Dabbling in Digital

From time to time I enjoy opening up my Photoshop Elements 8 and, using some of the free scrapbooking supplies I’ve acquired, I create digital layouts.

Here’s the thing: I will NEVER be an all-digi scrapper. I just don’t find the kind of enjoyment in digital that I do in paper and glue.

I’m usually inspired to do digital layouts when I’m thinking of scrapbooking specific photos, but have no inspiration or drive to get up out of my chair and march into my scrap room. Generally what happens is that I complete the digital layout and then I have the inspiration (and, in general, a sketch) all picked out and organized for those photos. It makes me crop, print, and scrap those photos faster and the process easier.

The thing is, I’m not sure why I’ve never shared any of these digi layouts here on my blog. They’re literally the EASIEST creation to show because I don’t have to worry about time and effort spent on photo quality or photo editing. They are only files and so are already perfect in photo quality.

So, I’ve recently completed a digital layout (which will probably soon become a traditional layout with different products and (maybe, if I feel like it) some journaling.

This is a digi LO of the baby of our family on his first day coming home:

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Program: Adobe PSE8 | Kits: “You are My Sunshine” by: Scrapartist Collaborations for Creating Keepsakes; “Just My Type” A collaboration for www.EveryDayMomIdeas.com | PNG elements: Scalloped borders and rectangles created by me and used as clipping masks

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I love those digi letter stamps (they are free and scanned from old books) but I can’t remember for the life of me where I got them! Also, I adjusted the color on them from the originals to fit the color of my papers and embellishments.

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Entered in:

(Here is the tricky part. I don’t know if it’s okay to enter this into challenges. I mean, the work that goes into one of these is about the same, time-wise, as a card with stamping and embellishment. Making Digital look decent requires layering, shadowing, color adjustment, sizing, and photo cropping – among other skills. Those things do take time and artistry, I just don’t have a physical product to show for it. I guess I will enter this into a few and see what happens!)

Cutie Pie Challenge: Anything BUT a Card

Allsorts: Free and Easy February

I’m just going to go with two and see how it goes. : )

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Hopefully you traditional scrapbookers out there will find a little time to learn how to use a program like this. It’s a colorful and fun way to learn photo-editing techniques while actually planning your page and cropping your pictures. (Using Digi stamps on layouts is fun too – for my digi stamp sistahs out there!) I’m not very experienced with digital, but I do pretty much know what I’m doing when it comes to PSE – even though I could DEFINITELY know more. Any feedback would be awesome!

Thanks for stopping by!

Keep it royal queenies (and maybe just TRY it digital!).