Wow – can you believe that the holiday season is upon us again! Where did the year go? It is time to start thinking about what you want to give as gifts to your family and friends this year. Homemade gifts are great, but so are gift baskets full of scrapbooking supplies, memory cards for cameras, darling scrapbooks for them to fill with their favorite pictures during the coming year. The point is, you don’t have to make an elaborate photo book or calendar to give the gift of memory making. If the person you are giving a gift to loves to scrapbook – indulge their habit with a gift certificate to their favorite online store or give them an album to complete during the year.

Here are a few ideas for giving the gift of memories – whether it is a completed project or the supplies to make their own!

This is a gift that I gave to my in-laws last Christmas. It was my daughter’s idea to make a photo family tree for them. So, she took care of collecting all the family pictures and I created the digital background. The end result turned out great! We printed it 16×20 so they could really see the faces in the pictures well.  I had a lot of people really like the idea, so I decided to sell the background. You can buy it at www.ndisb.com and it is only $2. For $2 you get the complete background that you can just add your photos to and print. If you want to choose your own background, or want more creative freedom – the png format of just the tree is included as well.

Of course a family tree isn’t the only thing you can create for holiday gift giving. Now is the perfect time to get busy creating photo books and calendars! We covered the basics of digital photo books in this post so you can go back and check it out. Grandparents love to look at pictures of their grandkids all year long so a photo calendar is a perfect gift. You can go to sites such as Tiny Prints or Shutterfly and use their templates to create a calendar, or use a fun calendar kit from your favorite digital scrapbook store and create your own.

Do you have a scrapbooker in the family? Whether they scrapbook digitally or traditionally, all scrapbookers love a scrapbook gift! Here are some fun gifts for the scrapper in your family:

Traditional Scrapbookers:

• Scrapbook Albums – What scrapbooker doesn’t love albums? There are so many cute albums to choose from – and of course you can never have too many!
• Embellishments! -Embellishements make the page! We have all created a page just to use the cute embellishments we have on hand. Come on, you know you have!
• Scrabook Storage – If your going to have all the gear, you need a place to store it right? Well, scrapbook storage can get a bit expensive, that is why scrappers love to get this kind of stuff as a gift. There is no guilt involved!

Gifts for traditional scrapbookers can be put in a cute basket or bag and presented in a fun way. But what about digital scrapbookers? How to you wrap up a virtual gift? Well, first of all, there are many gifts you can give a digi scrapper that they can hold in their hand! Here are a few:

• Scrapbook Software – How can someone digi scrap without software? There are many different scrapbook programs on the market, but everyone has their preference so make sure you check with the person (or their husband) before you buy a program they might not like!
• Flash Drive – These mini storage devices have dropped so much in price the last few years it makes it far easier to give them as a gift. Digi scrappers love the convenience of a small storage device, they can take them along to crops or just carry them in their purse ‘just in case’.
• External Hard Drive – While we are talking storage, and external hard drive is a must have for anyone who uses a computer. But a vital must for digi scrappers. The rule is – back up, back up, and back up again! With an external hard drive you can have an extra copy of all your photos and scrapbook pages just in case.

Wow – that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fun gifts for Christmas. Just remember – grandparents LOVE photos – so make a photo book or calendar for them. For your scrapping friends and family, give them a fun scrapbook gift that they will use and love!

Incoming search terms:

• digiscrap tree
• christmas is around the corner
• family tree format
• Christmas is around the corner I have a gift for you
• family yearbook

If you ask anyone in the graphic design or professional photography field, they will tell you that Photoshop is the best photo editing and graphics program on the market. True, it is a fantastic product with a wide range of capabilities. But, these are people that use it every day. What about the average user who wants a program for digital scrapbooking that also helps them get the most out of their digital photos?

While Photoshop is the industry standard for professionals, it has features and capabilities that will never be used by the casual user. So why spend hundreds of dollars on a program that has features you won’t need or use?

Announcing Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8. Complete photo and video editing made easy. Buy now.

Let’s take a look at Photoshop’s little sister – Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements and Photoshop are both made by Adobe. They have similar interfaces and both are capable of photo editing and graphics work.

When deciding which program to buy, you need to look at how it will be used – and how often. Most consumers want a program that will allow them to edit their digital photos – remove red eye, adjust color tone, etc. They also want a program to use for digital scrapbooking or digital card making. While both programs will do these things, Elements is a user friendly program that is easy to learn and use.

One of the major differences in the two products is price. Photoshop retails at around $650, while Photoshop Elements is priced at $99. This makes Elements much more attractive to the average consumer.

Save $30 on NEW Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 Bundle with mail-in rebate

Adobe designed Elements to have all the Photoshop tools that the average user would need. It is named Elements because that is what it has – the core elements of Photoshop. Some people mistakenly thing that Elements is a ‘dumbed down’ version of Photoshop. This is simply not true. Elements is a product with a different focus than Photoshop. There are many online tutorials and forums that are dedicated to learning both Photoshop and Elements.

In the end, it is really a matter of choice and budget. Both programs will give you everything you need for photo editing and digital scrapbooks and cards. So, which will it be – Photoshop or Elements?

Incoming search terms:

• elements scraps freebies
• scrapbook and card photoshop programs
• scraps freebies
• what digital programs are used for digital scrapbooking