Crafts & Hobbies #63: Digital Scrapbooking

I've been scrapbooking since I was old enough to work the tape dispenser. I saved my birthday cards, christmas cards, movie ticket stubs and school programs. Yes, I even saved my hair when I got it cut and put it in my scrapbook. I would also cut out pictures I liked from magazines and created scrapbooks from those. Shortly after I got married (1987), I went to my first creative memories party. I've been a Creative Memories customer ever since. Their slogan back then was from shoebox to showcase, or something like that. So for editing and managing my digital pictures I use Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0. At $39.95 it is an affordable alternative to more expensive Adobe products and as an advanced scrapbooker and it has done everything I've ever wanted to be able to do. For creating the digital scrapbooks I use Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus. I have the purchased edition however there is a free version you can download and it makes beautiful books but if you want advanced flexibility when it comes to design, you may want to investigate the purchased edition. CM came out with this product in November 2006 and I ordered my first book the very same month. I have made many books since then but I continue to do traditional scrapbooking as well. Another thing you can do with CM is create and print pages not just books. If you just want to create and print a 12 x 12 page you are able to do that with Storybook Creator Plus (the purchased as well as free editions). You can upload these pages to CM and have them print them or you may print them out on your own printer or have Costco print them as they are able to print sizes including 12 x 12. The one thing that makes CM digital scrapbooks better, imho, then the competitor's books is that they are sewn books rather than just glued together. I did take a quick look at Scrapbook Max, Scrapbook Artist and Scrapbook Factory Deluxe but I just feel like CM is a superior product to these. In addition it comes with built in support from your CM consultant who is always ready to help. One time I had a problem which my consultant couldn't help with but instead of passing me off to technical services she called tech services for me and got the solution and came to my computer and helped me fix the problem. I don't know of any other scrapbook software company that is able to do that! Scrapblog is the only program I checked out in more depth because of the idea that it does not require any software download, library patrons would be able to use this program unlike all the others. So I went to Scrapblog.com and took the Scrapblog Quick Tour and The Printing Quick Tour, and several other Episodes on how to use Scrapblog. Next I created a layout using their terrific program. I liked it alot but did find things that I wanted to use in my layouts that had to be purchased. I also found that some of the things I do with my CM program you were not able to do with this one, for instance grouping items on a page so that when you move them around they move together as one piece instead of pieces. Also with CM, you can choose a sticker or embellishment and then change the color of it to match your page, not so with this program. But overall it's a good program since it's FREE!