#1 Organize Your Supplies
Digital scrapbooking artists have it easier here. All of their supplies are located on their computer. Of course, though, a great many people have noticed that so many hours are lost searching hard drives, thumb drives, and CD backups for a specific digi paper, embellishment or the photo they wanted to use. A great time saving tip for digi scrappers is to organize your files, and have them all unzipped, categorized, and ready to use at all times. Using a program such as MyMemories Suite that integrates compatible kits automatically can be a great time saver.
#2 Prepare Pages In Advance
It is a lot of fun to play with the digital papers and embellishments. Why not take some time and just create “quick pages” or “templates” from the digital scrapbooking kits you already have? Don’t think about any specific photos you may have, just create some gorgeous layouts without photos for use at a later date. Sometimes people lose hours debating the right background, embellishments, etc for a specific photo, when a page made in advance may just be the perfect one. To really save some time, you can buy and download “quick pages” or ‘templates” ready to use. For any of these, you just add your photos and save!
#3 Select Your Colors and Theme
With so many kits available, the choices are immense. Many an hour can go by, and the digital scrapbook artist hasn’t picked a color or theme yet. If you can break your choices down, it can go faster. In other words, if it’s a fall layout, you know you won’t need pastel spring colors. If the colors in the photo(s) you are using would clash with another color – you won’t be using those. If you need to break it down by elimination, that’s fine, but you’ll want to work through that process as quickly as possible to get to the digi kit that will work best for you for that project. Sometimes it is best to just select a primary color from the photo or a relative theme and start from there.
#4 Use a Sketch
One of the most common complaints heard is “I don’t know where to start”. Looking at a blank screen can be intimidating. If you use a scrapbook sketch to formulate the placement of your photos and embellishments, you’ll find you can create whole layouts much quicker. A digital scrapbooking sketch usually shows you the ‘layout’ of the page. Here you’ll see where to put the title, the mats, the photos, the journaling, and even the embellishments. A good sketch will even give you an idea of size, scale and balance. You wouldn’t want your flower embellishment to overwhelm the photo.
#5 Be Happy and Move On
How long does it take you to create a digi layout? The answer almost always is: “it depends on how much I keep playing with it after it’s done”! A lot of digital scrapbookers will save a layout in the original program used and again as a .jpg for sharing on the internet or having printed into a beautiful album. It’s a great idea to keep the original saved in its original program format, because it’s ready if/when they want to make adjustments. It’s understandable, even recommended, but it implies that many more hours will be spent on the same layout, even after it’s done! If you have a lot of layouts to create, it may be best to make them up, and walk away. Save editing (or re-editing) them for another day, a day when you have tons of time, and nothing else to do (like that day will ever come!) MyMemories Suite will save your digital scrapbooking pages into an album, allowing for easy editing, and from there you can create new pages quickly!