Suggestions....

I'm new to the whole digital scrapbooking thing, and am REALLY excited about it! Do you have any suggestions on the best software to use? I could use any ideas on software and on how to learn how to use it. Thanks!!

I think price is big factor in deciding on the software to use. Paint Shop Pro and Photo Shop Elements are both low priced programs with alot of editing capabilities. Some people go with PhotoShop of course it is alot more expensive. Several hundred dollars I think. Those are the three main programs that people use for scrapping.

I use Paint Shop Pro so I am a little biased LOL. It came with a disk with lessons so I learned a little that way and then through trial and error and just playing with the different functions. There are tons of tutorials online though and if you need to learn how to do something specific you can always post here or another scrapping site and are bound to get loads of help from everyone.

I've been using Paint Shop Pro for over 6 years and LOVE it!

I also use PSP and love it... it's been pretty easy to learn on my own, and it has a help function that you can search for specific things. And there are a lot of tutorials out there for PSP (as well as for PS and PSE).

Also, PSE and PSP both come free sometimes with scanners, cameras etc...

Shop around and you might be able find a great deal online or an in-store deal for which ever program you decide to go with.

I use and love Photoshop Elements. You can download a free 30-day trial of Photoshop Elements off the Adobe website. If you buy Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 at Costco, it comes with a Digital Scrapbooking Training DVD by Linda Sattgast. Her tutorials are really good. Here is the link if you want to take a look:

Photoshop Elements 8

I am a huge advocate for Photoshop Elements. I have been scrapping with it forever because I just find it easier to use. IT's amazing!

welcome to digital scrapbooking!!

I've only been digi scrapping for about a year and I'm totally hooked! we love new addicts...oops, I mean members...so welcome!

If you're a paper scrapper currently (which I had been for 8 years before i found digi)...I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Digital-Scrapbooking-Creative-Collection/dp/B001DJVJHK

It walks you through step-by-step creating LOs like you would create with paper. I originally had the first book, then got the second one later when it came out. I would carry it around and just follow the steps over and over until it all finally clicked and I could figure it out myself!

I learned on PSE, which I would recommend. This book has instructions for PSE, not many for PSP. So if you go the PSP route I wouldn't pick up this book...Like MOnique said, if you've recently purchased a digi camera or a scanner, you may have gotten a copy of PSE with your device! Also, AMazon has regular deals on PSE (usually rebates) which put the price around $60. TOTALLY worth it...I used to drop $50 on one trip to my local scrapbook store, LOL!

good luck, and welcome!!

I wholeheartedly recommend this book:

http://tinyurl.com/yjbcnuu

This is how I learned to digi scrap ... not only does Renee give you a complete kit on the DVD, but she takes you step by step on how to create each kind of page you would want to create in your scrapbook! Great pics and instructions! I sold my book and ended up buying another off of someone else so my teenagers could learn from her!

I buy the full version of Photoshop Elements here:

http://www.softwareoutlet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=r2836

OEM means it is in a sealed envie with the serial code ... just not in the fancy store box that you are going to throw away anyway!

Good luck!

I use a scrapbooking program not a photo editing program and I love it. It's made by Serif and called Digital Scrapbook Artist. Last time I looked on Amazon it was $20 so great if you're on a budget. There are a couple of shortcomings. If you want to use templates it'll load psd files but not in layers so you have to find templates that come in png format (or I use gimp which is free to separate the layers into pngs) also it doesn't handle clipping masks nearly as well as pse does. The benefits is that it's incredibly user friendly even compared to pse (i do however recommend watching the tutorials) and with the free upgrade available you can create digipack files from third party kits (again watch the tuts..they're incredibly helpful) and label everything so it's easy to find later. I tried out everything I could try out before I decided on this...there's a scaled down version available for free on the Serif website if you want to give it a whirl, but it doesn't have nearly the versatility of the full program. Oh one other issue...is when you save packs that you create to any drive but the default drive it doesn't know where to look for them without either editing the registry (way scary) or downloading one of the premade packs (some are free) on their website and installing to whatever directory you want to save your kits in. Sorry about the long winded for a short question. Good luck in your search!

I have Digital Scrapbook Artist, PSE6 (photoshop elements 6), and PSCS2 (the big mama photoshop version).

While Digital Scrapbook Artist(DSA) was cheap, it took a lot of my computers RAM and so it ran fairly slow. A few months later I saw PSE6 for only $50 so I grabbed it. It ran SOOO fast in comparison to DSA. It also has SOOOO many capabilties. For the money, I dont think you can beat PSE. You can use it for so many things...scrapbooking, photoediting, photo organization, etc. I think PSE is fairly user friendly and there are SOOO many tutorials on the web to help. PSCS was given to me and it has more features than PSE obviously, but for the $$ PSE can't be beat in my opinion. If I had to do it over again, I would purchase only PSE if I were on a budget.