Digital scrap booking is catching on fast. You can make digital scrapbook pages unique by using your computer. With photo editing programs you can remove red eye, crop pictures, touch up colors, brighten, sharpen, and perform other functions to make your photos better and more fun. Digital scrapbooks can easily be made by applying sayings or scenery that fit the motif of the subject. You can also add where the picture was taken and the date too using the text tool of your editing program.

If you have birthday pictures you can add a birthday cake with candles and the age of the person having the birthday on the computer scrapbook pages that you need for your scrapbook. You can accent your pictures with Christmas trees and date them accordingly. Many holiday themes are available online allowing accents for other holidays. Some caps and gowns in the backgrounds of your pictures is a great way to remember your child’s graduating year. There are endless ways to add special effects to your computer scrapbook pages.

The benefit to using the computer for your scrapbooking is that you can produce more than one copy of your page. This is great for making albums for everyone in your family or on your Christmas list. There are also a variety of different textures and designs of papers and inks that can be used. You can even print pages 12 inches by 12 inches if the printer you own can print in wide format. However an 8″ x8″ can be handled well by most regular printers. How gratifying to see your online scrapbooking layouts printed in an album or book.

On doing computer scrapbook pages there are several other benefits. If you make a mistake laying out one of these pages all you do is click undo and do it over again, you can keep doing this as many times as it takes to get it right. It is less messy doing electronic scrapbooking too. Instead of laboring with scissors and paste, or carefully hand writing the pages, you can simply print out the pages and add personal decoration whenever you choose. Easily store your photos on your computer, all the while having the option to burn them onto a CD-R and/or DVD-R.

A few months ago I wrote a piece about how manufacturers are not continueing their video series. Not all have quit, but, many have. Why, is the question I must ask myself. I understand that a great deal of money goes into making and producing video, especially when you are adding craft projects, the problem I see is that they don’t see a direct monetary result from these videos. Maybe if they did a better job of marketing them, and creating a buzz, they would see more of a direct monetary benefit.  I can think of many ways these manufacturers could not only see the monetary value of keeping these video series going, but, how they could incorporate more of a buzz for their customers.

Sizzix has a line of videos that are quite basic, but, show that they are taking iniative and producing good high quality videos that their customers can benefit from. If you are a Sizzix machine owner, you know how fun and easy they are to use, and the videos that Sizzix has put together shows the ease of use.

Now, if Sizzix would come out with more idea videos and create a group around this type of video series, they might just see how beneficial this line of video is for them and their customers.

To see videos from Sizzix, click here.

Digital Scrapbook Graphics-Making Your Digital Scrapbook Unique

Digital scrapbooking is similar to traditional scrapbooking but it is easier and cheaper. With physical scrapbooking problems such as photos eventually turning yellow and the damaging of photos by cutting them to resize them, an alternative is online scrapbooking where you can ensure protection of your photos and make your very own unique online scrapbook pages. There are special websites that have endless digital scrapbook graphics for special occasions and holidays. You can only start digital scrapbooking once you have scrapbooking software and a photo program installed on your computer. To show you the way to get started there are tutorials and advice online for free. You can take advantage of free scrapbooking clipart and digital scrapbooking kits that already have all of the basic elements, ready for you to merge your photos into.

You can create your own paper, and embellishments, add your own digital scrapbook graphics from scrapbooking clipart files, Internet sites or your photo and scrapbooking software program. Since nothing is glued down, you can fix mistakes easily with your undo button, and since the digital scrapbook supplies are on your computer, you can re-use them over and over! There are different programs that you can import your graphics from and put them on your pages. The more you experiment, the better you can become, and the more unique your digital scrapbook becomes.

Using the email or a personal web page you may send pages from a digital scrap book to friends and family members. You can also make as many copies of your layouts as you wish and share them with family and friends in print. Merge your files when printing to get consistent results and make additional copies of your efforts to a CD, flash drive, or email yourself a copy. Making additional copies of your efforts is important should your computer stop working. A unique gift idea for special occasions, such as birthdays or for the holidays, is a digital version of your scrapbook burned onto a CD. With the advances in digital scrapbooking , there has been a huge increase in the amount of people who are scrapbookers.

There are all kinds of great freebies online for digital scrapbook design, tutorials on digital scrapbooking, digital scrapbook graphics and scrapbooking clipart, paper designs and more. You can find fun and creative ideas for your digital scrapbook by visiting the blogs of other scrapbook creators. While many people still belong to scrapbooking clubs, and take the annual scrapbooking convention getaway, they can get great ideas year-round through the Internet.
You can customize your digital scrap book - eventually making it more interesting - by adding journal excerpts and poems: just browse one of the many galleries and websited which offer downloads. Digital scrapbooking allows you to create your own electronic scrapbooks for every single event easily.

Scrapbooking has become an industry unto its self in recent years. It has truly been the hobby that has been sweeping the nation. In part, it is so popular because it is a wonderful way to care for and preserve your memories. When you create a memory filled scrapbook you can look back on all the wonderful moments in your life. High quality scrapbook patterned paper is an absolute necessity for beautifully unique scrapbooking.

One of the best ways to capture a memory’s personality in your scrapbook, as well as your own personality, is to explore all of the different types of scrapbooking paper on the market. Card stock is one of the most often used papers in scrapbooking. One of the heavier scrapbooking papers is card stock. High quality card stock comes in various colors and is usually solidly colored. It will also have a “white core” if it is good quality scrapbooking paper. That means you would see a white line between the two layers of color if you were to tear the paper in half. Card stock can also have a slight texture pattern to it if that’s what you’re looking for.

Don’t forget patterned papers in scrapbooking papers. Today there are so many great patterns that you can choose from. Many patterned scrapbook papers are double sided, making it easier for the scrapbooker to be more creative. Your memory page can be imbued with spirit and energy by using scrapbook papers.

You need to ensure that your scrapbooking paper is of a certain quality since it is your second most important supply item. Your most important supply you have is your photos, but matching the right paper with your photographs will take your scrapbooking to the next level. To ensure that your papers will have a long shelf life without suffering from discoloration or causing damage to your photos you will want to choose acid and lignin free scrapbooking papers.

As soon as you’ve selected you scrapbooking paper, you will want to learn about ways of customizing it. You can personalize your scrapbook layout in lots of ways. One of the easiest ways to add a little zest into your scrapbook pages is by combining your papers in an interesting way. Combine unexpected patterns and colors for a new and different flair. You can use paper punches to detail individual papers in your scrapbook if you are interested in customizing it. Your options are limitless when it comes to personalizing your scrapbooking papers, because paper punches come with an assortment of options.

Scrapbooking your photos is a wonderful way to honor your memories. Your photos are going to be showcased by your scrapbooking paper, therefore it is vitally important. Your scrapbook will stand out as unique by remembering just a few important tips for material selection.

What are the hottest colors this season?

Orange, royal purple and green is the newest- consider how the non-seasonal prints may work for Mardi Gras as well. Also the traditional orange and black refreshed with gray and white.

Paper and embellishment collections that feature traditional Halloween themes of jack-o-lanterns, witches,bats and ghosts. Many retailers have gone with a more autumn/harvest season approach to their product. Many of these collections feature autumn leaves, pumpkins and stylized wildflowers. These collections transition quite well into Thanksgiving. Consider projects that do dual duty as Halloween and Thanksgiving décor with a few additions to make it season appropriate.

Cards-Folks will be looking for ideas for cards and especially party invitations. This is a great opportunity to show your customers great ways to make simple and elaborate cards. This is also a great time to show your customers the value in starting their own card clubs in the new year, and giving special discounts to card groups.

Products
Check out the Websites of your favorite retailers or my favorites for products that you can have delivered immediately.
,
Paper Adventures-The Jeepers Creepers incorporates many hot trends including the 1970’s style owl, orange and orange and purple palette. Check out the woodblock tree paper and the allover spiderweb print. This collection is lots of fun! www.anwcrestwood.com

Sizzix-Halloween by Brenda Pinnick includes Sizzlits 3-Die Sets and Strip Dies, Sizzix Originals Dies, Sizzix Bigz Dies and Sizzix Texturz and Sizzix Clear Stamps. These are such great pieces to add to any Halloween layout. www.sizzix.com.

Moxxie-Eye of Newt Collection includes double sided papers, witch body parts (think of the witches legs under the house in Wizard of Oz, stickers and rub-ons. www.gotmoxxie.com.

Little Yellow Bicycle-Frightful has plenty of options in the traditional orange and black combine the papers and punch out s with a black haunted house chipboard album. www.mylyb.com.

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L-Their black adhesives are the perfect sticky note for the dark toned papers. Be sure to include some in your Halloween as well as core displays. www.scrapbook-adhesives.com.

Crafty Secrets-Halloween stamp sets- if your customers love vintage images these are some of my favorite. www.craftysecrets.com.

Me and My Big Ideas-Cornucopia is a lovely fall leaves-themed collection in autumnal tones tat would work well as table décor. The coordinating Soft Spoken line embellishments work for invitations as well as cards. www.meandmybigideas.com.

Hero Arts-The Turkeys and Pumpkins collection is a great example of how the autumn season can be drawn out and maximized with cute and classic images of traditional themes as well as inspirational message. www.heroarts.com.