Part 1: How do I get started?

I have people ask me all the time what they need to do to get started doing digital scrapbooking. I love that question! Before they know it they are bombarded with all the great things about digital scrapbooking and more information than they know what to do with. So I thought I would break it up a bit for those of you that are wondering and give you small steps on how to start.

So here is what you need to do:

Download this free ebook. I'm serious. And then READ it. It will give you the basic information on what digital scrapbooking is, how to get started and what you need to start doing it. It is free and it will give you more information than I possible could write all here. You can download it here.

Next you need some photo editing software. The most popular is Photoshop Elements. Check around your place first sometimes it will come with a new scanner or printer and you might already have it. To be honest I think that if you seriously want to do it, don't settle for any software other than Photoshop Elements or PSE. The others like Microsoft Digital Image pro are ok to start with, but you will soon find that you are really limited in what you can do.

The latest PSE version that is out is 6.0, which will cost you the most money. But if I were trying to save a few bucks I would go with an older version up to about 3.0 and you will still be able to do EVERYTHING. And you'll save yourself tons of money.

You can also download a free 30 day trial version here at at adobe of the 6.0 version to play around with.

You will need to get the correct version of software for your computer. If you have a Mac, you'll need the mac version. These are not interswitchable. Later when you purchase Digital scrapbooking supplies, they will work on either a PC or a MAC, but your basic software editing programs do need to be specific to the computer you are running.

So these are the very first basic steps. Read the ebook and then get the software. Get the software and load it on your computer.