Digital Scrapbooking - Green Bay,WI

If you want easy and the best.....Close to My Heart.....Studio J
I absolutely love it and nothing compares to it.

I use a combination of Shutterfly and Creative Memories Storyteller. I like digital, as you said, easier to keep control of it, not another hobby taking up space.

I use Creative Memories (and I am an independent consultant, so I sell CM also). Their website contains a lot of ideas.

I didn't know how to start either. Here's a few ideas:

Think about how you categorize things naturally, how you would make a scrapbook if you were going to make a traditional paper scrapbook if you had a huge room and a huge table and all the time in the world. Think about if space and money and time were of no consideration, would you make scrapbooks that focused on your child or children, year by year? Like, a book all about little Susie, from her baby years, to starting preschool, her dance lessons, etc? Or would you make a book about your whole family, by year? Like, this is 2012, and here's our book for 2012. Susie went to camp, we got a puppy, Johnny is in Little League, here's our summer vacation trip, etc. Or do you like holidays, and have fun family gatherings? If you can think about how you like to remember special events or family members, that may help. You will then know that you want to make a digital scrapbook of Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings, or a scrapbook of Susie's growing up year-by-year, or a family album. But you need to know what type of documenting and organizing makes more sense to you, what's important to you.

What comes to mind if you were asked "what is precious to you?" Is it births of children, grandmothers and grandfathers, family time spent together? You're narrowing down what you want to see in a book.

What do you want to remember, what event do you never want to forget, what relationship do you want to always celebrate, what memory do you want to pass along to someone?

How about an ancestry book? I made a very involved, very detailed family genealogy book for both my kids. I wanted them to know the name of every family line, where they immigrated from, what was going on in their native country (a war, famine, persecution, etc) when they left, the names of their parents and grandparents, where they settled, and what wars they served in. You might start documenting your kids' ancestry and begin a heritage book. It can be detailed and full of history, or it can be simple and include some family trees and photos.

I have also made digital recipe books for both kids. There's only one handwritten recipe by grandma for her famous cake, and it's fragile and fading, but with the Creative Memories software, I could scan it and make it clearer and preserve a precious copy in her handwriting for both kids. I included family recipes, and also basic cooking instructions, like how to make a marinara sauce, how to make homemade seasonings, things that every grown child out on his or her own should know how to do, in my opinion. Maybe you have recipes you want to pass down, or old recipes to preserve?

I also re-create digital versions of old family albums. I scan in the old photos, and if the person made an organized scrapbook with her thoughts, I try to keep the "flavor" of how the original book looked. If it's just a pile of photos, I make my own version. It's great because there's only one frail copy of that old album, but now that there are digital versions, lots of family members can have a copy, and there's no worry about a page tearing or a photo fading, because the book can always be reprinted, and there is now a clear, sharp copy of that old photo. Maybe you have a grandparent or parent whose story you want to preserve.

You can start with a blank page, and add designs and photos and your own words, or you can use pre-designed pages.

I have a daughter with medical problems, and I love opening my laptop and working on a page when she's sleeping or having a bad day. I don't have to get any paper and glue and stickers out, and I can experiment with photo placement and designs and just save the page and exit when she needs me. I don't always have a lot of time, but that's the great part about digital scrapbooking. You don't spend any time getting all the supplies out, you just open the program and work a little here and there.

I hope these ideas are helpful!

I am not a Creative Memories consultant but that is what I use. It has endless options and with the right consultant you get a support system that you will not get with some of the other options. Every month she has a free get together that allows you to learn new techniques with almost 1 on 1 instruction for those of us that need it.

Try Becky Higgins and Project Life...google it and you will find her website, watch the videos on digital Project LIfe...I think you will love the options, and ease of her method.

Heritage is huge and shutterfly does good ones too.

I use shutterfly. I liked their online system the best, and if you order at the right time you can get 50% off the books.

I also love paper scrapbooking as well, but who has the time? I find that digital scrapbooking has its plus points. For one, you can order several of the same books so you can give them to family members--something you can't do with paper scrapbooking. It's also so much neater! No big messy tables and boxes of stuff to put away. Now that everything is digital, you can quickly enhance, get rid of red-eye, crop etc.

I still have my paper scrapbooks, but I find that doing it digitally is just easier. I also think the digital books have their own charm :)

I have never been a paper scrapbooker, but I love Shutterfly!