Digital Scrapbooks and More Blog

By Jennifer Barlow

I know… That’s exactly what I asked my mom, Cheri, when she first told me about it and how cool digital scrapbooking was.

I liked traditional scrapbooking. It made sense to me. I have to admit, as silly as it seems, I was a bit on the defensive when she first started ranting & raving about “going digital.” It seemed like it was wrong to become a digital scrapbooker; to abandon the traditional scrapbooking-way. I rejected the idea, and told her I didn’t want to do it.

Instead of arguing with me, my mom slyly started emailing me some of the digital scrapbook pages she had created. She and I loved to exchange recipes, and now instead of just giving me the recipe, she emailed a few recipes over in colorful, patterned digital paper with photos of her creating & cooking the food (wearing the adorable ginger-bread apron I had given her for birthday), as well as photos of the finished, baked food looking as pretty as it would in the magazines.

I had to admit… it was kind of cool; it was like a 3-D version of a regular, old-fashion recipe. I started printing these new-age recipes that she forwarded to me and keeping them in a 3-ring binder. It was a lot of fun to go back and look through the recipes, and based on my mood (and what looked yummy in the photos) choose one of her recipes and cook it that day. I recognized some of the recipes had been ones that had been handed down from my grandmother and others had been favorites at holidays, but I had just never written down. There were all kinds of history in this special binder! After filling the binder full of recipes, I realized I had a personalized cookbook in my hands. It was also then that I realized that digital scrapbooking didn’t seem so bad after all…

Once I decided to give digital scrapbooking a chance, and I learned:

• I can share my scrapbooking pages with others easily! With traditional scrapbooking, you only have one copy. It’s nearly impossible to share all of your hard work with others unless you give them your album or physically show them your page. It’s more fun to have unlimited amounts of copies that you can print or email so that everyone else can enjoy all of your special memories with you.

• I spend A LOT less money because each digital kit, paper, frame, or embellishment is reusable!! Traditional scrapbook supplies are not reusable, and because of that, they can become expensive.

• I also spend less money because I can easily look through my computer files and see what scrapbook supplies I have. Many times with traditional stickers and embellishments, I’d buy so many and forget that I had even bought them! They would get lost in my huge, messy scrapbooking supply box and became a waste of money.

• My study room does not look like a war-zone every time I decide to scrapbook! With digital scrapbooking, I can always be neat, tidy, and organized because all of my supplies are on my computer. It always bugged me with traditional scrapbooking that after scrapping a single page, I’d have clip-its of paper, photos, & stickers all over the place.

Not to mention, with digital scrapbooking you can create:

• Scrapbook Albums
• Personalized Photo Albums
• Personalized Recipe Pages & Cookbooks
• Unique Calendars
• Gifts, such as personalized aprons, shirts, mugs, etc.
• Creative flyers, letters, or postcards
• Special invitations or announcements for holidays, birthdays, or other special events

The sky is truly the limit! There’s a lot you can do with digital scrapbooking, all you need to do is get creative!

Anyway, the point is, like so many other advancements through technology, I think that digital scrapbooking was created to ease so many of the stresses that come with traditional scrapbooking. Now that I know how to digitally scrapbook, I will never go back to old-fashion scrapping. …Make it easy on yourself too, and “go digital!”

PS If you want to find out more about Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials or Supplies please visit our website at DigitalScrapbooksandMore.com

Also Check out our FREE Helpful Hints on Digital Scrapbooking too!

Do any of you have stories about changing from a traditional scrapper to a "Digi" Scrapper?

If so please tell us your story — in a comment to this blog.

Enjoy!