I wanna Scrapbook for less!!

Kimmywim

Hey all I love scrapbooking whenever I get the time to do it, just wondered if anyone knew of cheap places to get materials from, especially 12" by 12" papers, apart from obviusoly Ebay.

Many Thanks

Kim:T

BrandNewDay

I find it hard to locate the stuff over here. Scrapbooking is HUGE in the States. They sold tons of supplies at Walmart, and there are several large chains of craft and hobby stores, all of which have large sections devoted to scrapbooking/papercraft. Then, there is at least one major chain - as well as plenty of independent shops - dedicated entirely to scrapping. So, I would buy these big books of 12x12 paper on sale. I have a huge stockpile of the stuff.

Probably the best way to save is to rely less on the embellishments and more on your own creations. Like, instead of buying all the little stickers that say "Cherish" and "Love" try cutting the letters out of scraps of paper, instead. And, rely more on your own writing to tell the story. Your descendents will appreciate reading your thoughts in your own handwriting far more than they'll enjoy a bunch of expensive embellishments that say "Precious Baby Boy" on them.

And, the simpler the page, the better it will look. You don't need to put a ton of stuff on there - two photos, an accent or two, a "headline" and a paragraph about what a nice time you all had at Brighton Beach is perfect.

Kimmywim

thanks for responding, I must admit I am a bit of a sucker for buying embellishments, but I have been using magazines and newspapers for different titles and fonts and have used wordart a couple of times to make my own titles. My handwriting is absolutely appalling so I try not to write too much on a page as I feel it would spoil it a bit!!
Its so addictive, I just wish I had more time to do it, but with a 4 week old and a toddler thats proving quite difficult lol!!

peter999

Kimmywim wrote:

Hey all I love scrapbooking

What is scrapbooking ??

jacs76

i love scrapbooking too (when i have time) wilkinsons have a few bits in their stationary aisle only noticed the other day so it must be a new line(?)

Kimmywim

peter999 wrote:

What is scrapbooking ??

Scrapbooking is where you take photos, and lay them out on paper and add anything you like, titles, writing, embellishments, souveneirs, the beauty of it is that you can do anything that you like!

tiff

My sister has just become a consultant for www.creativememories.co.uk she was introduced to scrapbooking when she lived in the States for 8 years and used to go to Creative Memories parties (scrapbooking parties).

choccyface2006

I stuck my childrens letters and cute drawings, foriegn/funny coins, photos - dated where possible, postcards, cut out bits from celebration cards, evelopes that contain information about where we have visited and an itinary of our holidays, newspaper cuttings and school newsletter that have my kids in, dried flowers, stickers, I even have the first teeth my daughter lost and some of her first sewing in there!

I haven't kept on top of it in years though, but just looking through them now makes me wish I had. They are looking abit dog eared now too and a few pages have fallen out so buy the best quailty books you can with good quality binding.

Sarah

Luna69

One of the places I used to get my 12 x 12 paper from has now closed unfortunately as they were having a few problems which included being told that they were selling products too cheap! They did often have free postage and their products were very good prices and they were still making a profit, just goes to show how greedy most places are. They had just moved into larger premises too, so unfair.. however health problems did have a part in it too.

Anyway, doesn't help you much I know, I'm not sure now of the cheapest place to be honest, I've not bought any in ages as I have such a huge stock that is waiting to be used up. I tend to stick with plain backing and decorate it more with embellishments and photo's to be honest.

I've crafted for many years, mainly a card maker so have built up a lot of bits, so try not to buy more now, I also love recycling stuff. I know with scrapbooking you have to be careful for the acid/lignin content, but I'm not that strict with it, as long as the photo's are ok.

When I started to scrapbook, around 1997, I couldn't get anything over here at all, I had bits sent from the US by a friend, but I just used normal A4 card in a binder and used my card making materials and hand made stuff.

To be honest and frugle, you don't need all the stuff you can buy, even though there is some nice stuff, I find most of it is left lying around unused.

If you don't already, if you go to the Ukscrappers website they have a huge amount of sponsors where you could compare prices of your paper/card there.

Yvonne

BrandNewDay

peter999 wrote:

What is scrapbooking ??

It is highly addictive, is what it is!

As someone else said, it's keeping photos and mementos in a scrapbook. But, people who get into it are concerned with the archival quality of the materials they use. Basic craft supplies, like we used as kids in school, won't last very long and can often even damage photos. Archival-quality papers are free of acids and lignin (the stuff in paper that yellows and becomes brittle) so that your photos and designs should last for decades with no fading or crumbling.

I notice that card-making is quite popular over here. A lot of the things used for card-making are also used for scrapbooking - particularly the little touches that gussy up a page.

When I came over from the States, I had one entire large suitcase full of just my scrapbooking stuff.

firespire

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ stores maybe.