The pain beef I have with scrapbook is that there is so much to buy when you want to make just one page, let alone a whole book full. There’s all the papers (which often have printed on designs, done with chemical inks), the photos to print (more paper and ink), and all the little stamps, brads, stickers, and grommets. “If only I could make a scrapbook page and make it green,” I wondered… then, suddenly, the answer came to me. Digital scrapbooking! With digital scrapbooking, I get basically the same outcome (a designed page that I have custom built) with hardly any of the environmental impact. I can create pages in Photoshop, or on one of the various websites. I can save money buy downloading free brushes, fonts and textures, and use my digital images straight from my camera. If I want to print a page out, it’s still less of an impact than making it from scratch. I can be sure I like a page before I print it, instead of making it and realizing I don’t like it and being out lots of paper and money. Now, I know the world of scrapbooking is split between traditionalists who think that the digital form isn’t really a scrapbook, and the others who feel that digital scrapbooking is the way of the future. All I have to say is that sustainability is really the wave of the future, and if I have to chose between a traditional scrapbook and my planet, well… I’ll always pick the planet. Hey, maybe I should make a digital scrapbook page about the planet… [Image credit: BobbieB at Flickr]
