This is a great program. I've been using it for more than a year. It is easy to use. You can print out the stationary and graphics and use them to do hand scrapbooking, or you can do what I do and design your pages directly in the program. I've used their templates, made minor changes to templates and designed pages from scratch with the program.

There are two things that can frustrate a beginner. Scrapbook Delux organizes things in layers. Learning how to handle pushing one object behind another does take patience.

Framing a picture automatically doesn't really work all that well, but there are some frame-like graphics do have transparent centers. You can also lay your picture out on a colored mat by using solid basic shapes and changing the color from black to something more appropriate.

The printed out results are amazingly beautiful. Graphic styles are varied enough to keep you busy for a very long time.

I'm looking forward to the next version of the program and will upgrade when it comes out.

"This is my FAVORITE scrapbooking software!"
I own almost every scrapbook software program out there and this is by far my favorite. I wanted something that had cool pre-made pages that I could just drop my digital photos into. This program has the most beautiful pre-designed pages that are all ready for you to personalize with your own titles and text! You could literally have a gorgeous completed scrapbook page in a matter of minutes. In addition, you can create incredible pages from scratch if you choose to, with all the great artwork and options contained in this program.

It has such great features -- you can even change the colors of the clipart to fit a certain color scheme you have in mind. That's a real rarity in scrapbooking programs that have pre-made template pages. It also has the greatest paper doll cutouts that you can use on your pages. You can create darling paper doll duplicates of any individual -- match their hair, eye and skin color, dress them up in the same clothes that are in the photos, give them things to hold that go along with the theme of the page, etc.

I can't say enough good things about this software. If you are a novice, you will want to actually READ the manual or at least go through the on-screen tutorials. If you've used similiar programs before, you'll probably be able to just install and start designing.

I did read one helpful hint that I'm very happy I know about on a Sierra help page. It deals with how to insert digital photos into a template. I thought I'd post it here so that someone who gets this great software doesn't get frustrated like some of the people who've posted reviews have gotten.

When you want to insert a digital picture into a pre-set frame or object, click inside the white space of the frame so that it selects this area. Right click and choose "Replace Picture" and the Graphics Grabber window opens. In the Graphics Grabber window select the "Import button". Select an image on your computer and choose the Import button. At this point it adds the image to the Graphics Grabber window. Double click on the image in the Graphics Grabber window, and it will replace the white space with your picture. Resize it if necessary, and you're done in a snap! I think that understanding how to insert pictures correctly was probably the main trouble people were having with using this program.

It sounds like this software has been a little hard for some people to figure out, but I thought it was pretty easy. And even if it does seem confusing or something at first, trust me, it's worth the effort to learn how to use it. THIS SCRAPBOOKING SOFTWARE IS THE GREATEST! You will love the pages you can create with it, even if you aren't artistic at all (like I'm not....) Everyone will be so impressed when they see what you've done with your pictures.

"doesn't deliver what it promises"
I was so dissappointed with this software. The box depicts a bunch of photos cropped in circles but it is virtually impossible to do. I called tech support which was no help since they do not actually use the program. Upon going to the message boards, I discovered several other users had the same problem.

"I was so disappointed with this program!"
I am an experienced graphic software user, and I had high expectations with this program. I was looking for a program with a variety of templates that I could incorporate photos from my digital camera. I then wanted to burn the finished pages onto a CD to give to family to review or print. I also wanted to print the full page with pictures on my HP printer.

I was immediately disappointed as soon as I tried to insert my first picture. The frames are not transparent, which is a HUGE problem. This means that you cannot size your photo and position it behind the frame. You have to crop and exactly size the photo to fit the white "insert picture here" BEFORE you import the picture to the page. This is a huge problem, as there is no easy way to figure the size of the frame!

The other large problem lies in the "vector graphics" programming of the software. Many frames are positioned at an angle. When you attempt to position a photo in the angled frame, it distorts the photo. The more the frame is angled, the more the photo is distored. However, you can tilt the graphics included in the program.

This program is designed for printing the scrapbook pages, cutting out the white "insert picture here" areas, and manually inserting the pictures on the page. While this is perfectly acceptable for "paper" scrapbookers, I found it to be bothersome. I was forced to print my pictures on photo paper, print the scrapbook page on scrapbook paper, cut, then paste. And the insert photo issue made it impossible to send the pages on CD to relatives.