July 2018 - EASTERN OREGON PARENT - 7
Scrapbooking 2.0: Crafting for the next generation
By SUZANNE KENNEDY
Scrapbooking has been
popular since the 1980s. There
are camps, weekend getaways,
home businesses, and friendly
get-togethers that cater to
the scrappy scrapbooker look-
ing to create amazing projects
that showcase their family and
vacations. The problem is that
real-life scrapbooking is ex-
pensive and space-consuming.
Purchasing all the necessary
equipment, embellishments,
tools and books can run you into
the hundreds, even thousands,
and where do you store it all?
Not many of us have a dedicated
craft room. (Oh to dream!)
The answer to your prayers is
online scrapbooking. It takes up
no extra space – just a computer
or tablet (yes, you can scrap on a
tablet). The prices start at free and
head up through reasonable, only
bordering on expensive if you feel
like it.
The first step is to decide what
your purpose is. Is it a vacation? A
child’s first year? Wedding? How
many pictures do you want to
include? Do you want to tell a story
or simply show pictures?
How much time and effort do
you want to spend on your project?
You can drag and drop pictures into
a professionally created template
or start with your pictures and build
the page around them.
Making those decisions is going
to help you narrow down which
program you want to use. Your
choices are to download a software
program (like Smilebox) or use an
online program (like Heritage Mak-
ers or Mixbook). Some of the “do-it-
while-you’re-online” sites charge a
monthly fee and some are free, but
you pay when you order a book.
Obviously, the monthly fee sites of-
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fer more templates and embellish-
ments than the free sites.
For beginners, I recommend us-
ing a site with no monthly charge.
Most will have plenty of cute
templates and extras for you to get
started. Plus, if you’re anything like
me, I start off gangbusters, but by
week two I’m back to being forced
to carve out some time at one in
the morning to work on my project.
Using a site with no monthly fee
allows you to work whenever you
can, guilt-free. Then, when your
project is almost done, you have
the option of paying for one month
if there’s something that isn’t of-
fered for free. You can finish it off
and order without paying a bundle.
That brings up an important
topic. Cost. One of the best things
about using Snapfish or something
similar is knowing the cost up front.
You choose the size book you want,
the number of pictures on a page,
and the like. Most sites will let you
add pages on the end of the book,
but it can get pricey.
Before you start working on
a project, you’ll want to gather
your photos into one file. Most
computers come pre-loaded
with programs in which you can
crop your pictures. You can crop
them if you want, or just size
and move them when you drop
them into the template. Any
other editing will need to hap-
pen prior to uploading your pic-
tures. You can get rid of red eye,
soften colors, or change some
pictures to black and white with
a program preloaded onto your
computer – but you won’t be
able to do much of that once
your pictures are on the page.
Once your pictures are loaded
into the template or layout,
you’ll want to add embellish-
ments and other accessories. In
real life, these would be stickers
or cut-outs, ribbons, etc. On the
computer, they’re just graphics. Be
careful not to go overboard with
these as your main focus should be
the pictures themselves.
The last piece you will want to
add is the journaling. You can write
a whole story, or simply use cap-
tions to tell the “who, what, where,
and when.” It’s a personal prefer-
ence and really depends on the
type of book you are creating.
Before publishing the book (pur-
chasing a copy), check to make sure
that the final product is pleasing to
the eye, and not chaotic. It will be a
joy to look at and bring back great
memories ready to share with fu-
ture generations. Happy scrapping!
________
Suzanne Kennedy is a former
middle school teacher who lives in
Pendleton with her husband and
four children.