From 1998 to 2006 I was an avid scrapbooker. I’ve got more than a dozen 12-by-12-inch Creative Memories albums that document my adult life from my engagement, our wedding and building our house, to getting pregnant and then birthing and raising two young children — plus all of our fabulous vacations in between. My kids absolutely love flipping through the heavy scrapbooks, giggling at their baby pictures and remembering favorite family trips.
I stopped “cropping” (that is, cutting and pasting and sticking stickers) when I got busy with other things (namely stepping up my writing career once the kids were both in school full time), but now I think I’d like to get back into it — in a digital way. At the Type-A-Mom conference last month, sponsor Creative Memories gave every attendee a copy of its StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software. And man, is it fun!
I created the below page — of our family’s stay at Elk Mountain Ranch this summer — in an evening’s time. Yes, it took me a little while to figure out how to properly crop photos, and I was a little confused about what my background paper selections were. But once I started using all the features I realized how many incredible options there are. In particular, I liked enhancing the photos’ edges — see below the “cutout effects” that include “soft edges” and “rustic” and “bubbles.”
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available for download at the Creative Memories website — some are free papers and embellishments and others are kits you need to pay for. I do think the two-disc set of software (which retails for $65) comes with enough options to get me through creating at least a few digital albums before I might need to pay for more choices.
I look forward to playing with the program — after all it’s easier to make a page on my laptop, as opposed to lugging around my bins of paper, scissors, rhinestones, tags and other shiny and sticky stuff. That said, there may be some projects — like my kids’ school albums — that I might like to do the “traditional” way. It’s nice to have options!
WOW! I think your “help me” email was a farce! What a great page you created! I love the picture placement and the fun cropping!
Ha! I really did forget the program had two discs…. I swear!
What’s funny is this page is so similar to my style in my “paper” albums. I’ve got to cut loose and try some more funky/unusual-for-me things w/ the software.
That looks really good!! I haven’t opened my copy yet. Still have lot of pictures to go through. But I’m excited to try it out.
I’ve been using the CM software for 3 years now and I love it. I can do pages much more quickly, and they take up so much less room on a shelf! Even though I get sticker shock each time I purchase an album, I’ve worked out the costs and they’re similar to what I used to spend on a 12×12 album, photo printing, and all of the doodads for the pages.
Don’t tell the CM people, but if I want to save money on the album printing cost, I save the pages as .jpg’s and then upload them to Shutterfly or another service and have them printed there when I have coupon codes. Works like a charm!
Shutterfly quality makes me “shutter”
CM quality is soooooooo much nicer: Heavier paper for the pages, nicer covers, better binding, lovlier artwork, archived for you in case you have hard drive crash.
I want my kids to have their books when they head to college, their own home, for grandkids I may never meet. This is worth the worthy difference.
Hold them and you can tell a noticeable quality difference. my two cents. Or join and enjoy the discount everytime.
Karis, point well taken. I have CM print the books I really care about. But for fun books that the kids are going to wear out paging through as tots, I don’t mind Shutterfly.
I also have backups of my photos and the books I’ve created, in about 35 places.
Linda
Love your article!
It’s totally groovy. Very fun use of the photo edges – looks like you had a blast creating the page.
And your page layout, too
Keep up the great work, and I look forward to seeing more of your digi creations!
Jenny
Your page looks great! Congrats on the win!