I'm thinking of changing my "blog" site. The colors are pretty here, but it's just not very "visual." I'll have to do some shopping... anyone have suggestions, please email.

I have been going gangbusters on this digital scrapbooking thing. There are many reasons why I like to do it on the computer rather than "paper", and this is what I've discovered this week:
1. I can adjust the size of anything. Paper, pictures, words, embellishments. And if I screw it up, I just "undo" and do it again.
2. I can save "sketches" and "schemes" downloaded from Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks magazine, and use them as templates. Just pop my pictures in, pick a few papers, and go.
3. I never run out of supplies. I use it on a page, but it's still in my "supplies" folder. I will always have that color blue, or that brad, or that ribbon.
4. Speaking of supplies, So far I've only downloaded free stuff. I've not spent a penny on "supplies."
5. I don't have to pay to get pictures developed.
6. I don't have a stack of pictures taking up space, calling to me to "scrapbook me.... scrapbook me...".
7. I don't have to haul out my supplies when I want to start on a page. It's all on my computer.
8. When I don't finish a page, I just save it. I don't have to pack up, protect the pictures from the cats, etc.
9. I can match colors of digital papers to photo mats and text color.
10. Some places have free "kits" - pages that are already premade. Again, free.
11. Most digital scrapbooking supplies come as "kits" which I can save together. So the brad matches the paper, which matches the ribbon, which matches the alphabet. I don't have to coordinate anything.

I guess the above is what separates me from the true paper hobbyist - while I do like putting pictures in scrapbooks, I don't necessarily enjoy the total "make up my own designs" aspect. I just want my pages to look pretty with photos.

One downside is that regular supplies for scrapbooking can sometimes be very specific for photos - for example, Thomas the Train, Legos, Disney. I don't believe I will ever be a full "digital" scrapper, but it has also helped me see that I don't have to do things "in order" to get to fun pictures.

Two new layouts today: "Playing Cars" and "Valentine." I'm not thoroughly pleased with "Cars." "Valentine" is the first full-fledged template, or "plopper," where I just added the pictures. And custom-colored the mats, which I figured out how to do by myself.

By the way, for those of you digitally curious, I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements.