I would not say that I am the queen of frugal scrapbooking by any means, but I definitely like to find a good deal on scrapbooking stuff. Recently, I have started doing a lot of couponing for my groceries, and I am constantly thinking about how I can get cheap scrapbooking supplies as well.
Garage Sales are a great resource! I have purchased many things from garage sales. One of the best finds was when I went to a garage sale of two sisters that lived together and were avid scrapbookers. You could tell by the amount of stuff they had! Their things were not organized at all, and it was frustrating at first. However, I eventually filled up a box of miscellaneous stuff and offered them fifteen dollars for the entire box. They accepted! I didn’t haggle over each individual paper, or embellishment, but decided to make them on offer that included lots of stuff that they wouldn’t possibly want to take the time to look through. That was the key! I got about 1000 sheets of paper not to mention all the tags, frames, stickers, etc. Some things were not exactly my style, but for how little I paid, I just set those things aside.
Another idea is to go through your own things and pick out stuff you haven’t used, or probably won’t use and sell it. I actually did that with a ton of the paper I bought at the above mentioned yard sale, and then turned around and sold it online for $50. That way, I paid for my original purchase and had more leftover for buying more scrapbooking supplies.
Another philosophy of mine is that it never hurts to ask. When I was at that yard sale mentioned above, I asked about their paper racks they had all their papers on. They said that if I called them in a couple of weeks, they might be willing to sell them. And, I called them back and got an awesome 12 x 12 paper rack for cheap! It definitely never hurts to ask.
I am always looking on craigslist and other local classified websites for keywords such as craft, scrapbook, scrapbooking, etc. to find great deals on scrapbook supplies. This is how I found my recent stash of stuff and paid only $5 for it. Below is a picture of just a fraction of what I got. What a steal!
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To see more example of my scrapbook pages, follow my personal blog here.