This is not a how-to step by step make your own digiscraps, but what you can get from the internet -FREE - to do so.

So you don’t want or can’t afford to buy programs like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro? There are free image editing programs around. I use Serif Photo plus, which is an older version of the program that the company sells. They have this older version available for free download from their site. There is also a Photoshop copy called GIMP. I haven’t used this so I am not sure of the stability.

The Serif Photo plus program allows you to open and work with many different file formats such as JPG & PNG. It also works with layers in your images- very important. The ability to work with PNG files is important, as unlike JPEG files they allow areas of transparency- important for embellishments which are not rectangular or square.

 You can also use the program to put together your own pages using designer’s scrapbook layout templates. Although the disadvantage here is that if they are a Photoshop template -while you will be able to open them, the layers will not be separated- but you can ’separate’ them yourself. More on that later.

 Next time: What you need to make buttons & brads.