Digital Scrapbooking: From Story to Layout Part 2

By Liz Ness · March 15th, 2011

· 33 Comments · Add to my favorites · Print

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this 2-part series, there are many ways to approach scrapbooking and many ways to create layouts. For me, it starts with a story and an illustration (usually photographs), moves on to sketching the layout and creating a digital template, and ends by bringing in digital elements (like paper, writing, photographs, etc.) to finish off the layout.

For Part 2 of our series, I’ve created a video demonstration to illustrate how to go from your sketch to a completed layout. The video is a bit longer than usual — just a bit over 15 minutes. However, if you’re wondering how to create digital pages for your own scrapbooks, it’s a great introduction.

The video shares how to:

Define the proportions of — and use — shapes
Create a clipping mask
Add digital paper, photographs, and text from other files to the layout file
Select colors for your layout
Modify the colors of digital elements (specifically, digital paper) to make it better suited to the finished story

Enjoy!

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Downloads

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33 Replies to Digital Scrapbooking: From Story to Layout Part 2:

Barbara
March 15, 2011 at 9:42 am

Great video Liz. I love the style of your layouts. They are so uncluttered and feature the photos beautifully.

I know it is a lot more work, but seeing instructions in a video is great. Thanks, again.

Barbara
- Liz
  March 15, 2011 at 1:06 pm
  
  Thanks for your feedback Barbara!
  
  =) Liz
cindy
March 15, 2011 at 9:56 am

Is there a way to download this video? I don’t see a link. Thanks ~
- Rick LePage
  March 15, 2011 at 11:14 am
  
  The download link is now there, Cindy.
  
  Rick
  - cindy
    March 15, 2011 at 3:07 pm
    
    Thanks! Great video ~
Patricia
March 15, 2011 at 11:02 am

Thank you for this great video. I’ve watched it several times now and have learned something everytime I watch it.
- Liz
  March 15, 2011 at 1:05 pm
  
  Thank you Patricia for your comment — so glad it’s useful! =)
Ami
March 15, 2011 at 3:29 pm

Liz, Thank you so much for this. I’ve seen and used templates but never understood how to make them from my own layouts. This was so clearly stated and done that I will try it now.
- Liz
  March 15, 2011 at 7:47 pm
  
  Oh, that’s AWESOME, Ami! Thanks so much for your comment and happy scrapping! =)
Steve
March 15, 2011 at 6:41 pm

Thank you Liz, I always enjoy your tutorials, very easy to follow. I can not wait to try this in an upcoming project. Thank you again.
- Liz
  March 15, 2011 at 7:48 pm
  
  You bet, Steve! (Can’t wait to catch up to your project — on your blog?) =)
  - Steve
    March 17, 2011 at 12:27 am
    
    Yes, I am working a couple of images that will work well with this tutorial. Thank you so much!!
John
March 17, 2011 at 9:28 am

If this is “Part 2″, where is “Part 1″?
- Liz
  March 17, 2011 at 4:10 pm
  
  Hi John!
  
  Here it is: http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/blog/digital-scrapbooking-from-story-to-layout/
  
  Enjoy,
  
  Liz
Nancy
March 18, 2011 at 9:44 am

love this video..So clean and so informative. Thanks
- Liz
  March 18, 2011 at 9:47 am
  
  Thanks Nancy! =)
Wanda
March 19, 2011 at 1:21 pm

Terrific video Liz. Thanks so much for creating it. Videos are so much easier to follow. Keep the digital scrapbooking tutorials coming.

Wanda
- Liz
  March 19, 2011 at 8:29 pm
  
  Thank you Wanda! =)
Mary
March 19, 2011 at 3:54 pm

Nice job, Liz!
- Liz
  March 19, 2011 at 8:29 pm
  
  Thank you Mary! =)
Shirley
March 24, 2011 at 5:30 am

Very informative, Liz. Since this is a 12×12, do you have a special method of printing the page?
- Liz
  March 24, 2011 at 7:42 am
  
  Thanks for your question, Shirley. I print my 12×12 pages — actually, all of my digital scrapbook designs — at Scrapbookpictures.com. Here’s a link to their sizes/prices: http://www.scrapbookpictures.com/SBPView.jsp?STATE=HOME&BOTTOM=SBPPrices.jsp&SUBHEAD=home
Shirley
March 24, 2011 at 8:29 am

Thanks so much Liz. I’ll have to give them a try.
Janice
March 29, 2011 at 11:02 am

Hi, I enjoyed this video and have tried to download it with no luck. Any advice????? Thanks. Jan Miyata
- Liz
  March 29, 2011 at 3:16 pm
  
  Hi Janice,
  
  Thanks for your note. I just tested the download to see if anything was up on our end. But, I didn’t have any trouble. So, I’m guessing that the issue is local to your ISP or connection. I’d try to download the movie again later in the day, to see if you’re able to do so.
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Liz
Dennis
April 2, 2011 at 10:29 am

Liz,

During this video it looks like you imported some text. Just wondering, what file format was it saved in? Great video. Very informative and insipiring.
- Liz
  April 3, 2011 at 7:59 am
  
  Hi Dennis!
  
  I copied text from an Open Office text document. Open Office is a lot like MS Office, but it is a free, open source application that is so versatile. You could copy text from any source, however. Indeed, something I do on occasion is copy text from posts on my personal blog.
  
  Thanks for your question and comment! =)
  - Dennis
    April 7, 2011 at 10:57 am
    
    Liz,
    
    I never thought to copy from MS Word before. But it pastes into the Photoshop Document window just as advertised. I finally got a chance to work through the entire tutorial and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d love to see more on the subject.
Liz
April 7, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Awesome! Thanks for your comments Dennis! =)
KIM
April 19, 2011 at 1:53 pm

Liz,

Thank you for this video tut, it was so clear and easy to follow. I understand much more about creating the layout than I did before.

Kimmer
- Liz
  April 19, 2011 at 2:01 pm
  
  You are so welcome, Kim — and thanks for your comment! =)
Barbara
May 10, 2011 at 9:26 pm

Wonderful video and perfect location to use for a scrapbook page. I’ll design my own template this weekend. Can’t wait to try doing one. Thank you!
- Liz
  May 11, 2011 at 7:11 am
  
  Awesome and thanks for your comment Barbara! =)