Thanks for the warm welcome yesterday and I loved hearing about all the ways you preserve your memories… even if it is in a rubber tub… a project for a rainy day [or two], right?!
Our random winner for the $20 gift certificate is Shawn Janelle
Congratulations! Please email katie at designerdigitals dot com with your email address!
Today I wanted to introduce you to Shutterfly Photobooks and one of my favorite projects!
I, like a lot of you, have photos scattered in boxes and tubs all over the place. I have 4 large, traditionally scrapped albums for my daughter but hundreds of photos [okay maybe thousands now that we have digital] that have not been scrapped and I wanted a simple compilation to see her growing into a teenager!
The answer was a photobook!
I created a year-by-year memories album to show how much she has grown and changed over the past years!
You can view the entire book in Shutterfly's Gallery
I used a layered template book and worked with just one kit, Alandia, from DesignerDigitals to help create a unified look throughout the book.
I also converted all but one of the photos on each page to a sepia so there would be less distraction. When laying out your pages you want it to be obvious what the focus image is on the page and make sure your journaling is easily read and converting the photos was a great, easy way to do that!
I absolutely love this book and think I'll be adding to it over the next few years and having it reprinted! And it will be a theme I will also be using for books for our granddaughters and my nephews! I figure if I get them going now, won't they make the most amazing presents for them when they are teenagers?!
I hope this inspires you to get started with some digital scrapbooking and photobooks!
And I have ONE 8×8 20-page Shutterfly Photobook to give away. Simply leave a comment about an album you would like to create! Leave comments by 12 noon EST July 31st for your chance to win!
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And now on to tackle a few of your questions!
deborah said…
Hi,
I am currently a traditional scrapbooker, but I'm interested in
getting into the digital realm. My question or Katie is, what do I need
to get started? (What programs, etc. do you suggest?)
Thanks for the chance to win!
How to get started? It can be easily accomplished with Photoshop Elements or any image editing program. Some are even so comfortable with Microsoft word that they simply scrap their memories in that program. But for the most versatility in your creative process I recommend working with Adobe Photoshop Elements which can be found for under $75. And then download a few freebies to get a feel for things before you pick put the products for your projects!
susan said…
I
am looking forward to your posts on digital scrapbooking and learning
more about the craft. I have a number of scrapbook "projects" that I
have started, but need to complete (our wedding six years ago,
Christmas memories, and my two year old's first year). I was thinking
of preserving some memories by creating books on picaboo and other
similar sites. Are these sites considered digital scrapbooking? It
seems like the choices might be limited.
I would think you could refer to creating the books on-line for print is a form of digital scrapbooking. What we encourage at DesignerDigitals is more of the creative process in capturing the memories and displaying them. With the right products and software you can bring your memories to life in your pages so the way you were feeling about that moment can be felt by looking at your pages!
Sarah said…
Hi Katie,
I have tried to start paper scrapbooking a little but have so many
boxes of photos I have mostly just gotten overwhelmed and stopped. I
would love to learn about digital scrapbooking as I am much handier at
a computer than with a scissors but don't really know where to start.
The best way to start is to select your photo[s] and select a background paper and start by arranging them on the page and adding your journaling. The more you do the more comfortable you'll feel. The you can add digital stamping [just like rubber stamping only more forgiving ;)], digital ribbons, digital page pebbles etc etc, whatever strikes your fancy to create a creative work of art! The great thing about digital… there's an undo key! And as long as you save your page layout into a new file and don't overwrite your photo file you can always go back and re-scrap the photo or change things around!
🙂
Welcome, Katie!I missed you yesterday, but I read both of your posts today. I have never done this before, but it sounds fun and I love to learn new things. I have an eight year old son that would love to see pictures in this form, instead of on the computer.Please enter my name in the drawing! Thank you !Blessings from Kansas!Gail
Shutterfly is great. I make art books for my two daughters each Christmas. I photo their art projects from the year and make them into an art book as a gift. It is a great way to preserve their wonderful creations without having to “keep” them all!
Great giveaway. I’d love to win.
As a new mom and a new scrapbooker, I was very enthusiastic and made a gift scrapbook for my mom and mother-in-law for the first Mother’s Day after my daughter was born. I updated each once or twice, and then realized that I would never get my own projects completed if I kept spending so much time on these gift books. So, I have been meaning to create some Shutterfly books for them to get them updated pictures of my daughter that they can display in their homes, without so much time outlay on my part. A free book would definitely help jump-start that process. Thanks for the giveaway!
I would like to do an album for my granddaughter–there are so many digital photos that there would be lots of materials to choose from. Thanks for the great giveaway–
I used picaboo to put an book together for my parent’s 40th anniversary. Unfortunately, I somehow lost the file where it was saved when we had computer problems. That is one project that is also hanging over my head! Thanks for the great information.
I have made some small photo books for my son with pictures of him that he loves. I really need to make one for his third birthday which was months ago, but I know that it’s not likely to happen soon given that his new little sister will arrive any day now.
I love the Shutterfly books! I’ve made 4 and my son loves to look through them and I love that I can let him knowing that I’ve got a digital copy of it just in case anything tragic should happen!
I started trying out digital scrapbooking this year with scrapblog.com, but found them limiting. I would love to make a yearly book as a present for my parents each Christmas (they have everything so grandkid albums seem ideal!!) I love the idea of adding to a book each year and reprinting as well!
Thanks for the intro, this is great!
Shutterfly is probably nice, but Winkflash costs about half as much and has good quality books. And if you wait for one of their flat rate book sales (happen frequently, you find out about them by signing up for their newsletter) you can get amazingly good deals (think: up to 100 pages 12×12 for $30 or 8×8 for $13). Just FYI.
I am currently trying to put together pages to make a photo book of our recent summer holiday to Greece. Thank you for a chance to win! I love Shutterfly…
I make a yearly book for my kiddos using traditional scrapbooking. I love to make the switch to photobooks!
I would love to win this! My sister passed away at the age of 25 and this would be something perfect to remember her by. I’ve worked on a few pages I thought I’d print out and put in a 12×12 album but I like this idea much better!!
I’d love to re-do my kids baby albums digitally. Thanks for the chance to win!
I do paper scrapping but use shutterfly and such for travel albums and other event albums. It works out perfectly! I always have a recent trip I need to scrap and haven’t gotten around to yet. Right now there’s our summer camping trip waiting to be scrapped. I love those template sets! I’ve never tried them.
Oh, I would love to do an album of my son who is almost 5. I have all of his baby pictures scattered about and was meaning to finally make his baby album but never got around to it. This would be a wonderful chance to get it done! Thank you!
As I said yesterday, I have so many photos in my attic! I am working on a geneology project for my mother, who is 85, and I would love to do a Shutterfly book of old photos of her parents and grandparents and siblings. She would really enjoy looking through it, I think.
I think I’m just barely under the wire!
i have SO many pics as well and i can’t seem to find the time to make awesome scrapbooks, but this idea seems great!!
I totally love the Shutterfly books. I have made three so far but I haven’t even tackled the adoptions of my three kids yet. Yikes!Katie, your book is stunning, I love the colors and the single color photo. Awesome stuff!
Absolutely wonderful!!! I love the books and I’m in the process of working on my very first. Hopefully, I will have it completed before my mom’s 87th birthday. I am so inspired. Thanks for putting it out there. By the way…if you’re in the market for reading glasses, magnifiers or some great homemade gift ideas check out…http://www.debspecs.com/ and type in homemade. Here’s to the Shutterfly!!!
I have 4 sons 22, 17 and 16 and a 4 year old. With the older ones I always thought I should remember all small and funny things they said and did, but unfortunatley I forgot those things. Am so sorry about that. So better do some scrap booking and jot down things to be remembered with my youngest now!
I have never tried Shutterfly books. Sadly I have never finished my kids baby books. This could be a good incentive.
We just came home from a long-anticipated and fabulous road trip from NY to California. We visited 12 national parks along the way and spent five days with our daughter in California. I would love to take a few of the best photos from each stop and make a photo book.
I missed the deadline but have 2 books so far, one of great outdoor trips we did with our first daughter and one of pictures for the grandparents. it was a great present for them and less work for me, though still hard to chose between those hundreds of photos we tend to take with digital too.Thanks,Gayle