Only a couple of dollars to spend on a scrapbook page? Or are you looking for inexpensive supplies for your scrapbooking? Well consider places you wouldn’t normally look. Consider products you might not otherwise have used in a layout.
Look for cheap ways to scrapbook and learn to live more frugally even in your favorite hobby!
Here are some classic ideas:
Toy Stores/Toy Departments
Check the toy stores and toy aisles at other stores for all sorts of fun items for scrapbooking. From stickers and stamps, to stencils and mini doll house items. There are all sorts of fun and interesting items you can find in the toy store!
Try It Before You Buy It
You’ve seen that cool new scrapbooking tool and now you think you need it. So you research what other’s say online and everyone but two people just love theirs. If so many people love it, you just know you have to have it. But then you get it and it’s not so great. It isn’t so useful and you hardly even look at it. Avoid buying specialty tools that might not work for you by trying them out first. Either find a friend who owns the tool, or more than likely your local scrapbook store has the tool that you can use and decide if it’s for you or not.
Never Throw Anything Away
Ok, so this goes against my whole organization method, however it does save money. You can utilize scraps in your layouts or on cards. Stickers can be used on school projects, and cards. Even packaging can be re-used. If you usually buy those SLAB papers from Michaels, or anywhere else, keep the front piece. It has a picture showing all the papers in the package. Either you can use those small pictures of the papers on your layout as an embellishment, or use it to embellish an embellishment. For example, you could cut out the tiny square and use it on a tag, journaling box, etc.
$1.00 Per Page
Honestly setting a total cost per layout or page is important to keeping costs down. It is a great guideline to avoid purchasing unnecessary supplies.
For every dollar that you spend on a tool or type of product, you must then use it on that number of layouts. If you decide to purchase a die-cut machine ranging in the $100-$150 range, you should intend to use it for at least 100-150 pages. The die’s typically range around $15-$20. If you wanted to purchase a sunflower die, you should plan to use it on 15-20 layouts. This is a great way to utilize what you have, but keep the costs down. Do you plan to use a sunflower die on that many layouts? If not, save your money!
Punches
I wrote an article earlier this month, titled A Punch Above The Rest. I revealed my high punch count total, a slightly sickening number when you realize how much money I’ve spent. In fairness, I teach classes so often I get punches, etc. for free, so I didn’t pay for all of them. However, there is a way to resurrect some of those punches. Use them on cards, tags, etc. You can use them to punch out your scraps to make new shapes. Especially basic shapes. You can use these shapes to create personalized scrapbook paper, embellishments, etc. Or you can punch each punch and keep an inventory of what you have.
There are loads of ways to make scrapbooking a bit cheaper. Learning how to save money, yet still have fabulous pages is they key.
Anything great you do to save money?