Something for Nothing - Digital Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking and the endless varieties of layouts and designs that you can create. What I don't love is how much stuff you need to buy to make it happen. I know, I know, there are people who can make really great pages with very few supplies but I would argue that those people are much more artistically gifted than I am! And thus I have boxes and drawers full of scrapbooking supplies, so much stuff that I don't even really remember half of what I've got stashed away. And when it's so much work just getting everything out, I rarely find myself motivated to get creative.

That's where digital scrapbooking comes in. Nothing to buy (except the odd layout or element online) and everything neatly stored on your computer. It can sometimes take a bit to master but, once you've got a handle on it, it's so easy to create your own scrapbooking works of art. Tonight I want to share two of my favourite digital scrapping resources.

The first is paint.net. In order to scrapbook on your computer you need a program that can edit photos and that lets you pull elements together. I will admit that the Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) are my favourite programs for this. The problem is that they are really expensive. Enter paint.net! It's a photo editing program that you can download for free from www.getpaint.net. It doesn't have all the functionality of Photoshop but it has everything you need to create awesome layouts. If you've used photo editing programs before then paint.net is a cinch to use. If you're a complete beginner then there are help files and a forum where you can pose questions to other users.

The second resource I want to share tonight is ShabbyPrincess.com They've got a great selection of free kits to download. They come with paper, letters and matching elements and they make putting together pages a snap. The downloads are pretty big so they can take a while depending on your connection speed but they are well worth it. Last Christmas I used the Holiday Recipe Collection to create a cookbook for our work recipe exchange and I got a lot of compliments. I've also used the Promise kit to make really pretty baby shower cards. All of these kits are great for cards and I plan to use the Holiday Magic kit to make my Christmas cards this year!

The other thing I love about ShabbyPrincess is their blog called the Shabby Shoppe Blog. If their main site doesn't provide you enough inspiration just hit the blog for more free downloads, reader layouts of the week and unique project ideas. They also post a free wallpaper each month that you can customize with your own photo. Check out September's wallpaper that I've customized with my favourite wedding picture. And I did it in paint.net :)

So to recap: paint.net + ShabbyPrincess equals no muss, no fuss, no cost digital scrapbooking that anyone can do. Happy scrapping!