Benefits of Digital Scrapbooking Techniques

Still not ready to abandon traditional scrapbooking for digital? Not to worry. Here are just a few reasons why digital scrapbooking is a great way to create beautiful and exciting scrapbook pages.

Benefits of Digital Scrapbooking Techniques

• Convenience: One of the most important benefits of using your computer and other digital gadgets is the convenience of doing much of your work at home. You can copy or print your own photographs rather than driving to your photo developer. With photo-editing software you can enhance your photos by adjusting the brightness, contrast, and color rather than crossing your fingers and hoping the photo technician has the time to make all those adjustments.

• Artistic Possibilities: You can have the pleasure of creating your own decorative background papers instead of spending hours trying to find a decorative paper that will do justice to your photograph at a craft store or scrapbooking shop. You can create a theme for a scrapbook with a click of a mouse rather than trying to find the right sticker, die cut, paper punch, rubber stamp, or buying duplicates.

• More Possibilities: By using specialty papers in your printer, like silk, twill, poplin, or denim fabric (with paper backing so it flows smoothly through the printer), oil canvas (textured just like painting canvas), bright white, glossy, and matte, you can expand the range of looks for photos, frames, and borders. And if you get brave or just plain crafty, you can try a magnetic sheet to create refrigerator magnets, a fabric-transfer sheet to create a T-shirt, a shrink-plastic sheet to create jewelry or window-cling sheets to share your photos with the world that walks by your front window.

• Even More Possibilities: Although some personal handwriting should be included in a scrapbook, there is no reason not to take advantage of the availability of attractive fonts and specialty types. Think of it—no more lightly tracing straight lines onto your scrapbook page with your pencil while hoping you can erase those lines when you are done journaling. There is even software that allows you to turn your own handwriting into a font! You can spend more time choosing your words rather than worrying if your grandchild will be able to read your writing.

• Working in Multiples: Using your computer to duplicate a scrapbook page or an entire scrapbook can save you time, effort, and money. All you need to do is create the page, scan it, and then print the scanned page onto quality paper. This is great for pages you design around family gatherings such as a birthday party, wedding, or family reunion. You can create several traditional scrapbook pages and print out duplicates that you place into simple binders and give as keepsakes to family and friends. Imagine how much time and effort that saves you—time you can spend creating more scrapbook pages.

 

Maria Nerius is the author of Digital Scrapbooking: Using Your Computer to Create Exciting Scrapbook Pages