| By :
Michel Maling
As an avid scrap booker, I am always looking for cheap scrapbooking ideas and ways to save money with my scrapbooking layouts. If I am not careful I can go overboard and buy useless stock for my kit, and my hobby can get very expensive. Today I will discuss some of the tricks I use to ensure cheap and easy scrapbooking, in fact some of my layouts end up costing me nothing, as I simply use leftovers from other projects. 1. Save all your scraps I never throw away my paper and card stock scraps. You can use these scraps to make entire backgrounds for your scrapbooking layouts among other things. You make wonderful creations by cutting and layering your scraps and using these as your background for your layout. With a bit of imagination, you will also be able to make effective embellishments out of your scraps, like punch outs, flowers and leaves, and scraps can also be used to matt your photographs. 2. Save the white pages in your albums All scrapbooking albums come with a plain white paper in the plastic sleeves. Don't throw these away, as you can use these with your scraps to make your patterned paper. They are also acid free, so will be quite safe to use on your scrapbooking layouts. 3. Make your own embellishments This can be a great cash saver for you, as well as make your pages more personal and unique. There are lots of embellishments that you can make from left over scraps including flowers, flags, punch outs, tags and various other creations. You can include buttons, pipe cleaners, soft wire, wool or embroidery cotton, patterned wrapping paper, left over stickers, coasters or even old jewelery - your only limit is your imagination. If you are not sure if something is acid free or not, don't let it touch your photographs, or spray with an acid free spray. 4. Make your own stickers Stickers are a very popular embellishment, so instead of spending a fortune on them, try making your own. You can buy special sticker paper, or just use regular or glossy card stock and glue your stickers onto your page. You will be surprised at how many clipart images you can use from your computer to use in your layouts. 5. Save all your mementos If you go somewhere special, collect items that you can use such as coasters, brochures, tickets, menu's, receipts, business cards or even small shells. Doing this will also give your layouts a more personal feel. 6. Purchase Neutral Colors When purchasing stock for your kit, as far as possible, stick to neutral colors, especially for things like brads and eyelets. When I buy inks, I always stick to browns and black, as they are useful on all of my layouts. If you buy too many colors, most of them won't be used and sit in your kit for years. To get more great ideas for your projects, visit: http://scrapbookideasandsolutions.blogspot.com
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