Scrapbooking is so much fun, that it’s very easy to rack up quite a bill when shopping. I know when my daughter and I visited the craft store last week, she was just mesmerized in the scrapbook aisle. She truly wanted one of everything. Today, there is so much you can add to a page, stickers, embellishments, ribbons and stamps.

So, how can you get all of the goodies without breaking the bank? I have two suggestions. The first is scrapbook kits. We belong to a monthly scrapbook club. So, every month we receive an assortment of papers, an assortment of stickers and an assortment of embellishments all in one kit.

We mix and match our kits all of the time. If we never bought anything but the kits, we’d have enough materials to make many great pages. The manufacturers of scrapbook kits almost always offer a lower price on the kit versus what you would pay if you purchased each item individually.

You’ll find kits available for themes, such as weddings, birthdays and summer vacations, and you’ll also find kits available for seasons, summer, winter, autumn and fall. Having two daughters, I’ve also purchased several “girl” kits. While I don’t have boys, I’ve seen baby boy kits, sports kits and car kits.

My second suggestion is clearance sales. If you are a scrapbooker, you know that you’ll be scrapbooking in a years’ time. I buy scrapbook supplies, the same way I buy clothes, after the season. Once summer is over, all of the scrapbook companies make room for their fall inventory by lowering the prices on all remaining summer products. This is the best time to buy those summer colors. The same is true in reverse. If you want the darker autumn tones of paper, wait until summer is here and then stock up. We buy a lot of discontinued products. They work great, but we get them for a fraction of the cost.

We actually combine the two ideas and buy scrapbook kits on sale, after the season. It really is possible to enjoy the hobby of scrapbooking while saving money on the supplies.