Picture Perfect

About this time last year, I discovered digital scrapbooking when a friend introduced me to Picaboo's free scrapbooking software. If you'd like to try it yourself, just follow the link. The first time I tried to access the website, I spelled it like I heard her say it. Believe me, you don't want to go there.

The first book I made on Picaboo was for Walker. I followed that up by scanning photos and other memorabilia that my dad had collected during his World War II army days.

His sister, my Aunt Sissy, had made a traditional cut and paste scrapbook with letters, photos and other stuff that he had sent home. The "stuff" was in pretty good shape, but the scrapbook pages were falling apart. The book chronicals Daddy's stint in the Army from the time he left for OCS in Georgia to his discharge after the war ended.

World War II Book

As much as I loved the Picaboo software, it frustrated me because I was locked into their templates for picture and text placement and size. I wanted to be able to control the pages and make them exactly like I wanted them. I guess I wanted to relive my teaching days, when I was the advisor for high school yearbooks and newspapers.

Anyway, my search for a more flexible software led me to Creative Memories. I was already familiar with their traditional scrapbooking products, since I had made a cut and paste scrapbook for Ben. But Creative Memories now offers software for digital scrapbooking as well. StoryBook Creator comes in a free version that is much like Picaboo in that you drag photos and type text into a pre-designed template.

However, if you are willing to pay for the software, StoryBook Creator Plus allows complete flexibility. You can work with templates and then change photo sizes and shapes or eliminate them all together. In addition, you can control the placement and length of text. For the more creative types, you can build pages from scratch.

Using StoryBook Creator Plus, I put together a scrapbook for Brent. I have to confess that I was not good about organizing photos and making photo albums when our boys were growing up, so I'm now trying to make up for my shortcomings. The most time consuming part of the project was scanning all of the photos, since we didn't have digital cameras in those days.

My most recent project was a Tailgate Cookbook that I gave to my friends who hosted the Tailgate Party for Ben and Claire. I've also made photo book from trips to Italy and California. You can follow the links to see any of these you'd like.