Sunday, December 2, 2007

Great Gifts for Scrapbookers and Papercrafters

If you have a scrapbooker or papercrafter on your gift list, you might be baffled about what to get her. Here are some great ideas:

1. Paper: I’m a charter member of the “she who dies with the most paper wins” club. However, one sheet of several patterns never works well. Instead, buy a “slab” of paper or a package with a variety of co-ordinating papers. That way the crafter will have enough to do a project. Do be careful, however. Some kits promise hundreds of pieces, most of which are garbage. Look at the back of the package to see what it contains. You want a good mix of embellishments and paper.

2. Letter Stickers: You can NEVER have too many or enough! No matter how they look, or what color, letter stickers are essential to almost every project. A great idea is to buy two packages. That way your crafter will have enough for those pesky words like “proofreading” or “bookkeeping.”

3. Ribbon: The trend is lots of ribbons in all sorts of colors. Choose a color family or two and buy a variety—solids, patterns, stripes. Don’t go thicker than ½ inch width.

4. Stamps: I would say “rubber stamps” but the new clear ones aren’t rubber. (Who knows WHAT they are.) Right now, the coolest stamps are alphabets in foam. Also hot are any clear stamps with a doodling style and journaling stamps (stamps with lines on them where you can write your story. These are products that can be used over and over.

5. A Cricut or a QuicKutz System: This is the next step up from letter stickers. With these you make your own letters. The equipment is expensive, but worth it. If she already has either of these, give her a Cricut cartridge with another alphabet or cool shapes like tags or a QuicKutz font.

6. Storage Systems: I particularly like Cropper Hopper’s paper storage containers which are like magazine holders. You can see all your paper, take them off the shelf and easily find what you’re looking for. Also their "page planners" are cool. You can put all the pieces of a page or two in one and keep your stuff together. Make sure everything is sized for 12" x 12" paper, otherwise the containers will be too small.

7. Canon Selphy: This is a unit that allows you to download photos from the memory card and print them. It’s very convenient, quick and economical.

8. A Subscription: Keep the ideas coming all year long. I give a lot of subscriptions as gifts because I think they are a monthly reminder of my love. The top three scrapbooking magazines are (in no particular order): Scrapbooks, Etc.; Memory Makers; and Creative Keepsakes.

Now, where should you go to buy all this? I suggest Archivers. (The Canon Elphy might be best purchased at Best Buy.) Right now if you make a $50 purchase at Archivers, you get a pad of holiday paper FREE. (Yeah, I meant to make it in today, but the weather turned nasty. I'll see you there tomorrow! Of course I need more PAPER!)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You like variety, I like consistency. We both agree that you need enough of whatever you like. So when I buy paper, I get several reams at the same time. It's kinda like making sure you get all the same dye lot for yarn or floss.

Camille Minichino said...

Maybe THE most useful blog of the season, Joanna! Thanks ... I'm writing from Boston, paying for every second of air time, so I'll be briefer than usual!

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Oh, Camille, you are sweet to stop by.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Ellen, you are right. If you don't have enough, you're in trouble. Here are two ways I "make do" when I don't have enough of one piece of scrapbook paper for a page: 1.) I cut out the area BEHIND my photos. It's tricky, but it works. You may have to reinforce the hole, though. 2.) I find a co-ordinating paper and cut the original paper I wanted to use into pieces, spreading those pieces over the page. 3.) I strategically arrange my photos. I just did a page where I had a small amount of a favorite paper left. I let that fav paper peek out from behind photos.

Sigh. That's why we ALWAYS can use more paper!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hmm. I think I'll leave this blog post out for my husband to see . . .

Thanks!
LindaB