Office Supplies

It surprises me how many people have made money off of buying office supplies, such as binder clips and brads, and repackaging them as scrapbooking and cardmaking embellishments.

Tips:

• If you want to try a certain technique or use a particular embellishment, find out where it originates from.
• Use Google's shopping service or another online comparison tool to find out if the item is generally less expensive from Home Depot or Scrapbook Warehouse, for example. You'll almost always find it's far less at the hardware or office store.
• Find out what changes have been made to make it scrapbook specific. Many times the only change is that the items have been repackaged. Do you need special packaging? Are there special modifications? Are they worth the money? What about if you use a 40% off coupon that some stores are notorious for?
• Many modifications can be made at home. Brads and other non-porous items can be easily colored with inexpensive alcohol inks.
• The scrapbook and craft stores might, however, offer options that you cannot reproduce at home. Or you may not want to take the time to glue gems onto the head of your brads.
• Don't buy a craft item just because it contains "project ideas" or instructions. You can find thousands of these online.
• Search You Tube and other internet sites for detailed tutorials that will give you other ideas on how to use your new tool and get the most out of it.