thank goodness for all these ideas. i'm gonna give it a try to see what will work because boy oh boy is my hard drive crying for organization!

Hi I am brand new to scrapbooking both digital and paper. I wanted to know what do you do with a scrapbooking page when you have finished making it on the computer? Do you print it and put it in an album?
Also if you want to download the free element download how do you do that? I am not savvy with all this yet and I feel quite confused. Pls help Janette

Ok.. you all need to really look into a photo organizing program. There are many many out there.. but here are a few:
Thumbsplus (in my opinion.. one of the best but $$$$)
Picasa (free.. but not very good)
XnView Deluxe (awesome.. but also cost some $$)
IView (for PC and all you.. ahem.. mac users out there)

With these packages, you can organize everything in one program.. and you can view thumbnails or full images quickly and easily. Just let the programs search your entire harddrive(s) for items (or if you stuff on CD.. just insert the CD's). This will build a huge database of all your items and thumbnails of each element will automatically be created. Then, you can go through and either give each element keywords (ie: Color Blue, Color Red, Buttons, Ribbons, Fall, Winter....etc) or just choose the thumbnails and assign them to categories/albums.

So you could setup album/categories for:
Embellishments
-> Buttons
-> Red
-> Green
-> Ribbon
-> thick
-> gold
-> red
-> thin
-> red
-> eyelets

etc..

You can include fonts, photos, scrapping items, even full layouts! You owe it to yourself to get organized.. and using one of these programs will help you get there. It is a bit of work up front.. but it is also a lot of fun and the finished result is well worth the effort.. Oh - most programs will also let you auto generate a web page with all your info or print out a catalog or index sheet! The possibilities are endless. I use this for my photos and let me tell you.. I can pinpoint an exact picture using a combination of keywords, categories and EXIF info... priceless!

I use PSE3 and I'm willing to email my tags to whoever would like them. I've got a ton of great tags organized in a very helpful way (at least for the way MY brain works ). Check out this thread for a link to download them, if you're interested:

http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/chat/...7565#post97565

I hope that I can save someone some work!

__________________
Mom to five children in five years: "If you think our hands are full, you should see our hearts."

Visit my Gallery and see my cute family!

Visit my blog

Just thought I would add my two cents worth. When I started downloading I separated the papers into one folder, and then the elements into another, the tags into another...etc. This was great until I realized I was having difficulty finding what matched with what etc. So....I went back and reorganized everything by Kit...each kit has a folder with the kit name and creators name on it. After I have so many (usually about 8) I burn them to a CD and I also (when downloading) make sure I have a preview picture (some include it in the download, some don't, and if they don't I just right click the preview on the internet and save that picture). Then I make a jewel case cover, and print the preview pictures on there, 4 on one side and 4 on the other side. Now when I want to create a LO I flip through my CD's and find a kit I like and use it. I can credit the creator, know the title of the kit....etc. With random elements I do the same thing. It seems to work well for me. And now...finally after two years of doing this I am figuring out my u-lead program and starting to create my own backgrounds, frames and slide mounts. I am proud to say I now have a CD of my own creations. Nothing good enough to share yet....but it's getting there.

Thats exactly how I do mine sandief...but that reminds me...its time to do some burning lol. I havnt backed up in ages.
Its great you are making your own creations. I have made one torn paper so far. lol
Kellie

Another vote for Picasa !!!
I have sorted out everything in there, and I love it !

I've been digi scrappin since Aug or Sept I think. I had the idea too, like Shawnery, at the beginning, to organize my digi stuff like my paper stuff. So, I broke up all the kits into folders of backgrounds, elements (further sorted), ribbons and fibers, tags, etc. Now, however, that I'm reallly doing pages and wanting to share them, I'm having a really hard time finding who made things! So, now when I download, the zip file goes right into a folder with the name of where I downloaded. Then when I unzip it, it goes into another folder with the name of the kit and designer in a folder of where I got it. lol I am actually going back and trying to recreate the kits I broke apart by looking at the zip files and searching every folder! yikes! but its working. I think after I'm all done, I'm going to use picassa to tag them. So, they'll still be in folders with kit and designer name but I can find a red eyelet, for example! lol I like my system for pics, so I'm only going to use picassa for my digi scrappin stuff.

Janette, downloading is pretty easy, just click on the link included and save it to your computer and then unzip it. I haven't printed many of my pages yet, but I intend too! I am doing my BOM and AAH books in 8x8 and have printed a couple to put in our albums, just am a little behind in printing! lol I think some people take them places or send them places to have printed in 12x12 or other sizes and bound. good luck!!

__________________

My Gallery