Some templates let you select from three background colors and also add text, but the software doesn't support international characters, and you can't modify text styles or sizes. If you already have items in your My Pictures folder, Smilebox automatically uploads them into the holding area and inserts them into the template for you.Įach template lets you choose (if you want) one of three music clips that will play when anyone views the scrapbook-few of the choices complement the designs, though, and you can't import your own music. You can zoom, rotate, center, and remove photos. The process could hardly be simpler: Download the design of your choice, click on Get Photos to upload your images to a holding area, then use drag-and-drop to place them on the pages. I'm used to creating one real-world album page an hour, so I was amazed that I produced an entire scrapbook in under ten minutes. Differentiating between a slide show and a photobook can be difficult, so I was disappointed that My Creations doesn't label projects with their types. In My Creations, you can preview, edit, send, or delete the projects you've made-scrapbooks, slide shows, and so on. My Designs lets you see the templates you've chosen, as well as personalize or delete them. When you hover over a design, a pop-up shows its name and how many photos you can put into it. A drop-down menu in the catalog lets you view all designs or just those in a category (such as Scrapbooks). Each of these has sections-which vary depending on the category-such as children, travel, and pets. The catalog, which holds over 300 design templates as of this writing (with five added each week), has five project categories: Scrapbooks, Slideshows, Photobooks, Postcards, and Greetings. The colorful, clean interface has tabs labeled Design Catalog, My Designs, and My Creations. Mac users can receive and view creations, though. You can use the app without a Web browser (sending and receiving designs requires an Internet connection, of course), but it only works with Microsoft Windows for now. To get started, you download the free design software from. A $4.99 monthly subscription gives all capabilities and unlimited use of designs. With the ad-free Premium version, you pay $0.99 and up for each design, but you can also print it and view it full-screen.

The free Basic version lets you select, modify, and send designs-with ads. Smilebox requires far less time, and it's much cheaper. You could easily spend $200 to $300 and a year on one album! Oops-forgot to mention stencils, corner makers, and organizers to hold your materials. Then you'll want shape makers ($8 to $20) trimmers ($20) calligraphy pen-and-paper sets (up to $10 each) and alphabet, number, animal, and occasion stickers ($3.50 to $12.75 a set). Printing a 4-by-6 digital photo at a pharmacy or retailer costs 15 to 20 cents albums sell for $5 to $50 plus another $30 for additional pages and page protectors tape runners set participants back $7 each and refills come in at about $5 per. Local craft stores, consultants who host scrapbook get-togethers, and online suppliers (I use ) will gladly trade tools and materials for cash. Scrapbook makers spend a good deal of time on their projects-and enough money to fund a multibillion-dollar industry. Now the pastime has gone digital: Smilebox combines software with a service for 'creative messaging,' and the hybrid, which lets you do scrapbooking, share photos, and send greetings, is even attracting men. They don't merely snip snapshots, they wield paper-shapers to carve decorative edges around photos, and they apply embellishments, such as stickers, trinkets, and ribbons, to give pages a more personal, 3D touch. But the hobby has grown more complex, and its practitioners-mostly women-more creative over the years. Many people think scrapbooking is just about gluing photos and memorabilia onto a page, sprinkling on glitter for decoration, and writing bubble captions. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.

Does smilebox cost money