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Guest Post: Become “Tech-Fabulous” with Digital Scrapbooking

Posted by DivineCaroline on October 24th, 2009 at 10:00am

By: Jennifer Barlow for DivineCaroline

Ah, the many talented 21st century mom. Between shuttling the kids to school, soccer, ballet, and guitar lessons, scheduling doctor appointments and chaperoning sleepovers, she somehow manages to artfully carve out a bit of a life for herself. She’s active: she plays tennis, or jogs, or perhaps does yoga. She’s got style: she drinks vanilla lattes with soy milk. Her home décor radiates good feng shui. She’s connected: her hot-pink Blackberry is abuzz with Twitter tweets. She’s even a bit of a kitchen gourmet and can make a mean sandwich for lunch.

A hobby that meshes well with the whirlwind pace of modern parenting is digital scrapbooking. What’s that, you say? Digital scrapbooking is the contemporary approach to traditional scrapbooking, but turbo-charged with the boundless possibilities of home computing. With just a bit of training, and by following these three simple steps, amazingly beautiful and sophisticated results are in reach.

Step One: Upload Your Digital Photos from a Digital Camera to a Computer. Tissues, Band-Aids, Wet-Wipes, and a Ziplock bag full of Cheerios is not the only thing you need in your super-cute mom-purse! Don’t leave home without your digital camera. It’s a must have mommy-essential. You’d be astonished at the number of photo ops in your day: dance class, or piano recitals, ball games, family vacations, or just lounging around the house. Keep that camera close at hand. The best thing about digital photos: they’re free. Take as many shots as you like, and just keep the best ones! Finally, just upload your digital photos to your computer and your ready to start making magic. Step One is as simple as that.

Step Two: Edit Your Digital Photos. You may or may not feel the need edit your digital photos, but it is always nice to have the option. Fix red-eye or unnecessary shadows or overcasts. That mustard stain your toddler just put all over his new outfit? It may not come out in the wash, but it can be digitally removed from the photo! Got dirty dishes in the background of that shot of your latest culinary masterpiece? Banish them! Simple fixes and quick edits using Adobe Photoshop Elements can make your photos look “picture-perfect.”

Step Three: Combine Your Digital Photos with Digital Supplies. Here is where you get to play the artist: add themed backgrounds and overlays, clip, crop, arrange, and fit. Although a picture might say a thousand words, a photo can say much more by adding some text! Including names, dates, and times on photos is a great way to document important details and personalize precious pictures. Or add captions or descriptions to ensure that special moments, funny conversations, or little songs sung by those adorable little people so that they will not be lost forever.

Read Jennifer Barlow’s entire article at DivineCaroline.com