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PDS 004 – Photoshop is a Body Part

What was it like for digital scrapbooking pioneers who began sharing their digital layouts online, in person with other traditional scrapbookers, or submitting to magazines?

This week we’re talking to some digital scrapbooking pioneers on the Paperclipping Digi Show!

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The Panel

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Your thoughts?

What did you think of the show? What questions or feedback do you have? Please let us know in the comments!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Digi Show. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Jana Oliveira

    Thanks for the great conversation, I think I'm very fortunate that I started doing digital scrapbooking when there was so much of a content out there for us to learn, free kits and many paid classes.

    But being a more advanced scrapper make me think why digital design still a mysterious thing in the digi world? To me is mysterious because nobody talks about and don't want to share, you see no tutorials about creating elements. Just recently a class was added to the market open to public but with a not reasonable price.
    So what more advanced Scrapbookers that sometimes want to do something themselves for their pages do? Are we allowed just to buy?
    I wonder what the secret all about.

  • Chris A.

    Great podcast. Really enjoyed hearing about the start of digi and all the great tips and ideas!

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Sounds like a great question to me, Jana. I would love to see this as a
    topic for a future digi show!!!

  • Former Designer

    There is no real secret but this is how some people make money so why would they want to share their techniques and skills with everyone and lose income? I learned how to design many moons ago by looking at elements in a paper scrapping store and wondering how to recreate that in Paint Shop Pro and then Photoshop. If I didn't know how to do something, I Googled it. I was digital scrapping before SBB was even online, doing all my pages digitally but “passing” them as paper layouts in online galleries like 2Peas, etc. I didn't know other scrappers were doing that too! That is why SBB was groundbreaking for me and other digiscappers. We could “out” ourselves, finally!! :D If you want to design, just do it. I gave up designing because I stopped scrapping my own layouts. I would not go back to designing now because the market is over-saturated online now. I'd rather buy a few kits every month and scrap for fun.

  • http://www.tortagialla.com Linda Tieu

    “hybrid sounds like a tomato to me…” oh, that is such a great quote :)

    I agree that there are many benefits to digital scrapbooking, portability, no mess and the ability to create what you want to use… I think we just shouldn't define ourselves so much one way or another. Do whatever you want or feel like to scrapbook in your own way…that's the important part!

  • Jana Oliveira

    I think this kind of method is way overrated. Not to share something because than I loose money
    I think nowadays is the opposite, people in this industry make money sharing what they know and exposing themselves, as a paper scrapbooker and mixed media player thats how I learn things being inspired by others and have my own take on it. This is the way the market is, people like you for your style not because you teach or not what you know. But for as a digital scrapper would be fun to know and play with this abilities as it is fun to play and discover more photoshop skills.

  • mshanhun

    If anyone is looking for the post Steph mentioned about ACDSee at the Daily Digi – here it is
    http://thedailydigi.com/organization-acdsee-style/

    Also as for the different software out there, there's a great summary about the programs that a variety of levels of computer users would feel confortable with
    http://thedailydigi.com/new/programs/

    Loved the walk down memory lane, makes me feel like such a newbie though! I only started digi-scrapping at the start of 2008!

    :) Melissa

  • Hisimage8

    I realize that I'm on the wrong show page but since I only have a few minute and can't find the “comments” section on the last show, here goes. I just wanted to mention Evernote again. If you listen to their podcast on May 13, The Most Premium Edition, you can hear the program explained extremely thoroughly, including the differences between Premium and Free. I've been a Premium user for years and, to answer a question of Izzy's, synchronization is nearly instantaneous. It is a great program with wonderful support and the uses are practically limitless as you can throw photos, pdf files, audio files, etc., all into the program and then have access to them on your Macintosh, pc, android, iPhone, etc. It's so easy and so useful. Not affiliated, just a very happy camper.

  • ndalton

    It was so fun to hear how Digital Scrapbooking got it's start. I too love it some other reasons that you didn't mention on the show is that you can make multiple copies. – I have a friend who is making a paper scrapbook for each of her kids, the traditional way is way too much work with digital you just hit print!

    Scrapbooking digitally makes it easier to share your pages with friends and family through email, on the web, or in slideshows.
    I also love that I can re-use my paer and elemts like buttons s many times as I want.

    Also a comment on what size to scrapbook. Since everything is designed for 12 X 12 it saves me time to not have to resize all my elements, paper etc to fit my 8X8 size. Much easier to design 12X12 and resize.
    Nann

  • ndalton

    One more thought.. or question…Curious as to why no one suggested using the organizer that comes with PSE for organizing our digital elements? I create a new catalog just for scrapbooking and tag all my supplies there.

  • Terri Torrez

    The panelists specifically said they weren't storing and organizing their supplies in the same software as their photos, is there a reason for that? I use PSE Orrganizer (PC) to organize and tag photos into LOM categories. Does it make sense to put my digi supplies in the same program or should I use something else?

  • Lynn in Florida

    Hi, my name is Lynn and I have really enjoyed the roundtable and now the digi show discussions. I was strictly a paper scrapbooker for many many years until last year when I lost all of my supplies in a house fire. After the fire someone gave me PSE and I've been scrapping digitally ever since. Miraculously all of my pre-digital pics that I had printed and stored in photo boxes survived the fire and now I am looking at scanning them in and using them in digital layouts. From what I can tell so far the quality is okay but not great… even though I'm scanning them in at 300dpi. My question is this: Do you guys have any advice or tips to make the scanning process go much quicker or if it's even worth the time? Maybe I should just gather up some traditional supplies and scrap these pics traditionally? Is it even possible to make great quality digital scrap pages with scanned photos?? Thanks in advance for any advice you can send my way.

  • Michelle

    I love the new show. I am a 98% paper scrapper, but I love learning about digi topics, listen to each episode and ty to absorb it all. I don't see myself going all digital, but I love futzing with my pictures and printing out elements to use on my pages. I have had a question for a while that I hope somoene can answer for me: I use Picasa for my photos and MS Word for prinitng digital elements. Is there any way to take digital brushes or frames and put them over my photos and print that out. I have seen cool frames and word art files that would look so cool over my photos, but have no idea if this is even possible. It's not that I have a probelm with PSE or another program, but I am wondering if I can do the little I want to do with what I have now.

    Thanks for all your hard work!

  • http://justmydigitalstuff.blogspot.com Lyndel

    I have been enjoying the roundtable for a while now and am thrilled to have the digi show now. I'm getting lots of great ideas, insights and laughs. I can't believe how all these great (famous!) scrappers make themselves available and come on the shows.

    I'm a digital scrapper and love it. I love how I can make a layout and use, reuse, resize and share it on everything from a card to a shopping bag. I mostly get photobooks printed as they make the layouts easily available to be enjoyed by family and friends on a bookcase in the loungeroom. My son can look at the books or take one to school without me worrying about it getting damaged. That hasn't happened yet but if it did, I can easily get another printed – much different to a paper layout. Which brings me to my question. I used to paper scrap and have 12×12 layouts (not a huge number). Can the panel offer any insider tips on scanning my layouts so that I can extend the advantages of digital to my “back catalogue”. Like Lynn in Florida I need help with scanning photos too. I'm just not sure what resolution/file size to aim for and how much fiddling with exposure, sharpening, noise reduction, etc, etc to do at the scan stage. The scanning seems to take such a long time so I want to get it right first time.

    Thanks so much for the podcast – I can't wait for the next one!

    Regards, from Lyndel in Tasmania, Australia

  • bunnyfreak

    It was so great to hear some PC digi scrappers talk, not just Mac. Would love to hear some scrappers/designer that still use Paint shop.

    I remember Disc Talk radio. I have missed it for awhile – that's why I was so happy when this podcast started.

    ACDSee is great but I have so much tagging still to do. I had hoped that Expession Media 2 mentioned in an earlier podcast would work better – based on the speed. (ACDSee tends to crash when I am running PSP with too many layers.) However, during the import I hit the number of files limitation in Media 2. I am going back to ACDSee. You have inspired me to at least tag my current kits as I get them.

  • DailyDigiSteph

    I think there are a few reasons designers don't share their secrets. First, the really, really good designers have spent thousands and thousands of hours learning their software and figuring out how to create things. Anyone that wants to learn their software to create can. The majority of these designers have not had step-by-step instructions on creating digital designs specifically, they have learned the software programs and then applied those techniques to digital design. Lynda.com is a designers best friend! But, just like restaurants don't very often give away their recipes, designers don't often share their secrets. If your favorite restaurant gives you the recipe, then you will just make it at home and not come buy it from them. I can't and don't fault designers for not wanting share their secrets. (Although, I will say, that in digital scrapbooking, there are many designers that I would never be able to create like they do…even with a recipe…lol).

    Second, and probably most importantly, is that it takes time to make tutorials and resources for people to learn to design digital scrapbooking supplies. Why would designers want to do this for very cheap/free? Especially, when the people that will be using this information will often turn around and make money from what they have learned? Most designers would rather use that time to design products that they can sell themselves. There are several resources available to learn specifically how to design digital products, none are free, nor should they be. There is a class by Jessica Sprague, a class by Pattie Knox at GetItScrapped.com, an e-book by Wendyzine at ScrapbookGraphics, many resources at ScrapGirls, and a tutorial forum (annual subscription) at ScrapArtist.

    There are many resources available to learn your software as well and then you can apply those principles learned to digital design (which is how most designers that are well established and been around for a long time have done it).

  • DailyDigiSteph

    What version of PSE are you using? I didn't think it came with an organizer anymore….? One of the big downfalls of that organzation program is that your EHD's have to be attached and the files have to stay in the same place in order for the catloguing to work. ACDSee, it will still work AND the information will follow the file wherever you move it.

  • DailyDigiSteph

    I have heard that you can layer a frame on a photo in Word. I would suggest you open a blank Word doc., put a photo in there and then try and add a frame on top of it. You won't hurt anything by trying! You can always undo and try again if it doesn't work right! :)

  • StudioWendy

    Thanks for the shout out on my Scrap It actions! Just wanted to pipe in and say that the Action installer you mentioned is Graffi's Add-o-matic. I know lots of PSE users swear by it. Of course, I try to make my actions as easy as possible by offering PDF tutorials along with the exact files needed for installation in each version of PSE. Love the show… I look forward to listening each week.

  • Lyndel

    For layering in MS Word png files are your friends. Open a blank doc then insert your photo and any frames or embellishments that are .png files. Right click on your photo and change Text Wrapping to Behind Text this will allow you to move it around. Right click on each .png and change Text Wrapping to In Front of Text. You can then drag them onto your photo. By right clicking on each one and choosing either Bring Forward or Send Backward you can overlap the elements exactly the way you want to. I'm thinking that once you've got all your elements piled on top of each other you could change the page size to fit your final paper size for printing (say 6×4) if that what you want to do. Hope this helps.

  • Mande

    Very interesting stuff! I love hearing about how digi scrapbooking got started and evolved because to be honest, I didn't even know about it until a couple years ago. (I know, what rock was I living under?) Anyway, I have taken a lot of Jessica Sprague classes and am now pretty confident on PSE. I do about 50% digi and 50% paper. I still like paper scrapbooking because I still feel like I have a lot to learn in terms of the various techniques, but my albums would be too thick if I did ALL paper, so that is partly why digi comes in handy. I love the versatility of displaying digital and sending it all around, printing multiple copies as gifts, etc.

    I wanted to comment on Steph's use of Power Point in the past. Omg! I am surprised about that, but having said that, I am a high school teacher and because we have no design software on our school computers, I have my students make posters, pamphlets, etc of various sizes on Power Point. Of course, we also do presentation slides, but Power Point is more versatile than most people think.

    Finally, no one mentioned Picasa. I use Picasa to organize all my digital elements and iPhoto to organize my photos. It works well, but I too need about 20 hours of free time to catch up on my tagging! I didn't know how to use Picasa well and took one of the Jessica Sprague classes last summer.

  • Shannan

    Just wanted to say that I have scrapped with PowerPoint too (and it wasn't that long ago!). My husband is really skilled at Photoshop (he studied design) and I was always so intimidated by it but I used PowerPoint in my job. I have PSE8 and a Mac now but PowerPoint did the job in the early days of learning digital scrapbooking.

  • Siri_F

    I´m assuming you are talking about Jessica Sprauges The Art of Digital design. I did do that class, and I´m almost ready to hand in my kit to get feedback on it as the practical part of the finishing exam. The price was very reasonable. In fact I would happily pay at least twice the price for this class as it has been the most amazing learning experience ever. In my opinion the community created during this class alone is worth the price, because it is so open and sharing.

    I´ve been studying design for years, and I don´t understand the secrecy in the digi design community. What if architectecture, graphic design and all that jazz had the same mind set? In my opinion the best way to develope as a designer is to share and get feedback. I also believe that the digi community a a hole only will gain if new designers have a higher level of expertice. The items for sale will have a higher quality, and having to “compete” with other good designers will only make me work harder and be better.

    I also want to add that even though all the students at AoD have been taught the same, not one of the items posted in the gallery has ever been the same… it has been easy to see who has designed what! And, as a result of Jessica sharing, all of us have been sharing as well. Adding links to great tutorials and resources, giving and getting feedback and suggestions on both our kits and logo designs. And because of this we have all gained a much higher understanding, than if only Jessica was sharing….

    Siri

  • Siri_F

    Great show, yet again! Thanks for answering my question about 8,5×11 pages! I must admit that I do not agree with all the answers though… As a brand new scrapbook designer, and a brand new digi scrapper, I find that a lot of the papers I like can not be easily resized down from 12×12. For instance, a solid color paper almost always has a texture to it, and a lot of them has grunged up edges and such. Just cutting the edge will leave one side with no “grunge”, and scaling it down will distort both texture and inked edges. The same goes for all those lovely collage style papers, or papers with corner or edge designs. Overlays are designed for 12×12 papers as well, and scaling them down will distort text and designs…

    I must admitt that I mostly scrap 12×12, and I do have acess to a “over sized” printer. But one of the reasons I digi scrap this size is that I can´t get the items I want in the size I would like! So, it is a 12×12 circle that I can´t get out of….

    Also, I´ll just add my biggest peeve in digi elements. There are so may gorgeous alphas (not talking fonts here) around, but they only have the English alphabet. I would agree that most customers write in English, but this also creates an unnecessary hinder for all of us that don´t scrapbook in English. Would it be that difficult to include (or create add-ons) a bigger alphabet, including alphas for spanish, french, scandinavian and so on? I´m quite sure I´m not the only one that am missing “my” letters when looking at kits…. And the ability to use the alphas in title work would be a great advantage, and I would think it would make it easier for us “foreigners” to start on the digi road…

    Untill next time,
    Siri

  • Siri_F

    Just listening to the show again, and ACDsee is in beta for Mac. I´ve heard from others that have tried it on their mac, and they recommened to wait for it to be “unbetafied” before starting to use it….

  • Michelle

    Thank you both so much for the help! I have been trying to figure this out forever, so excited to try it out!

  • Michelle

    Hello again, just have to pop back in and say thanks! I have been playing around with my photos and your advice worked perfectly! You really made my day!

  • http://justmydigitalstuff.blogspot.com Lyndel

    Oh, I'm so glad!

  • Terri Torrez

    I have PSE 8 for the PC and the Organizer is still there. You can move your files as long as you do it from within PSE. And you can write your metadata from the catalog to the files, though it doesn't do it automatically.

    I've been helping my mom organize her photos on her Mac and I much prefer the catalog-based Organizer to the browser-type Bridge. It sounds like ACDSee might have some improvements over Organizer but if you're already using PSE then Organizer comes for free.

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Thanks for doing this topic, Steph! It was so interesting!!

  • Tonysfrenchgirl

    Am loving the Digi Show as much as the regular Roundtable! I found it interesting that everyone seemed to agree that new digi scrappers should dive right in to PSE. I feel very comfortable on a computer, but after reading reviews and hearing comments on various scrapbooking podcasts, I was quite intimidated by the prospect of starting out with it. I looked at reviews with “ease of use” in mind and bought Memory Mixer Lite. I feel like it's been a great introduction to digital scrapbooking. I can see how it is likely that I will “grow” out of it in due time, but I feel that using it is building my confidence toward one day switching to PSE. I'm looking forward to more Digi Shows. Keep up the good work!

    Claire
    Small town north central Minnesota

  • KM

    I'm so enjoying playing catch up with your shows! I loved hearing about the digiscrap boom from people on the ground floor. As always I greatly enjoyed the wit & humor, and the resources are phenomenal.

    The question about the future of digiscrapping is something I think of often. I can't wait to see where where our creativity will take us!

  • http://common-sense-scrapbooking.blogspot.com/ Lorell

    Siri, I always scrap 8.5 x 11, but there’s a way around having to resize the paper. Create an 8.5 x 11 sized document, and then just plop the paper in there. Since the document size is 8.5 x 11, then the rest of the paper that should be “hanging over” isn’t showing. Or, if you don’t like that idea, create an 8.5 x 11 clipping mask and and “clip it (or force it to conform to)” into that mask. With either of these ways, you don’t have to deal with resizing and all that hassle.

  • http://common-sense-scrapbooking.blogspot.com/ Lorell

    Whenever you are ready to jump into PSE, find an online class. This is how I learned…I had no idea how to use the program. Thanks to good video tutorials, I got up to speed fast…plus I learned with four toddlers at home. It’s just like when I started out in paper scrapping…it was intimidating until I learned from others. Best of luck with it.

  • Anonymous

    My issue is that most papers has the distressing around the edges, and a lot of papers has patterns that are focused around the the edges. These papers would not look that good as 8,5×11. Now, I´ve started designing digi stuff my self, and I have not designed one 8,5×11 papers, so I should not say anything right? :-)

  • Cmputrgrl

    Love the podcasts and TheDailyDigi website!

    I have been an avid digital scrapbooker since 1995. I have used Microsoft’s PictureIt, Microsoft’s Digital Image Pro, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator (CS3 and CS4) … and a multitude of other software programs. I want to share my experience with Creative Memories’ StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0. It is incredibly easy and intuitive! Text on a path is easy and quick! Textures and shadowing are just as easy. Cataloging of all items can be done. Any elements can be included on any StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 layout — including elements, papers, templates from any digital designer!!

    Creative Memories offers a free download of the software — if you find it hard to believe that you would include this software as a recommendation — especially for newbies — please give it an honest shot with an open mind. I was very surprised that I love it and have found it to be huge time saver without compromising on quality.

    I am not a “one program scrapper” … I am open to anything that will help me accomplish my design, layout, and text goals.

    Thank you for doing what you are doing … please continue! Love it!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1619460410 Katherine Malm

    Recently started listening to the podcast and have been bouncing back to the older shows, listening on my iPod on the car stereo as I’m running errands. I was pretty certain I’d punched the wrong menu item and selected The Splendid Table because when I heard Pattie’s voice for the first time I could’ve sworn it was Lynne Rossetto Casper. Kept thinking “why’s she talking about Photoshop? She should be explaining how to make a bolognese.” Great shows…thanks for making drive time more enjoyable.

  • Lucrecia Gray

    I’ve recently started listening to the show and found that it makes the work day a bit more enjoyable so I decided to go back and start at the beginning. This show was so fun to listen too!  Like many others the first scrapbook home I found was Scrapbook Bytes, and I was even on the team for awhile writing tutorials.  I hadn’t realized how many years ago that was!  yikes!  Back in 2004 my husband tried to convince me that we should start designing stuff to scrapbook on the computer and I asked if he was smoking crack, that would never take off!  ooops.