So as a designer we get asked to review products and sometimes the product is just not what we expect, but than there are times a product far exceeds are expectations. This is how I feel about The Digital Scrapbook Artist. This program is so complex, and I have barely scratch the surface of its true capabilities. I am honored I have been asked to work with Serif in developing an education program. I will be at their booth at CHA come by if you are there and say hi.
As everyone knows I have had some things kind of bringing me down, but I am back and feeling much better. I took some family time to reflect on the past and focus on the future. I received an invitation to review this product about 1 month ago and it has taken me a while to get my head back in the game so sorry for the delay...
To start I downloaded the kits that come with the software and I was off creating. I created 2 quick pages with pre-designed pages that I altered with ease.
For this Page I played with the photo frames reflection glass. Changed out the papers and added the journal page. I also cloned the rocks, copied and pasted multiple sets of the oats. The most fun I had was editing and changing the fonts. I started with the pre-designed letters and phrase added different type filters plus photo adjustment editing levels to achieve the text design. I than went in and simply added shadows to create depth in my design.
Spring is here is another Quick page.
I added the clouds and shadows but changed the colors of the shadows to look more like a drawing. This started out as a small single picture design. I decided she looked to cute and I needed more pics to show off her dress and pig tails. I just added the frames sized them and added the pictures. I also started playing around with the opacity to make some embellishments more transparent. All items were part of the kit I just kept layering the items. Than I added all the shadows. I think the shadow feature is one of my favorite parts. I can just select the shadow tab and click the item and it creates a perfect shadow. I can change the color, opacity,amount, and direction to get the perfect amount of shading to add a more realistic look to my embellishments. This one I wanted to have a more kid drawing like effect.
The last thing I did was bring in my other scrapbook papers
I chose the Little Guy Retail Friendly Hybrid Quick Pages from Prima Marketing Inc.
I took the pages into the program quickly dropped in the photos, grabbed the papers included to add to the journaling box. I than used the eyedropper tool to change all the colors of my daughter Malia's page to be monochromatic and a perfect match to her dress. I was even able to recolor the chipmates to have them match too. I had fun with the filters, I even added the filters to the actual page design.
The first pic is of the actual quick page.
The next 2 pictures our how i changed the quick page than printed for the final hybrid pages.
The best part of using the pages in this program is all you have to do is place the photo behind the page and it is in place. I than used the grids to make sure the pics was where it needed to be visually appealing. I was able to coordinate this page with the physical embellishments and papers from the little guy collection. I also added the fun epoxy stickers from the dude collection as they matched too.
Here I completely changed all the colors
I printed out the design and grabbed my favorite Prima products and started personalizing my page. The whole page took 30 minutes start to finish.
I used Acucut to create the great arrow and tab. I love Accucut and the dies allow me to add extras into my kits.
OK so now that my post is a novel, I will end by saying the sun did come out and it is a brighter day. I have received so many emails and will be getting back with those people as soon as i can. I have other huge huge huge news but I can not post about that yet :) I will let you know as soon as
everything is official.
I am also venturing into a new concept in class kits. I hope to unveil this new idea before Christmas along with my website. I have not been using it lately as I have many things that need to be changed on the sight. I hope to have all this done by the New Year.
Have a Scrappy Day
Michelle:)
