Just starting

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Just starting

I joined a few years ago because I wanted to start digital scrapbooking, but then things came up and I am just now starting on it and I had a few questions. First off, what is the best way to learn new techniques and things? I thought I was happy with the layouts I was making (I have made like 5), but then I looked at some of the layouts here and realized I still have a long way to go.

My other questions are about journaling in my scrapbooks. I have been writing from a first person perspective on the pages I have done and I like that because I can talk about my feelings at the time, but is it better to do a third person perspective? My husband also wants to contribute some journaling, and I think that would be nice. Getting his perspective on things like our wedding day or when our child was born would be really nice, but what is the best way to incorporate something like that? Last question, I am doing a few different scrapbooks, one that is about my husband and me, one that is about each of my kids, and one that is about my family in general. In the one about my husband and me I the journaling in it I was going to write it as though I was writing to my husband, the ones about the kids I was going to write as if I was writing to the kids and call my husband daddy or dad, but then I am now sure how to write the family one. Do I still call my husband dad, or do I use his name? What would you guys do?

Online tutorials are excellent for learning new techniques. You just have to find tutorials for whatever software you're using to scrap. There are a whole heap right here on Pixelscrapper. I think most of them are based on Photoshop.

As for journalling, I think that's a very personal thing. It rather depends on what you want to do (nobody's checking your work!) and who your audience is.

I just worry about doing it right, but I guess there is not real right way to do it.

With the techniques I am more looking for ways of laying everything out. I am using MyMemories and I don't know if it can do everything Photoshop can do, but at the moment I am not looking to design my own elements. I just see other people doing such pretty things with layering and the way they arrange everything on the page. My pages look incredibly plan and simple compared to them.

One of the best ways I found to increase my skills is to scraplift (copy a layout you like). That way you don't have to think about the design, and can focus on just the skills you need to get something done. Plus, you'll pick up some design sense as you go.

As for journaling, that really is a personal question. I do very little journaling, so I'm not a good one for advice on this topic either. It would be awesome to include journaling from other family members if you can get them to do it. And I wouldn't overthink it. Better to get started and change your mind later than to never start. You could do a couple layouts in different styles and then see which one felt the most natural and easy to continue with.

As the others have said the journaling is very personal and you can use whatever voice you choose. One layout might be best suited to first person, all about me type pages for example, whereas another layout is best from the third person. Experiment with your writing and go with what feels best. And just to throw another thing to think about into the mix ... you can make up stories to go along with a your photo/s. I did that with this layout: Tale of Two Rowdies
Enjoy the process whatever direction you decide to take with your pages.

Tutorials and classes really depend on what software you are going to be using. I am a Photoshop Elements 2020 user. There are Photoshop tutorials free here. I pay for PSE specific classes at Digital Scrapper. Honestly I am so green that I have not tried Photoshop tutorials to see if I can figure them out on PSE.

Sorry I disappeared for a while, I had sick kids. I appreciate all the advice. I tried copying a layout I liked and I think it actually turned out well. Not perfect, but I am proud of it. I was going to post it on here to see what you guys thought of it, but I am not sure how.

Aria, you can either use the gallery once you meet the requirements to gain access, or you can host on an external site like Imgur and then link it here (use the icon above the reply box that looks like mountains and a sun in a rectangle).

Ok, here it is. This is the layout I was basing it off of https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/joann-stewart/gallery/sister-layout-sisters-green-pink . It is not exactly the same, but I like it. The only thing that bugs me about it is that it is a little hard to read the word anniversary, but I tried a few things to fix it and this was the best. What do you guys think?

Also, I know the pictures aren't great, but they are the only pictures I have of my first anniversary, so to me the memory they represent is more important than the fact that they are not the best quality.

Looks great Aria! Sometimes the photos aren't the best, but you have to use them anyway! For the title I'd either try giving the title a white outline (called a stroke if you're using Photoshop Layer Styles) or I'd try switching the paper behind it to something a bit plainer. Love all the little details you've added in.

I didn't know I could add an outline like that. How does this look?

Aira, make your albums what you want. There is no right answer to journaling. Also, youtube has some great tutorials.

@Aria: I can't see your images. You may want to try a more public site like imgur.com for hosting your images to post here. Google doesn't make it easy to share a photo publicly.