Bare Necessities

[Nikkole]

Alright... I wanted to know what are the bare necessities of scrapbook supplies when scrapbooking away from home.

Currently I work at a call center, its the "one call center" for the state for doing any digging to get lines located (Every state in the US has one actually) So basically its winter, its very cold, and we're slow. For the past few weeks I've been scrapbooking 5-6 hours a day at work everyday. Life is rough. With no internet access, and no hand held games allowed, I decided this was my scrapbooks time to shine.

Normally I take my tinkerbell beach bag... and pack what i believe is the bare necessities:

4-5 sheets of each color I have (basic colors, red thru purple. Black, white, brown)
Scissors (only once in a while, designer edges)
Pictures
Stencils
Adhesive
Some stickers...

Now, here's my question... with limited space and not wanting to take an entire tote... what would you bring? I cannot bring 12x12 paper currently because I don't have anything to transport it without being wrinkled/torn. I don't have a LOT of products/supplies because I'm limited on income and am not able to spend a whole lot.

The only reasoning why I ask this...
Am I better off leaving the pictures at home and do "swap" type items? Or not even bother at all...? (I don't swap, I'd love to get into it, I've been reading the boards but I'm usually just really confused and don't have enough experience to hop in yet, comfortably)

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[TinkerKat]

Do You have a Michael's? The first purchase I would suggest is the 12x12 clear plastic box. It's made by Iris.
It will save your paper, and I put everything in there for up to 10-12 page layouts. Power layouts work out well in there. You prepack in order of what you'd like to scrap... pictures, matching papers, stickers etc. Then seperate the elements with a page protector or solid white card stock. Then layer the next page and so on.
When I got to my four hr. weekly crop it's what I do. Sometime I go home and feel the need to add embellishments and such, but this at least gets the process started. Hope this helps. Kathy

 

[LindaBabe]

I would definitely follow Kathy's advice for a clear plastic box. Then, I'd make page kits like crazy at home at night - photos, paper, embelli's in a page protector. Stack the page kits in the box - add adhesive, paper trimmer, scissors, pen and any punch your design might call for. I tend to stick with a theme - all birthday cards, all disney trip pages, all christmas pages or cards, because the scraps can be used on other pages. You're ready to make pages. This is a precious gift of time - make use of it!

 

[happycampers]

Doing kits in plastic boxes was the first thing that came to mind. When you said limited income without a lot to spend, I can relate. If you don't want to spend money now on a plastic box, stop by a pizza place. I've gotten boxes there free (some may sell them cheap). I don't recommend using boxes that previously contained pizza, though.If this is the route you go, I would put embellishments in baggies just in case they might try to seak out through any seams of the box.

 

[Nikkole]

Thanks for the awesome idea! I never even thought of page kitting *smacks forehead* I'll have to look into this...
(I live smack dab in the middle of Milwaukee, I have a little of everything here. Michaels, Joanne Fabrics, about 15 scrapbook stores, etc. Scrapbook stores are really high priced though. I'll have to check wal*mart & target then michaels if all else fails.)

Awesome though, thanks again!