hey everyone

I'm brand new to this... never done scrapbooking on paper either. A few weeks ago I got this great idea to do a scrapbook for one of my friends who is getting married in august. I'll be doing on of her and her FH lives growing up.

I'm wondering if there is something here to help those JUST getting started and who have never done this before. I got Hallmark scrapbook studio off ebay.

Any tips, links, anything??

Welcome SummerRaine!

You sound like me, last year! I had never paperscrapped, and I too had a scrapbooking program to begin with - and found it woefully inadequate very quickly as my expertise improved. Then I downloaded PhotoImpact [30 day trial at www.ulead.com] and found it was a an awesome bridge between the super easy program I had and the more complicated stuff I was seeing here. Jeri's tutorials on how to make my own pages from scratch [http://jinga65.homestead.com/indextutorial.html] quickly made me throw that old scrapbooking program out! Actually I gave it to my sister-in-law along with a digital camera!

Since then, I've made 100s of pages and I am so addicted! I downloaded many of the elements in the element gallery to help give my pages that polished look. In the last year, my style has changed as I devour more books on design principles etc. I regularly buy scrapbooking magazines and special edition books [a perfect one for any scrapbooker is: A Simple Guide to Designing Scrapbooks ]

Welcome again, SummerRaine! Any questions just ask us here! We'd love to help

__________________
Jacqueline
Kitty and Baby Mama
My Gallery

I tell ya, Scrapping is such an easy hobby to fall in love with.

You've come to the right place if you are wanting information. SO MANY people here know their stuff and are willing to share it! I love that about SBB.

Anyhow, I've never used the program you mentioned but one thing I think is important about starting out is to let your imagination run wild.

Also, as you download elements from websites I would recommend (starting now) that you create folders inside your element folder for each creator... so you can easily find and sort your elements and give credit to the maker...

I have been using Microsoft Digital Image Pro from the start with my DSBing. I have to admit that it is a very simple program to use and understand. It is about $100. I love what it can offer. BUT if you think you might want to get into more graphicly oriented layouts you may want to download some free copies for Photoshop elements or Photoshop CS or Paintshop and try them out too. There are a lot of great tutorials here for most programs...

If we can help, WE WILL!

Welcome aboard hun!

__________________
Kristi McFadden
Proud to be a Design Team Member at SBB!
Looking for a Tutorial in DIP? PM me and I'll try to help!
"A creative mess is better than tidy idleness." -unknown.
Click here to view my LO attempts

oh ya, and remember no question is a dumb question so ask away!

and also start SIMPLE. Don't get frustrated if you can't get the elaborate layouts down right away, they take time. Just go slow and use the resources you have here at SBB to get going!

Okay really that's all from me ! haha

__________________
Kristi McFadden
Proud to be a Design Team Member at SBB!
Looking for a Tutorial in DIP? PM me and I'll try to help!
"A creative mess is better than tidy idleness." -unknown.
Click here to view my LO attempts

Welcome to SBB!
You have come to the right place to get any and all information on DSB.
This was the one and only resource for me when I started. I use PSP 8, and do not know the Hallmark program, so I can not give you tips on it. The best thing is to ask questions and try things out.

Good luck and happy digi scrapping!

Sandy

__________________
Happy Scrapping!

My Gallery
[IMG]

Welcome to SBB! Most of use one or more of the following: Paint Shop Pro, Digital Image Pro (DIP), Adobe Photoshop or PhotoImpact. While the learning curve is steeper in Adobe Photoshop it's an excellent program and will grow with your Digital scrapping. I found DIP limiting and was thus the reason for my upgrading to Photoshp. Whatever your choice there are a bunch of tutorials in the tutorials section to get you started and we're adding to those as we go along. Post your questions in the forums and before you know it you'll be a pro. Look forward to seeing some layouts

__________________
Anna


OUT NOW! The Visual Emotion Collection

My Gallery
Email me
Fotoscrapix

I'm also new to scrapbooking. Some things I didn't find on the net:
For every layout there are a few basic steps (which can be changed around if you want to)

1
Choose the photo's you want to scrap (they tell some kind of story my maximum is at 3 photo's, but that all depends on what you want to do with the layout)
2
Choose your colors (the colours and backgrounds should reflect the emotions and the ambience of the moment, textures can also be fun. I like using colours from within the photo)
3
Deside what to do with your photo's
Crop them (The subject should come out better afterwards)
Mat them (the importance of this photo will grow)
Place them (the top is the first place people look)
4
Writing something
A title (draws the attention, tells the story, and adds to the emotions and ambience)
Journalling (things like who, where and so on are important, but also tell things that aren't in the pictures like emotions, stories, ...)
5
choosing emballishments (also inhances the ambience and emotions or are just fun!)

I forgot the first two rules of scrapbooking
1 THERE ARE NO RULES
2 JUST HAVE FUN

PS it doesn't realy matter which program you use, but if you want to switch for some reason try scanning the forums for advice (I know I did!)

__________________
Love to scrap

We've been doing some basics stuff over at Scrapping Arts (There's also a lot about scrapping in general both paper and digital)

__________________
Amy

Some of my layouts

Celebrate Life, Love and Laughter at www.theoldfrontporch.com
Scrapbooking, Homemaking, Organization, Genealogy, Friendship!
Free Elements and Embellishments Now Available!