Some different styles of Digital Scrapbooking

So as I engage more with the international digital scrapbooking community I am being introduced to different styles of digital scrapbooking.  One style is more fantasy-based, where your subject is inserted into the fantasy world as if they are a character in it.  My friend from India introduced me to this style and I tried my hand at it in this layout where Greyson is the "Frog Prince."

Here is the original photo of Greyson. In GIMP I created a new layer with Transparency as the background and then opened the picture with the Open as Layer option.  I used the Free select tool to cut him out of the picture and then I used the eraser at 50% opacity to smooth edges.  When I was happy with the extraction I exported the picture as a png to preserves the transparent background.

I used a freebie paper by Avital Scrap called Fairy Lake and some elements from JulieC Designs Feeling Blue collection to create the fantasy layout below.

I have also been looking at the Project Life style of scrapping. Now I don't journal like a lot of people do, but this is supposed to be great for journaling and for hybrid (part digital, part physical) scrapping.  Basically there are set "pockets" for pictures and other cards.  The pockets can be physical and then you can use a ring binder to contain them or they can be digital and just have the look of being a ring-binder page with pockets.  Usually there are setups with 4x6 and 3x5 cards in various configurations.  I took a quick stab at it with a couple of my own layouts without pockets:

Paper and Elements by Misty Cato (JoyfulNoise)

Shawna Clingerman (You are my Happy), JulieC Designs (Feeling Blue)

Text: DJB Milkmaid

and my Single Photo Explosion with pockets:

Traci Reed DocumentLife Slip-in

Mari Koegelenberg at Mydigitalartstudio

That last layout was pretty simple. I just used the DocumentLife Slipin Mat template and just imported my photo and used the technique I documented in my post about using PSD templates to cut the segments.  It was a snap!  There are lots of resources for doing this style of scrapping.  You can google Project Life, DocumentLife, or even Pocket Life from Scrapgirls There is a great set of blogs posts on Digi.Shop.Talk about Project Life.

 - Jen