One way to make your scrapbooks unique is to make your own embellishments. Sure, craft stores have hundreds if not thousands of embellishments that you can buy. But if you want your scrapbooks to truly reflect you and your family, why not make your own.

Or better yet, why not cheat and see what you may already have at your disposal. With scrapbooking you can be as creative as you like. There are no hard and fast rules about what to use or how to use it. And not everyone can afford to continually buy new embellishment supplies.

One of the most popular do-it-yourself embellishments is memorabilia. These can be ticket stubs, playbooks, programs, pamphlets, brochures, or any assortment of mementoes or souvenirs that one would usually bring back from somewhere special. Birthday cards, gift cards or even floral cards could be used. Also, keep an eye out in the local newspaper for school events or achievements, your own children could be stars.

Try to get as organized as possible with all of the memorabilia that you’ll be collecting so you can find things when you want to use them. Possibly separate items into labeled envelopes or small baskets for each event or period of time. Make sure you let everyone in the family know what types of things you are collecting so they can help out.

For more informal and day-to-day photos look for items around the house. Wine bottle corks can be cut into slices, colored post-it notes with special words on them, fridge magnets you no longer want on the fridge, a deceased cat’s collar, “student of the week” certificates, used stamps, this list could go on and on. Basically, you could use almost anything that would sit flat enough on a page (as long as the glue held).

When creating your pages lay everything you want to use down on the page before gluing it so you get a good idea of how the final page will look. You could also add captions, dates and even Smilies with colored pens.

When you pair these items up with your own photos they make wonderful keepsakes. But if you lay them out on a scrapbook page and make them into an event, they make memories.

Think back to your BK time (Before Kids). What special ways did you treat yourself; give yourself a boost; vitalize yourself?

My daughter Ruby is 4 now and before she was twinkle in her Daddy’s eye, I’d think nothing of taking myself off for a Spa day or afternoon, whenever I felt I needed revitalizing. I’d swim, have a sauna, visit the steam room, have a couple of treatments…bliss!

Finding anything more than 7 minutes “me time” can sometimes be a challenge these days! And with Baby Flintoft due in Spring 2010, this isn’t likely to change!

What has changed are my priorities and also where I find my moments of vitalization. These days they’re small, cheap – but the biggest thing is, they cheer me up, give me a boost and allow me to continue dealing with all the busyness and whirlwind of life.

Here are some of mine:

Having an undisturbed bubbly bath
Reading a book for an hour in a quiet place
Painting my nails
Going to a friend’s house for coffee and a chat
Taking part in the Flintoft Friday Funtastic Fiesta (which is me, Ruby and Dave my husband, dancing and cooking in the kitchen Friday evening)
Enjoying a glass of wine with my husband and a sofa snuggle
If somebody had told me BK that this is where I’d get vitalized, I’d have laughed in their face (and perhaps been a little disheartened). But the fact of the matter is, they do fire me up! They do vitalize me!
That said, there are many things which completely drain me, too. Which zapp my energy, my motivation, my zest for life.

Here are some of my energy zappers:

Moaning, grumpy people (especially friends who only ever seem to see the black side of things)
Having no milk in the fridge first thing in the morning for my wake up coffee of the day
Constant clutter that seems to appear as quickly as I tidied it away
Wasting money on something I thought would help
Ruby interrupting when I’m on the phone or speaking with someone, even though she knows she shouldn’t
The space in the kitchen, which seems to diminish by the second
Sheesh, even writing that list I can feel myself getting tense!! I gotta shake that off!

Here’s a quick exercise for you to do, to ensure you get more vitalization in your day and less of the energy zappers.

Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle of it. On the left hand side, write down all the things which vitalize you. On the right hand side, write down all the things which zapp you.

Hang the list somewhere where you can see it every day. Then, make a commitment to eliminating one zapp a week and doing at least two vitalizing activities. And, as you notice other things which have given you a boost, add those to the list so you can repeat them, too!

Enjoy your everyday vitalization!

“5 Steps for Working Moms to Break the Spell of Overwhelm and Guilt” http://www.successfulworkingmoms.com/

There are thousands of different types of embellishments available for scrapbooking. But before you start shopping for scrapbook embellishments you should decide on a theme for your scrapbook, then choose the photos that you will use as the basis for each page. Use this theme and photos to help choose the embellishments you will use. Just be sure to use some common sense when choosing your supplies at your local craft or department store so you don’t go overboard.

Perhaps you have done other types of crafts and already have a stash of craft materials available to you around the house. You could use some of these items for embellishments. Buttons, lace, drawing paper and photograph mats are fine for use in your scrapbook, especially if the material is acid-free. You could have a hoard of items at home and not even know it, so make sure you check all of your drawers and cupboards. If you are an expert in calligraphy, you may be able to do your own lettering on each page. If you are doing a scrapbook about babies and have a baby yourself, maybe you have some small baby items that you can use on a scrapbook page.

So you’ve decided on a theme for your scrapbook and you’ve found a couple of treasures in drawers around the house to use as embellishments or mats on your scrapbook pages, but you still want to add more detail and novelties. Head to the scrapbooking department of your local craft store to buy more scrapbooking materials if need be, but remember to keep check of how much you are spending as it is still much cheaper to make your own embellishments.

When you reach the scrapbooking section of your local store you will find a plethora of different types and colors of paper from which to choose. Choose paper that will complement the pictures you have chosen for the basis of your album pages. Remember not to choose paper that will detract from the subject of your page. Once you have chosen the right paper, choose embellishments that will coordinate with the paper and photographs you have chosen, and any other embellishments you found or made at home.

There are both flat and 3D embellishments available for your scrapbooking use. These embellishments come in a huge variety of themes to choose from. If you already have the photos and paper chosen, you will have automatically narrowed down the color choices of the types of stickers and other embellishments you can choose. Choose embellishments for a page or two at a time if choosing for an entire album seems overwhelming.

And most importantly, take your time. Yes that’s right, take your time. There is no rush to buy every single item on the shelves, as over time you will end up with huge collections of items without even realizing it. So take it slow, take it steady and take it easy, but remember to have fun!

Visit Cheap & Easy Scrapbooking for more tips on scrapbooking on a tight budget.