How You Started |Pad Patter 3-28-2023

Well, in a way I've been scrapping since the 1970's. I clipped a lot of newspaper articles (engagement announcements, wedding announcements etc) of people I knew and put them in an old fashioned photo album. I also kept a lot of newspaper stories about a cousin's college football career. Actual photos were put in magnetic albums, not to mention the albums my mom did of my childhood and her wedding.

But scrapbooking as we know it started in the late 90's when I was introduced to Creative Memories. I did traditional scrapping until 2008. In late 2007 I found out about digital scrapping and looked into it since I was already familiar with Paint Shop Pro. I had started using it in 1996, first doing signature graphics for forums and even some website graphic creation. So it was an easy transition to digital scrapping, just translating what I already knew about the program and fine tuning it to scrapbooking. One of the forums I did signature graphics for was a forum for learning PSP and I learned a lot in those classes. But the software evolved over the years and now I am doing workshops and learning even more about the program that I hope to incorporate into my digital scrapping.

I love digital scrapping but I still have some traditional supplies. Every so often I get the urge to touch actual paper and a few of my projects were better suited to paper scrapping. Those albums of mine I mentioned above that Mom did... they were falling apart. So I transferred them to new albums even bringing her original notes about the photos into the album when possible. I also transferred their wedding album to a CM album back when I was paper scrapping. And, in the last year I tore apart a magnetic album Mom had done of her teaching career and transferred it to a traditional CM album. I did add some extra information done digitally. I love that with CM albums I can put both paper and digital in the same album.

And, yes there is a big difference in my first layout and those I do now. LOL

 

My daughter was about 4, so 21 years ago I started paper scrapbooking. Loved journaling, was called the Queen of journaling. We built on a room at home that I kitted out as a studio and I taught scrapbooking. Then I shifted into digital, made it onto a couple of designer's teams. Then I made it on to some store design teams, (ScrapMatters and The Digichick). Am very happy here though, this is home! I am still learning and exploring art journaling and the more artsy less paper and traditional feel. This hobby just keeps getting better and better.

 

I started around 2000 doing paper scrapbooking. My friend was very into scrapbooking and used to invite me to go to local scrap nights with her so I started putting together a scrapbook of my memorabilia. When my daughter arrived in 2021, I got more serious about it and created an adoption story scrapbook for her and from there on started paper scrapbooking more regularly. In 2006, I switched to digital -- I liked the freedom provided by digital and the lack of clutter. I kept doing some paper scrapping too, though, since I had so many supplies and when Project Life became so popular, I did a couple years of paper Project Life. At some point, I decided was just not going to do paper anymore and gave away all my paper supplies and have been all digital since then.

 

I started in 2006, so about 17 years now. My husband was Adobe certified at the time and shared his Photoshop with me. When I wanted to know how to do things, his way of teaching me was to tell me to search Youtube and online tutorials . That's how I stumbled on digiscrapping and never looked back. I was never a paper scrapbooker before that.

 

I started in the mid 1990's as a card maker, then the person my mum and I were doing card making & stamping with became a Creative Memories consultant so we moved with her, I probably stayed with CM til late 1998 - early 2000's if that then branched out into other paper scrapping options. I never fully loved paper scrapping so after doing a web design course at high school in 2005/6 I became hooked on digi and never looked back.

I started with PSE 5 then 6 which were fine for my skill level at the time. I dabbled in PSCS4 until that gave me issues so went back to PSE 6 where I stayed until maybe a year or two ago when I made the leap to CC.

Like you @jk703, I too cringe at my paper layouts and even my early digital layouts.....I really only feel I've found my style in the last year or so (especially the last few months as I have explored more while being a Polly)

 

My first scrapbook dates back to 1983, when I was 11. It's a spiral bound thing with several pages of heavy paper and several pocket pages. I have shared it on my website here if you'd like to see it. Throughout high school, I saved memorabilia by taping or stapling or gluing it onto different kinds of paper, hole-punching it, and putting it in 3 ring binders decorated with stickers and words cut out of magazines. (I also kept a diary/journal all that time, dating back to 1980). By the way, I still have all my scrapbooks and journals (and they're all digitally backed up).

Imagine my delight when the scrapbooking industry was invented in the 1990's. I loved browsing the scrapbooking aisle at the new Michael's that was built in Glendale, CA, where I lived at the end of that decade.

But around 2005, from a scrapbooking magazine, I learned about digital scrapbooking, and in the next couple of years I switched to digital eagerly, without any hesitation. It probably would have been more instantaneous but I was busy with my babies. My first few pages were made on a copy of Photoshop 5 (yes, full PS, not PSE) that my husband already had. Then I tried this cool collage program and I think some other program before my husband gave me PSE in 2006 for my birthday. I joined a digiscrap forum in 2007 that I stayed with until around 2011 when I decided I wanted to try scrapping for hire, so I needed to find S4H-friendly designers. That never took off, but I did work on some creative teams (a few designers, ScrapMatters) at that time too. Not only did I make pages for them, but also wrote tutorials, which I very much enjoyed and would like to do again in the future when I'm not spending 40 hours/week at a job.

I took a hiatus from scrapping to study photography and business from 2012 through 2014, thinking I might go pro. I think I made about 10 scrapbook pages each of those years. But I missed scrapping, and after I realized I didn't want to be a business owner, I looked for a new digiscrap home. I spent 2015 at two other sites, including ScrapOrchard, and then followed the SO refugees over here.

Now I'm living happily ever after devoted to TLP.

 

I started paper scrapping in the late 90's when I was going to University - I was on the Dorm social committee and we did a 'yearbook' of sorts, and that was my first introduction to it. I paper scrapped for a few years, but I never really had a dedicated space for it and it was a pain always taking stuff out and then putting it back when I needed my kitchen table.

I got a program called Microsoft Digital Image Pro for Christmas 2004, and started creating my first pages digitally. I literally scanned a piece of 12x12 paper I had in my stash to create it lol It was pretty basic, but I loved it. I started looking more to find out about Digital Scrapbooking and found Digital Scrapbook Place, and I never went back to paper. Over the years I've CT'd on a lot of designer's teams, and a few stores (including Scrap Orchard and Mscraps). Glad to be here and calling TLP home now

 

I made my very first scrapbook when I was 12. I actually scrapped about it (see the page below - I made this page about 10 years ago). I used a typewriter and drew pics and glued down printed pictures. Then when I was about 18 I got my first Creative Memories scrapbooks and supplies and started more officially scrapbooking. I even became a consultant. Then in 2008, when we moved to where we are now, I met a new friend who digitally scrapbooked. She came over one day and showed me the basics of Photoshop (we already owned it because my hubby used it occasionally). I was instantly hooked. I almost immediately started making my own templates because for me that was the fun part of scrapbooking (designing my layout).

 

I did a lot of card making in middle school with my mom. We went to this club once a week where we made cards it was fun. I also did paper Scrapbooking throughout middle and high school up to when my oldest was born.

I also started web design 8th grade ... and became really good at it. I coded and designed web pages. Around my senior year of high school I started designing web page graphics .. such as backgrounds and such for people who lost children on a web page I created called Livys Love after my daughter Olivia. I created free graphics and custom web pages free of charge foe parents who lost children. It expanded and I did some freelance gigs for some companies as well and even had a popular blog for awhile when I got married to my ex where I did reviews for companies and did blog layouts... and major graphics on LiveJournal.. yeah..

Around 2003 I dove into digital Scrapbooking when Bianca was born because I came across it online on a blog and didn't have time in my busy schedule anymore to haul out the giant box of real messy supplies plus it was so much easier and I quickly became an addict and here we are today

 

When I was 13 years old a little scrapbook store (the original Pebbles in my Pocket) opened up in my town. I went and fell in love! I started buying paper and stickers and quickly scrapbooked my baby and school photos. I got a camera of my own and scrapbooked all the pictures I took throughout jr high and high school.
I sort of quit when I moved off to college and life (and scrapping supplies) got more expensive. My son was born in 2005 and at the same time my sister-in-law's sister started a digital scrapbooking business and website/forum. She taught me the basics of photoshop elements and I was hooked! I have been fully digital ever since.

 

I had a scrapbook on the go from I was 12 to around 16 mostly news as articles from papers, or something concerning a marching band I was a member of.
Then life got busy,and any photos taken were put in albums,and that was that. (annoying now,because I was not good at putting dates or names with the photos....)
In Denmark or here in Malta,there is no tradition for traditional scrapbooking,so never really went in to that, but I have always paper crafted,in many different ways, anything from card making, to paper cutting (fine detailed motives with a Stanley knife ) creating my own papers with collage,or paint for projects. At one point I was very much in to 3D cards. That was in 2010.
There was 2 shopping channels on UK tv (Create and craft,and Ideal world )
Both of them
had smashing demonstrations of all things crafty,and one day I caught a demo, where they used a scrapbooking software (Craft Artist by Serif (a Uk Based firm ) for card making..... Perfect for 3D....
I got it , checked out the features,it was a really good program,and they had their very own scrapbooking website,( Daisy trail ) as well as tutorials on how to use the program. . It looked fun so I was hooked .

 

I started in 2004 paper scrapbooking. I was shopping for cross stitch supplies (I haven't cross stitched since!) and the store held differing crafting classes. The best night for me was Tuesday and the options were quilting or scrapbooking. I naively thought scrapbooking would be cheaper!

Quite a few years later (hmm can't think when, perhaps 5 years later) I used digital supplies to create hybrid party goods for my kids birthdays and gradually phased out paper scrapbooking altogether.

When we sold our house I donated a stack of stuff to the charity shop, but there is still a couple of cupboards full of supplies in my dad's garage (probably going to have to get rid of it all as I'm short on space in my new home). I'm reluctant to do so really as I had so much fun with my paper goodies, so lots of memories as well as money invested in them.

 

I made digital card with our first computer 1995 and that was so much fun. Then I started to make fonts and did that for awhile and after that is digital scrapbooking and junk journaling from digital to paper. My first site that I called home for scrapbooking was SBG. I found TLP when Dawn Inskip moved here. This is home, I never found my way around the other scrap sites.

 

I started as part of a church prayer project. One of the creatives in our church was a paper scrapbooker. We were all invited to pray over one area of the Bourgh and then create a page about our prayer to put in the scrapbook which would go in the Central prayer room.
I spend some time looking at scrapbooking online and found digital kits. My first page was hybrid.
I discovered that I could digi-scrapbook in my desktop publishing software, and my journey into digital scrapbooking began. It was about 16 years ago I think, when I had 2 very small children.

 

Oh my -- it feels like such a long time ago. I started scrapbooking in 1995 when my daughter was 3 and a co-worker invited me to a Creative Memories workshop. I was hooked on this idea of documenting the stories and preserving photo memories. Sometime in the early to mid-2000's I guess, a Canon little digital powershot (?) camera came home and with it PSE3.

Eventually, I started using PSE to organize my photos, learning a little about editing and exporting to print. I experimented with printing journaling and titles, sizing, cropping, and creating 4x6 collages for printing in specific sizes for my paper pages. As I learned more, I was creating layout "sketches" in PSE to figure out what size photos to use. At some point, I said, I'm doing all this work in PSE, maybe I can just "do it all" digitally. In 2009, I took the full plunge and never looked back. 2009 is also when I had a trial to CS4 and I was hooked on full PS once I got the hang of the differences. I had CS6 when my daughter got it for me before she graduated from college. I tried going back to PSE after some updates to it, but I couldn't stick with it. So, CC it is for me now.

I held out going digital for a few years because my work was basically on a computer all day and I thought I needed to touch the paper. But, really, all I needed was a creative outlet and digital opened some new opportunities without the mess for me. I held on to paper supplies for a long time thinking I might try some other projects. I did try a few cards, but hated it.

Those old CM albums are thick and HEAVY, and sometimes I cringe when I look at some of those first pages, but those stories are told.

 

Around 2004 I attended a Creative Memories crop with a friend, having become interested in scrapbooking and had been buying supplies with Michael's coupons for months. About 6 months later I attended a Close To My Heart card making class and got to play with stamps and was hooked. i became a consultant for CTMH and then later with Stampin Up. I loved making cards. I attended every class I could for about 4 yrs and then ended up teaching scrapbooking/card classes at a few of the local scrap stores and also taught classes at home in my scrap room. I had what looked like a small store in my basement with all the supplies I had. I taught classes until around 2016 but had started dabbling in digi around 2008 (with PSE6 I think) and then again in 2012 (PS5). At that point I got into digi completely and eventually sold/donated all my supplies. I had amassed hundreds of stamps over the years, it was hard to let them go, I had so many good memories, playing with all my supplies but I knew that digi was where I was going to stay. I have never regretted making the switch.

 

I started doing paper scrapbooking with a friend who did Creative Memories in 2000. Then I discovered Digital Scrapbooking in 2006 after I had my 2nd baby and had no time for pulling out ALL the paper supplies. My digital pages are SOOO much better than anything I ever made with paper! Even though my first digital pages were pretty bad too, but I was so excited with every page I made and learned new stuff!

 

What a great thread! I love reading about people's scrapbooking origins.

I started in 2003, when my son was a toddler. I had never paper-scrapped before, and I had never heard of digital scrapbooking either. But I had a photoblog where I shared photos of my son for family members (and esp. for the grandparents), and I was looking for a Humpty Dumpty graphic for the blog when I stumbled upon a digital scrapbooking site (I think it might have been called "computer scrapbooking" at the time!). I was immediately drawn in!

I scrapped for about 5-6 years, then took a very long (7-8 year) break, then returned to digital scrapbooking in 2016.

My style has certainly improved since those early days, but so too has the available product: the papers, elements, and templates that I now use are very different (and by 'different' I mean 'better'!) from the stuff I was using in 2003...