Yesterday was a pretty momentous day for my family…Jen’s Graduation! Wahoo!!
Yesterday was also exciting for another reason too. I received the printed scrapbooks I created for Jen with My Digital Studio (MDS) – what fantastic timing! The pictures I am showing here don’t do the books justice, but I would like to give you an idea of what is possible with our software.
First of all, let me confess that scrapbooking is not my forte. I have been delinquent in getting my pictures into albums for these past 18 years, and I haven’t even printed pictures from every important event. I would be hard-pressed to show you my girls’ lives in pictures, unless you wanted to sit by my computer with me, picking through files!
If this sounds like you, read on. And if you are a faithful scrapper, you are probably cringing! You still might like to check out this post, though – digital projects will fit into your life somewhere.
Second confession…I am not wild about crafting without paper and tools. So what was I thinking? Why combine my shortcoming with my disinterest in this way? Was this some kind of torture? No, it was desperation! I know exactly what I was thinking two months ago, as time was flying by. I was thinking, “Hmmm, it’s already March, and I would really like to have a neat and concise picture story of Jen’s life by June.”
My goal was to come up with a book showing a few highlights from each year. I thought I would have about 4 pages per year. I ended up with more pictures per year than originally planned, but I was enjoying the process, so I didn’t hold back. My finished project was around 130 pages, and I split it into two books.
I had to scan pictures from Jen’s early years when we didn’t have a digital camera. That was the most time-consuming and least fun part of the process. The rest was a breeze!
I spent a few hours here and there, usually at night, on the couch with my laptop, while watching TV. It was actually great to be creative without the tools and mess for a change – picking out papers, cropping and matting pictures, and creating pages. I don’t plan to give up the tools and the mess anytime soon, but now I see that there is room in my life for both methods.
A handful of the pages are shown below. As you can see, my love for designer paper carries over to my MDS projects. I used designer paper collections for the backgrounds, starting with pastels in the baby years, transitioning to brights, and then purples, and finishing with some trendy black and white prints. Since the pages are overflowing with pictures, they didn’t need much else!
I will be printing a second copy of this for myself – what a bonus! Also, I can use the papers and elements over and over. There are definite advantages to digital projects. I have used my MDS for limited projects over the years, but this project – the same project that was hanging over my head ominously in March – has made me a believer!
If you would like to try MDS, you can have it for free for 30 days. Just click “Shop Now” at the top right and put the trial version in your shopping cart like a regular item. You will check out for $0, and there is no commitment. It will simply expire after 30 days.
I have another Memory Keeping project to show you, also inspired by Graduation, and also created in a short period of time 🙂 It combines memorabilia with Project Life picture pages. I will save it for tomorrow since I have gone on long enough today!
