Getting Started

If you’ve looked at a digital scrapbooking gallery, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. You may love the look but also may think:

1) How much time is this going to take? and
2) How much money is this going to take?

Well, I have great news for you. You don’t have to spend days creating a beautiful digital layout when you have great tools!

One of those “great tools” is Serif’s Digital Scrapbooking Artist. I endorse Serif for a few reasons. First, it is extremely affordable compared to other photo editing programs (such as Adobe’s Photoshop Elements). Second, they are the hardest-working software company I’ve ever seen. They have a great community and are always seeking input from their customers in order to improve their products.

And finally, you’re able to “test-drive” their products for free! Yep. That’s right. Free. No trial period that will run out in 60 or 90 days. When you download one of their free basic programs, all you need to do is give them an email address (I created a Yahoo! one especially for the purpose of downloading free trials of anything.) and the program is sent to you.

For many years, I used their desktop publishing program, PagePlus, to create my digital scrapbook pages. But in late 2008, Serif came out with Digital Scrapbooking Artist, a software especially designed for the digital scrapbooker. You will hear my rave more about it in the future, but for now, why not mosey on down to the Free Serif Software link and download a basic version of DSA yourself?

I’ll be building more tutorials using this program. Much of what DSA does, is also done by Adobe Photoshop Elements. However, if you download the free version of DSA (and this goes for any Serif product), you are eligible for a deep discount if you upgrade to the most recent version of the product. Which is pretty doggone cool in my book.

Leave me comments if you have questions. Some of my answers may turn into full-blown tutorials.