Scrapping, scrapping, and more scrapping.
With the help of oodles of Canon 4x6 photo paper, boxes and boxes of double-stick photos squares, and my Christmas station on Pandora, I turned out three scrapbooks for gifts this year (in retrospect, this was sort of insane).
I've mentioned before that I make one for my husband's grandmother every year. Last year, I started the scrapbook way too late and was hurrying to get it done in time. I swore this year would be different, so I bought the album in January, so I could make a few pages each month.
That was a great idea.
"Idea" is the key word here, though, because despite my good intentions, I started this album the Sunday before Christmas. Ahem.
Every year I fill her album with pictures of us (mostly the kids!) throughout the year.
( I have discovered that I am terrible at taking pictures of pictures, so please excuse the blurriness in the following photos. They really were sharp and clear and beautiful in real life!)
I also made an album for my sister-in-law, full of pictures of my stillborn niece (you may remember that I was there for her birth back in September).
I would share some more pictures of the inside because I think it turned out beautifully, but I don't want to do that without permission from my sister-in-law. I think I can share this one of me with my niece, though (my brother-in-law took this picture).
The last album was for my sister. I used a 12x12 black leather album (I really want one of these for myself!) and filled it with pictures of my little nephew. He was born in May, and since the day he was born, I've been regularly taking pictures of him.
Actually, I've been taking pictures of him since before he was born.
Isn't he precious?? (some of these pictures appeared here in a not-Monday-Q&A post)
He is SUCH a sweet little subject and I had a lot of fun putting this album together.
Scrapbooks aren't an especially frugal gift (though I scrapbook in a relatively frugal way...I may share about that in the future if there's interest), and they take a TON of time. But I do love to make them for people because they usually are such a meaningful gift and they bring so much joy to the recipient.
And that makes me very happy.
They're all beautifully done! I would love to hear more about frugal scrapbooking. I've only done a little of it a few years ago because it all seems a little overwhelming to me. But the ones you made are simple and lovely--I'd love to learn about your methods.
Would love to hear about frugal scrapbooking as well. I love to scrapbook, but it tends to get very expensive because there are so many cool new products out there!
Great job!
I didnt make scrapbooks for anyone but I did make a few photobooks, a calendar and a photo flip book. Oh ya and a few coffee mugs. I noticed the older generation just loves getting photo gifts!!
This is something else you could do for pay. I'd hire you. (Seriously, let me know if you do consider doing this as a paying gig.)
I do mine on shutterfly, but i like yours better, I'd love more info on frugal scrapbooking!
I love your scrapbooks and I would love any tips you could share about how you did them. I have taken many pictures over the years but they are either on the computer or in photo boxes/drawers. It leaves me though with the questions that always surface in my mind.....when did you find time to do these and where in your house do you work on them? I love the idea of working on a project like this but it seems like you would need a dedicated space. Clearing off the dining room table every day to work on it doesn't seem practical.
I would love to hear about your frugal scrapbooking. It does take so long, but it is worth it in the end. I am impressed that you made three scrapbooks. That is amazing and they are gorgeous!! 🙂 Great work!
I see others were reading my mind! I would PAY you to put together books as gifts for my friends and family.You do a beautiful job, we can see your work and if you are frugal it could be worth it for you.Another idea for a money maker is to do for a hospital what you did for your sister-in-law? I take it Zala was a baby that died...I worked in an intensive care nursery(preemie's and full term babies) and the parents could use this memory book to help with their loss and to heal.Feel free to email me if you need more specifics or if you do start a business to make those beautiful scrap books!
Very beautiful and thoughtful. I have one that I started when my baby was born, but is only filled a couple of months. And she is 13 months now! Oh well, good intentions don't always materialize... but now you've given me some inspiration. Thank you!
Those are gorgeous!!
I would love to hear more about this as well. I guess it's hard to get into how much things cost, since the people receiving them may read this blog.
These are beautiful! Are these photos printed from home? They look great! What kind of printer do you use?
Kristen, that baby boy looks so much like your kids! Sonia I think? He could totally be yours! Too cute!
I love the scrapbooks they look amazing! I would love if you would share your frugal scrap booking tips. I would do more of mine but simply I can't afford it. So any way to make it cheaper would help
Please do share on frugal scrapbooking!!!! I have been a scrapbooking supply collector for a few years now and really need to get caught up on it and would love some tips on doing it frugally.
I know this is an old post but now that I've found these scrapping posts I had to read. One of the most frugal things I've been learning lately is that if you've collected a lot of supplies in the past, time to use them up! I do design for a website that sells kits each month so get kits for free but that's about all I've had new for awhile.
My own tips (my style is a bit different then FG but I admire the beauty of these albums, they are simply gorgeous Kristin!) are to use up your stash, if you are open to using office supplies in your scrapping like glue sticks look for great sales on things like acid free glue sticks. I use glue sticks almost exclusively now & back after school started created a huge stash of glue sticks that I got dirt cheap!
Also, be open to looking at thrift stores & Goodwill for scrapping supplies. I find things like that there sometimes.
The scrapbooks look great!
I would love to know how to scrapbook frugaly (word?). I take a monthly stamping class (ink) where we make cards. I am slowely buying stamps and punches and paper and ink, with the grand intentions of making a baby scrapbook. I also save scraps of paper that have potential. I think I am driving my husband crazy. For when you post on that subject, do you prefer the plastic pages in which you can slide the sheets into (rather than unprotected pages)?
Another vote for a post (or many!) on frugal scrapbooking! As long as you don't suggest using random bits of "found" paper--I did that on my first scrapbooks and now, 15 years later, I'm having to redo them because the papers weren't acid free and were damaging the photos. Now THAT is expensive--having to do it twice! (Not to mention the time it's taking to redo them--I'd done the first 4 years of my daughter's life and another one of the first 2 years of my son's life. Sigh.)
I have been enjoying your posts on your Christmas gifts. I would love to be able to incorporate some of these ideas into next year's Christmas. I am very much interested in learning more about your frugal scrap book ideas.
your scrapbooks are beautiful!
i would love a post on frugal scrapbooking as i try to keep it cheap (as is tradition, no? SCRAP booking? 😉 but there are so many pretty things out there that cost so much it'd be ace to hear some of your frugal ideas! xx
Absolutely beautiful...I scrapbook and would love the frugal scrapbook ideas!
Photo gifts rock! I gave a few this year, framed collage and a photo calendar. they were both big hits. A scrapbook is so nice. I am curious though, how do you manage to organize all thoise photos for a whole year? Especially those of other family members? Mine are in a shoebox. They overwhelm me. Help!
These are beautiful! I'd really love to hear your methods...I'm thinking one of these would be a great gift for my mother-in-law next year! I've only made one scrapbook before and it was, well, ugly. I think I tried to do too much with it. I love how simple yours are.
Those are such sweet and meaningful gifts. I made a scrapbook for my parents' 30th wedding anniversary a few months ago, and the amount of tears and hugs that it spurred on made me sure that it was better than any store-bought gift I could have given them.
Even if the scrapbooks weren't frugal, isn't the point of being frugal is to have the resources to put into the areas of your life that are important? In this case, preserving memories is important. Without it, family history would be gone. For your sister-in-law, it memorializes an important event in her life. For grandma, something to look at and share with her friends.
You owe no apologies for what you are doing.
I have to say I love following your blog and learning new tips on doing things. I recently learned of a goat co-op here in my town and since I am allergic to cow milk, I am excited at the prospect to having another source of milk. My question for you is, do you think I can make yogurt, like you have illustrated, with unpasteurized goat milk? My starter would have to be a soy yogurt I believe. Thanks for your help..
adding my voice to the others .definitely do posts about frugal scrapbooking.i like the clean simple lines of your scrapbooks.i want to do those kind of simple elegant scrapbooks.
also as stevie said the older generation does love photo gifts. for christmas i gave my grandmother who is 89 a mug with a picture of my grandfather holding me when i was a baby.he passed away in 1988 .my grandmother loved it and has been using it everyday.
thanks for the great job you do on this blog.and i hope you and your family have a happy and healthy new year.
you rock kristen!
Maybe you could sign up with your local Freecycle group (www.freecycle.org) and post a request for scrapbooking materials. A lady in our local area posted that she was giving away a batch of unwanted scrapbooking items (she was giving up on this hobby) and when I arrived there were 4 copy paper boxes FULL of everything sitting on the front porch for me - paper, albums, stickers, embellishments, etc.. I wanted to do cartwheels in her front yard - I was so excited. All. For. Free. Gotta love it! So, perhaps posting a request on Freecycle would yield a lovely batch of free goodies - sounds like frugal scrapbooking to me! 🙂
BTW, your blog major rocks!
Very beautiful!
Check out my sister's scrapbook blog. People pay her good money to build scrapbooks. However, those people probably wouldn't qualify as frugal. Sis's site is good for some inspiration!
http://abusyplace.blogspot.com/
I love these! Love the typewriter type, love the simplicity of the photos. My biggest problem with scrapbooking is that most people spend way too much money on the add ins (the little cut outs, the special papers, etc) so the pages are these big jumbles with one photos. I love the way you've done this.
What beautiful scrapbooks!! I love the simple yet elegant pages that you put together!! Makes me want to get back to mine!! It's been a while since I redecorated my dining room table with paper, stamps and punches!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your beautiful artwork!
Yes, yes, yes to the frugal scrapbooking post!! My goal for the new year is to scrap from my abundance of supplies from my non-frugal days . . . I would so appreciate new ideas!
Not sure if anyone will run across this, wish I'd found these posts sooner lol
I have a list of really good scrapbooking sketch sites, anyone who would like to email me for them, go for it (scrappinvicky@yahoo.com) They are not spam sites, just some that I've collected over the past couple of years.
Kristen,
Thanks for the lovely post and for asking... everyone has their own way of dealing with death, and Chuck and I appreciate you honoring ours. Post away...
I too would love to see your blog about frugal scrapbooking.
I'd like to read about frugal scrapbooking too. I made a small one for my dad on Father's Day a few years ago and it ended up being far more expensive than I anticipated. I've never done it since. I can't have hobbies that tempt me to spend money and buy things just so I can do them. I really enjoyed doing it though and it was by far the best gift I've ever given.