Let's SCRAPBOOK !

It has been 2 years since I last made a layout for Vera to document her birth story. Ever since, my stash of papers have been sitting in the folder for the longest time.

Tell me how unfair is it ? Xav has 2.5 albums full of layouts which  I did for him while Vera got the one and only piece ! I told myself that I have to re-ignite my scrapbooking engine again.

I have some mummy friends who asked me how did I get started with scrapbooking and if it's going to burn a big hole in the pocket ? I have to say that the materials do not come cheap. Hence, I only buy my materials when the local scrapbooking stores (LSS) are running promotions.

The collection is a never ending as there will be new collection coming up each time. What I did do to prevent myself from over buying :
- Self Control, buy only materials that you need
- Buy only designs that are suitable for use for most occasions and themes.

I started with a die cut machine and a set of alphabet dies which I bought from Krafer's Paradise. My collection started to grow over the years when the stores have really good deals and there are pages in Facebook, SBM II, where crafters at times will de-stashed at low prices.

This time round, I started to scrap up some photos that were still lying under my computer table and WITHOUT using the die cut machine. Here's something you can do without having a die cut machine.

There are some materials you might need to do up your layout:
- Acid free coloured or pattern cardstocks or thematic stacks I show below. It saves up a lot of time when comes to decorating the layout with these nicely printed cardstocks of different designs in the pack.

- Tape glue
- Foam dots (if you want to make the photograph or chipboard sticker "stand out")
- Punchers if you have some. Taobao sells some decent punchers at really affordable prices.

 Circle foam dots ( left) & Martha Steward border punch (Right)

- Paper cutter
- Chipboard stickers

The green polka dot butterfly chipboard sticker

- Alphabet thickers
- Flatback stick on pearls

Flatback pearlies on the butterfly

- Washi tapes 
- Rub ons (just like tattoos)
- Photos

1. Plan a theme of what you would like to do up. I started with a family theme in mind since it's the family photo we had from the Camping Theme Mini Photoshoot Session with Orange Studios last year.

I punched the edge of two pieces of cardstocks to create a border and had the photo sticked on it. The colours of the cardstock is to match the colours of the ready designed family themed cardstock.

Materials used for the layout below :
- Coloured / Patterned cardstocks
- "Love" ticket decorative paper
- Foam dots
- Chipboard stickers
- Flatback pearls
- Tape glue

Layout #1

The second layout which I did was for Xav's class photograph. This took me less than 10mins to complete !

Materials used :
- Patterned cardstock (Grade School Stack as shown earlier in the post)
- Chipboard stickers
- Washi tape
- "Friends" sticker
- Tape glue

Layout #2

The third layout was for our recent Coney Island cycling trip.

Layout #3

I bought these MT limited edition tapes two months ago from the MT Fair 2015. Perfect designs for the theme !

MT Washi Tapes

Materials used :

- Coloured cardstock
- Washi tapes
- Foam dots
- Chipboard stickers
- Rub ons
- Tape glue

Rub ons (Adventure Seeker wordings)

Here's how I control my spending :
- Buy only when they have sales and promotions. Normally I frequent Paper Market, Made with Love, Maple TreeHouse , Spotlight and Krafer's Paradise. These are the few local scrapbooking stores.
- Online shopping (you be surprised their stuff can be much cheaper than the retail stores here)
- Buy at destash prices in scrapbooking pages or join in sprees.
- Taobao shopping king or queen if you are one ? No , am not. But my friend did helped me get some stuffs from there.

So who says you need a die cut machine to start scrapbooking or spend a bomb at one go to get the materials? You can try to start making up one during your MeTime to de-stress. Trust me that it can be quite therapeutic. Hope you find the above tips useful and may it help to kickstart you on your scrapbooking journey.

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Disclaimer : This is NOT a sponsored post in anyway.