In the midst of my redesign, I had my copy of Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 (DSA 2) awaiting a review. I wanted to really take the time to explore the new changes thoroughly before I wrote my review. I’m wanted to give you more than a “nice product!”
Serif continues to amaze me with their ability to include complex actions into their program and make it look easy. With DSA 2, this especially proved to be true.
I appreciated the programs ability to not only use the digital kits available at their online scrapbook community site, DaisyTrail, but I can add the digital kits to the program that I’ve bought elsewhere. What is especially helpful are the “content tabs” on the left-hand side of the program. When you add background papers, embellishments, frames, or other content items; you are given a visual thumbprint of the image in a pop-out window. No need to guess what is in your folders. You can see your digital scrapbook elements quickly and easily.
In fact, Serif’s DSA 2 makes everything so quick and easy that I may give them the “Q&E” Award! Read on and find out why.
- Hover Selection - whenever your mouse hovers over a specific digital object, it now is outlined in blue. You can now easily see the object you want to choose for editing. Simply click on the object to edit.
- Color Palette - This feature is super awesome for those of us who are “color-challenged.” If you’re not familiar with the color wheel or what complimentary colors are, you will love this feature! You can use the color palette on the right hand side of the program to pick a color from your photograph, background paper, an embellishment and then find all the colors that will complement that specific color. This makes it convenient when you use a brush or artistic text and want to fill it with color that will bring visual continuity to your layout. If you’ve ever looked at a digital layout and thought “Ugh! Those colors just don’t seem to work well together.” This tool will help you avoid such mismatched colors.
- Stencils - I am loving this new tool! Serif has a excellent collection of various stencils, including floral, animal, people and many more. It works like this: drag a stencil over to the layout. Then choose the brush tool. You choose then the type of brush (airbrush brushes work really well), choose the brush size and color, and then “brush” over the stencil’s open areas. When you’re finished, you “lift” the stencil by selecting it and voila! Your custom stencil appears! You can then resize it and move it to your desired location.
Now, are you ready for something even MORE amazing? You can take any embellishment (Yep. I said any.) and drag that embellishment into one of the categories most appropriate. The program will then automatically create a stencil from that shape for you to use! Again, as I said before, this is one of the coolest tricks Team DSA 2 created! So if you are crazy-in-love with an embellishment, why not make a stencil out of it and then layer a slightly smaller version of the embellishment itself on top? There are many more ways to use this fantastic feature and I look forward to discovering a few, myself!
- Blend Modes - Another beautiful feature to use with your photographs. Not only can you create a soft transparent effect, you can also blend the image by choosing such blending effects as multiply, and burn just to name a few. Experiment to see which one would suit your photograph best. I love blending effects because it often gives a nice soft touch to place on your background paper and then your photographs can be layered on top. Blending often gives a layout that extra “zing” to make it really unique!
- Photo Lab - Another amazing feature! Don’t have a photo editing program? With DSA 2, it’s not a problem. Now you can edit your photograph right within the program with a few clicks. Fix “red eyes,” lighten, brighten, bring contrast, change the hue – and play with all the different special photo effects such as oil paintiing, impressionist, or pop art. And now you can also mask your photo and create stunning images easily.
Have you ever seen a black and white photograph that had certain parts in color? Wonder how they got that effect? Now you can get it with DSA 2. Adding a mask to the black and white filter will allow you to “select” the parts of the photograph that you want to remain in color. It may take a few tries as you experiment with adjusting the brush size, but once you get the hang of it, it is a fairly easy effect to achieve.
- Stitches - DSA 2 has more of them and they are cute! There is a nicely large collection of stitches that you can access when using the “brush” tool. Add a slight drop shadow to give the stitches that extra “pop.” I like how the brush tool allows you to create an uneven line of stitches. I always found that look more charming than a straight line, although you can use the brush to create a straight line, too. It’s all up to you!
Another nice feature of DSA 2 is its ability to help you organize your digi “stash.” I haven’t even begun to do this, but you can “tag” your digital kits for quicker retrieval. You can do this when you choose “Digikit Creator.” I really love the visual help. So many times I’ve been working on a page and then realized I thought I saw the perfect embellishment in another kit. I would have to access my digital kit folder, find the designer, find her kit, and then click on “thumbnail” in the viewer mode within Windows selection window. Gah! With DSA 2, it gives me the thumbnails right off the bat when I import the images and I can choose whether I want to include certain images or not. It’s a much simpler system than searching through your files using Windows Explorer.
What Serif has done with this outstanding program is this: they’ve placed very powerful scrapbooking tools into the hands of the user without having to learn a complicated program. Adobe Photoshop Elements doesn’t have all these options, nor convenience. PSE does not have stencils or an easy way to access cropping methods such as DSA 2’s “scissors” tool. With more blending options and masks added to DSA 2’s Photo Lab, it decisively places DSA 2 as the best choice for the beginner both for its array of choices and low entry price point.
At $49, you simply can’t do better for a digital scrapbooking software program. Can’t recommend them highly enough. If you do purchase the program, make sure to visit DaisyTrail and join. It’s free and with more than 20,000 members (!), you’ll quickly find fellow DSA fans and a lively gallery! In the end, it’s about your memories and creating special ways to remember them. Enjoy!
