2015 Digital Scrapbooking Day

In The Studio

A lot of people, when they hear my blog name or email address, assume that the “scraps” in Scraps of Life refers to scrapbooking. That’s not the case (it actually represents the bits and pieces–aka scraps–of time and experiences that make up our lives) but it’s true that I’ve been into scrapbooking since the late 90s, back when the landscape was wild and the supplies were few. My how things have changed (in, um, 17 years).

If you’ve hung around here long enough, you know I’m the crafty sort and I do love my papers and glue and for the longest time I swore I’d never give them up! I still haven’t, but I did broaden my horizons back around 2006 or so when I started fooling around with digital scrapbooking–turns out, I really liked it!

Even though I have most of my supplies for traditional, paper, scrapbooking I mostly use them for other projects these day. Instead, I’m 99% digital when I do make the time to scrapbook. Why?

  • Digital elements don’t get used up
  • Digital elements don’t take up a lot of space (well, physical space… my external hard drive is another matter, but storage gets cheaper every day!)
  • You never run out of glue
  • You can change the color of a paper or embellishment if it’s not quite right
  • Unfinished layouts are easy to save and come back to

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held onto a particular piece of patterned paper because it was so pretty and I didn’t want to use it up because it was now discontinued. Or how I once borrowed my mom’s SUV to go to a scrapbook retreat because it meant I could bring more supplies. OR how frustrating it is to have the perfect thing for a layout but it clashes horribly with everything else I want to use. The struggle is real, and the supply bills are high!

Digital kits and elements also tend to be a lot less expensive than their physical counterparts. Add to that the fact that most of our photos these days are digital, you save money by not having to make prints for scrapbooking (not to mention the ease of resizing images to fit just so) and you can still print out your pages and put them into albums.

An unexpected benefit from digital scrapbooking was learning to use Adobe products (I took a course from Scrap Girls back in the day on how to scrapbook with Photoshop Elements 3.0–I think 12 just came out? No, wait, we’re on version 14 now) that made it so much easier when I started my webcomic and needed to do some digital post-processing. I’ve also dabbled in creating my own digital papers and elements, including this little mini kit (from back in 2012) which is kinda perfect for this time of year! In honor of Digital Scrapbooking Day (which is the first Saturday in November, aka tomorrow), I’m putting this little set up for grabs (for free!).

HMD_harvestfruit_preview600Get your free kit here!

More recently I got bit by the Project Life bug. I love that it’s quick and easy and the templates are so much fun to use. I bought a physical kit to put together an album of years of family photos for Mom a couple years ago, then I switched to their digital options for my own stuff. Here’s a smattering of some of my recent layouts

From our wedding album (which I really need to get on the ball with!)

From our wedding album (which I really need to get on the ball with!)

From our honeymoon (I still have a lot to do on this book, too)

From our honeymoon at Disney (I still have a lot to do on this book, too)

Halloween 2015! After all, the everyday is what makes the most memories...

Halloween 2015! After all, the everyday is what makes the most memories…

And one of last year's conventions.

And one of last year’s conventions.

Will you be doing any scrapbooking this weekend, digital or otherwise?

40 thoughts on “2015 Digital Scrapbooking Day”

  2. What a great reason to choose a blog name! I wanted to get into scrapbooking, even bought a bunch of stuff for it years and years ago, but I never did a thing with it. I suck at scrapbooking. The kit you made is adorable! If I had any hope of following through, I’d be snapping that up!

    1. I loved it and still love it, even though I’ve always been a bit of an outlier since I don’t have kids. I was actually asked one time, ‘then why do you scrapbook?’ lol.

  4. This is wonderful! I’m totally pro digital scrapbooking too – for a lot of the same reasons you are!

  6. Every summer (I’m a teacher) I plan on sorting through photos ad making all my kids photo albums. Well the scrapbooking indsutry has completely changed since I initially started. Who knows where it will be when I really finally get around to it!!!!

    1. Very true! I hope you get around to making those albums one year (there are scrapbooking apps now, too, if that makes it quicker for you!).

    1. I kept all my paper (it’s so useful in other projects!) but I purged a lot of my embellishments. I shipped a super-packed box to Ronald McDonald House for them to stock their activity centers. You might consider doing the same if you switch.

  11. I love your recent layouts!!! Very creative!
    Like you I was very much into the initial paper-and-glue craze and I still have a closet full of scrapbooking supplies. They are so cute! I feel a thrill just looking at the background patterns (crazy, I know) Once I started having kids I just didn’t have an opportunity to lay everything out and spend a few days putting it together, so I had to switch to digital. I do a couple of scrapbooks a year: one for each kid, vacations and for our art projects. It’s very rewarding. I just love it!!
    Did you take a scrapbooking course on line? I consider myself a pro, but I wonder how much I still don’t know!!!

    1. The scrapbooking course I mentioned was a video series that the founder of Scrap Girls created for each of the different programs on the market, it was great to learn some of the basics of how each tool was used and some of the things I could do with the different kit elements. Studio Calico is one site that I know of that offers classes on the regular.

    1. Most of my photos are for the blog, these days (which is sorta like a scrapbook, in its way), but I’m trying to remember to take fun pictures, too!

  14. Ohhhhh I have sooooo many things to get into a scrapbook that it IS overwhelming. I started out good when my daughter was born doing traditional books but haven’t done anything with it in years. One of these days. 😉

  17. This is going to sound weird coming from a blogger, but I don’t understand how to use digital scrapbook in pieces for my own photos. I need to read more posts like this, I guess!

    1. I know the feeling–if I were to try to actually catch up with everything ever I’d be going back a ways. But if I just pick the big events to tackle and then start where I am it’s not so daunting 🙂

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