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With the cost of paper going up and up we are realizing that scrapbooking is not just a craft that is inexpensive any longer.
We all have tons of pictures laying around that we want to get into scrapbooks, but you know you can't just walk into a store and buy one of two sheets of paper and leave, so what is the solution to the growing expense of scrapbooking?
Lets see if we can come up with some ideas that are cost effective and still give us what we are looking for to achieve.
Paper! Who says it has to be from the Scrapbook store?One thing I will tell you to invest in is a pen that tells you whether or not a paper or scrapbooking product is acid free. Test gift wrap, magazines, greeting cards, and any other decorative paper to see if it is safe to use in your scrapbooking projects. If you are unsure if something is safe for your scrapbook, don't put your photos next to it. Use it as an accent and just put your photo away from it so that it doesn't come into contact with it.
There is always the obvious check out the reduced racks at the scrapbook stores! Look at dollar stores, they have began to offer some scrapbooking supplies. Be careful with this because just because it says its a dollar doesn't mean you won't find it at you Scrapbook store for less. Jolee's are sometimes .79 cents on sale. Remember you can get good quality paper for .50-.70 cents a sheet, so beware of the dollar store packs! Look them over and see if they are what meets your expectations before buying. Sometimes we think we have nothing so getting things is better than that. Not always, remember you are wanting to put some great pages together and although it starts with the photograph, quality papers do add a lot to them.
Here is a great tip, instead of rushing to the scrapbook store because you got your pictures developed. Sit down and categorize them. Look at the ones you want to get done. Now the next time you are headed to town and want to go to the Scrapbook store, take them with you. Now you can put the pictures against the papers and get the papers that you want to go with them instead of guessing I might like this one or that one. How many times I have picked up papers just because I think I will use it! I have stored them and said someday I will use it. I am here to tell you I just donated a box of papers to a charity and I had to use the Flat Rate Priority box to get it to them. What a waste of money! Try this one thing. This one little step will save you tons in unwanted papers.
Another great tip is: there are places on-line that you can download some papers to print. Of course if you want a 12x12 sheet you will have to have a printer that prints that size. I download some of the 8x11 sheets and use them for accents, photo mats and other things that I want on my pages. So don't think because its not a 12x12 sheet its unusable. Its not always the case.Hopefully we have started you in the right direction on getting some of those scrapbooking pages done without spending a fortune trying to get the right papers. Remember its not about getting quantity of papers just to have them, its about getting papers that you will use. Remember the quality issue, don't just buy because it says sale, remember you don't want your papers just to sit in a pile to say you have paper, you want to have papers that you will want in your scrapbooks behind your pictures.
Article By
Debbie Ruggles
