Digital Scrapbooks and More was created by my Mother, Cheri, and me, Jennifer. In the summer of 2006, I moved away from my friends and family in California, to Tennessee for my husband’s job opportunity. With such a big move, I found it increasingly difficult to keep current with “CA-life” while living so far away. My mom and I called each other regularly, but it was disappointing when I couldn’t be there in person for birthdays, special events, or holidays.
Soon after I had moved to Tennessee, my mom kept talking to me about digital scrapbooking. She had been digitally scrapbooking for several years and was even teaching some classes about the subject. She kept calling me and telling me how great it was; all the incredible things that you could do and make; and even suggested that we use it as another way to keep in touch… but I didn’t want to listen. I liked traditional scrapbooking, and I completely rejected the idea of digital scrapbooking right off the bat. I felt like “going digital” was something that I just wouldn’t be interested in. I couldn’t imagine it would be more fun than using physical papers, ribbons, or stickers
Rather than arguing with me, my mom began emailing me fabulous digitally-designed recipe pages on digital patterned papers with beautiful, intricate embellishments. On the printable page, she included the recipe, several photos of herself making the food, and photos of the finished meal enclosed by adorable digital frames. She emailed me all of her incredibly creative and personalized recipe pages, and I just couldn’t help but print them out and save them in a binder. Often, I would flip through the recipes, and whatever looked good in the photos, I would make for dinner or dessert that evening! I really enjoyed using a cookbook that was so unique. Many of the recipes she sent me had been handed down from my grandmother, to my mother, and then to me. These printable recipes were a little part of history! I realized that I had a personalized cookbook on my hands, and that digital scrapbooking had created something that I really liked, used, and considered special.
My mom also sent me a photo album of my wedding; one that she had digitally scrapbooked and then professionally printed in a beautiful linen bound album. It was a big eye-opener, because my wedding photographer had suggested that I buy a photo album of our wedding photos directly from her, but I had to turn down the offer because it was really expensive and I just could not afford it. But by knowing how to digital scrapbook, my mom was able to give me practically the exact same special wedding keepsake, while only spending pennies compared to what the photographer would have charged!
At Christmas my mother gave me a digital frame that she had filled with family photos and digital scrapbook pages. I couldn’t believe how many scrapbooking pages and photos this one, little frame could hold, and I could easily add more scrapbooking pages by plugging in a flash drive or memory card with new photos or scrapbook pages in it! She also showed me how she had many of the same photos and digitally scrapped pages that she had uploaded to my digital frame, on her iPod! It was great to think that I could upload digitally scrapped pics to my iPod to look at while traveling and listening to music, or to just show my friends.
And if the recipes/cookbook, photo album, and digital frame weren’t enough my mom began to copy me on family email blasts where she had digitally scrapped the latest photos of my extended family’s new baby pictures, scout award ceremonies, or other special events that my relatives had emailed her. She used these photos and email announcements and quickly digital scrapbooked them into beautiful backgrounds, pictures, and designs. She saved these digital scrapbook pages as PDF files and emailed them back to everyone. It was really cool, and my relatives were so excited to receive such special pages that they could print out and put into albums.
It was then that my mind-set towards digital scrapbooking changed, and I became interested in learning how to digital scrapbooking myself. My mom’s subtle convincing had finally sunk in! Though I had clung so tight to traditional scrapbooking mindset and thought I would never be a fan of digital scrapbooking, I realized that stacks of wedding photos untouched, and unscrapped! I had an entire closet full of traditional scrapbooking supplies and stickers that I had bought and never even used. I didn’t even know what was in there anymore! It made so much more sense to take digital photos on a digital camera; digitally scrap them on my computer; and then print them out or email them to friends so that they could have a copy too!
With a new perspective on digital scrapbooking, I wanted to give-it-a-go! Since I lived too far away to take my mother’s digital scrapbooking class, I began to looking for local community classes but I couldn’t easily find any. Then I looked on online, but I didn’t have much success. It seemed like all major digital scrapbooking websites had massive amounts of digital kits, papers, and embellishments, but practically no straight-forward help or training on just how to start! With no real, step-by-step instructions on how to get started and what to do, I felt completed overwhelmed. When I finally did find training, the programs were so confusing to the point that I became really frustrated and wanted to give up! I wondered why digital scrapbooking was made out to be so complicated and why no one seemed to offer easily accessible digital scrapbooking tutorials!
I kept complaining to my mom about lack of good training, and so to help me, she made a descriptive, little video tutorial on how to start digital scrapbooking and what to do first …and WA-LA!!!! I got it! It was a great way to learn and it was easy! And with that, we realized that there must be others out there that feel the same way!
And that’s when Digital Scrapbooks and More was born. My mother and I decided that it was time to create easy, down-to-earth, user-friendly, instantly-downloadable digital scrapbooking training and tutorials in addition to beautiful digital supplies.
We have put a lot of our heart and soul into this website and we hope that we can teach as many people as possible that want to learn how to digitally scrapbook, how to do it, and where to begin. We want to take all of the guesswork and intimidation out of this super easy and incredibly special hobby! We realize the importance of what digital scrapbooking can do for people, friends, and families… and so, more than anything, we hope that others get as much positive use out of digital scrapbooking we did!
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PO Box 27627
San Diego, CA 92198
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