Digital Scrapbooks and More Blog

by Denise Bell

How many generations of families have been united and reunited through the art of scrapbooking? I imagine from the beginning of time that mothers and daughters have kept scrapbooks in one form
or another to document special occasions and family heirlooms. Poetry, love letters, pressed flowers, and passages from the bible are all examples of scrapbooking in its earliest form.

Men throughout history have also loved scrapbooking. In the early eighteen hundreds, Mark Twain was a big supporter of scrapbooking. He sold a series of scrapbooks in 1872 through Brentano’s Literary Emporium in NYC and also sold his scrapbooks through Montgomery Ward catalog. Part of his love for scrapbooking was due to the income he received, but he must have truly loved the craft because it is recorded that he spent his Sundays working on his personal scrapbooks. Thomas Jefferson was also known for his love of  scrapbooking. His books included news clippings, drawings, and dried leaves.

Throughout history scrapbooking has changed and evolved. In the 1870’s embossed paper was the in thing, and in the Nineteenth Century people would put calling cards in scrapbooks.

These were their invitations to special events and parties. Later it was popular to colorize by painting over black and white photos.

In the 1980s, a woman named Marielen Christensen from Utah, is one reason scrapbooking- as we know it today- became so popular. She was invited to share 50 volumes of her family memory books at the World Conference on Records in Utah in 1980 or 1981. As a result of the excitement that the books caused, the Christensen’s quickly created a scrapbooking book, ‘Keeping Memories Alive,’ as well as opening a scrapbooking retail store in Spanish Fork, Utah.

The frenzy grew from there. In the years to follow traditional scrapbooking has remained extremely popular. But the newest upgrade to this wonderful hobby? Digital Scrapbooking!

In the 1990s to the present-day, many computer-savvy scrappers discovered a better, and more cost and time-efficient way to scrap: Digital Scrapbooking. This art has been developing over the last 15-20 years as digital cameras are now extremely common, and image editing software, like Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are readily available for digital scrapbookers. Digital Scrapbooking is still relatively new compared to other older versions of traditional scrapbooking, but it combines what we love about digital scrapbooking, and adds a new, modern approach to this favorite hobby! For one, it keeps the house clean (the mess is only on your computer!), saves money (supplies are indefinitely reusable, typically cost less than traditional supplies), and Digital Scrapbooking also allows you to edit photos and make them picture-perfect when adding them to digital scrapbooking projects. Not only that, but it allows you to become artistic whether or not you can sew, draw, paint, sculpt, etc in real life! Digital Scrapbooking allows them to become an artist, a painter, or a sculptor, or whatever kind of an artist you’ve always wanted to be- you name it- through the help of the computer! Digital Scrapbooking also, of course, saves time (which is a big relief for commonly busy, on-the-go, active schedules) as you don’t have to sit and paint or spend hours sewing real detail to pages or projects! With just a few clicks of the keyboard, you can add sewn-looking detail or artistic filters that make photos or pages look liked they were beautifully drawn, sketched, or painted!  The best part about going digital? You can combine digital and traditional to get the best of both worlds- there is no reason why you can’t or shouldn’t! Add a real photo, sticker, note, or memento to a digitally scrapped page and you can enjoy a perfect fusion of both types of scrapbooking.

Because Digital Scrapbooking is still so new compared to traditional scrapbooking, it is attracting new customers and fans every day. Because this new way to scrap involves using photo editing techniques some training is usually needed to get started in Digital Scrapbooking. Digital Scrapbooks and More (www.DigitalScrapbooksandMore.com) offers the very best in Digital Scrapbooking Training in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, as well as photo editing tutorials. This company has many FREE digital scrapbooking tutorials and offers video training as well as digital scrapbooking kits and supplies at their Scrap Shop.

One of the reasons Digital Scrapbooks and More’s training is different than their competitors is because with every Digital Scrapbooking video tutorial you purchase, you also get a Step-by-Step training guide that reviews the lesson-learned (the Step-by-Step guide includes detailed instructions and pictures of the steps taken within the videos). This means, you can always sit back and enjoy the training (and never have to worry about taking notes!) and then when you’re ready to try the techniques in the videos, you can refer to these Step-by-Step training guides at that time. But even more than that: every Digtital Scrapbooking tutorial from Digital Scrapbooks and More also includes a Cheat Sheet- a quick reference training guide with super-fast instructions to use as a brief reminder later. This is great if you forget a simple step or two from the tutorial, and want to refer back and get a reminder of the lesson quickly!

There’s more about Digital Scrapbooks and More that makes it different from the rest: Many of the Digital Scrapbooking training also includes FREE extras like digital scrapbooking supplies and other goodies. And because each lesson is instantly downloadable (though they offer CD-versions too!), it’s great to have the option of  learning Digital Scrapbooking on your own schedule, which might not be the same every day if you’re busy or have kids (or both!).  You can watch each tutorial (usually about 10 minutes or less) whenever it is convenient for you!

Scrapbooking has certainly come a long way, but it’s great that technology comes along and helps make great things even better. Just like writing letters or a book, it’s nice if you have the time or beautiful handwriting to write a hand-written letter, but I certainly wouldn’t trade my computer for a nice feather-tip pen! Digital Scrapbooking is a great, modern way to be artistic and scrap special photos, moments, and memories.

So many things have changed and developed in a way that most could never dream of, but one thing that hasn’t changed, and that is that the art of scrapbooking, no matter how you go about doing it, continues to bond family and friends forever.

Happy Scrapping and Preserving Special Family Memories of Your Own!

-Denise

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