Any who, I used to love scrap booking. But after becoming a mother my time became limited and so did space. I would start a page and be able to leave it and come back to continue. Not so much anymore, little fingers are always itching to get into stuff. I had occasionally seen sites for digi scrappers. I thought I would give this a try, but I didn't want to spend the money on a program and not like it or decide that I preferred the old way. So I started looking for free trial programs. I downloaded a few and ended up only keeping 2 on my computer which I use regularly and for more than just scraping. My first and favorite is call Studio Scrap . This program is extremely user friendly! At the time I had downloaded version 2 it was the full program, however you could upgrade to version 3. I tried it and love it!!! You can still download a trial from their website, however it is the current version 4 and puts a watermark across your project. My version (Studio Scrap 2) does not have the watermark. I think they realized they made an error, but to every one's advantage! You can still obtain this version by simply searching and downloading from you favorite sharing site, there are several.
My next favorite program is Gimp. If you have ever used Adobe Photoshop, this is it's twin in almost every way. You can do sooo much with this program. My only qualm about this program is that there are some glitches with compatibility to Windows 7 operating system. Mostly it just closes out on you, but this has only happened to me a few times and I'm not a computer guru, so I'm not sure which settings to change to fix it! So I would suggest regular updates as they are constantly improving this program for users. The other draw back, if you've not used an image manipulation program before, this may not be the best program for you due to lack of a tutorial within the program. There are however several you-tube video tutorials to help explain and teach you to get the desired results your looking for. I might add that I had only used Photoshop a handful of times many many years ago! So I'm big on the video tutorials. Much like photoshop, Gimp comes preloaded with your standard brushes and textures. You can also upload your own. Gimp will accept any add-on software that you can put into photoshop as well!! I love using different brushes to create my own photo masks, which I download for free at www.deviantart.com/. Just search for Photoshop or Gimp brushes and you'll be surprised at the variety of tools you can download for this program.
Now for the fun part. To start out I had search for free download items like papers, elements and what not to play around with. I've not purchased loads of kits, most of my collection was free downloads provided to entice individuals to purchase their products. On that note, I have found a favorite site for purchasing Digi Scrap items, After Five Designs. They are the only site I've purchased from so far. Merely due to the design quality. I've not found another site that offers, what they have. In my opinion, these ladies are extremely talented with original ideas, and they are constantly designing new kits.
If you are interested in digital scrapping I suggested peaking at their website or finding them on Facebook. They almost always have a promotion going on and frequently have guest designers as well. You may think you don't have the time or patience to try it, but never fear they've taken the guess work out for you! Almost all their kits come in quick pages as well, I like these for when I'm in a rush to get something done or my creative juices just aren't flowing!
Ah! So, you probably what to see some pictures. Here are the two photos I made for my mother and mother-in-law for Mother's Day.
Above I used Beautiful Spring Kit by Et Designs
And for this one I Sea You by NLD
For both of these I used Gimp to make my own word art and to apply the photo mask to the first photo. The rest was designed with the Studio Scrap 2 program.
And here is a little peak at our Christmas cards that I made for 2011 from the kit
My kid is so cheesy! I used one of the Christmas card layouts and just inserted his photo. Then I added the hat and both word art elements. And viola! Cute Christmas card!
Have fun Scrapping!
No comments:
Post a Comment