Monday, September 13, 2010

Beginning Digital Scrapbooking from a Beginner!

I have a confession to make about Photoshop.  C bought Photoshop Elements 8 for me as a Christmas gift.  I was so excited to get it out of the box and install it.  As soon as I opened the program for the first time, I was completely overwhelmed by it's capabilities!  There were so many tools and effects that I didn't even know where to begin...it doesn't even come with a manual.  So I opened a new file and tried to get right to work creating my first digital scrapbook layout.  I worked on it for about 20 minutes and gave up!  I had no idea what I was doing and was so disappointed.  I had seen the extravagant layouts with beautiful layers and perfectly placed pictures...I just knew I could do it!  But it turns out I couldn't!  So I gave up for quite a few months.  I'm sad to say that I didn't even open Photoshop for a good three or four months!  The little Photoshop icon on my computer stared at me every time I turned on the computer...taunting me even.  And then my digital scrapbooking world completely turned upside down.
One afternoon I was browsing the Shabby Princes blog and stumbled upon a free template.  I had no idea what it was or how to use it, I just knew it looked cute and I wanted to figure it out and quickly!  At the bottom of the post, it linked to a tutorial on how to use the free template.  Please take the time to look at this, you will be amazed at how simple and easy it really is!  So I downloaded it and got right to work.  I opened it in Photoshop, opened up one of my free digital kits that I picked up here and got right to work.  I made this layout in about 20 minutes. 

The most time consuming was picking out the digital kit to use.  I used the Happy Go Lucky kit from the Shabby Princess website...did I mention that these are FREE!  There are so many digital freebies out there, I have yet to pay for any download!  Most of the digital kits come with a few papers, a few embellishments (ribbons, buttons, clips, etc.) and sometimes an alphabet...everything you need to create a wonderful layout!  Look at the wonderful layering and shadows on the layout, that's all built into the template.  All you have to do is open your digital papers and elements (buttons, ribbons, etc.) and the photos from your computer.  Basically drag and drop and your layout is done!  I love it...this is exactly what I was looking for!  I hope to eventually have enough knowledge to create my own templates and "from scratch" layouts, but for now I am perfectly happy with others doing the hard part! :) 
Here's another layout that I worked on recently.  I also used the Happy Go Lucky kit for this one, it's one of my favorites.


So there you have it, my Photoshop confession.  Wow, I feel so much better getting that off my chest!  Now what are you waiting for, check out those sites and get to work.  I would love to see what you create!

2 comments:

  1. First off, it's Pam and not Brian. How that happened, I have no idea. I'm computer illiterate.

    Are you still doing scrapbooking the old fashion way too, or going all digital?

    I got a cricut a couple of weeks ago and am having a lot of fun with it so far! I bought the Life's a Beach cartridge and really love it. It can do a ton of stuff.

    I printed the bbq muffin meatloaf recipe and will let you know what we think of it when I try it out - probably next week sometime. I'm not sure I have a food processor (sad that I don't even know, huh?).

    Also, back to being mostly computer illiterate, I think I may have signed up to follow you twice - once with my windstream email account and once just now with a google account. B set up the google email because he was getting too many email notifications at work because I'm shopping too much on eBay - did I mention I love my new toy?

    Have a great day! Love you guys and miss you. I'd attempt to start my own blog, but there is the computer illiterate problem I mentioned earlier!!

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  2. I am still doing some traditional scrapbooking. I'm trying to wrap up the baby book (only 3 pages left woohoo), but I'm thinking of trying our 2010 book digitally. Seeing as it's already September and I haven't started yet, I think I need to do a digital version so that I don't get too far behind. I love traditional scrapbooking, but it's so much easier to grab a few minutes on the laptop and work on a page. I do LOVE my Cricut though! I haven't used it to it's full potential yet, I really want to get some of the sticky vinyl to make home decor letters! :) Love ya and miss ya!

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