Oh- I forgot- I don't want to spend 40 or 50 dollars on a bottle of archival mist, either. I want to be as cost effective as possible. Thanks again! -Sarah

yesican, I have the program Scrapbook Factory. I bought it at Wally-world and I really like it. Only problem with is that I bought a new printer that prints on 12 x 12 paper. But Scrapbook Factory will not print but on letter size paper. If I put 12 x 12 paper in the printer, only the letter-size part prints. But it has great graphics that you can print out and use on other pages.

Hi, I see that it's been a little while since you posted this, but I wanted to share the info I have in case you still need it. I discovered Creative Memories Digital Scrapping software around 6 months ago and haven't looked back. I packed up all my traditional stuff, (and I had lots and lots of it...) and I'm now trying to decide who to give it to. Creative Memories is great, I had tried scrapping with Adobe Photoshop Elements since I already used it to manipulate my photos, but I could never get the hang of it, (I've since discovered that many other people say the same thing, you have to have a good working knowledge of it to scrap with it.) CM does all the major things that PSE does, you can lasso an area and turn a photo into sepia or b/w while leaving that one spot in color just for one example. There are bunches of free paper collections that you can download, along with a free version of the scrapping software, Storybook Creator. The free version is very limited in what it will do though, you can basically only use it to drag and drop photos into all the pre-designed pages available. It's not terribly expensive, and if you buy the beginners collection you get a 39.95 coupon toward a storybook, (an 8x8 is around 40.00.) With it you also get a large kit of paper/embellishments/overlays, (which you can fill with color, gradients, paper, etc.)/and word art. You can do things like change the look of a piece of paper or embellishment simply by changing the hue or color of it. You can change it to match your photos or just to get several different looks from the same paper or embellishment. CM collections that are available to purchase, (in addition to the free ones) are very inexpensive. They range from 3.95 to 9.95 for a very large collection. There are also freebies added daily to my website that you can download, or you can use products that are not CM although I rarely need to because they have so much to choose from. I know some people like to use the freebies you find online though and most of those are compatible with it. I was so impressed with the company that I signed up as a consultant a few weeks ago and I'm loving it. I have a Facebook group called Tamela's Scrapbooking Divas where you can check out some of my work along with a few other people who have posted there. The software is extrememly user friendly and what I do is teach people how to use it, in addition to the free web claasses that CM offers covering beginning to advanced techniques. If you would like more info just e-mail me at Tgillespie67@aol.com and put CM in the subject line so I know to open it. I will be happy to tell you how to download the free software and papers if you contact me. Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be so long... Have a great evening! Tamela (Tammy) Gillespie

I agree with Hilary. A new program should be easy to use and have an assortment of colored mats in changeable colors and patterns. Often times it is REALLY hard to find mat colors that match your photos. Fonts should be of different styles as there are already stickers available for the simple styles. I also would go for the hard to find images for die cuts, such as race cars, bikes-(I don't know why this is such an under produced item, every child I know has had at least one bike, especially BMX bikes. My son had well over 15.) motorcycles, tv's, computers-lots of christmas gifts are these items, Cds, fake money, birds, large flowers with good graphics, etc. These are just a few of the items I have found hard to come by. As for cutting out the shapes, they have to be big enough that they are not a royal pain to cut out and small enough not to dwarf the pages. Heritage items are another biggy. If you did a section devoted to black and white die cuts ( or the darker muted colors like maroon, dark green, or gold and silver) with items from every decade, starting at the 1900's to present for example: the old gas pumps, ice cream palors, old cars, the different wars American's have fought (this would be a big seller since MANY of the older photo shots were of men in uniforms,) a rosy the riveter page, memorial tribute pages etc... These items are almost impossible to find, and yet millions of photos were taken during these times and scrapbook makers are now having a hard time finding die cuts, pages or stickers that fit those eras and photos. I too would be willing to test drive any new software or be a guinea pig for ideas. Penny