One of the things you can do is create your own scrapbook paper. Take any image and turn it into your own patterned paper. You can make your papers any colors you want to match the photos for your specific layouts!

You can also do some amazing things with your photos when you scrap digitally. I had a friend create her background paper out of a photo and layer another photo on top of it. It was amazing! You can add words and phrases onto your photos, color tint black and white photos, enlarge photos or turn your photos into cartoon drawings, depending on the software.

My personal preference for photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop Elements. You can make pages any size you want, use fun text effects and add lots of texture styles. Did you know you can take a rectangular block of color, add dots, layer on texture and it can look like polka dot grosgrain ribbon?? Photoshop Elements does have a definite learning curve and isn't intuitive like Microsoft Word, but once you play with it for a few times, it will get easier.

Now, playing with page effects on Photoshop Elements is fun for do-it-yourselfers, digital scrapbooking stores take all the hard work out of digital pages. Plus, the people who design the products are much more capable of making something that looks exactly the way it should. There is something to be said for the amount of time it saves by just buying a product. And you don't even have to wait for the item to ship. You just pay and download for almost instant access!

At many online stores, you can download any number of products and print them for your own pages. They have everything from fonts to cut outs and everything in between! You should see the amazing digital metal tags! They look so realistic!

One thing to consider is whether or not you plan to print your pages to put in a traditional scrapbook. If you want to print them out and like the 12" x 12" size, you will need to find a printer that will support that size paper. Most home printers won't accommodate papers that big. You also have the added expense of the ink required to print out these pages, so you'll have to weigh all these factors to see if it is a cost effective way for you to scrapbook. Now, there are some online photo developers that can actually print your pages as photos in this size, so that's another option!

Digital scrapbooking is a fun and new twist on scrapbooking. It takes some learning, but based on its growing popularity, it's here to stay!