Digital Adventures

So last week I wrote a little bit about digital scrapbooking. I thought I’d let you know that I’m still working it out. Meaning I’m a little frustrated by a few things.

First, I find myself really loving Coolibah for many reasons. First, it’s easy peasy. You have digital kits right there in their galleries. Some are free. Most are 99 cents. But here’s the rub: you can only use the kits they have in their gallery. To me, it’s frustrating because I really only like a few of the kits. As I mentioned in the previous post, the aesthetic of Coolibah doesn’t really appeal to me. As I understand, they are always working to bring in more kits and so on, but for now, for my taste, it’s lacking.

As far as Martha Stewart Craft Studio, I’m basically in the same place with it as I was last week, though I’ve created a couple of thank you cards and it was a lot of fun. Beautiful to use. But I still don’t know how to create "tradtional" scrapbook pages on it. I’m thinking the only kind of scrapbook pages you can create is mini-pages. And that’s okay because I really love mini-albums for a lot of reasons. But the fact that the ap promises scrapbooking has left me a little disappointed, which I’m sure I’ll get over.I just need to rethink it.

I messed around a bit more with Photoshop Elements. It takes up a lot of computer space and is very slow to use on my 7-year-old Mac Mini. But I can see that it’s the program that really allows for the most creativity. So I need to free up more space on my computer and have at it. Easier said than done!

There are many other aps and programs out there and I plan to check out all of the free ones and maybe some of the less expensive of a few of the others.  Anybody else have digital adventures to report on?

Playing with Digital Scrapbooking

Summer time is a great time for play. And I’ve been playing—well, working and playing and learning.

Digital scrapbooking has been calling out to me. I’ve done the Smilebox thing and I like it, but I wanted to move on to some apps and to maybe actually designing some scrapbooking pages in Photoshop Elements. (If you haven’t tried Smilebox, you should. It’s fabulous and it’s a great way to dip your toes in digital scrapbooking.)

 I’ve taken some free classes in Photoshop and think I can do it. But it takes a lot more time to play around with than what I have right now. Along with writing two books, my daughters are home for the summer and I try to spend some time with them—along with run them where they need to go. So, I’ve tabled Photoshop Elements, for now. 

In the mean time, I’ve been playing with iPad scrapbooking apps. There are many of them. I’ve played with two, so far. Both of them were free for me.

Coolibah has always been free and was one of the first scrapbooking apps out there. They offer galleries of digital  paper kits and elements that you can use to scrap. Some of them are free. I purchased one for 99 cents. Digital scrapbooking would appear to be much cheaper than traditional scrapbooking. I say “would appear” because these expenses can definitely add up. And if you want to get those pages printed, I’m sure it’s pricey, though I’ve not gotten that far yet. In any case, this app is a lot of fun, easy to follow, and free. I highly recommend it.

I lucked out and got the Martha Stewart Craft Studio App  for free during a Snapfish promotion. (It’s usually $4.99, worth every penny.) Oh boy. This app rocks my world. As usual, the folks at Martha Stewart do nothing half way. First, it’s beautiful. Coolibah, for all its ease in using and so on, doesn’t really have the aesthetic I’m seeking. (Although let me repeat, it’s free and the creator probably doesn’t have the Martha Stewart staff. But it works.) Craft Studio is designed so well—with little drawers than hold all the materials and paper that you open just with a touch. It also offers, glitter, stamps, pens, glue. It’s great fun to play with. I have one criticism: I have yet to figure out how to do a traditional-sized scrapbook page. All of the papers and pages seem to be greeting card size, although maybe I’m missing something. Does anybody else out there know?

As you can see, I’m still learning and making my way into the digital scrapbooking arena. How about you? Ever tried it? Want to?