When I did scrapbooking in the past, it was using construction and printer paper. It was making do with flourescent colors and pictures printed on printer paper on a color printer. It was putting the pages in a 3-ring binder for my students to look at.
Recently, I decided to do the real deal. I bought a scrapbook from a discount store. I bought a pad of scrapbook paper for a fraction of the normal price. It was normally $20 and I got it for $4, just because some sheets on the pad of paper had been removed.
I selected a few pictures from my iPhoto library and had them printed on a Kodak machine at the grocery store. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased alphabet letters, stickers, double-sided tape, and a storage case for the supplies.
I also purchased a paper cutter on clearance from Target, which later broke, so I had to go back and exchange it for a slightly more expensive paper cutter.
The supplies.
You can see that the papers coordinate. That was a big help, because I have difficulty matching colors in an attractive way compared to my ultra-talented friends. One of my friends will tell you that I once tried to color a pig purple, just because that was the nearest colored pencil at hand.
This is the original paper cutter. It worked great until the blade guard fell off and the blade started shredding the edges of paper instead of cutting it.
I love the way that the papers coordinated. In the stack of paper I bought, facing pages were meant to go together. I also loved my double-sided tape!
I loved these alpha letter stickers. They really made the scrapbook pages even prettier.
This is my new paper cutter. Notice that it has an arm on the upper left. This allows you to cut full sheets of scrapbook paper. The arm folds up when not in use. The previous cutter I had was just a tad too short to cut full sheets. The pages would fit under the cutter, but the blad would not reach the edge of the page. You had to go back with scissors to finish the job.
I had a great time making scrapbook pages. I was quite surprised. I was also suprised to see that most of my iPhoto pictures were of clothing and food that I made. I need to get out and do more hiking and trips so that I can take more pictures of people!!