DIY Christmas Cards

I just finished creating my family Christmas card and a fun party invitation using Heritage Collector Storybook.  I love the idea of being able to print and create my own cards and invitations from home.  I get to choose the graphics and layouts.  I was able to create these cards quickly and easily. I didn't even have to wait in line to do this. In years past I would go to Costco or another print facility and wait in long lines.  Once I got to the front of the line I felt rushed to finish my cards or projects because others were waiting in line behind me.  I had a limited choice on what was available as far as the graphics and layouts.  Not this year.  I had a great experience choosing the colors, theme, and font.  I could spend as much time as I wanted.  I will still wait in line to pick up my prints.  But if I didn't want to wait in line I can have the prints shipped to my home.  So nice to know that I was able to personalize these any way I want!  I love using the Storybook program. 

         This is our Family Christmas card created with Heritage Collector Storybook.

                               I used graphics from http://designsbykrista.net

Invitation also created in Storybook.  Created a party invitation and printed at Costco.

You too can have a great experience creating fun cards and invitations from home.  Come join a free webinar class this Thursday December 1st 7pm Mountain time. 

http://heritagecollectorstorybook.blogspot.com

Heritage Collector

Tip Number Three :

When you are trying something for the first time don't be afraid to ask for help.  When I am trying something new I often do some research first.  I look around a bit at what others are doing or have tried.  When I first started to venture into the world of digital scrapbooking I was intimidated.  I had to learn a new way of doing things.  There was a learning curve that I had to follow.  This involved learning a new program.  I now had to do a virtual or computerized page layout with graphics and text.  This was a bit daunting in the beginning and I will admit I wanted to throw my hands in the air and go back to what seemed familiar and easy for me. 

Can I say that I am so glad I found Storybook included in Heritage Collector.  I love being able to create digital scrapbook pages now.  I no longer have to cut and paste and spend a small fortune on scrapbook supplies.  I only wished I had switched to digital sooner.  Once I discovered Heritage Collector I was delighted. I love all of the helpful tips and a newsletter I can follow that keeps me informed with helpful and useful information.  Not only does it store and organize my photo's.  It has a fantastic and easy to use Storybook tool.  I can now create everything from the same all in one program.  Best of all  the helpful tips are there to make this transition as easy as possible.  One of my favorites and the one I am highlighting in this post are webinars.  A webinar is an online classroom were I log in from the comfort of my own home.  I watch a live instructor teach me how to create a digital scrapbook page.  I also learn how to create flyers, invitations, and calendars.  It makes navigating the digital scrapbook world easy!  I receive wonderful information that an experienced user shares to make my experience simple and trouble free.   It is incredible how easy technology has made it for us to connect from around the globe at the touch of a computer.  Don't miss out on a wonderful free class available to you now.

Here is the link for you below.

http://heritagecollector.com/webinars.htm

A Free Christmas Kit from Designs by Krista

Link for paper

http://www.4shared.com/file/178488061/b5bc4505/sugarplums_pprs.html

Link for elements

http://www.4shared.com/file/178499229/59539288/sugarplums_elements.html

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

A free digital scrapbook paper download

Click here to download from Krista's blog

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! I would like to share some great tips that will help to make your digital scrapbooking journey more organized, enjoyable, and best of all fun.

Tip Number One:

Begin with the end in mind.  You wouldn't want to leave out the yeast if you were baking bread would you?  Your end result would not be a beautiful shaped loaf of bread. It would be flat and tough to eat. The same type of problem can occur if you leave out an important step in the digital scrapbook making process. It has happened to all of us.  The vision in your mind of how you want a project to turn out seldom happens to go smoothly as you can encounter some roadblocks along the way.  You want to make this an enjoyable and roadblock free way to create and share digital scrapbook pages.  If the photo's you are using are tough to locate and are not backed up you can create a huge headache for yourself. 

Everyone has that dreaded container of old photos, or worse a computer cluttered with photos that are difficult to find. You can spend a lot of time looking for a specific photo and not be able to find it.  I want to share with you a fantastic program that has a great tool for sorting, enhancing  and organizing your photos. I highly recommend a program called Heritage Collector.  In my opinion the best feature of this program is the database that you get to design.  Once you create this savy database to your liking it will find photos in seconds, eliminate duplicates, and allow you to share and print your finished pages with the touch of a button.

Remember you want to have fun creating scrapbook pages. So before you even begin that scrapbook page you want to make sure your photo's are in a well organized database.   With the Heritage Collector program you can make finding your pictures and storing your completed scrapbook pages a breeze.  Using this system can help you store your scrapbook kit graphics and photos's all in the same place. The helpful tips are great too. One of the many features I have found that makes this company unique are online webinar classes. Genuis! I can log in from the comfort of my own home and follow a live instructor who can answer my questions and help me begin the process.   It couldn't be more convenient and easier to get started. Remember begin with the end in mind and you can create a great storage system with ease! Check it out below.

Click the Do more with your photos link on the top right to purchase or to learn more!

I created this scrapbook page using Storybook from Heritage Collector. I used the graphic kit Roots from Designs by Krista http://designsbykrista.net/shop/index.php

Nice Freebie From Designs by Krista.

Themed based graphic kit.

Click here to download from Krista's blog.