A Baby is Conceived

I have been Scrapbooking for a few years now and have often wished I could do it for a living ... but being, until recently, a full-time teacher, I had very little energy left at the end of the week to do my own projects, let alone create albums for other people.

During the past 18 months things have changed for me and I now have more spare time. So, I've decided to see if I can create and make a success of a home-based scrapbooking business.

I discovered an ebook called How to Make Money Scrapbooking via a link posted by scrapbook_diva whom I follow on Twitter. I think it's an absolutely wonderful resource and it has given me the confidence to go ahead and give it my best shot.

I read the whole 91 pages of "How to Make Money Scrapbooking" in one sitting and was greatly inspired.

This is what I've done so far:

As said earlier, I have been scrapbooking for a few years and have in that time collected many of the tools and accoutrements required to make great pages. But ... I had moved house twice in 18 months and all of these things were still packed away in boxes. So my first task was to unpack it all, do an inventory and then re-sort it so that I could easily find things.

The next thing I needed was a practical space in which to work. I had already bought a couple of paper storage cabinets, but I didn't have a work table. At this stage I have absolutely no spare money, so I had to make do with what I could find in the garage and elsewhere around the house.

My storage cabinets were used to make a work bench - exactly the right height for me.

The bench part is the table-top from one of 2 trestle tables whose trestles mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. I knew that if I kept those table-tops for long enough they would come in handy one day!

I created a second bench by laying the other trestle table-top across my plastic crates of teaching resources, which I'm not using at the moment.

Voila! Two problems solved in one fell swoop. But it's a bit unsightly so ...

This is how I solved the problem of unsightliness ... and ...

Ta dah! The spare bedroom is now the studio of .... well ... I still have to think of a quirky, catchy name for my new business.

I've just completed a small wedding scrapbook and I'm ready to send it off. It's a gift for a friend, so no money to be made from it, but it has helped me to re-hone my skills.

I have also been looking into what needs to be done with regards to registering my business and applying for an ABN number.

Brett McFall's book is fabulous. I don't think I would have had the courage to try this without having read it. So, thank you very much Brett for creating such an inspiring and useful resource. I am so pleased to have it.

This is what I will buy with the first $1000 I make from my new business.

Wish me luck.