Tags Scrapbooking

How to Save Money on Scrapbooking Supplies

Scrapbooking has become a very popular hobby in the U.S. and is becoming increasingly popular around the world. Although it is a craft and hobby, the materials and tools scrappers use can become quite expensive. I would like to give you a few tips on how you can save money.

· Trade supplies you already have with other scrappers you know. You never know what you'll find and what you might be able to use.

· Make use of your cardstock and paper scraps by keeping them for smaller projects or use them for punching out tags or other shapes. Use them for matting, journaling, as photo corners or for color blocking, etc. You would be surprised how you can use the smallest scraps on your layouts.

· You know those 3D pop dots? Don't just use the actual dots and throw the rest away. Cut up the frame and use that as well. If you use punch out letters, numbers or shapes, use the remaining punched out paper as a stencil.

· Instead of tools like a bone folder, you can also use the back of a kitchen knife or a ruler. For quilling you can also use a toothpick instead of a quilling tool.

· Check out your house, in the drawers to see if you can't find items to use, such as pop caps, bottle caps, paper clips, scraps of material you don't need anymore, thread, yarn, etc. There are just so many possibilities.

· Use computer printouts for tags, quotes, shapes to embellish your layout.

· Inventory your supplies on a regular basis to see what you still have. You might be surprised at how much you find that you didn't know you had a stash of.

· For chipboard embellishments, use the back of notepads or parts of cartons / boxes, cover in patterned paper, cut out and there you have your chipboard embellishment. You can also print large letters backwards on patterned paper and then cover the chipboard, then cut it out with a craft knife.

· Instead of a special scrapbooking caddy, use a kitchen caddy. Believe me, it does the trick. You also might want to use transparent organizing bins that you can find in a hardware or office supply store, rather then purchasing expensive "special" scrapbooking organizers.

· Check for discounts (obviously) on scrapbook items. Check out Michael's or Joann's. They usually have great deals on a regular basis. Also check out your local office supply store. They might just have something you can use and it's usually less expensive than at your local scrapbooking store.

Hope this helps you in your endeavor to "save money" while scrapping fabulous layouts!

About the Author

Jacqueline M. Schimmel is a Professional Scrapbook Designer who designs custom and premade scrapbooks, cards, frames and teaches scrapbooking courses in Germany. Her portfolio consists of over 580 designed layouts and she was hired to design an album that was given to his Holiness the Pope in 2005 on his visit to Cologne, Germany. The name of her business is Memories Artwork™, http://memoriesartwork.typepad.com.

What is the best cutting tool for smaller objects when scrapbooking?

I am new to scrapbooking and have purchased a paper cutter, which is great as long as the lines are straight. it is not very useful if I'm cutting other shapes, so I bought a cutter that has a blade with a pointer which was designed for scrapbooking. This makes it difficult to cut exactly where I want, because the blade is covered. Are there any tools someone can suggest for cutting pictures, tags, etc? Or do I just use plain household sciccors? Any advise is appreciated.

I crop my photos on my 12" trimmer or my personal trimmer (from Creative Memories). The personal trimmer is just for photos. Here's a link to show you: http://www.creativememories.com/MainMenu/Our-products-and-services/Traditional-Scrapbooking/Tools/Cropping-Tools/Trimmers/Personal-Trimmer (Creative Memories is a direct sales company and you buy through a consultant)

For doing tags, you can use the 12" trimmer, scissors or buy a template for tags. For templates, there are a couple of options. You can get one that you trace the image and then cut. Or you can get a Coluzzle. The Coluzzle is a type of swivelling exacto knife that sits in a template and cuts the image out. You can get a lot of different templates (circles, ovals, squares, hearts, tags, alphabets...). You get the starter with knife, cutting mat and a template or two to get you started. You add what templates you like. http://www.provocraft.com/products/index.products.php?cl=coluzzle

There are different scissors in different sizes. Depending on need, you can get smaller ones for small shapes with a 2-4" blade. Of course, scissors have tons of uses but can be hard to cut straight if you don't have a line to follow. I also cut "uphill".

There are a ton of options out there. You can get machines that cut a lot of shapes, a machine to punch out shapes and the list goes on. Those are a big investment though. If you just want to do photos, start with basic stuff and go from there.

Hope this helps you some!

P.S. If you edit your question to say specifically what shapes you have had trouble with, perhaps we can give more exact advice.

Scrapbooking IMAGE/Tag Swap (May 2010).m4v

Tags: christmas tags scrapbooking, crafts, design, digital tags scrapbooking, handmade gift tags scrapbooking, scrapbooking, tags scrapbooking, tags scrapbooking free, tools, web2.0

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.