Digital scrapbooking (or digi-scrapping) is a memory-keeping and creative craft with a vibrant and welcoming online community. If you are new to digital scrapbooking and crafting, here’s a quick guide to help you get started!

What is digital scrapbooking?

Wikipedia describes digital scrapbooking as “the creation of a new 2D artwork by re-combining various graphic elements. It is a form of scrapbooking that is done using a personal computer, digital or scanned photos and computer graphics software. It is a relatively new form of the traditional print scrapbooking.”

Digital scrapbook pages created by the Kate Hadfield Designs Creative Team

Along with scrapbook pages and other memory-keeping projects, you can use the same digital techniques to create all sorts of printed items such as greetings cards, posters, school projects and worksheets, classroom activities, invitations, decorations, gift wrap, party favours, stationery, calendars and so much more!

Your finished digital scrapbook layouts can be printed as individual pages and added to traditional scrapbook albums (great for mixing with paper pages in your album!), printed into a bound photo book or shared with family and friends digitally. You can also print your craft projects onto a number of surfaces to make t-shirts, tote bags, badges, magnets and more!

Craft projects created by the Kate Hadfield Designs Creative Team

What are the benefits of digital scrapbooking?

It’s tidy – there’s no paper, glitter or glue to clean up after you have finished!
The supplies are reusable – you’ll never run out of letters or your favourite paper ever again!
The supplies are customisable – you can make everything just the colour, size and shape you want it.
It’s easy to make copies of your projects for other people. As the finished project is digital, you can print as many copies you need, in whatever size you need.
It’s easy to change the size and shape of the photos – you don’t have to decide what size photo to print before starting your layout.
Instant shopping – place an order online and download your new supplies straight away!
The pages are flat – you can fit more pages in your album as printed digital scrapbook layouts are so thin in comparison to the more bulky traditional paper pages. You can also have hundreds of layouts printed in a bound coffee-table style book.
And maybe the most important benefit of all – you can undo any mistakes! It’s very freeing to be able to try out new techniques and styles knowing that if you don’t like the finished result you have used up any precious supplies!

That sounds good, but I love paper too much – what is hybrid scrapbooking?

One of the disadvantages to digital scrapbooking (along with the learning curve of learning how to use new software) is the lack of physical project and the feeling of actually crafting something with your own hands. This is where hybrid scrapbooking comes into its own! If (like me) you’re more of a hands-on crafter, you can combine digital and paper crafting for the best of both worlds! You can start a project digitally, print it out and continue to embellish your project with traditional craft supplies and techniques to create what is known as a hybrid page. If you are a paper scrapper you might already be using your computer to print out text and journalling, hybrid scrapbooking takes that process a step further!

Hybrid scrapbook pages created by the Kate Hadfield Designs Creative Team

What do I need to start digital scrapbooking?

All you need to start digital crafting is a computer (or even just a phone) with some form of image editing software, and some digital graphics and your digital photos.

Software options

RECOMMENDED: Adobe Photoshop Elements – Elements is a great entry level program that will allow to edit your photographs and digiscrap away to your heart’s content! It’s an affordable program with lots of online help, support and tutorials available. You can download a trial version from Adobe to get started.
Adobe Photoshop CC – this is Photoshop Elements’ big brother – professional level image editing software with a hefty price tag to match!
Gimp (free!)
Paint Shop Pro
Forever Artisan (scrapbook software)
My Memories Suite (scrapbook software)
Affinity Photo app for iPad – a photo editing app that can be used to for scrapbooking, similar to Photoshop Elements

If you are interested in digital pocket page scrapbooking (arranging your photographs and journal cards into grid style pages) the Project Life app allows you to create scrapbook layouts and photobooks on your phone or tablet! Here’s a blog post that talks you through creating a scrapbook page using the app: How to scrapbook on your phone.

Types of graphics for digital scrapbooking

These are the different types of graphic files that you can find here at Kate Hadfield Designs, and at most digital scrapbooking sites:

Papers: 12×12 inch patterned or solid colour papers you can use as background for your page or project and as decorative details within the design. Papers are usually supplied as jpg files.
Elements: decorative details such as ribbons, bows, frames, stitching and flowers that are the equivalent of the 3-dimensional embellishment on a traditional paper page. These are usually png files with transparent backgrounds.
Alphabets: individual letter files that can be used to create titles and other decorative details. Alphabets (or alphas) are different to fonts as they are not installed on your computer, they are png files that you layer on your project in the same way as elements.
Doodles and clip art illustrations: hand-drawn elements with transparent backgrounds, similar to the paper equivalent of stickers (and the speciality here at Kate Hadfield Designs!).
Digital stamps / line art: digital stamps are outline drawings that are perfect for creating worksheets, colouring pages and other projects where the printed project could be coloured in. They can also be used to create pattern on a plain background or as a line drawing in your digital layout.
Templates: page templates allow you to quickly put together a complete scrapbook page by “clipping” your choice of paper and photographs to the layers in the template. Common sizes are 12×12 or 8.5×11 and the files are usually supplied in a number of formats including PSD TIFF and png. (There’s a huge collection of Free Templates over on the blog!)
Journal cards: usually sized at 3×4, 4×6 or 4×4 inches designed to fit the pockets of a pocket page protector. Can be printed and used in a pocket page protector, or incorporated into a digital layout. They can also be printed and used as note cards! Usually supplied as individual jpg files (great for resizing or recolouring) and as a ready-to-print PDF.

Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits

Many digital scrapbook designers and digiscrap websites offer a selection of free supplies to help get you started with digital crafting! These free samples are a great way of trying out new designers, and experimenting with different styles and techniques. Check out my Freebies page for free lots of digital scrapbooking templates, elements and journal cards to download and experiment with!

How to start digital scrapbooking

Once you have your software and supplies, you can start layering your graphics to create your page. For example, you might start with a pretty patterned paper, add your photographs on top of that, then add a frame over one of your photos. They you could add some bows and flowers or other elements. You could use the text tools of your software to create your journaling, explaining the story behind the photo. Finally, you might add an alpha or text again to create the title. The addition of drop shadows (adding a shadow style to each layer on your page) helps to create a three dimensional effect to your work and can make your layout look as if it has been papercrafted! Drop shadows can be tricky to perfect, but you can purchase ready-made drop shadow styles to help you get started.

Shadow Styles for Adobe users:

One Little Bird: Shadow Like Me
Sahlin Studio: Realistic Drop Shadow Styles
Mommyish Designs: Realistic Shadow Styles

Digital scrapbooking tutorials for beginners

There are a number of useful sites, classes and online tutorials that will help you learn more about digiscrapping and how to get the most out of your software:

Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking – a collection of written and video tutorials from Ali Edwards
Digital Scrapbooking for Beginners video guide from Scrapaneers
Artsy digital scrapbooking tutorials from Anna Aspnes

Paid Classes:

Get It Scrapped membership
Jessica Sprague classes (including the Digi Beginner Bundle)
Pixels to Pages tutorials on Affinity Photo app

Printing your digital scrapbook pages

Once you have completed your finished scrapbook layouts you might want to put them in an album to show them off! There are a couple of options for creating your albums:

A traditional scrapbook album or ring binder with slip-in sleeves – this is a great option if you also have some traditional paper pages and want to include your digital pages too. Popular sizes are 12×12 and 8×8 for square styles and 8.5×11 for uprights.
A printed photo book – perfect for creating beautiful, slim coffee table style books of your pages. This is a great option for travel books and other projects with a definite start and end (a year long family album, or baby’s first year book for example). There’s a greater range of sizes and formats available with a printed book than a traditional album, along with different cover options and lay flat pages.

Traditional scrapbook album pros and cons:

Pros: no need to wait until your project is complete before printing, you can add print and add individual pages whenever you like
Pros: easy to rearrange the order of your pages if you need to, or to reprint a single page if you notice a mistake!
Pros: easy to include memorabilia and other physical items including paper scrapbook pages
Cons: albums can be bulky and difficult to store
Cons: printing individual pages and buying page protectors can be expensive over time
Cons: the albums have limited range of sizes and shapes

Photo book pros and cons:

Pros: photo books are much slimmer than traditional albums and therefore easier to store
Pros: easy to print multiple copies for family and friends
Pros: greater variety of sizes and shapes available along with different paper and cover options
Pros: can be cheaper than traditional albums although additional options (lay flat, higher quality paper, printed covers etc) can quickly mount up!
Cons: you need to finish the whole project before you can print
Cons: mistakes are not easily rectified without potentially costly reprinting
Cons: harder to store memorabilia (although you can add pockets or envelopes to the back of your book to include a small amount, or photograph or scan the items and include them as a page in your book)

The option you choose will depend on how you like to work, how quickly your create and your personal preferences for your finished album. Whatever option you pick, here are some useful printing links:

Miss Freddy’s blog – Miss Freddy has lots of useful blog posts for scrapbookers, including two great posts comparing photo book printing companies: Where should you print your photo book? and Where should you print your photo book? (part 2). There’s also another useful comparison post for printing softcover books (often a more affordable option!): Where should you print your softcover photo book?
Persnickety Prints (individual prints and photobooks) – a popular printing service for digital scrapbookers that offers a number of different sizes of individual prints (based in the USA)
DS Colour Labs (individual prints and photobooks) – my favourite print service based here in the UK for individual prints
Blurb – photo book printer with a number of different options (I have used them to create smaller books for my kids)
Printique – recommended by lots of scrapbookers (but I have yet to try them!). I have also heard good reports on MPix and Chatbooks.

You can share your scrapbook pages with your family and friends online via social media or your blog (or simply by emailing them!) but here are some other options for your finished layouts:

Digital photo frames – a lovely way to display your pages and photos that also makes a great gift idea
Wall art (canvas prints or framed prints) – you could create your own gallery wall of your pages and memories!
Digital scrapbook album – some photo book printers will allow you to create a private digital version of your album that you can share with family and friends to flick through. Share My Scrapbook is a similar service designed specifically for digital scrapbookers.