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Scrapping on a Shoestring One of the hottest hobbies to hit the market in the last few years is scrapbooking. Stores dedicated to scrapbook supplies are springing up all over, and there are numerous books, magazines, and websites devoted to the subject. There are even several direct selling companies that focus on nothing but selling scrapbooks and supplies. But to a beginner in the scrapbooking hobby, all of this can be overwhelming, and it quickly becomes apparent that it can also be very expensive. Regardless of the fact that one's photos are better off in a "safe" environment, if money is an issue (as it is for most of us), a novice scrapper may feel that the expense makes it impossible to achieve. However, there is hope! Scrapbooking on a budget? To some it may sound like an oxymoron, but it does not have to be. To be completely honest, there are only four things that one absolutely has to have in order to preserve your memories in a photo safe environment - the photos, photo-safe adhesive, an archival black pen for journaling, and the scrapbook pages themselves. The album can come later. If buying the album right away is a stretch, then the only thing I would add to the list is page protectors for your pages, so that they are protected until they can be put into an album. Depending on what type of system you use (three-ring binder, strap hinge, or post bound), you could get the pages, protectors, and pen for under $20. If you want to spend a little bit more, you can add a few stickers, die cuts, and maybe some colored or printed cardstock, to add a little "flair" to your pages. But there are many ways to do that without having to spend much money. If you have leftover pictures that are "duds!", they can be used as embellishments - for instance, if you have pictures of the lights from a night time event that came out as nothing but blurs, you can trace and cut them into letter shapes to use for your title. You can use a graphics program on your computer to print out clipart or other images to use as self-made stickers. If you get a good set of colored journaling pens,
you can do all sorts of very pretty decorative lettering, and innumerable border
and page decorations. Circle cutters, punches, decorative scissors, and all of
the other "tools" are really just extras. They do make scrapbooking a
little faster and more convenient, but the most important thing on your pages
are your pictures and journaling - not all of the decoration! If you just put your pictures in the developer's envelope and into a shoebox or other container, than take a few minutes when you get each roll of film back to write a few sentences about each group of pictures on the roll (I say "group" because if you're like me, you don't always start and finish one roll of film on the same event!) Use your computer's word processing program, and just get down the "who, what, where, when, why, and how" about each set of photos, print it out, and fold it up and stick it in the envelope with the pictures. This works well if you have duplicates and keep separate boxes for each child - just print out however many copies you need, file them in the appropriate box. If you do this much, than down the road, if you
DO decide some day to start a scrapbook, or your kids decide to start one, you
will have enough information to make the pictures meaningful, and maybe even
bring back other memories about them. Otherwise, they may become nothing more
than "strangers in a box." * * *
Copyright 2002 by Melissa Johnson |
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