Do you approach a
scrapbook store like a kid in a candy store saying “I’ll have one of these and one of those and two of them”? If you’re anything like me and love to get your hands on the latest scrapbooking related product and tools, then hold onto your purse. There are some serious “must have” technologies on the horizon that will make your scrapbooking even more fun and convenient. Don’t worry though, as high-tech as these products are, you don’t need an engineering degree to figure them out. They’re easy to use and designed for dedicated scrapbookers and casual photo artists alike.
zoom zoom
You already know that mini albums are all the rage in scrapbooking circles. ZoomAlbum has taken the mini album and turned it digital with a fun pack that comes complete with software, paper and covers enough to make three easy-to-assemble hardcover mini albums. The program is easy enough for computer novices to use and the tiny 3 x 3” mini albums that result are a perfect way to share your photos. Using the software, you select one photo for each of the 12 spaces in an 8½ x 11” template You can then drag and drop the images and add multiple blocks of text so each page can have a title and journaling. You then print the design onto the pre-scored paper, fold it according to the directions and peel-and-stick the pages together to create the finished book. The covers are plain pastels, which can easily be decorated using your scrapbooking stash. A ZoomAlbum is fun and quick to make and my digitally remedial friends were extremely impressed with ones I whipped up for them.
This is one cool tool
The coolest tool I can imagine is one that can make sense of all the photos I have stored on my computer and all the memories that go with them. I’m continually plagued with black and white decisions--does the photo of my sister at Christmas time go in the Christmas folder, or the family folder? And where do I put my journaling notes from that holiday season? The answer has a cool name, Coolect, and it’s software with a unique approach to organization. Coolect lets you link photos to people, events and journaling. Then, when I look up my sister in Coolect it shows me all the photos linked to her, regardless of where they’re stored. If I look up Christmas day in the calendar, I see all my Christmas photos. This linking process is very fluid and makes finding photos and occasions very easy. There’s also an album tool for assembling photo albums from everything you have linked in the program, including photos, video, text and sound.
Make a multimedia scrapbook
From the company Lasting Impressions comes a program called Memory Mixer, which helps you create what could be called multimedia scrapbooks.
The software lets you assemble photos into electronic albums complete with themed layouts and even music. Select the Quick Mix option and it’s pretty much all done for you. If you want more control of the creative process, you can take a slower path and customize the album with your choice of digital papers and embellishments. Turn your scrapbook into a three-dimensional and sensory experience by adding video and narration.
When you’re done, the results can be professionally printed and hard-bound, burned onto a CD or DVD or e-mailed to a friend. Memory Mixer could be your primary scrapbooking tool or use it to quickly organize all those photos you don’t plan to traditionally scrapbook.
Put these on your wish list
Well known in scrapbooking circles, Xyron has a couple of neat tech tools in its scrapbooking arsenal. One is the much lauded Wishblade personal digital cutter which looks like a printer but uses a blade instead of ink. Hook it up to your computer and you can cut anything from shapes to fonts up to 8” in size. In the future, expect to see an add-in for the cutter that will let you design your own shapes and use fonts from your computer.
Xyron’s other latest tool is the very cool, Xyron Design Runner. This handheld, battery operated printer prints images and text in black (additional red and green cartridges are available) onto paper, polymer clay, fabric or wood. It can print up to half an inch high and in a constant stream so you could use it to print a full page border, for example. Images and words come on a small disc that is inserted in the machine. An LCD screen lets you select your image and align it accurately. The Design Runner comes with a disc of 40 design elements and you can purchase additional designs and fonts.
Print it 12 x 12”
When you’re ready to invest in a new printer, look into a large-format model. For instance, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 can print borderless at 12 x 12” as well as other popular scrapbooking formats, making it easy to print titles directly on cardstock. This particular printer has eight ink cartridges for high quality output and, when printed on compatible papers, the images are fade-resistant for up to 200 years. As an added bonus, the printer will print directly onto CDs and DVDs so you can even make custom labels for your backup files.
Whether you’re a paper or digital scrapbooker and whatever your skill level, there are plenty of high-tech tools to dream about and some that are sure to be added to your wish list. These hot new technological marvels are sure to spice up your scrabooks, cards, tags, photos and other projects.
