Creative scrapbooking has taken the world by storm. It’s relaxing, fun, social… and, let’s face it, incredibly addictive! After all, what scrapbooker doesn’t smile with pride when she or he finishes a decorative project?

If you have the talent to create eye-catching, creative scrapbooks, you can actually turn your hobby into a lucrative creative scrapbooking career. In this three-part series, we’ll show you some of the secrets to running a home-based creative scrapbooking company that regularly adds extra coins to your coffers!

Why Creative Scrapbooking?

People from all walks of life have photos and mementoes cluttering their homes. They’d love to organize and arrange them, but don’t have the time (or, in some cases, the ability.) That’s where you, as a professional scrapbooker, can step in!

Through creative scrapbooking, you can create delightful, entertaining, and touching memory books that will be certain to have a very long shelf life. Imagine… your scrapbook creations could someday become precious family heirlooms passed down from generation to generation!

What Types of Scrapbooks Sell?

Creative scrapbooking is an incredibly versatile field because you have virtually no boundaries. Graduation scrapbooks, family tree scrapbooks, baby scrapbooks, wedding scrapbooks, and achievement scrapbooks are only a few of the countless styles of creative scrapbooking inventions you can market.

Use your imagination; anything that’s relatively flat can go into a scrapbook, so the sky’s the limit.

Can Scrapbooking Really Be Profitable?

Creative scrapbooking, as with any legitimate business, won’t make you rich overnight. But if you’re determined and plan your creative scrapbooking operation pragmatically, you can absolutely make money from this burgeoning industry.

Best of all, creative scrapbooking is a low overhead industry. You’ll need to start with a modest amount of scrapbooking supplies, but you can build your stock over time thanks to fast shipping and wholesale prices offered at Internet scrapbooking supply stores.

How Can I Start Professionally Scrapbooking?

Obviously, the first step to starting a creative scrapbooking company (even one with a single employee, aka “you”) is to develop a business plan. This document should include an overview, financial information (including income and expense projections, marketing ideas, local competition statistics, and realistic growth rates.

Though you may not be able to find exact data to work into your creative scrapbooking business plan, try to be as complete as possible. The more information you include, the better your chances of success.

Do I Need Any Formal Training?

Though there are no credentials needed to call yourself a creative scrapbooking pro, you may want to take a few community courses on scrapbooking design. Doing so will keep you “in the know” as far as the latest products and trends are concerned; it will also provide you with fresh ideas to propose when working with clientele.

What Do I Need in Terms of Stock?

One of the most essential items you’ll need to start a creative scrapbooking venture is scrapbooking paraphernalia. Chances are, you already have some supplies around your home, but if they aren’t organized, it’s time do so.

Invest in some bins (dollar stores have a plethora of options) and label them according to scrapbooking supplies, such as stickers, papers, backgrounds, adhesives, albums, markers, scrapbooking magazines (for inspiration), and borders. This way, you’ll always know exactly how much of each scrapbooking necessity you have and can order more before you run out.

Do I Need to Rent a Space for My Scrapbooking Business?

Though it would certainly be wonderful to have an “offsite” locale for your creative scrapbooking enterprise, it’s more likely that you’ll need to make due with your current digs.

Anything from a corner of your family room to a renovated closet can serve as your creative scrapbooking “headquarters”. Just make certain that you have enough space and light to work your magic and store your scrapbooking supplies!

What Will I Tell My Family?

If you’re worried about “breaking” the news to your family that you’re setting off on an entrepreneurial scrapbooking journey, you’re not alone. Many first-time business owners are reticent to reveal their plans to loved ones for fear that their significant others will not be supportive.

With that said, it’s critical to the long-term success of your creative scrapbooking business that you have the “buy in” of your kin. So take a deep breath, muster up all your courage, and boldly state, “I’m going to become a professional scrapbooker! And when the money starts coming in, the first dinner out is on me!”

The Next Step

Are you eager to start your creative scrapbooking adventure? In our next article, we’ll explore how to set your prices and market and advertise your home-based scrapbooking services…

By: Michele Cardello

About the Author:

Scrapbooking can be defined as an activity of preserving memorabilia and legacy through notebooks called scrapbooks. The person puts down his thoughts, ideas and feelings in the scrapbook and decorates it in a cheery and beautiful manner. The whole idea of a scrapbook is to create a visually attractive book whereby, a person can combine his thoughts and ideas with a touch of beauty and glamour. Instead of keeping a mundane daily diary or journal, one can make a cheerful scrapbook.

Today’s digital age has taken over almost every walk of life. Scrapbooking is no exception to this occurrence. Digital scrapbooking is now rampant and is serving as a tech-savvy way of keeping a scrapbook. Printers, scanners and desktop publishing have all taken scrapbooking by a storm. The Internet is providing the scrapbookers with a wide range of scrapbooking options and aims to accrue the benefits of online scrapbooking in the dozens of social networking websites available before us.

Scrapbooking is now a commercial activity. It has lots its small-scale status and is expanding by the day. Scrapbooking has evolved greatly over the past few years and this has given rise to an interesting variety of scrapbooking techniques. A scrapbooking technique is not something that fits in a set mould. In fact, all of us can devise our own scrapbooking techniques. But certain techniques pertaining to the various aspects of scrapbooking are truly beneficial.

Various websites outsource scrapbooking techniques. Some books have been compiled for the same. The whole process of scrapbooking is a great learning process and we can find discover interesting techniques whilst making a scrapbook. We can share these with our friends and learn some techniques from them. But all in all, certain standard techniques can prove advantageous to our scrapbooks in many ways.

The first most important aspect of scrapbooking is the choice of paper. A variety of paper that has a long life is sturdy and acid-free should be preferably chosen. Thereafter, one should design a plan for scrapbooking. All the materials to be used in the scrapbook should be carefully planned and selected. We should have a clear idea of the entire design of our scrapbook. The correct variety of pens, inks, stencils and embossing material should be used.

Most sources outsourcing scrapbooking techniques emphasize on the need for creating an index page or highlight pages to locate them properly. Special pages should be decorated in special colors and symbols should be designed for such pages. Bookmarks with tassels can do wonders to your scrapbook. Tassels can be used in various areas of your scrapbook.

Decoration is perhaps the most important aspect of scrapbooking. Most sources outsourcing scrapbooking techniques suggest the need for choice of the right type of decoration. Decoration should be chosen carefully and should be minimal but sufficient. Too much of decoration can make your scrapbook look gaudy and overdone. Stamps, ribbons, embellishments, stickers, rub-ons, snow globes etc can add a dramatic touch to your scrapbooks, provided they are chosen carefully and used appropriately.

Pop-up pages for your albums, papers pierced with interesting trinkets, peek-a-boo pages, punch craft, panoramic pages, layering etc can do wonders to your scrapbook. The world of scrapbooking techniques is huge and diverse. You can explore some of these to add a touch of versatility to your scrapbooks.

By: Muna wa Wanjiru

About the Author:

nic0l3em asked:


i recently found out that my friend is moving to another state and my friends and i wanted to make her a scrapbook. we bought everything and we have 70 pages to fill up. we have about 50 ideas or so, but thats not going to fill up all the pages, even if a few ideas will take up more than 1 page. so do you guys have any suggestions or ideas on what another theme could be?