by Linda | Mar 20, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Ali Edwards
If you are a scrapbooker, you probably know Ali Edwards as one of the gurus in the industry. Seriously, there are so many people that follow her blog and have journeyed along with her scrapbooking story. There’s no doubt that her philosophy, techniques, designs and thoughts have impacted the industry and community of scrapbookers. From projects like December Daily and One Little Word to a multitude of products and published books (Amazon link)…
Ali is definitely what you could call celebrity.
I was immediately attracted to Ali’s design and style, but also her philosophy and thoughtful process of scrapbooking. It’s always interesting to follow along her process and join in with the various memory keeping projects she embarks upon. She offers a lot of information on her website and even an intro to digital scrapbooking. I always find myself inspired and wanting to scrapbook and I suppose that is why so many follow her blog. So I had to ask Ali about how she personally uses paper and digital tools…
Ali says:
Just about every layout/project I do incorporates both my computer and paper scrapbooking products. I love that they work together so very well in helping me to get my stories told.
My process ususally begins by opening my photos in Photoshop before printing. It’s there that I add my digital word art, frames, or journaling directly onto my photos. From there I print my photos here at home (either on an Epson PictureMate Show printer or an Epson R2000 over-sized printer) and then add them either to Project Life or to a cardstock paper layout.
I also print out digital Project Life journaling cards and add those to Project Life.
Digital and paper go hand in hand
I think that Ali is a great example of a scrapbooker who uses everything around her to create in her own unique style. From digital to paper, techniques, inks, sprays, various products, graphic design… it all goes together and gets interpreted through her lens.
via Ali’s blog
If you take a look at her layouts, you’ll notice how much variety there is and often you can tell what is digitally printed by her at home or what is manufactured product.
via Ali’s blog
The idea is that digital and paper go hand in hand. There’s no reason not to use the digital designs and tools at your disposal!
via Ali’s blog
Try it for yourself
I recently created a piece of graphic word art for a layout about my newborn son, so decided to share it with all of you. It’s definitely a bit in the style of Ali Edwards, in terms of being a graphic clean style. You can use the color version directly or alter and color using the black and white PNG file. In fact, it would be cool to clip different pattern papers to various parts or use a digital cutter perhaps to cut the design out? Have fun and happy memory keeping!
Download BTP_TheSmallestThings
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Mar 13, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Loredana Bucaria
After moving to Italy, I started exploring Italian blogs as well and stumbled upon Loredana Bucaria. She’s a very prolific scrapbooker who says that it’s a part of her lifestyle, not just a hobby. She blogs in Italian and English, so I find it helpful for learning the language as well. From teaching classes around the world to creating projects for Sizzix – I was immediately drawn to the variety of tools she used in her memory keeping and wanted to invite her to share.
Lory says:
Digital and paper are only different tools for a common goal! I want to say more – I love to add some digital elements to my scrapbook pages or projects, printing them for example. I use digital brushes for example on my photos or I print and cut them to make project life tags or journaling spots. I am both of them – I love both of them and I don’t think that they are separated areas of scrapbooking, they come together 🙂
From digital to paper
I think that we often forget that digital elements can be easily transformed into paper elements for our scrapbooking. From digital stickers to brushes to graphics and kits. Print and use, especially great for project life and journaling cards in general. There are so many designs out there and it’s instant gratification, because you can find whatever you need, purchase and print all in a few minutes!
Let’s take a look at a page Lory created for us…
Title: photography class
Materials:
patterned papers: kesi’art and ki memories
printables : studio calico
stamps: studio calico
embellishments: studio calico kits, wash tape, jenni bowlin, american crafts, ki memories, tattered angels.
tools: sizzix big shot and thinklits border
About the page:
Hello everyone! I am so honored to have received a lovely invitation from Linda to know what I think about digital and traditional scrapbooking and how they can be mixed together! I find that they are perfect together because you can create your own little embellishments, cut out some tiny tags and place them around your page to give it a cool touch and a lovely meaning to your photo.
So play and have fun mixing many different ways to use digital scrapbooking in your traditional pages 🙂
Loredana Bucaria bio:
Hello everyone I am Lory from Italy. I am a so funny and silly girl of the south of Italy, I love the sun of my city, I am a life lover, I love to tell stories about my everyday life.
I knew scrapbooking in 2003 thanks a friend and a little journey in a Funfair Park where I was actracted by a scrapbooking book full of colors and of die cuts ! Since then I made a long internet research about this hobby and I was really lucky to discover a new wonderful world !
Since then my life is changed ! Scrapbooking is become my lifestyle,it helped me in bad moments, like my dad’s death, I met new good friends around the world by internet , all thanks to scrapbooking.
I love scrapbooking because it makes me happy, free, with the scrapbooking I forget all the ordinary worries, all the bad thoughts and only the page, the photos, the story about the photo exist ! I loves to be sitted down on my chair ,close to door of my scraproom and be in my scrapbook space with music in background to scrapbook her pages full of colors, of several and sometimes unusually materials. All for fun and for relaxing ! I have a big dream : to can teach around the world, it should change my life, I’d do what I really want to do! In Italy I have an online website and I have organized an international convention of scrapbooking and mixed media for three years (2008-2010) knowing the most famopus scrapbookers and enjoying so much everything!It was a dream came true! I am solar, joyful, full of things to do but I love my everyday life even if something is not like I would.I’ve got married last july with the love of my life and now I have a new so cute home that I improve day by day.I love my life even if I am not a Hollywood star!LOL
I love to play with colors, the paper smell, the little things to can use! I can define my style colorful and pretty, clean and full of little details!:) I love to play with paper! Currently I am in the following design team: Sizzix UK, Bella Boulevard, Chic note Tags, I work for Cèline Navarro’s blog and for a uk magazine. I am crazy for letters stickers, labels stickers, kraft paper and envelopes and I can keep saying a lot of things I adore in this magical world!
I love scrapbooking so much, that’s all, Scrapbooking is my life and I hope one day to can come at the CHA. I love the colors , the smell of the papers, I adore to touch and to play with embellishments, looking at them thousand of times and being happy to have them in my hands, It’s an amazing feeling that I can feel when I create! I really really hope to can be chosen 🙂
I have a blog : www.lovescraplife.typepad.com that is my happy place! The place where I wrote about me, my life, my projects, my everyday life, my travels, my adventures! It’s my lovely place. A place where you will can find a lot of inspirations and you will laugh out loud with me of me 🙂 I am so ironic! Come and take a cup of coffee with me 🙂 It would be a big pleasure!
Lory
Try it for yourself
I love how Lory incorporated printed items in her page and you can’t even tell what was digital or not. It’s amazing the power we have in our hands today. To help you try out using printables in your scrapbooking, download the everyday sampler pack below and have fun memory keeping!
Download BTP_EverydaySampler
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest news.
by Linda | Feb 27, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Lain Ehmann from LayoutADay.com
A veteran in the scrapbooking industry, Lain is the leader of the Scrap Happy community and blogs at LayoutADay.com offering a whole bunch of online scrapbooking events and classes. I’ve participated in Layout A Day (LOAD) before and find it the most inspiring experience. It might seem a bit much to scrap every day for a month, but it truly allows you to discover your style. The intense month of scrapping forces you to boil down to the essentials of what scrapbooking really is for you – I loved my experience!
So I had to ask Lain what she thought about digital tools for scrapbooking. She’s primarily a paper scrapper, but certainly has a great perspective.
Lain says:
I don’t like ANY kind of divisions. We’re all doing the same thing – memorializing our family and our memories. HOW we do that does not matter. We will have more and more tools at our disposal over the coming years.
I love using digital elements to create journaling cards for my pages. I use Photoshop Elements to resize and customize these elements for my pages. Then I print them on cardstock and add them to my paper pages. I can see myself adding more digital tools and techniques to my pages over time. I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Use digital to create paper embellishments
It’s a great idea to transform digital designs into paper embellishments, basically creating and printing whatever you want. For those who use graphic programs, the sky is the limit in terms of designing little tidbits for your memory keeping. From journaling cards to background paper patterns to graphics for decoration. However, there are a multitude of digital kits available out there and they should not be limited to only digital scrapbookers. You can always print out those designs to be used in your paper scrapbooking.
In fact, I do that quite often! I print out background papers, journaling cards, word art and graphics onto cardstock and use them as if I bought them at the store. The beauty of digital is that I can print as many as I want in different sizes and even alter the color if I wanted to. Pretty darn cool, huh? While we are on this topic, there was recently also a post on Shimelle’s website listing 5 ways a paper scrapbooker could use a digital kit.
Try it yourself
I like having my scrapbooks on real-paper and adding layers, textures and embellishments. So printables are a great digital supply, because you can use again and again. Here’s a cute little birdie graphic that you can print out and use in your own memory keeping.
Download BackToPaper_Bluebird
Maybe for a page about your Twitter tweets, a little birdie said or a Spring season memory? Enjoy and feel free to share your pages in the comments below. Would love to see what you create or what you think about using digital for paper scrapping.
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Feb 20, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Stacy Julian
If you’ve been into scrapbooking for a while, I’m sure you have heard of Stacy Julian. She was the editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, creator of the Library of Memories system and founded Big Picture Classes – a thriving and amazing community of scrapbookers learning and sharing together online.
I’ve taken many classes at BPC and love all my experiences. It’s great to be able to connect with a nice community of creatives, no matter where in the world you live. There’s also such a variety of classes to choose from, so I’m never without inspiration to scrapbook. From workshops to self-paced classes, there’s a huge fountain of ideas to draw from.
I think that the impact Stacy has made on the community of scrapbooking is that of storytelling. It’s about getting our stories recorded, not about product or the latest technique necessarily. No doubt, she has affected so many of us and continues to inspire with new ideas and projects. I’m always grateful by how much she shares through her blog and on various Paperclipping Roundtable podcasts…
Stacy says:
Like you, I feel that paper and digital are simply tools or means to an end. The end is storytelling. We have an opportunity to pay attention to our lives, to feel gratitude for the many and varied opportunities we have during our relatively short sojourn on earth.
I have found that taking pictures and then learning to live with those pictures is one the very BEST things I can do to stay positive and remind myself of the goodness that surrounds me.
We live in a wonderful digital age that allows us to enjoy, share and use our photos in unprecedented ways. I champion anyone who loves pictures and wants to cherish them and add lasting value to them, by attaching personal perspective in the form of words!
Whether this is done solely on a computer or in a more traditional way with paper and paste is not important to me. I think what is exciting is that women have found a comfortable place to practice this wonderful hobby of scrapbooking.
Some women are comfortable with pixels and some women are comfortable with paper — isn’t that awesome?! With comfort, comes confidence and hopefully, confidence gives way to curiosity. Curiosity feeds creativity and the most creative people actually seek out novel experiences. They like to try new things, because something new always feels exciting!
So the trick (I think) is to find your comfort zone, grow confident there and then follow your curiosities into new spaces that will keep your passion alive and your commitment strong.
My computer is definitely my friend and I use it a LOT to type out longer stories that I add to traditional pages. I am also faithful with my time-tested digital workflow — without my photo software I couldn’t organize or prioritize my digital images in the way that I do.
It’s About Storytelling
No doubt the point Stacy is trying to make is that digital tools are amazing and fabulous, but just another element to help us get to our end goal. It’s all about telling your story and recording your precious memories. That is the real importance of it all, not so much the labels or tools or specific aesthetic choices we make.
via Stacy’s blog
I really love how open Stacy is to considering so many different forms of memory keeping as scrapbooking. These days, many of us blog and instagram… and isn’t that a form of scrapbooking in itself?
It goes to show how broad this term “scrapbooking” can go. It’s no longer that stereotypical image of a grandma putting clippings in a giant book!
Try It For Yourself
In the spirit of storytelling and anything goes, I decided to great some square graphical cards that would match up well with square photos, the latest for Instagram-ers especially. With all the new ways of memory keeping, let’s think about using technology to help us on our journey. Ultimately the medium isn’t the point, rather the story you want to tell and the memories you want to keep.
“We scrapbook to live life twice.”
– Stacy Julian
Download BTP Instagram Graphic Cards
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Feb 13, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Katie the Scrapbook Lady
A super prolific digital scrapbooker, you probably know Katie from The Daily Digi and The Digi Show. She’s an amazingly efficient scrapbooker and she’s always sharing tips, tricks and goodies. Most definitely an inspiring lady who’s been around the industry for a long time. She’s also offering her template designs to help you scrap your memories with ease! I had to ask about her thoughts in regards to using digital tools in scrapbooking.
Katie says:
I think digital design/scrapbooking tools are so useful for everyone! I know some people are intimidated by their computers, and others just really love the tactile feeling of “real” paper, so I realize that digital isn’t for everyone. However, the journaling, title, and photo editing tools are of great use to anyone. My favorite piece of advice for someone who just wants to dabble with some digital effects would be to try adding word art to a photo. I wrote an article for The Daily Digi called “Write on Your Photos” that has been very popular with paper scrappers.
I really believe that the divide is becoming less of a difference. Nowadays, computers are such a part of our everyday world that it’s natural to turn to digital skills to enhance any type of project – even paper scrapping.
Embrace Your Computer
I agree with Katie that these days, using your computer in scrapbooking has become pretty commonplace. Perhaps scrapbookers don’t even realize that they are using digital tools. From camera phone photography, blogging, social media “journaling” to digital photo processing and typing journaling out – they all count as your digital tools.
I think the key is to realize that your computer is a resource and that you shouldn’t hesitate to use it to the max.
Processing your photos is a huge element these days and we are all pretty much dealing with digital photos, so it’s inevitable… you’ve got to embrace your computer, right? Even simply adding some word art as Katie mentioned, which can be super simple, can help to enhance your scrapbooking.
via Katie’s blog
I know that Katie also loves to use digital graphics in her scrapbooking… think of it like a premade sticker, notecard or element… like paper embellishments. Why not consider printing out digital designs to use in your paper scrapbooking?
via Katie’s blog
Try It For Yourself
I’m a big fan of graphic journaling cards as embellishments in layouts – easy to pop into templates as well. For the Valentine holiday, I decided to create a few love themed cards… I hope you will enjoy using them in your projects, download the sampler below and try some digital in your scrapbooking today. Have fun!
Download Love Journaling Cards
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Feb 6, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Amy Tan
Well known in the the industry – from fashion designer to scrapbooking role model – Amy is a product designer with American Crafts. She’s so inspiring, always sharing her colorful, happy memory keeping adventures. You’ll find lots of inspiration on her blog, from scrapbooking layouts, minibook inspiration, her travels and lifestyle, products and of course, her dogs!
I’ve always been inspired by how freely Amy scraps, embracing her own unique style and also scrapping on the go… to capture all those precious moments in her life.
Amy says:
I absolutely think technology goes hand in hand with papercrafting. Love that we are so connected through our digital lives – from taking and sharing our digital photos to printing them out and making mini albums with our hands. Whether you choose to scrapbook digitally, traditionally, or hybrid, we can all use technology to help us document our lives.
Take Advantage of Technology
I think the big take away from Amy is about taking advantage of the technology we have available to us today. For those who are loyal paper scrappers, going digital doesn’t mean abandoning your paper stashes. It’s really about adopting new tools to make your scrapbooking easier and more fun… and perhaps more integrated into your daily lives.
How many of our photos these days come from our phone? Now we are able to catch moments that might have been too fleeting in the past, when you couldn’t whip out your camera in time. I’ve also recently discovered the beauty of connecting Dropbox to my smartphone. It’s free and every photo you take syncs back to your Dropbox. No more accidental loss of photos and immediate access on my computer for printing and posting. How amazing is that?
Amy uses digital designs in her Project Life scrapbooking along with lots of real-life products that she loves. Digital is simply another tool.
via Amy Tan blog
Probably the most representative technology booster that Amy uses is printing photos on the go and adding them into her travel minibooks. She designs many daybooks that you can purchase and she prints her photos with a portable printer she brings along during her travels. Talk about instant scrapbooking!
via Amy Tan blog
I think that Amy is a great example of how someone can love technology and be totally immersed in it, yet still be a full blown paper scrapbooker. It’s this hybrid mix that I think many of the younger generations are growing up into. Digital tools are ingrained in our society, but that doesn’t mean good old fashioned scrapbooking and memory keeping can’t be married with it.
Try It For Yourself
Think about how you can take advantage of technology for your scrapbooking journey. Are you using your phone photos and taking snapshots on the go? Are you able to scrap on the go or use digital tools to journal and keep those details that we so often forget about?
I’ve designed a set of journaling cards that are great to keep handy in your purse! The idea is to jot down that quote, that memory, that little note that you don’t want to forget. Don’t forget to take a snapshot with your phone as well, to accompany the memory and I really do recommend connecting Dropbox to your phone. It’s been one of the best things I’ve done for my scrapbooking! Enjoy!
Download BTP_EasyJournalingCardsSampler
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Jan 30, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Elise Blaha Cripe
A blogger, scrapbooker and designer, Elise is definitely a known name in the scrapbooking industry. I’ve been following Elise’s blog for quite some time and love how she shares so many aspects of her creative life, not just scrapbooking. I think of it as living a creative life and she’s also a great example of someone without kids who scraps a lot – even though she’s currently expecting! The news actually made me feel closer, because I’m also expecting my first child and it’s wonderful to read and share in our life experiences. Although Elise is a paper scrapper, she’s a designer as well who most recently designed the seafoam edition (Amazon link) for Project Life. She also runs her own shop and definitely uses digital tools in her crafty work and lifestyle.
Elise says:
My only digital tool at the moment is Photoshop Elements, and I am actually very happy with it. I use my computer to edit, resize and crop photos for printing almost everyday. I also create, with PSE, graphics that I print and use in my Project Life album (the quote cards are a good example of this) and I sometimes add text elements directly to the photos before printing.
I consider myself a paper scrapbooker because I like to put it all together “in real life” but I cannot imagine not using digital in some form or another for almost every project I do. 🙂
Project Life – Paper and Digital
For those who are into Project Life scrapbooking – whether the full system or taking some of the styles and ideas – digital tools are really indispensable. Elise uses digital titling, journaling, printing of quote cards and various designed cards for her Project Life and really shows how easy it is.
via Elise’s blog
Designing for yourself doesn’t have to be super complicated or fancy, sometimes it’s just text or beautiful usage of typography. I really love Elise’s clean style.
- Consider creating your own journaling and designed cards with quotes or existing imagery/graphics that you can readily print out
- Don’t hesitate to caption or title right on top of your photos
- Don’t forget that anything you see online can be printed out and used in your scrapbooking, take advantage of this!
Photo Editing
Digital photo editing is also a tool in Elise’s arsenal and I think sometimes we don’t take advantage of all the possibilities! Now that everyone has a smartphone, it’s easy to do on the go as well, so you won’t be spending all your time in processing photos. Apps like Instagram and Afterglow have made it super easy to tweak your photos. There are a multitude of actions that can be loaded into Photoshop as well, to give your photography a boost. Ultimately, making a small effort can really help to enhance your photography immensely. Elise wrote a post with tips on taking self-portraits and I think it offers great insight.
via Elise’s blog
- Try using your smartphone and all the latest apps offered to enhance your photography on the go
- Explore Photoshop actions available for to apply premade effects to your photos with a click
- Consider what a difference it makes to add titling, journaling, stamps and other graphics on top of your photos before printing
Try it for yourself
The take away is to remember how much power we hold in our hands these days with the technology available. With just a little effort, we can make a big difference in our memory keeping and it doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated at all.
To start you off this week, I’ve designed a journaling card that would be great for Project Life, but also on a traditional layout as a designed embellishment. In 4×6 size, you can use it as a title card or size it down for other pocket sizes – both horizontal and vertical versions. Hope you have fun using a little digital in your memory keeping this week.
Download BTP_HelloLifeCardSampler
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Jan 24, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Introducing… Noell from Paperclipping
A role model in the scrapbooking industry, I’ve followed Noell for quite some time as a member of her professional scrapbooking video community, Paperclipping. I’ve also learned so much from her inspirational blog posts and community driven podcasts (Roundtable and previously The Digi Show). I believe that Noell represents a lot of paper scrappers out there, who benefit from using digital in a variety of ways. She uses Photoshop for a variety of techniques even though her layouts are all on paper in the end.
Noell says:
My favorite digital tool is the text tool in Photoshop. I love adding journaling directly onto my photos and then I dial down the opacity a bit to make it slightly translucent. I’ve done a lot of my title work this way as well.
The other most common things I do is to make grid collages with photos, or to use my wacom tablet to add my handwriting or some hand-made doodles, like hearts, onto my photos! Love that!
Photo Collages
Probably the most common use of digital for scrapbookers is the processing of photos before printing. Since 99% of photography is digital these days, it’s the natural workflow of getting photos into your scrapbooking.
via Paperclipping
Noell takes it a step further, not only processing photos for print, but creating photo collages as well. It’s a great way to fit multiple photos into a layout. Don’t forget that there’s a whole lot you can do to your photos before sending them to print.
- Consider post-processing to up the quality of your photo (cropping, color adjustments)
- Consider creating collages or series of photos in a block
- Consider using templates and frames to prepare your photos for print
Digital Titling, Journaling, Labeling
Probably the second most common use of digital for scrapbookers is typing and printing our journaling blocks. You can easily type your journaling in any font you choose and often will be able to fit more journaling than if you handwrote. Although there’s nothing wrong with handwriting your journaling, digital tools might be handy for certain circumstances.
via Paperclipping
Noell takes it to the next level by using digital type for titles, journaling and labels/doodles… to further enhance her photos before printing.
- Consider adding your title onto your photo
- Consider including captions for your photos
- Consider adding elements as embellishments onto your photos digitally before printing
Try it for yourself
I think the take away is to remember that digital provides you with a lot of flexibility in scrapbooking and you should definitely advantage of it! Adding elements digitally means you can see how it looks before committing to print – thank you undo button. You can also create so many different styles with all the fonts, actions and digital elements available in the market. The possibilities are limitless.
To start you off this week, I’ve designed some freebie digital frames for your personal use. Place them on top of your photos before printing, a great way to highlight those Instagram-type snapshots. Of course, you can use these frames in digital and paper layouts – whatever works for you.
DownloadDigital Frames Sampler
If you like printables, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest from yours truly.
by Linda | Jan 16, 2013 | DIY printables
The Pixel and Paper Series highlights digital techniques and products for scrapbookers like you and me. I believe that everyone should consider digital elements to be a part of their scrapbooking toolbox, so let’s learn together what the possibilities are. Each week, I’ll be sharing the opinion of a real-life scrapbooker to reveal how they use digital in their scrapbooking. Each post will also offer a freebie download to help you get started on your pixel and paper journey. Enjoy!
Hello blog friends and new visitors!
My name is Linda Tieu and I’m the little lady behind this blog, BackToPaper. I thought it was only right for me to kick off this series by sharing how I use digital as tool in my scrapbooking.
I’ve always considered myself a hybrid scrapper, because I create using both digital and paper. There was a time when I felt as if I had a scrapbooker’s identity crisis. Where did I fit in? Was I part of the digital crowd or paper crowd? I couldn’t be just one or the other and realized in the end that there was no need to choose. I am free to scrapbook in whatever way I choose given the project at hand and definitely find myself relishing the freedom of using pixels and paper.
There’s no doubt that I love the tactile feel of paper in my hand. The texture and dimension of having real layers and embellishments in my projects caters to my crafty side. I could not live without it. I also feel that it’s easier to share with friend and family when I have a physical album to show off to them, especially for older generations that simply don’t like the digital presentation of photos and layouts.
By sharing some of the ways I use digital for my scrapbooking, I hope to inspire you to try out some new techniques and methods. Expand your scrapbooking toolbox and most of all – have fun!
Photobooks & Photocollages
Oftentimes for big projects, events and vacations, I scrap everything into a digital photobook instead of individual paper pages. It’s the fastest way for me to compile a mass quantity of photos and keep it all the same style and theme. There’s huge cost-savings because digital supplies can be reused as many times as you want, you don’t have to buy x number of copies and you won’t run out of e’s in your alphabet stickers!
From my wedding and honeymoon to month-long vacations back to the USA – I’ve created and printed my photobooks through Blurb.com (affiliate link) for years. I like their imagewrap covers and premium paper selections. I often design everything from scratch as they allow print quality PDF uploads, but they also have services that are easy to use for non-designers.
I believe that photobooks are a great way to get all those photos together and printed, without having the pressure to create a full-on layout every single page. Those are usually too-big projects that never get finished anyway! I want to enjoy and share my photos asap… rather than have them pile up as another to-do on my list.
On the same vein, before printing my photos I sometimes photocollage them together. It’s so much easier to do this digitally, so you can take your time in cropping and arranging your compilation of photos. It’s really a superb way to get multiple photos into a layout. There are a variety of round-up and collage digital templates out there as well. Even if they are meant for digital scrappers, you could use them to just organize your photos. Then print and use the collage in your regular scrapping process!
Digital Titles
I’ve blogged before about creating titles digitally for my scrapbook layouts. You definitely save on all the alphabet stickers you would have to purchase and the styles out there are limitless. Using fonts to premade digital scrapbooking products…
Digital Embellishments and Elements
Since I design digital products, I most definitely use digital embellishments and elements in my scrapbook layouts. It’s like making your own products yourself and a pop dot here or there will instantly turn an image into a multi-dimensional embellishment. Most scrappers who purchase digital kits are purely digital scrappers. But I feel that those same kits can be really useful for paper scrappers as well. You can print your own background paper, create your own embellishments from digital elements and most definitely print journaling on cards and inside frames.
Multiple Copies and Digital Files
Finally, we all know that when multiple copies are required, digital really helps out. With a digital file you can send it instantly to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. When you want to distribute the work, you can print multiple copies and it’s often a lot of money saved than creating another paper version entirely. I have actually created 7 copies of a particular family albums to distribute and although I loved the results, it was a huge amount of work, supplies and time spent. If I would have done it digitally, I wouldn’t really have lost any quality at all!
Suffice to say that there are many advantages to the digital format. How do you use digital in your scrapbooking process?
To get you started off this week, check out the freebies section and feel free to use all the digital downloads I’ve offered thus far. I hope you enjoy, have fun and discover some new advantages of using pixels and paper. As this blog is titling, I’m all about bringing digital, Back To Paper!
by Linda | Jan 15, 2013 | my creative journal
We can all agree that the Internet has opened up a whole new realm of inspiration and connection for creatives like you and me. We have instant access to so much content and visual stimulation. It can be a feast for the eyes, propelling you into a world of imagination.
Unfortunately, you’ve probably experienced information overload as well. Inspiration can quickly turn to overwhelm and self-doubt. It’s important to limit your information diet, but of course you want to take advantage of everything available as well. It can be fun to surf your favorite blogs, scroll through Pinterest and leaf through your favorite magazines, but then what do you do? How do you put inspiration to use?
Physically using your print magazines and tactile materials…
I’m a huge fan of print magazines and have a pretty hefty collection on my bookshelf. This year I’ve decided to really put them to use. Yes, they are beautiful and precious, but they would serve me better if I cut them up and used them in my journaling. I can also give specific issues to creative friends when an article would serve them well. Finally, I could also donate books to the library and allow others to gain some inspiration and knowledge. I need to process and pass things on.
Thinking back to 2012, so many books and magazines were kept safely on my bookshelf – collecting dust. So I’m making it a point to go through my physical inspiration stash and use them somehow. This goes for art prints, papers, stationery – all those bits and pieces of inspiring materials we tend to hoard. Stop hoarding, start using!
Using digital and virtual inspiration…
It’s sad to see many print publications disappearing these days, but thankfully a new generation of digital publishing is rising up to take its place. I definitely turn to online magazines and virtual content for inspiration as well. I want to share my list of favorites for visual eye candy, but before you click away, I wanted to talk a bit more about how to put that inspiration to use first.
Although you are looking at something virtual, if it peaks your interest, don’t hesitate to snap a photo or print out a copy to include in your journal. You have to take notes somehow if you are going to put that inspiration to use. I often have my journal beside me, so that I can doodle and jot down notes while perusing around.
To take it a step further, don’t just clip or bookmark the inspiration. For those who use Evernote, it can be too easy to just clip everything and never have time to look back! Think about why you want to stop and record that inspirational spark. I find it best to actually write out my idea as a task or project.
The point is to take in the inspiration, digest it and really think about how you can apply it to your work and life.
It really only takes a few minutes to see something inspiring and then decide that you actually want to start a series of prints in that same color scheme. Or perhaps a certain geometric design you saw will be the starting point of your next line of sewn bag design. Put inspiration to use by taking that tiny step ahead in the process. Eureka – inspiration hit – now what does that mean for you? I guarantee that changing your mindset in this way will help you feel truly inspired and more importantly – productive – at the end of the day. It’s really inspiration time well spent.
Now here’s my list of inspiring publications…
Of course, taking a walk outside and snapping photos can be amazingly inspiring as well. Putting inspiration to use can apply whenever that spark ignites.
I want to add that it’s not about making your recreational time about work – by no means. If you are taking time to recharge then acknowledge that the time is spent for that reason. However, if you are out trolling for inspiration, then make sure you put that inspiration time to use in the end. Looking for inspiration is completely different from recharging your energy!
So what sources do you turn to for inspiration? Have you put that inspiration to use?
