Savvy scrapbooking Preserving memories without breaking the bank
By Marilyn Jones
S
crapbooking has evolved from a collection of photographs and ticket stubs pasted into a photograph album to several aisles dedicated to the pastime at every mega-craft store. But along with the luxury of every conceivable scrapbooking album, paper, embellishment, border and tool comes a hefty price tag. Memories are priceless and the cost of preserving them can be high. Savvy and creative scrappers like Melinda Scott have learned how to enjoy this art form without breaking the bank. “I love to scrap and I love to do it cheap,” says Scott, a school nurse and mother of five grown children who lives in Somerville. “When I visit Hobby Lobby I glance at the stickers and other embellishments, but the thing I buy the most of is paper and only when it’s half off. “If I have paper and my pictures, I can scrap and have fun,” she adds. “I love cutting or tearing paper to mat my pictures or cutting or tearing letters, words or embellishments. Nice looking pages can be made with just paper.” One of the most expensive additions to a scrapbook page is stickers, but Scott advises scrappers to use newspaper clippings, flyers, bulletins, announcements, birthday and Christmas cards, and drawings. “A very inexpensive page can be made with cards from friends and their pictures alongside. For my daughter’s prom pages, I saved napkins, flowers, ribbons and pieces of material to use for embellishments with the pictures. “And I always save the programs from school activities my children are involved in and use those to embellish the pages with my pictures of that activity,” she says. Another way Scott saves money is with her computer. “I type out what I want said on a particular page, print and paste.” She also searches the Internet for pictures or clip art to illustrate her pages; another way to embellish pages by using what she already has — a computer, printer and paper. Scott says she scrapbooks with a group of friends once a month at the elementary school where she is a nurse. “We’ve grown close over the years scrapping together. We share our paper, cutters, punches, tape, well 20 may 2013
actually, most anything including stories and tales and lots of laughter. “We really have a great time together,” she says. “And we’re all creating memories for our families to enjoy for years to come.”
Getting started
If you’re thinking about taking up this popular hobby, have a plan before you head to the craft store. First, organize your pictures. If, for example, you want to scrapbook your recent trip to Walt Disney World, pick out the best photos from your trip and dig out any tickets, brochures, napkins and other memorabilia suited for scrapbooking. Go on the Internet and download logos, maps and illustrations from the Disney website and any other sources you can find. Scrapbooks are usually 20 pages (although you can add additional pages). Estimate how you would group your photos and embellishments into pages. Now you’re ready to go to the craft store. Check the store’s ad online and print out any coupons. Never pay full price. There is a very short cycle of things being on sale at craft stores like Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, and Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft. One week it may be stickers, the next week albums and paper, and generally speaking, there is almost always a percentage-off coupon you can use on full price items. You’ll need an album. You can buy a plain album or one with a Disney character on the front. Although there are several sizes, you’ll probably want a 12-inch by 12inch album. And you’ll need paper. You can buy this in packs or individually. Either way, some paper is themed while other paper is one color. This is a personal decision, but for beginners I would suggest plain, one-color, paper. Next come embellishments. As you can imagine, there are a lot of Disney stickers, buttons, borders, brads and so forth. This is where you can spend a lot of money. Stickers range from around a dollar to several dollars per sheet, and in some cases, a single sticker. Pre-planning your pages will help you gauge just exactly how many little extras you’ll need to add zest to your pages. www.alabamaliving.coop
www.alabamaliving.coop