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How To Organize Your Scrapbook Supplies.
You have a large collection of scrapbook supplies: templates and papers, scissors and stamps, adhesives and pens, stickers and more and more. Messy scrapbooking supplies shouldn't take away from the joy of scrapbooking. It relies on the flow of your scrapbooks.
So it is very important for you to find a way to organize these supplies so that you have things when you need them.
Now you can find the solution to this problem. And it is Iris Scrapbooking Cart. It is a great scrapbooking storage. It features 6 removable storage drawers, casters for easy mobility and convenient organizer at top. Its rounded corner design prevents paper damage. It’s really a great organization tools to store all your scrapbook supplies.
Top Basic Scrapbook Supplies
What scrapbook supplies do you really need for your great scrapbooking projects? I have some good news for you. There are a lot of supplies available in the market now and you can find everything right ones that will help you make an unique scrapbooks. Top basic of them are:Album: The first thing you really need is an album. There are tons of different options for types of albums. They come in a variety of sizes, bindings, colors, and themes. You can easy choose the right album on depend of the type of things you want to paste into the album.
Scrapbooking Paper: Scrapbooking is a paper craft and a paper is the most essential part of it. Cardstock pages are the best for your photos. You can add some texture to the pages by using vellum and soft-mulberry’s paper. You can easy choose a right paper for the background and paper for matting photos.
Cutting Supplies: Scrapbooking requires a lot of cutting work. So you really need some paper cutter and a pair of sharp craft scissors. They help you cut, cut and cut.
Scrapbooking Pens: You will need some different kinds of acid-free pens and markers. You can use pens for journaling, writing titles for your pages, captioning your photos, adding doodles.
Adhesives: You can use a many different types of adhesives, e.g. dots, photo corner tapes, tape runners. Double-sided tape is good for sticking clippings on the pages. Photo corner tape is right for sticking pictures and vellum tape is useful for sticking transparent substances. Tape runners are very good. You can use them for all your needs. And keep on hand good general liquid adhesive.
Additional Supplies: You really only need the above scrapbooking supplies to create your projects. However, you can use more scrapbook supplies to add more visual interest to your pages. It may be, a corner rounder, brads, stickers, die cuts, eyelets, ribbons, rubber stamps.
Where To Get Discount Scrapbook Supplies
Scrapbooking can really put a big dent in your budget. You have to get a lot of various scrapbooking supplies to make your lovely projects. But you always can find some great discounts on your favorite supplies.Here are some scrapbook ideas that may help you turn scrapbooking into a low cost way.
Consider buying some of your most often used supplies at a non-scrapbooking store.
Check out Aisle Hop at the craft store.
Try starting your supplies shopping at the clearance aisle.
Check out an online scrapbooking store to find your favorite supplies at a discount.
You can find a direct sale of scrapbooking supplies. You can buy them a lot cheaper.
Involve other people to buy supplies with you and you will get discounts for a bigger amount of supplies.
You can find the biggest discounted supplies at a closeout stores.
So go buy some supplies using the tips shown in this article. You will surely save some money and your scrapbooking will be more cheaper.
How To Use Your Scrapbook Supplies
Here are some tips and advices on using scrapbooking supplies from scrapbooking celebrity.You will know:
- what common staples you need and how to use them
- how perfect embellishment can to emphasis your words or message
- what paper cutters are best of all
- where to find various cool simple stamps
- how to find favorite journaling stamp
- how to buy the best scrapbooking kits
- what diecut machine is better for scrapbooking
- opinion about using metal (i.e. brads) on pages
- and more and more ideas about using scrapbook supplies and other items.
Non-Scrapbooking Supplies
Don't you just die every time you walk into a craft supply store? I just want to grab a cart and throw all the neat things into it and not have a care in the world. I would love to stand there and play for hours on end. Running the cool fabrics between my fingers, the satiny smooth ribbons around my hands and twisting and turning all the wires, twines and interesting strings. I love to eye up all the metals and the little charms. I want to buy all the little rusted metals and stick them everywhere.
There are so many neat and interesting items on the market today. Neat things that add dimension and attitude. Buttons, wires, raffias, ribbons and more. We challenge ourselves to use these things and put them in our memory books.
The more you do this, the easier it is to see how this can be so valuable to your memories. If you see once how it nice and easy it is to add a few buttons to your layout, it will be so easy the next time you are contemplating having to throw away that old shirt your husband wore over and over again. You might just think to yank off the buttons and add them a page you make dedicated to love of that shirt.
Many of you are going to ask how to attach many of these items to the layouts. Some of us use liquid glue. Some of us use sticky dots. For the buttons and embroidery floss, we just tied them on the pages. With the wire, Some glued and some tied the icon or whatever to the layout with another piece of wire threaded to the back. Whatever the method, you just need to make sure that it is a strong enough glue to hold the items to the page. The metals require a really firm hold and so sticky dots were used if they could not be tied on.You can enrich your creativity by using these non-scrapbooking supplies.
Scrapbook Supplies – To Save Or Splurge.
With all of the wonderful scrapbook supplies out there and with the constant introduction of new products, it would be easy for any scrap-enthusiast to become overwhelmed. Rookie scrapbookers - in an attempt to build a scrap-arsenal of supplies - often fall lure to the many advertisements and buy way more than they need (or in my case, will ever use). So what do you buy? Well, learn from my mistakes and learn whether you should Save or Splurge when it comes to scrapbook materials.
Paper Trimmers - splurge! Oh, I’ve done it all from free-hand cutting my 12x12 papers (don’t ask me to show you...its far to scary a sight!), to chopping papers and then feeding them into an inky-dinky 8" trimmer that went dull after 10 cuts, to buying the basic 12x12 trimmer that seems to cut wobbly edges no matter what I tried. I cut paper a lot in this hobby and shook my head often, even throwing the occasional hissy fits at the lack of cutting precision of the above mentioned tools. So when it comes to something this basic yet this important, I would highly recommend getting one of the better trimmers. Sure, you’ll pay more than $40 for one but your paper will thank you in the long run.
Stickers - save! Yes, they are cute. Yes, they are tempting but do your best to resist. A lesson that would have saved me a ton of money had I learned it much sooner. When I first began this hobby some three years ago, stickers were main scrapbooking supplies and I bought a lot of them! I bought the border stickers; the itsy bitsy stickers that I almost needed a magnifying glass to see; flower stickers in every variety; seasonal stickers in every size... you get the picture. But, since sticker styles have changed so much over the years, I find myself faced with dozens of stickers that I haven’t used and now--will never use. When it comes to sticker purchases, I save my money and buy only a few sheets that I know I will use immediately; gone are the sticker-hoarding days.
Cardstock - splurge! How many of us scrapbook a page around a color theme? How many of us use color to evoke moods on our pages? How many of us after having selected our photos, grab the paper next? It goes without saying that we use this stuff a bunch! It is such a time saver to have cardstock in every color, texture and thickness that we could possibly need right at our fingertips. And, at the rate many of us use the stuff, it is also nice to not run out. Cardstock not only acts as the template or background for many layouts but it also is used for photo mats and journaling. A scrapbooker would be hard-pressed to complete a layout without it... so ladies grab that paper in every color you can find and even grab a few pieces in colors you might not normally select... its a purchase worth every dime! Shop around and try various different manufacturers. You’ll find some companies make very thick cardstock while other cardstock is thinner. It’s nice to have variety too!
Albums - save! It wasn’t always the case, but nowadays you can get great albums at various stores for really great prices. Some of my favorite albums were picked up for right around $25 (for 12x12) and are not only true to size but durable and cute too! Since I go through around 6 albums a year, I try to plan my album purchases around those great weekend sales where I can pick up as many as I like for 50% off. This is a great time to buy the more expensive albums that make great theme books (vacation, new baby, seasonal) or beautiful gift albums. If your local scrapbook store has a frequent-buyer bonus program, you may also consider using your bonus bucks for more expensive album purchases.
Printers - splurge! Unless you hand journal on most of your layouts a great printer really comes in handy. I used to think of my printer as a supplemental piece of equipment but now, it is an integral part of the hobby. If you are a 12x12 scrapper, I strongly recommend you look into a printer of this size. In fact, I can go so far as to say that the introduction of my 12x12 printer has revolutionized the way I think about, plan for, and complete my scrapbooking pages. It makes scrap-life so much easier for me and allows me to develop some really unique pages too! With a printer this size, journaling no longer remains a side note or an after-thought of a page; it becomes a major part of the artistic design. In addition, a better made printer also allows me to print my own photographs. Think about it: you’ve got a photo you love but can’t use the colors in the photograph as is. You scan the picture and change the color to black and white, maybe even changing the size from 4x6 to 8x10 as well. And, with the push of a button, you can print out professional quality photos without ever having to leave your home! Now, how is that for convenient? Anything that saves me time in the long run is worth a bit more money up front...it gives me more time to scrap!
Pens - save! Probably another rookie scrapper pitfall, but I was very quick to spend way too much money on a pen set that I now, well...rarely use. I grab a few of the same colors of pens all the time - black, navy blue, red, hunter green, and brown - while the rest just decorate the table. Had I just bought the colors of pens that I use and not the whole set I could have spent $60 more on cardstock! Bummer. But, do spend a few more bucks on a really good pen that you know you will use often. The better-made pens cost more but have benefits like multiple sized tips, ink that lasts a longer time, and is of course, acid-free.
Embellishments - save! Yes, I’m saying save but anyone that knows me knows I love to use all the newest embellishments on my pages. I’m not saying don’t buy them...heck no, buy them for sure but in moderation - at least at first. It’s very easy to get caught up in the new product frenzy and end up with too much of the same kind of supply.
Embellishments like eyelets, buttons, metal adornments, beads and bobbles are trendy and cute but are not always the easiest (or safest) things to use. Grab a few of the ones you like and try them out! If they work out add them to your staples of supplies. You might find out that while they look great, you simply can’t afford to have that much bulk on every page!
Organizers (binders, bins, shelves, etc...) - splurge! It’s all about saving you time upfront so that you have more time to enjoy your hobby in the long run. I started out with a two 15x15 plastic drawers. In them were stuffed papers, cardstock, punches, my sticker obsession, scissors, a trimmer and more! All the stuff was crammed in there and even though the papers were all in one drawer and all the other stuff was in another, I had to empty out the drawer’s contents each time just to find what I was looking for. Fast forward to present: Cardstock has it’s own shelf; patterned paper is sorted by theme in two portable files; ribbon and fibers are neatly stowed in stackable bins with drawers; embellishments are in labeled drawers of tackle-box like organizers. All of my supplies neatly stowed away in labeled spots so that what I need is only a fingertip away. I spend close to no time hunting for what I need. The time and money it takes to get organized is definitely a splurge well spent!
Stamps - splurge! While once I thought them impractical and would challenge myself to use them more than one time, I have now come to realize the value of stamps both monetarily and artistically. A few key stamps with images that are timeless (leaf prints, flowers, holiday, etc...) can be customized and embellished in countless ways. One simple leaf stamp, for example, can be manipulated dozens of ways for dozens of different looks. You can emboss them for a 3-d affect, change the color to suit your mood and need, add other embellishments to them for one of a kind looks, cut them out and add them to tags or journaling boxes...the versatility you get with stamps is nearly endless!
Of course, scrapbooking is all about personal preferences and style choices. Take time to find your style and the scrapbook supplies needed will become more clear. You might find that stickers, for example, are something you can’t live without and use on every page.
via Kate Nelson
