Digital Scrapbook Layout Ideas
admin | February 14, 2009
For uniquely interesting digital or computer scrapbooking, use different page layouts. Photos arranged on the page with a colored or textured background are the main design of many simple scrapbooks. Doing some digital photo editing is essential to create more options of images to use in your scrapbooks. More interesting pages include graphic elements such as:
- Titles in varied font styles
- Names, dates or text on the page in different colors and font weights and styles
- Photos arranged in montages
- Journaling on the page using a font that looks like handwriting
- Clip art graphics to interesting elements on the page layouts
- Digitally created special effects such as torn paper, shadows or glows around elements
- Frames or borders around photos
- Layering of backgrounds to simulate the look of layers of paper
You can see how getting better skills with photo editing software and learning new computer scrapbooking techniques is essential for all of this.
Some of the suggestions listed above are used in traditionally created scrapbook pages. Photo editing and “special effects” will give scrapbooks an entirely new “look and feel”. Special effect such as shadows and highlights can add interest if they are done correctly.
Layouts using a theme can be very effective to create more uniqueness to the look of your page layouts. Good topical themes for scrapbooks include birthdays, holidays, vacations, family reuninons and many others can be used. The neat thing about themes is they provide a variety of designs or pictures to incorporate along with your photos.
A Scanner is a Computer Scrapper’s Friend
Using your scanner and then photo editing your scans is a great method to acquire custom elements for your pages and layouts. Make a library of your own images that you can use in digital memory books by creating them from scanned materials or pictures. An example: You may try to scan colored pencils (though you may need photo edit scans of the things that were not flat) and use scans of other school supplies, paper, rulers, etc.
To get some patterns to use as backgrounds, try scanning holiday wrapping paper. Illustrations, photos, drawings or pictures from cards can be great for scanning. You can’t try to sell anything that you have used copyrighted images from. Embellish your digital pages with scans of ribbons or other materials you have around the house.
Another technique is to get traditional scrapbook products such as chipboard letters and scan those. After scanning them, you can change the colors and arrange the letters to add an accent to a page or make custom titles for your layouts and pages with the scanned letters.
There are also affordable clip art galleries and photo and clip art CDs available with images for themed scrapbooks. Look online for free digital kits - many are available. Digital kits provide a variety of images, patterns and elements for digial scrapbook layouts.
Make a Hybrid Scrapbook
Just because it’s a digital scrapbook doesn’t mean you can’t do some hand writing, drawing or add other embellishments on the pages after they have been printed. Hybrid scrapbooking is a combination of traditional scrapbooking and digital scrapbooking techniques. Using hybrid scrapbooking techniques is another way to be creative with your scrapbooking.
