Digital Scrapbooking Business - Going Beyond the Screen

A digital scrapbooking business certainly has a number of advantages over traditional scrapbooking in terms of ease of start-up and range of potential customers. After all, once you've got a site set up to spread the word about your work, and a few digital scrapbook samples to show, you could be pulling in clients from anywhere in the world!

What's more, you can send the same scrapbook to any number of people for the same cost a sending it to one. So for example every guest at a wedding could have a copy of the digital wedding scrapbook. Something that would be extremely time consuming and hugely expensive to do traditionally.

But is the digital scrapbook, whether viewed on screen or printed out, a bit lacking in depth? Is there a certain lack of texture? Is it missing something when you pick it up?

If you, or clients of your digital scrapbooking business, feel that this is the case then the solution is what's become known as hybrid scrapbooking and, as you might guess, it's a combination of the two styles.

How far you want to take the mix is up to you but hybrid scrapbooking gives you the opportunity to use the best of both worlds.

Elements which are best handled by a computer - like things which are repetitive, or journalling (adding the text) are quicker and in many cases neater when produced on your computer. Likewise photos if you have to produce a number of scrapbooks.

Personal keepsakes like ribbons or other materials can be added once the digital element is printed out.

A cover for your scrapbook could be made using expensive textured paper or card, stamped or otherwise embellished to make it feel special but the inside pages could be created digitally and therefore much more cheaply.

So when you're thinking of ways to promote your digital scrapbooking business try thinking "outside the box" sometimes - or perhaps that should be "beyond the screen"!

You'll find lots more free professional information and a wealth of scrapbook resources at Digital Scrapbooking Business where you can also download a valuable free report from well known scrapbooking teacher Dawn Stegall. If you're thinking about making money from scrapbooking you don't want to ignore help like this!

Cropping and Matting Your Scrapbook Photos

There are many different aspects of making a scrapbook. These different things are what make a scrapbook unique and what make it different from an ordinary photo album. When it comes to these things, cropping and matting are important steps that help make your photos look great in your scrapbook for many years to come.

Cropping refers to removing unneeded background from your photos so that they look better or the photo only focuses on the most important part of the scene. Matting refers to putting a border around the photo, similar to a picture frame. This is usually done with paper, cardstock or matting materials.

Both of these techniques can help your scrapbook photos look their absolute best. The images will pop from your scrapbook and it can even add to the theme and the overall appeal of the book.

Cropping can be simple such as the type of digital cropping that is often used to edit a photo or it can be done with fancy shapes and styles to make the photo more interesting for a scrapbook. There are even scrapbooking tools to help you do this.

If you want to crop your photo, you need to first select the photo that you want to use. Then you want to choose a shape that's going to flatter the photograph that you have chosen. When cropping, you want to be sure you don't remove anything important from the background. Things like cars, houses or the background of where you';re at can be just as important as the subject on the photo in many cases.

You can also find scrapbooking templates around to help you with cropping your photos. To use these templates, you just place them over your photo kind of like a stencil. 'Then you trace it lightly with a pencil and all you have to do is cut along the line you've traced.

Another way to crop is to trim around the edge of the photo to make the photo smaller but without losing the original shape of the photo. You can also use a ruler to help keep your edges straight when you crop.

When it comes to matting, you can use cardstock to make a border for your photos. This gives your scrapbook photos a border like a picture frame. You can use mats in one color, in assorted colors and in other designs and themes to match the theme of your scrapbook. You can also use different types of scissors to cut your mats to make more designs.

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Scrapbooking Kits Are a Great Way to Get a Kick Start on Scrapbooking

When you make the decision of creating your very first scrapbook, buying a scrapbook kit is always a great way to go. Usually, scrapbook kits contain all of the scrapbooking materials and supplies that you will need at a lower price than buying it all separately.

If you are new to scrapbooking, this helps you to get an idea of the different supplies you might need when you create a scrapbook in the future.

Typical scrapbook kits contain an acid free memory book, some paper, a couple of pens, scissors, stickers, stencils, and a glue stick or some other type of acid free adhesive. These are only the basic scrapbooking supplies that a scrapbook kit will contain. Other themed kits may contain different scrapbooking materials.

More experienced scrapbookers may try to stay away from scrapbook kits, but if it’s your first scrapbook then it makes it easier to create a scrapbook. When you really get to start scrapbooking, you may feel that a kit is too limited and doesn’t let you do exactly what you want it to. The scrapbook supplies are limited, and the scrapbook materials aren’t always just what you might want.

Despite all of that, creating you first scrapbook with a scrapbook kit is a great idea. It helps bust you into the scrapbooking scene without all of the choices that you may not know how to make so soon. If you’re thinking of starting scrapbooking, go out and buy a scrapbooking kit.

There are all kinds of scrapbooking materials online.T. Ashley has been scrapbooking for many years, along with teaching other to scrapbook, and is also the founder of and maintains http://www.start-scrapbooking.com