I want to talk more about Digiscrapping

I know people have mentioned GIMP but it is not something I have used. I got Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 bundled in with a printer years ago and stayed with that until I upgraded to 9 then 11 (current is 12 but they release new around October each year).

I admit I struggled a lot trying to figure it out on my own. Layers were just a complete mystery. Someone at a local crop was digiscrapping so she showed me a few basics. I took a couple of classes that helped. Jessica Sprague's are the most famous I guess. I took the intermediate one to help improve my skills, but if you wanted to get a grip of things quicker than me I would suggest going for a beginners class at the outset.

If there are particular things you want to do, check out You Tube or just ask on the forum.

I do limited organisation - I am mainly what is known as a kit scrapper - I buy a kit and I make a layout with what is in that kit. This means I don't need to organise much other than by store/designer. Some people use organising systems and label everything that comes in a kit with tags such as paper, button, theme, colour, pattern etc. This works well for people who like to use a bit of this and a bit of that. I have so much stuff there is no way I could go back and do that with everything I have.

I would say the main things to learn are downloading/unzipping/creating new files and dragging things in to the workspace; how to use the layers; clipping and resizing; using shadows effectively - makes all the difference to a page.

And a big thing to remember in the digi world is that credits when uploading is proper etiquette - it is really frowned upon not to state the product and designer of whatever you have used.

Started digi scrapping in 2009.  I bought a new laptop and it had PSE 6 on it.  A friend had just taken a CK class nearby, taught by Jessica Sprague.  So I Googled her (I vaguely remembered her from CK Magazine), found the site and took a free class at JessicaSprague dot com.  I love her classes.  Her voice calming and she she makes everything seem so easy.  In fact her classes are 20% off until 6/30/14.

I use Picasa to organize photos and supplies.  One thing I would stress is that tag your supplies as you get them. I have over 500 digi kits that I am trying to tag.  Ok two things.  Also just because a kit is free or $1.00 doesn't mean that you have to get it.  If it's not your style, pass on it.  My kits are organized by the name of the creator and then kit name.

I bought the software from My Digital Scraproom. They were running a special and I'd been looking at it for a while so I bit. I LOVE how easy it is to organize and tag not only all of my photos but all of my digital scrapping stuff too, making it easy to find and easy to use. There are tools for creating photo collages, Project Life type cards and for basic photo editing among other things. I also love that once my photos are categorized, I can mark them as printed once I've done that step, and mark them as scrapped once I'm done scrapping that group of pics which is very handy whether you scrap digitally or not. 


The price is comparable to PSE but I think the learning curve is a lot less steep, she has a ton of great how to videos on YouTube that you can watch so you can see how to do things step by step. I haven't used it a whole lot for projects, but I have been working on getting my photos and digi stuff imported into it and tagged so at least I'm moving in the right direction!

Does anyone use GIMP to digiscrap? I recommend PSE, to be honest. That's what the bulk of the mainstream digital supplies are made for, including templates, and I think you'd be better off just using it from the very beginning. You can download a free trial for a few weeks... (At least 2, but maybe a month) to see if it's something you'll actually use, but you can also get really good pricing from Amazon and places like Costco, generally for as low as $50.

How do you organize your digital accessories? Mine are simply in folders on my EHD. I sort by store>DesignerName>KitName. That way, if a designer moves to another store it's easy to move the folder. A lot of people tag, but I'd rather spend my time on the fun part of digi.

Did you have to explore things yourself or are there some good videos you recommend? I am completely self-taught, even as a designer, so it's definitely possible to do that. People have mentioned Jessica Sprague's classes, and they are good, but I very highly recommend Tiffany Tillman's site, scrapaneers.com... She's got some amazing teachers there. Tiffany also has a free video tip series on her blog, which you can find simplytiffanystudios.com/category/digital-tips/

As a designer (and also a store owner, although I obviously don't speak for any store but my own) I don't expect everyone to credit every item, or even credit it at all. To me, it's more of a courtesy to the people looking through the galleries than an expectation from the designers; if they see something they like, they want to know where to find it.

I noticed Gennifer didn't say which store was hers
Pixels & Company

It's my favorite store.

It's a beautiful store, and amazing designers including Gennifer. I think digital scrapping has the best and most diverse designers out there .

Just like with digital photos, back up your digital supplies too. You'd hate for them to all be lost in a crash. I actually use my iPad and Adobe Touch to digi scrap now, but I'm another big proponent of PSE. 

I'm also new to digi scrapping. Have had Photoshop Elements for years and only just working out how to use it but would definitely recommend it.
I've started with some Project Life type layouts using templates from Tracy Larsen. Templates take all the hard work out of things - I really love the convenience.

Oh yes, I definitely second this.  She has a tutorial on creating shadows on a separate layer in PSE which is just genius.  I love her teaching style - so easy to follow.

Thanks so much for the tip. Just the sort of thing I was looking for. 

Hmm... I feel like you can still find quite a bit of free stuff around, but like straggler (and most new digiscrappers), I definitely went on a freebie binge and downloaded a ton of stuff that I never used.

My suggestion would be to download multi-designer freebies until you get a handle on your style. Most stores have at least one available at any given time, so you can download one kit and "try out" 20+ designers in one go. For example, here's the current NL subscription freebie at P&Co:

You can get it just by signing up for the NL, and I'm pretty sure most stores have something like this. You can also find good freebies by liking stores' and designers' FB pages, too.

Guess I should have said that a lot of the sites I DL'd freebies from are long gone...I am sure there are freebies still out there...I just no longer search diligently for them! Really need to get busy and get rid of a lot of those files...it would be so much easier to scrap! Pickleberry Pop is a site for digi-stuff I really like. The above collab is very pretty as well!

I just went through and deleted a whole lot of stuff I downloaded for free, never used and just isn't my style.

I don't think you are being a jerk at all and I would appreciate a link so I don't have to go searching, that's a beautiful kit! I think we should start a monthly thread where all the designers who are here can link us up to their new stuff!

You're not being a jerk, Gennifer.
Love the hat, btw.
And, thanks for the answer on the template question Fruitysuet =)