Hello! So glad you joined me for a moment! I realize there are many many ways your can occupy your time and spending time with me is what you choose for this moment.
A major goal I have in life is to enjoy the moments as they come! Recently, two of my grandbabies appeared at my door. Of course it was a weekly planned time, I just failed to realize it due to the fact my husband had been off the day before so instead of it being Tuesday in my mind, it was Monday while in actuality it WAS Tuesday……Sorry I digressed! I was in the midst of unloading the dishwasher when they appeared and I immediately stopped to focus on them, to spend quality time with them while they visited! The dishes can wait, the laundry can wait, because people are the most important things!
Once memories are made and time is spent building relationship, the next most important thing is to document those times. One of my sons asked years ago …. “tell me about when I was two….” Sadly, I was not able to give a clear answer as when he was two, there were 4 children under 6 years of age in the house. I was “in the moment” caring for them and pouring life into them, however I did not document or preserve the memories being made beyond snapping pictures and developing them monthly.
We currently live in a digital age with hundreds of digital photos taken with our mobile devices. We can scroll through them to share memories, yet in my experience that can take longer to get to the picture I want to share than someone is willing to spend looking at it. This once again is likely due to the fact there are SO many pictures on my phone!
When my children were small, I had many friends who made beautiful and elaborate scrapbooks. I looked at them with pleasure and some envy as I considered the cost and time spent creating each page. I knew having the space to contain all the necessary supplies along with the time, energy, and cost was not an option for me. Fast forward a few years and I discovered Digital Scrapbooking and have been a HUGE fan ever since.
I have discovered documenting does not have to be elaborate or costly. I have used several graphic programs, however, the program with which I am most pleased for cost and value is GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). It is sometimes challenging to find tutorials which address the specific needs of a Digital Scrapbooker desiring to use GIMP for their Digital Scrapbook pages. Thus the reason for my tutorials!
My heart is pleased to share my love of preserving memories in a cost and time effective way! It is the best of both worlds in that memories can be preserved and neither the pocket book nor the available space is overly taxed. The time spent obtaining supplies, creating the layouts, and cleaning up is very minimal compared to traditional supplies and necessary tools.
The GIMP program itself is free for use with an option for providing a donation to the developers who provide updates to the program. The Digital Papers and Elements used in layouts are reusable and very cost effective. They are available in various Digital Scrapbook stores and sites. I have many computer files filled with both purchased and free download Digital Kits. I access them regularly to create my layouts.
I choose to have my Digital Scrapbook pages printed into a bound book. This allows me to sit and look through the pages for my own pleasure and sit with others as they look through them as well. My experience has been that printing into a bound book is comparable in cost to having them individually printed with the added benefit of them being in a bound book for storage with documentation of time, place, and person stored with the photos. Printing them in a large format printer at home or taking the file to a print shop is also an option and then placing them into a traditional Scrapbook Album.
I’m currently working through three albums……A Wedding album from this past December, a 2019 yearbook, and a 2020 yearbook! That’s a lot and I’m sharing with you, my readers/followers/cyberfriends, a weekly layout along with the details of how I used GIMP to create the page layout. Sometimes this is simply a fast forward talk through while you watch me create the layout. Other times, I have a detailed description of an action I did or a cool effect I created. Often times, I create an additional video providing detailed instructions in performing a creative action using GIMP.
As my GIMP skills improve, I will provide additional video tutorials to help you make your Digital Scrapbook pages as awesome as possible!
Weekly video tutorials are available HERE, including the most recent weekly video. Each of the GIMP tutorial videos are available HERE. They are divided into categories to assist you in locating what you want.
Page Templates for all the layouts in my weekly videos are available for download through the website. They are free for all my readers, simply subscribe to the weekly newsletter and the password will be provided to you. See the sign up form at the bottom of this page.
Bye for now!
