Maybe I’m not as savvy of a scrapbooker as I thought. Or, perhaps, I am just cheap. Either way, I don’t have anywhere near the inventory of scrapbook supply leftovers that other women in my cropping group boast. In fact, I can fit all of my leftovers in a single shoebox.
I make no bones about my scrapbooking frugality. Typically, I purchase on an as needed basis. I operate on a tight budget, which means I don’t have the luxury of perusing my local scrapbook supply shop on any given day and purchasing items on a whim. Rather, I carefully plan out all of my books, usually sketching out layouts on scraps of paper and tallying up the cost of the materials needed before I even step into a craft store. In addition, I tend to use everything I buy. Even if my page design looks fine without that last leaf sticker, I will figure out a way to squeeze it in there because I don’t want it to go to waste.
That said, I’m beginning to re-think my habits. Last week, my neighbor’s sister Marta came to visit and showed me a scrapbook sticker storage system that blew my mind. Once I got over the shock of seeing so many stickers sorted by manufacturer, theme and type (vellum, foam, glitter, etc.) in a single binder I realized that leftovers can be a good thing. In Marta’s case, her gigantic collection of printed adhesives is the result of years of scrapbooking and her weakness for sales. She purchases the majority of her stickers at post-holiday sales and saves them to use on future layouts.
Like me, my neighbor’s sister would never dream of tossing out leftover stickers. However, instead of trying to squeeze all of them on an individual layout she simply files them away and uses them for other projects. For example, an array of different leftover alphabet stickers can be used to create a “ransom note” title for a page design. In addition, you can make a colorful background with an assortment of random stickers on a page or simply use extra stickers to decorate homemade cards, tags and bookmarks.