Should I scan or re-create a digi album?

I did a baby book for my youngest about 2 years ago digitally. It was my first foray into the digital realm and it was quite fun. I have no idea why I did not stick with it then, but I didn't. In the meantime, I got a new computer and the actual digital file is gone. I sat on this book for a long time wondering what I should do with it. What I ended up doing was always an option, but it is the most annoying of the options. Once I chose it, I decided it did not matter if it took a little longer, I would just go with the flow.

Here is what I decided to do: I scanned the book pages themselves AND I am recreating the album digitally. Since they are 8" square, it is not a HUGE PITA. If they were 12" square, I would NOT be doing this. Yes, it is a pain, but it is nice that it is done and I will always have it digitally. The biggest problem I have run into so far is that I think a few of the templates for that storybook design have changed a little. In general, they look the same, but some have a different number of pictures (albeit small) and that makes it difficult to recreate, ya know?

I have both the scanned jpg files AND the storybook in digital format now. It took a little more work, but I am glad I did it because now I have it!

Tribute page

I want to create a tribute page. My grandfather died a few days ago. I realized I do not have any pictures of him alone or him with me or him with my kids. I am quite sad.

All these supplies!!

I have been wondering for quite some time now what I am going to do with all these supplies I have left because I do NOT want to use them for actual SB pages.

I have decided that I am going to use them to make cards. I love making cards and this might be a good excuse to both make cards and use those supplies. A few years ago I was so serious about making cards that I made up a bunch of sets, bought envelopes and even boxes for them in bulk, had a stamp made of my logo so I could put the logo on the back. I think a set of 8 makes a great gift and they had to be something I could make at least 8 of with the supplies I had. I am not sure I will be able to make 8 the same of anything, but since I had a bunch made up (and never did sell them locally or online) they were great gifts and it was nice to have cards already made up to give to people on their birthdays and stuff.

I also think I want to figure out how to use my digi skills and supplies to make digi cards as well. There are not enough hours in the day!!

Now my biggest problem is taking time away from regular scrapping to make cards...

Unibind Photobook Creator?

I have a new passion.The Unibind Photobook Creator. I want one. I am thinking of asking DH to find it for me for my birthday (in April). Does anyone have it and love it or hate it? I can think of a dozen things I want to do with it right now.

Looking back....

As part of the ole scanning project (the last part, thankfully!) I have been scanning all my old 12 inch albums that go back to 1992. I have a lot of pictures of our wedding and the two older kids when they were quite young.

The older two kids are not at the "tween" age where they are , let's say, challenging A LOT of the time. I keep thinking two things as I look through all these old albums. First of all, I think "Thank goodness I did this back then because I might not say they were cute then quite as much! I will not likely be redo-ing these pages." My second thought is "Thank goodness I do not have to re-do these pages!"

I have noticed, as I look at these older pages that I made a lot of decisions about these I may not make today. I cropped too many pictures round. I used too many stickers. Some of my vacation albums are a little embarrassing today. But I also see that I did a few very cool things back then. Not every page is a work of art and most are not totally great, but many of them have an element or two that is great that I will likely be copying in digital format even now.

If you have not gone through your older albums lately, DO IT! If nothing else, it will show you how far you may have come. Best case scenario, you may find a thing or two that your want to copy even now!!

The search for the perfect embellishment is like an amazing scavenger hunt

I know I will get to a point where I need new stuff to keep my layouts fresh and all, but so far, I have been able to find A LOT of stuff on the internet for free. Before I found all this stuff, I had purchased two embellishment packages from Creative Memories and now I am kicking myself! I am sure I will use the pieces and all, but my cheap side is coming out and I am really enjoying finding all the freebies on the internet!

It does take a lot of time to find stuff and then organize it and everything. BUT if you know what you want and only want to get a few things, I think it is kind of fun to go searching for it and almost like a sick sort of scavenger hunt...

Layout Machine

How many layouts have I gotten done already THIS YEAR? A lot! Let me count them up...
I have FINISHED over 50 layouts and DONE 5 gift albums (12 other albums are in process). All this in 2 months! This process makes me love it and quite honestly, I am a LAYOUT MACHINE!

I was even a pretty fast traditional scrapper and was never a huge user of all the little extras, but this is even faster AND I can use a lot more little extras without it taking any more time!

Just within my "individual pages" album, I have finished 32 pages and have placeholders for 30 more. When you add the layouts in all the other books I have gotten done, I can really crank these out! I was pretty fast before (with traditional scrapbooking) but this is even better! I can change embellishments and even paper and colors with a click of a mouse. And if I want to delete something, it's just another click.

Once I found out I could do my own thing with then software and not be locked in to their templates, I have really let the creative juices flow and am just going nuts!

Multi-photo vs. Single photo on a layout

I love the look of the single-photo layouts I have seen, but as a traditional scrapbooker, I almost never did them because it seemed like a HUGE time commitment with not as much payoff as a layout with multiple photos. However, once I started digi-scrapping, I find that I do a lot more layouts with only one photo because the time it takes to create a layout is a lot less and with digi, if I really like a layout I create, I can copy it and use it later for another photo.

The time thing is the biggest thing though. I am MUCH more likely to do that kind of layout now that I know how quick and easy it is. I can even create one or more layouts with photos in mind (or not!) and add the photos later. I know I could have done this traditionally too, but who has the time!?!

Computer size

I am doing this on a netbook because that is what I have.

The good thing about digital scrapbooking is that it can be done on ANY computer. I like the netbook because it is cute and convenient and I can have it on my lap on the couch. However, the netbook often chokes on having too many programs open at once and especially does not like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. (I have tried them both as part of the photo scanning project...) If you use a program that relies on lots of computer power, I do NOT recommend a netbook.

A laptop would also work quite well, having a lot of the benefits of the netbook that I love and a little more power.

A desktop machine, while not quite as convenient, would also work REALLY well because it would allow you to see photos and pages at a size much closer to reality. If I didn't have a netbook that I loved, I am pretty sure I would be on a desktop. My kids got an awesome screen from their grandparents for Christmas this past year and I kinda wish I could use it for this!

One of the best things about this netbook is that it is so small and convenient that if I know I am going to have to wait or something, I can just trow the netbook into a large purse and take it with me for scrapping "on the road". Have I done this? YES! Do I love it? YES! It is so convenient and since there are not a lot of supplies and other things to drag along, I can do it almost ANYWHERE! If there is also an internet connection, I can download supplies or view inspiration pages online, but even without the internet, I am good to go as long as my battery lasts, which is a couple of hours!

It's all about the tools, right?

I was trying to keep this tool-independent, but there are just too many things that I want to say that require someone to be using the same tool or at least know that I am NOT using the same tool.

I am using the Storybook Creator 3.0 software from Creative Memories. I bought 2.0 about 4 years ago and never really got into it. I have just recently realized all the cool things you can do with it and all so I upgraded to 3.0 (because some of the cool stuff I wanted to do was only available in that version).

I do like the IDEA that I am in something like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but I can do pretty everything in this package and I think it is a little more intuitive than those other packages. I have not tried anything else, so if you have found something that works for you, by all means, use it! This is just what works for me.

At first, I was using only the canned photobook templates, which was great for its purpose. However, I thought that was all I could do with the software. How wrong I was!! So far, I have only found one thing I cannot do within the package, and I never did it traditionally, so if I can't do it within the package, it is no big deal! This blog will document my learning of how to really make this package hum and do exactly what I want it to do!

One of the best things about having it all within a package is that when I have a new idea for a page, it is not on a sticky note somewhere or getting lost on my desk. I simply open the package (most of the time it is already open) and I create a new blank page with a reminder on it. When I have more time, I can go back into it and write more journalling or create the page or whatever. The placeholder is in there and I love that! What I did is that I have a "storybook" that I created that I have no intention of ever printing like a photobook. I can print each page individually if I want, which I do. I have a "project" called "individual pages" and that is how I keep them together and separate from my gift or theme albums, which are all in their own files.

The good thing about this is that I do not print the pages right away. I let them stew for a few weeks and have a chance to make changes if necessary before I print them. I have been really into this now again for about 6 weeks and have yet to print anything, BUT I have 32 pages DONE in the "individual pages" album, as well as having 30 placeholders (2 of which have a full page of journalling already written) and have 16 other albums in some state, whether I just have a skeleton or several pages done already.

The Scanning Project

As promised, here is a little more information on the photo scanning project I have undertaken.

My goal is to have all my physical photos converted to digital so that ALL my photos are digital. I have been 100% digital since 2001, so I guess I have a shorter time period in which I need to do this, BUT it seems I took a LOT of pictures in high school and college, so it is taking a LONG time to do this!

First of all, if you have any physical photos at all, get them out NOW and write on the back who the subjects are. The closer you are to that age the better. My high school days are well over 20 years behind me and my college days are about that long as well, so the names of a lot of people in those pictures are long gone from my feeble brain. No one should ever have to go through this,so PLEASE save yourself some heartache and do this now. Even if you will never scan all your pics, you may want to know someday who those people were.

Now that I am off my little soapbox, I can give you the logistics. I knew this would be a pretty big project and I had to fit it in among my other motherly duties, so I decided to give myself 3 months to do it. I broke the project down into three phases, one month each, starting in January. (Yes, I am not quite done, but I am very close!) Within each phase, I had a couple of main steps and each of them had completion dates. I know, I am a little crazy! (I even had a small Gantt Chart. How sick is that?) Within those steps, if it was over a week, I also broke that task down into smaller steps and had dates associated with those steps. For example, the second phase was all my old photos from high school. Within that phase, which was a month long, I knew I had 700 photos. So I knew that dividing those 700 photos between the 28 days of February, I had to do at least 25 photos a day every day. I knew that some days I would do more and some days I would do less or even none, so I gave myself a goal and deadline of 175 photos per week. This came out to the right number but did not tie me down to doing it daily.

Enough with the boring logistics. Whatever works for someone else is the best way for them to do it! I am halfway done with phase three now. It is the last phase, so I know I am in the home stretch now, but I am having a huge issue getting motivated. After over 2 months of this crap, I am ready to move on, know-what-I-mean?

I am not going to include any pictures that I scanned because I want to protect everyone's privacy and blah, blah, blah. However, I have already scanned about 1500 photos and I have learned a few things along the way, so if you want to embark upon a journey like this, PLEASE let me know because I can provide a few tips and tricks.

Inspiration folder

I have an inspiration folder and I highly recommend one for anyone who does anything even close to this.

It is being housed electronically on my computer, but it would work just as well as a physical folder and, in fact, mine started out that way.

I have several years of magazines I am going through for ideas and other inspiration. What it does is give me LOTS of things I want to do. What it does NOT give me is the added time to do them all. Such is life...

Anywho... I started out just making copies on my all-in-one printer of the pages I liked, but I ended up using WAY too much toner. So, since I am scanning all my old photos (more on that later) I chose to also scan all these pages. The upside is that I can scan them at a much lower resolution than photos, so each one takes a lot less time. The downside is that I need to do hundreds of pages all at once, so it will take a LONG time! I also highly recommend keeping current so you NEVER have to do this!

One of the cool ideas I got from these pages is to make a booklet of all my favorite color combos, so here is the cover of that...

Does size matter?

I debated over what size to make my layouts and, quite honestly, I am still not 100% sure, but I think I am there. After much internal debate, I decided to go with 8" square. The reason, you ask? Two things mainly. I did NOT want to invest in a new printer (and I have your traditional 8.5" x 11" printer) and I really like the square shape and I see a lot more ideas I can scraplift in that size.

It has come with its own challenges, but I think in the long run, I will be quite happy with the decision.

Now the issue I am toying with - should I go back and re-do all my old layouts. I know all the arguments for not making layouts again. My biggest problem is that I am super-type-A and I want all my albums to be the same size!! What I may end up doing is figuring out how to stitch pages together, scanning all my old layouts, and reprinting them in the 8" size. That seems to be the best of both worlds AND the laziest solution. It's a win-win! If only my scanner was 12" high. But it isn't, so I am in a quandry. I do NOT want to have to scan each page 4 times!

One of the cool things that I can do in this size that I would be totally intimidated to do in the larger size is that I make a lot of gift albums. I have yet to print one out, but I have 4-5 in process in my software, one of which is a favorite things album for me. I did this about 7 years ago in the old-fashioned way and my kids LOVE to look through it. I figured it was about time to do it again and it looks so great! Here is the first page...

Digital embellishments

Here is the thing about scrapbook supplies: I hoarded them. Part of the reason I want to switch to digital is that I want to have less junk to store. Because I live pretty far from any LSS, when I shop, I shop pretty seriously. I can't just run out to then store for one or two things... Also, my issue is that when I find something cool, I do not like to use it. I want to always have just the right thing, so I do not want to use it! How sick is that?

Anyway, I like that with digital, all the embellishments are just on my computer and there are a lot of freebies available on the web. I just keep a list of what I need and when I find an item, I can just buy what I need. And with everything being digital, I do not have to be near a LSS to buy stuff.

new header coming soon

I am working on a nifty new digital header, but it may take more than a day, so rest assured, it IS coming soon!

Making the switch

I am in the process of making the switch from traditional scrapbooking to doing the whole thing digitally.

Digital is quite different, but it is extremely liberating! I highly recommend it to anyone who even thinks they might enjoy it. I am using a program I bought four years ago but never really got into it. Now I am into it...with a vengeance.

So far, I have not done anything too over-the-top, but I plan to quite soon. I have been viewing a lot of traditional layouts to see which inspire me. I want to scrap-lift a TON of them. And I will. So far, I only have found one thing from traditional scrapbooking that I cannot do in my digital scrapbooks. It is not something I do a lot, so it is not a huge deal.