Here's my part of the Pixel Scrapper February blog train (find full list HERE)!  Be sure to check back soon because I'm celebrating the first birthday of Elle Designs (now Citrus and Mint) this month. That means a new free kit for y'all!  If you are new to Citrus and Mint, don't forget to register your email in the box in the side bar so that you can get updates when I post freebies.  Also check out the freebies tab to see all of the other free kits and templates that I have available for download.  Thanks for stopping by! [. . .]

The biggest advice I have to save hours of frustration when printing your scrapbook pages is to PREP AS YOU GO. It took me 5 books before I realized that life would be much easier when it came time to print if I prepped my pages as I finished them. Duh Rachel.

1. Pick a size: Before you even scrap a page, decide on the final size of your book. I usually do 12x12 books, but I have printed 8.5x11, 10x10, and 8x8. Make sure that it is always set for 300 dpi. For all square books design your layouts at 12x12. You can always make them smaller, but you lose quality when you make them bigger.
2. Proofread: Don't skip this step. Trust me. I have books with many spelling errors and some books with even bigger errors like "I didn't know you went to Bear Lake" "Oops, supposed it's to be Bass Lake" or "I didn't know you went on a Disney cruise last year" "Oops, we went three years ago." Proofread titles, journaling, dates, names, captions, make sure every layer has a shadow (except for fonts), etc.
3. Save: Save your layout as a .jpeg file with the quality set to 12 (highest quality). Create a folder for all of your finished jpeg files. Name the page something useful, like the page number it will be or the title of the page.
4. Bleed: Bleed is the caution area required so that nothing important gets cut off in the printing process. Bleed is confusing, and then combined with the space lost where the binding is, I've just found it easier to add a .25 inch white border around all of my pages as a safety measure. Then I never have to worry about uploading my pages as 12.25x12.25 or making sure that elements, photos, and journaling are .25 inches from the edge of the page. To do this I save the page as a jpeg and then drag it onto a template that I've made (you can download below) and saved it again as a jpeg to a folder called "jpeg with border." Download white border template HERE or black border template HERE.
   
5. Upload as you go: As soon as you finish a page, or a set of pages, save them and upload them to the printer's site. Uploading takes FOREVER, even on a fast internet connection. It is so much easier to upload them 5 at a time as you finish them, rather than 78 pages the night before your coupon expires.

Printing digital scrapbooking pages is the worst part of scrapbooking for me. It takes forever and can be really frustrating. Plus I always have a mini-heart attack when I see the total price of printing a book. Eek!  But all of that goes away when you get your book in the mail. Your book, your pages, your memories now recorded forever. I've had a few friends recently ask me questions about how I print my scrapbook pages, so I thought I'd do a three-part series on what I've learned while navigating this complicated process.

**Special note: This review is for people printing completed scrapbook pages, meaning they created those pages in Photoshop NOT with the printer's online program. [. . .]

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  We found out over the break that we will be welcoming a new baby BOY into our family in May!  I'm very excited but also a little scared. I understand girls, boys on the other hand...then there is the whole issue of scrapbooking boy pages. Sheesh. It's hard to make a page or find a kit that isn't too girly.  So you should expect plenty of boyish kits from me in the future. I promise. But for now I had to get out one last girly kit (I mean super girly--glitter, pinks, hearts, etc.). Enjoy! 


**Be sure to sign up in the box on the sidebar for email updates--two more free kits coming soon!**