Scrapbooking with Cents

Customer Question:

Scrapbooking is becoming so expensive anymore. I would love one of the die cutting machines, but can't afford the 600.00. That is not the end of it paper has shot up, embellishments and everything else. Who can afford to pay $4.00 for one item to put on a page. My question is, with the economy the way it is, and the only enjoyment that a lot of us enjoy participating in is Scrapbooking how can we keep affording the prices of the items we need to do it. Gas is climbing and just to go to the store to get supplies is almost getting out of reach! Can you suggest some help for us stuggling scrapbookers?

Answer:

I hear you! The economy is bad, gas is up and the products are increasing in price. How can a person keep up with getting supplies and doing this craft. Scrapbooking is very entertaining and fulfilling, it has many values to it. So how do we keep up with the ever increasing prices caused by our faultering economy.

Well I know that in our stores we are offering coupons to help with the shipping cost. If you buy nothing but stickers we even ship those regular mail, so we can defer the cost somewhat a bit. With the price of gas even if you only go a few miles to a store you are still spending up wanted money by driving there. If you look at the post office its only $4.60 to get you supplies to you, which if you live in a rural area, is tons better than driving miles for them.

So my suggestion is look for on-line stores to buy your products. Get the coupons. I know that we are trying to help out with the rising costs by offering them. Accents 2 Scrapbooking and also The Scrapbook City both offer coupons every month. Don't be afraid to use them, we offer them to help you out with the prices.

Look over the clearance things. Many are discounted greatly to move stock around. Getting some thing from clearance is not such a bad thing. It doesn't mean the products aren't any good it just means there are newer products the stores are trying to move in. Who knows there may be something in there you don't have and you might just get it at a great price.

Look for places that offer free items. You can find a freebies page at The Scrapbook City. It has a few free items you can download for your project.

One other thing, if you are into digital scrapbooking, there are tons of sites offering free thing there. You can download their papers and print them off. Although the cost of ink is high, it beats trying to get out to get something.

Hopefully we see a break with the rising prices of our economy. I do hope that everyone realizes that shopping on-line can and will save you at least some $$$ with the gas prices. If you just look for the coupons, sales and freebies, I think you will find that you can shop on-line and get some darn good prices!

Article by:

Debbie Ruggles

Paper Scraps--Gotta Keep them

The pages are done and you look around and what do you see everywhere! Scraps of paper! Well let me tell you its a good day of scrapping when you have a lot of scraps to show for it. Now just don't throw those pieces away. Lets put them aside if you have to put just don't toss them in the trash! Use them! Want to stretch those scrapping booking dollars well lets not just throw out the papers that we spent all that money on lets see if we can organize them and then use them for other layouts, projects, cards, die-cuts, punchies, paper piecings, serendipity squares etc.
How to Sort and Organize Your ScrapsThe first step is to set aside a block of time so that you can finish your paper scraps organization project and have everything cleaned up and put away in one sitting. This is where it gets messy! But in the end it is definitely worth it.
Here is how to begin. Sit on the floor with all your papers, turn on the TV and then proceed to sort your stack of papers. Ok so you can use a table or whatever large surface you have. I love doing this in front of a good movie. Sort your paper scraps into piles. Create a pile for each color, and separate colors into piles of solids and patterns.
Now that you have sorted your paper scraps, size up your collection. Its amazing how many scraps you can have. Now if you are like me I like to trim all the bad edges from the papers, so I have nice neat ones. I also put all those little itty pieces in a separate pile. If I am going to be doing serendipity squares, I might just use all of those, otherwise, depending on my mood, I may find them in the trash can!
How to Store Your ScrapsIf you are a scrapper that doesn't have a lot of scraps, then an accordion file will probably work best for you. Find one that has index tabs so that you can easily identify at a glance where each color is stored. Write the color on the tabs and specify cardstock or paper.
For a larger scrap collection, try vertical hanging files in a file drawer. This is what I use! Same goes here, label your folders.
Ok now for the large big time scraps. Get one of those clear drawer files. You got to love these. You can find them at any Wal-Mart, Target etc.Put your colors in these they work excellent! You can see through the drawers and lots of storage. Look around there are plenty of other ideas out there for storage so don't limit yourself. Also using what you have is always better. More money for paper to make more scraps this way!

Now what can I use these scraps for. Well let see! Die-Cuts, punchies, paper piecings, serendidpity squares, cards stamping. You name it you will find something that you need just a little bit of one color. Every layout needs just one more piece of something, so try looking in your files first before cutting another sheet of paper or cardstock!

Article By:
KayDee Designs

How to make your own adhesives for 3-D Embellishments

If you look at the back of some of the cool embellishments you see a piece of what looks like foam that makes it stick out and even sometimes between the layers there are pieces of this stuff! Well you can go to the glue dots and buy a package of these to add to your collection, but they can be expensive, so how can you create the same thing.

Well here was my solution when one of our customers asked us that questions.
I listened to my mom about what she told me a long time ago. Yes I finally took her advice. At the time she only had one of those little Zyrons, the 150. She took one of those foam sheets you see at craft stores for like 50 cents or so and cut it into pieces to fit through her little Zyron. she did both sides and then just cut it into squares to use on her projects.
When she told me about it I just thought it was a lot of work and so opening up a box of pop dots from Glue Dots was a lot easier than trying to do something like that. Well I did it out of necessity when I ran out of the Glue Dots and was in need of some quick! So I tried it and it works. So go ahead and give this one a try. If your like me keep it in the back of your mind and when there is a horrible snow storm and nothing to do but scrap, you see you have no glue dots, maybe you will remember this article!
Now mom has the bigger Zyron and does a whol 8-1/2 x 11 sheet at once.

Another idea I like to use is chip board. It does work and you do not have to cut it to size of you embellishment. There are different thicknesses of chip board. I just cut a square or a rectangle the size I need. Then adhere it to the back of my object and then adhere to the page. Try it out you can almost give anything a 3- D look with some of the things you can purchase.

Article by:
Debbie Ruggles