5 Ways to Improve Your Digital Scrapbooking Skills

It's easy to get in a rut or feel like you are making the same layout over and over. I thought it might be helpful to come up with a short list of ideas that could help inspire your layout making and possibly teach you something new as well.

Familiarize Yourself with Design Principles
Knowing basic design principles like color theory, balance, and contrast can help you create more visually appealing scrapbook layouts. Take some time to learn about design principles and how you can apply them to your digital scrapbooking projects. I recently wrote a post here covering a few of my favorite design principles. This knowledge will help you make more informed design decisions and create better layouts.

Try a New Style or Technique
Don't be afraid to try new things and experiment with different styles. There's no one right way to create a scrapbook layout, so try out a new style and maybe you'll learn something. Check out our digital scrapbooking gallery to get inspired. Don't be afraid to do a scraplift of a layout you love (try to copy it as closely as you can). Learning a new technique can also help inspire future layouts. Using Layer Styles and Brushes in Photoshop both have lots of options for creating new and interesting looks. Check out our list of tutorials here if you need help getting started.

Invest in High-Quality Digital Graphics
One of the advantages of digital scrapbooking is that you can access a wide range of digital graphics, such as papers, embellishments, fonts, and templates. However, not all digital assets are created equal. To create high-quality pages, invest in digital assets that are well-designed, high-resolution, and versatile. This will give you more flexibility to customize your pages and create unique designs. Luckily, if you're looking for an affordable way to access lots of high-quality digital graphics, look no further than our subscription here at DigitalScrapbook.com . You'll instantly have access to thousands of graphics created by professional designers. Using thoughtful and well made graphics can make a big difference in your own finished product.

Practice Editing Photos
Editing your photos can help enhance their quality and make them more visually appealing. Take some time to learn basic editing techniques like adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation. You can do this in Photoshop, or on your phone in your favorite photo editing app (I use Google Photos). You can also experiment with more advanced editing techniques like photo filters and overlays to add some pizazz (I like the app AColorStory for this).

Take Advantage of Online Resources and Communities
The digital scrapbooking community is very helpful and ready to answer your questions or offer some inspiration. We have several monthly layout challenges that can help inspire your layout making if you're not quite sure where to begin, or need help trying something new. If you need feedback or are stuck on a certain layout, please post a query in our forums and you'll be sure to get some good feedback.

Do you have any tips that have worked for you?