Digital Scrapbooking

Okay todays post again ventures off from the trip last summer. I feel like blogging that trip is always such a time consuming thing it keeps me from posting about other things! I've neglected my blog because I feel like if I blog it HAS to be about the trip and i'm tired of passing up other posts because of the wall that is my trip.
so heres my step forward in not being held back anymore!

Today I wanted to post about my new favorite passed time!! 

I honestly could go on and on for HOURS about how amazing digital scrapbooking is! There are so many benefits to doing it digitally I have a NEVER ending list!! If any of you are thinking about switching to digital KEEP READING! 

I will sway you...

So lets start with the number one and most obvious reason

.NO MESS.

Say you have 35 minutes of free time and think "hmmm... I wanna scrapbook!" 

You can go 2 ways from there, 

"Well, I only have 35 minutes and thats not enough time to get out my table and my bins and barrels and buckets and drawers of supplies... never mind, I probably don't have time"

OR

"YAHOO I've got 35 minutes! I'll just go sit at my desk, open up my files and get crackin'!"

No more glue, no more scissors, no more ribbons, no more scraps, no more mess!

Reason #2

You can literally do and make ANYTHING you want! I don't know about you but I HATED cutting out circles on paper! Now it takes me 2 seconds to make a perfect circle! The arrow shapes on this page below took me under 5 minutes to pick out the papers, cut them all into the shape and place them! 

Try doing that with paper!! Not easy. 

 Reason #3

You can MAKE your own supplies!

I made this princess castle in 10 minutes with stuff I already had!

No need to buy expensive specific kits anymore!

On this Drive in Movie page I made EVERYTHING except the red star paper, the lips paper and the ribbons!

Reason #4

If you have a favorite paper that you LOVE and spent 80 cents on (if you're like me) your VERY particular about how it gets used! You want it on the perfect page and you get really stingy about using it! With digital paper you can use it 100 TIMES! It will never get used up! Same thing goes for objects, if you look closely at my page I use the same leaf EVERY time I use a leaf! I just put it differently each time. I use the same flowers, same frames, same ribbons! It's awesome!

 Reason #5

If you ever wanted to put objects into a scrapbook like fabric flowers, leafs, buttons, tickets, brochures, napkins, string, etc. it will make your pages thick and heavy and your book won't lay flat and it will warp every other page as it gets heavier. With digital EVERYTHING is flat! You can put ANYTHING on a page and it will never make it heavier or thicker!

 #6

Digital gives you cool affects that you could NEVER get with normal paper scrapping. Like the bubbles on my Bath Time page! HOW FUN! (P.s I made that tub and banner myself)

Reason #7 

If you're like me, you have TERRIBLE handwriting!

When I was little I remember making a big cute page and then RUINING it with my handwriting. 

Thats when I started making me sister write on all my pages for me instead 

(THANKS NAT!)

Now, I'll add a journal page and write an entire story in one of my favorite hand written fonts and it's perfect every time!  On this page I wrote about getting my first 3rd degree sunburn, not fun.

 Oh, and lets not forget if you spell something wrong in marker! Your entire page is a goner!

Reason #8 Multiple copies!

Baby Books! 

I'm going to make one for ALL of my kids to keep!

I'm sure you did or do too!

But hey :( I want a copy too.....

With digital it's easy! JUST PRINT 2 COPIES! Print 4 and give one to Grandma and Grandpa!

 Lets say your house catches on fire! 

DON'T GO GRAB YOUR 200 LBS OF FAT HEAVY SCRAPBOOKS! Run to the office, grab your hard drive with all the digital pages and GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! You can reprint the book later!

Reason # 9

You're looking at this page thinking,

woah! I didn't know Southern Utah University made scrapbook kits!

.they don't.

 I got that logo off the internet, used it as a stencil and cut it out with scrapbook paper!

Making your own custom kits for Schools, Teams, etc. is easy!

Lets say your kid wants an underwater ninja themed birthday party!? 

I'm pretty sure they don't make a kit for that...

MAKE YOUR OWN!

#10 Damage

I was looking through my paper scrapbook I made when I was around 13 the other day. 

My mom LET ME take the ONLY copies I have of me when I was little, cut them up into crooked, lopsided ovals and then cover them with cheesy terrible STICKERS!! 

Those are MY ONLY COPIES!! 

They are damaged FOREVER! 

I was really frustrated thinking about how I was going to get this ugly yellow thought bubble sticker that says "cheeeese" off my face...

No more printing your ONLY copy of your pictures and RUINING THEM! 

Evies ultrasounds for example, her first ultrasound pictures were only printed out for me, I didn't get them digitally!

I would NEVER want to cut those up, glue all over them and put them in a book!

Instead I scanned them in, kept the originals in her folder and scrapped the copies.

No damage!

Reason #11

Pages like this (below) would be SO HEAVY with glue, sticky dots, tape and whatever else all you paper scrapper use. Glue goes bad people!! It doesn't last forever! While I was looking at my old scrapbook I noticed half my pages had lost elements due to glue drying up! You never have to deal with that when it's digital! 

#12

Creative freedom!

I can take a paper and make it ANY color I want! 

This striped paper on this page used to be 3 different colors! I liked how it was grungy though so I turned all the stripes navy blue to match my page better!

Also, I made those snowboarders.

I made the word "Snowboarding".

Those frames are metal and would never last with glue or tape,
there is some awesome chain link fence in the background, AND
Try glueing a tree branch from a blue spruce into YOUR scrapbook!

Also, this page has stitching all around the border! CUTE! I was always envious of the girls who took the time to not only pull out their scrapbook stuff but ALSO pulled out their SEWING stuff!
Now it's just drop and drag and you've got stitching!

#13

You get cool stuff in Scrapbook kits

Like the Ipod headphones in this page! 

Aren't those awesome!

Also, You can do REAL frames not just cheesy paper ones.

Reason #14 
One Pic Pages

Have a random snapshot you love SO MUCH but you don't want to waste 15$ worth of scrapbook supllies just for ONE picture on a page?! DON'T WORRY! That page will cost you 15 cents to print! 

.do it and enjoy the guilt free feeling.

Reason #15

Resizing and cropping.

When you print pictures you have 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 and thats pretty much your sizes... 

From there you have to cut off and crop in as much as you can to make a layout work!

Thats sad! Don't cut up your composition!

You can make a picture the full 12x12 or you can make it 2x2!

It don't matter!

Reason #16

I lied, I'm adding a 16th reason! 

This is a Photography conference I go to every year and this year I wanted to put my name tag on the page. 

First off, how THICK would it be to put that in a paper scrapbook!? 

The metal hook and the lanyard?! 

NO WAY! 

AND

That whole tag would have taken up half my page! 

no thank you.

I took a picture of it on a white background, cut out the background, added a drop shadow and now I can make it ANY size I want with out it taking up my entire page! 

Anyway, thats my LONG rant on why you should digital scrapbook! I hope you all are convinced :) I actually taught a Digital Scrap class out here in Denver and LOVED it! I would want to do it again! It's fun to teach what I love! 

.Advice.

Write EVERYTHING down while you kids are young!

 I'm making Evie 12 pages in her baby book, one for each month of her first year, 

each month I made a list on my Ipad of every milestone we hit with her and the date.

What she was doing,

what she learned

favorite noises to make

when she crawled, when she walked,

favorite toys, etc.

Now i'm working on a page called 

"the top 15 things I never thought I'd have to say"

I've written down all the crazy things Evie has gotten into trouble for.

"Evangeline! No! We don't lick the heater vents hunny!"

.can't wait.

Joy in the Journey Peeps!

xo. Meg