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Community > Articles & Projects > Thena's Article

Thena's Article

Thena Smith

Thena's Bio

Thena's Archives

A FOND FAREWELL FROM THENA

On Sept 1, 2000, I began my series of articles which will end this September as I finish 9 years of sharing my life, my hobby, and my ideas with you. It has been a joy and a privilege to have been with pcCrafter and with the wonderful ladies on the message board as well as those of you whom I have not met. I feel as though we are friends.

In fact, I met one of my very best friends because of this article and the message board. She spotted me at a scrapbook expo in San Diego and came up to introduce herself. We never stopped chatting after that. She has been with me as I wrote books and went to book signings, accompanied me to CHA and CKU’s and her hubby and mine are both supportive of our hobby and our friendship. She did the CD in my C is for Christmas book.

My husband and I are both retired now and I feel the need to get out in the sunshine and away from so much time on the computer. I’m still doing one or two things (my blogs and Scrapbook News and Review) but I feel the need at age 64 to simplify a bit. If you want to check up on me, just visit my blog at thena.typepad.com.

I have had nothing but good with my long relationship with pcCrafter and have met wonderful people, including Randy, Aaron, and Diva Lori. They have supported me by selling my first digital kits and then my poetry books. These are friends I will treasure always.

The message board has been great for fun and fellowship throughout the years and I have found not only friends there but artists and co-authors for my books and some who have contributed to works by my publisher, Bluegrass Publishing.

I end this time now with a copy of that very first article which I found via the Wayback machine.

Much love, happiness joy and peace, I pray for you all.
Hugs,
Thena

As a busy career woman who doesn’t have a lot of time to satisfy my need for a creative outlet, I rely on Computer Scrapbooking. I find that it is relaxing, rewarding, and doesn't require as many supplies as the regular cut and paste, more traditional method.

It is much more than just adding some clipart to a page and placing a photo or two on it. It requires creativity, an eye for design, color and balance, and just a bit of technical know-how. The most essential element for computer scrapbooking (besides the obvious-computer) is a program that will allow you to import, export, size, resize and manipulate photos, fonts, and clipart. I have both Adobe Photoshop (on the high end) and Microsoft Picture It (at the more moderate price range). With these supplies as well as a scanner and a good camera I find that I have no limitations, save my own imagination!

If you are new to computerized scrapbooking, I suggest that you invest in a basic program that will allow you to be creative and then start with some simple basic layouts. I had always avoided the computer until I bought that first graphics program and then I was hooked. You have heard people say of something they love “If I can do it, ANYONE can.” Well, in this instance, let me promise you that is true! I only do things that are easy! I would love to share this fun and easy way of scrapbooking with everyone. Why should I have all the fun!

I was one of the folks who sent off for the PCHUGWARE Sampler and could hardly wait for it to arrive. On this CD you will find some borders, some fonts, and clipart, which can all work together to make a great presentation for a photo of child or adult. I especially love the fonts. In articles to come, I plan to share with you some creative ways to use each of these items.

There are several ways of creating a scrapbook page (from the simple to the complex) with the computer. You can choose a simple background and place a photo in the center, embellished with a bit of clipart or you can create a template that has a “place saver” where you can put the photo of your choice. A place saver is basically a hole where you want the photo to go. You can then use this same page over and over with various photos.

With computer scrapbooking, as with the more traditional “cut and paste” method, sometimes less is more. The wonderful thing about using the computer to scrapbook is the ease with which corrections and changes can be made. There is no need for messy undo’s or getting out the dental floss to lift up a die cut or photo-just click the mouse and you can undo, rearrange, resize or just plain experiment.

I look forward to sharing more and more ideas on “millennium scrapbooking” with you. I hope that if you are a bit hesitate to really get involved in this rewarding pastime that perhaps I can give you that little bit of inspiration or push to get you interested.

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