• cardboard from boxes
• tags from clothing purchases
• clippings from magazines
• pages from old books
• buttons that are included with new pants or jackets
• paint chips from your local hardware/paint stores
• the internet

Recently I made a lay-out about the upcoming election. We’ll be out of town on election day, so this was my first time ever voting by absentee ballot. Everything I used for this page was something that I found or already had. I added paint to cardboard to use as the base of my layout. I made a photocopy of the request for the ballot, downloaded photos of the candidates from the internet, used some old flag toothpicks from the 4th of July cupcakes we made, made a couple stitches at the top to help adhere it, as well as a few other old supplies from my stash. It’s nothing fancy, but it will be a reminder some day of the year we were out of town on election day.

Speaking of the internet, there are so many scrapbooking sites & blogs that you can find unending creative inspiration for FREE! Browsing through sites like SIStv, Scrapbook.com, Scrapping Across The Universe & Scrap Mojo is free unlike buying a subscription to a scrapbooking magazine. Some blogs even encourage “green” scrapbooking… like
Scrap Your Crap & The Art is Found just to name a couple. I have even won free supplies just by reading these blogs, making comments or by submitting my work. The possibilities are endless!

Whether you’re saving your money these days or simply looking for smarter way to spend… you don’t have to totally give up doing what you love. Just be creative… find new ways to use what you already have!