Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On our first Valentine's Day together, Steve and I had been dating for almost a year. For his present, I made him a scrapbook of of our first year together. (I obviously didn't know him very well then because Steve doesn't care about that kind of stuff at all and, although he didn't say so at the time, I'm sure he thought it was a lame present.) Still, I really liked making it and I wanted to keep scrapbooking after that. I had good intentions and I still worked on scrapbooks after Emma was born, but by the time Allie was born five years later, I had about two years worth of scrapbooks and three years worth of photographs shoved in a shoe box. My last scrapped page was before Noah's birth, and the task of trying to catch up seemed pretty daunting - especially when I thought about the huge mess of scrapbooking stuff I had to drag out to do it.This summer I started looking at my friend Christina's blog, in which she posts pictures of her digital scrapbook pages. Her pages were so cute that I was inspired to give digital scrapbooking a try. It's cheap, fun, and best of all - no mess! I started scrapping current pictures and worked my way back and it didn't take me long at all to get several months finished. Once I had eighty pages complete, I ordered a photo book. I was so very pleased with how it turned out! The quality was excellent.
In addition to the first book I had printed, I now have almost two more complete. I am completely up to date, and have gone all the way back to when Allie was born. It's a great relief for me to get these pictures scrapped, and making the pages is a lot of fun for me as well.Right now, I'm feeling a little stuck because the next pictures I need to scrap are of Allie's birth. My friend Deanna took over 500 wonderful pictures during her birth and I need to go through them and pick out the ones I want to use. Mostly though, I am not sure how to create pages that can portray the emotions involved in her birth. I want to make them special, something more meaningful than just another typical afternoon-at-the-pumpkin-patch type of page.Anyway, I guess the point of this post is, if you are considering trying digital scrapbooking, I highly recommend it!

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

What program or site do you use to do your digital scrapbooking? I'm the same way, I have a ton of scrapbook stuff, but haven't had time to do it since my two year old was born! LOL

Chick in the Czech said...

Sarah you should make Allie her own book about her birth, I think. I am so glad my mom took the time to make baby books for me and she will probably like to see hers sometime later in life!

Mom said...

I am looking forward to seeing your scrapbooks. They look really neat in these blog pictures.

Deanna said...

wow, that looks great! I'm also curious to know what site or program you used, as well as where you had the book printed. I'd love to see it in person some day. And can't wait to see what you do with the birth photos! Remember, I can now easily adjust the white balance in those, if you'd like. I've learned so much since then :-) Thanks for letting me practice on your birth!

Nicki said...

That's really cute. I ordered a blog book a few months ago. Served the same purpose for me, without the fancy backgrounds and stuff.

Sarah said...

Stephanie and Deanna, I used Photoshop to make the pages although Photoshop Elements would work as well. I printed the book at viovio.com. There are many places that will print books, but viovio was the only one I found that will do a 10x10 size. Most of the others only do 8x8, which seems too small to me, or 12x12, which seems to big. As far as getting the papers, elements, and alphabets to use for the pages, there are a ton of places online to get them. There are many freebies on blogs, etc. but also a lot of shops that sell them. This one is my favorite. http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/home.php Let me know if you want any more info!

Christina said...

I got a SHOUT OUT on a blog!! WOOHOO!!! I'm pretty sure you just made my day! :) Your books look great! I agree with doing a book just about Allie's birth. I did that with Grayson since he decided to be so "difficult" and spend 11 days in the NICU. I journaled a TON and just decided to dedicate a book soley to the birth. I am so glad I could convert yet another friend to digiscrap! It really is the only way to go!! :) Good job!!!

Hamons said...

Your books look beautiful! What a great feeling to scrapbook so many photos and memories. I've not delved into digital, tried it a few times and didn't do so well. Ordering a book makes sense though as printing was often a bugaboo for me. It seems daunting to learn a new method though...