I'm a newbie to PSE and

[BrendaC]

very interested in the scrapbooking side of it. I've seen so many great pages and I' anxious to start. My question is do people make these themselves or are they templates that you just stick a picture in? I'm not very creative. Thanks Brenda

[SenorSlick]

Welcome to the site. There are many many talented people here that will point you to the right pathway.

[Diana]

Hi Brenda,

It can be done either way. There are many scrapbooking sites where you can download the background papers and embellishments to put together scrapbooking pages. Some are free and with some there is a fee. After you get more familiar with Photoshop Elements, you can build your own.

There is a Scrapbook Exchange going on this forum. If you design papers and embellishments to share, you can get access to the downloads of other members.
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14025&highlight=scrapbook+exchange

Here's a link with some free templates:
http://cp.c-ij.com/english/scrapbook/birthday/birthday.html
http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/download/digital/
http://www.cottagearts.net/samples.html
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp
http://www.escrappers.com/freefiles.html
http://www.designerdigitals.com/ddgallery/showgallery.php?cat=531

When you get a page created, let us see it.

Diana

[Wags374]

I would highly recommend joining the forum over at www.scrappersguide.com (it's free) That site is specifically geared to scrapping with PSE. Every Monday they release a new FREE video tutorial. It is available for download for one week and then it goes into the store for the lowly fee of $1. If you can afford it I would recommend Linda Sattgast's training CD's as well. (she is the host of scrappersguide) Many of us here are members there as well.

Another great scrapping site is www.digitalscrapbookplace.com - check out the gallery for insipration and a ton of great freebies!!

You can also view sketches for insipration at these sites:
http://pagemaps.com/index.htm
http://www.scrap-maps.com/
http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/mag/sketches/

(They are a great jumping off point when you need a little help getting over scrappers block.)

[kayser]

Hi Brenda- What version of PSE do you have? In PSE5, there are pre-made templates for scrapbooking that you might find useful. It really does help to look through the galleries, both here and at scrapbooking sites. There are also tutorials here in the subscriber area for scrapbooking- making elements and just putting pages together. I just saw that Sara at Eclectic Academy has a course on digital scrapbooking. I have taken two other classes from her and found her classes very good, so I would recommend that as well. And, truly, for general PSE questions and help, I would stay right here!

[BrendaC]

Thanks for the guidance everyone. I'm still muddling through pse4 but I'm very anxious to start scrapbooking. Brenda

[kelliefsimpson]

Welcome to the wonderful world of digi scrappin'! I have been digi scrappin' for a couple of years and even used to be a designer for two different websites. I don't sell my kits anymore though-I decided to open up my own site and give my kits away (it's almost ready tho). But what you were talking about are called Quickpages-scrapbook pages already designed and you just plop your pictures on top. I like to create my own though. It's alot more fun that way!
You should try: www.scrapbookbytes.com -they have ALOT of free kits that you can download and they have alot of tutorials on digi scrappin'. Also try: www.rakscraps.com - you'll need to register first, but members share kits with each other there-and they have tons of free kits available. Also www.digishoptalk.com has a great forum to find out anything you could want to know about digital scrapbooking.
I recently taught my mother how to digi scrap and how to use PSE and she loves it prolly almost as much as I do now!
Hope this helps in any way!

[kelliefsimpson]

I forgot one site that might help out learning PSE.

www.escrappers.com

TONS of PSE tuts! I love that site!

[BrendaC]

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure if I need to have elements mastered before I start any scrapping. Brenda

[Wendy]

Hi Brenda ...

I think that it probably would be better to learn how to use Elements first .... just do a few tutiorials and get to know where the tools are and what they do :)

Wendy