Photography and Digi-scrapping, part 2

All good Mommies are supposed to scrapbook and record each precious event of their little darling's lives. Right? Let me go ahead and confess that I "started" scrapping before I even had any kids, trying to do a wedding album. It has about 8 pages.
About 4 of those pages are just brochures and lists from wedding things.
I have a bin full of fancy papers and scissors and pens, templates and stickers.
That bin has remained basically untouched for the past 6 years; or at least untouched for it's original purpose.
I have made a few half-hearted attempts to scrapbook even post children. Ha. That didn't work so well for a variety of reasons.
-I flip out at the mere thought of cutting my photos. I know, I know, cropping enhances them, it doesn't ruin them. My head knows this, but my hands simply will not follow through.
- Time.
-Mess. Small children + paper, cutting implements, stickers and pens = lots of fun, but not of the scrap booking variety.
Then I heard of "digital scrap booking." I was intrigued. I tried it and was hooked. No mess, no supplies, work on it a few minutes at a time and never have to clean it up. For me personally, it was a lot more creative. Using the programs I can create my own papers and elements which is half the fun. It also has the potential to be more affordable. Instead of buying papers and embellishments which can be used once, I can use them over and over.

There are numerous sites where you can download freebies to get started. There are papers, frames, embellishments, alphabets, fonts, brushes... all for free. I wasn't sure which graphics program I wanted so I downloaded a 30 day free trial of Adobe PSE (Photoshop Elements) and after a week of wandering around the program, it clicked and I stayed with it.

But isn't the whole point of scrap booking to end up with an actual book to look at? Why yes it is. I do most of my layouts on a 12x12 which can be printed page by page at several locations like Costco or many online sources. Or, I can scale them down to 8x8 and print them for use in a smaller scrapbook. Another option is to use an 8.5x11 (or whatever size is appropriate) layout and get them printed in a book from one of the many sources like Snapfish, Mpix, etc. With the use of tools like textures, bevels and dropshadows, the results are amazing and you have to touch them to believe that the elements are printed and not actual layers pieced on.

With the help of a messaging program called Hello by Picassa I can even have crop parties with my girlfriends in the next state, or across the country. Hello does instant messaging with instant screenshots. We chat and work on layouts. Of course I do still try to go to crop nights and craft nights with my girls from church, but I simply take my tiny bag of knitting instead of a huge rolling suitcase of scrapping stuff.

Some good places to start:
http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com

http://www.shabbyprincess.com/

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/

http://scrapbook-bytes.com/