Digital Scrappin'

I wanted to thank everyone for the compliments on Isabelle's baby book! It was been very fun putting it together and felt GREAT to finish! She is a child that relishes that kind of thing.

For those who wanted to know more:
I use Adobe Photoshop to edit photos and manipulate graphics, and Adobe InDesign to lay out the pages. I am a freelance graphic designer, so I already have and know these programs. I have heard there are programs out there specifically for newbie digital scrappers, but I don't know what they are.

I download free digital scrapbook supplies to speed it up. You can get some really good stuff all over the net for free or very cheap, and then you can use it as many times as you want. Often I just change the color on a tag or other element, and then use it on a different layout. Designing digitally is TONS faster than traditional scrapping once you've overcome the learning curve.

I have a wide format photo printer, so I print my own 12x12 double-sided matte pages and stick them in an album. Between the costs of ink cartridges, specialty photo paper and the album itself, I am quite sure it would be less expensive to plug it into one of the photobook printing services. Maybe I'll try that for my next one.