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Digital Scrapbooking – Where to start 

You will need a few things to get started:

→Digital photos (can be scanned in photos saved as jpg.s)
→Photo Editing Software (like Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro, etc)
→Digital papers, pre-designed layouts, or templates
→Digital elements (optional)

This is a bit quick and dirty, but there are basically three kinds (or stages) of digital scrapbooking, I will briefly cover them here and you can try to determine which method will work best for you.

Option One:  EASIEST-BEGINNER

                                                         USING PRE-DESIGNED LAYOUTS

These are fast and easy – especially great if you are trying to throw an entire digital book together in a very short amount of time.  Also a great way to dip your toe into digital scrapbooking without getting too overwhelmed.

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Here is a example of a blank pre-designed layout from ClubScrapDigital this one came with photo mats for 2 large and 2 small photos.  All you need to do is add your photos and any extra embellishments as you see fit.  You can get a new set of approx. 18-22 digi-layouts each month for just $8.95 a month from ClubScrapDigital.  This is an excellent value.

Here you can see that I have taken the blank layout and added 3 of my photos, used a sparkle brush to sprinkle sparkles around the layout.  I also used a curly transparency to add more embellishment to the layout.  Add some journaling and your done!!  It is extremely fast and easy to throw these pages together.

 

Option Two:  INTERMEDIATE

                                                           USING LAYERED TEMPLATES

Now if you are looking for a pretty fast, yet more flexible method of digital scrapbooking that gives you more control over your layouts – Digi-Templates might be the way to go for you.  Digi-Templates are gray scale layered files that you can easily use over and over again with multiple papers.  You can also resize or rearrange the location of photos, mats, paper piecings as well.

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Here is an example of a blank digital template using the same format as in the pre-designed layout as used in Option 1.  It is created with black, white and gray areas that you just fill in with patterned, plain papers and digital photos.