Starting Digi

Getting Started Digital Scrapbooking

Getting Started Digital Scrapping

Getting started digital scrapping can be a scary thing, but it's really not, it's very simple with lots of things that can make it seem harder, but you have to start off with baby steps and then move into more complicated things, once you get a handle of the program you are using.

First off, you will need a program to use, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements (download a trial at adobe.com)

Then, it would be helpful to have a kit to use (check out the freebie section below)

Download the trial and a free kit.

To download a kit, I've included a few screen shots, at the shabby princess.com, hers work a little different, so you click on the kit you want to download.

    If you get a box like in the first image, just right click in that area and you'll see the download file.

So you should see this next.

Click download.

Then you'll see this.

Click Save

Where it says pictures, you can make another folder if you like, I keep all of my downloads in my Digi Scrapping Supplies folder until I move them.

Click Save and your download will start.

Once you've done that you're almost ready to go. If you check you're my pictures folder, you should see

You're going to want to right click on it and go to Extract All

Next you'll see this

Then Click Extract, when it's done you'll see something like this.

Double Click on the folder and then you'll see your kit.

This is all of the goodies that you'll start scrapbooking your first page with.

Creating Your First Page.

You'll go to programs and to Adobe Photoshop Elements. This screen will appear.

Select Edit.

You'll see this screen.

Go to File-New-Blank File

Then You'll see this

Under name you'll want to name it something, I put First Scrapbook Page for starters.

Then you'll want to change the width and height. I put 12x12 (inches) because that's what I scrap in and most kits are sized for that type page.

Resolution should be 300 and Color Mode should be RGB Color.

Click Ok.

Then you'll see this.

That white box is your page. Lets get started now.

Go to File-Open

Double click on your folder that has the kit in it. Here it's the Happy Go Lucky in the top left corner.

You might have to double click twice, because once inside, there might be another folder.

Then select your paper, I'm going to use the nice cream one.

Click on it and click Open

This is what you'll get once you click open. Now, I did grab the paper at the top in the gray area with my left click on the mouse and moved it to the right a little so I could see. Now you just click on the paper in the layers area to the right of the screen with the left click, hold it down and drag it to the white paper.

Now you can click the x on the paper that's not labeled first scrapbook page.

I'm going to go over another quick way to open papers, elements and photos. Instead of going to file, open everytime, just keep your pictures folder up at the same time. Click in pictures, grab the picture or file you want and just drag it into the program.

See how my pictures and elements are side by side? It makes it so much easier.

Now I've grabbed a picture to put in my layout. First thing I want to do is crop it. On the left hand side of the screen there is a tool palette, in the second column, 5 down is the crop tool.

See the red circle around it?

So, using your left click, select the crop too, then go in your picture, start on the left side and drag a box to the right, depending on how you want to crop it.

Click the crop button again and then you'll have this.

Notice the difference.

Now we'll want to resize the image so it'll fit on the paper.

Go to Image-Resize-Image Size

Once you click on the Image Size you'll get this window

Click in the box that says resample image, constrain proportions, scale styles, make sure all 3 boxes are checked.

Now you can adjust the pixel size.

An 4x6 is 1200 pixels (width) x 1800 (height) pixels. So, lets go in that range.

I made the height at 1800 pixels, all you need to do is pick one or the other, height or width, depending on what you choose it'll adjust it for you.

Then Click Ok.

Can you see how much smaller the pictures is than before.

Now you need to click on the arrow in the upper left corner so we can move the picture to your paper.

See where I drew the red box. That's the arrow you'll need.

And you just click in the layers like we did before with the paper and drag it over.

Notice how your paper now has 2 layers? That's how we start adding to your scrapbook page. We can drag these up or down, from side to side using that arrow key or clicking in the layers box.

Now I'm going to go get a flower from my kit, remember either go to file-open and find your file or just go to my pictures and drag the file over.

Now, drag it over or resize it if its too big. Lets see.

Looks perfect, you will have to resize sometimes.

And we just keep following the steps I listed above to add more things to your page.

Now, if there is something below your picture and you want it on top, just click on it in your layers and drag it up.

After you drag it.

See the difference?

Ok, so now you know how to get started on a page. Lets learn how to add text or words.

The "T" is what you click to get the text, click it and then click in your page where you want the words to be. The part on the page I circled is where my text will be and up top is the font type, and size of the text.

We have text, but we need to change the color

Select your text, click in the big color box on the left.

You'll see the select background color box. Click in it until you get the color you want and then click ok.

Click in your page and you'll get something like this.

Now, lets learn how to put some shadows on here to make it look more realistic.

On the right hand side you'll see effects and next to it you'll see a drop down menu, go to Drop Shadows.

Be sure you select one of your photos or elements to work with as in the photo below.

You'll see under effects I've also circled your drop shadows. Double Click on one and see if you like it.

I circled the one I used.

Do you notice the difference? Drop shadows are one of those tricky things that take a lot of time and practice. I've included some links to some awesome tutorial sites and I'm sure you can find more about drop shadows at these sites.

And finally lets save our page.

First you go to file- save as, then you'll get a screen like this.

Be sure you go to pictures, then you can save a layered file or a flattened file, (PSD or JPEG).

Unless you plan on going back to work on that page, I'd just save it as a JPEG. Or you can save a copy of each. If you want one of each first just hit save when your screen looks like this.

Then go back to file-save as

Use the drop down menu and select JPEG and click save.

And now you've scrapped your first page. Congratulations, you'll be hooked in no time.

Great Digital Scrapping Blogs

http://www.simplescrapper.com/

http://thedailydigi.com/

http://southernmamamisplaced.typepad.com/ (my blog, some links on it)

Tutorials to help you along

http://mistycatodesigns.blogspot.com/2007/05/index-of-tutorials.html

http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/tutorials/software_tutorials.asp

http://www.scrapbit.com/tutorials/

http://www.scrapbit.com/2007/11/16/starting-digital-scrapbooking-in-pse/ (video showing you how to do a layout)

Great Freebie Sites

http://theshabbyprincess.com/

http://www.peppermintcreative.com/index.php?main_page=downloads

http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/

Some of My favorite Shopping Sites

http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/home.php

http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/Scripts/homepage.asp

http://www.shabbypickledesigns.com/boutique/home.php

http://www.oscraps.com/shop/home.php

http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/home.php

http://www.peppermintcreative.com/index.php

http://www.somethingbluestudios.com/ (magnets)

Digital Scrapping Communities (not associated with stores)

http://digiscrapaddicts.com/

http://www.digishoptalk.com/

http://myscrapbookart.com/

Fonts

http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/ (free)

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/fonts/

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=7 (get a font of your handwriting)

Printing Sites

www.shutterfly.com (tons of things to do, great for sharing books online, most expensive)

www.artscow.com (cheap, ok quality, lots of free book offers, smaller book sizes, in Hong Kong)

www.viovio.com (cheap, great quality, not super simple to use, but worth it once you figure it out)

www.mpix.com (great for prints, pretty pricey)

http://www.scrapbookpictures.com/ (never used them, but I've heard good things about their prices)

Other things you can do with Digital Scrapping

Calendars

Hybrid Stuff

Coffee Mugs, (inserts)

Desktop backgrounds

Cookbooks

T-Shirts

How to Print a Photobook Using Viovio.com

How to print a photobook using Viovio.com

Now that you've started your digital scrapbooking you'll probably want to print your layouts in some way shape or form. Today I'm going to show you how to print a photobook using Viovio, the company I use, they have great quality and prices, although they do take a while to get a book to you.

First you need to http://www.viovio.com/

go to their site.

Once there you need to register for an account and log in.

After you log in you'll see a screen like this.

Notice where I have the red circle at the top, around Dashboard? This is where you want to look next to get started.

When you're first getting started you'll need to go to the photos so you can upload your images.

You'll need to click on Upload Images.

Where it says Browse is where you'll get your images at. One really nice thing about viovio is that you can put all of your photos in a Zip File and it makes it faster to upload they'll unzip the files for you.

So if you don't know how to zip a file, you'll need to click on the folder that all of your digital scrapbook pages are in, or the ones you want to print. Right Click on the folder and you'll see something like this.

Click on the Send To, then select the Compressed Folder

Then it'll zip the file for you, could take a little while depending on how big your folder is. And speaking of that, you can't have more than 500mgs at viovio at a time, so you'll want to check your properties to make sure it isn't too big.

There is the zipped file and now if you want to check the size of it, just right click on the folder and you'll see this.

Click on Properties, and you'll see this screen.

Ok, so back the uploading the photos, so you go to browse, click it and find your folder, selected and then hit upload.

Scroll down to the bottom to see the upload.

Once they've been uploaded you can go back up to where it said Dashboard, and go to gallery.

Once you click the gallery you'll see this.

Where that black box is you'll see one of your images. You can click on where it says your name and gallery to look at all the photos.

Ok, so now you have photos uploaded, lets get to making the book.

You'll need to go up to the Dashboard again, and go to

Click on Book Designer

You'll see this page after you click on it.

The top you can Name the book, then select Square, or one of the other choices, square is what I use for 8.5x8.5 books and it lists the other size books that you can create with that format, then you can change the number of pages, up to 160 with an 8.5x8.5 book, then click create.

You'll see this next.

Notice I circled the camera at the top, that's so you can see what is inside of each of the folders up there.

Click on the one you want to use first.

Then you'll see this, notice how you can see more images now, because it opened the folder up for you.

Then click the "X" that I have circled.

Ok, from here its easy, you just click on one of the photos and drag it to the page you want. But, you have to click on the page you want the photo to go one. For example, that is page 1, so I pull a photo to it, I have to click on page 2 before I can add another photo.

And keep going until you have all your pages assigned to a page in the photobook. You'll just have to repeat the first few steps if you need to get into another folder of photos.

Now its time to order it.

Next you'll need to go to Design Cover.

Click on Design Cover and you'll get a page like this.

Click that square if you're going to design a full bleed front/back cover together.

Then you know the drill, click browse and find the cover, click upload.

And once its uploaded, you'll see something like this.

And the bottom of the screen.

Click Next.

Be sure you click the Generate PDF preview and look at it carefully to make sure all of your pages are where you want them to be, in order, not duplicated, etc. And I circled the book that I always order. That price is for a 117 page book.

Scroll down to Buy Now and click it.

This is where you can actually select the book you want to order, and then add to cart.

Now, you'll probably need the specs so you know what size your pages and cover needs to be so that you don't lose any important information.

http://www.viovio.com/wiki/index.php?structure_id=448

you can download a cover guide from there, when I print my 8.5x8.5 layouts I usually resize them to 2525pxby2525 and that seems to work best for me.

I hope this helped you in the photo book printing process and please keep in mind that they do take a long time to get their books, but they're worth it.