Firstly, you have probably discovered that there are a lot of different things being offered out there. They should fall mostly into the following categories:
- Kits: Which includes full kits, collaboration kits, mini kits. Kits will usually include paper; sometimes several different designs and usually several embellishments. Some also include wordart and alpha.
- Papers: Digital papers only. Sometimes you will be offered a single paper and sometimes a pack containing several different designs. These papers might be commercial overlays that you can alter for your own projects, it is important to check with the designers.
- Elements: These can include anything from ribbons to bows to frames to buttons to stamps. I also include word art in this category. There's lots of different types of embellishments out there. Again some of these are offered as a changable commercial use freebie.
- Alpha: Which includes lowercase and/or uppercase and/or punctuation and/or numerals. There are also a lot of different fonts out there available for download. Note that some alpha downloads are 'pre-cut' into seperate png files and some require separation with a cutting tool (which can be found in programs such as Adobe Photoshop.)
- Templates: A pre-made scrapbooking template which you can fill with papers, photos and embellishments etc. So the basic structure of a scrapbooking page is provided ready for you to personalise.
- Quickpages: Which are basically a premade scrap page, possibly including frames, embellishments etc. The idea with these is that you just add a photo and maybe the odd bit of embellishment/journalling etc. These do not allow as much scope for personalisation as templates. But are ideal if you are short of time or for experimenting.
NOTE: Freebies are often offered in different formats and different sizes e.g. tagger size. I will try and go in to this further at a later date. Just be aware that some downloads may not be compatible with your particular digiscrapping program.
So, you have found the freebies that you like and would like to use. Now its time to begin downloading! This is a pretty simple process, and is really about following the onscreen instructions. Some designers have a link beside the image of the freebie and some use the image itself as a link. In other cases the designers place links elsewhere, but reading through their post will direct you (alot of the time freebies are posted in a designers blog which are fun and worthwhile reading anyway).
Freebie links will work in different ways, some will direct you to a file sharing website such as 4shared, others will open up a download box instantly. I have also obtained freebies where I was required to right click on the image and choose 'save target as'. The designers will tell you how to obtain their freebies, but I mention this as part of my education!
Some advice:
Think about how you organise your downloads; you want to be able to know roughly what's in them, but you also want to know who designed them incase you ever need to credit the designer (for example if you want to post a finished layout online). Also, some designers rightly ask that you do not change the name of the downloaded file. It is after all their work and should retain the name they give it. The problem is that sometimes the name of the file gives very little information about the contents. In this case, I tend to keep the original file name of the download, but file it inside a file which is named so that it gives me an idea about whats inside. (I used the word file a lot just then!) Anyway, it would be organised a bit like this: Mint Green Elements>lohlor_118> various contents.
It might be worth keeping your downloads in seperate sub files; for example kits in one sub file, and alpha in another. Otherwise, you could possibly get bogged down with them all. I also file mine seperately into different types. So for example a flower element will be filed in My Documents>Scrapbooking>Elements>Floral. Otherwise I know I would get lost and waste a lot of time looking for things to use in my layouts. This is obviously quite a time consuming and possibly boring process, (i'm a bit geeky, so I quite enjoy it!) but if you do it as you download, it does save a lot of time when you want to use the files.
I know that i'm not the law on manners and I feel a bit rude even writing this, but I think its nice to say thanks to the individual designers, after all, they have generously shared a lot of their hard work, talent and time.
Obviously I am not the person giving away the various freebies on the net, so it is best to address any concerns or questions etc to the respective designers. The above is just my personal experience of freebie gathering
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