$crapbooking: are you $ERIOU$ about thi$???

[GodChick]

WOW!!!! I've never done scapbooking before, but thought I might like it . . .I'm not into having a whole lot of really artsy, gaudy stuff on every page, because i think that detracts from the photos. . . but i wanted a pretty alternative to just slapping photos in an album. So I go into a scapbooking store. :jawdrop :eek :jawdrop :eek :jawdrop there was

paper for $2-5 a piece.
albums to put your stuff in for $35 on up.
stickers and stuff to stick on your pages for $2-5 a sheet.

soooooooo . . . I'm looking around and I add it up:

the cheapest album in the store (10 pages): $35
20 sheets of the cheepest paper to go into the 10 pages, front and back: 20 @ $2: $40

okay, so far I haven't done anything decorative yet, and haven't included the cost of the actual photos and already we're at $75 for a ten-page scapbook with nothing in it yet but paper. :jawdrop

i tried to take my two young kids in there, but after seeung the signs saying any paper you tear or wrinkle you have to pay for, and seeing paper everywhere, i fled the store before my kids had the opportunity to tear up $50 worth of paper!! :phew

does scrapbooking really cost that much??? maybe i just want a prettier photo album, rather than a scrapbook! :giggle

[hey mommy]

I've never seen paper that much. Yes, it ccan be expensive, but the pages don't have to have a lot of gawdy stuff on them. Just a few simple pages w/some simple stickers or something and some journeling(writing) about the picture is fine. I'll try to take some pics of mine today and post them for you to see. Mine are all pretty simple..

[Mother of Sons]

You can definitely do it cheaper. It doesn't have to cost that much. Plain colored paper in packs or decorative paper in packs are MUCH cheaper. That's what I do although if I see a paper I really like, I'll get it sometimes but usually here it's about 50 cents.

Keep in mind that one piece of paper doesn't necessarily equal only 1 page in the scrapbook.

It can be a spendy hobby but there are ways to keep costs down.

[Teribear]

I find that the dedicated scrapbooking stores are WAY overpriced. And I was a Creative Memories rep for years (and they're on the high end) and the scrapbooking stores are STILL more expensive than CM usually. I purchase my scrapbooking supplies all over the place. Wal-Mart, Hobby-Lobby, Michaels, Dollar Tree...the only thing I'm a real snot about is my albums. They must be CM, Webway or Westrim. They must be strap hinge. But even THAT is personal preference and I have been known to "settle" for less expensive albums for projects that I don't care if they last 150 years or not. I have scored albums on clearance for as little as $5.00 that meet my album snob criteria. I ALWAYS check the Michaels and Hobby Lobby clearance areas first. Often I will find tons of stuff there.

For stickers and paper the key criteria are acid free and lignin free (if you can find that) and for albums NO PVC!

Scrapbooking can be as expensive as you make it. I've recently branched into making my own custom papers. I take white acid free paper and color copy onto it what I want my background to be. What I've done so far has turned out REALLY COOL!

[butterflyqueen71]

When I first started Scrapbooking, I went on freecycle to find out what I could get. I ended up getting tons of stuff, and I met a Creative Memories consultant who gave me alot of her discontinued items. She also turned me on to Creative Memories products. :tu Their albums and cutting tools (and shapemakers) are probably the only thing of theirs that I would "splurge" on. However, they tend to be kind of "uppity" about their products, and would be mortified if I was using anything other than CM products in my CM albums. :shifty I've bought CM stuff from moms online, too, at real great prices. What I like about CM, though, is that they are very simple and are more into getting the pictures out of boxes and into albums than they are about frilly stuff.

Other than that, it's Wal-mart, Dollar Tree, and my favorite, Hobby Lobby. HL has great sales about every 6 weeks where you can get stickers half price (and some of their stickers sell for as low as $.99), you can get like 6 pieces of 12X12 paper for $1, and they also have good sales on card stock and tools and organization, storage, etc. You can buy scissors at the Dollar Tree that have the fancy blades, and premade pages with themes and such.

If you don't have HL, try Michaels or AC Moore. Scrapbooking doesn't have to be expensive. Trust me, I'm about as broke as they come and I have, I think, a very adequate stock of supplies. I don't have fancy stuff, but I'm not into the fancy pages.

You can also use things you find around the house to "scrap". Buttons, jewelry, ribbon, etc. The only thing is that you want to be careful about finding "acid-free" products that really protect the photos over time. This is another thing CM is good at, teaching about photo preservation. Yes, I am a big Creative Memories fan, but they have their drawbacks too.

STAY AWAY from Scrapbooking "specialty" stores! They are WAY overpriced! I found a photo storage box at a store that sold for $33. The same box was at Hobby Lobby for $24.99, and if I'd waited a week or so, I could have gotten it for 50% off! They might have their place, but I only see them as gold diggers.

Hope this helps! :D

[hey mommy]

Oh, also, the Dollar Tree has cute scrapbooking kits for $1

Also, EBAY!!!!

[Aisling]

That is insane!! :jawdrop I'm a really avid scrapper, and the *most* I've ever paid for a single sheet of paper is .70. And I rarely splurge and spend that much. Usually, it's more like .25 a page at Hobby Lobby, or .50 from a specialty store or somewhere online. (lifetimemoments.com and twopeasinabucket.com often run sales on their papers where they have cute stuff for .30-.50) I find adorable stickers and such Big Lots sometimes.

Ditto everything Kimberly said :tu

[Nightingale]

Wow! That's EXPENSIVE!!! I got a huge pack of plain colored cardstock at Costco last fall...it had 500 sheets I think, in lots of colors, and was like $12. Then a 360 sheet pack of patterned paper for around $14. I will never need paper again lol

[joyful mama]

you can definitely go cheaper! I slowly but surely have gotten my collection of stuff (and put together one album so far :O). AC Moore and Micahels have coupons all the time...

You can also use things you find around the house to "scrap". Buttons, jewelry, ribbon, etc. :yes I have actually used tags from my children's clothing, and cool paper pieces from junk mail... once you're into it, you don't need allt he fancy stuff, lol!

[Piper2]

Michaels and Hobby Lobby frequently have paper and stickers on sale 2-for-1 or half price (I guess that's pretty much the same thing, isn't it? :mrgreen). I also buy some scrapbooking supplies at Target, Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree. I even came across a little scrapbooking section in the grocery store last weekend. :eyebrow Michels frequently puts their basic albums on sale for less than $10, and I'm actually waiting on their next sale so I can get the album for Kevin's 2nd grade yearbook.

I've only been in a "real" scrapbooking store once in my life (with Teribear ;)), but I don't think my budget could handle going there too often. :giggle I think mostly what I would buy there would be specific special paper that I absolutely could not find anywhere else (I saw some with a moving theme that I might get when we finally do move).

[CrunchySeaSalt]

AC Moore has good sales on stickers and paper. like 10-25 cents a sheet for pretty ones and .50-1.00 for the awesome pages.

I go to Gabriel brothers or AC moore for scrapbooks and get them for 5.99-10.00 :)
The acessories at Gabe's were .99 a pack for bubble letters and mini's to put on pages as well as fancy labels and such.

Look everywhere EXCEPT scrapbook stores for your stuff :tu

[Garnet]

walmart has scrap book stuff. I looked into it as a hobby to but once I added up the cost of film, and all the supplies, I decided it wasn't worth it to me.

[AmyWA]

Ditto what the other ladies said - stay away from the specialty scrapbook stores! (unless you really want something specific) Michaels, Joanns - sign up for their flyers (we get Michaels flyers in the mail every week). They have huge coupons that you can buy the more expensive stuff (the actual albums, stacks of paper, etc...) with. Dollar tree, Big Lots, Kmart, Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer. All these places have some scrapbooking stuff that is way less expensive than the specialty places. I'm with Teri too - I'm a snob when it comes to my albums, so I have to use Creative memories albums. But I'm not afraid of anything else to put in there!!!!!! :-)

[Piper2]

walmart has scrap book stuff. I looked into it as a hobby to but once I added up the cost of film, and all the supplies, I decided it wasn't worth it to me.

You could try digital scrapbooking. Then you're basically only having to deal with the cost of software, ink and albums.

And (confession time here)...I don't have a "real" photo in any of my albums. I print them all on cardstock. :shifty

[KatieMae]

One of DH's aunts is a CM consultant & she's not fussy about us using "cheap" paper or stickers - and I did actually come straight out & ask her if she would be offended if I brought non-CM stuff to a SB'ing party we had & she was very cool about it (which is typical of her anyway - she's a very cool aunt!)

My strategy: Buy the "Stacks" of paper at Joann when they're on sale for half-price and then pick up stickers & stuff wherever I find them cheap. I think it's really hard to find stickers that aren't too "cute-sy" so I prefer to use shape cutters on cool paper for embellishments instead. I have a graphic design background so I'm probably just a snob in this department, but I do like how the pages look with the paper cutouts instead of the stickers.

Also, I've told my dear Aunt-in-Law that when my kids are older & we're doing a lot of scrapbooking (I intend to do one for each of them, for each year of their homeschool, with their help of course) that I will sign up as a consultant under her & get all my albums, cutters, etc at the discounted rate. They have a pretty high minimum order requirement, but other family members will prob buy from me too anyway, so I don't think it will be a problem. (That's sort of like why I have a Mary Kay business too.)

[Mia]

Also, check out a book called "Simple Scrapbooking" by Kathy Zielske (sp?). Her designs are clean and simple (and therefore NOT pricey), however they are GREAT. In fact, I love her work (the only book I draw on for inspiration). She is an Graphic Designer / Art Director and really understands design and layout. Getting her book would probably do a great deal toward helping you envision how good a low-cost page can look.
Mia

[blessedwithboys]

hey! I just won that exact book at a crop I went to this weekend! :grin I like it a lot in that it's encouraging me to do more journaling- even whole pages w/ just writing. What I didn't like is that a lot of her layouts only have one picture. I have a hard time not putting in all the cute pictures! lol! So, pretty much the only one picture pages I do are ones thare are the 8x10's or 5x7's from the portrait studio. I can still use a lot of her ideas though!