Budget Scrapbooking – Tips to Save Money

Scrapbooking is a great way to spend your time while preserving your memories. If you’re not careful, it’s also an easy way to spend a lot of money. If you’re thinking about starting scrapbooking, but are afraid you’ll rack up too big a bill, or if you’ve been scrapbooking for a while and just want to cut costs, there are some great places to find products without spending a lot of cash.

Thrift stores. These are great places for all kinds of finds. You could find fabric, buttons, silk flowers, ribbon. The only thing limiting what you find is your own imagination and creativity. You may even get lucky and find scrapbooking supplies that someone didn’t think they wanted to use or keep around.

Discount department stores. While stores like Wal-mart and Target are probably not the best place to find the products you’re looking for in a high quality (paper, sheet protectors, adhesive), you can probably find great embellishments and decorations to spice up your layouts. Wrapping paper, ribbons, flowers, even discount greeting cards. Just like thrifts stores, the only limit to what you’ll find there is you.

Fabric stores. When it comes to ribbons, bows, buttons, and even tools, you may be able to find what you’re looking for cheaper at a fabric store (or fabric section of a department store) a whole lot cheaper than at a scrapbooking store. Plus, they have a variety to fit every style.

Your own home. Finding great stuff for your scrapbooks doesn’t always mean going to the store. Old clothes, broken jewelry, spare buttons, old birthday cards, kids arts and crafts projects, even trash can be used in your scrapbooks.

Online. While you don’t need to spend a lot of money on many things in scrapbooking, there are other materials you don’t want to cut corners with. These include quality acid-free paper, glue, cardstock, and sheet protectors. Cutting corners in these areas will likely cause damage to your photos and leave you upset. The good news is, the internet is a great place to find quality products at a discount.

There are thousands of places to find scrapbooking tools and supplies online. It’s not hard to find what you’re looking for, the challenge is finding what you’re looking for in good quality at a decent price. Do some research on scrapbooking websites and message boards. You’ll find there are a lot of people who have done the legwork for you and are willing to help you out, you just have to ask.

The biggest concern with finding supplies online is that, when they show up, they might not be exactly what you’re looking for. The best way to remedy this is to find items you want at your local store, and then check online for discount prices. That way you’ll have no surprises when the box arrives.

With a little time and searching, you can get your scrapbooks started for pennies a day.