I love to scrapbook, I have been doing it for years. First with paper, adhesive, stickers, etc. But now I do it digitally. There are many ways to digitally create scrapbook pages. One of the great things about digital, is you can easily crop and resize your pictures as you go. That is so much better than preplanning a page and then having to get pictures printed in certain sizes to fit your idea. You can also reuse digital design elements. No more buy and storing paper, adhesives, and cute accents. It is all ready to use on your computer or mobile device.
There are software programs such as Photoshop Elements (grea
t for pretty much anyone!), Photoshop CS (if your an experienced user, it is great. But it is not for beginners), & Corel Paintshop Pro. I am a graphic designer who created digital scrapbook art for many years. I use Photoshop CS to create realistic paper and elements, but unless you plan to do a lot of design work, it probably wouldn’t be worth the money and the learning curve.
If you want to be able to create fabulous pages without frustration, check out these options:
*My Memories Suite – the digital download for this software is under $40. You can also do a free trial, which is awesome so you know if the program has what you want. The great thing about this site is it has everything you need to do digital scrapbooking. They have the software, digital scrapbook kits, printing services – photo book or individual pages, and a great forum to connect with other scrapbookers. There is also a Design Club that you can join that will give you kit & printing perks! I love the idea of everything in one place!
*Smilebox – this is a free, cloud based scrapbooking option. They have a lot of templates and designs and you can share your finished creation through social media. Since it is cloud based, you can access your creations anywhere. This site allows you to have unlimited creations for free, but if you want the option to remove the watermark, share via email, post to Facebook & Twitter and other perks, you will need to join one of their monthly paid options.
Sweet Shoppe Designs – once you have the software you want to use, you will need digital scrapbook kits. My favorite digital store is Sweet Shoppe Designs. They have amazing designers and I can always find what I am looking for. You can find kits, quick pages (completed pages that you just drop your photos into), templates, and lots of tutorials. They also have a gallery where you can find inspiration and a forum where you can ask questions and connect with other digi scrappers.
*Project Life – this is my go to scrapbooking option. I don’t use it if I want detailed, fancy pages (I go back to Photoshop for that), but to 
create great memory books quickly this is the way to go. Project Life was designed by Becky Higgins to help people get their memories recorded in a simple, yet appealing way. It began as a physical product with pocket sheet protectors and kits that had cards that fit in the pockets. The cards were for titles, journaling, and accents. You cropped your photos to fit the pockets and there you go, a scrapbook page in no time! The downside to the physical option is the kits are expensive – they are themed and while they have enough cards to complete an entire album, the album won’t have a variety of designs unless you buy more than one kit (which I did and I now I have a couple of boxes full of the unused cards!). A completely themed album is great for certain occasions, most of my books are a yearly recap, so I want variety. Project Life Digital uses the same concept – premade digital cards that you drop into a template. There are a lot of digital kits available at the Digital Project Life website. NOTE: You will need Adobe Photoshop Elements to use Digital Project Life.
*Project Life App – now we get to my FAVORITE Project Life option – the app! You can download the FREE Project Life app for either IOS and Android. There are kits available – many are free, most are $.99, and a few are $1.99. But you can use the kits endlessly! I love the app because I can take pictures with my iPhone and then scrapbook them on my iPad seamlessly! You can seriously complete a page in about a minute. I have scrapbooked an entire trip on the way home using just my iPad. It is great! This is what it looks like and how to use it:
PRINTING! Before I finish this up, we need to talk about printing. Even though we live in a digital world, a physical book encourages people to sit with someone else and talk about the events on the pages. It is so satisfying to open a scrapbook and remember a fun trip, holiday, or a loved one. So where is the best place too print your pages? I have tried different options and my favorite printer is Persnickety Prints. Their prints are high quality with an extremely fast turn around. I have uploaded photos and received my prints within a couple of days. If you are near their store in Orem, Utah, you can pick them up in a couple of hours. 12×12 scrapbook prints run $1.99, which is a great price. But even better, they will have print credit sales every so often where you can buy photo credits (that never expire!) for only $1.49. You buy them in a set of 50 pages for $75. I always make sure to snag some when they are on sale.
I hope these options will help you find the best way to preserve your memories!