In honor of digital scrapbooking day
 

You've probably told your story 983 times already but just for fun share how and when you got started with digital scrapbooking. Have you made lifelong friends because of it? Do your "real life" friends and family get and appreciate your hobby?

I started digi scrapping in late 2011 after a 6 week RV trip out west. I had a friend who posted her amazing digi scrapping layouts on Facebook and she got me hooked! I switched to PSE in late 2014 and I've been addicted ever since. :)
My family appreciates the books but not always all the time I spend scrapping. I have made AMAZING friends all over the world and I love that!!!

I bought a photo editing program which had it built in. From there I bought a scrapbooking program designed just for scrapbooking. It did not fit my needs and slowed my computer way, way down. So I got paint shop pro 9 I think. Maybe 10 or 11. ANyhow I started to do a book for my daughters 16th birthday. So she was about 15 at the time. I did not finish that book alone but Ive done many others. She is almost 25 now. So Ive been doing it for 10 years now.

I was a newlywed military wife living overseas. We had no furniture, no car, I didn't speak the language, etc. I walked over to the post store one day to kill time and found a magazine about digital scrapbooking that taught you how to do it on a computer. I went home and used paint shop pro to create my first layout that week, and upgraded to photoshop elements a few months later. That was nearly a decade ago now!

I met this designer chick from Canada through digital scrapbooking. She's okay, I guess. :p

JK...You know I love you, K! :wub: I got started in late 2009 after a friend started posting layouts from her WDW trips on a Disney forum I belonged to. I was intrigued, so I decided to check it out and have been hooked ever since. I have absolutely met some amazing people and made wonderful friendships through this hobby/obsession. My life has been made all the better for it.

I got started digiscrapping in Jan 2010. My son was born in Sept 2009 and I was trying to find a way to make him an album. I just wasn't happy with the traditional baby books, they weren't enough, and I was familiar with paper scrapbooking through Creative Memories. So I checked there, even though every paper album I had ever tried to make never worked out. Not enough time, too many supplies, too much mess. Reluctantly I tried their digital scrapbooking program and I was hooked. I've made at least 3 albums a year ever since. I found the Sweet Shoppe in probably 2014 sometime and my love for digi has just exploded. I'm doing more layouts than ever.

Oh, and I have no real life friends who digiscrap, though my hubby is super supportive. : )

I was a paper scrapper first (starting around 2001) and a photographer. As I learned more about Photoshop for my photography biz, I started discovering digital elements (grunge borders etc) to enhance photography. So, when digital scrapbook sites came along, it seemed like a good idea to make the switch. I've never regretted it and love that I don't have so many paper supplies anymore (though I do still keep some for crafting).

I wanted to make better photo books then the standard old, Shutterfly designs and stumbled upon digital scrapbook in May 2011. I had never paper scrapped before, but I had all photoshop for my photography business and was hooked from the very start.

I've met some of my very best friends from scrapbooking!

I started digiscrapping early 2005, since then was able to convert my best friend, who was just a "friend" and now we scrap together all the time chatting via yahoo messenger!!

I know my family appreciates my hobby. They are always asking me, "did you create any new layouts recently?" and the biggest, hottest question right now, "are you going to print any more albums soon?" They are dying for some new albums, but I'm stuck finding an affordable place to print 100-pages in a bound album (Does anyone know of any places?)

This weekend though, my husband doesn't appreciate. He planned a gathering with his friends and while I told him I wasn't doing anything for him or his buddies he did ask me to clean the house, make a dessert. I was trying to tell him about the scrapping bingo and his eyes glazed over. Of all the people in the house, I know he doesn't care the most, but he knows it makes me happy and doesn't say anything about it.

I was unsuccessfully trying to paper scrap after having just married a man with five little kids when I Googled 'scrapbooking.' I found 2Peas and while browsing their gallery, I saw Ali Edwards' digital (just brushes & wordart-type things as no digital scrapbooking website existed yet) AAM album and thought, 'Oh, wow. That's how I want to scrapbook!'

This was in February 2003 and Scrapbook-Bytes had just opened its door a couple of weeks earlier. I found them after Googling 'computer scrapbooking,' I think.

The rest is history... :p

Me too! It makes me kind of sad to think that now that there are no scrap magazines, no one can find out about it this way.

Winkflash has 50% sales every few months, I think, and their albums have unlimited number of pages. I had one printed and it was pretty good quality.

Mari, lovely1m, got me started when I was pregnant with Stella! So like 8 years ago! Crazy! I would like to think I have made lifelong friends from it. There are people that I love so much and would love to meet and would be so sad not to talk to. My real life friends and family do not appreciate it even after showing them pages and things and they think my computer friends aren't real friends. I have even had them tag me in posts about how you need to connect with more people than just online. Facebook is awesome ;)

I love it though. I love scrapping and I love that I have seen people's children grow up and people who didn't have kids but now do. I love telling stories and getting time to do something on my own that I am not terrible at. IT brings me a lot and I am very grateful for it.

I started paper scrapping in 1999, and did a lot of hybrid layouts starting in about 2009. But it wasn't until this past winter when I got frustrated trying to put together a vacation album on shutterfly that I decided I needed to look into digiscrapping.

I found this website when I was googling ideas, and I'm so glad a did!

I'm the only one of my friends/family in real life who scraps, but they all appreciate it. My husband loves that I no longer have paperscrap supplies laying all over the house :)


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In March 2004, when my oldest was about 5 months old, I wanted a better way to remember what was going on in each of the photos. I researched scrapbooking and also saw some info on digital scrapbooking, but I thought I'd be a paper scrapper. What was I thinking--I'm so much better with a computer than with my hands! I did one layout that was mostly paper but used the computer for titlework and journaling. Then I did my 2nd layout--it was all created within my photo editing program, then I printed it out, cut it apart, and aranged it on the background. By my 3rd layout I'd thrown in the towel and realized I was meant to be a digital scrapbooker. I joined Scrapbook Bytes, and the rest is history. I can't believe it's been more than 12 years already!

I'm not that active on FB, so I haven't really gotten to know many digital scrappers well. :( I have IRL friends who paper scrap, but no one I know digiscraps. My family is generally supportive. They love looking at the pages, hate having their photos taken, and thankfully have no idea how much it costs to buy kits or print layouts!

It makes me sad too!! I have a feeling that there are a lot of people who just have no idea it exists. Those digital scrapbook magazines and baby forums were a huge way for people to discover this hobby. :crying::crying::crying:

*Nodding head.*

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I started like 8 or 9 years ago by accident. A small group of local females in a forum opened my eyes for digital scrapbooking. I virtually met Blagovesta there and even though we've never met in real life, I think she's a wonderful person and a friend.
I've never met a scrapbooker in real life...this hobby is not popular at all here in my country. But yes, my family (and some friends) do appreciate what I do. My family in fact really LOVE my layouts -- especially when they see them printed in photo books. The first time I gave them a photo book they were like "WHAT is that??? That's amazing!!!"
My husband also appreciates my hobby and always supports me -- when there's events, he always tells me to take my time and to enjoy it. He always tells me to buy what I want or need in order to be happy.
I've met super sweet online friends through scrapbooking. This is the only hobby that I keep enjoying on a daily basis.

I'm another who did some good ol' fashioned Googling. :) I've been a freelance graphic designer since my teens, and after getting in to crafting around the time I got married (we made all of our wedding invites, place cards, etc ourselves), I thought I'd see if there was a happy medium of the two. It took me a couple of years to investigate, but in July of 2011 I made my first digital page.

I've met some incredible ladies since then and I am often humbled by their kindness, especially around the time my daughter was born at the end of 2012. She developed a life-threatening complication a couple of weeks before her birth and I'm still so blown away by how lovely and kind everyone was. Those words on the screen mean so much in difficult times - and also during good times when you just want to have a laugh.

As for those in "real life", I am also very lucky. My husband has completely supported my digital scrapbooking and always nags me to see any new layouts I create. He's a published author, so is creative himself - if I ever need a second opinion, then I just go to him. If my 6.5 year-old son notices I'm creating a page, he's always wanting to help me out and tell me where to put things. My daughter's beginning to show interest too. I also have other loved ones who are so intereted to see what I've been creating, especially my sister.

Needless to say, I absolutely adore digital scrapbooking. :wub:

I worked for an online digital scrapbooking magazine a couple of years ago, but even that has moved on to Facebook and no longer publishes. I agree, it's sad that the medium has completely disappeared, both online and offline. :(

When my oldest was born in 2003 I found a paper scrapping TV show and got hooked on watching it every day. I really wanted to try it, so for my birthday that year my husband got me an album and some supplies. I ended up making all of 2 pages haha. Just couldn't find the time to get all that stuff out with a baby and another on the way. Fast forward around 2007 to 2008, I think that's when I got Photoshop Elements for the first time. If I remember correctly there was a digital scrapbooking insert in the case that prompted me to go searching online. I was determined to make a baby book for my daughter. I got a handful of pages done but still didn't have a lot of time for the computer with 3 little kids. Plus I still had a lot to learn haha. I got more interested in photography and focused on that. What got me back into scrapbooking was happening to find the Project Life app in the app store in 2014. Then I was itching to make those pages more creative, and ended up here. [emoji16]

I don't have any real life friends that scrapbook. My kids love looking at the pages I've made. I'm not sure if my husband cares one way or the other except for how much money I spend on it. [emoji16]


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iI used to be a paper scrapper and enjoyed it, but I wasn't handy enough with tools to cut and glue accurately (and also a perfectionist!). I didn't have a dedicated scrapping space, so used to bring out my supplies onto the (small) kitchen table and pack them away again afterwards - this was all pre-kids while living in an apartment! (although those were the days, now that I think about it :D)

When I became pregnant with our first child in 2010, I knew that I wanted to scrap about my pregnancy and turn it into a photobook, as I'd seen some great pages that other people had made on their computers. I like learning new skills and I already knew my way around Photoshop a bit, so over a few months I looked at LOTS of tutorials and lurked around on a digiscrapping website that doesn't exist anymore). Then I started slowly posting my layouts a little bit and loved the community aspect of receiving feedback, which inspired me to keep creating. And before I knew it, I had a beautiful finished project and a new hobby - and no more paper scrapping! - the rest was history. After three (actually, nearly four!) kids and PND triggered by a complicated pregnancy and premature birth of our twins, I can quite honestly say that scrapping has been one of the best things possible in my life, helping me to focus on the present while doing something for myself. xx

I love hearing all the stories! I started about 10 years ago with Creative Memories' program Story Book Creator because I was a consultant. I was an avid paper scrapper and resistant at first, but soon realized the potential and was hooked! When CM closed up shop and reopened without digital I was lost and started searching online for a new program. I found Artisan which was basically the same as SBC and started visiting sites like this one and found a whole new world of styles and products! I have been enjoying the community ever since. I have made wonderful digital friends and even had the chance to meet a few in person. My family loves our books, but they don't get the online "friend" thing. They are very supportive and let me have my scrapping time!

My son whas just born and i whas sitting at home and found out about tags and started with making tags then i found out about digiscrapping a few years later and started that but i think i felt in love with it around 2011 and start making friends

I started as soon as Creative Memories came out with StoryBook Creator. I was a Consultant, and I was immediately hooked. At first you couldn't do anything with it except insert photos and text. Drove me nuts because I wanted to resize the photos, add more, move the text box to another place, but you couldn't. Once they came out with SBC+, that was the end of paper scrapping for me.

I "met" Britt of Britt-ish Designs on a Disney site where people would do scrapping challenges. I followed her to ScrapMatters, where I learned more about digi-scrapping than I thought possible! That is also where I met a lot of my digi-friends, and was able to meet many of them, too.

Now I'm so busy with my kids that I have a hard time keeping up with more than one digi-scrapping site at a time, but I'm trying to do it. So, hopefully you'll be seeing me around here more!

Gosh I think I officially started scrapping back in 2005/2006ish. I was introduced after making signature tags for so many years before this. As many may know, that is where I met Biancka. We were in many mommy groups where we would do swaps, etc. So yes, her and I have history...at least close to 16-17 years. Amazing no? She is who I consider my best friend and I would do anything (well not literally lol) to meet her. We've followed each other around many scrapping forums and I remember being published in quite a few magazines. As a matter of fact, I came across one and it was with my daughter when she was a newborn and I used one of Flergs' kits. Ahhhh yes, those were the days...and *poof* here we are today. I look back and see how I've grown as a scrapper and I'm proud! My family does appreciate it and I'm lucky to have a man who adores it as well. He often asks me How many pages I've done, especially if it has him in them *lol*

I also can say I don't have any IRL friends that scrap, most are online and I have made some amazing friendships along the way that I truly appreciate. Lub ya chicas...you know who you are.

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I have all my printed albums through Winkflash. However they have limited their album pages to 50 instead of 100. I had sent them an email earlier last month confirming and they did reduce the amount in the bound album when they took over the site a few years ago 😔

Summer 2008. A friend of a friend was a designer and at that time I was stuck with improving my Photoshop skills, so I downloaded some of her freebies to understand how the scrapbook thing works, and did some CD covers with it. I was adamant I'd never do real scrapbooking, but in September 2008 I did anyway. In January 2009 I discovered SSD. At first I scrapped other people's kids, later I moved on to making photobooks/albums of my own memories, hybrid card making and even designing for a time.

I learned Majda (pomi) here at SSD and we have become RL friends. :-)

My RL friends/family appreciate it!

The original wish - improving my Photoshop skills - was more than fulfilled!!! I got a fantastic hobby I'm sure will last for a lifetime.

I have always been crafty, and digital scrapbooking seemed like the next step. With a house full of children, and limited space, it was a good compromise, than leaving stuff out everywhere.

I did my first pages in late 2004, early 2005 .. and it took off from there. I was very active in the community for a long time, even did designing myself there for a while. But a few years ago, due to lots of Real Life reasons I stopped completely, I stopped most of my crafting completely.

But recently life has changed dramatically, and I am feeling so much more inspired and happy within myself, so here I am back in the Digi world.

It is funny looking over my stash from when I started, I have really early Flergs, Erica Zane and Traci Reed stuff :)