We live in a digital world. You can do just about everything imaginable on the computer now. Read, write to friends, watch tv, even talk on the phone. And of course, I wouldn’t even be able to “talk” with you right now if it wasn’t for the internet!

One of the newest, and coolest, things you can now use your computer for is Scrapbooking. I have my very own scrap-for-hire business called Artistic Albums by Nicole where I create beautiful scrapbooks, Christmas Cards, Thank You Cards, invitations, announcements, and one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork for clients who don’t have the time, means, or creativity to do it themselves. Just like paper scrapbooking you can still get the pages printed out and put into photo albums. If you would like to take a look I would encourage you to head on over to my website and let me know what you think!

If, however, you are like many women you already scrapbook for yourself and don’t need to pay someone to do it. That’s great! My goal is not to convince you to have me scrap for you. Instead I would like to tell you a little about digital scrapbooking and why I made the switch from paper to digital.

*First of all Digital Scrapbooking is easy! No more hours and hours of inking, sanding, stiching, measuring. Like paper scrapbooking you’ll have to start out simply, and there is actually so much to learn that it might seem a big daunting at first, but instead of having to leave your kitchen looking like a craft tornado blew threw or have your entire house dying of craft clutter disease you can simply click the save button and pick up where you left off later! There are tons of tutorials you can find on the web for free, and comprehensive e-books you can download that will teach you everything you could ever want to know for just around $20.

*Secondly Digital Scrapbooking is green. No more half sheets of stickers you didn’t use, no more piles and piles of scrap paper left over from cutting mats. In fact, no more paper, period! Instead of using 5 or 6 different sheets for one page you can get your one page printed off and that’s all it will be, one piece of paper.

*Digital Scrapping is also cheap. Now you’re really going to start to wonder why I’m sharing this with you, as I have a business charging good money to scrap for people. The thing is, I’m just too nice for my own good! And really, my target audience is people who are too busy or can’t scrap for themselves, so I don’t mind helping out those who can! While buying digital kits for commercial use (ie. scrap-for-hire or blog design) can be very pricey, if you’re just scrapping your own personal pages you can get basically any and everything for free.

That’s right, I said free! No strings attached! If you’d like to see a huge list of my favorite sites for freebies hop on over to my blog Ramblings By Nicole And I would love it if you’d follow me there!

Although the initial cost of purchasing the software program can seem expensive (I personally use Adobe Photoshop 6) If you think about how much just a handful of paper supplies cost you’ll see that in the long run you’ll actually be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. I’m also amazed at how many of my friends tell me “Oh, yeah, my computer came with Photoshop.” My question is, “Well then, why aren’t you using it?!”

*Digital Scrapping is also unique. I can create papers and embellishments using my own photographs, re-size pictures to whatever size I want with just a few short clicks, and edit and enhance my photos to make them look almost as if they were taken by a professional. No more red-eyes, no more blah pictures! Many times I’ll mat my photos using a color that I choose from the picture itself!

These are just a few of the benefits that Digital Scrapbooking provides! I hope that if you’ve never considered it before you will look deeper into it. It would be well worth your time!!

Tags: Announcements, Artistic Albums by Nicole, digital scrapping, free advertising, guest blogging, living my moment, Mom Entrepreneur, Scrapbooks