Online scrapbook and ecard maker Smilebox has purchased Preclick, a company that makes software for big retailers so that customers can upload digital photos to their websites and then pick up prints at stores. In a blog post, Smilebox says that with the acquisition it now plans to add some “1-hour, direct to store printing of Smilebox designs.”

No financial details were disclosed. Smilebox has raised $12 million in funding in two rounds, most recently in December 2007, while Preclick has raised at least $2.1 million. Smilebox tells the Seattle Times that it expects to be cash-flow positive within six months.


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Serif has just released Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact, a free version of their popular software. Here are some details from the press release:
Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact offers all the features expected of a fully functional digital scrapbooking product, including a fun selection of tools and creative content such as embellishments, background papers and brushes. Available as a download from the online social scrapbooking site DaisyTrail.com, Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact is not time-limited in any way and gives consumers the perfect opportunity to make beautiful keepsakes from the stacks of photographs they all have at home.
If you are looking for new software or just getting started with digital scrapbooking then this would be a great program to try. It's completely free so you've got nothing to lose. You can also read my review of the retail version of Digital Scrapbook Artist here. It has even more features and effects for you to play with!


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Everyone is talking about the recession. But just how has it affected UK consumers? New research conducted by Millward Brown via social media has found that UK consumers are reassessing their priorities in life and are acknowledging that they don't need to spend money to be happy. The research highlighted a renewed appreciation of the simple pleasures in life such as health, happiness, family and friends, home life and leisure time.

More significantly - the research showed that UK consumers were spending more screen time at home. 60% of the respondents said they were spending more time using the Internet, 22% playing video games and 14% watching TV.In answer to the current UK consumers' plight of having to spend less cash and more time at home; Serif Europe Ltd, the UK's leading independent design, publishing and creative software developer,has announced the release of a completely free version of their popular digital scrapbooking software, Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact, available to download here. It is not a trial or time-limited in anyway and offers all the features expected of a fully functional digital scrapbooking product.

This seems to be perfect timing for the free product launch from Serif as the research results went on to highlight that 72% of respondents felt that now is the time to avoid financial risk - while only 19% say now is the time to purchase goods, taking advantage of special offers or discounts. Furthermore, the results showed that UK consumers are currently the most conservative in Europe when it comes to future spending plans, with 55% (over half) planning to decrease spending compared to a European average of 31%.

Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact does exactly what it says on the tin - think of traditional scrapbooking, but with a modern twist and you are getting there. Go ahead and create your very own ‘memoir masterpiece' by using the tools and creative content such as embellishments, background papers and brushes to get you started in an instant. Your beautiful personalised scrapbooks will present special nostalgic memoirs for holidays, new births, weddings and many more significant milestones in your life in a very unique way. Enter into a whole new hybrid world of ‘old and new' by simply adding in your own photographs, scanning in old leaflets, tickets and other keepsakes. Once you have created your very own unique scrapbook on your PC - you can fuse together the ‘old and new' by printing off and adding traditional embellishments like ribbons, glitter and lace to really bring your scrapbook to life.


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Add embellishments and backgrounds to your designs


Serif has unveiled a free version of its popular scrapbook software, Digital Scrapbook Artist.

Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact can be downloaded from scrapbooking website DaisyTrail.com and allows users to create scrapbooks for their digital or hard-copy photographs.

The software also offers the ability to add embellishments and backgrounds to your scrapbook and even add drawings using brushes and other tools in the software.

"Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact will make it possible for anyone to enjoy a fantastic and fun way of preserving photos and memories", said Ashley Hewson, sales director at Serif.

"And what's more, the results you can achieve with this software far outshine those of our competitors, while still remaining an incredibly easy to use program and despite the fact that it's completely free."

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1. Scour eBay for store closing sales: Several local scrapbook stores have recently closed in my area. I happen to think much of it is due to the high price tags in specialty stores--the best prices are at large craft stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Owners are eager to squeeze whatever they can out of inventory and they are in a hurry to do so. Buying closeout merchandise is a great way to save on the same products you'd find full price elsewhere.
2. Make your own stickers: This is a relatively new thing and I love it! No more worries about running out of the letter "e" or buying prices adhesive graphics for just one or two images. Instead buy sticker paper at an office supply store, in matte or glossy, and find your own graphics online. You can create headings for pages and even print your own pictures in any size you choose.

Life is full of unique experiences and memorable events. But often our most significant moments are fleeting. So we rely on memories -- and the tradition of storytelling -- to keep them alive.

Throughout the ages, women have found ways to preserve their family histories and honor loved ones. From keeping a journal to creating a beautiful charm bracelet that captures special memories, here are four fun, tried-and-true ways to tell your story:

Collect and Preserve Heirlooms

Who doesn't know a woman who has saved baby clothes long after her children are grown? Or still has her wedding dress years after their big day? Museums and libraries are not the only places to find old artifacts -- take a peek inside your grandmother's closet or attic. Treasures abound.

If you have objects that evoke memories near and dear to your heart, then preserve them. Tap into your inner curator, and invest in acid-free boxes and tissues that keep your objects safe. And when they're not on display, store your treasurers in a cool, dry place with little light.

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Andrew Milne's uncle found the bundle – containing stories from 1894 – in the cellar of a house in Kendal and passed it on to his nephew.

Cable engineer Andrew, 23, of Nevett Street, Callon, Preston, examined the book with daughter Leah, five, to read the top news of the day from the Preston Guardian, which went on to become the Farmers' Guardian.

He said: "It looks like it's been put together but I don't know why or why it would have been in Kendal.

"My uncle found it when he first moved up to Kendal 22 years ago. He found it in an old cellar he was knocking down and ended up keeping it.

"It's got different stories from different months in 1894. It's very interesting. It's got suicides and murders and people getting trapped in machines in the mill.

"There's some stuff about Preston North End and an advert from when Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce first came out. To someone who collects stuff like that, it would be a really good thing to have."

Andrew is now hoping an expert will be able to help him find out who put the book together and possibly get it valued.

Charlotte Steels, assisting keeper at the Museum of Lancashire, Stanley Street, Preston, said: "If Mr Milne wanted to bring it down to the museum, I'm sure our social history curator would have a look at it."

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Dickinson's store is on the ground floor of the Hastings Building on Central Avenue, next to Set Free Ministries' building, which was ravaged by fire over the weekend.
Firefighters kept the flames off the Hastings Building, but Dickinson's store and the apartments upstairs were affected by smoke and water.
About 10 tenants are still homeless, said building owner Garry Hackett. It will take repairs and the insurance company's go-ahead before they can move back in.
Mountains of Memories Scrapbooks didn't suffer extensive damage, Dickinson said. Some ceiling panels on the west side were destroyed by water, along with paper products in one section, and the smell of smoke lingers in the air. However, that minor damage might be enough to ruin her sensitive supplies, Dickinson said.
Because scrapbook supplies are meant to be in contact with irreplaceable photos and other sentimental treasures, they have to be pristine, Dickinson said. Customers pay a premium for materials that are guaranteed not to damage those one-of-a-kind items. She doesn't know if she can still make that guarantee on products that may be tinged with smoke and water.

Hobby and business

Dickinson was scrapbooking before scrapbooking was cool. She's been into the hobby for 20 years, moving to Great Falls from Cheyenne, Wyo., to buy the store from the previous owner last July.
"I just loved the area," she said.
She and her husband moved into an apartment behind the store. That's where they were — fast asleep — as flames spread through Set Free Ministries' building next door.
As it happens, the scrapbook store's previous owner is Hackett's daughter. She learned about the fire from her brother, a firefighter at Malmstrom Air Force Base, and knew Dickinson and her husband were inside.
Dickinson turned her phone down when she went to bed that night because she and her husband had just returned from Glacier National Park and were exhausted. She didn't hear the first several calls.
When the ringing phone finally woke her up, she saw the list of missed calls, and knew it was serious. She answered, and learned of the fire from Hackett's daughter.
When Dickinson gets down about the damage to her store, she reminds herself that she and her husband are lucky to be alive.
The count
Now, she's waiting to hear from her insurance company. The adjuster said her situation, with the specialized products, is unusual, so it will take a little time to make a determination on whether the goods are salvageable.
In the meantime, Dickinson has a big job ahead of her. She has to take inventory of every frame, frill, decoration and doodad in the store.
"There are 100,000 different products in here," she said. "So it's pretty intense."

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OpenEdit, Inc., developers of the most powerful, fastest and flexible open source digital asset management software, will be showcasing a major release of their Digital Asset Management software, EnterMedia at the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Show in New York, June 1 and 2. This newest release of EnterMedia Digital Asset Management, due out June 2, has been supported in part by a Fortune 500 company using EnterMedia in an enterprise-wide, corporate environment to track, manage, share and archive digital files.

Formerly OpenEdit DAM, EnterMedia is a web based, open source digital asset management system which includes everything needed in a digital asset system such as Version Control, Related Assets, Cross Catalog Searching, Shared Albums, fast browser based Drag and Drop uploading and more. While in New York, OpenEdit will be introducing the EnterMedia Developer Community, a low-cost membership program directed toward developers and consultants interested in implementing EnterMedia digital asset management solutions. Included in the membership is the Entermedia  software product, open source code, online support and more.


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I have always been reluctant about committing the things in my life to exist on the servers of some web service. The biggest part of it I will readily admit is the generation I come from. A generation that believes in accumulating ‘stuff’. Stuff that for the most part is just physical mementos of events that have taken place in our lives. We stick them away in photo albums, scrapbooks and buried in drawers to be pulled out on the rare occasion we want to take a trip down memory lane.
Then there is just the plain old junk that human beings seem to love to accumulate around themselves. Scraps of paper with long forgotten addresses, date books from years gone by and many other types of miscellaneous crap. Much of it we have long forgotten why we kept it in the first place but even though the tugs on our memories are gone we still hold onto them.
But what happens should – god forbid – a disaster happen?
Instead of memories that we can pull out and share we have fragments of smoke seared photographs. All those cards that we held so dear have been destroyed beyond any recognition. Baby pictures, wedding pictures, photos of family gatherings, our children’s first drawing, their first report cards – all destroyed.
At what point does a cranky old fart’s desire to be able to hold physical things transform to understanding that any reluctance to transform those things into digital form is actually endangering the live of those memories. There comes a point where one has to realize that as much as we may have a feeling of trepidation at moving those memories to a digital format, we also have to realize that is the one way to keep those memories safe.
I hadn’t really thought about this idea of digitizing one’s life as being a way to keep it safe until I read a post on Computerworld by Mike Elgan where he shared his move to committing his family’s memories to a digital format. While Mike was chronicling his digitizing of his family’ memories because of his desire to move to more of a semi-nomadic life he also touched on the loss of those physical representation of memories.

When it comes to deciding whether to keep or discard something, where do you draw the line? Old holiday and birthday cards? OK, those can be discarded. Mother’s day cards from kids? Hmmm. Trophies? Yikes! There are a million items that make you feel a loss when you toss, but if you keep them, they’ll be buried unseen for decades.
It’s these same items that are irreplaceable after an unexpected fire, flood, hurricane or other regional or personal disaster.

I might not being going down the same path or have the same reason that Mike did but the end point is the same – protecting those valuable memories. Protecting them in case some disaster hits and those memories only exist in a tired old brain. Mike gives a great breakdown of how best to go about digitizing your memories and I thank him for that.
How safe are your memories? Would they survive a fire or make it through unscathed from a flood?

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave his take on the economy and how his company is responding to the downturn at the All Things Digital Conference.

"People generally agree this is a different recession," Ballmer said. "To think that things would be back in a year seems naive to me." He said Microsoft had a "gut check," and "flattened out the cost basis," which means cutting back on what he called the "future project investment stream." Microsoft still spends $9 billion in research and development. "We can still do a lot with $9 billion, but we'll do less new things," Ballmer said.

Ballmer also introduced Bing, Microsoft's latest attempt to take on Google and Yahoo in the search area. According to a poll by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, 54 percent of those survey preferred Google, followed by Yahoo at 22 percent and Microsoft at 8 percent.

"We flailed with Windows a lot of years before we got it right," Ballmer said, and added that it will be the same for search.

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Philippe Kahn's history of entrepreneurship is nearly as old as the PC itself. He developed software for the Micral N, one of the earliest commercial personal computers, back in 1973. As CEO of Borland Software Corp. (BORL), he touted himself the "barbarian" of the software industry and embraced that identity by holding one of the first press conferences for his company in a McDonald's restaurant in Las Vegas during Comdex. Ousted from Borland in 1995, Kahn went on to found wireless synchronization outfit Starfish Software, which he sold to Motorola Inc. (MOT). He followed that up with LightSurf Technologies, a picture- messaging company acquired by Verisign Inc. (VRSN) in 2005. Today Philippe Kahn is CEO of Fullpower, a company developing accelerometer-based hardware and software.
Walt and Kara welcome Kahn to the stage.
- Fullpower, says Kahn, has developed the MotionX Recognition Engine, a technology intended to do for motion and gesture what speech recognition did for speech. "We've created a system that studies how you move as opposed to reacting to it."
- The first demo involves a headset with on-board motion sensing. "Basically what we've done is build a motion-sensing headset," says Kahn. The headset will differentiate between the sources of motion of its user - if the user is walking, or running for example.
- Kahn calls a colleague wearing the headset onstage. Colleague begins walking and then running around the stage. The headset tracks the users speed and distance and the user can tap it for spoken updates about his or her progress.

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Scrapbooking enthusiasts are notorious for collecting the tools of the trade — colored paper, stencils, stickers, glitter — then failing to put them to use.

"Now, not only are they overwhelmed with their pictures, they are overwhelmed with stuff. They're overwhelmed by the whole hobby," said Paula Wessells, the Vancouver-based CEO of Big Picture Scrapbooking, "What really sets us apart is that we are about the process. We're not about the end product."

That business strategy of helping people connect with what's meaningful in their lives, along with classes priced as low as $10, has enabled Big Picture Scrapbooking to thrive, even in the economic downturn.

The privately held company does not disclose financial information. But Wessells said other than a dip in sales in February, the company's revenue has held steady.

Big Picture Scrapbooking, founded in 2005, was first to offer online classes. Now 31,000 students download classes.

Wessells first met company founder Stacy Julian, a Spokane resident, at a Portland scrapbooking store. She was founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine.

"A year later, she called with a wild business idea," Wessells said. "She wanted to spread her passion for documenting life."

Julian had already been teaching live, in-person classes, which gave the students 90 minutes of inspiration.

"We had to come up with a way — a new delivery method — to continually inspire women," Wessells said. The Web provided that new method.

Julian is the business' creative force. A third partner, Kayce Rehn, also of Spokane, keeps the Web site running smoothly. That's leaves Wessells to handle the business side from her office in the Vancouver home she shares with her husband and three miniature dachshunds.

In addition, the company employs four people — all stay-at-home moms, Wessells said. The company's 58 contract teachers are scattered around the country.

Personal goals
Big Picture Scrapbooking classes include "Wellness Journey," an eight-week course to create a scrapbook to help people achieve personal health goals, and "Everyone Can Write A Little," which incorporates Twitter and Facebook entries.

Wessells, 40, said she has always relished scrapbooking. Before the hobby became her business, the 1987 graduate of Mountain View High School worked for marketing and events agencies in Portland.

Although digital scrapbooking is a trend the company is heeding by securing a partnership with Shutterfly, most classes focus on traditional methods involving photos, not digital files.

Wessells said that's her preference for her own scrapbooks.

"I spend 10 hours a day on the computer. The last thing I want to do is go online," she said.

But the business is very much entwined with the online world, and plans to push that further.

"We're going real deep into social media," Wessells said.

Before, the company worried class content might end up scattering across the Web for free, but now the partners feel confident the class experience cannot be replicated. Big Picture Scrapbooking is working on creating an online community among the students, who are 90 percent female; 83 percent are from the United States, with the rest from more than 161 other countries.

"The women — and men — who scrapbook really want community and social networking," Wessells said. "Everything that's happening in your life, someone across the pond is experiencing the same thing."

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This kit was made with men in mind when choosing colors and patterns to start the design. With a color scheme of blue, green, mustard and red and masculine textures of denim, plaid, and argyle, the items in this kit will allow for a scrapbook page to be designed for that special man in your life--for Father's Day, a birthday, or any occasion!  


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Overall, there are many methods of scrapbooking that a person can utilize to document their memories. Each depends upon how creative or organized the scrapbook maker wants to be. It really doesn’t matter if you are creative or ‘artsy’, anyone can create a scrapbook of memories. Each scrapbook is reflective of the personality of the person who created it.

1. Standard Scrapbooking – Creating pages and placing them in a scrapbook album with page protectors. Scrapbooks used to only come in two sizes 8x10 and 12x12. Check out your local scrapbook store to see the many different sizes of scrapbooks available now.

2. Book-making Scrapbooking – Using a binding system, creating covers and pages with cardboard and embellishing the pages with paper, ribbons, stickers, pictures and other keepsakes. The binding can be done using a three ring binder, binding rings, ribbons, brackets, staples or spiral binders. Really the options for binding are only limited by the creativity of the scrapbooker.

3. Digital Scrapbooking – Creating pages online using digital images and software rather than purchasing individual embellishments. Many people use these to create pages to upload to their blogs or to print and place in a book. Many software packages are also compatible with online websites like Shutterfly.com and Snapfish.com and allow you to upload your pages and create a printed book of your creations.

4. Creating Picture Books Online – There are many different websites that allow you to use their templates to create a picture book of memories. You upload your pictures to their website, paste them into the prepared templates available based on the number of pictures you would like on the page and then add text to your page to personalize. There are many different photo and self-publishing websites available that offer this service.

5. Blogging or Scrapblogging – There are many people who utilize web logs to maintain a journal or to document the happenings of their family. These blogs are highly personalized. Starting out you can use a standardized template, but once you are comfortable with the services provided, you can upload your own creation to make your blog more personal.

6. Creating presentations – Using presentation software to create personal presentations on the computer is very easy. You can use templates included with the software or go online and find more individualized templates for creating presentations. The nice thing about using presentation software is you can add videos, and you can add sound and transitions between your pages. You can even automate a presentation to scroll through the entire presentation ‘hands-free’ once the file is accessed. When choosing a presentation software, be sure to choose one that creates presentations that don’t require those viewing to necessarily own the software you used to create it.

7. Picture slide shows – There are websites online that allow you upload your pictures and organize them into slide shows. Many of these sites provide the service free of charge and provide links so that you can post your slide shows to your blog or even to post them on social networking websites.

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Browse and download this free kit of coordinating elements and papers for digital scrapbooking.

By Darleen Araujo, independent designer for About.com

The Prim and Purple kit was designed with a color palette of green and purple with accents of ivy, lace, hearts and ribbon. It has a lovely antique, feminine quality to it that I think is perfect for Mother's Day or any occasion. It also includes an alphabet set.
Kit Contents:

* 5 Papers
* 1 Alphas
* 1 Crochet Doiley
* 2 Buttons
* 1 Felt Heart
* 1 Gold String mass
* 1 Lace Ribbon
* 1 Ivy Branch
* 1 Poloroid Frame
* 2 Ribbon Flowers
* 1 Ribbon/Frame Wrap
* 1 Stitched Ribbon
* 1 Journal paper
* 1 Journal Tag
* 1 Quick Page

Terms of Use

How to Save the Kit
These elements and papers can be used with any graphics software that supports JPEG and PNG files. Click "Enter Gallery" or the thumbnails below to begin browsing this kit. From each page, you will be able to save the full-resolution file.

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Overall, there are many methods of scrapbooking that a person can utilize to document their memories. Each depends upon how creative or organized the scrapbook maker wants to be. It really doesn’t matter if you are creative or ‘artsy’, anyone can create a scrapbook of memories. Each scrapbook is reflective of the personality of the person who created it.


1. Standard Scrapbooking – Creating pages and placing them in a scrapbook album with page protectors. Scrapbooks used to only come in two sizes 8x10 and 12x12. Check out your local scrapbook store to see the many different sizes of scrapbooks available now.


2. Book-making Scrapbooking – Using a binding system, creating covers and pages with cardboard and embellishing the pages with paper, ribbons, stickers, pictures and other keepsakes. The binding can be done using a three ring binder, binding rings, ribbons, brackets, staples or spiral binders. Really the options for binding are only limited by the creativity of the scrapbooker.


3. Digital Scrapbooking – Creating pages online using digital images and software rather than purchasing individual embellishments. Many people use these to create pages to upload to their blogs or to print and place in a book. Many software packages are also compatible with online websites like Shutterfly.com and Snapfish.com and allow you to upload your pages and create a printed book of your creations.


4. Creating Picture Books Online – There are many different websites that allow you to use their templates to create a picture book of memories. You upload your pictures to their website, paste them into the prepared templates available based on the number of pictures you would like on the page and then add text to your page to personalize. There are many different photo and self-publishing websites available that offer this service.


5. Blogging or Scrapblogging – There are many people who utilize web logs to maintain a journal or to document the happenings of their family. These blogs are highly personalized. Starting out you can use a standardized template, but once you are comfortable with the services provided, you can upload your own creation to make your blog more personal.


6. Creating presentations – Using presentation software to create personal presentations on the computer is very easy. You can use templates included with the software or go online and find more individualized templates for creating presentations. The nice thing about using presentation software is you can add videos, and you can add sound and transitions between your pages. You can even automate a presentation to scroll through the entire presentation ‘hands-free’ once the file is accessed. When choosing a presentation software, be sure to choose one that creates presentations that don’t require those viewing to necessarily own the software you used to create it.


7. Picture slide shows – There are websites online that allow you upload your pictures and organize them into slide shows. Many of these sites provide the service free of charge and provide links so that you can post your slide shows to your blog or even to post them on social networking websites.

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Our Flagship Product is dg Foto Art - so much please check it out here! It is ideal for weddings and other celebratory albums, portraits etc - each one of its 1700+ templates being a real work of art. It is so quick and easy to use too - as one professional put it "I can do in an hour with dg Foto Art, what took me a day with Photoshop" -

Looking for a new way to show Mom how much you care? Instead of relying only on their usual Mother's Day gifts and cards, an increasing number of people are starting a scrapbook in her honor.

"When recipients receive a scrapbook, the emotions are often overwhelming," says Lina Serpico, owner of Scrapbook Cottage in Levittown. "A gift made with the hand is made from the heart."

Scrapbooking is growing in popularity, with more than 25 million participants in the United States, according to the Hobby Industry Association. Sales of supplies topped $2.5 billion last year.

Putting together a scrapbook is something of an art - and can be a fun way to capture fond memories and convey loving thoughts that aren't always easy to express verbally. And it's not as difficult as it may sound to combine photographs with decorative paper, embellishments, fancy typefaces and interesting fabrics and fibers.

"For a mother who watches her children grow up so quickly, it's nice to freeze a few of those moments in an album for them to remember," says Andrea Steed, owner of Scrapjazz, an online learning resource and community of scrapbookers from across the country. "It's also a great way to say thank you and show appreciation for a lifetime of devotion that can't be repaid."

Connie Costanzo of Wantagh is putting the final touches on a scrapbook that tells the story of her mother's life. She'll present it to her mom, Eleanor Roland, in celebration not only of Mother's Day but also of her parents' 50th wedding anniversary at a surprise party Sunday.

"I have pictures of my mother's early years, celebrating who she was as a girl and a young woman, and who she became as a mother," Costanzo says. "She is now 70 years old. There is a lot to tell."

The journey begins when her mother was a young girl and travels through time, showing her parents' early life together, the births of their children and cousins, holidays, birthdays and anniversaries, all the way to this year (photos from Sunday's celebration will be added). Her mother is a twin, so there are side-by-side photographs of her and her sister. Roland worked at The Saturday Evening Post, so Costanzo incorporated Norman Rockwell illustrations as well.

"One of my favorite pages is a picture of my parents on the streets of Brooklyn in their early years," she says. "Last May I took pictures of them walking the streets of Manhattan looking like a retired couple 50 years later. To see them then and now is remarkable."

Using computers

Computers, digital cameras and the Internet can simplify the process of creating personal pages that tell stories about a moment in time, a relationship or a special celebration. Different typefaces make you an instant stylist or calligrapher; graphics and backgrounds add color and dimension. Scrapbooking software lets you add elements or create the entire page on the computer. With photo-editing software, you can repair old photos, add colorful borders, crop people out - or insert them where you want them.

"The computer lets you print out copies of things rather than sacrificing your only prints," says Carla Rose, author of "Digital Memories: Scrapbooking With Your Computer" (Que Publishing). "You can fool around with colors and textures without wasting [costly] sheets of paper. At the end, you've got a professional-looking page with good photos, beautifully set type and something that is your own, from your heart."

Melissa Partridge, 22, of Hampton Bays creates her scrapbook pages by hand, then scans the finished products into her computer. She e-mails the images to her mother in Berlin, Md., or shares them with her on www.scrapjazz.com. "If I do a scrapbook page and put it on the Web site, she can log on under her user name and leave me comments about how she feels about the layouts," Partridge says.

Now Partridge is creating tags - a type of embellishment for the photos - to give her mother on Mother's Day. She hopes her mom will use them in her family history scrapbook.

Tags are "meant to bring the focus onto the pictures themselves," says Dina Traube, owner of Craftique in Brooklyn. Embellishments include basic decorative papers, elaborate buttons, stickers, acetate overlays, fibers and metals.

Getting started

Here are some tips to get started scrapbooking:

Decide what you want to create. Scrapbooks, typically 12 inches square, can be as complicated as a heritage album, which records your family's entire history with photographs, memorabilia and words. Or a "scrapbook" can be as simple as a single page, which could be framed and hung on a wall.

Other possibilities include a mini-album, shadow box, recipe book or blank journal with pictures and embellishments on the cover. Photographs and other scrapbook elements also may be used to decorate everything from a candle to a paint can.

Determine how digital you should be. If your mother is technologically savvy, you might want to create a collage- style wallpaper image for her computer desktop, a slide show of photographs or a digital scrapbook full of pages, journaling and photographs that you present on a CD-ROM with a custom label.

But before going that route, think about whether your mom would prefer to turn the pages of a book rather than sit in front of a computer monitor.

Organize your pictures. You don't have to adhere to chronological order, but you may want to group photos by the event or activity.

Choose a theme, such as "20 reasons I love you," "Thank you for," "I admire you because," "I remember when," "We love Grandma because," "Then and now," "Generations" or "Favorite recipes you taught me."

Illustrate the theme with photographs and personal sayings, keeping in mind that a scrapbook "is almost like a permanent record to let parents know you really do appreciate them," says Michele Gerbrandt of Denver, founding editor of Memory Makers magazine.

Plan your pages. Many scrapbook magazines, such as Memory Makers and Creating Keepsakes, offer templates. Each page should have a focal point, which often is a photograph, plus a select number of embellishments, including titles and personal notes. Sketch a layout before you begin.

Visit a specialty store for ideas. Many offer classes to help you get started.

And even if you can't complete your project in time for this Mother's Day, scrapbooking can be a way to involve the entire family in a new tradition that will preserve your family's story. Plus, Gerbrandt says, "it might inspire you for Father's Day!"

TO GO DIGITAL, YOU'LL NEED:

* Computer
* Digital camera (although you can scan in film
* photographs as well)
* Scanner
* Color printer
* CD or DVD writer
* Photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop
* Elements 2.0 ($80.99) and Jasc Paint Shop Pro ($21.99)
* Scrapbook-specific software such as Art Explosion
* Scrapbook Factory Deluxe ($39.99) or Print Explosion Deluxe ($59.99)

SOURCE: "Digital Memories: Scrapbooking With Your Computer" (Que Publishing, $18.95)

What you need to get started

* Photographs
* Tool kit with the basics, such as an X-Acto knife, paper trimmer, scissors, wet and dry adhesives. They typically run about $65.
* Scrapbook album (if you're going that route). Albums are $15 and up.
* Embellishments include printed specialty papers, frames, tags, sayings, stickers and acetate overlays. Prices range from 50 cents to $10.

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