Digiscrap

Exciting news!!!!

Hi friends -

Just wanted to let you know that the bulk of my creative energies since I stopped digi-scrapping has been put into using Photoshop to create early literacy tools.  I have a Master's of Education with a literacy emphasis, so the products I create (and sell at Teachers Pay Teachers) are research-based and tested on my own tutoring students. 

Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

 

 

Welcome, Intro, and Disclaimers

I decided to start this blog because so many people ask:  I’m interested in digital scrapbooking, WHERE DO I START?

 

I like definitive, solid answers.  I don’t want people to HAVE to buy a book, a tutorial CD, or a website membership to jump in.  I want some starting info to be out there, FOR FREE, for those who are curious about digital scrapbooking and want to learn how to start.  I have a huge compilation of resources -- everything you will need to know about digi-scrapping.  I know it's a lot of information, but be patient and take your time to look around - you'll figure it all out!

I will focus on Photoshop in this blog, because it’s what I have and what I use.   It’s a very universal program and I think is most widely used.  (I have Photoshop 7.0, but I don’t do anything complicated in it, so people with Elements or 3.0 or whatever should be ok.)   In Photoshop there are about 3 (or 10) ways to do any one task.  Different people have different preferences for steps to take, and most of what I’ve figured out is by playing around and experimenting (asking “what if I did this?” and seeing where that takes me.)  I’m not a Photoshop expert by ANY means, but I want to share the joy of digi-scrappin’ and what I’ve learned so far.

* please note that this was all written in 2005, and is meant to be a static blog, more like a book than a blog.  But the basics of Photoshop don't change, baby!  It's all still relevant.  :)

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Click here for this blog's Table of Contents

Who is Jen?

(click on link to view entry.)

Table of Contents

A listing (with links) of ALL entries in this blog.

1.  Welcome, Intro, and Disclaimers
2.  Who is Jen?
3.  Umm, Table of Contents.  ;o)
4.  How things work around here
5.  Why Digi-Scrap?
6.  Finding your way around Photoshop 
7.  Other sites’ Digi-scrappin’ tutorials
8.  Digi-Scrappin' Info (Everything you need to know.)
9.  Looking for (Digi)-Inspiration?
10.  About Digi-Designers
11. How do I Un-Zip?
12.  Organizing Your Elements
13.  Freebies to Start you out
14.  Getting ahold of Elements
15.  Monitor Calibration
16.  Picture/Layout/File Size
17.  A Space to Work with
18.  The Toolbox: Intro
19.  Palettes: Intro
20.  Layers: an Intro
21.  The Layers Palette
22.  The Move Tool: Basics
23.  Opening Files in Photoshop
24.  Drag / Drop ~ Copy/Paste
25.  Re-sizing Elements
26.  The Crop Tool
27.  "Oops -- now what?"  Undo.
28.  The Zoom Tool
29.  The Marquee Selection Tool
30.  Save As . . . what?
31.  Speaking of Shortcuts . . .
32.  The Color Dropper
33.  Using Fonts and Text in your Page
34.  Custom Font Colors
35.  Getting your Images in Digital Format
36.  Vellum = Opacity Slider
37.  A New, Solid Colored Image
38.  Drop Shadows
39.  Rulers, Guides, and Grids

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How things work around here

This is kind of a backwards blog.  It's meant to be read like a book.  (Content is static - I don't add to this blog, although I update the "what's new" entry.)  The most current entries are where you start, and you move backward to read what should come next.  Makes perfect sense, right?

There are 2 ways to access the other entries in this blog:

(1) the Table of Contents [entry #3, or the red "table of contents" button at top left] lists the names of each entry: clicking on a title will take you to that entry.  You can choose what you want to read about and go in whatever order you want.  

(2)  Click on the link at the bottom of the next entry to go to the first individual post (well, the first that comes after these introduction entries.) 

When you are reading the posts individually, at the top of the page are a set of 3 links.  For this blog, the links are: {Next entry title} ~ Main ~ {Previous Entry title}.  (See picture example -- the links will be the title of the entries.)  After reading the current page you're on, you can click on that first link to read the next entry -- you can read through all of the entries from start to end in this way.

I've tried to write these entries in an order that makes sense to take you step by step to a gradual understanding of Photoshop and digital scrapbooking. I explain things to the best of my understanding . . . if later on I understand something better, I will update that particular entry.  If someone leaves a rockin' tip in the comments section of an entry, I may change that entry to reflect the new knowledge.

The entries that are currently in the Table of Contents are all that will be here in this blog.  Hopefully this will make finding what you want easier.

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2022 Note: ok, I wrote this blog 17 years ago.  I am old.

I'm going back through and having to remove links to articles, stores, websites . . . the world changed. I'll try to suggest some phrases to Google in case anyone is still reading this LOL

Why Digi-Scrap?

PROS for Photoshop and Digi-Scrapping:

•  all the cool kids are doing it. heh. 
•  if you move a lot, no supplies to pack, unpack, and repack 
•   you don’t need storage space for products (don’t have to take over a room in your house – although dedicating an external hard drive for storage is a good idea.)  No little pieces or dangerous tools to keep away from the kids.  
•   NO MESS TO CLEAN UP.  It’s super easy to save, walk away from a layout, and come back to it later (no tying up your dining room table!)  ;o)
• you buy a piece of paper once and use it over and over again forever.  Change the size of the pattern, make the colors just a little darker or lighter, make the paper act as vellum, make it into a ribbon . . .
• you can make a page ONCE, then get as many copies – even in different sizes or formats – as you want.  No needing to re-create it or make sub-par copies
• you don’t have to get pictures printed before you scrap (or make sure you have then in the right size to work together on a page.)  You get to completely skip this step!!!  Very easy to do cool things with pictures, make them unusual sizes and incorporate them into fun elements 
• you NEVER have to worry about running out of an alphabet sticker, and you can make an alphabet element whatever size you need it.
• once you figure things out, you can design your own elements.  Talk about freedom!
• all the great digi designers!  The internet evens the playing field for designers.  They don’t have to associate with a larger company or have a ton of money for start-up.  The good designers get noticed purely on their merit and rise to the top based on good customer service and great design.
• depending on your style, once you figure things out, making digi-pages can be a LOT faster than paper.
• if you have a blog it’s super easy to just cut and paste to turn blog entries (or material from them) into a scrapbook page
• no hammering eyelets!  Just click and drag! (and you can make them as big or small as you want!)
• two words: FLAT PAGES.  Flat scrapbooks, more pages fitting in one book.
• No spending money on adhesives! (except for hybrid projects LOL)
• Shopping is on the internet: you don’t have to run out to shop if you need an element to finish a page (and you never “run out” once you have something.)  No tantrums from your 2 year old in the scrapbook aisle!  (was that just me?)
• no making mistakes with sticker placement and no need for Undu.  No ruining a photo and having to run out to get it reprinted.  Edit > Undo is your new best friend!
• you don't have to worry about a stupid husband spilling something on a scrapbook page in progress (or spilling pop on it yourself)
• all the cool, funky photo manipulations!  You can make photos you thought were unusable into something totally awesome.
• it's easier to be precise when lining things up, especially with the grid feature
• don't have to worry about elements you add to the page being archival and damaging photos

 

CONS

• if you don’t print your pages, you don’t have physical evidence of your work.  (SO PRINT THEM!)
• the torn edges look is hard to get unless you can wrap your mind around paper tearing actions and templates
• a lack of your own handwriting on your pages (unless you leave space and add it later.  Or have a font made of your handwriting.)
• some people will miss touching paper and the physical process of it all
• you miss out on the current cool physical scrapbooking papers.  (But dude . . . you'll run out eventually anyway.  And a lot of digital designers are now designing for paper manufacturers, AND paper manufacturers are starting to release their designs digitally!!!)
• some people don’t like to scrap at a computer because they work at one all day
• if you’re a scrapper who likes to use found objects or physical mementos (ticket stubs, receipts, etc) they are more challenging to incorporate (although it can be done!)
• some hard-core paper scrappers will look down on you and say you’re not REALLY scrappin’. ignore them.
• if the pictures you want to scrap are primarily already physical and not coming from a digi camera, it’s more of a pain to get them into a digital format.  (Then again, it may be nice to have a digital copy anyway.)

 

My solution to most of the CONS?

 

BE BI-SCRAPUAL.

 

DO BOTH.  Have a combination of digi and paper in your books.  They work together just fine.  One will inspire the other and take the pressure off.  You get the best of both worlds this way!

 

For more of my thoughts of paper and digi and how you can easily do both, read:
Scraplifting from digi to paper & paper to digi
finding inspiration everywhere

 

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I do feel the need to say, though, that I DO love paper scrappin'.  I still scrapbook with paper and I personally don't plan to ever give it up 100%.  I don't think that digi is BETTER than paper, it's just different.  We're all scrappers, we're all working to get our photos and memories in some semblance of order.  That's what it's all about.

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To read next entry and be able to click through individual entries by links at top, click here and then each time, click the top left link.

Finding your way around Photoshop

Kids, first you need to GET Photoshop if you don't have it already.  But good news!  Photoshop Elements is competitively priced, and there's a free-trial download for a lot of Adobe's products!

2022 note: what sucks about Photoshop these days is that they've moved to a subscription model.  Before, you shelled out a few hundred and got a disk that you could install on your computer and the program was yours.  Now they want you to pay month to month.  I don't know, man.  You might be able to find old disks?

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Ok, so learning Photoshop.

There's no one way to do this.  Each of us learn differently, and each of us come into this hobby with differing levels of computer understanding and competence.

The biggest thing that will help you learn to digi-scrap is simply knowing the ins-and-outs of your program.  In this case, we're talking about Photoshop.  Get to know the toolbar -- what the tools are called, what they do, what settings they have.  I'm a bigger fan of knowing first what the buttons are and what they do, and learning what shortcut I can use to get them active later.

I won't be telling you EVERYTHING about Photoshop in this blog.  I don't know all that much, and there are plenty of other sites to get you really in depth if that's what you want.  My goal with this blog is to show you what you need to know to START your digi-scrappin' journey.  Once you get over the initial apprehension and jump over that beginner's learning curve, you'll be able to delve deeper on your own.

It's ok to jump in after learning just a few basics.  Don't think you have to know Photoshop inside and out before you start.  I made 54 layouts in my first 3 months and I am still constantly learning new tricks.  You don't have to click on these links below right now if you don't want to.  It's supplemental material, not required reading.  ;o)
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And here are some other books that I can say with confidence are awesomely helpful:

---> Scott Kelby has several books about Photoshop; I found them thorough.

---> Adobe "Classroom in a book" series for Photoshop -- there is a different one for every version.

Do an Amazon search for those books.  Do a Google search for learning Photoshop.  I believe in your searching skills.

From what I understand, most everything in a book about Elements or version 2.0 or 3.0 will apply if you have a later version -- I have 7.0.  Each version has improvements and additions, but the basic functions always remain the same.

Happy studying!

Other sites’ Digi-scrappin’ tutorials

Hey, so after you've read all the wisdom I have to impart to you, you might be wanting more. 

2022 update: What really sucks is that ALL the links I had here are no longer active / valid.

My suggestion is to use this search term to hopefully find something great :D

digital scrapbooking tutorials