For all of you starting to get into some digital crafting, this thread is for you. Please add your questions, and I will update this post with the answers!

Q: What is digital crafting??
A: It is using your computer to make your crafts or pieces of them. If you print out journaling for scrapbook pages, or print out images for cards, you are already a digital crafter to some extent! You can go so far as to create your entire project on the computer, and then just print it out in one go. I do all of my scrapbook pages digitally now, and am thinking about doing elements of my greeting cards in the same way.

Q: Why should I consider digi-crafting?
A: Have you ever been working on a project and the colors are close, but just not right? With digital elements, you can make everything the color you want. You don't have to worry about wasting supplies if you mess up either - all digital elements can be re-used over and over and over again. Worried about archiving capabilities? With a digital layout, you have several storage options. You can print your page as many times as you want. And you don't have to worry about whether things are acid, lignen, or PVC free!

Q: What type of program do I need?
A: It depends on what you want to do. If you just want to print out images, you probably have the program already on your computer. If you want to get into fully designing your own papers and editing your photos, etc, I would recommend one of the more powerful graphics programs like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. I wrote a tutorial introducing the main programs. You can see it here: Digi Scrapping 101

Q: What are all those abbreviations, and can my program use them?
A: There are several common file names for photos. Here are the basics. Just about every graphics program can view these files, although you might need to adjust your settings or properties to make sure. Feel free to PM me if you have questions about this.
.jpg - the most common file name. You are probably familiar with these. JPGs are already compressed to make them smaller than raw data files. They do not work with transparencies, so you will always have a background of some sort with JPGs.
.gif - one of the more common internet file extensions. GIFs can be animated (the blinkies and smilies you see are most likely all GIFs).
.png - stands for "portable network graphics." You will see a lot of PNGs in digi-crafting, because they give you the ability to keep a transparent background. This is great if you have a frame that needs to have an invisible inside. PNGs are also one of the best formats for keeping your true colors and shapes.
.tif or .tiff - stands for "true image format." This is an uncompressed file that keeps every pixel exactly how you make it. As you can imagine, these files are HUGE, so they are not portable at all. But if you are making something to be printed at a printer like Kinkos, this is a very good format to save in.

Q: What are "elements" and how do I use them?
A: Elements are the name for the graphics you can download. Just as you can go to the local scrapbook store and buy eyelets and brads and ribbons and papers, you can also buy or download these same elements for your digital work. In fact, digital scrapbooking seems to follow the trends of traditional scrapbooking very closely. Many designers are using buttons, twill ribbons, fibers, decorated paper clips, and the like right now.

I have detailed tutorial in the works about opening and copying your elements for use on your own projects. I hope to have it finished by the weekend.

In the meantime, have you seen my digital kit available right here at Craft Happy on the Free Goodies page? It includes papers, tags, and a pin for you to try out. Take a look and let me know what you think of it!

Amy!

Thanks for these common questions.
What I would reallly like to do is just borrow you for a weekend!
Couldnt we have have such fun?!
I aprreciate all the wonderful work that has gone into all the help you are giving all us new-to-digi-crappers.
Your awesome! Your lastest pages are incredible! I love seeing your smiling face with James in th page you did aobut you! I love how you used your kit on the page! Great job!

Aw, thanks, Benita! I agree that it would be fun to just do this together! Now that we have 2 computers, I'm set up for teaching too. So come on over!! .

Thanks for that cute digi mini kit, Ijust downloaded it:)

Great kit Amy. Thanks. And your FAQs are a good start for this group too. I appreciate the time you are taking to walk us (or crawl us) through our first steps towards success with digi-scrapping.