Hello,
I noticed that a lot of the questions and tutorials are for commercial software like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Illustrator etc.
I was wondering if you some of you use the free alternatives such as Gimp (which is more or less the equivalent of Photoshop) and Inkscape which is the equivalent of Illustrator.
Both Gimp and Inkscape are free, and their code is open source so a lot of people contribute to make them better.
I personnally love Inkscape which I use mostly to make SVG files to cut with my Silhouette paper machine, as well as vector clipart and patterns to make digital papers.
If you don't know Gimp or Inkscape, I can only encourage you to give them a try:
Happy drawing 
Stephane
I've used Inkscape for creating clean vector files, but it's been awhile since I've used it; I remember it being a bit of a memory hog...although, I am more comfortable using Adobe products.
I've used Gimp for years. It definitely has a bit of a learning curve (as is photoshop), but it's a great option! I find people who try to switch to it from Photoshop struggle with it, since short cuts and procedures and such are different. But I started on Gimp, so I find I struggle if I have to use Photoshop
I use both, when I have the chance to work on creating graphics or digital scrapbooking! We have some threads here where we talk about them as well.
Another free program to use is Paint.net (or Paint dot net).
https://www.getpaint.net/
It handles JPGs and PNGs with no problems at all. It just cannot work with PSD files. I have been using Paint dot net for a month now and I love it. I am not in any hurry to upgrade to anything else.
The fact that I cannot use PSD files, actually makes things easier because then I am not bound to the template layout, but can always do my own layout for all my pages. Now THAT is Creativity!!