Books & Blogs: Scrapbooks etc Page Planner for the iPad

Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.

I was super-excited to see that Scrapbooks etc. Page Planner magazine was adapted for the iPad. No, I never did buy the printed copy of the magazine. I don’t really use sketches or page planning as it is. What motivated me to buy it was that I could read it on my iPad. I love the idea of storing all my scrapbooking ideas, inspiration, tutorials, and so on in one place, electronically and incredibly portable on my iPad.

The book begins with an anatomy of a sketch and some tips on how to use the book. I found this useful and good way to kick things off.

I disliked the size of the layouts on the page. It was difficult to see the actual layout without zooming in, which is not something I want to do on every page. The sketches were also too small. If you wanted to know what size to cut your items, you again, had to zoom in to read the measurements.

I liked that each sketch was used in multiple ways. The sketches were rotated, shrunk to a smaller size, and interpreted by different designers. This gives you plenty of ideas to work with.This magazine was really not adapted for the iPad. I read the pages vertically, but then flipped my iPad to horizontally to see the corresponding sketches.

I also disliked that the layouts were not organized by number of photos, layout size, one or two page layouts, or in some other way based on how people actually scrapbook and use sketches. With that being said, there are better books out there for sketches, like Scrapbook Page Maps and Scrapbook Page Maps 2. If you are looking for materials that are easy to store on your iPad, then I would opt for a publication from Ella Publishing Co..

I was also frustrated by the advertising in this magazine. The magazine cost $9.99, which to me says it is a high enough price that advertising should be much more limited or nonexistent.

The absolute worst part? The part where you find out you get to download the page planner sketches. I thought that is what I already bought? I finally got around to checking that part out (I read the book initially without an internet connection). I followed the link and ended up googling the link on my laptop to access the sketches. You get to download each sketch individually. What a pain! I attempted to download the first sketch, but Scrapbooks etc. wanted more information from me in order to do so. Hello, I already paid for these sketches. I do not need to give you anymore information to gain access to materials I have already purchased. So, I did not download any of the sketches.

I would save your money on this book. There are better options out there that are more user friendly and less expensive.

What do you think? Have you read this particular book? Comment below or join the conversation on facebook or twitter.

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Publishers and Authors
If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.
Stephanie