It is that time of year when our minds turn to memories of the past and excitement about the days to come. Scrapbooking is near and dear to my heart as I love to record the details of life so as never to forget them, and it is something that I do not just during special times such as the holidays, but all year long. While I love my shelves and shelves of Creative Memories 12X12 and 8X8 traditional scrapbooks, I am also in love with the many albums and projects I have created digitally. Needless to say, I was VERY excited to find out that Creative Memories was planning to introduce digital artwork for digital scrapbookers!
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| Creative Memories has announced that it will soon be offering digital images of its artwork! |
For years people have admired CM for its beautiful watercolor paper and stickers, so it will be exciting for their fans to see what they offer when they step back into the world of digital scrapbooking. It is especially exciting for so many of us who are still using our beloved Artisan 5 software (formerly sold by Creative Memories as Storybook Creator Plus but now supported by Forever!) CM has not announced a formal date yet but we do know the artwork will be in a universal format that will work with most scrapbooking software programs.
While we wait with anticipation, let's talk about digital scrapbooking a bit. This time of year is perfect for taking beautiful photographs and it is also a good time of year to give gifts, and there are many different types of projects you can make using digital artwork. Whether it is a gift for yourself or a gift for someone else, printed projects created digitally are sure to be as cherished as traditional ones, and a little bit of artwork goes a long way in making your creations just a touch more special. Since we can only imagine what types of digital papers and embellishments we have to look forward to, I would like to share a few images of projects I have made using digital art kits within Artisan 5:
Page Prints
One of my favorite ways to use digital art kits is to employ predesigned pages (similar to Creative Memories' Fast2Fabulous line!) Predesigned pages make it easy to quickly create a lovely book or page print with many photos, thus making the most of the space (and limited time) you have. The hard work has already been done for you! The pages shown here are actually the inside of a bound digital book I made with Artisan and Forever's digital artwork, but they could also be ordered as page prints and slid into a high quality Creative Memories album (I mix the two up all of the time!) I also have a canvas of the first one!
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| A predesigned tree using Forever's digital artwork |
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| A predesigned page made this wreath a breeze to pull together |
Hardbound and Softbound Books
It is always so exciting to watch your stories come to life quickly through the power of digital scrapbooking. One of my favorite recent projects was a hardbound Christmas 2014 album - I had it in my hands before the month of January was over! I love the speed and ease of digital album creation - I think I am even more creative digitally than I am in my traditional albums because it is easier to play around with your artwork.
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| A few of my digital 12X12 hardbound books |
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| Watching the pages come to life in Artisan 5 |
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| A project view in Artisan 5 |
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| A completed two page spread in my 12X12 digital book |
Canvases and Facebook Banners
I am giving canvases as Christmas presents this year - I love how these are high quality yet lightweght and easy to hang on any wall. I used Creative Memories' original "Expressions of Love" vellum verses for my wedding banner, and I used Creative Memories' Dance Additions digital artwork from several years ago to create the banner of our recent performance of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe." I can't wait to see how CM's newest designs turn out when they release their digital artwork!
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| Love my wall art! |
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| FB banner turned into a canvas - what a wonderful gift |
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| A Facebook banner created using the former Creative Memories' Dance Additions digital artwork |
Invitations and Christmas Cards
Digital scrapbooking software can be used for a number of things, including invitiations, business cards, letters to Santa and of course Christmas cards! I have even used Artisan to create business cards and gift tags (available for print at the Forever Print Shop.)
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| Front of a folded 5X7 card |
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| Inside of a folded 5X7 card - a project choice within Artisan 5 that can be printed at the Forever Print Shop |
As you can see, digital scrapbooking software can open up the doors to many different types of projects, and we are all very excited to have Forever's support of the software we love (Artisan 5) as well as the prospect of Creative Memories offering digital artwork in the future. I have always combined the traditional and digital worlds happily, and this move by Creative Memories is welcomed by many. We will be watching closely for a formal announcement!
I would love to hear what you think of my projects and CM's announcement so if you would please leave a comment at the end I would be happy to send you a free ebook on photo safety! Be sure to check out the rest of the blogs so you can keep the Christmas spirit going strong - the next stop is Noreen Smith's Organized and Creative Mom! Thank you for hopping over here, and keep on scrappin'! Fran
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Stop 3 DBrinsley'sMemoryKeepingBlog
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Stop 6 OrganizedandCreativeMom
Can't wait until CM releases digi artwork!! Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome Lisa! I love your ideas so much because I bake gingerbread men every year - will definitely be using your layout idea, just gorgeous.
DeleteThank you for sharing so many great samples and ideas for digital!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome Karyn - I love traditional and digital so it is exciting to blog about the "other side" of my scrapbooking this time, all the while knowing that Creative Memories is going to be a part of it soon.
DeleteLooking forward to new digital artwork from CM! Love these ideas!
ReplyDeleteDiana sounds like it is going to be sooner rather than later! SO glad you enjoyed my projects.
DeleteLove these Fran! What are the templates for the Christmas Tree and the Wreath? I just ordered a canvas print of a wreath from Roxanne': Colors of Winter Forever design! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCarol
Thanks Carol! They are called Christmas Moments Template (the tree) and Tis the Season (wreath) and they are both 12X12 templates found in the Digital Art section of the Forever website! They are both just $1.99 and I have gotten a lot of use out of them. That's the best thing about digital artwork - unlike paper, you can use it over and over again :) To narrow your search when shopping for digital artwork, you can choose "Predesigned Layouts" to find more goodies like these!
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