So, long story short... We moved from the city (with Xfinity as our provider) to a beautiful 1883 parsonage house in the country. It's so nice here BUT there is NO internet that's even close to Xfinity. It's been hard. I had to give up scrapbooking as downloads and uploads were impossible. Then my laptop died and the new one was needed by my son for virtual schooling. I have not Digi scrapped in over a year. We are now on a hotspot from our phone company and one borrowed biweekly from the local library. I now have a basic laptop and have downloaded Paint Shop 9 and one kit and was so excited to scrap and I just can't seem to put anything together that looks right to me. It looks super amateur and I'm scared I've lost my creativity. Cross your fingers for me that I can find it again!
You got this! It's like riding a bike - it'll come back to you. Can you go to town once in awhile and download? When I was out with my mom camping the wifi sucked. I could buy kits on my phone, but no upload/download and then we would go into town to the Timmy's (coffee shop) or McDonald's and use their wifi to download. It sucks when you have to choose between the area you want/house you want and internet access.
I agree with Courtney, it's like riding a bike and you don't forget. I took a few years off from digiscrapping and then jumped back in by doing monthly challenges. You can do it!
Don't overthink it. You will be happy to have the pages scrapped and be able to see your progress! You got this!
I was away from digiscrapping for almost 6 years. At first when I got back to it, I didn't remember anything. But all of a sudden, I was scrapping like crazy. You have it all there, inside your brain. Just sit down with the program, play around & and the wires Will connect again.
Yikes, it would be like stepping back into the late 1990s. What a pain. I hope you find some work-arounds so you can reconnect to your inner artist.
You'll get the hang of it again! Totally relate, when I started scrapping again I was like, what the heck am I doing?!
OHHHHHHH I need to talk to you!!! I went through SO much to get internet for almost a year. It was a real experience. Good luck!!
Oh, I will stop complaining about our internet now, right @LivyBug ? I took some time off from scrapping - it was hit or miss for a few months last year and this year, but now I'm getting back in the saddle again. I hope your creativity comes back in leaps and bounds!
You got this!! You are a wonderful scrapper and I have no doubt that your creativity will find its way back!!
Both kids doing school at home + DH on zoom all day has reduced my ability to connect & internet speed for me in the last few months too so I get your frustrations to a degree. I hope Courtney' s ideas help re:downloads but I hope the house & move were worth it. I've been trying to use this time to sort photos into ' to scrap' folders & things that don't need the internet as much to make more of my scrappy time. I can't help re: paint shop specifically but every new program has a learning curve so I know it's hard to be patient & kind to yourself but sticking at it I'm sure you'll start seeing improvement, maybe not at the pace you want but all I can say is hang in there!
How about getting a set of templates in a style that you like and seeing how many combinations of LOs you can make? One set of BYOC products that you can mix and match goes a long way. You might ask @lmccandless about re-downloading product you purchased before your move. Then challenge yourself: what color scheme, how many photos, what style products. I hope that it comes back fast and you find the fun again for yourself and for your family.
OOOH that sounds so frustrating! I agree that it's a bit like riding a bike. Maybe start off with some scraplifting? I agree with the idea of sorting through photos to get inspired too.
Welcome back to scrapbooking! I agree with the other suggestions. You could try scraplifting someone whose style fits with yours, or starting with a template. You've got this!