Digital Scrapbooking vs. online Photobook Albums?

[floridamommy]

I saw the other thread about photo albums and have really been thinking about going that way myself. Just curious though if any of you out there do the digital scrapbooking, which seems to give you a little more creative control than using a picaboo, shutterfly, kodack gallery book? Is the learning curve on digital scrapbooking very hard? I am getting Photoshop Elements 5.0 for Christmas and am bound and determined to start getting my family photo albums & baby books together before new baby arrives in Spring. My understanding with the digital scrapbooking is that you can download templates and designs to create scrapbook "pages" on the computer, and then zip up the file and email it to a publisher that can print the pages and either bind them or mail them back to you to put in your own album.

I have "made" 2 picaboo albums and been quite pleased, but I do see how it would be nice to have the ability to change things up a little bit more.

Any comments, thoughts, etc? Thanks so much. Heather

[ellies mom]

I do some digital scrapbooking. It isn't that hard to learn. There are quite a few resources out there, some on-line and some magazines and books. You can make things as simple or as complex as you want. There are all sorts of templates you can use.

As for printing you have a few options. If you want to do square pages, you can create them as 12"x12" but print them as 8"x8" at home. Places like Costco and scrapbook stores can usually print up 12"x12" pages for a reasonable price. Another option is to make 8.5"x11", if you use a 1/2" border around the edge, you can also print those at home. You would use photo paper.

Have fun!!