Most of us were completely shocked by the news earlier this month that Polaroid would no longer be producing the instant film that made them a household name. Sure, instant film will still be available from Fuji, but Polaroid not making Polaroid film just seems wrong somehow.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to live without the funky borders and fascinating write-on-ability of Polaroids, fear not. Polaroid will be producing enough instant film to last until the end of 2009. After that, hopefully Fuji and other manufacturers will be able to meet whatever demand there remains for instant film.

But in the meantime, there are some fun things that you can do to honor the long and successful life of Polaroid.

Turning your digital photo into a Polaroid is a lot of fun and can combine the convenience of digital with the nostalgic fun of Polaroid. This video shows you how to take a digital photograph and turn it into a Polaroid in Photoshop Elements.

For those of you who prefer GIMP for your photo manipulation merry-making, here is a comprehensive how-to on doing the same type of Polaroid trick in GIMP.

And finally, if the day ever comes when you have a Polaroid camera but it is utterly impossible to find film for it, why not turn it into something useful? This is a great tutorial on turning that old Polaroid camera into a digital camera.