Tip Number Two: 

Now that you have hopefully organized and stored those photo's with Heritage Collector you are ready to begin the next step in your scrapbook journey.  A great question to ask yourself is what is the purpose of this scrapbook page that I am creating?  I can create something beautiful, classy, fun, or casual.  The look can be important.  But before I even decide on layouts, scrapbook graphic kits or get into the fun part of my creation I need to do something else first. 

A scrapbook page in my opinion is a visual history of an event.  This is an event that I obviously want to take the time to remember and is important for me to create.  The photo's that I choose should be the basis for a story that I will tell with the page.  Along with the photographs I choose I want to tell a story with words.  This is what I will call a "Storybook" page.  Text in my opinion is just as important as the photo's I want to share.  Years down the road I will probably not remember exactly what was going on in the pictures.  Documenting or telling a story makes an event more meaningful.  Especially when you leave a family book behind with loved ones.  Those words that you penned will mean so much more to the photo's they are attached to.  So tell a story with your picture.  Try to document as much as you can onto the page.  Once you have a layout in mind then add your digital graphics and color to your page.  So often I have seen a page cluttered with graphics and a single photo with no text.  Telling a story adds so much more meaning and depth to your digital scrapbook page.  Less is more in my opinion.  You can create a beautiful page that tells a wonderful story which I call Storybooking.  Here is an example of what I am trying to portray to you.

This page has photo's but there is no text.  It would be better to have some information about what was happening on this page.   What was the year.  Who is in the photos.  What were the people in the photo's doing.  Years down the road it would be helpful if there was more information to document what was going on and why these pictures were important.

This second example below is a better way to tell a story with your digital scrapbook page.  The graphics are not too busy or distracting. As you read you learn about what is happening in the photo.  You have created a storybook with your page.  Later on you will look back at this page and be glad that you created a visual family history of photos that were important to you and record an event you want to remember.  Don't forget to check out Heritage Collector for more great tips.

These pages were created using Storybook from the program Heritage Collector.

Designs by Krista

Free digital scrapbook paper