I admit to having no knowledge on this one!! But, I have been in those scrapbooking stores and such, and they are not cheap!!!! How do you guys afford your hobbies? What do you do to cut costs? Share your tips, please!!!

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~Happiness is a large family~

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~~Sonja~~

My 3lynns~ Ashlynn-8, Brooklyn-4 and Kaylin-3

I always check out the clerance and the dollar items. They have some really cool stuff for a buck. Of course use coupons for non sale items. Look for sales. Sometimes they have a hidden clearence section where they have some cool stuff for super cheap.

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Mom of one kangaroo!

Shop clearance--always! Never buy anything unless it's on sale
Never go into Joann's or Michael's without a 40% off coupon
Sign up for Archivers newsletter---they mail you coupons for 3 sheets of FREE cardstock (pretty much monthly)-no purchase necessary
Shop the $ section (sometimes)...
I do shop the Dollar Tree for paper and a few other items
Do Not like the Dollar section of Target for scrap stuff(except ribbon)
$1 stamps at Michales
Hot Spot at Archivers--1.99
and my favorite $1 site dollarscrapbooking.net ! They have quality stuff it's just been discontinued....so mostly everything is only $1 and she only charges actual shipping.

Recycle!! I eyeball everything for potential craft materials. I am always finding ribbon and embellishments on different packaging, holiday cards that we were sent, clothes that DS has grown out of. I went through our Xmas cards this year and most of them on the inside had basically a 4x6 blank piece of colored paper that I used for matting the holiday themed pages. Keep your eyes open.

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I had finally realized I had a suggestion for this thread,, and that was pretty much it! lol

Think outside the box! In all the purging I was doing this week, I ran across a bunch of fake flowers .. a lot of them were small. I 'picked' the flowers off of their stems,, disconnected them from their 'center' and now I have 'primas' GALORE

and some are going to CUSTOM match my wedding pages *if i ever do our wedding ,, almost 7 years later!*

The COOLEST thing I tied in like that, was a layout I did of my bitty chick during the 'hand to the face new baby stage". I used the paper she actually laid on in her nursery picture,, and some BRU wrapping paper that had handprints on it, that came on a package at her shower. And then I did some actual handprints of her. It's one of my favorite layouts for those reasons!

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.

The Dollar Tree in my town carries two aisles of cute craft supplies and scrapbooking items. Don't forget to check Big Lots, they get a lot of name-brand craft kits, etc. from stores like Target.

I also suggest a local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Many stores give left stock to these businesses and can be bought cheaply. Not to mention other items there that can be used or turned into wonderful craft projects.

Just keep you eyes open for different things and especially for the 40- 50% coupons for Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby. I see a lot of those online.

I don't scrapbook, but I'm always on the hunt for craft stuff for the girls. I've seen things at Dollar Tree, dollar bin at Target, and Michaels has great sales or they have the coupon in the paper for up to 40-50% off a nonsale item.

Dh's aunt is a retired teacher who has a scrapbook business. She used to work partime for a scrapbook/art supply store because she got a discount there.

I love the $ Tree! Another thing is to look in different places for stuff. I bought some pretty eyelash yarn for $1 and use it in place of fibers (which are really expensive)

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Alicia (Tree-hugger wannabe)
mom to Shawn, Jake, and Toad
"Chick" out the Scrapbooking Forum for great handcrafted Occasion Ideas!!