Whether you're looking for a gift on a tight budget or just want to do something special this year a scrapbook can't go wrong. A few years ago money was very tight in our family so I was forced to come up with an idea for something inexpensive to give to each of my adult children. I decided to make each of them a personalized scrapbook. I chose my favorite 10-15 pictures of each one fo them and created an album. It's fun, relatively inexpensive and easy to get started! 

Minimally, you need a scrapbook with 10-12 pages. You can often get these on sale at Joanns with Joann.com and qualify for free shipping on orders of $35 or more (Code: NOVFSA35).

Paper - you're going to need one 12x12 sheet of paper for each page that you do. The paper is only about 50 cents to a dollar a page.

Pictures - you already have these!

Decorative items -   Joann has thousands of these that you can buy, OR I find these around the house all the time. Old buttons, magazine images, old party favors and "memory" items saved from a special occassion. What better place to put them than in a scrap book; where they can be seen and enjoyed by everyone rather than in an old showbox in the closet?

Ribbon - I bet you have plenty of scrap ribbon, yarn and thread in the house too.

Glue - a good non-acidic glue is best. It helps your pictures last longer when exposed to the air.

Graphics - there are plenty of places on the internet to grab free graphics. Find what is applicable to your picture, download it, print it and put it on your page!

And there you have it. Everything necessary to begin scrapbooking. 

Shhhhhh.....

Start out testing your designs in a digital format. This way, if you've spent your hard earned money for embellishments, you can practice before you apply the glue. Scrapbookflair.com is a great place to start. They even have a free program to help you develop your pages.

Not all of the pictures that you use have to action or comedy shots. The picture above is my daughters high school graduation picture. When I look at it I am reminded of her the way she was then. Innocent looking, ey? Well, she is now a responsible mother in her own rights, but back then.....? Suffice it to say she was a typical teen-ager and caused her mother tons of grief! The words, if you can't read them are:"A whole lifetime yet to experience. May your journey be one of happiness, understanding and love."

These are MY words - to her. When I first started scrapbooking, I tried to put the words in the image persons perspective; but remember this is your gift to them. Let them "hear" your words.

Buttons from Joann's, Ribbon was already "in the house". Total cost: ~$1.49 

This picture of my two grandchildren taking a bath in the kitchen sink(s) is a family favorite. It's not a great picture, but I though all the colors blended well and since the picture itself told the whole story it needed very few words.I do like to get names and dates in most pages in some manner as in twenty or forty years there WILL be questions as to just who is in the picture!

The rubber ducks are internet images and the flowers are from an embellishment set. Total cost: about ~$.99

This picture of my granddaughter took a little putzing around to get just right. I took the color out of all her clothing to get the effect I wanted - but it really wasn't necessary. The picture alone would have told the story of a beautiful Autumn day and a child fascinated with the leaves all around her.

Total cost: ~$.79 (graphics created by me so NO paid embellishments)

This picture of the cat in the bowl was one the entire family loved. My son had made the bowl in school and the cat just fell in love with it. It was her favorite napping location. In order to get both cats in one page I took another picture of our other fur ball and trimmed the outlines to get just him and then glued in with the other picture. Add a few "dots" and some real leaves from outside and there you have it!

Total Cost: ~$1.79 

I think you "get the picture"! Scrapbooking can be very inexpensive if you use all the bits and pieces that you have around the house. Practice in a digital format and then put that proctice to use on the real thing! My kids absolutely loved the books that I gave each one of them that year - yours will too!