Sunday, March 6, 2011

Paper vs. Digital Scrapbooking

This is always a topic of discussion in the scrappy world.  I have been a paper scrapper for many years - since 1997 or 1998 (don't remember - and I love it.  I love all the patterned papers, the ribbons,  cutting with my paper trimmer, altering chipboard and playing with so many cute embellishments that are out there.  I love the tactile nature of it - feeling the heavy cardstock, moving around all the elements to the page to make it come together.  Working with scissors and glue takes you back to elementary school!  Nothing beats working with your hands.

However, I'd been wanting to try digi scrapping for a few years and when I joined my scrapbooking message boards, I got the advice to buy Photoshop Elements (PSE) and take a class by Jessica Sprague (see the sidebar).  At first, I became easily frustrated as I found the concepts so foreign.  However, I pushed through and ended up thinking it was pretty darn cool.  So, I signed up for a second class by Jessica and I was hooked.  I love digi scrapping.  I love how you can make a LO look just like a paper page and you don't need all the tools and "stuff".  I love how you can customize colours to exactly the shade you need.  And I love how you never run out of anything! 

Yesterday I was thinking about how sometimes I just can't make the final product of my paper layouts come out the way I envision them in my head.  Sometimes they turn out great but other times, they're just OK.  They just don't come out the way I want them to.  I have found that with digi, my LOs turn out much closer to what I'm picturing and planning in my head than my paper ones do.  Why is that?  I don't know.  Maybe I need to take some classes to work on techniques.  Maybe I just have a better eye for my LOs on the computer.  But I find it interesting that I've come to this conclusion. 

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

I have yet to try digi scrapping..but I would imagine it is easier to switch things around until you have it to your liking??