Digital Scrapbooking Tips

It’s a good habit to keep a record of the products you use to create your scrapbook pages.

If you are building a page at some time in the future and want to locate an item you used on a previous page, you’ll appreciate having the names and location of the kits at your fingertips. Additionally, when you post layouts to an online gallery or submit layouts to scrapbooking magazines, you’ll want to have a list of kits you used to build the page. There are several ways to keep track of the products you use as you are creating. Here is one method that works well for me.

As you are creating a layout, each time you use a product, open the product preview and drag it on top of the scrapbook page. The product preview will be very small compared to the rest of the layout, so drag it up to the top left corner using the Move Tool.

Next, click the Layer Visibility icon of the preview layer which looks like an eyeball at the far left side of the layer in the Layers Palette. This hides the preview layer so that you can continue working on the page.

The product preview usually contains the name of the kit, the name of the designer and the website.

When you have completed the layout, you will probably have several product previews stacked at the top left corner of the page. Click on the Layer Visibility icons of those layers and zoom in close to view them.

Select File > File Info. Type the information from the previews and record the font names in the box labeled Description (PS) or Caption (PSE) then click OK. Turn off the layer visibility on the previews again and save your file. The information will be saved with your layout, so you won’t forget the names of the products you used. You’ll be able to locate the product information by accessing File > File Info or viewing the product previews at the top left corner of your page.

Develop this good habit and you’ll thank yourself later.