The iPhone gets scrappy, by Stacy Ericson

Somehow they seemed like a strange couple, the gingham and sunshine loving Scrapbook hobbiests and sleek geeky iPhone techies, but the two are drawn together by shared affection for the camera capabilities of the iPhone 3g. Scrapbook aficionados are often committed to recording the life and times of growing families and the ability to have a camera constantly at one’s fingertips makes that job fast and fun. In this day and age we are never without our phones for more than a few minutes, so getting that bathtub photo that will embarrass little Georgie in 20 years has never been easier.

Scrapbookers are recommending ImageTouch2 and ScrapApp. The former app allows you to collage your photos, resize, overlap, rotate, as well as add shadows or frames and change the background color of your creation. ImageTouch2 also allows the final collage creation to be sent as a hi-res email. Stamps and decorations are also available, which when printed out can streamline the gluing and pasting process considerably. ScrapApp comes from Scrapbooking etc. and provides iPhone backgrounds with a scrapping theme, links to hot designs and designers, coupons, palettes, and layout ideas.

The affection for the iPhone apps and the ever-ready camera has come along with the growing popularity of digital scrapbooking. Many folks now prepare part or all of their pages with a computer design application. This allows photo enhancement and adjustment, layout changes, and final printing to be achieved quite easily. Where crafters once spent hours reproducing scrapbook pages for multiple family gifts, they now can simply print multiples. Apps such as ImageTouch2 allow some of that arrangement to be done straight from the iPhone right after photos are taken, while ideas are fresh in mind.  More apps are sure to be coming; one by Coolibah is in the pipe right now, undergoing the traditional rejection process.