Scanning a printed scrapbook page and assembling it in your image editing software may be a bit tricky, depending on the size of the page and the number of elements you’ve added to it. A page with lots of embellishments—metal tags, alphabet blocks, ribbons, photo corners, and more—may feel like a lot to scan, but the more accurate your scan, the better the file you’ll have to work with in your editing program. We're using Photoshop CS4 for this example.

Begin by scanning the page at the highest resolution your printer supports. If you are scanning a 12-by-12-inch page, you may have to do the scan in two passes if you’re using a traditionally sized flatbed scanner, and then reassemble the page in your image editing software. The most important consideration is to scan at the highest resolution available for your hardware. Save the file as a TIFF for the best quality and open the image in your favorite program.

Moving different elements to their own layers—for example, saving a ribbon as an item separate from the background—may be easier than you think. Begin by selecting the item and copying it; then paste as a new layer in your image. When you use Copy instead of Cut to move the elements to their own layers, you preserve the background of the image and don't leave any holes where the buttons or ribbons used to be. You can avoid the copy-and-paste routine altogether by scanning your embellishments individually, if possible.