Where To Find Digital Scrapbooking Supplies For Your Scrapbooking Business
March 5th, 2010
Digital scrapbooking kits are everywhere on the Internet. The trick is, how do you put together a great content collection on a budget? Once you find all of these kits, how do you sort out which are the ones you actually need for your scrapbooks?
Here’s the silver lining: there are many beautiful, low-cost digital packs and themes, and even gorgeous digital freebies that will work really well for you. Lots of professionally-designed kits sell for under five dollars on some of the top scrapbooking sites. Plenty of designers and talented amateurs will even share their stuff for free when you agree to only use their content in personal projects (i.e., not for resale or redistribution). It should be easy to learn how to digital scrapbook.
However, there may be a whole lot of kits out there, but you still have to figure out which ones are right for you. Simply stocking up on everything you find isn’t necessarily the best plan. You’re going to want top-notch designs and flexibility, plus you don’t want to download a whole of pile of things you’ll never look at again.
1. Step one in stocking your perfect digital scrapbooking stash is to get out pen and paper and itemize the kinds of scrapbook themes you are likely to make, such as School, Little Boy, Grandchildren, and Genealogy. It’s a good idea to include a few “general-purpose” kits that you can use in a whole bunch of different scrapbook types. Once you search for the themes on your list, you can turn your attention to checking out what’s included and the quality of what you find in those kits.
2. Next, think of the different elements that make up a great scrapbook page: background paper, embellishments, paper scraps or mats, and maybe even some shapes. Look for kits that include all or most of these things. A kit that has all of these coordinating elements is the best way to stretch your dollar.
3. So that you can make the smartest choices in selecting your kits, look for a website or digital store that lists all of the items included in each kit. Ideally, the site will also include images that give you not only an excellent idea of what’s included, but also of the kit’s style. The last thing you want to do is waste time and/or money downloading a kit that isn’t what you were expecting!
4. In addition to scrapbooking kits, you can also find pre-made scrapbook layout pages (sometimes called ploppers) and also fully-editable template pages. The best option when it comes to pre-made pages is to choose editable template pages since you can change them up to personalize them. Editable templates are great because you can use them time and time again, making little changes here and there, and getting totally unique results every time!
5. Don’t forget how important it is to have a really good quality scrapbooking program when building a smart collection of scrapbooking elements. There are wonderful programs out there that let you alter the color, shape, and even the “texture” of your paper scraps and elements. The pay off for you is that you can constantly transform your embellishments and papers, giving them a whole different look to suit every new project.
6. This tip is priceless: look for mega digital content packs that feature a variety of designers. Mega packs come chock full of editable template layouts, and kits with coordinating embellishments, photoshapes, background papers, and scraps. The mega pack offers everything you need to make tons of great-looking pages, plus a choice of style since every digital artist has her or his own unique creative approach to design. This can really help you when you want to open a scrapbook business.
7. Remember that your scrapbooking software can also play a crucial part in putting together your content collection. Choose a program that offers a great-looking content pack that includes all the necessary elements for scrapbooking. Ideally, your program will come with templates that you can edit, and complete scrapbooking kits so that the task of making stylish pages is a snap.
At the end of the day, it pays to first do a little bit of thinking about the kinds of scrapbooking projects you are interested in making. Next, you can search for kits that have coordinating elements, and everything you need to make a complete page. To maximize the life of your collection, make sure to get a hold of editable template pages, and a software program that gives you creative tools for altering the appearance of your digital elements.
