budget friendly scrapbooking {a magazine review}

Let me apologize in advance for the lack of photos in this post-I'll be back this weekend with the snow layout I promised last week.
Today, I want to share my review of a magazine I recently picked up at Hobby Lobby-Creating Keepsakes' Budget Friendly Scrapbooking. First of all, I have a hard time with a "budget friendly" magazine that costs $14.99 retail. Especially when it has about the same number of pages and ideas as a normal issue of Creating Keepsakes. I purchased mine with a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby-still a little high but not totally ridiculous.

The magazine {I refuse to call it an idea book} was laid out in the following sections and I'll do a quick review of each:
Accent Swap-Good ideas but little to no direction on how to create the accents and each of the layouts had a LOT of product besides the "accents" that were swapped.

Wallet Savvy Organization-I would have like to seen real pieces from flea markets/yard sales made into functional organization pieces. Instead, the magazine showed organzation pieces that were clearly purchased new made to look "old". Show me how to do it not what it could look like.

Planning for Scrapbooking-This article actually made me mad. Because it was such a waste of space. The photo printing chart on page 23 took up the WHOLE page and was completely pointless. The whole article had me scratching my head-long term versus short term investments and using patterned paper for more than one layout...all common sense ideas that most scrapbookers are all too familiar with.

Using Sketches-Again, not sure how budget friendly this one was since the majority of layouts used a ton of product. Not to mention the "Manage Your Budget by Using a Kit Club" story. Really? You pay a premium to have some one else pick out papers and embellishments that go together. There is no way that is budget friendly. It might be a time saver, but it doesn't save you money. You can save money by finding kits with a style you like and buying the paper and elements you can afford. {I have nothing against kits, I have bought them and loved them but it is not okay to pretend they are somehow cheaper when they aren't.}

Keep It Simple Scrapbooker-Finally, an article that actually gave tips on being budget friendly! This article was well written and had a wealth of great info. The layouts weren't product heavy. I knew I could recreate them without spending $5-10 on each layout. I also liked the "One Product, Three Ways" story. It was interesting to see how different scrapbookers used the same materials.

Stretch Your Supplies-Another great article! Loved the cutting guides that showed how to turn one 12 x 12 piece of paper into smaller sheets-just wish they had included more! Loved the practical ideas on what to do with leftover stickers, pieces of ribbon, etc.


Use Your Scraps-This article really should have been the focus of the magazine. So many great ideas that they just barely touched on. Disappointed that they gave so little space and focus to this but loved what little they provided.


Found Item Fun-Weird and out of place. Not worth it's own article.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed. {I would have been down right mad had I spent $15!} Only 2-3 articles were actually helpful in providing budget friendly tips. The rest just seemed like more the usual CK product heavy layouts we see every month, which is fine if that is what you are expecting but if you are expecting to get realistic tips and tricks to help save you money with your scrapbooking-this isn't it. This definitely wasn't worth a $15 price tag. However, if you find it for $6 or less it's worth a read. The Keep It Simple, Stretch Your Supplies, and Use Your Scraps articles deserve a second look. :)

Be back this weekend with a layout! Have a great Friday!