Did you 'invent' digital scrapbooking?

[Emma]

I got into digi-scrapping from seeing my sister Jennifer's pages. She was never a paper scrapper, but started doing photo-editing on the computer that evolved into entire layouts.

Like many of you, she was amazed that other people 'invented' the same hobby as she had!

So who here was digital scrapping before discovering anyone else was doing it?

And more, how many of you thought, "Wow! Look what I invented! Wonder why no one else thought of this?" :D

And how did you feel when you finally realized how many others were into this hobby?

[susan mc]

So who here was digital scrapping before discovering anyone else was doing it?

Several years ago (about '98) I used the computer to make labels and frames for my paper pages. I would print them then cut them out and paste them on a paper page.

And more, how many of you thought, "Wow! Look what I invented! Wonder why no one else thought of this?" :D

I thought I was pretty cleaver to be able to print whatever I wanted. I even made a frame from some clip art that I scanned from the yellow pages of my phone book.

And how did you feel when you finally realized how many others were into this hobby?[/QUOTE]

I was tickled pink to find the talented, on-line digi scrappers. I've learned more from these talented folks than I did in my computer graphics class that I took at the local JC.

[Emma]

Well, then I have to admit that one of my first paper pages was made using PS, I think it was version 4 back then. I made a bunch of red roses to print and paste on a layout. The printers were horrible back then, so it's more like nasty fuschia roses!
I remember getting so frustratred trying to move a rose and having another one move! I clicked ON the rose I wanted to move, and that other kept moving. After quite a bit of yelling at the monitor, that always helps, I saw the Layers Palette! LOL! I couldn't figure out WHY anyone would need layers, but hey, at least I could move the rose I wanted.

I used Word a lot to make little titles and clip art to print and paste, but the quality was so bad I gave up and just stuck with text only. Wasted a lot of scrapbook paper running it through the printer, not to mention the occasional irritating typo!

Wow, my paper books are pretty ugly! They got even uglier the less I used the computer! I quit altogether almost 4 years ago.

So I had NO digi pride to deflate when I discovered others' work. In fact, I felt a little stupid that I hadn't stretched myself more and 'invented' it myself! LOL! I though Jennifer was the only one who did it, and I was very reluctant to start even after finding the online communities last year.

Glad I stuck with it, it's so fun!

[Amanda]

Oh I totally invented it!!!!! Atleast I thought so until I discovered a yahoo group all about it :D I've been doing it longer than most though...over 6 years!!!! I have never paper scrapped :D

[AmberK]

Nope- not me. I barely even paper scrapped but I did like messing around with stamps and stuff making cards. But couldnt afford the supplies so I did nothing. My mom introduced me to Digital scrapping!

[kat_75]

I started digital scrapping in 1997. Didnt really like my results...quit back in 2000. Just got back started again, really differently this time! I really consider it more starting over. :)

[Margie]

oh great question! i thought my husband invented it! i started paper scrapping and he said i should do it on the computer with photoshop, even making it look like it was paper scrapped. i thought he was nuts!! :eek: but he talked me into trying it and i was impressed that he made vellum look transparent, so i tried it and was hooked! so i searched for a computer scrapping group and found one (where i met amanda). it was cool to find others! but i can't count how many people we've all met over the past few years who say "hey, i didn't know other people were doing this!" :D

[Yvette]

Count me in! I was doing layouts with Printmaster for a couple of years before I knew anyone else was doing it!

Yvette

[Pam]

I got my Apple II C+ in 1986 - I did desktop publishing in Print Shop with the graph-paper like graphics, even made some of my own. From there I had a 286 PC and a hand-held scanner and thought it was great that I could set photos up on a page and tell about them (to send to relatives). I placed them on pages using Pagemaker - a word processing program that allowed me to incorporate photos and columns - I made our holiday greetings that way. Oh, my - the resolution of those prints compared to today's - but I thought it was great.

Then I made calendars using Broderbund (then Parsons Technology) Print Shop, which had backgrounds and embellishments and I could import photos. I still have some of them, though I didn't know to call them layouts then. I got my digital camera in 2000, but I've never paper scrapped - it's been too easy to scan photos rather than have extra copies made - plus it would have been difficult to iron a paper page onto a sweatshirt - something I've been designing digitally since my grandson was very young. He'll be a Sophomore this Fall.

[sal4gal]

I invented it ! ! ! LOL, actually I started scrapping in 1990 before there were even scrapbook stores here in Utah ( Yes, I knew Utah before it was the scrapbook capital of the world, LOL). There were not decorative pages yet and I was using one of the earliest versions of Print Artist on an old Apple 2 C computer. All of the graphics were those terrible things with the jaggies. Scanners were not heard of yet. But one thing that I am shocked about is that after 14 years, the ink is still not fading !

Those pages are awful ! But my kids do not want me to change them, they loved them as little boys and still like them now. I guess it is the memories associated with looking at those pages. One camping trip we were camped by a beaver dam and I used a play on words for the theme of the trip. Funny looking beaver graphics, and the kids were speechless that their mother would do such a sinful thing. They still look at those ugly pages and laugh about the wording.

Yes . . . I am the ORIGINAL CS gal :D

Sallie S.

[susan]

I started scrapping on paper. Ugh, dragging out all that paper, past, cutting - what a mess. The artistic side in me liked the results, but the Virgo in me hated having to drag everything out.

About a year ago I found FF and started using it to create my album pages. It wasn't until I found digiscrapping at another site that I realized I could pull all of it together.

No eureka here... just an AHA....

[Jenna]

I was a paper scrapper for many years, then decided to start "planning" my layouts on the computer. Then I plugged the photos in. Then I filled my sketches with patterns. Then I made complete mini-layouts and recreated them on paper. Then I thought, well, this is dumb so I started making bigger layouts in PSP and printing them. Then I realized I could upload them to an online photo-printer and get prints! Oh, my world changed then! LOL But no one else was doing it so I thought I was dumb. It then became my mission to make layouts that LOOKED like paper so no one at 2Peas would know how stupid I was to make them all on the computer ;) Little did I know...

[Nevermore]

Okay, so I must live in a cave or something. But when my son was born I took so many photos (not digital then) that I had photos coming out of my ears. I thought I would be creative. Spent all of $3 on a plastic binder (whoo hoo) and some kid's scissors that had funny edges. Glued on bits of this and bits of that, cards, envelopes with letters, baby theme confetti. Seriously embarassing stuff but things that came my way with presents for him etcetera. Got a little lazy and printed out some headings on paper and glued onto that. Was on a PSP8 board and someone mentioned scrapbooking. I DIED! Firstly, had no idea whatsoever that anyone in the world did scrapbooks (a lot of my pages were just plain bond inkjet paper! and I used Elmer's glue). But didn't even GO there (still have not bought one single paper scrapping item) because the board was about digital scrapping. So long kid's scissors. My next challenge, really, is to start printing out and actually having a book. To date, everything I have done is just for web.

[mom2sofia]

I created my first digital scrapbook layout in 1997 using some "archaic" Adobe program (I can't remember) and Microsoft Word. It wasn't very good at all, and it was more of a "poster collage" with a list of all the people in the photos. I had just gotten internet access for the first time that year, but seeing as how I was a young teenager and the internet was so fresh and new, I spent the majority of my time in chatrooms. I know, silly me! I had never seen any other CG scrapbook layouts, and I truly did think that I perhaps invented something new. I quit making layouts for a long time after that though, but then in 2002 I had my daughter, got PSP7 and PS (which was new and exciting to me) and I wanted to take it up again. My intial plan though was to paper scrapbook and just create frames, titles, etc. and spruce up digital photos and print them out to add on paper. I procrastinated and procrastinated because I either didn't have money to buy all the supplies I needed, or I couldn't find specific things I wanted. Then I discovered others scrapbooking exculsively digital and was so blown away by how much more versatile and creative you can be with digital layouts. The possibilities are endless. We've come quite a long way within the last several years.

[3beautifulkids]

I felt like Emma stupid that I hadn't stuck with it when I first tried. We got a new computer with a cheap digital camera and photo printer(1999). so I tried making some layouts in different programs, but they just looked awful, so I started just laying out my pages in Publisher then printing my perfectly sized photos to scrap the tradition way, I liked the results so I gave up on my pursuit of digital scrapping (it just looked too clippy!)

I had tried the beta version of PSP8, but it was too much for my old PC, so I never really got a chance to understand it before the trial days expired. Another missed opportunity to be a "digital scrapper"

So a few months ago one of the scrappin' Idol contests I knew from a completely unrelated group told us about the contest... and well, I'm here, I love it! I wish I didn't have 5 years of photo's to catch up on, but so glad digital scrapping is so clean, easy and fast compared to the traditional paper method.

so that's me, I can't claim inventing digital scrappin (however, I do claim inventing traditional scrapping since i did that way before it was a craft) I do get to jump on the digital wagon while it's still pretty new so I'm glad for that :)


. In fact, I felt a little stupid that I hadn't stretched myself more and 'invented' it myself! LOL!

[txmusicmom]

Several years ago a relative made a birthday scrapbook on the computer- with a program with preset pages-- pretty basic! But it really piqued my interest-- I kept Looking for that software......... alas I didn't find it.

I collected paper scrapping supplies-- made less than 10 pages--- it's all still sitting there-- I even have a nice case to carry it all .

But I never truly scrapped until I went digital this summer! You have been such a support and encouragement to me!

I'm ready to sell my *paper* supplies!

Donna in Texas

[Margie]

just reviving this one for fun! did you invent it too?! :D

[Willow]

Actually for me it was the other way around. I was in the bookstore looking at magazines after a week of not-so-sucessfully making Christmas cards (I must have wasted at least a dozen sheets of paper) and saw the Digital Scrapbooking magazine. I pulled it out and thought "Why didn't I think of that!?" *giggle*

Nice thread necromancy Margie ^^

[mariafer]

I never thought I invented it (didn't even consider it scrapping) but in 2000 when I moved to US I started making power point presentations with my pics to send to my family. I would use clipart as embellishment. When my daughter was born in 03 I really started doing this more often and more embellished. People loved it but to me it never looked quite right and then in a magazine in 05 I saw one that looked so real. I realized other people were doing it and did a search. I found the freebies and started using it with power point but my files there got so big I couldn't send them any longer so I searched tutorials bought PSE and never looked back. Now even when asked to make a power point or publisher file I end up editing in PSE and importing...

[Lauren]

I invented it ! ! ! LOL, actually I started scrapping in 1990 before there were even scrapbook stores here in Utah ( Yes, I knew Utah before it was the scrapbook capital of the world, LOL). There were not decorative pages yet and I was using one of the earliest versions of Print Artist on an old Apple 2 C computer. All of the graphics were those terrible things with the jaggies. Scanners were not heard of yet. But one thing that I am shocked about is that after 14 years, the ink is still not fading !

Those pages are awful ! But my kids do not want me to change them, they loved them as little boys and still like them now. I guess it is the memories associated with looking at those pages. One camping trip we were camped by a beaver dam and I used a play on words for the theme of the trip. Funny looking beaver graphics, and the kids were speechless that their mother would do such a sinful thing. They still look at those ugly pages and laugh about the wording.

Yes . . . I am the ORIGINAL CS gal :D

Sallie S.
Gee I cant beat that!!- I didnt own a computer back in 1990 - I guess you must have been working on a mac cause Windows 3.1 wasnt around in those days from memory and all i remember using at work was Lotus 123 !!
My first taste of computer graphics was on my room mates Mac - I thought it was so cool that you could draw stuff with it - I think that would have been perhaps in about 1987 or 1988 - I would never have thought of using my photos with it though.
Fast forward to about 1995 or 6when we bought our first computer and it came with a card making programme - I used the creative side to help me learn the computer - and I found a computer arts e- group - no such thing as yahoo groups back then - actually I think thats where I came in contact with Val for the first time- - we did lots of creative things on that group - mostly using web graphics -
I had PSP 4 which became a free download ( poor single income family) and started creating graphics of my own which was so much fun - I knew NOTHING and followed NO rules and the results were probably pretty hideous but who cares it was fun.
I started making calendars - using the graphics and scanning in photos and putting the 2 together with little quotes and dates and things .
I upgraded my PSP over the years and then got my first digital camera - well it was cheap and nasty 1mp and the results werent great so I searched for ways to improve my photos and thats where I found out that the calendars I had been making for the last few years were actually called digital scrapbooking!! I was instantly hooked - later that year I got a part time job putting a food magazines issues on the web and they gave me photoshop to do the graphics ( very very much overkill as all i was doing was resizing) and I started to play with it - LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!!- and Ive never looked back.
I "met" Kim online and together along with another lady ( pre DSP days) we started the first store that sold downloadable page kits - previously everyone was selling on cd ( and there werent many doing that even) - that was in 2002 I think from memory - - then in late 2003 Margie asked me to join this new site that was opening - was going to be great she said - so it was decision time - and it was the best decision I think Ive made in a long time!!!

SO in answer to the question - did I invent it - No - surely I didnt do that - but as far as I know I can claim along with Kim to have invented the first specifically digital scrapbooking downloadable page kits !!

[happybeingamom]

Great stories.

[Meryl]

Oh the memories! I started about 6 years back, my first page in Word!!! I was given an unused copy of PS 6 and with a mountain of dd's wedding photos began making pages. In those days, nothing available to buy, you had to make it all yourself! I found the Yahoo group, met Margie, Amanda, Sandy, Marcee? who else? so long back! Best thing I ever thought I'd invented, like Lauren, best decision I ever made was taking up Margies invitation to join DSP :)

[IreneA]

Wow!!! Awesome stories to read!
I'm rather green here LOL - I took up digiscrapping a year ago - yes! :) - and it happened when it was already very popular - I'd say I didn't invent anything but I made I think the fastest way from a clumsy newbie digiscrapper to a DSP designer!!!! Yay - I think this was not an invention, but a discovery of it by me! LOL

[bettyred]

Inventing digi-scrapbooking LOL I thought I was clever, darn- now I know I wasn't alone. I actually started it because I was so tired of the lame slide shows that everyone was trying to sell me. I started out in a print shop as some others have and worked for pro-photographers doing retouching and restoration... now I do most of my layouts for my own company that works with more complex slide shows.

[MarsOlson]

When my grandson was about a year I went for a visit and was surprised with all my daughter's photos from her new digital camera that she hadn't printed any or put them in albums. I didn't know about paper scrapping except as a kids/teen hobby but I took the photo disks home with plans to print and put them in books at least. She sent me a box of paper supplies to use for the album.

Since I had to print out the photos anyway I thought I would jazz them up a bit with frames and graphics. Then I thought I might as well do all the text with the pc. I starting thinking it would be so much faster to have ready made graphics instead of trying to extract and make my own. I went to look online to see what sort of things were available, I was thinking along the lines of clipart.

Mostly I found paper scrapping sites but there were a few digital kits. I had no clue how to use them but I downloaded, tried printing them and then cutting and pasting the elements on these awful pages I was trying to put together. It was not enjoyable and I thought it was looking like something a kid did so I went back online and did more searching til I found DSP and did a tutorial for making my first all digital layout. I was thrilled that the little idea I had to use the computer to make the album pages was already a well established wonderful craft with tons of supplies available.

[kathleen08]

I very well may have invented it! Or at least willed it to become a craze. For the longest time, I used CorelDraw (was loaded on the first computer I bought, probably 1992 or so). I did all sorts of stuff, newsletters, business cards, baby announcements for friends, etc. I did a lot of things for our wedding in 2000 - our wedding invitation, maps, a special edition Tribune. The occasional photo montage. Then a first wedding anniversary gift to my husband in 2001 I scrapped our first year of marriage (I posted some samples Here (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=5444)
), again using CorelDraw. I tried some very simple scrapbook software, but you couldn't customize anything, so I didn't like it all. So I made do with Corel on a very underpowered computer. Files would take like 10 minutes to spool and print, and sometimes I swear just as long to save. Printing was a major problem, but printed tabloid size and trimmed to 11" x 14". I recently scanned them all (the original files have disappeared), added borders and printed 12" x 12" to go along with current albums. For many years I would occasionally wander into a traditional scrapbook store and look at stuff, thinking there had to be a way to do things better digitally. Somewhere along the way, I found one of the original digital scrapbook magazines and finally made the switch to Photoshop and found DSP in early 2007. I haven't turned back since!

[cherebus]

My husband had picked up several different programs to use to create graphic style wedding albums so I played with those first and did our own wedding album in a software called You Select It. Then he gave me the one created by Yervant that was/is used with Photoshop but at the time (2003) it was very frustrating to modify the templates that came with it. So I only worked with it when I was doing a client album. A year later my son was born and I briefly tried paper scrapping but it was too much hassle. So I went searching online for more user friendly templates for photoshop and came upon a couple digitalscrapbooking sites and thought, "well why didn't I think of this?"

[MorningSong]

I guess you can say I've been doing the digi scrapping for $$ for years (since 1987) in the way of advertising layouts. Yikes I am giving away my age & it doesn't look good either) LOL. I had scanned all types of crazy things to make backgrounds for my ads for customers everyday for years. As I said in my intro I just never thought to apply the work to my own personal album. Maybe I'll drag out the old zip discs & post one of those early ads.