Digital Scrapbooking: A Uncluttered Way to Craft

A few years ago a good friend of mine sent me some info about digital scrapbooking.  I had tried to replicate this using some publishing software that my husband had that was not user friendly. Then I discovered Shutterfly. Shutterfly is a way to digitally design scrapbooks using your digital pictures. At first I thought that $20-$25 was a little expensive. But then I started tabulating how much money I was spending on paper, stickers, do-dads, pens and the actual scrapbooks at the store. With or without a store coupon, the cost was about the same. 

• In fact I regularly get free offers from Shutterfly. 
• For example, at Target, the registers print out bonus coupons with receipts and I have gotten probably 5 free 8X8 scrapbook deals (as seen in picture above).
• You can also find free digital prints, free invitation and photo card offers. I have gotten free mugs, magnets and even mouse pads. 
•  Look for these deals in mom magazines, Target, Shutterfly emails & Pampers "Enjoy the Ride" emails. 
• I have also picked up "Shutterfly" pre-paid project cards at Target and gotten like $5 off because the prepaid cards were on sale from $29.99, down to $24.99 + free shipping (as seen in picture above). 

Now, lets get real. If your like me, and you are seriously crafty it can take you up to 2 hours to make only 2 pages by hand. Then by the time I get that sucker going, it's bed time and I hate to leave a mess so then I've got to pack up all my scrapbook stuff. Honestly, I really hate pulling it all out again. But the benefits of doing digital scrapbooks is that you can leave a mess. When you are done working with your project, you just save it and come back later. I've been slowly working on my wedding scrapbook for 2 years now. Okay, so I should hurry up since I got married 8 years ago, but that's the best part of digital scrapbooking. Every time I get a few moments to work on it, I just hop online and add a page or two. 

So, I understand that if you are reading this as a true scrapbooker, that this whole post is probably blasphemous. But,if your a busy woman like me, these kind of websites make it easy to take those great pictures out of your miles of computer files and actually do something with them. Imagine grabbing the best pictures of your kids first year and quickly putting them in a cute book and sending them off to the grandma's as gifts for Christmas or Mothers Day. In fact, if there isn't a crafty or creative bone in your body, these sites will literally load the pictures on the pages for you with a design and all. When they are professionally printed and bound you look like mom of the year! They allow you to add words, designs, "stickers", frames & all kinds of nice design elements if you want.  So as a mom, I find that this is a much better way for me to get creative with my pictures.  I can get my memories out of my computer and onto my coffee table (placed nicely somewhere between the etch a sketch and the Little People Airport).

Online Scrapbooking Sites:

Shutterfly

Costco

Walmart


These are the only sites I am familiar with.  If you have any online scrapbooking sites you have used and have enjoyed please share them in the comments section.