Elle Designs is now Citrus and Mint. Find it at www.citrusandmint.weebly.com
Buy a photo editing program: I started with the 30 day trial of Photoshop CSC, but after talking to my photographer friends I bought Photoshop Elements 7.0 (PSE 7). Photoshop Elements (now there are more updated versions) will have everything you need, nothing you don't. If you are a student, you can usually get Photoshop at a discount. Or you can buy it at Costco for pretty cheap. It is a HUGE progam, so make sure to install it on a fast computer. You may also want to look into buying an external hard drive to store all of the pages you create and freebies you download!!! Some people use Paint Shop Pro, but I don't know anything about it. Adobe products are the standard.
Download free stuff! Start off with an organized system of downloading, I didn't and have to go back from time to time to organize (i.e. create a folder with the designer's name and put all of the things you get from that designer in the folder). Friday is your new favorite day. I opened up a separate email account just to send all of my scrapbooking emails and newsletters. This helps keep out the clutter from my normal email. I only open it on Fridays, which is when most people send out their new stuff. It's like Christmas!
Understand the jargon:
*Kits contain papers and elements (elements are all the extras like ribbons, buttons, fun shapes, stamps, alphas, staples, etc.)
*Templates are basic pages that are set up for you with paper, element, journal, and photo placement where you "clip" or paste your own things to them. They help make scrapbooking faster, espeically if you are out of ideas.
*Acronyms- PS (photoshop), PSE (photoshop elements), CT (creative team who scraps for a designer), PU (personal use only products to be used for personal scrapbooking non-profit only), CU (commercial use products that can be used for commercial projects without permission)
*Freebies=free stuff! Your new favorite word!
*Zipped or compressed files-To save time on downloading, all of your downloads will be zipped files. You will have to unzip them with your computer's program, or download a free unzipping program before opening them.
Printing: When your husband gasps at how much a book costs to print, remind him of how much paper scrapbooking would cost. Even printing 4x6 photos and putting them in a plastic protector type album would cost more than digital scrapbooking and it's not as cute. The cheapest site I've found is Viovio. Shutterfly is over priced and only worth it if you have a really good coupon. I've printed several books from Viovio and they turn out really nice. Be careful to begin with the end in mind. Most scrapbooking pages are 12x12, so your options to print will be 12x12 or 10x10. If you want a different size book, then make sure that you create all of your pages that size in the beginning. I've done 8.5x11 size books too. It would be helpful to look at the site, choose the type of book you want, and then get started. Make sure that you leave at least 1/2 inch around the borders for possible cropping when printing. Or you can give all your pages a 1/4 inch white or black border like I do. It helps to avoid a massive endless upload of all of your pages by proofing pages and uploading them to the printing site as you create them instead when you are ready to print (it also acts as another back-up).
(Update: Do NOT use Mixbook! They are horrible. I had a groupon so I printed my daughter's baby book from there, but it was a pain from start to finish. It took forever (like days) to upload the pages and they have HORRIBLE customer service. No phone, just email. Some pages of my book are fuzzy and pixelated. My friend printed three different books from them and they all were cut out wrong so they have uneven white borders and were off set. She can't even talk to a person to figure out how to return these books. Save yourself some trouble by using someone else.)
Back Up! I cannot emphasize this enough. There are lots of horror stories out there. Invest in an external hard drive and back up often! I'm super paranoid so I back up my stuff in at least three places-my computer, my external hard drive, and burned DVDs. Sometimes I upload my favorite ones online and of course having a printed book is back up too.
Download free stuff! Start off with an organized system of downloading, I didn't and have to go back from time to time to organize (i.e. create a folder with the designer's name and put all of the things you get from that designer in the folder). Friday is your new favorite day. I opened up a separate email account just to send all of my scrapbooking emails and newsletters. This helps keep out the clutter from my normal email. I only open it on Fridays, which is when most people send out their new stuff. It's like Christmas!
Understand the jargon:
*Kits contain papers and elements (elements are all the extras like ribbons, buttons, fun shapes, stamps, alphas, staples, etc.)
*Templates are basic pages that are set up for you with paper, element, journal, and photo placement where you "clip" or paste your own things to them. They help make scrapbooking faster, espeically if you are out of ideas.
*Acronyms- PS (photoshop), PSE (photoshop elements), CT (creative team who scraps for a designer), PU (personal use only products to be used for personal scrapbooking non-profit only), CU (commercial use products that can be used for commercial projects without permission)
*Freebies=free stuff! Your new favorite word!
*Zipped or compressed files-To save time on downloading, all of your downloads will be zipped files. You will have to unzip them with your computer's program, or download a free unzipping program before opening them.
Printing: When your husband gasps at how much a book costs to print, remind him of how much paper scrapbooking would cost. Even printing 4x6 photos and putting them in a plastic protector type album would cost more than digital scrapbooking and it's not as cute. The cheapest site I've found is Viovio. Shutterfly is over priced and only worth it if you have a really good coupon. I've printed several books from Viovio and they turn out really nice. Be careful to begin with the end in mind. Most scrapbooking pages are 12x12, so your options to print will be 12x12 or 10x10. If you want a different size book, then make sure that you create all of your pages that size in the beginning. I've done 8.5x11 size books too. It would be helpful to look at the site, choose the type of book you want, and then get started. Make sure that you leave at least 1/2 inch around the borders for possible cropping when printing. Or you can give all your pages a 1/4 inch white or black border like I do. It helps to avoid a massive endless upload of all of your pages by proofing pages and uploading them to the printing site as you create them instead when you are ready to print (it also acts as another back-up).
(Update: Do NOT use Mixbook! They are horrible. I had a groupon so I printed my daughter's baby book from there, but it was a pain from start to finish. It took forever (like days) to upload the pages and they have HORRIBLE customer service. No phone, just email. Some pages of my book are fuzzy and pixelated. My friend printed three different books from them and they all were cut out wrong so they have uneven white borders and were off set. She can't even talk to a person to figure out how to return these books. Save yourself some trouble by using someone else.)
Back Up! I cannot emphasize this enough. There are lots of horror stories out there. Invest in an external hard drive and back up often! I'm super paranoid so I back up my stuff in at least three places-my computer, my external hard drive, and burned DVDs. Sometimes I upload my favorite ones online and of course having a printed book is back up too.