Scrappin' Away the Days

So I know I haven’t really been writing much lately, but here’s why. I’ve been rediscovering how much I love, love, love this little program called Paint Shop Pro. I have the X2 version and it’s so much fun to play with. I’ve had this project in mind to do a digital scrapbook of my son’s first year and after several days of setting out one or more layouts a day, I am nearly done. YAY! I should get done just in time for Christmas. So to any of my family that reads my blog – the cat’s out of the bag! You know what you’re getting. :)

To get some inspiration, I joined a couple of digital scrap booking groups on Café Mom. I’ve mentioned CM before. It’s an amazing group where moms can get together to discuss anything and everything. You should check it out.

So one of the digi scrap groups I joined does layout challenges. They pick a theme and you make a scrapbook page using that theme and then submit it to be voted on. I’ve had a lot of doing participating already and I’ve only entered 3 challenges so far. The deadline for the ones I’ve entered isn’t up yet so they haven’t been voted on, but there are definitely some good scrappers in this group.

The one I just submitted a layout for is a Halloween layout. This one was really fun for me because I have always loved Halloween and now I have even more reason to love it because my son was born on Halloween. J Anyhow, for the challenge we were told to make an empty layout (so we could add the pictures in later) using a great Halloween kit from Bluedreams Designs that you can find here. This is the layout I made. What do you think?

Do any of you do digital scrap booking? Had fun entering contests or challenges? Share your stories with me.

Digital Scrapbooking

I love digital scrabooking. It's much less expensive than paper scrapbooks. Think about it - you buy a scrapbook album, tons of papers and embelishments, and have your pictures developed - you're going to pay a lot of $$ for all that. You can go a little cheaper with it and buy a scrapbook kit, but then you're limited to using only what is included in the kit unless you spend more money to buy a lot of "extras." When you do digital scrapbooks, you pay maybe $10 for a pack of ten data cds and you find a computer program where you can edit and embelish your photos - there are lots of free trials and free versions of software out there you can use - and then find digital scrapkits - lots of freebie and low cost sites out there - and ther you go! With a little time, you've got 10 scrapbooks to enjoy or give as a gift for a minimum of $1 each. Now if time, or even knowhow, is your issue you can always have someone else do the work for you. Some of these sites are pricier than others, but some are reasonably priced. This one is my favorite.

Remember Me: You send in your digital photos, tell what you like - fave colors, etc.- and they do all the work for you. Everything is put together for you on cds or dvds - you're own movie - and you can even have music added to it. It's pretty cool. Check it out.