Computer Scrapbooking Techniques

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.

Dads & Grads Sale on Photoshop Elements 6 For Mac. Photoshop Elements 6 is on 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-sharing tools.

Photoshop Elements 7 with Photoshop Premier – photo and video editing package:

Scrapbooking is a way to preserve memories and create a record of occasions, holidays, birthdays or hobbies. In many cases, scrapbook is like a souped-up photo album and a perfect marriage of digital photos and digital graphics. 

This is becoming the favorite hobby of many around the world. It just goes to show that people everywhere like finding ways to record precious memories and also ways to share them.

When starting your scrapbook album, you need to narrow down your ideas and sort your photos into groups to decide what goes into your album. You could pick a theme and scrapbook about it, such as babies, sports, birthdays, holidays, vacations, pets, trips, fishing, grandparents, genealogy (and the list can go on).

Let’s say you want to make a baby scrapbook. Of course you would use your own photos or any digital photos that friends may have taken.

Pick out several images – Enough for several pages where some pages would used groups of photos (called collages or montages) and other pages may only need one image. You might plan out your photo groups before you get on the computer. Once you start using software your plans can get forgotten by the distraction of all the software features.

Plan your backgrounds: Then you could find a digital images with baby-themed designs to use as a backgrounds behind the photos. You can either buy them online or find free downloads. There are even digital kits with backgrounds and other decorative elements that are inexpensive to buy. One of the greatest reasons to do computer scrapbooking is the way you can make your own graphic images. For example, you could put wrapping paper or some fabric on a scanner to create an image. It might require some basic editing to use as a background, but it would be 100% unique to your book and no one else’s.

Plan your page layouts: where the pictures will go, whether they will have a frame or border treatment around them, and leave areas to add text if you want to make labels for the photos or pages. Also think about finding a fun digital font to use.

Another thing to think ahead about is whether you will add digital elements and decorations to pages or traditional die cuts or ribbons (that you will glue on later). Save some room for those things if you plan to use them. You can use anything on the pages: beads, flowers, cards, stickers, stars, or anything you want to.

Remember, there is no limit on what you can do with your computer scrapbook!

Computer scrapbooking – lots of articles on the internet say it’s easy to do. Being a professional designer is not necessary, either. Creating computer scrapbooks has gotten easier now that more and more computers have the adequate specifications, digital photography has gotten easier and cheaper, and so many software programs are available.

Computer Scrapbooks are Making History!

Computer scrapbooking has a history that is tied to the innovative developments in the computer graphics industry which have been taking place over the past 40 years. As history goes, it was only a very short time ago that a few elite artists were using computers to create designs. In the late 1950s, computer graphic technology was being developed and the term “computer graphics” is credited to first being used in 1960 by a graphic designer working at Boeing Aircraft Co.  By the 1970s, work began to be done to create personal computers, of course they weren’t affordable until the late 1980s and even then, they didn’t do many graphics (they were more like expensive word processors or calculators). Personal computing came of age in the 1990s when the competition between companies creating Macintosh and PCs promoted the creation of better and better machines. And the computer chip has become so small and powerful that now cars and many everyday appliances are computerized (refrigerators and even washing machines).

Along with the growth of the computers, the graphic arts community was able to benefit from more capable software, such as Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and many others. These programs’ awesome digital graphic design capabilities have changed the face of the advertising and corporate graphics industries. Computer generated artwork has become more widely available on the internet with all kinds of photo sharing websites, stock photo sites, clip art, and craft and scrapbook communities. Now there are online scrapbook-making websites, too. But the real growth in digital scrapbooking is due to the brave scrapbookers who have started using their computers to create their layouts and pages, instead of only making albums using traditional methods (with paper, glue, embellishments, pen and ink).

Major considerations for achieving the desired results when making a computer scrapbook (assuming you already know the basics of using a computer and have a printer to print your pages out) include:

• Read about what other digital scrapbookers are doing and what they recommend
  
• Determine which software you want to use – you may need to try a couple (using the free trials, you can download and try them out)
  
• Find online tutorials or forums where you can ask questions if you get stuck (so you won’t give up too quickly). There are so many great people that will help you (for free!)
  
• There are also courses you can buy on DVDs or classes you could attend at a local scrapbooking store, if you don’t like online learning courses.
  
• Look at other layouts and designs that people have posted online to get ideas
  
• Plan your scrapbooks out before just “diving in.” You can make a list of what you would like to include (photos, poetry, journaling, etc.). Or, come up with a theme for your album and design around the topic or theme (such as a childhood memory book, baby scrapbook, wedding scrapbook, summer vacations, pets or any other idea you might come up with.
  
• Last, but not least, just go for it! You only live once, so try those things you’ve always wished you could do – with the right amount desire, anything can be accomplished!