Hmm... considering how much time I actually spend working on these pages, I wouldn't try to do it at work!
Once you decide on a program... really the best advice I can give is to just play around with it and the pictures. You can also download lots of fun "kits" which will provide you with papers (backgrounds) and embellishments, but I'll let someone else speak to that because I don't use them much. I learned a lot about the specific program I use (Photoshop CS3) just by trying different things. The basics are fairly easy to pick up... things like moving images around, resizing, rotating and adding borders/shadows. From there it's all about getting creative. :sohappy:
After you've got that down, there are a couple of different options for printing. I know some people (I think Jenn and Louella) print the pages individually and add them to a scrapbook they pick up at a scrapbook/craft store (like Michaels). I personally use Shutterfly and can't say enough good things about them. It's a very easy site to use and the number of pages you choose to put in an individual book can range from 20-100 (I believe, maybe more). To give you an idea on cost, a book with 20 pages will cost you $30 plus shipping/handling. If you want more than 20 pages in your book it's $1 per additional page. Plus, they run specials. I have yet to pay for shipping/handling on a book and every once in a while will get some other type of discount. As for the quality Shutterfly provides... my pages really do look EXACTLY like the jpeg images uploaded here.