooking has been a passion of hers for more than 10 years. She says, "I thank my dad for that because he was the editor of 3 local newspapers while we were growing up and he always carried a camera with him and felt that every person had a story to tell."

Jennifer says the majority of her clients still scrapbook the traditional way, but she is seeing it catch on. Jennifer says, "If you have trouble getting those prints processed, digital scrapbooking is for you."

Melanie Zeman says one of the things she likes most about digital scrapbooking, is all she needs is her kitchen table and her computer, and she's good to go. She says, "I can just side down and I can work for 5 minutes, or an hour and if my family needs me, I can get up and it's saved and it's still all where I left it when I get back to it."

Melanie's says if anything happens to her completed scrapbooks, all she has to do is re-order a new one. It's something you can't do with a traditional scrapbook. But Jennifer Nelson likes it that way. She says, "I'll probably enjoy traditional scrapbooking for a long time."

But for busy mom Melanie Zeman, the digital way, is the best way. She says, "It's memories for my family that will last forever." Melanie says, besides digital photos, she's able to scan in older pictures, even some of her son's school work into her scrapbooks.

Taken From KSFY.com

Two Thumbs-Up For Digital Scrapbooking

Well, this is Gina Chen, Family Life editor, busting into Scrapbook Mom's blog again. This time I just have to tell you about my experience with digital scrapbooking.

I tried it for the first time a few weeks back. We had gone to California to visit my in-laws, and we were wracking our brains to come up with a gift to thank them for their hospitality. I decided a scrapbook of the trip would be a great gift, but I knew there was no way I'd have the time to do a traditional scrapbook.

So I decided to go digital. It was great.

I've been scrapbooking the traditional way -- with stickers and paper -- for about 12 years, and I've finished more than 10 albums that way. I love doing it. I love expressing my creativity, reliving our family fun and chatting with my girlfriends.

But going digital had one big draw: speed. In about three hours I had an album done.

I selected my pictures, uploaded them, added captions and headlines. I used Creative Memories free software, so I had follow the pre-determined picture format. (But it's free!)

It was simple to use. Point, click and move a picture. I could change the color of the text. I could put a picture on the cover and a title. It allowed me to do all the basics things one would want, although eventually I'd probably spring for the $59.95 program. That allows you more flexibility and choice in picture placement, size, embellishments.

A few days after I put my digital scrapbook together, I proofed it, tweaked a few things, ordered it. Less than a week later, it had arrived at my in-laws' home. They loved it. I haven't actually seen the finished copy because I sent it directly to them, but my father-in-law's thank you e-mail speaks of it being of high quality.

This doesn't mean I'm ready to turn in my page trimmer and circle cutter. I still much prefer old-fashioned scrapboooking mainly because I love the social aspects of scrapbooking. (In fact, tomorrow I'm spending the day at National Scrapbooking Day) But to do something different, scrap an album quickly or make a gift, you can't beat going digital.

Anyone else have experience with digital scrapping? Please share.

Taken From Syracuse.com