Scrapbooking Stores

For those of you who have ever set foot in a scrapbooking store, you know that they can either be a scrapbooker's friend or a scrapbooker's foe depending on how you look at it. Many scrapbooking stores are large warehouses with rows and rows of stickers, paper, diecuts, albums and other scrapbooking supplies. There is so much there that it can easily become overwhelming even for veteran scrapbookers.

I personally have a love/hate relationship with scrapbooking stores. I love to go in and browse through all the scrapbooking products to see what is new in the scrapbooking arena. I have yet to go to the local scrapbooking warehouse and not find an item related somehow to whatever theme I am working on from a foot operation to all my children's firsts to scrapbooking themed items.

However, the thing I love about scrapbooking stores is also the thing that I hate about them as well. There is so much stuff, almost too much stuff. I always walk out with items that I couldn't live without yet don't have a current use for such as printed papers that I'm not sure I'll ever have pictures to go with and stickers that were just too cute to pass by but have yet to find a home in my scrapbooking pages.

Do to the overflow of scrapbooking supplies in my craft closet, I have had to develop a plan when going to scrapbooking stores. When I know that I am going to have some time to scrapbook in the near future, I lay out all of my pictures and sort them by theme. I then write down the themes on a piece of paper with the approximate number of pages I will devote to each theme. For instance I recently scrapbooked a Florida vacation including a day in Palm Beach followed by fun in the snow pages and the purchase of a new car, so I had three separate themes I was working on.

Once I have my list compiled, I head to both of the scrapbooking stores near where I live. When I enter the door I am determined to look only for items pertaining to my themes. This can be tricky since you have to look over other items to get to what you really need at that moment. You have to be strong, which isn't always easy when some new scrapbooking gadget or a new shipment of scrapbooking paper is staring you in the face.

My plan has worked well so far. Sometimes I actually leave the store without purchasing any other items. One day I did break down and buy about $10 worth of scrapbooking supplies for twins as they can be hard to come by. I justified it by rationalizing that there are only so many pages of twin 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper and twin stickers in the world, so I needed to seize the opportunity. That was really the only day I have deviated from my plan.

Another great way to purchase scrapbooking products is to do so from your own home rather than traveling to scrapbooking stores. If you can stay focused, the internet is an excellent way to buy scrapbooking supplies. However, if you thought there was a lot to buy at scrapbooking stores, they don't have anything compared to the amount of products on the internet. I have gotten some excellent deals on clearance scrapbooking supplies and scrapbooking supplies on eBay. However, I have also fallen into the trap of purchasing too much when I have come across unique products. If you can't stay on track you can easily purchase an excessive amount of items.

As I said before, scrapbooking stores can be your friend or foe. If you can go in with a plan and stick to your plan, they are an excellent way to find the perfect scrapbooking supplies and embellishments for upcoming pages. However, we all have to spoil ourselves sometimes. So, if you are feeling a little carefree, leave your list at home and enter the store knowing that you might be leaving with half of the store in your shopping cart. We all deserve to be carefree now and then, don't we?