
How to Get Started With Digital Scrapbooking
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What supplies you will need to get started
- Computer, tablet, or smartphone
- Photo editing app or software
- Digital scrapbooking assets
- Your photos
Scrapbooking your memories digitally involves photo editing software and computer, or mobile devices. Traditional scrapbooking involves lots of papers, cutting, gluing, and a big mess. You should keep digital scrapbooking basic and simple! You can just focus on your memories and enjoy scrapping! It could take you at least 5 minutes to do a layout, but it depends on your preference whether you want to pretty it up, which could eventually take hours! I don’t mind doing that because it is so much fun!
Take small steps by finding your favorite photo, a page template, mood colors you want to use, and then a few graphics to decorate. Finally, you could journal your story. You should be all set for now! Sometimes, I would move on to other pages, and then weeks later, I go back to the page that I was working on and add some more. That’s the beauty of digital scrapbooking without a big mess!

What’s great about digital scrapbooking – you can make mistakes and undo them!! You would not have to make a big mess on your desk with all those clutters. You would be able to carry your laptop or iPad around anywhere in the world and digitally scrap! Purchased digital graphics can be reused over and over! In the long run, it can save you lots of money!
Page Templates and quick pages can be used to start your digital scrapbooking. You can easily decorate your pages in 15 minutes. Eventually, you become more comfortable with building up layers from blank scratch.
How to print your digital scrapbook pages
Digital scrapbooking pages can be printed if you wish to put your own scrapbook album together. Before purchasing and printing digital papers, be sure to check that the item description shows the papers are created for 12”x12” and 300 dots per inch (dpi) for best quality. If you create and print your own pages with lower dpi, the printed pages could come out blurry and colors could be off. You may want to order prints online at Shutterfly, Walmart, Target, or other stores that print photos.
How to store your graphics digitally
You should make sure you have plenty of storage to store your graphics. You should always save your work before exiting your software/apps or you will lose everything that you have been working hard on! I recommend you using Dropbox cloud storage. There are other alternatives that you can use: Google Drive, MEGA, pCloud, Apple iCloud, Amazon Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. You can decide which one will work the best for your device that you will be digi-scrapping on. Most of cloud storages offer free limited 2-15 GB data. I do not recommend using an external hard drive because it could malfunction and you could lose all of your photos and scrapbooking pages that you worked hard on! But, hey, that’s your preference and risk!
Types of softwares/apps that you can use to digi-scrap
I prefer to use Procreate, Adobe Photoshop CC, or Affinity Photo for digital scrapbooking on iPad. I also digital scrap on my Mac.
- Adobe Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud)
- Adobe Photoshop Elements (beginner-friendly)
- Gimp
- Procreate App (iOS only)
- Affinity Photo
- GoodNotes (iOs only)
- Project Life App
- Rhonna Designs App
I recommend you start with Adobe Photoshop Elements which is more simple for beginners. The software purchase may cost around $99.99, however Adobe Creative Cloud apps offer paid monthly or yearly subscriptions. You can check out Skillshare or YouTube for more digital scrapbooking tutorials. I am not an affiliate for Skillshare, but I highly recommend you take classes with them as you learn some digital painting basics, which will be beneficial for your digital scrapbooking needs.
Great Digital Scrapbooking Starter Kits to purchase:
These scrapbooking kits are from Creative Fabrica.
Digital Scrapbooking Assets you will want to buy:
These products are from Creative Fabrica.
DIGITAL PAPERS
ELEMENTS
PAGE TEMPLATES
JOURNAL CARDS
Best free Adobe Photoshop Elements Tutorials:
Awesome websites to grab free or purchased graphics at:
Digital Scrapbook (Pixel Scrapper)
Creative Fabrica
ETSY (there are tons of ETSY shops who sell digital scrapbooking kits)
My ETSY SHOP
My Ko-Fi SHOP (freebies)
Digital Planning with Creative Designs Joy Facebook Group
Best paid Skillshare classes for digital scrapbooking to take:
Have Fun with Digital Scrapbooking using Procreate by Brenda Bakker
Master the Project Life App for Digital Scrapbooking and create your own Project Life Cards by Jenny Lezan
Digital Scrapbooking with PaintShop Pro – Beginner Project by Carole Asselin
Digital Scrapbooking for Absolute Beginners by Melissa Shanhun (Photoshop Elements)
Make a Digital Scrapbook Page in Canva by Cassandra Martin-Himmons
Intro to Photoshop – How to Create a 12”x 12” Digital Scrapbook Page by Kellie McMillan
Please let me know if you need more information or a specific tutorial. I’d be happy to create them for you! Feel free to contact me. For more freebies, shop updates, and newsletters, please sign up for goodies below!