Due to the economic situation we are all in now, we have compiled some tips on how to scrapbook on a budget. You may find that you have more ideas to save money too! Please add your tips by clicking on the “comments” button.
- Use any and all materials you have on hand in the house first
- Buy seasonal embellishments during “off time” of the season you are working in. (i.e. buy Christmas embellishments a week or more after Christmas, etc.)
- Seek page layout ideas from the internet, as opposed to buying high priced scrapbook ideas books at the book store.
- Swap tools and embellishments with your friends and family who are not using them now.
- Only buy your supplies when they are on sale.
- Don’t overstock yourself on embellishments in advance…you may be building up inventory that you may never use again.
- Build a “scraps” collection of unused or “extra” scraps of paper of unused materials. You can always make use of these scraps later.
- If you use stamps, contact your scrapbooking “buddies” and trade use of your stamps for theirs and swap them back.
- When getting photos reproduced, don’t over order duplicates thinking you are going to use all of them. Plan in advance and only order the photo prints you are going to actually use.
- If you are going to use a lot of a particular embellishment, get your scrapbooking buddies to chip in money to buy them and share the embellishments with them.
- Contact your scrapbook buddies and ask them if they have any embellishments or materials that they don’t intend on using and ask for them.
- Always be on the lookout for discount coupons at art stores like Michaels. You never know when you will have need for them in a moment’s notice!
- “Shop” the internet for scrapbook supplies….quite often they are cheaper than you could buy at a local store.
These are just some ideas to make a scrapbook on the cheap. There is always creative ways to make scrapbooks. The main expense on any scrapbook project is going to be the binder. Don’t sacrifice on that….you want the binder to last for a very long time. As always, use acid free paper for mounting photos.
It the USA, it is customary about this time of year where we have literally back to back holidays from October through December.
We start with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Years. It seems that time will literally stand still as we prepare from one holiday to the next!
For us scrapbookers, it is also a busy time. We may have to buy 4 scrapbook binders and work on them all at the same time!
In either case, make sure you go to the art store or scrapbook supply store early to select your embellishments. Many other people are going to be buying up the holiday decorative accessories in advance to beat the rush at the stores and also to be well prepared to use these items in their scrapbooks!
In the next posts in our scrapbook blog, we will be going over the best tips for getting your scrapbooks done fast! You don’t want to be left behind or even procrastinate on getting these out! Good luck.
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This post will talk about the many different items you can add to your scrapbook. The most popular category is embellishments. They can consist of anything other than a photograph, page or a journal entry.
Here are just some of the materials you can add to your next scrapbook.
Buttons are most common. They can be found on hand me down clothes, or bought very cheaply at your local fabric store. Speaking of fabric, you can buy very unusual and decorative fabrics that you can use to spruce up photos, full scrapbook pages, or make shapes that accents the theme. Paint can be a very viable way of making your pages unique. Just think of what you can do with custom colored paper and then add a touch of paint from your own paint brush. Ribbons can be used to make patterns or frame photos. Rub on transfers and stickers are great to add a special touch. Stickers are available in many materials such as paper, plastic, foil, vellum and glitter, to name a few. And of course we cannot forget the many different paper and paper textures available. The sky’s the limit on how you can use paper.
Some helpful tools used to make your scrapbook are: punches, scissors, and edging scissors, knives, paste, glue, ink pads, embossing machines, die cutting machines, double sided tape, adhesives, brush markers, cutting mat, eyelets, mini drill, glue gun, laminating machine, stencils. paper trimmers, stiching machine, foil press, and acetate. Of course there are many other tools used for making scrapbooks but these are the most common.
When scrapbooking, the most important thing to know is that there is no right or wrong way to make one. There is no rule that says you have to do anything in a certain way. Actually the more you are a "newbie" to this craft, the better! Make sure you have a plan of at least knowing what the theme is and make it consistent with the theme. For example. if you are doing a Valentine scrapbook, make sure you are consistent with having the color red throughout the binder and pages.
With Valentine’s Day out of the way, we have to look towards March and St. Patrick’s Day. There is a wide variety of embellishments that you can buy from any craft store in your local area. Some of the embellishments that are available arel; green clover leafs, green hats, leprechaun silhouettes, lucky charms, shallelies, dancing elves, banyon trees, pot of gold, rainbows, and so much more.
You can make a short binder full of pictures, embellishments and journaling. It is just like the Valentine’s Day scrapbook where, it is obvious that there will not be many pictures inside. Now some creative scrapbookers are buying royalty free pictures from sites like istockphoto.com or Getty Photos, etc. and either printing them out or getting hard copy prints from their local camera store.
For journaling, there is a site, http://www.quotegarden.com/st-patricks-day.html that has many St. Patrick’s Day quotes that you can use. As a matter of fact, this site, quote garden is a great place to bookmark for any type of themed scrapbook.
May the luck of the Irish be with you!
As we end January, Valentines Day is just around the corner. As mentioned in a previous post, any avid scrapper should keep track of all holidays and national celebrations for ideas on making your next scrapbook.
Which comes to the point of time management. Many of our email tells us that scrappers often do not have enough time in the day or week to keep building their scrapbooks. A good way of making sure you are getting your scrapbooks done in time is to make sure you have a scratch pad on a table in a set place and a daytimer with you at all times that you keep track of "to do’s" That way, you can make an entry in the scratch pad and the daytimer of when you need the scrapbook done by. In either case, make sure you start a system in which reminds you of the deadline in which to finish your scrapbook. This is true especially for time sensitive themes such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.
For Valentines Day, now is the time to go to your hobbie or craft store because they probably now carry Valentine themed embellishments. Do be late! You need to start looking late in January or early February before all the products and embellishments are all looked over the the best of the best items are taken!
Obvious embellishments are: foil valentine shapes, red colored yarn, small valentine shaped candy, cutting heart shaped silouttes from construction paper, red buttons, lace, call out "clouds" that you can fill in "love you" messages in it, small valentine shaped sprinkles, and so on. A great idea is to cut out a medium sized heart shape out of construction paper and insert a picture of you and your loved one behind it so the heart shape becomes a "frame" around it.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, start your scrapbook now!
The other day, I had a wonderful conversation with a scrapbook nut! I have known this lady for over 10 years and never knew that she was addicted to scrapbooks. I came to find out that she is the master scrapper and is very accomplished at her craft. She told me that she has a designated work place to make her creations and a well organized shelf space for her materials and tools. I was amazed at how much she paid attention to the details of putting scrapbooks together.
One of the great topics that she discussed with me was scrapping on a budget. It sure sounds like a timely topic since we are going through our down economy now. (USA) There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of items you can get from flea markets, thumbing through your friends "junk" collection before they were going to throw things away, yard sales, or just going through your boxes of personal belongings that you forgot about years ago. We are talking about embellishments mainly. Getting a collection of pictures together on a topic is no problem, it is the embellishments that are hard to find if you are to "theme" your scrapbook out properly.
For example, let’s say you choose a theme about cars. There must be many embellishments you could gather about cars…from car emblems, hood ornaments, pictures of hub caps, stickers, license plates, parts of the owners manuals, old car keys, and so on. You could gather pictures of you and your family riding in the family car. It could have been and oldie classic, restored relic, or modern sports car. Even the family jalopy could conjure up many fond memories!
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One of the most popular of embellishments on scrapbook pages is flowers. For those of you who remember the 1960′s when flower stickers were all the rage, it seems like what is old is new again.
What is cool about flowers is that it never goes out of fashion and can be sized to fit any page or binder cover. They come in all sorts of colors, made of many different materials, and works with many different themes.
Here are some ideas using flower embellishments:
- Layer flower designs on top of each other across the page
- Use flowers to border a photograph
- Use flowers to bullet point your journaling
- Fashion your own flowers using looped ribbon for the petals
- Crochet your own flowers in minutes using a template from a Crochet Pattern
- Fold fabric flowers in half and attach behind a photo or patterned paper
- Use pictures of flowers from the Internet to make a collage
- Add a 3D feel to silk or fabric flowers by stamping them with ink and then sprinkling with embossing powder
We will have another article on flower embellishments coming soon.
Here is a great video we discovered about using price tags in scrapbooks. Use your own creativity to make an outstanding scrapbook. Play and enjoy!
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For more pizazz, you might want to add more of a 3-D effect to your scrapbook.
If you want to create pages that pop up, consider creating your own pages with 3-D embellishments. Collect the items that you will need to create your embellishments. You will want to have plenty of scraps of fabric and felt, as well as wire, felt flowers, small wooden rods, fiber, yarn, die cuts, cotton, and anything else you can think of to create with. Start by thinking of the color scheme you wish to use to create your item. Then think about the page it is going to be displayed on, and choose an item to create that is in line with the page theme.
Start with a die cut and build your embellishment around it. If you are using a die cut of an animal or person, consider adding googgly eyes to it to start the process. Use fabric to add texture and bounce to the design. Be as creative as you possibly can! And do not forget about foam squares to add layers to your creation.
One of the easiest ways to create texture and depth in your scrapbook is to add fibers to the pages. Purchase fun and lively fibers for your pages. One cute idea is to use the fibers to create a look where the pictures look like they are actually in frames and hanging from the wall. The fibers create the string that the picture is "hanging from" and the background paper creates the frame. Use a brad as the "nail."
As you are designing your 3-D pages, keep in mind the safety of your pictures. You want to make sure that there is nothing that will poke or fold your photos, and you don’t want photos rubbing too hard against the facing page. Store your scrapbooks upright, as you don’t want to put too much pressure on the contents. After all, you did so much work to create those 3D embellishments that it would be a shame to squash them flat!
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I am pleased to announce our very first book on scrapbooking will be released on the first of October. It will have many start up tips and tricks as well as some advanced information on how to begin scrapbooking. It seems we have been getting a lot of email with questions on how much to spend, what embellishments to get, what size scrapbook is goo to start with, and so many more. So, what we decided is to write our first ever scrapbook guide.
Some of the things you will find in this booklet are: tools to use, how to pick photos, how to pick a place in your home to scrapbook, kinds of scrapbook binders, theme ideas, and so much more.
Unfortunately, right now, we are only publishing the book in english but soon to have it translated into many languages.
Come back and visit our site as we are going to go over new scrapbooking themes.
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