New to Digital scrapbooking but don’t know where to start?
Here is an easy guide to help you learn the basics.

1st Photos / Media: You need photos on your computer. If you have a digital camera this is easy! Download photos from your camera to your computer following the instructions that came with your camera. If you don’t have a digital camera, or if you have old photos, you need a scanner. More About Scanning

 2nd:Software.
There are two types of programs available to digital scrapbookers. To be successful in digital scrapbooking you only need one type of program. It is not necessary to have both.

1. A layout program - Some examples of these are My Memories Suite, Nova Scrapbook Factory Deluxe, Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Designer Deluxe, and LumaPix FotoFusion.
Layout programs allow you to easily assemble pre-made graphics, photos, and journaling for quick scrapbook layouts. Many layout programs do not meet the criteria that digital scrapbookers need such as: not supporting transparent PNG files, not capable of at least 200ppi for quality printing, or they do not have the ability to place shadows.

2. A Photo Editing Program - Some examples of these are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Ulead Photoimpact, and Microsoft Digital Image Pro (earlier versions were called Picture It!). These are more powerful programs for editing photos and they work well for creating digital elements, but the learning curve is much higher. Google's Picasa is a great, free program to edit photos as well. If you want a graphics program, DSP recommends Photoshop Elements.
Overview of Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is a seriously powerful photo and image editing application. Part of the Adobe suite of productivity software, Photoshop is considered by many to be a benchmark in the world of professional digital image solutions. Let's have a quick look at what Photoshop is, and what it isn't.


3rd: Create your scrapbook pages.
Now it’s time to learn and have fun! Try some of our basic tutorials that will walk you through creating your first page as well as other techniques. You will want to use page kits, which you can download that will work with your program and teach you about layers and how a basic page is put together.  As you become a little more advanced, you can create your pages in many different sizes. Gather ideas for your pages and see the work of other scrapbookers in the Gallery.

4th: Save your pages: Taking the right steps to save your pages is important. You will learn more about saving pages later in this lesson.