ways I can save on my digital scrapbooking supply =)

Found some ways to safe money in making digital scrapbook =)

1. This is the most obvious, hunt for freebies and sales.

So far, the one I encountered the most for freebie is quickpage. If you are new to digital scrapbooking, this is basically means a page that was already decorated, with an empty spot where you can put your picture in.  But, some designers are very generous and they often gave a small add on kits for free or even the entire big kit for a limited time. The only problem with this is that I have to check the sites practically everyday =p Some of the freebies came from newsletters, some from facebook's pages and some from the store websites.

2. Get free patterns and styles online

The other day, I want glitter. I have this page that supposed to be a bit glamorous. I have done some different pictures of that same holiday's moments in paper scrapbooking, and I want to make my digital one looks a bit like that, with glitter and dark colors. Unfortunately, while I have lots and lots of glitters, I had no glitters style yet.

Fortunately, when I tried to google for free glitter style, I found quite a lot of them for photoshop. In fact, I found a lot of free styles, not only glitters. I think they are actually made more for making websites rather than scrapbooking, but some of them actually looks just as nice in scrapbooks as the one sold in online stores.

The same thing goes for pattern. There are a lot of free patterns online that actually can be used as substitute for those sold in stores.

Granted, if I want something specific, I will still buy it in scrapbook store. But if I just want some simple styles or patterns, and not my heart set on, for example, the plaid pattern that has to be like that and has to have that color, then I just browsed around for some free one =)

3. Free brushes.

This is quite useful for a few things that I want. For example, lace. Unfortunately, these free brushes are sometimes on the shapes of a part of the whole thing. Like on the lace, it's a piece of lace and if I want to make the whole long lace, I have to use the brush over and over and over again.

So while it's free, and sometimes I found lace on the shaped that I didn't find in store, this one actually cost me a lot time and patience.

4. Making my own mask

This one is actually thanks to my friends, Luc, who studied design. She taught me how to make my own mask using brushes.

Again, like the lace thing above, this has a benefit and a downsides. In one hand, it's practically free, since I can used photoshop's own brushes or get a free brush online. The shaped of the mask will also fit my picture perfectly (sometimes the masks that I bought hide this part that I want to show or show that part that I want to hide), because I can costume made it for each picture.

In the other hand, it costs me quite a lot of time to make.