Discovering Digital Scrapbooking

I love to scrapbook.  I've been doing it for years, but quite frankly I find it tedious to pull out all the stuff, cut papers, trim pictures, and generally make a big mess.  A couple of years ago I put my vacation pictures into an album from Snapfish.  I did all of that in the mornings while I was still on vacation.  (My family likes to sleep in and I'm a morning person.)  I was so excited to have it done by the time we got home and it was printed out and in my hands in about a week.

However, there weren't very many options for the album.  I couldn't even add text without creating a "picture of a text" in MS Publisher.  No stickers, limited backgrounds, and no free moving pictures.  I was sort of frustrated with it at that point and didn't hurry back.

A year or so later I saw a friend's album from Shutterfly and it was very robust.  I loved it.  But I was busy and didn't really do anything with it. 

A year and a half ago we moved from North Dakota to Missouri and I had to pack up all my scrapbooks and supplies.  In the new house I don't really have a place to keep them, but I was determined to get back on the scrapbooking wagon.  So I went to a crop at the local store and met a couple of nice ladies.  Worked on a few pages and discovered everyone around here is really into paper piecing.  Arrgghhh.  That is too much detail work for me.  And while the pages are beautiful (gorgeous and fantastic), I feel like the pages become more about the scrapbook and less about the photos and memories.  I generally like simple pages that highlight my photos and help tell my stories.

I once again stalled out on my scrapbooking adventure.  Then about 6 weeks ago I decided I was going to get my 2013 album completed.  But as I was thinking about it I was remembering my friends beautiful digital scrapbook.  And I decided I wanted to give it another try.  So I did what I do whenever I start something new.  I Googled it.

I started looking at options.  Online software vs. software I could buy and have on my computer.  Deciding spending no money was the right way to try it out I limited myself to online software.  The reviews said MixBook and Shutterfly had the most options and were the "best price for the money."

I ended up choosing MixBook and it was exceptionally simple to use with many themes and choices.  I did my whole 2013 album in a few weeks,  300+ pages.  Some I used their layouts, some I modiefied their layouts, and some I did my own from scratch.  Which is pretty much the way I paper scrapbook too.

Things I liked:  I could add my own backgrounds and embellishments.  I wasn't limited to what they offered and didn't have to pay to use their "extras."  There were lots of premade options including lots of blank layouts for adding my own embellishments.  I can use my own pictures as backgrounds and fade them out. The software is easy to use and understand.

Things I didn't like:  I can't round the edges of my pictures.  I may get creative to figure this out in the future but there was no easy way to do it.

Later I tried Shutterfly, but found it much less intuitive.  And while it had a few more options (not many really) I found it harder to learn and use, so I gave up pretty quickly.

Here are some of the pictures I made with Mixbook:

This is a pre-made layout from MixBook.  I just popped in the two pictures and added in the text for the dog's name.  Super easy and done!

This is a pre-made page that I modified.  There was only two pictures at the bottom and they stopped where the big picture stopped.  I modified the pictures across the bottom and added the small picture inside the other picture.  I will also give photo credit to my SIL here.  She took a couple of these pictures.

This is my own layout.  I faded one of my own pictures into the background and added the others on top.  Because the page is so busy and I didn't want to take away from the background picture I didn't add any embellishments.

This page is from a free kit I downloaded for free from DigiDesign Resort.  I then uploaded a few of their pieces to MixBook and plugged in my pictures. Their are many many embellishments and kits available online.  If you're clever you can find many free ones.  I haven't paid for any yet.  But even if you do buy them the best part is you can use them over and over and over unlike with paper scrapbooking.

I have tried (successfully and unsuccessfully) a few other things and will share those in the future.  Happy scrapbooking!