I blame Melissa, Jennie, and Kerry

No link required

And I elect to "hit" Melissa, Jennie, and Kerry. It's all their fault, really. Were it not for them, I would not have spent the better part of a week downloading 6 *Gigs* worth of freebies from the web. Freebies for what? Digital scrapbooking.

I know, that surprises a few people. I'm really not the scrapbooking type. I've tried it, I love what others can do with it, but I just don't have the time and money to spend on it, particularly with only a mild interest. The best part about the digital version is that it is free! I already had the graphics software and digital camera, and all of the elements I have downloaded were freebies offered by numerous sites. I'm not sure I'll be into it for "real" layouts like most people use them for. More just to spruce up some pictures of Luke to send to friends, like for his birthday and such. But that's not what got me started on this.

The whole story really starts and ends with Melissa. She made the cutest Christmas card of Ursula for this past Christmas. I really liked the look of it, and hung it up on my refrigerator (as I do most photos of friends and family I receive). I didn't really think any more of it; I was just impressed with Melissa's graphics ability. Then both Jennie and Kerry started talking about this "digital scrapbooking" thing on their blogs. Cute, but I don't really want to create these huge pages to print out, and there isn't any point in spending a bunch of time on something like that if no one is going to see it. Then I caught sight of the Christmas card on my refrigerator again, and it occurred to me that Melissa had essentially scrapbooked her Christmas card. Hmmm....

The closer it got to my brother's graduation (now about 2.5 weeks away), I started thinking wouldn't it be a great idea to try something similar for his graduation announcement. So after being struck initially with the idea from Melissa, then learning of the actual term "digital scrapbooking" from Jennie and Kerry, I finally emailed Melissa to find out if that's what she had done for the Christmas card. Sure enough, it was, and she sent me a couple of links to "get me started." Oh good heavens, she sure did! I have so much stuff downloaded, I don't know how I'll ever find any of it useful. I am on total overload! LOL But I do have a few samples of grad announcements already done, and they look fabulous, even if I do say so myself. No, I'm not going to show them yet. They don't have pictures in them! (Well, they do, but they are pictures of Luke being used as "stand ins" for the actual photos of my brother in his cap, gown, and doctoral hood.) Once we decide on the final version and get some real pictures in it, I'll post it here. Until then, I might decide to run a few cute ones of Luke, when I have the time to whip some up. Still too busy downloading to actually start cropping at the moment. LOL

Currently feeling: scrappy