$300 for a Year of Scrapbooking - What Would You Do?

by Nicole Humphrey | More from this Blogger

11 Jun 2006 09:32 PM

Around a year ago, I made a friend who was going to go overseas with her husband for a year while he was in the service. Wherever it was she was headed to, pretty much meant no scrapbook supplies for a year.

Can you imagine that? I'm not sure I would survive a year without access to scrapbook supplies.

However, her husband gave her $300 and told her to purchase what she could for the entire year. Obviously developing or digital prints were not included in that amount. She was able to use the online digital print services for that while she was away.

So her question posed to several scrapbookers was "What do I buy?". So we brainstormed and came up with several suggestions on items she would need to scrapbook overseas. Things she couldn't do without.

We went into the whole thing assuming that she already had the necessary tools to scrapbook (i.e. Scissors, a paper trimmer and any other fun tools she used). We also thought she should create some page kits to take along with her so she was prepared at least somewhat ahead of time.

So we decided the first item she needed to stock up on was cardstock. She scrapbooked 12x12" two page layouts each time she scrapbooked. Because it was a year, we figured she probably needed around 365 layouts which roughly added up to 730 sheets of cardstock. She decided to purchase the cardstock in value packs to save money and they ran roughly around $10-$15 depending on how many sheets she got in each pack. Her total on cardstock came up to approximately $60.00.

The next important item we decided was patterned paper. She decided to go with the Michael's slabs and Joanns Stacks. These ran around $10-$20 for between 72-180 sheets. I believe she also used coupons to get her 40-50% off an item depending on the store. All together I think she spent somewhere between $50-$55 on patterned papers using coupons.

It's imperative when you are scrapbooking to get adhesive. Something needs to adhere your photos and other items to your scrapbook layouts. She appreciated the fact that adhesive tabs could be cut in half and would go further than most other adhesives. She chose to use Hermafix tabs. Each refill came with 1000 tabs for $6.99 and she chose to spend about $50 on all of it.

She got a couple of subscriptions to her favorite magazines and joined the scrapbook club costing her around $50 all together. It was so she could get fresh ideas each month and stay current with the latest trends.

With the remaining money she purchased embellishments that were neutral enough to use for the types of pages she thought she might create. She bought ribbons in colors she used, buttons, metals and all types of other embellishments. Probably somewhere around $90 just in those items.

That was about it. She has since returned home to the United States, and is happily shopping at her local scrapbook store. But she said that she wouldn't change the purchases she made. She was able to do a lot of scrapbooking there and didn't miss much while she was away. We are glad she is home with us again.

So, what would you do with $300 to spend on supplies for a year?

Learn more about Nicole Humphrey

Nicole Humphrey is a freelance writer, consultant for CTMH and a Sr. Blogger for families.com. She resides in St. Charles, Missouri with Mike and their five children and two furbabies.

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