That’s why in this post I’d like to share with you a few of the techniques that I’ve developed over the years to mask most of my blunders.

Mistakes, Marks, and Glue

If you notice a mistake, mark, or little bits of glue on your scrapbook page, you can try rubbing them off with a soft white eraser. Apply light pressure to begin with to avoid damaging the page, and if the mark doesn’t disappear, carefully apply a little more pressure until the mark is gone. This has saved my layouts many times in the past.

Make It A Feature

Alternatively, If the mark won’t go away, you can turn the mark into an interesting squiggle or doodle and present it as a feature of the page.

Journal Text

For mistakes made in journal text, try covering it with a sticker that is the same colour as the journal page, and then just write the new text on the sticker.

Bigger Mistakes

If the mistake is larger, you can cover the mistake with a larger sticker (or picture) such as a smiley face, cat, flower, or starfish. All you have to do is think of something that fits in with the theme of the page. This a good one because no one will ever realise that it actually it hides a mistake.

White/Black Page Mistakes

If the mistake is on a plain white page, and the mark is only small, ‘white-out’ can be used to hide it. And for black pages, you can also get ‘black-out’ from most craft stores.

Finger Print Smudges on Photographs

Fingerprint smudges on your photographs can be removed by rubbing the fingerprints gently with a piece of flannel or a dry baby wipe.

I hope these tips can are able to help you get out a sticky situation, the next time you make a mistake (because they sure have for me).

As I was sorting through them I was reminded of how careful we need to be when working with fragile memorabilia, so I thought you might appreciate some of the useful hints I’ve learned over the years when working with priceless family photos.

Because many of the photos you will be using will be very old and delicate, I suggest you don’t actually use the originals in your vintage scrapbook. Here are some alternatives:

How To Protect Delicate Photos

• Scanners: Scanners are very cheap these days and they allow you to scan your old photos into the computer. You can then manipulate them in programs like Adobe Photoshop. In many cases it’s hard to tell the difference between the original and the scanned one.
• Photo Editors: Also, using a photo editor like Photoshop enables You to crop them, make them lighter or darker, blur the edges and fix blemishes and marks. Even torn photos can be ‘fixed up’ on the computer.
• Photocopy: Alternatively you could photocopy the originals. However rather than copying the photos on a black and white copier, it is worth getting color laser copies, which will give you the true sepia shades.
• Don’t Forget the Inscriptions: Any old photos on thick card will need to be copied and don’t forget to copy the backs of the photos with original inscriptions as you may want to include them next to the photos.

Backing Up Your Precious Photos

It seems that these days we are having an unusually high number of natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, bush fires and tornados etc. Events like these all conspire to destroy our homes and our treasured keepsakes and often without warning.

For this reason it is very important to have copies stored in a safe place. As stated above it is a great idea to scan copies of your old photos onto your computer (not forgetting to scan the reverse of the photos if there is anything written on them).

This allows you to store them digitally on CD or DVD along side any other important information about them, where they will not fade or be affected by light. This also allows you to store them at another site, maybe with a relative or friend, in a bank deposit box or with a business that specializes in this service.

There are also services like Dropbox that back up you photos and other documents on the internet, but still allow you to have access to them on you computer whenever you want them

This way, if the originals are accidentally destroyed, you will still be able to make copies.

Also, to preserve the original photos for longer, Keep them wrapped and stored in an acid and lignin free box away from the light, as many old photos fade in the light.

-Maree

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So in this article I’d like to show you one of my favourite cheap scrapbooking tips using an item that you probably already have lying around the house – jigsaw puzzles! Almost everyone has a puzzle or two that’s just gathering dust, so here are a few ways to put them to good use in your scrapbooks.

Photo Frame

Firstly, assemble a section of your puzzle to match the shape and size of the photo you’ve chosen for your layout. Generally this will be a square or rectangle, however you can also make it a rounder shape if you like.

Then, carefully remove the pieces from the centre, leaving a boarder that is one row of puzzle pieces thick. You can now place the puzzle border over the top of your photo and mount it to your page.

Page Boarder

Much like the photo frame boarder, you can apply the same technique for making page boarders. You’ll just need to assemble more of the puzzle, and probably run a line of sticky tape along the back to hold it all together.

Featured Embellishment

The idea behind this method is to use a section of the puzzle that actually has a picture in it, and not the boarder. So like the two methods above, assemble a section of the puzzle with a picture in it that you’d like to use.

It may be an aeroplane, a kitten, or even a barbie doll. When you’ve finished making the puzzle section, flip in over and once again place some sticky tape on the back to hold it all together.

You can now place the puzzle picture in your layout the same way as any other embellishment.

-Janette

P.S. If you want more great scrapbook ideas like these – Click Here to get the Secret To Simply Stunning Layouts; A scrapbooking treasure-trove full of example layouts made with inexpensive materials, many of which you’ll already have! So check it out Now!

Many of them like the idea of using materials that they already have, however when they draw a blank on what to actually use, they usually turn to buying one or two pieces from a shop. And then before they know it, they’ve bought a whole bunch of new materials for their album at a significant cost.

So to help avoid this, I’ve laid out a few good places in your house you can look for some scrapbooking materials.

The Spare Room

This should be the first port of call for anyone looking to save money scrapbooking. It will have the most gains for the least amount of work, and best of all – you might not even have to go another room to source materials.

Nearly every house I’ve been to has a room or at least a corner, cupboard, shed, garage or bookshelf that is used to store things that people aren’t really going to use any more.

So its a great place to start.

The Garden Shed

The garden shed is great for more coarser materials. Here you’ll find things like extra scraps of wood, paints, plaster, woodchips and metal filings. While they are very rough and textured materials, they can really add some flavour and roughness to an album – if thats the look you are going for.

The Stationery Cupboard

This isn’t necessarily a cupboard, it can be a shelf, drawer, box or anything really. It’s the area where every household keeps their pens, pencils, extra paper, envelopes, wrapping paper and any number of supplies.

Using stationery is a great way of filling in blank spaces, creating backgrounds for your pages, backings for photos and adding a bit of colour and flair to your albums.

There are a heap of places you can look around your house for cheap scrapbooking materials – and I’m sure there are a heap of places in your home that I haven’t covered that you could search.

-Janette

P.S. If you want more great scrapbooking ideas like these – ‘click’ this link right now to go and download 10 Free Scrapbooking Layouts full of new techniques and inspiration!

But if your wedding was anything like mine, it’s probably left your bank account a little light. So now is the perfect time to get into cheap scrapbooking. This way you can have your wedding cake and eat it too! Some of the ideas I used were:

Ribbons

When you measure it out by the meter, ribbons gives you good value for money, something you really are looking for when try to save your pennies. It’s also a very versatile material to use in your scrapbook.

Whether you are using it as a border, to make a pattern or just to break up a blank section, it’s a great way to add some flair to your album while keeping within the theme.

Doily’s

If you have any old lace (or even paper) doileys that you aren’t using, then you have to put them in your scrapbook. They make a great backing for any wedding photos and add a real touch of class and charm. Alternatively you could also use it as a border for a page.

Pastels

These are my best kept secret. Simply by rubbing a pastel over a blank bit of paper and then smudging with your palm, you will get a beautiful cloudy look.

It really does look amazing, you have to try it to see for yourself. Since discovering this, I have used it in a number of scrapbooks. With a packet of chalk based pastels costing only a few dollars, it is one of my cornerstones for scrapbooking on a budget.

So there you have it, some quick and easy to follow tips on inexpensive scrapbooking for an album of your special day.

Good luck and happy scrapping.

-Janette

P.S. If you want more great scrapbooking ideas like these – ‘click’ this link right now to go and download 10 Free Scrapbooking Layouts full of new techniques and inspiration!

My Back Yard

While taking a break from one of my albums, I ventured out into the back yard to bring the washing in. While I was out there, I wondered if there was anything from the back yard that I could use for my album. And what I came back with was some beautiful leaves and some flowers. I dried these out and included them in a nature section of my scrapbook. The effect was quite charming.

Friends and Family

Many of my friends and some family members have spare rooms in their houses. In them, they store stationery, old materials, files, old toys and many other things no longer used. After seeking permission, I went through these rooms and found a treasure trove of materials I could use in my albums.

The upside was that everyone was happy for me to take these things as they had been meaning to throw them out, so I was doing them a favour.

Hard Rubbish Day

I don’t know about you, but in my neighbourhood we have a thing called hard rubbish day. This is a day when people take the things that they no longer want and put them out on the strip of grass in front of their house where the local council can come and take them away.

This is an absolute goldmine for crafting materials, I have found old linen, ribbons, wrapping paper, coloured pencils, paper – pretty much everything a scrapper could need. I was in heaven.

So you see, if you just sit down and have a bit of a think, you will be able to come up with a whole heap of different places to source materials for your scrapbooks.

-Janette

P.S. If you want more great scrapbooking ideas like these – ‘click’ this link right now to go and download 10 Free Scrapbooking Layouts full of new techniques and inspiration!

School Monogram

When I was scrapbooking photos from my sons school years, there were lots of little notes that I wanted to include about the photos, but I couldn’t seem to find the space on the page for them. So what I decided to do was write down all of the notes on small rectangular-shaped cardboard tags, and to slip them into a pocket.

But I wanted to make the pocket extra special so I thought a little laterally and un-stitched the monogram from his school blazer (See pic to the right) and then sewed it onto the page using a sewing machine.

The end result was a very personalised eye-catching feature that not only looks great, but was functional too.

French-Fries Packet

Many children grow up with some kind of attachment to fast food restaurants, which is possibly because of fond memories from birthday parties and stopping by for lunches after Saturday sports. Nevertheless my son’s favourite was McDonald’s.

And one evening after we had just finished a McDonalds dinner, he ran over to play in the playground and before I knew it (much to my dismay) he had fallen off of one of the slides an was in need of medical attention. Needless to say it all ended up ok, although the event is so etched in my memory that I just had to add a page about it to my scrapbook.

And to include this story in the page layout, I got an empty (un-used) french fry packet from my local McDonald’s restaurant and attached it to to the page with some double sided sticky tape, and then just popped the note inside with the story written on it.

These are just a couple of ideas to inexpensively add pockets to your scrapbook layouts, however I’m you’re thinking of more now.

- Maree

P.S. If you want more great scrapbooking ideas like these – ‘click’ this link right now to get 10 Free Scrapbooking Layouts full of new techniques and inspiration!

Of course they we’re, and the fact that you can buy so many materials from shops doesn’t mean that you have to in order to make it look special and beautiful.

In this post I’d like to share with you 2 simple and very cheap scrapbooking techniques for creating impressive scrapping effects, namely; paper cutout embellishments and ancient parchments.

Paper Cutout Embellishments

Paper cutouts are perhaps the simplest and cheapest (yet most eye catching) types of embellishments that you can use, and you can make them yourself very quickly. All you need to do is find a picture in a magazine or on the internet of something relevant to your photo (such as a ‘bath tub’ if you’re scrapbooking a picture of you child having fun in the bath) and then trace around the outside of the picture onto another piece of paper.

You can then take a different coloured piece of card (for highlighting) and trace around some of the finer attributes of the picture, in this case the rim of the bath and the legs (see pic the right)

All you need to do now is cut out these shapes and stick them together with double sided tape. Easy huh?

Ancient Parchment look

When scrapbooking an historical page, you can make your journalling sections look like there’re written on ancient parchment. To do this just tear around the edges of some card, then smudge the chalk around the torn edges. And finally, distress the edges by rubbing them, tearing, and folding them back around the corners and edges.

This particular technique creates a great effect with all kinds of different colours of chalk and card, however the ancient parchment look in particular looks best with brown colors.

-Janette

P.S. If you want more great scrapbooking ideas like these – ‘click’ this link right now to go and download 10 Free Scrapbooking Layouts full of new techniques and inspiration!

The good news is there are definitely other-better and cheaper scrapbooking options for adding lettering and titles to your pages without blowing your budget, and better still-sometimes not even paying a cent.

The problem with letter sheets is that all to often you’ll buy an entire sheet of letters for $5-$10 and only be able write a few words with them. Which leaves a stack of never to be used again letters on the sheet, making the cost of the letters that you do actually use to be very very expensive.

So in this article I’d like list a few ways for finding inexpensive alternatives for adding letters and titles to your pages.

Scrabble Tiles

Scrabble tiles are an great way to add titles to your pages. These can often be picked up from a second hand store for next to nothing, or better still you can simply do a Google-image search for “scrabble tiles”, select one of the tile images that you like, print it off and you’re good to go.

The best part about printed scrabble tiles is that when you cut the letters out, you’re cutting square shapes (which are easy), and not the letters themselves.

Hint: If you’re using printed scrabble tiles and you want to create a 3-Dimensional look, just stick them to the page using mounting tape. And if you don’t have mounting tape – simply use a piece of corrugated card (from any decent sized cardboard box) and a few pieces of double sided cardboard to piece them together.

Magazines and Newspapers

Theses are another great place to get letters from. Almost everyone has a couple of old magazines lying around, and they’re jam packed full with letters of different shapes, sizes, colors and fonts to choose from. Just cut a few out and you’ve got a great assortment of free letters to add to your pages.

-Janette

They are also a very cheap scrapbooking technique that can be a no brainer to implement. In this post we’ll be looking at a couple of simple ways to create tags, what to put on the tags, and a few different locations to place them on your page.

Making Tags

As seen in the pictures to the right – these tags are little more than a small rectangular piece of card, with a ribbon attached, and that’s all yours need to be too.

However, if you’d like to jazz them up just a little more you can do that too. For a nice border, cut out a piece of card that is the same shape and a little bit larger than the tag itself and attach it to the back of the tag using double sided tape. You can also add little embellishments such as buttons, stickers, charms and other nick nacks to personalise them even further.

Writing on Tags

Usually the content that gets written on tags are short notes about the photos, such as what’s going on or what happened before/during/after the event, and sometimes they’re just another place to add a page title. Nevertheless, they’re a great and inexpensive way to liven up a page

Placing Tags on the Page

There are 3 common places that I like to add tags to a page.

1. Behind photos are a really neat place to place tags. If the photo is only mounted to the page from the corners you can simply slip the tag underneath leaving ribbon or tassel exposed.
2. You can also make the tag itself a feature of the page by making a special place for it. For example, the tags string could be attached to the page with a brass fastener or looped around a sewn on button and left to dangle.
3. Finally you could create a special pocket on the page and neatly slip the tags into the pocket.

-Janette