Digital Scrapbooking Product Guide

This week, I’ll be taking you on a tour through the four styles of digital scrapbooking. I’ll showcase some of the best products, layouts, designers and shops for each style – all to help you hone in on your shopping goals.

For starters, let’s review the four styles:

#1. Fresh/Artsy

• white space
• clean design
• 1-3 photos
• heavy use of element clusters
• bright & colorful graphics

#2. Minimal/Distressed

• white space or full page design
• shabby/grungy graphics
• visible brush strokes
• tends towards realism in elements
• uses photo masks and opacity layering

#3. Storybook/Fantasy

• full page design
• lots of extractions
• shows a scene
• ethereal quality

#4. Traditional/Paper-style

• full page design
• layered papers and ribbons
• lots of journaling
• may or may not have element clusters
• chipboard titles

Most shops cater to a subset of these styles, generally falling into a division between #s 1 and 4 as a pairing and #s 2 and 3. However, I am seeing a growing trend of hybrid artsy/distressed effects on paper-style layouts.

This week, we’ll explore the nuances of digi-style and try to help you discover hidden desires and new places to spend your dime.