Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Digital Scrapbooking Pages in a Traditional Album Tutorial

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I've got a mega easy tutorial for you, today.  I get asked a lot about digital scrapbooking from traditional scrappers in several of the groups I'm in.  Before we even get started, it is ok to do both.  Hehehe...It's ok to be a die hard in either direction, but let's not snub our noses about it.  Hehehe...

Face it!  There are a lot of reasons to do both kinds of scrapbooking and one is not better than the other.  They are really quite different and also very much the same.  Confused?  Hehehe...Let's talk about both and learn how each form really should have a place in your creative agenda.

Traditional scrapbooking has always been a passion of mine.  Feeling the photos, paper and elements in our fingers.  Fussy cutting is totally therapeutic and who really minds a desk full of glitter?  Traditional scrapping is just super when you have quite some time to scrap and the room to do it.  We all know you can scrap with just about anything that will stick to the paper, so really you don't need a lot of money to do it either.  Turning the pages and enjoying the finished product is very satisfying.

Digital scrapbooking has a lot of the same advantages and I have to say that it is a lot less time consuming and you need no space.  There is no mess and nothing need be stored.  These days, you only even need your phone or tablet to scrap.  I find my digital pages are so much prettier than my traditional pages.  Darn it!  Hehehe...  Digital scrapbooking is great when you want to scrap an album fast.  When you want to design and print something in a hurry or with a tight dead line.

I keep all of my finished pages in a layered format so I can go in and change the photos around.  For example and today's project, I totally forgot to get something together for my mother-in-law's birthday party, which was today.  I went to my pages, put all of the recent ones, including her or her lovely grandchildren and family and slid them in a folder.  Then I hit up my scrap stash to search traditional mini albums. I have an array of deals I got at discount shops for occasions such as these.  I found a 6x6 mini.  Check out the rest of the story through this pictorial.


I started a folder with my desired pages so I could compare, ditch...until I had the 20 pages I needed to fill the mini.



I don't know about your software, but I do not like printing from PSE.  I always use my "Finder" in my Mac to print.  I can control the results a lot better this way.

I go to the page I want to print, right click, open with preview, then as you see...choose the print option.



You can do two things.  Go to your software and resize your pages for 6x6 or just make the adjustments in your finder, like I'm describing here.  Since my pages are always scrapped at 12x12 and then shrunk down as needed, getting 6x6 was as easy as minimising the the size of my image to print to 50%!  So easy!  (Always scrap large and then go small for the best results. To make this kind of adjustments in PSE, simply click on Image, change size, canvas and type in the exact size you need.)

My printer allows for a lot of options as well.  I chose the scale option (as you can see in the above image) so that I can put in the exact percentage I needed.  You also can often choose paper weight and quality.  My paper is just a touch heavier and with a slight gloss for the best result and not too hard on the budget.


Once all of your photos have been printed, check to see if you need to make adjustments to make them fit perfectly into your album.


It wasn't as easy as I had thought!  My pages were not coming out to fit just right in the sleeves and it took me a few tries until I figured it out, which is why I wanted to give this tutorial.  So you know how to do it without the mistakes I made.


This cut was just perfect!  Totally cut off on the sides.  Right to the design paper and then with this little extra strip on the top and bottom.  I needed to adhere my other pages to the white pages that come in the album and they looked just the same.  Shoo...


See how perfect the pages came out!  Yay!  I was very pleased with the result.  I love coordinating pages that are side by side, too.  Hehehe...



I had this entire book finished in under 30 minutes! (Keep in mind, the pages were finished.) That is not even an option for traditional scrap.  So for pop up projects like this, digital scrapping is the bomb. Especially, if you organise your pages by subject or people.

Let's consider price for a moment.  First, I could never afford to buy all of these elements and paper for traditional scrap.  A digi scrap kit can range from $1-$30 and of course there is more than enough free stuff out there and you can keep using it again and again...Can't say that for traditional.  How many papers I'm holding onto because I don't want to see them go.  Hehehe...Not a problem with digi.

Printing can be a bit pricey, for sure, but you can find some very awesome deals out there and coupons are often in circulation as well.  Depending on your printer, printing at home can save you a lot of cash.  Consider laser with powder cartridges that don't dry out.  Folks, I print a LOT and I'm yet to have to even change my cartridges out.  I'm on my second year with this Brother DCP9020cdw.

I've got an extensive blog about printing your paper projects here that you should check out if you are considering this option.

I'm just going to jump in and share that hybrid scrapbooking is also incredibly handy.  Quickly design cards, invitations, menu's, announcements, tags, posters, planner printables...and print! As many times as you need. You'll find yourself getting a lot more crafty and perhaps spending ever more time scrapbooking.

I do hybrid projects every Saturday on our blog.  Just type in hybrid in the search field at the top of the blog and see what you find. I hope to open your eyes to all of the possibilities in going digital, too.  Why limit yourself?

Thanks so much for checking out The Cherry and happy scrapping!


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