Digital Scrapbooking

Scrap booking is a nice hobby...and doing it digital made it more fun, easy and thought-provoking : D. I started doing digiscrap in 2006. It was something new to me. I was amazed of the different lay-outs (LOs) out there, the various elements and everything that you can actually collaborate to make something really nice and special. Of course making it as your hobby is not like the old-style scrap booking. You have to have a pc and a hard disc to contain all your files and of course a program like photoshop to do it all.

I remember as a beginner, I only rely on freebies to do a project (LO). Mr Google has always been my reliable helper. Since then, I got hooked.

Going into the history.....

Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. The idea of keeping printed materials of personal interest probably dates to shortly after the invention of printing. This trend is probably similar for photographs. Historically, scrapbooking was a tradition similar to storytelling, but with a visual and tactile, rather than oral, focus.

In ancient Greece hypomnemata were a form of notebook for recording one's own copies of what one had heard, read, or thought that might be worth remembering. There is little evidence in the archaeological and historical record that this practice was undertaken anywhere else previously. That one had to make one's own hand-written copies of what someone else had written reflected the expense of hiring a scribe to do so. More recently commonplace books reflected the same practice. Only with the availability of abundant printed material is it likely that the content of such books shifted away from one's own hand-writing or drawings or those of one's family members toward commercially available printed material.

Scrapbooking in its earliest form was a way to blend ephemera, memorabilia collections and journaling. People have been scrapbooking since printed material became available to the average person. Some of the earliest and most famous American scrapbookers include Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain.

Scrapbooking with photographs has been around since photos became available to ordinary people. Old scrapbooks tended to have photos mounted with photomount corners and perhaps notations of who was in a photo or where and when it was taken. They often included bits of memorabilia like newspaper clippings, letters, etc. Modern scrapbooking has evolved into creating attractive displays of photos, text, journaling and memorabilia.

Digital scrapbooking

The advent of scanners, desktop publishing, page layout programs, and advanced printing options make it relatively easy to create professional-looking layouts in digital form. The internet allows scrapbookers to self-publish their work. Scrapbooks that exist completely in digital image form are referred to as "digital scrapbooks" or "computer scrapbooks."

While some people prefer the physicality of the actual artifacts they paste onto the pages of books, the digital scrapbooking hobby has grown in popularity in recent years. Some of the advantages include a greater diversity of materials, less environmental impact, cost savings, the ability to share finished pages more readily on the internet, and the use of image editing software to experiment with manipulating page elements in multiple ways without making permanent adjustments. A traditional scrapbook layout may employ a background paper with a torn edge. While a physical page can only be torn once and never restored, a digital paper can be torn and untorn with ease, allowing the scrapbooker to try out different looks without wasting supplies. When you create a digital layout, you do it in much the same way that you would a traditional layout, in that you layer papers and elements on top of one another. Each paper, photo, or embellishment exists on its own layer in your document, and you can reposition them at your discretion.

Furthermore, digital scrapbooking is not limited to digital storage and display. Many digital scrappers print their finished layouts to be stored in scrapbook albums. Others have books professionally printed in hard bound books to be saved as keepsakes. Professional printing- and binding-services offer free software to create scrapbooks with professional layouts and individual layouting capabilities. Because of the integrated design and order workflow, real hardcover bounded books can be produced cost effectively.

If you haven't tried doing it, I encourage to go and try it now. It's fun! There are a lot of websites that offer lots of freebies to start with. There are also helpful tips to guide you as you go with it.... and if you ran out of free stuffs, you can always buy...hahaha! Just ask Mr. Google to help you on your searches.

Monday, April 28, 2008 | Labels: |

 

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