March 30th tip of the week- Make a card!

I started scrapbooking a little over ten years ago now. When I started I strictly made scrapbook pages. I soon found I had a lot of left over paper, stickers, rubons, etc. I put all the extras in a plastic bin thinking I would use them for another page never to be seen again.

I was once told by a very talented scrapbooker- Jennifer McGuire (she designs for Hero Arts, Autumn Leaves and other scrapbook companies) to make a card every time I made a scrapbook page (well actually I took a class of hers, so she didn't really tell me personally, in fact I am sure she doesn't even remember it and has no idea who I am). She said while all the supplies are out make a card. I have been doing that ever since.

If you think about it, you bought the stuff for scrapbooking, so if you use the left overs to make a card, it's like the card is free. And I can usually make about 3 or 4 cards with my leftover stuff. I call it the "ten minute or less card". And to make it really easy go to a craft store and buy pre-scored cards that come with envelopes. They are super cheap if you look for a sale. Just put some patterend paper on the front, a sticker or two, maybe a rubon and you have a card in ten minutes that you didn't have to pay $3.99 or more for (I swear I can't leave Target without spending less than that on a card) and it looks better than what you would have bought.

What kind of card should you make? Well I always need thank you and birthday cards so that is is usually what I make. Sometimes I just make a card with no sentiment and then add what I want later. Depending on the paper, you can usually get away with that.

And the best part of making cards with your left over scrapbook stuff? You can use the money you saved to buy more scrapbook stuff! Or save it for something good. That's a good idea. Here is my challenge for you- everytime you make a card put $4.00 dollars away (ok- $2.00 if you usually buy the cheap cards, not that there's anything wrong with that) and at the end of the year buy something really great. Just make sure you tell me what you bought!

Have a great Monday!
Sarah