Is Scrapbooking Easier Online or Offline?

By Leanne Tremblay

If you’re already dabbling in the art of scrapbooking then you’ll know just how addictive it is. One of the nicest things about it is that it doesn’t just focus on photos and presenting them in an album; it focuses on other things too. If you have photos from a great holiday you took last year, you can add other mementos from the trip to create a more rounded memory of the whole time.

For example, if you went skiing you could include tickets for the ski lift, or perhaps a receipt for a wonderful meal you ate at a favorite restaurant you found in the area. Add those to a page featuring photos of the family skiing and enjoying their meal afterwards and you have a wonderful page in your scrapbook that will really trigger those memories when you come to look at it in future.

But more and more people are creating their scrapbooks online now, with the help of great websites offering tips and advice on how to make the most of the software available, not to mention suggestions for getting the best effects with what you have to work with.

So which is best? Do you go about things the old fashioned way and merely print your photos off so you can do everything else by hand, or do you rely on Adobe digital scrapbooking help and advice to get as much done on your computer as possible?

The benefits of being open minded

If you are used to the traditional way of scrapbooking that involves having a huge book to hand, a stack of photos, embellishments and adornments and scissors and countless other items besides, then you might wonder why you would want to leave all that behind and start doing everything on the computer.

It’s a fair point – after all, some people prefer to create their scrapbook pages by hand and they have a huge collection of embellishments safely tucked away to prove it! But it is worth giving Adobe a try if you want to create some really stunning effects, and you’d be surprised at just what you can do once you start learning how it all works.

You can learn anything

If you’re not sure you could master a software program like Adobe Photoshop, think again!

Not only are there some great – and free – tutorials online, you will also find that there are plenty of eager and enthusiastic digital scrapbookers who are also to be found out and about on various forums on the internet, and if you have any problems or concerns they will be only too glad to help you out.

A lot of the process of getting used to scrapbooking in this way is simply exploring the software programs and what they can do. No matter whether you are struggling with creating a paper set, a frame or even a cut out, you don’t have to struggle on your own, but it is worth reading all you can about the program you are using before you give up and ask for help!

So… which is better?

The answer is that it depends on your level of knowledge and what you like to do best. If you want to create a scrapbook that has actual tickets, receipts and other real items in it, then doing it the old fashioned way is going to be best for you. If you create your page on your computer and then add a single ticket to it afterwards, it may look a little off balance.

Consider the type and style of scrapbook you are creating though, because some designs may look better and fresher if you use software to create each page from scratch.

It’s certainly great advice to give both methods a go, because that is the only way you will discover which one feels right for you. Some people always prefer creating something entirely by hand – to them, using a computer would make them feel like a fraud! But that doesn’t mean it’s cheating – it simply means you will get a different result.

So why not try whichever method you haven’t attempted yet? You might just be surprised…