By Barbara Eastwick

This tutorial is available as a short video and as a written text with screen shots.

Digital Scrapbooking can be as easy as "click and drag" depending on the software you are using. With versions earlier than V. 22, you'll need to run the "Paper Wizard" and create a custom size paper for digi scrapping. Starting with v.22 Broderbund created the scrapbook option into the main menu. When you start Print Shop, the Project Picker automatically appears. Choose: "Scrapbooks", toggle the button for "Start From Scratch", and click "Next".

Now you can choose your scrapbook page size. For this tutorial, I am using a 12 x 12 size. Choose your paper size, and click "Finish".

To add your background paper, to begin your digi layout, choose: "Insert" > "From File" - and then find the background paper on your hard drive. I am using a kit by Enableem, that she created for the RAKScraps July Mega Kit. Click "Open", and the paper will appear on your canvas. If it is not full size, stretch it, by clicking and dragging on a corner, until it fills the inside "printable" area of the layout. Print Shop will not save the image past these boundaries. To begin adding elements, follow the same procedure, choose: "Insert" > "from File" and find the element you wish to add - click "Open".

This will add the element to the layout. You can stretch it by clicking and dragging on any corner. You can move it by dragging it to the desired location on the page.

I'd like the stitched circle to be a frame, so I am going to add another paper, and crop it to the shape of the frame (circle). Click on "Insert" > "From File" choose the paper, and click "Open". Then, with the paper still highlighted (with the box and small squares around it), click on "Photo Tools" > "Crop and Orientation".

This will bring up the cropping menu. From here you can choose the shape you wish to crop and size to. Click "Okay".

Move that circle over the stitched frame and layer it behind by choosing "Arrange" > "Layer" > "Send Backward".

I'll want to crop my photo to the same shape to fit that frame and mat. Choose: "Insert" > "From File" and find your photo on your hard drive, click "Open".

Then to crop that photo, leave it highlighted and choose: "Photo Tools" > "Crop and Orientation", and crop it the same way as the mat.

To create your own journal tags, you can crop a paper with 'rounded corners', and then layer another slightly smaller one on top. Insert your paper, crop, and choose the 'rounded corners' cropping shape. Then repeat this process with another paper, and size the top layer slightly smaller and center on top. This will create a matted journal tag.

To create your own ribbon or border - you can insert a paper, and crop to the width of a ribbon. If you wish the border to cover the whole page, you'll need to stretch the original paper to the full size first, and then click on "Photo Tools" > "Crop and Orientation". Using the square cropping shape, I moved the horizontal crop upwards, leaving only about an inch of paper left. The rest will be cropped out.

I placed this at the very top of my layout, as the top border, and added the elements: ribbon, clip and stitched border.

To add text to your journal tag - click on "Text Tools" > "Add Text Box" - and begin typing. You can choose your journal font and font size from the main tool bar (above your layout). To change the color of the font, highlight the entire text, click on the 'rainbow strip' from the main tool bar, and select your color (I'm choosing white). To center justify the text, with the text highlighted, click the "Center Justification" button from the main tool bar.

I also added a text box for my title, and centered it on the top border.

The layout is complete! To save it for online viewing or emailing, you'll want to save it in .jpg file format. Click "File" > "Export As" and choose the size you wish to save at, click "Save".

Here is my layout saved for online viewing:

You'll find more tutorials by clicking on this link: free scrapbook tutorials or by looking inside the member area. You can also learn more by visiting Jessica's Scrapbook Blog.