Yes, folks. One day at a time. I just take it all one day at a time.

It’s awful that my mortgage payments are hard to muster up when I’ve spent it on the latest, greatest, and still-stinky fake tanning lotions, slimy teeth whitening strips, and designer zit-crèmes. But unlike men that may wash their face with old bar of Ivory soap when their feeling a little adventurous and consider Blistex medicated chapstick a luxury; our womanly products are must-have-essentials. What lady wants to sacrifice her girly beauty products just because cash is low? My mortgage payment? At the end of the day, a house really isn’t that cool. And do I really need food and toilet paper? Not if I can’t have my Gucci perfume and MAC lipstick!

But ladies, it’s really not our fault if money is tight, because, let’s admit it: being a woman is just so darn expensive! Not to mention, our beauty products are not something that we can just quit cold-turkey. I’ve never seen a pack of gum to lessen my desire for anti-aging foundations, powders, and bronzers, and I’ve never been able to find a “reduce-the-cravings-for-mascara-patch.” All in all, I don’t think that we women should ever have to cut back or give up our special girl-things that make us look and feel good. But I do, however, think we need to be a little more creative and think outside the box with new solutions for inexpensive beauty alternatives.

So, how can we save some serious cash-flow and still feel ultra-glamorous? Two words, my friends: Virtual Makeup. Yes, physical makeup is so overrated! What really counts is looking great in our photos. We may slap on a pair of old jeans and beach sandals to go to grab a bite to eat and run a few errands, but do we post these casual, greasy hair-in-a-ponytail and no makeup photos on our Myspace or Facebook profile? No way! Only our best looking mug-shots end up being the sacred Profile Pic! With all the ex-boyfriends and old competitive girlfriends out there in social networking cyber space, there’s no chance we’ll upload our every-day, sweats, T-shirt, and a few zits pics! But with virtual makeup, we can save money and transform our regular pics into gorgeous, professional-looking head shots! Virtual makeup allows us to make easy, natural-looking edits to our photos, so that we can whiten our teeth, remove pimples, get rid of wrinkles, airbrush photos and look ultra-fabulous for pennies!

Digital Scrapbooks and More (www.DigitalScrapbooksandMore.com) makes instantly downloadable photo editing training that specifically focuses on virtual makeup, called the Digi MakeOver Madness Tutorials (www.shop.DigitalScrapbooksandMore.com). The Digi MakeOver Madness Tutorials has a simple motto; a philosophy that I think we can all appreciate: “Spend $5… look like $500.” It’s true, as each individual tutorial is ridiculously inexpensive at $1.99 or less, and features super-easy training to make your favorite photos look even better. Convert photos to vintage black & white pics, whiten teeth, get rid of blemishes and wrinkles, digi tan, even airbrush photos (celebrity or not)! And although Digital Scrapbooks and More cannot legally make any guarantees, I wouldn’t be surprised if I made several new random Facebook friends after posting my newly edited pic.

So what if you’re worried that you don’t have photo editing software to follow along with the training in order to apply virtual makeup to your own photos? Don’t despair; you can get a FREE 30-Day Trial of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements through the Adobe website (www.Adobe.com). With no hidden tricks or gimmicks, you really, truly can get picture-perfect pretty with nothing but pocket change. And thank goodness, right? Now I can survive one more day without opening another credit card and can avoid being forced into a makeup addiction support group by my husband…if one even exists. I lucked out, I know!

-Jennifer

Become Photogenic: 5 Tips for Improving Digital Photos

A Crafting Hobby That Might Score You a Raise at Work

Moms: Become “Tech-Fabulous” with Digital Scrapbooking

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If you want to read these articles and many others from Digital Scrapbooks and More, then check out the newly updated Digital Scrapbooks and More Press Page with new Digital Scrapbooking & Photo Editing Articles and Info!

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!

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