Digital Scrapbooking

I first heard about digital scrapbooking several years ago. I had been playing with paper, ribbon, buttons and stamps in my scrapbooks for 15 years and I had no plans of changing. I began to see some beautiful pages in online galleries and then they started to filter into the scrapbook magazines. It was so aggrivating to see a beautiful page and to read how it was done and see that it was a digital! I didn't have any idea about all those computer terms they used and I'm computer challenged enough that I was too intimidated to even attempt a digital page.

Fast forward a few years. I'm sitting at the 2009 Stampin' Up convention and everyone is all excited that Stampin' Up is coming out with digital scrapbooking software. I was SO not interested! [Insert big yawn here.] Then Mark Jessen got on stage and did a demonstration of the software. What he was doing on his computer screen showed on the jumbo tron screens so we could tell what he was doing.

OK, I'm very impressed. I didn't want to be. I wasn't going to even consider ordering the software. I don't want to do digital pages, etc, etc, etc.

The more I watched, the more I realized that this wasn't intimidating at all, it was easy! And quick! I could actually do this with my limited computer knowledge. Hey, I figured out how to do a blog, didn't I???

I ordered My Digital Studio and anxiously awaited it coming. That is when my computer crashed. The day after MDS came I couldn't stand to wait any longer so I went out and bought a new computer. I didn't want to try to load it on my old computer even after it was fixed, I needed a new computer for this new program. Makes total sense to me :~)

I got the MDS loaded on my new computer without any trouble at all. I opened it up and tried to remember what Mark had showed us at convention. I made a page in less than 10 minutes! How cool is that in this busy world?! This page with my son in law and grandson is the first page I made with MDS.

I've been having a lot of fun playing with My Digital Studio. I've made quite a few pages and am working on a wedding album from my son's wedding last Saturday. It's nearly finished, I've never finished an album so quickly! I still haven't finished stitching the last leg on the turtle of the blanket I made him when he was a baby. He doesn't let me forget that either. Hey, the blanket kept him warm all those years without any problem.

Stampin' Up has contracted with a printer who has their inks calibrated to match Stampin' Up's colors so I'm going to send the album there to be printed when I'm finished, which should be in another day or 2. Then I'm going to oogle it and drool over it when it comes for a day or so and mail it to him. Actually, I think I'll order 2 of them and I can keep one to show off to my friends and send one to him. He won't believe how quickly I got it done. It's just not in my nature (remember yesterday's tutorial that I promised several weeks ago?)

OK, so you aren't interested in doing digital pages? I have realized something wonderful about My Digital Studio. It is so quick and easy to design a page using it that you could use it for your page design and then use real paper to make the page. Have you ever sat there with a stack of pictures and some paper and embellishments and couldn't quite get a page to form? I know I have spent hours and hours in that exact situation (spaced out over time, of course). I am amazed at how quickly a page comes together when you can do it digitally first. I will probably make most of my pages out of "real" paper instead of printing them off but MDS will definitely make the design of those pages easier!

I'm sure I'll be posting more digital pages in the future. If you don't want to do digital you can still use the pages as a basis for a "real" paper scrapbook page. I know I'll be doing that too. If you want to order the My Digital Studio, I'm here to help you :~) It will be available beginning Oct 1st. If you want to get it for HALF PRICE, there will be a hostess special starting Oct 1st also. LMK and I'll work with you to earn the discount. wrightplace4@mindspring.com