Customer Reviews

Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Designer Deluxe [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a huge scrapbooker, and - much to my husband's dismay - I seem to buy anything and everything that contains the word "Scrapbook." But, I've got to tell you, Creating Keepsakes really let me down.

Turns out that most of the truly good templates depicted on the box reside in something called the "Idea Vault." That is not a happy place because it amounts to a series of PDF thumbnails that are completely uneditable and completely unusable in the software. And the templates that are available are pretty crummy.

I'm sorry, but it's just not fair to include designs on the box - much less boast of the idea vault as a "feature" (gimme a break) - when they're just not available to people who buy the software. I can't recommend Creating Keepsakes. But I do own Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 2.0 (of course ... it has the word "Scrapbook" in it :-) and that I can heartily endorse.

I recently bought this program for myself and a friend's birthday even after reading the not so good reviews of this product. I hadn't bought a scrapbook program and was holding out for a good one....And this one exceeded my expectations!

This program is wonderful for both people that want to scrapbook and don't have the time, all of the work is done for you and the ideas are infinite! It's also good for people who want some ideas but want to infuse their own creativity into their scrapbooks. You can change the sizes and colors of almost every embellishment in this program as well as customize every page to your liking! Changing sizes and colors of everything in this program as well as editing photos makes this an extremely versatile product!

One recommendation is once you get this product, spend some time playing around with all of the different features, getting to know what kind of embellishments are available and customize photos, embellishments and backgrounds....You'll see the possibilities are endless!

Besides the scrapbook section of this software, there are cards, newsletters, tags, etc etc....You can do absolutely ANYTHING with this product-It's AWESOME :) All you need is some creativity and this software will provide a starting off point for any project! And if you don't have a lot of creativity, this is still the best because you can choose from 1000's of ready made projects!

After reading the previous reviews I almost didn't buy the product, but I decided to get it anyway since there really aren't any decent competitors to it. I am so glad I have it! I was using Microsoft Publisher before to make scrapbook pages, but the templates in Scrapbook Designer Deluxe are specifically designed for scrapbooks, so they're much nicer. I just use their templates as a step-off point, and alter them with different fonts, picture sizes and clip-art as necessary. The results look great, and it's really quick to make a new page. I highly recommend this product, and am thrilled to finally be caught up on my scrapbooking!

I am a longtime scrapbooker and ordered this right away when it came out. Well I got it today and guess what - it's just Print Shop all over again. How many times does Broderbund want me to buy the same program under a different name. If you have Print Shop or Printmaster or any other Broderbund product, don't waste your money.

I have to say I'm disappointed. The "new" Creating Keepsakes (CK) fonts advertised are not really new at all - they're from CK's original font collections, which I already own. The CK art, too, is from their CD packages. Like another reviewer stated, the whole workspace and basic set-up really isn't any different than other Broderbund programs, either. I just invested in the new Printmaster version - this program isn't very different at all. The main advantage I see is its ability to create layouts/projects in 12x12, except I don't have a printer that can do that.

It's a good program if you don't already own anything by CK or any of Broderbund's creativity software, but I give the program 2 stars because of its lack of originality and what I consider to be deceptive advertising.

Printmaster Ver. 15, which I use often, offers the same graphics and options that this software does, plus much more. I expected original art and template ideas and was very disappointed. The page layout templates are quite unimaginative and would be easy to create from most very basic, and less expensive, photo editing programs.

I use Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 2.0 (which I love) as well HP Creating Keepsakes software (not very intuitive-- beautiful, but requires more creativity & designing on the user's part). This Broderbund software is a good complement to what I already own. It is very easy to use, especially the pre-designed templates. Very easy to change the pre-written text, or insert your own photo. A drawback is that the photos need to be manually rotated when inserted into a tilted frame. (Use the rotation arrow at the bottom right-hand corner & know your 360 degrees!) The only other drawback that I can see is that I must insert a "Program CD" to access the templates & images (maybe that's just my computer.) The advantage with this software over the Scrapbook Factory Deluxe is that the images are more current and less tacky. The disadvantage is the organization of the images. I am still figuring out where to find the embellishments and clipart I'm looking for. Maybe it's just a matter of time before I am fully used to navigating this software. See reviews of software on http://scrapbooking-software-review.toptenreviews.com/creating-keepsakes-review.html

I had the same problem with installation that another reviewer had. Program kept saying it was still installing after several hours. I finally had a friend who works with computer software come install it. Additionally, program is not user-friendly for a novice like myself. I would not recommend this program.

CK Scrapbook Designer has nearly everything you need to create your scrapbook pages. (There are also some great new add-on CD's containing digital art images from another company, FanCraftic, everything from buttons to tags and more.)

The photo editing tools and special effects are a real plus. But I especially like the shadow effects, it makes my digital layouts have dimension. I have tried other products and no one has a shadow feature that's this easy to use or as effective. In fact, people seem to think I used expensive software well known in the design world to make my pages, but I use CK Scrapbook, instead!

I can also email my pages to family and friends! And it makes it easy to make extra copies for them as well...a time and money saver!

Plus, I can still scrapbook traditionally by printing out my own unique background papers or my journaling (on vellum, even!)

This package also includes greeting cards, calendars and more, plus special CK Fonts. It's a great all around value, and very easy to use. Now you have no excuse---get those keepsakes created!

Some of the reviews I've read said that this is just like Printmaster software. I've been using an old Printmaster Gold for years, and it's still my favorite graphics software. But Creative Scrapbooking is so much more, and so fun just to check out the ready-made pages for inspiration, if nothing else.
I love it, and consider it money well-spent.