6 ways to be nice to the Earth

Digital scrapbooking, by its very nature, will be an Earth-friendly alternative to traditional paper scrapbooking since it does not rely on physical products that need to be manufactured, that can generate waste and often require trips to a store to purchase them. So, if you are scrapbooking digitally, you are already doing something nice to the environment. How can we emphasize that even more?

Use your current stash

If you had paper supplies, this would be a very obvious way to limit the number of products you would use, but why not do the same thing for your digital stash? It is tempting to visit a store and find a great looking kit with nice papers and unique elements. It is all done online, so there is no gas to use to go to the store and no possible waste. But you can set your mind in the same way as with paper supplies: use what you have not, instead of buying more (and your bank account will thank you).

Challenge #1: look through your current stash on your hard drive and select a kit that you downloaded but never used, and USE IT. It might not be the "perfect" kit for your photos or your project, but this limitation will, in fact, stretch your imagination and challenge your creativity.

Reuse your supplies

With digital scrapbooking, you have a massive advantage: your supplies are not single use. If you add a button to your project, it is not gone. In fact, you can copy and paste that same button dozens of times with just a few clicks. This also means that you can make several pages, even a whole album with a single kit. Again, this will stretch your stash greatly. And even if you are using the same kit, you might choose different papers and elements for separate layouts. And even if you wanted to use the same elements, there are hundreds of ways to arrange them on your page.

Challenge #2: Look at one of your past projects. Find the kit you used to create it, and make another page (or two) using it. You will see that you can easily make something different, even with the same supplies.

Modify your supplies

Using your graphics program, it is so easy to modify the look of an element or a paper that you can turn any kit into a new one. You can change the sizing, the orientation, the coloring. You can even do selective coloring on some elements and end up with different flowers, new frames, etc. You can also combine elements to create new clusters that will be totally unique. This is another way to reuse your current supplies in a totally new way.

Challenge #3: Find 5 papers or elements that you currently have, and modify them to create new supplies. Then, use them in a new project. The more you know your program, the easier this challenge would be.

Create your own supplies

If you were to use paper supplies, it would be hard to create new papers and elements from scratch, but with the magic of Paintshop Pro, you can do just that. No need to rely on someone else's creativity and skills. You can do it yourself. You can create the designs and elements that YOU like. You can create them to match YOUR photos, YOUR style and YOUR vision of the project. You don't need to browse through tons of stores, or supplies to find something suitable. You can MAKE it.

Challenge #4: Create a paper and an element of your own, from scratch and use those in a project. Of course, you can create more than one, but let's just start somewhere!

Use an alternative to printing

I know, we all love to flip through pages of a book to share stories with our families. That tangible physical book has its appeal. Even when you get a printed version of those digital layouts it still requires fewer paper products than traditional scrapbooking. For this, you are already helping out with waste. But not every layout needs to be printed. There are alternatives like using them as a desktop on your computer, creating a slideshow you can watch, using digital frames that will display various layouts, etc.

Challenge #5: Use one of your layouts as a screensaver or just a desktop on your monitor. And if you have a "slideshow" option, you can view several layouts regularly, instead of hiding them on your bookshelf!

Invite a friend to try digital scrapbooking

A lot of people do scrapbooking the old traditional way, with paper, scissors, inks and other tools. That is perfectly fine, and it is so pretty (yes, I love to look at those projects, and touch them). Some people have switched to digital over time, for various reasons (you can read about some reasons to transition to digital).

Challenge #6: Invite a friend to try digital scrapbooking at least once. Get them to download a free trial of PSP, and get our quick pages for them to create their first pages, OR use the tutorials in the How To section.

Are you up to the challenges? Share your result with us in the comments below. We would love to see how you celebrate Earth Day by being environmentally friendly.