Title graphic made from The Daily Digi member exclusive kit My Life At Home

After spending time carefully placing elements and papers, choosing the perfect photos and drafting heartfelt journaling, your scrapbook page is done.

Now what do you do? You’re ready to give it a final name, create the full-resolution flattened copy, create a saved-for-web version for the scrapbook galleries, back it up and upload it.

Every digi scrapper has their own work flow. I’m going to share mine with you below.

File Naming

When I am scrapping a photo or story-focussed page, I know when I start designing what it is going to be about, so I am able to name the layered file I am working in with its “final” name. Often though, I am doing pages that are product-driven (which is where I have a kit I want to use and I’ll figure out a subject mid-way through the designing process.) For these pages, I name the layered file with a draft title and then change it just before saving my flattened versions. I like to have the same file name for my layered and flattened versions of a layout so that I can group them together easily.

I name my files in this format: YYYY-MM-DD-ShortTitle. The date is the date that the page is about. So, if I’m scrapping something that happened in 2007, then I’ll put that date. (Usually I’m able to find the date from the photo I am using.) If the page is “timeless”, like a page about my thoughts on a certain book or a reflection on a past event where the present thoughts are the more critical aspect to the page, I’ll use today’s date.

I save my files into folders according to when I scrapped them. So all layouts created in 2012 are in my “2012 Layouts” folder. This works for me because I like being able to count the layouts at the end of the year to see how many pages I made. It also keeps the number of files in the folder manageable. I have created hundreds of layouts over the years so keeping them all in one folder would be overwhelming.

Within each annual layout folder, I create a “Printed” folder where I move the files (both layered and jpg) after I’ve uploaded the jpg to the printer’s site and submitted my print order.

Saving Both Layered and Flattened

Once I’m finished scrapbooking a page, I save and retain it in at least two formats: the layered (e.g. PSD, TIFF) and flattened (e.g. JPG).

No matter which format of layered file you prefer, it’s a good idea to save a layered version of your page, at least for a little while, for a few reasons:

• You might find a spelling mistake that needs correction before you print.
• If you forget what font you used and you’ll be able to go back and check.
• You might decide to turn the layout into a template for yourself.
• If you make a silly mistake (like saving your 12×12 layout jpg at 72dpi and discovering it only after you’ve printed a horrible quality image), you’ll want to be able to fix it.

Personally, I don’t bother to delete layered page files ever, even after I’ve printed my pages. Memory is so inexpensive these days that it is a more efficient use of my time to just to add more memory than to make decisions about which files to keep and which to delete.

I create a 12×12 copy of my page in JPG format, which I sharpen slightly. (You can read more about sharpening for printing here.) I print in 8×8 but my preferred printer is able to take a 12×12 image and print 8×8 without any further adjustments on my end. (You can read Steph’s independent review of printers here.)

After saving my full-size image, I then shrink my layout to a 600×600 pixel jpg at 72dpi for use in the galleries. I created a simple action in Photoshop to do this for in one click. I also like to sharpen my gallery-sized image to make it a bit more crisp. (You can read more about sharpening for galleries here.) Here is a comparison for you:

Saved-for-web, not sharpened:

Saved-for-web, sharpened:

Supplies: Autumn Memories by Designs by Anita; Solos Part II by Busy Bee Designs

The difference isn’t too noticeable, but I think it takes a bit of the fuzziness of saving-for-web away.

Backing Up

I use an online back-up company which automatically backs-up my files to a remote location. There are several companies that provide this service. (I recently lost my EHD and most of its files so once I have the restore complete, I’ll come back and post about my experience with restoring.)

If you don’t use an online back-up, then you’ll need to find an alternate solution – whether it’s using an EHD, burning DVDs, etc.

Remember, there is no question about IF your hard drive will fail. The only question is WHEN. Backing-up is so important.

Uploading

Now that my page is done and saved in all its different formats, I upload it to several different locations.

First, I upload the 12×12 jpg to Flickr and include all the credits. I like to do this so that I have all the information together in one spot. I recently heard on The Digi Show about saving all the credit information in the scrapbook page file metadata via Photoshop. I haven’t tried it myself, but I think I might incorporate this into my workflow!

Next, I open up browser tabs for all the galleries where I want to post the page. Then, using copy and paste, I input all the credit information and title for all the galleries. Lastly, I select the photo for each gallery and hit submit.

Printing

To keep shipping costs to a minimum over the year, I only print once or twice annually, usually when there’s a sale on. No matter which printer you use, if you follow their Facebook page or subscribe to their newsletter, you’ll always be informed in advance of sales so that you have time to upload your photos.

Once I receive the printed layouts, I stack them neatly in a pile on my bookshelf…and then never seem to get around to putting them into my albums!

Okay, so you might not want to take note of that last part!

All In a Few Minutes!

Now that I’ve typed up this long post, I realize I have made a 10 minute process of naming, saving, organizing, backing up and uploading into something that seems much longer! I’ve been following the same basic process for years so it is second nature to me.

Made-For-You Workflow

I think your digi scrapbooking workflow should be as simple or complex as you need it to be to accomplish what you want to do. Maybe you don’t post in the galleries so there’s no need to create a web-size version. Maybe you blog your pages, so that adds to your workflow. It’s a unique process for each scrapbooker.

Now that I’ve shared what I do, please leave a note in the comments if you do something similar or if you have a different workflow. I’m always interested to hear other ways of completing these key scrapbooking tasks.

If you listened to last week’s Digi Show, you heard me talk about the Design Quality Guide. This is something the digital scrapbooking industry has needed for a long time. All of the industry standards and expectations in one place. If you have ever wondered what makes designs quality, save this to your computer and refer to it. If you are an established designer or just getting started, download it and take a look, I learned a thing or two and I’m sure you will too!

Supplies: template is Flight Plan #13 by One Little Bird; Flying High by Design by Dani; fonts are Smith, Century Gothic, and Fontologie Weathered.

When Jenn submitted the layout below for the May Playbook with a tip about angling the papers when working on a template, I thought it was pretty smart. I was sure there might be lots of new scrappers that don’t twist their papers a little to match up to the angle of a template shape. I remember a time when I was too new and hadn’t thought of it myself. I thought I would share today, how to twist your paper angle to match a template.

Supplies: Flight Plan #13 by One Little Bird; Love You More Than Ice Cream (included in May 2012 Digi Files); font is Just the Way You Are

Notice on the layout below how the stripes on the paper aren’t perpendicular with the edges of the paper strip:

By mousing over one of the corner handles and turning the paper until the box is perpendicular with the edges of the paper shape, that strip of paper looks more realistic:

I’ll do the same thing with the green paper strip behind the paper we just adjusted. Here is the before:

And after adjusing the green paper…

The changes are subtle, but make a big difference on the finished layout!

the Tattered Pear Downtown Christmas. Ostrich Sans Round font.

I like to think of myself as a pro-level digital scrapbook shopper. I certainly have put in the time and effort to achieve such a rank. lol! In my travels around digi land, I’ve found that a few simple features can turn a good store into a great one! Let me show you some of my favorites:

One of the best things about shopping at Scrapbook Graphics is that the site will show you everything that’s been added since your last visit. I always feel like I’m really seeing everything there is at SBG because of this feature and I know I buy more because of it!

I love the consistent theme at Scrap Orchard. It’s fun that they have done such clever things with the Orchard idea like “fresh fruit”, “perfect pears”, “fruit salad”, “free-bees”, and more!

After 5 Designs is great for doing frequent free with purchase collaboration kits. When I see that all I need to do is add a few more dollars worth of products to my cart to get a jam-packed collab kit, it’s a no brainer for me!

At The Digi Chick, I really appreciate that I can see the full listing of categories and designers in the sidebar without having to open up a drop down menu. I often shop by designer so this makes it a lot easier for me!

I appreciate the “bargain boutique” section at Catscrap when I’m looking for a good deal. I’ve had some great finds there!

It sure is nice to be able to sample a designer’s work before committing to buy. I like that the Sweet Shoppe has freebie samplers from all of their designers so you can try before you buy!

Zig Zag Scraps displays the bestsellers list for each category of products. I love that when I click on “word art” I can see what the most popular designs are. I always find something new this way!

I really appreciate that Oscraps has expandable menus for some of their designers that allows me not only to shop by designer, but by specific product type from that designer. Being able to shop Anna Aspnes’ Art Play Palettes or Kitty Designs templates really makes it so much easier to find what I’m looking for!

I find it so helpful that I can shop by type of element at MScraps. There are many times that I’m in need of something very specific such as stitches, flowers, or staples and I appreciate the categorization of these items when I’m shopping!

The Lily Pad is known for pioneering the “Build Your Own Collab” approach to shopping and I look forward to a new offering of every month. I’m so happy that I can just buy the related collections that appeal to me and I don’t have to buy it all to get those items that I just can’t live without!

These stores provide high quality and appealing designs on a consistent basis – not an easy thing to do! Many stores also offer extra features like galleries, forums, challenges, social media interactivity, newsletters, and more. Take a minute to look around some of your favorite digi stores and get to know more about their features. Let them know when they are doing something that makes shopping easier and more fun for you – I know they will appreciate the feedback. We are very lucky to have so many great places to shop in digi land!

Flergs Family Archives, Christine Chodil On this Day, Carbon Block font

Have you ever wondered how to decode a preview image for digital scrapbooking supplies? It can be overwhelming at times to look at all the fun goodies that come in a digi kit so it helps to have few pointers to use.

I’m going to use the previews from all the collections included in this month’s Digi Files as examples. Can you believe you get all of these great products for a total price of only $7.50? (Less for annual members) Wow! The proceeds from THE DIGI FILES keep THE DAILY DIGI running!!

I love this kit by Tickled Pink and as soon as I saw the preview I could tell that it was filled with all sorts of designs I could use on my creations. The layer of papers in the background is a great preview of the patterns and colors that come in the kit. The embellishments are layered to show the variety of items included. It is a standard practice for the designer to include the name of the product and their own design name as part of the labeling.

Many scrappers focus on the element items included in a kit and just need a glimpse of the papers. Some designers use more than 1 preview image in a pop up window so you can see previews of each part of the kit (embellishments, patterned papers, solid papers, etc.)  Dunia also included some paper previews inside her kit this month.

Krystal Hartley illustrates some ways to use the included items in combination with the arrangement of her preview image. When I saw the flowers clustered together with the leaves, ribbon, and branch, I knew I would want to use them that way on a page of my own.

With careful layering, you can see the intricacies of patterned papers and added elements on the Queen of Quirk preview here.

Christine Chodil uses a banner across the middle of her preview image to help visually separate the papers from the elements while still showing how they coordinate together. Most previews are shadowed to give definition to each piece pictured, but that does not mean that the individual embellishments come shadowed in the kit.

Whenever I look at digi scrap previews, I pay special attention to the layouts made using the product. Many stores will include some team layouts as alternate images on the preview. At The Daily Digi, we include them in the feature posts and even more in the Team Inspiration section. I like to save these layout images to my hard drive and file them right in with the kit to use for ideas when it comes time to scrap. It’s also fun to pin them on Pinterest for later scraplifts.

Most of all, I find that looking at the layouts created with the kit give me a much more in-depth look at how the designs look in action. I often find that I *have* to get that kit because of a certain paper or a piece of word art I have seen on a layout. I already completely adored this kit by Mari Koegelenberg, but when I saw this layout by Kimberly, I knew I needed to go back and use some of that fun Washi-style tape in the kit!

Previews are important for templates also. I love how Jeanye Labaya uses bright colors to show what her template designs will look like when I bring them to life with my own digi ingredients. I really look for layout examples when I’m exploring template previews so I can see how they look in action!

If you want to understand what comes with a digital scrapbooking purchase, look over the preview and pay attention to the type of items that are pictured. Be sure to check out any sample layouts or additional preview images as well. When you are shopping in a digi store, read the product description to see a listing of the included items. That is especially important for really large kits and collections.

I’m going to use the BIG collaborative kit My Life in Print as an example. This is the kit our members receive as a free gift after their 16th month of the Digi Game. Here’s the preview image:

It’s pretty much impossible to include everything on a preview for a kit this size. This is just a small sampling to give you an idea of the colors, theme, and overall design feel of the kit. It really helps to read the description.

This kit includes:

• 105 papers
• over 280 elements
• 2 layered templates
• 1 brush set
• 6 alphas (1 in 3 colors)
• 2 printable art posters
• 6 quick pages

This amazing collection was created by 30 of the top digital scrapbooking designers (all of whom are previous contributors to THE DIGI FILES) and two Daily Digi team members.

That listing is important so you can really understand what you get with this particular kit. I’m sure you’ll find that as you read the descriptions, study the preview, and explore additional images, that you will find many digital collections that are longing to become a part of your own stash!

Many of us that have been digi scrapping for a long time learned digi without templates. Templates weren’t around until about 2006. Once they took off though, many of us realized that learning to digi scrap by using a template was a super easy way for newbies to learn. For those of us that have discovered the love of templates sometimes wonder why anyone would want to create a layout without a template.

But, the reality is that most digital scrappers have, at least once or twice, wanted to create something from a picture they have in their head. A design all their own, inspired by something, or maybe a scraplift.

Today, I decided to share my step-by-step process and workflow for creating a layout from scratch without a template.

First, go to File>New

When the dialogue window pops up, set the resolution to 300 dpi (the standard printing resolution in digital scrapbooking) and the canvas size to 12 inches by 12 inches. I also set the Background contents to Transparent. Click OK.

Now, let’s name this file and save it by going to File>Save As…:

Navigate to where you want to save your layout. I have a layouts folder and within that folder, I save individual layouts or create a folder for a project and save in there. This happens to be a layout I am doing for an album I’m working on right now, so it is going in that albums folder:

The next thing I do is bring my photos into my layout. Currently, I bring my photos in through Lightroom (select the photos, right click and select Edit In>Photoshop), but I know most people probably aren’t using Lightroom, so for teaching purposes, I will show you how to bring them in another way.

A different way I like to bring photos into Photoshop (besides going to File>Open and then finding the photos I want to use) is by opening a window in explorer and navigating to the folder where my photos are saved. I then select the photos by CTRL+click on the photos I wan to use.

Then, just drag the photos from their directly onto my layout.

Depending on what version of Photoshop or Photoshop elements you are using will determine what will happen next. Your images might just show up stacked in layers on your canvas, or one will show up and look like this:

When you see the x going through your image like above, Photoshop is creating a Smart Object from your image. A Smart Object means that you can make the object larger, up to its regular resolution, and not have the image lose quality. I really like this feature. It will also auto size the image to fit within your canvas, which is a nice feature when you have a digital camera with high megapixels (note: you will need to simplify the layer if you want to make certain edits such as recoloring. Simplify by right clicking and selecting Simplify or Rasterize Layer).

You just need to hit return or the check for each image:

If your images come into your program as a Smart Object, they will look like this in your layers stack:

There are several ways to crop a photo once it’s on your layout, but I prefer to use the Shape Tool. I’m almost going to create my own template.

I really like the look of rounded corners, so I am going to select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (you would use similar steps to these for any of the shape tools listed there):

On my shapes, I like to use the “Fill Pixels” (the selected square under Image on the menu below). For my rounded corners, I like to set the radius to 125. The radius just determines how dramatic the rounding will be. You can adjust the settings in the top menu bar:

If you are in Photoshop, you will need to create a new layer to put your shape on. If you are in Photoshop Elements, a new layer is created automatically, so you can skip this part. In PSCS, go to Layer>New>Layer. Make sure the new layer is selected in the layers stack:

Now, you can draw your shape. If you hold down the shift key before you start clicking and dragging and let go of it after you are done dragging with the mouse, then you will create a perfect square (or a perfect circle if you are using the Ellipse Shape), or any shape for that matter.

Because I know I have three photos, I made the square just under 4 inches.

Now, I’m going to duplicate this same shape layer twice by right clicking on that layer and selecting Duplicate Layer (x2):

This window will pop up:

You can name it something new, I’m lazy, so I usually just click okay or hit enter and leave the name as it is. After duplicating the layer twice, here’s what my layers look like:

So that I can get my shapes lined up just right, I am going to create some guides. This is done by clicking in the area where the rulers are and dragging toward your layout. You will see a line appear and your mouse will change shape. I’m going to drag and drop a line on 4 inches and 8 inches dividing my layout into thirds (the blue lines are my guides, they can be removed by going to View> Clear Guides):

I selected each shape layer one at a time and used the right arrow key to move it in a straight line to the right. I used my guides to help me get the shapes lined up.  Here’s what my layout looks like after spreading out those shapes:

Here’s a closeup of my shape lined up on my guide (see this post for more information on using rulers, grids, and guides):

Now, I need all three shape layers selected at the same time so I can move them down and they stay lined up. I click on the bottom layer in the layers stack, hold down the shift key, and click the top shape layer. My layers stack looks like this:

Now, I can use those shapes as a “clipping mask” just like I would on a template. I need to drag a different shape layer below each photo in the layers stack so it looks like this:

With the photo layer selected I can use my clipping method (CTRL+ALT+G in Photoshop and CTRL+G in PSE) and the photo will take on that shape. Repeat for all photos:

Here’s a look at my canvas now:

Now, I need to resize the photos so they fit in the squares. This is best done by making sure the move tool is selected. Here’s what the move tool looks like:

Click on one of the corner handles (the little boxes in the corners), (in PSCS hold down the shift key) and drag inward. If you don’t hold down the shift key in PSCS you will have loved ones that look like they are in a fun house mirror. Here’s what my canvas looks like after resizing and placing each photo:

I want to add a matte behind the photos for a piece of paper, so I’m going to repeat the steps I used with the shape tool before (starting with creating a new layer), but this time, I won’t hold down the shift key. I’ll do the same thing for any other paper layers I want to add.

All of my layers have photos or shapes on them, so I need to make room for my background paper by adding another new layer and dragging it to the bottom of the stack:

Here’s what the stack looks like after I moved the blank layer to the bottom of the stack (move the layer by clicking on it to select it and then dragging it down and dropping it in place):

Now, I’m going to bring my papers into the canvas just like I did the photos above, making sure my bottom, blank layer is selected.  Here’s a look at things now:

Time to drag those paper layers above the shape layers so they can be cut:

I’m going to use my Title Builder script to add part of the title:

I’ll add the rest of the title with a font, using the Text Tool and clicking where I want that part of the title, then I just start typing:

I always like to add some texture to the fonts using the steps in our tutorial, “Fonts Don’t Float”

Here’s a closeup of that font (Las Vegas) with the added blending:

Last, I’m going to add my drop shadows. Here’s a look at my settings I used for the papers on this layout:

Once I did the shadow on one layer, I right clicked on the FX icon on that layer and selected “Copy Layer Style”. Then, select each of the shape layers by CTRL+clicking on each layer and then right click and select “Paste Layer Syle”. That’s a fast way to add the same layer style to all of the layers. If I have a button or something larger that I want to add, I will paste the same layer style and then adjust the distance, spread, and size to bigger numbers. Here’s another look:

Now, I’ll add a journaling card and some embellishments and place them where I want them and add the drop shadows using the paste method above. Here’s a look at my final layout:

Supplies used: Freestyle by Sarah Jones (at The Digi Chick and included in The Digi Files 30), doodled journaling card by Kate Hadfield (recolored), fonts: Las Vegas and Fontologie Printing Primer.

There has been a lot of attention this past week on copyright issues and Pinterest. I’ve seen a wide range of opinions and posts on the subject. I think one of the most informative articles was from a fellow female techie, Greek Geek.

We’ve seen copyright issues explode since the dawn of the internet. While I agree that copyrighted material does need to be protected, I don’t want to see laws and enforcements such as SOPA to be passed either. It’s a fine line.

I believe that most of the pinning and not linking to the original source on Pinterest is innocent. It is easy to make mistakes when pinning. Just yesterday, Katie and I discovered the the pinlet I installed on my iPhone (follwing the directions in the Pinterest app) does not link to the original source. As far as I can tell, it has been happening since the last Pinterest app update. I have been carefully pinning from my iPhone for months, not knowing that the source wasn’t being linked. I’m unsure if this is just a problem with me and my phone or something others are having as well (and maybe not even know it).

I feel that most of the copyright issues found on Pinterest can be fixed with education. I decided to share some how-to tips for pinning that I’ve discovered during my time as a pinner. I believe, if each of us does our own part to watch our own pins, we can contribute to the overall health and vitality of the Pinterest ecosystem.

Not all site owners want their images pinned. How do you know if sites are okay with images being pinned? Pinterst now has some code in their help section that site owners can add if they don’t want to be pinned. If a pinner tries to pin on a site with the code, they will see a message about the site owner not wanting images to be pinned. Until people start installing the code though, the only way to know for sure is to ask. I’m going to use my own rule of thumb that if a site has a “pin it” button to make it easy to pin, they they are okay with things being pinned. As for The Daily Digi, we are okay with things being pinned, especially when pinned correctly!

There is a “proper” way to pin. Navigating to the exact page URL or source that includes the image and pinning from there, is the right way. Let me share an example:

Let’s pretend that this past Friday, I wanted to pin the main image on the homepage, here at The Daily Digi. On Friday, if you came to TheDailyDigi.com, Here’s what you saw:

Notice the URL in the address bar:

If I were to pin the main image from that Retail Therapy post, with the URL as it is now, (thedailydigi.com) then anytime anyone clicks my pinned image, it will direct them to thedailydigi.com and whatever is on the homepage at that time is what they will see. They will not know how to find the original post the image was pinned from.

The proper thing to do, would be to click on the title of that post:

When you click that post title, it will put a direct URL to that specific post in the address bar:

Now, if you pin the image from there, when people click on the image you pinned, they will be directed back to the original post.

Feel free to practice with the image from today’s post

Before you repin, check to be sure the pin links to the original source. As much as possible, pin and repin directly from the owner. Sometimes, people will grab an image from Pinterest, put it on their site and link back to the source. Just go to the original source and pin from their. Try to give credit where credit is due.

If an image has a copyright symbol and/or “All Rights Reserved” it probably shouldn’t be pinned. This is often seen on Flickr. I know that many people upload to our Flickr group to share their layouts with others. I know that there are designers that require team members to upload layouts to our Flickr group with their product. I also know that most of those people would delighted if I pin their layouts.

If in doubt, ask. If you are in doubt about site, person, or images being Pinterest friendly, ask.

If you would like something to add to your own blog or site to let people know that you are a Pinterest friendly site and you are okay with pinning, I made this image to share:

The numbers in this post and the alpha in the feature image can be found in Vicki Stegall’s store.

I had so much fun sharing what I’ve learned from The Daily Digi, but I had even MORE fun reading what so many of you have learned! Each and every comment just made me so happy, I love seeing how you have been inspired! Here are a few tidbits of what our readers have learned:

From Sharon S. – The coolest thing I learned in the last year involved double page spreads. As I challenged myself to complete Project 52, which for me included an entire scrapbook album, I kept learning things that made that project easier. From one designer, I learned to flip a template horizontally and vertically to make a second page. But the biggest aha moment came when someone said to lay the two pages out in a single document. What?!? I had been struggling with two different documents, trying to get things to line up across the two pages. The whole project became infinitely easier when I was able to see the whole thing at once. lol! Seems so simple now. Anyway, here’s the first spread I did like that:

Papers and Elements: Celebrate, TDD Collab., Sketch: Scrapbook Inspiration, Font: Problem Secretary

From arimacias – I have learned to let go and have fun. some days I am just too busy to do anything other than edit a few photos or power scrap a few pages. it’s all good and it is all ok:)

template by sahlinstudio (freebie) kit by DDE via thedailydigi

From Julie Rae – Well, virtually everything I know about digital scrapbooking I have learned directly from TDD or indirectly from a recommended link. How’s that!?! OK I don’t know tons but I have been productive: making layouts, invitations, mini-books (hybrid), cards, templates–it’s been terrific. I have printed dozens of layouts and have several scrapbooks going simultaneously. One of the most important things I’ve learned from TDD would have to be metadata. It’s not flashy, but it is HUGE! If we do not tell our story any other way, we can through metadata. Totally awesome (I say as I stare at boxes of old photos and a thousand digital ones…yikes). Thank you TDD for being here for us everyday, we need you!

From Sarah T. – I love looking at all the different styles of scrapbooking, and getting to know the different designers and their processes for scrapping and designing. I like seeing the example pages using product from different designers. It encourages me to try new things. For instance, this year I got to know Anna Aspnes through TDD and the digishow, and I love her artsy style, but it was WAAAAAY out of my comfort zone. I finally just jumped in and tried it after seeing some inspiration, and hearing that “there’s no wrong way to do this” and ‘just try it!!’
Here’s my “artsy” layout:

link to credits

From Jan in Alberta – The one thing I learned in the last year that I return to all the time is how to create a more effective title. I use the technique from Steph’s post My Favorite Title Trick for most of my layouts. One thing it has led me to do is make my title on a new blank file, essentially designing my own word art. I create a 12? long by 4? high canvas and often put each letter on its own layer. Once I’m happy with letter placement and size. I merge the layers, simply the resulting layer and then follow through with Steph’s title sticker technique. From there it’s a simple matter of dragging my title onto my layout, dropping it, resizing and positioning it where it looks best and giving it a little drop shadow to enhance the sticker effect.

I’ve learned a bunch of other things too, but this is the one that has made the biggest difference in my layouts.

From Mrs. Hobbes – Seriously, the best thing I learned in 2011 from the Daily Digi was from an old post–Fonts Don’t Float. It has seriously impacted how I work with my journaling, paint splats, brushes, masks, etc so that I experimented more with photo/paper blending, paints, brushes, etc. As someone whom brushes gave the heebie-jeebies for about three years, this is tremendous! Thank you so much!

From Corey -I’ve learned a lot from The Daily Digi and The Digi Show this past year. One post that really inspired me was Steph’s on Digital Scrapbooking Your Magical Memories. I have been working on a Disney album and that post really inspired me in several ways. Steph also introduced me to Aaron Morris in that post. I loved his Disney layouts and his clustering. As a result of that post, I took Aaron’s class at Big Picture on clustering and have started using clustering a lot in my layouts. And since you need to shadow all of those clusters, I enjoyed the post you did about One Layout Shadowed By Different Digi Scrappers. Thanks so much for all you do. I love this site and the show.

link to credits

From Michelle VO – I love the Daily Digi and almost always start my day with it. What have I learned?! I decided to go through the posts and look and I came up with a few specifics. Over the past year, I have learned so much but probably the Google Calendar post in January by Steph really impacted my life for the better. All of Katrina Kennedy’s posts are great. I can always use her tips for creating light or making better pictures. She puts the information into friendly terms that I can understand. I love the journaling posts from Katie. She has the neatest ideas for making journaling easy like the calendar as a journaling tool post. The Funtastic Fridays are great because I waste so much time shopping in relation to how much I actually spend scrapping . Friday posts also include trends and happenings like new classes or software product releases not just designer kits. I love the design posts regarding text size or design principles but honestly, it’s the well roundedness of the site that makes it so special and that it is positive and supportive of this hobby and industry. I also appreciate learning about the designers and discovering designers through the Digi Files contributor features. Thanks for a great year and keep calm and carry on

From Dawn N. – I love the digi show and I can not say enough about all I have learned in the last few months – every year I have created a book for my cheeleaders in publisher, or I have designed invitations, etc… I never realized that was a form of digital scrapbooking… now that I am listening and learning – I have discovered templates, designers, elements, clusters, and well a whole world out there to record all my memories! I love drop box (tip from the digi show) and also Unzip them all – tip from your free e-book. But mostly I love having a ‘go-to’ place each day where I learn something new, something to make my memory keeping easier & more fun.

From Leah – I only started digital scrapbooking after listening to the Digi Show and visiting the Daily Digi for a while – you guys made it all sound like so much fun – once I decided to try it out and downloaded some free stuff, I became a member to build up my stash, and now I’m even making my own elements. Definitely addicted!

There are even more wonderful comments to read if you want to check them out. Everyone who left a comment on that post was eligible to win a gift certificate from one of our January featured designers. I used the random.org site to pick a winner. Congratulations to Dawn N.! Check your email for your gift.

Wild Blueberry Ink’s completely digital December Daily from 2010.

This time of year, each year, digital and paper scrappers alike find themselves asking, “Am I going to do December Daily this year?” Most of the scrapbooking community will follow along with Ali Edwards as she creates her album during December. You might want to also check out Ali’s digital scrapbooking supplies that work very well with December Daily.

If you are thinking about doing your own December Daily album, we have pulled together some resources and inspiration for you. One thing to note though: I thought for a long time that December Daily was about doing one Christmas thing each day during December. It’s not. It’s about documenting one thing in your life each day during the month of December (real life and festivities).

Now, onto the resources…

We have a December Daily Pinterest board that we will be updating with digital ideas or albums that can be adapted to a completely digi format.

We have done lots of December Daily posts in the past:

Pre-planning digital pages and projects – part 1 (December Daily)

Pre-planning digital pages and projects – part 2 (December Daily)

December Daily Album

Katrina Kennedy has a December Daily category on Capture Your 365. She also has some December Daily Photo Ideas you can take a look at.

Anna has a GREAT album for December Daily. You can read about it too. She also did a guest post on organizing a December Daily album.

The Lily Pad released a special collection called Document Yuor December and our readers can get an exclusive discount

Code: TDD25
25% off entire DYD purchase good through 12/10/11

The Lily Pad also has some great inspiration in their gallery, you will need to be logged in to see the originals:

This collection is perfect to make your december daily or your 25 days of Christmas album. It’s a great way to capture your everyday stories of December and turning it into an album. Special offer till Nov. 30, purchase 25 Days to Christmas | Layered Templates and receive the kit for free!!!

One Little Bird and Amy Martin got together to create some cute journaling cards:

Wild Blueberry Ink sent over a link to her December Daily from last year as a source of inspiration. She also is working on an advent style December Daily this year.

December Daily is a short, stress-free project to document this busy time in life. Remember, there are no rules! Do it, do it for YOU, and enjoy the process!

P.S. Tamara was the random winner from yesterday’s post all about Dianne! She won $10 in product from Dianne Rigdon THANKS to everyone who joined in!

Custom Christmas cards and calendars are one thing that often bring people to explore digital scrapbooking. There are a lot of different ways a Christmas card can be created and customized using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. In this post, you will find information for:

• creating a card using a drop-in quick page card (including a tutorial for the beginner)
• creating an infographic Christmas card (for the intermediate to advanced digi scrapper)
• creating a card using a layered template (including a tutorial for the beginner)
• product suggestions
• inspiration and ideas
• printing ideas (including a tutorial for uploading custom designs to Costco)
• 

I love creating Christmas cards! I love looking at all of the GREAT designs available. I’ve recently found though, that sending Christmas cards with a family photo on them is mostly a U.S. tradition. Here’s an infographic showing some of the history behind Christmas Cards (click to see larger image):

Layered Quick Cards and Templates

First off, we have some layered template cards. I created a tutorial for making a card using a layered template similar to the ones below to help those that are new (I use One Little Bird’s templates in my tutorial). The tutorial also shows how to adapt the card to fit Costco’s Custom Card size for printing:

Quick Cards

Next up are some super cute drop-in quick cards. I created a tutorial showing how to use cards similar to these. The tutorial also shows how to adapt these cards for printing as a Custom Card at Costco :

Our team member Kim Lund (a.k.a. Miss Kim) contributed a card to this collection of free cards on Becky Higgins’ site. They come in 4×6, 5×7, and Costco’s 6×7.5

If you really don’t want to do them yourself, CD Muckosky has an option of having her customize them for you to print at home:

Infographic

I have seen a couple of infographic cards around and I love them! Here are some examples:

Something like this could be adapted to a Christmas card:

If you would like to create an infographic card, I found a Google Doc Template that has customizable infographic images. Once you are done customizing, you can export in a PNG or PDF to use in Photoshop.

The Daily Digi has a Christmas card board on Pinterest where we’ve assembled some ideas and inspiration for the intermediate to advanced digital scrapbooker that might want to make their own card from scratch.

Printing

Most years, I have just printed my cards as 5×7’s and bought some 5×7 envelopes at the office supply store. You just can’t beat the 27 cents that Costco charges for their 5×7’s. Last year, I figured out how to upload my own design to the Costco Custom Cards that are 6×7.5 and include envelopes (I think non Costco members can order and have them shipped. See my tutorial for uploading a custom design here). I haven’t decided for sure what I will do this year…it might be a photo card along with an infographic.  I love the shaped cards that I found at Black River Imaging, but haven’t decided if that’s the direction I will go or not.

There are, of course, lots and lots of places to get cards printed. Persnickety is my go-to printer for layouts and they do cards as well at reasonable prices.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my photos – I LOVE making them pretty.

I recently finished our family fall photo shoot and I couldn’t wait to process the images. As I processed the photos with my favorite Lightroom presets, I was in heaven.

And yet, after processing that entire photo shoot, I still spent a good portion of time adding metadata to my images.

Why would I do that?

To some, metadata isn’t fun, pretty or desirable.

To others, metadata is that geeky thing they would never tell their friends they are into.

Actually metadata is that really cool & shiny gadget you never really knew you needed until you enjoy the benefits – then, you’re hooked.

To put it very simply, it is the modern version of writing on the back of your photos. If you’ve ever inherited boxes and boxes of photos, you know first hand the importance of doing that.

The great thing about today is that we have the technology to embed those writings along with other information directly into the files of our photos. This information goes with that file or photo everywhere and can be accessed in many different programs and sites (more on that below).

Automatically metadata is added when you snap the shutter on your camera. Most cameras embed the camera make, date, time, model, serial no. and even the lens you used and the settings. This is called EXIF data.

Some cameras even come with GPS capability which automatically embeds the GPS coordinates where you took your images into the photo file.

What this means is that because of technology, future generations will know a LOT more about our images and lives than we knew about those who went before us.

However, it still isn’t enough. Digital photography means that we are now taking more photos than ever before. Which is translating into a lifetime photo collection that can easily number into five to six figures of individual images.

With this plethora of photos, I believe that adding metadata to our images becomes a necessity if we want them to be relevant to future generations.

So let’s review: Automatically your photos tell a story about the camera you used, your lens, camera settings and maybe where you were when you took the image, but what about the things that will connect future generations to your story? Metadata is one of the most powerful tools you have to preserve your story for future generations. Today we’ll talk about three pieces: keywords, ratings and captions.

Keywords are the hints to the story of your photos. Think who, what, where, when.
Ratings are the guide to importance and/or quality of your photos – they help to distinguish your most important images.
Captions are the stories behind your photos.

If you are interested in looking at or adding some metadata, here’s how:

In Windows: Right click any photo or file and select Properties. You can see a lot of information under the General tab. You can also add more details such as a rating and captions under the details tab.

In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements: go to File> File Info. You can enter a lot of information right there and it will stay with the file in each format you save it in.

In Lightroom: all text, tags, descriptions, etc. are automatically added to metadata.

In Flickr: Flickr keeps metadata intact and when you add tags, comments, descriptions, etc. in Flickr it is added to the metadata. Katie will often have her extended family add information to photos from events through Flickr.

Be careful, some programs advertise that they write keywords, ratings, and captions to the metadata, but they often don’t. The best way to know for sure is to add some tags and captions with the program in question, save it, and pull the file into another program to see if the information is there. If you are backing up online, you will want to make sure that the site you are using supports metadata in the backup and restore process.

The best part about metadata? Metadata isn’t just for the future, it also helps you now. Imagine having a library of 30,000 images. Because of the metadata you added, you are able to narrow down exactly what you want in seconds. Can you imagine how much easier it would be to create when you can find what you need in seconds?

So yes, metadata is geeky. It is also one of the most powerful tools available to us as we endeavor to manage our photo libraries and preserve memories for future generations. I hope you’ll take advantage of it!

P.S. Jan in Alberta was the random winner from the comments on yesterday’s feature post about Anna. She won $10 in product from Anna.

P.S.S. Be sure to grab our free Playbook from DSD if you haven’t already!