How to make a digital scrapbook page in Affinity

Start a 12 x 12 document

The foundation of any layout is your blank canvas. The standard digital scrapbook page is 12 x 12 inches at 300 pixels per inch (ppi). This creates a square canvas that is 3600 x 3600 pixels. Setting up your file correctly ensures your page will look crisp if you decide to print it later. You can learn more about scrapbook page sizes for printing to see why this matters.

• Open Affinity and go to File then New.
• Choose a custom size.
• Set the width and height to 12 x 12 inches.
• Set the resolution to 300 DPI.
• Click create to open your new blank page.

Add your digital supplies

Once your canvas is ready, you can start bringing in your digital supplies. Digital papers are usually JPG files, while elements and alphabets are transparent PNG files. You can read about PNG vs JPG to understand the difference. Affinity makes it very easy to add these files directly to your page.

• Open the folder on your computer where you saved your unzipped supplies.
• Click and drag a paper or PNG element from the folder directly onto your Affinity canvas.
• Look at the Layers panel to see that each item you drag in becomes its own layer.
• Use the move tool to resize and position your items on the page.

Building your layout is just a matter of dragging in more items and arranging them. You can drag layers up and down in the Layers panel to change which items sit on top of others.

Clip photos and papers

Clipping is a technique you will use often, especially if you work with a page template. A template usually has gray placeholder shapes for your photos and papers. You can use the Layers panel in Affinity to clip your images to these shapes. Affinity can open and save PSD files, which helps when templates are delivered as PSD.

• Place your photo or paper layer directly above the shape layer you want to fill.
• In the Layers panel, click and drag the photo layer down.
• Drop the photo layer directly onto the thumbnail of the shape layer to clip it inside.
• Be careful not to drop it on the layer name, as this creates a mask instead.

If you want to understand more about how this works, read our guide on clipping masks explained. Once clipped, you can still select the photo layer to resize it within the shape.

Shadows with Layer Effects

Adding shadows gives your page a realistic, layered look. Without shadows, your digital elements will look flat against the background paper. Affinity includes a tool for this called Layer Effects.

• Select the layer you want to shadow in the Layers panel.
• Click the fx button at the bottom of the panel to open Layer Effects.
• Turn on the Outer Shadow option by checking its box.
• Adjust the radius to make the shadow softer or harder.
• Change the offset to control how far the shadow falls from the element.
• Set the angle to match your imaginary light source.
• Lower the opacity so the shadow looks natural and not too dark.

You can apply these settings to ribbons, buttons, and frames. For more tips on making things look natural, check out our tutorial on realistic drop shadows.

Recolor and adjust

Sometimes a flower or ribbon is the perfect shape but the wrong color for your layout. Affinity lets you change colors easily using adjustment layers. An HSL adjustment layer is perfect for this, as it lets you shift the hue, saturation, and lightness of an item.

• Select the element you want to change in the Layers panel.
• Add an HSL adjustment layer from the adjustments menu.
• Drag the adjustment layer onto your element's thumbnail in the Layers panel to nest it.
• Move the hue slider until you find a color that matches your page.

Nesting the adjustment layer ensures that only that specific element changes color. The rest of your layout will stay exactly the same.

Save and export

When your page is finished, you need to save your work. It is important to save two different versions of your layout. First, save the native Affinity file. This keeps all your layers, shadows, and adjustments intact so you can edit the page later.

• Go to File and click Save to save your working document.
• Next, go to File and choose Export to create a flat image.
• Choose JPG as your export format for sharing or printing.
• Keep the quality high and click export to save the final image to your computer.

You can also export your finished page as a PNG file. Now your layout is ready to print or add to your digital gallery.