Digital scrapbooking is a new trend in the scrapbooking circles. Technical geeks like me love it! I’ve been digitally scrapbooking for about a year now and have come to prefer it over the old fashioned form of scrapbooking. I made Charlie’s lifebook (a page from the lifebook is the photo for this post) using digital scrapbooking software and don’t think I could have completed it as quickly as I did had I used the old fashioned method.

Perhaps you want to make a scrapbnook full of milestones and pictures of your child for his/her birthmother or you want to create a lifebook for your child but the task just seems so time consuming and overwhelming. By creating your scrapbook digitally, you can save a lot of time and work at it on your own leisurely pace.

What exactly is digital scrapbooking?
Digital scrapbooking, also called digi scrapping and computer scrapbooking, is the art of using graphics software to create layouts that display photographs and other memories (such as newspaper clippings, hospital bracelets, certificates, etc) for the purpose of preserving the moment. Layouts can be shared online, archived, or printed and placed in albums.
Just as with old fashioned scrapbooking, you are creatively and properly preserving your memories and photos in an album, but with digital scrapbooking instead of dragging out loads of cardstock, stickers, brads, and numerous other embellishments, you are creating your scrapbook pages on your computer using your digital photos. It’s the scrapbook craze of this millennium!

When I first heard of digital scrapbooking, I thought it wasn’t for me. But dragging out all of my cardstock, stickers, and other supplies only to work for ten minutes before I got interrupted got old quickly! With digital scrapbooking, you can work on it, and then you just hit save! Some people though are not going to want to replace digital scrapbooking with the old fashioned form and that’s ok! For me and the others who are giving digital scapbooking a try, it makes scrapbooking not seem like such a big, daunting task.

So, how do you get started?
Well first of all you need some photo editing software. Even with old fashioned scrapbooking you crop your photos and you will want to do the same with your digital images. Photo editing software will get rid of the clutter in your pictures. You can also adjust the brightness, fix red eye, repair scratches, etc... Many digital cameras now come with photo editing software so you may have some and just don’t know it yet! Then you will need a digital scrapbooking program, your photos, and of course, your creative touch!

Related posts:
Creating a Lifebook Part 1,
Part 2, and Part 3