If you are a digital scrapbooking beginner, you probably have many questions. You like the idea of digital scrapbooking, but you don t want to sink a lot of money into it until you know whether it will be rewarding.

Definition of Digital Scrapbooking

Digital scrapbooking is the act of creating images, photos, journaling, and extra touches to preserve your memories in digital instead of physical form. Scrapbooking software is available free on the Internet, or you can use a standard Microsoft Word program.

Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Scrapbooking looks most professional when the entire publication has a theme. A digital scrapbooking theme helps you focus on one style, rather than have each page different. Once you have

a central theme, you can set themes for individual pages. These should follow the main theme, but in smaller pieces. For example, an main vacation theme might have page themes of transportation, hotel, beach, restaurants, and activities. You can get free digital scrapbooking themes for both overall and individual pages.

Free Digital Scrapbooking Theme Kits

Free digital scrapbooking themes are available in kits at several Internet websites. You might combine similar themes, or use the elements for your own theme. For example, downloading two or three free digital scrapbooking theme kits that are focused on sports would give you elements to complete several coordinated, but different pages in a sports-themed work.

DIY Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Your status as a digital

scrapbooking beginner does not mean you cannot approach digital scrapbooking themes as do-it-yourself projects. If you are willing to invest a little creativity, you will find an abundance of free digital scrapbooking themes on the Internet. One website gives the digital scrapbooking beginner many hints in their descriptions of themes for sale. Consider three of them.

1. Memories of school days will be placed on backgrounds specifically designed for school. Stop and think. What kind of background fits the description? Imagine back-to-school advertising. Pencils, books, backpacks, apples, desks, and alphabets spring to mind. With very little work, you can create your own backgrounds for free digital scrapbooking themes on school days.

Picture a page with a faded school building background.

A large school bus sits in front of the building. A child s kindergarten photo fills one window. Friends photos fill two more windows. A note about the first day of school is tacked to the page with a small, bright backpack graphic. Another page theme might begin with a background of alphabet letters or spelling words written in script and arranged at angles. Great for showing off a perfect spelling test, or photos of the spelling bee. The same letters, or bright trophies, could be added as embellishments. In a matter of moments, you have two free digital scrapbooking themes for school memories. Each is do-it-yourself. Each fits the mood you are trying to create.

2. A 50th wedding anniversary scrapbook might have a nostalgic, antique theme. Close your eyes and picture antique things. Imagine an antique store or a trunk of old clothing and faded letters. Lavender, satin ribbons, old lace, and antiqued paper come to mind. With imagination, you can create your own backgrounds for free digital scrapbooking themes on old memories.

A large photograph of a county fair, faded and antiqued, would make a great background page for photos of the dating couple and a ticket stub or two. Cotton candy or carousel horse embellishments could spice up the page. If it s a 2-page spread, a piece of an old love letter can be the journaling. Colorful photo mats in

candy-striping will carry out the couple s happy feelings. A second page theme might be antique cars, a faded background of vehicle graphics setting the stage for photos of the couple s first car, or every car they ever owned. On a third page, clipart or photos of ornate mirrors could be repeated on a faded background. A single, enlarged mirror frame could frame the main wedding photo. Smaller mirrors, lace and ribbon elements could complete the theme. With a few minutes of thought, you have three free digital scrapbooking themes for your 50th wedding anniversary scrapbook.

3. If you want a digital scrapbook cowboy hat theme, begin by thinking of symbols you connect with that idea. Your background might

be rodeo scenes, a desert, or the colors of the outdoors. You might make a page that looks like the inside of a stable. Hang rope on a board in the stable, and set a pair of cowboy boots on the floor. Scatter straw at the bottom. Then add your photos, tacked in place with small cowboy hat graphics. Be sure one photo shows the subject in a cowboy hat. Add rope letters to spell out a caption such as Ride em, Cowboy! A scrap of torn paper with the date, name, and a comment would be appropriate journaling so that future generations can fully appreciate the occasion. You have just given yourself another free digital scrapbooking theme.

Gleaning Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Another source of free digital scrapbooking themes is the website postings of those who are eager to share their own work. These are easily found by doing an online search. If you have a basic theme in mind, you can often glean themes for individual pages from the examples offered.

Scrapbook stores and magazines offer many themes, some digital. If you are creative, you can adapt non-digital themes with a little practice.

Final Tips on Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Wherever you get your digital scrapbooking themes, keep in mind that backgrounds should always complement the colors in the photographs that will go on each page. Journaling adds great interest. If you don t know

what to write, think: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Elements are extra decorative objects added to the page. Scrapbook Bytes offers many free, downloadable elements.

2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about paper and digital scrapbooking themes at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site. You won t want to miss her recent article on free digital scrapbooking frames.