Digital Scrapbooking with Kids!

So, I've talked a little about scrapbooking with kids and a little about digital.  Now, to combine the two! Both girls LOVE to work on the computer, but the time they spend on it and home is extremely limited. They get supervised computer both at school and daycare. Evan (older daughter) uses it sometimes for homework, but other than that, I don't let them do a whole lot. So, I got to thinking one day, that I bet they could pick up digital scrapbooking pretty quickly at this age. And I promised them that over Labor Day weekend, we'd each make a digital page.  They LOVED the idea and begged me constantly over the course of the weekend to get busy!  Before we get to the fun, let me tell you how I decide what I'm going to paper scrap and what I'm going to digi scrap.  If it's a one picture page, I tend to paper scrap.  This ends up being the more "feeling" type pages.  And, I feel like I can really create beautiful pages with one photo and other tactile type products.  But, if I'm trying to scrap something that's "event" in nature and might have lots of pictures, I lean toward digi. Why? Because it's easy and clean. You can find free templates all over the internet and squeeze 15-20 or even more photos onto a two page spread.  How many photos would really look good on a 2 page paper spread?  I think it's a lot tougher to have it look "put together" that way.  For me, these events need to be documented just as much, but the journaling is more fact-based than feeling based.  I don't know. It just works for me.So - back to last weekend's project!  Saturday night, I sat down and went through older photos looking for something simple that I could put together a page on my laptop while sitting in front of the tv. Went back to 2009 and started going through my "best of 2009" folder - more on that coming soon. One of the first topics I came to in 2009 was making cookies. I opened up the folder - saw I had 6 pics to work with or choose from, hunted through my digi supplies stash (more on that coming soon also) and got started with a template that would accommodate the number of pics I wanted to use which was 4.  I used one of the few digi kits (Flergs Over the Rainbow) that I actually bought to embellish the page & for papers. (For any children of the 80's, this set SOOOO takes me back to my childhood - lots of rainbows, unicorns, bright colors - very fun! Have to get my hands on some pics of my sis & I from that era and scrap those, too!) The template was by Scrapping with Liz - Recyclables. Ok -  back to business... This is the page I created.  Another reason I like digi is because you can use products over and over and never use them up. AND, just like paper, you can move things around until you get them just right!  But you have more options. Don't like the color of a flower embellishment? You can change it!  Want your accent paper to perfectly match your daughter's pajama top? No problemo! Anyway, without further ado, here is my page. (Journaling reads Sugar+Sprinkles+silly faces on an early January afternoon = priceless). Anyone like the scripty font? It is my FAVORITE FONT EVER!  Yes, I am screaming - it's that good. It's CK Ali's Hand - here it is because I know you'll want it!

   

 

So, while I was finishing up my page, I thought - wouldn't it be fun to give the girls the same 6 photos and same digi papers and embellishment kit and see what each of them comes up with!?!?!  It was!  Evan went first Sunday evening - she picked another template by Scrapping by Liz - the left side of a two page layout - Double Album 6, rotated so all 6 landscape photos could be included - the template was initially for 6 portrait oriented photos. We removed some of the embellishments and replaced them with a bird, a unicorn, a butterfly, a flower, a heart & a star.  She used the rainbow letters & liked a plain square of glitter (part of the Flergs kit). We used the ink dropper tool to pick up the color from her pajama top and color the little swirl on the left hand side of the page - super easy. Perhaps the neatest part of this exercise with Evan, was she picked up the basics of Photoshop Elements unbelievable quickly. (I have visions of her paying for college by doing graphic design work in high school...)  The basic steps for filling in a template are: select the shape you want to fill, drag and drop the photo onto your page, group it with the shape layer below it, resize and and move to it's where you want it to be. Repeat with all your photos. She had it down after I told her once.  She took to it like a fish in water. And, I bet with some more lessons, and practice, she will become the teacher & I, the student!  I tried to influence her design and decisions as little as possible (but I did try to talk her into a different colored font for her journaling that might be a bit easier to read - that was a no-go). Whaddya think? Not bad for a 2nd grader, eh? 

 Now, we move on to Mattie's page (just turned 5). We did this one Monday evening. She selected only 4 of the pictures - 3 of the 4 were the same as mine. And she picked a template by Joey Lynn Manwarren of Every Day Imagination - I think we may have Mystery Scrapped her before - AMAZING. And, for a while, she'd do a free template every Tuesday.  Just as with paper supplies, you gravitate towards certain designers, with digi, you do, too. Stumbling upon her blog was like Christmas morning to me! Anyway, check it out here.  Same Flerg's kit - she used the same alpha letters that Evan did, the unicorns, a butterfly & a bird. I loved how she decided to do the glitter mats for the photos and her cute journaling says I love you & I love your cookies. I did not have her using the computer because I don't think she's quite ready for that, but it probably won't be too long until she is ready.  

 

Overall, this was a really neat project, gave me some one on one creative time with each of the girls and allowed them to stretch their creative muscles. And, to see several different takes on the same pictures. They are already asking when they can make their next pages - so I'd consider this a success. 

Are you ready to give digi a whirl yet? Do you have questions? Let me know and I'll try to answer whatever I can!