Scrap Booking - Worden, MT

There are a couple that I really like a lot. One is imikimi. It looks kind of juvenile at first, but there can be some really great artists, It is also customizable so you can change their design easily. Also you are able to do it all on the web, which I find convenient. The other one that my mother in law and I really like is two peas in a bucket. There are a lot of different designs. You have to download them.

I think it mostly depends on your style, comfort level (with the computer) and current software. I have Photoshop Elements so that I could manage/fix my pictures easily. There are tons of freebies out there for users of PS or PSE - that's where your style will come in to it. I know that most 'scrapping' software is put out by specific companies (not much call for free stuff from regular people) so if you're looking into a specific one just make sure you like their papers, etc.
Oh, if you're looking for freebies (for PSE or similar) you could try www.ikeagoddess.blogspot.com - she lists tons of freebies everyday. Of course, you have to like her style too! :)
Good luck!

I just started scrapbooking on my computer and I love it. I personally use photoshop elements (purchased from walmart for $80 with tax). I got a tutorial from a friend that taught me how to use it (I've heard that Costco sells an instruction video along with their photoshop elements) (feel free to email me and I can pass along my tutorial video if you go this route). I chose PSE because it gave me the same freedom as paper scrapbooking. I can create anything I want or I can use a template and adjust things. It's also nice because I can alter my pictures (crop, red eye, blur, etc) in the same program as I go. After my purchase of photoshop elements I've never purchased anything and I have so much stuff now I had to just empty my laptop onto a portable hard drive. Here is my list of great sites to get free stuff.
http://cbhscrapbookfreebiessearch.blogspot.com/
(Daily list of websites with free stuff, categorized)
http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/
(daily list of websites with free stuff)
http://www.scrapbookflair.com/
http://shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp
http://scrappity.blogspot.com/
https://www.scrappersguide.com/store/cart.php
http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/digital_scrapbooki...
http://www.digitalscrapbooking-free.com/download-coordina...
http://digifree.blogspot.com/
(daily list of websites with free stuff)
http://www.bestscrapbookingsites.com/
http://scrappingsimply.com/
http://www.scrapgirls.com/
(if you sign up for their weekly email they send you something free mon-Sat)
http://www.digitalscrapbookexperts.com (same as above, but they will send you pieces to kits so by the time the month is over you have an entire kit)

I just wanted to say that I don't think that's an odd request! I did a "real" scrapbook for my daughter and I probably spent $4-500 on all of the stuff, getting pics printed, etc. For my son, I opted to do an online shutterfly scrapbook. For more than half the cost and a tenth of the time, it is beautiful. They bind it and you can even have pics on the front cover. In comparison, my daughter's hand-made one looks just like that- homemade. And my son's looks professional. I'm planning on doing my third child's online at shutterfly. Have fun!

I really like shutterfly.com

V.

Hi B., With 3 kids this is not an odd request at all. Hopefully you are taking tons of pictures to capture memories for you and for them, so now you have to do something with those pictures. I am a little prejudice as I have been using Creative Memories for the past 20 years and my first scrapbooks still look as good as when I first used them. Now with digital, CM has lots of really cool products. I would suggest you check out: CreativeMemories.com, go to "help zone", digital (watch it's a digital life), webinars. You can see what CM is offering. There is a free download of Storybook with different layouts for scrapbooks. There is also a facebook group called creativememories-go digital where you can see what very creative people are doing. I would be happy to answer any of your questions, I have been a consultant for 5 years. Enjoy those babies and take lots of pictures. M.

I think by far the best online site is Heritage Makers! They have over 35,000 pieces of artwork you can use, all the stuff like traditional scrapbooking, buttons, ribbons background paper etc. and the book prices are very reasonable.
Heritage Makers is not as cheap as Shutterfly but the quality of what you can do is much much better. You have many more options when desiging your book, you can choose from over 1,000 templates in a variety of themes, or start a project from scratch and build it any way you like it. Plus if you do start with a template you can change anything that is not to your liking in the template.
You also have more size options from a small book at 5x5 up to a large 12x12 (my favorite) and the quality is amazing, the pages are all linen stitched in and the paper is 5 times thicker then shutterfly and snapfish uses so it is very difficult to rip (just in case you have little hands that want to look at your books). Also they offer an heirloom guarantee which means that all of your books are archived for life and if anything ever happens to your book, it gets coffee spilled on it, or left out in the rain etc you can get another copy mailed to you from the company for half price!! I know no one else does that!

One of the best things is it is all internet based, so anywhere you have high speed internet you can work on your books, and if (God forbid) your computer crashes all of your work is safe (and photos that you loaded to HM are protected) unlike if you use a software based scrapbooking program.
Please feel free to contact me for more info, and check out a few projects at the links below to see what you can do.
http://www.heritagemakers.com/?event=projectBrowse&pr...

http://www.heritagemakers.com/?event=projectBrowse&pr...

the website is www.storybooktogether.com

Enjoy!

I recommend My memories Suite by poloroid. You can check it out and compare it to other software out there at http://scrapbooking-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ I hope this was helpful! Good luck!

Depending on how you want to do it, there are lots of options. Some you just plop your photos into an empty "hole" in a pre-designed page. I'm not a big fan of those.

I create all my pages from scratch. It's called digital scrapbooking. Actually, up until a week ago, I was a digital scrapbook designer with Digital Scrapbook Place. I highly recommend going there. They have lots of support for beginners, TONS of free downloads, and a fun "contest" called New Kids On the Block (you get a free page kit and make a page, then everyone offers advice on making it better--it's really fun!)

Digital scrapbooking is just like paper scrapbooking, except you have digital papers, digital embellishments, and your digital photos fit right in, without printing them first. You have to have a good digital imaging program, like PhotoShop Elements, but I know of a free one :)
It saves a lot of money because once you have a graphic (a digital paper or element) you can use it as many times as you want without paying again. If you were to buy a $4 page kit, you could, theoretically, create an entire album with it. And there are so many freebies out there, you can try it out and see how you like it completely free. You also don't have to pay to get your photos printed first.

Then you just pay to have your pages printed. You can have them printed as photo books for about $1 a page. That also eliminates the cost of a scrapbook album (about $20+)

It saves a TON of money and is so fun! I have some other fun freebie websites, like Shabby Princess. But DigitalScrapbookPlace.com has a great community. I was only a designer there because I had already been a member for 2 years and loved it.

I've gotten lots of friends hooked on digiscrapping, and I'd love to help you get into it, if you're interested. Send me a PM and I'll give you all sorts of information!

And if you'd like to see my online scrapbook album (also free when you sign up at Digital Scrapbook Place), go to:
www.susielein.digitalscrapbookplace.com

BTW, I've looked at Heritage Makers, and my sister made one there. Her MIL had bought a gift certificate or something for it. It cost $80!!! I think it was only 20 pages long, too. That would cost me about $20. So if you're concerned with saving money, I know the web sites and tricks to get them for significantly less than Heritage Makers. And without sacrificing quality!

I don't know about free sites, necessarily, but a great site to try out is Shutterfly. There is no membership fee, if that's what you mean by free. You can upload your photos, and pick your backgrounds and layouts. Then you can have them put together a bound book for you. It's great and costs far less than you would spend yourself on your scrapbook, all of your printing costs, not to mention embellishments.

The only thing about it is that they reserve the right to use your images for advertising. Considering the number of people that use shutterfly, I wouldn't say you're in great danger of having your pictures highlighted, but still, there's not a 100% guarantee of privacy....more like 99.5%, but no one I've ever met has had a problem with it, instead, they get a great product.

Also, depending on your operating system at home, you can do it on your own. On Macs there is a program called Aperture, and it's all on your home computer, but you can submit it for publication...it still remains private though...so that's another good option.

Good luck!

I have to agree with Chantielle, Heritage Makers is the best. I love all the books I have made through Heritage Makers. My kids love it when they come in the mail and will look at them over and over again. The quality is so good I don't have to worry about my kids messing them up, unlike my regular scrapbooks which I won't let them touch. Your kids will love the books you make for them!!

I love picaboo.com. I have been impressed with how user-friendly it is and how affordable the final product is. I just purchased a leatherbound book for $40. Hope it helps!

I'm a graphic designer and am really impressed with their clean and modern templates. I haven't used them quite yet, because I usually design my own, but if I wasn't a designer I'd totally go this route: http://www.howfasttheygrow.com