How did you get started digi scrapping?

breoni

breoni

GingerScraps Site Creative Team
I was at a crop the other day as, as the only digi scrapper, the other ladies asked about why I changed over from a traditional scrapper. I told them that it was a natural transition for me since I use a lot of the software for work, already. So it was an easy transition to apply to my personal projects. And I love never "running out" of something and having the flexibility to create/adjust colors and elements to showcase my photos.

So I'm curious... how did you get started in digi scrapping? What started you in this form of this great hobby?
 
This question always raises interesting stories, Breoni. My story is that I wanted to create a farm history. My Dad was 87, had no sons who wanted to take over the farm (which had been in the family for over 100 years), so accepted an offer from the local Council who wanted the land to expand capital works. The agreement was that they wouldnt need the land for five years, and he could live in the family home for that length of time. Dad figured he wouldnt last that long....he lived until he was 101 and sadly, at 92 years of age, he had to move off his farm. But that's not the answer to the question....

I was new to computering when I started the farm memories project and bumbled my way through Microsoft Publisher to achieve the goal, but then I was at a loose end. Was loving the playing around with photos and stories during the production of the farm book, so cruised the internet looking for something else I could do along similar lines...and fell into digi scrapping!! I had never paper scrapbooked but this form of the hobby really appealed to me, so I set forth....and here I am some 20 or so years later....
 
Great ?...
I done a little scrapbooking the old fashion way, but didn't get into it heavy, just didn't have the room for it. And one day I was invited by a friend to check out Cafemom. And while there I made some friends and started making signature tags and was in quite a few groups, and made tags for people to request. And from there I got into a couple scrapbooking groups and I was hooked. Been Scrapping digital from then on. A friend told me about Gingerscraps and I joined here and fell in love with GS. This is now my second home. No turning back!! LOL
 
Like many others, I started out paper scrapping. Heck, I was even selling the stuff when I discovered digi scrapping! The easy and no mess appealed a lot to me, so little by little I ditched paper scrapping and became exclusively digital. I love it more now than I did when I first started, and I'm not looking back. :)
 
I was a paper scrapper since I was a child. I used manila folders; crayons; glue; scissors; and yarn to hold the 'book' together. I then just added stuff to those magnetic albums of the 70's and 80's. I made the transition to Creative Memories when it first started. Probably bought about everything they made. Then added the "regular" scrapbook stores to my frequent shopping.,..

Received a digital camera in I think 2002 or 2003 as well as a Journal Genie program. So I took pictures. Printed them. Printed the journaling on clear something... and made the pages.

Somehow- found Photoshop Elements Techniques on the internet. Attended a workshop on layers. Silly me thought a photo would just make it own layers. At this time photoshop elements did not even have a number.

I started with digi before there were real kits to purchase and by tutorials on Photoshop Elements [and their magazines], created all my own 'stuff' on pages.

I was so literal and probably ridiculous on my questions that I was asked to 'test' for them and Adobe.

I guess they figured if I could do it, anyone could!

By 2007- I was totally transitioned to digi.

m

ps- I still have some of the old stuff.
 
I started when I was in college (probably) when I bought my first computer. I bought a publishing software and just fiddled with it. I'm mostly self taught! Some of my earlier work uses the same picture because I was experimenting with the functions of the software. Then there was the Disney Print programs. I think I bought ALL of them. I even bought a Pokemon print shop program. I still have them. I'm not sure if they all still work with the current OS, but I saved them.
Than I became a Creative Memories Consultant. I think I found out about that on-line somewhere. I have one scrapbook with traditional pages. I still have the tons of paper scrapbooking stuff I bought (mostly papers, stickers and letters and some stamps.
I than found digital. My first digital layout was for a speed scrap at Stuff to Scrap. I can't believe I did a page in the given time. I guess I knew my software well enough! Then the rest is history... creative teams, contests to become designer, than designer, now retired designer!
Hopefully will get back to scrapping more constantly soon. Haven't made a page in months!
 
So, I started with paper scrapping as a child. Near my grandmother's house there was a home decor store going out of business, and my mother, in a fit of creative genius, bought out all of their sample wallpaper books for us kids to 'play and have fun with'. There are still some of those scrapped collages on the wall. She started doing Creative Memories, and allowed us to 'assist' sometimes, but was very big on quality control. I did some digital modifications with photoshop, but it was never anything 'heavy'.

I went abroad for school, and I can actually trace everything back to a single digital scrapbook page a friend of mine made- I am PRETTY SURE at this point, as I have done the same thing with my sister's pictures, that she had a challenge that absolutely nothing she had worked for, so she grabbed a picture off of my page of my Yorkies in their snowsuits, scrapped it up, and sent it to me. I was charmed and immediately interrogated her and got started. Several terrabytes of data later... Lol.
 
I wasn't a scrapbooker as a child. I always had an interest in photography, and was given my first camera - a very basic Kodak point-and-shoot that used 126mm film - for Christmas the year I was 9. I wasted more film than any 10 people. I'd spend my babysitting money on film and processing but don't ask me where any of those old photos are now. I next went to one of the Kodak cameras that used cassettes with the film inside, first the 126 size and then the 110 version. I felt very limited in what I could do with those but it didn't stop me from taking a photography course my senior year in high school. I spend HOURS in the darkroom and can still smell developer if I close my eyes and think about it. I asked for a "real" camera for graduation and off I went! I now have 4 cameras I use for different purposes and have thousands of digital photos.

That leads into my first foray into scrapbooking. My sister decided *we* should make a scrapbook for our parents' 50th anniversary in 2006. It soon became pretty clear that *we* meant *me*. I bought a bunch of supplies at Michaels and got started. The result was pretty sad... and so not what I'd envisioned. My parents love it, but I wanted to do better. Somewhere along the line I started buying from Creative Memories and amassed a large collection of um... stuff. In an effort to learn as much as I could I started getting scrapbooking magazines and trying to emulate what I was seeing in print. The layouts I loved most though weren't paper, they were digital. In the fall of 2010, I did a Google search for digital scrapbooking stores and found Design House Digital (now long since closed). One thing that really captured my attention was their challenges. Each one had a new technique to try and gradually, I started liking what I was producing. I was also dabbling with other communities but didn't really feel like I fit in well at most of them. In early 2013 I joined my first creative team and wound up here. Quite the arc!
 
Thank you all for sharing your stories! We all have had a wide range of journeys that have brought us here! <3
 
I was a paper scrapper and actually started by making elements that I cut out and stuck in my paper albums :) Then I thought, "why not add pictures." I thought digi-scrapping was my own invention, only to find sites out there devoted to it. I still do both.
 
I loved reading all of your journeys into digital scrapbooking!!

I personally have always been a scrapper, even as a child. I always saved little bits of memorabilia, pressed flowers, made things out of fabric scraps. I have always loved memory keeping! Once I got pregnant with my first child (1996) I got seriously into it and my collection grew and grew… I had many storage solutions but it was getting pretty crazy! Lol
I found digital scrapbooking in a creating keepsakes magazine issue. I got photoshop elements and the rest is history! I dove in headfirst and never turned back!
Sadly a few years ago, my scrapping slowed down to almost none. I found that anytime I was on my computer I was working (GS has grown so much!) BUT about 6 months ago I decided I was going to make scrapping a priority again. I got an iPad and Apple Pencil and I’m scrapping!! Whoop whoop!!
I truly believe that memory keeping is extremely important! I would LOVE to have scrapbooks from my grandparents and/or parents! I know the future generations are going to love my scrapbooks!
 
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