Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I Digi-scrap! And you can too!

I'm trying to think where to even begin to tell you how you can get in to it! Get ready now to learn more than you ever wanted. lol

The main things you need are a program to use and the actual scrapbook supplies. I use Photoshop Elements 6.0 as my program. You can use an older version of photoshop Elements (you could get it cheaper) and have most of the same features--I started with elements 3.0 on the pc, and then upgraded to 6.0 for my mac. You DON'T need to get the full version of Photoshop (CS2 or CS3). It's way expensive and totally unnecessary.

Then, you just need the supplies! You can find tons and tons of stuff for free. People give stuff away (like samples of their work) all the time. Here are some great sites for finding free digital scrapbooking supplies:
http://www.pickleberrypop.com/startuppack.htm
http://scrap-a-lot.blogspot.com/
http://digifree.blogspot.com/
http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/ (a great one for finding other sites with freebies all in one place)
http://artisticmusings.typepad.com/artistic_musings/ (every Friday)
http://sugarsnapscraps.blogspot.com/
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp

My advice is to find some kind of RSS reader (like Google Reader; it's free) and subscribe to the feeds of each of these blogs. Then, you can go through the posts easily and see what freebies are being offered. Also, if you find a freebie you really like, subscribe to the blog it came from so you can look for more stuff by that designer.

I have probably over 100 blogs that I subscribe to. It only takes me a few minutes to go through them and see which ones have freebies. There are other ways to get free stuff too. Some websites will have "challenges" and if you complete the challenge, they give you a free prize (here's an example). Also, there is a forum where people who are giving away free stuff post. Here's the link.

Also, there are special events when people give stuff away. Different stores open all the time and give away free kits. You just kind of have to keep your ear to the ground. :) I'll give you a heads up if I hear of any really good ones.  November 1 this year is "(Inter)National Digital Scrapbooking Day." People are going to be giving away free stuff like CRAZY, and you should be able to find some great deals.

You can also buy the supplies. I haven't spent a whole lot (but you can if you're not careful!). I usually buy when there are huge sales, or if it's something really unique that I can't do without (lol).

Here are some websites that have forums with great advice on scrapping:
http://www.thedigichick.com/forums/
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/index.php
http://www.scrapartist.com/scrapforums/index.php
Each of those pages also has a "Gallery" where you can look at scrapbook pages other people have made to get ideas for your own.

Finally, here are some tutorials that explain how to use the software:
http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/tutorials/software_tutorials.asp
http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-script/tutorials/publish/cat_index_21.shtml
http://twolittlepixels.com/tutorials.htm

If you have any questions, I would be really happy to answer them for you. I LOVE digital scrapbooking... it's just like scrapbooking, but without the mess. You can do everything in your program (and more) than you would do online.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would Digi-Scrap circles around you. Im pretty much the cat's pajamas when it comes to digi-scrapping!

Renee said...

Thanks for the intro to it - I've been curious about it and keep going back and forth over whether I want to start trying this.