DigiScrap Info

I have always scrapped in Photoshop Elements, but I use ACDSee to organize my photos and digiscrapping supplies. Until I stumbled across DigiScrap Info I had never fully realized what ACDSee could do.

Much like Scrappers Guide is primarily focused on scrapping with Elements and Photoshop this site is focused on scrapping with ACDSee. The site is run by two sisters; Heidi, who is a software design engineer and Connie, who is a librarian. Given their day jobs, it is no surprise that their “specialty is organizing.”

The tutorials are well organized and very thorough. Since I use ACDSee to organize my digital images, the tutorials on organization were particularly helpful. I haven’t tried the downloadable organization categories, since my own quirky system works for me at present. But for someone that is just getting started or is orgnaizational challenged they look like they would make organization a snap!

There is also a lot of info on this site that isn’t strictly related to ACDSee. For example, they have one of the most comprehensive list of printing options I have seen anywhere on the web.

Digital Design Den

Digital Design Den is a fast rising newcomer to the digiscrap world. Many of the members of their international design team are alumni of Scrappers Guide and Photoshop Elements Techniques and the shoppe features many very creative and original kits.

The site is easy to navigate and there is always some sort of contest or challenge going on. My personal favorite is the weekly sketch challenge that can be found in their free newsletter.

The tutorial section has its own sub-forum which makes it easy to find. Tutorials cover a variety of subjects from the most basic to the more advanced. In addition you will find organizational tips as well as photography tips from professional photographers.

A great deal!

Gottapixel Designer & System Administrator, Stacey Carlson, is retiring from designing to “give myself more time to devote to Gotta Pixel and it’s designers.”    That’s the bad news, the good news is that she is offering her entire product line for $69!  ($1 a item is what it works out to)  But it will only be available through the 16th of October.  You can read all about it and take a look at what is in her store here.

Photoshop Elements Techniques

Photoshop Elements Techniques is another favorite site of mine. The name is a mouthful so most of the friendly folks that populate this very active forum refer to it fondly as “PET”. Which can cause some confusion in real life, when someone asks you how you learned a particular trick with Photoshop Elements and you respond, “Oh I learned that over on the PET forum.”

This site is produced by the KW Media Group, the same folks behind the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. (If you want some great tips and a bit of humor check out PhotoshopTV on the NAPP site.) Although PET isn’t strictly a scrapping site, there is a scrapping subsection in the forum and scrapping tutorials in the subscriber section.

In addition to the free forum, there are weekly “Killer Tips” iTunes podcasts that you can also download directly to your computer if you don’t have iTunes.

A subscription to PET, includes a “newsletter” which is really a magazine and access to literally hundreds of video and written tutorials in the subscriber section. There are also additional in-depth on-line classes available and their 21 day course on using layers is very popular.

If you want to get a handle on all things related to Adobe Photoshop Elements this is the place!

Back Up!

Today Stewart Wolpin wrote in his blog about ways to back-up your hard drive in a blog entry titled: “Learning to back up the hard (disk) way: a crash course”

I agree with much of what he wrote, especially the part about photos being the one thing thatI would most hate to lose in case of a fire, natural disaster or the inevitable hard drive crash. DVD’s are an ok option, as are external hard drives, but both of those methods requre you to remember to do back-ups on a regular basis. And unless you have off site storage, mean they are still located in your home or office. I still do the occasional back-up to DVD’s and my EHD, but a few months ago I found a more reliable method that works very well for me.

I opted for an on-line solution called Carbonite. Carbonite’s online backup service starts automatically and works quietly and continuously in the background protecting your data. The online backup software is always looking for new data on your PC. The moment you add or modify files, Carbonite swings into action to back up your data. (Provided of course that your PC is connected to the internet.) Their prices are very reasonable – less than $5 a month for unlimited storage when you purchase at least a year’s subscription.

Not only do I not have to worry about remembering to do back-ups, I know that all of my photos and almost as importantly my scrapping supplies: kits, actions, templates etc. are protected.

Have you backed up lately?

Scrappers Guide

In my introductory post I mentioned that my decision to get try digital scrapbooking was strongly influenced by Linda Sattgast’s beautiful work at Scrappers Guide. A couple of double page layouts she displayed that used photos as backgrounds really caught my eye, and I kept going back to look at them over and over.

The site is dedicated to scrapping with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Activity in the forum is about average. There are some very knowledgeable folks that hang out there who are happy to answer questions.

They offer a free weekly newsletter with tutorials and a monthly Premier membership. The Premier membership includes Linda’s excellent video tutorials, written instructions, and items necessary to complete the tutorials, and a complete digiscrap kit. The cost is $36 a year and is well worth the cost. Some of the past premier tutorials have covered topics like how to make lace, gradient maps, pins, grunge etc.

Linda’s training CD’s are excellent and definitely a good starting place for those new to digital scrapping. The web store doesn’t carry a lot of scrapping kits, mostly coordinated albums and training materials. They have some mini video tutorials available for a $1 each, that although not nearly as in depth as the Premier membership monthly videos, are still great training. So be sure to check out the bargain section as well!

Introduction

I discovered digital scrapbooking nearly four years ago during a search for the “perfect” baby book. I wanted something that was customizable and had space for a lot of pictures, but nothing I found was quite right.

Then I stumbled across ScrappersGuide and was fascinated with the examples of Linda’s work. I purchased Photoshop Elements 2.0 and was so frustrated that after a few weeks I gave up without ever managing to create a single page. A few months later I revisted Linda’s site and noticed that PSE 3.0 was out and deciced to have one more go at it. I ordered Linda’s training CD’s and suddenly it all started to make sense.

At the time there was only one or two companies that offered square format books, and the prices were way beyond my budget. So I started scrapping in 8×10 because I had found a company that printed books that at least I could afford for a special occasion. About 70 pages into my daughter’s baby book I came across an even better option – Viovio! They not only have square format books, they have them at very affordable prices. So I redid those 70+ pages and have been scrapping in square format every since.

My purpose in starting this blog is to provide a clearing house for info related to the digital scrapbooking world. And of course I will have a few freebies available from time to time too.