Making scrapbooks for others...please help.

Hello all! I am excited to join this forum group. I have been scrapbooking for about 8 years and it is my passion. I have 3 girls and just love to go back and look at their lives through the scrapbooks. For Mother's Day I made my mother a Grandmother's Brag Book of sorts. She has asked me to make her best friend a book as well and want's to pay me for it. I have also been called by a woman that wants 12 identical scrapbooks to give to friends that attended a wedding. I am interested in starting up my own "business" but dont know how much to charge for the scrapbooks. I don't know if I should charge by page and pay for the supplies out of my pocket and then just tell them in the end how much they owe me. Do I add it all together and charge them that way? Please help!!

Thank You,
Shannon
ScrappinShannie

Hello Shannon!
Welcome to the Neighborhood!
I can't help you with your question, but I'd be
intrested to know as well.

It depends on what kind of album they were talking about. I charge $60-75 for an 8x8 mini album, but I would only charge $25 maybe for an accordian album. What kind of album was the Grandma's brag book and how many LOs did in include?

Hi,

I love to scrap, it is my way to get away from what I do daily, which is accounting. So I can help you with bit without boring you. you can do it one of two ways.
1. actually sit there and get a total of all the pages, embellishments, saying, the album, etc. give them a total. If you want to tact on 10 to 20% to make a small profit.
2. the other option is based a bit on guessing if you think the album you made is worth 30,40, or 50. that is how much you will charge.

I personally think that the first option is exact and if they question you, you will have the receipts to prove it.

I hope this helped, let me know what happens.

Here is what I think: From selling pages on Ebay, I have noticed that if you set a standard price (say 20 per page), people tend to get upset when it doesnt look like you spent 20 per page - they dont tend to ralize the time that goes into them. I would show exact receipts, then have a per hour fee.

• 806melissa Said:

That one makes sense to me, I think I'd do it that way.

I went to your webspace and you don't have a gallery yet - I was hoping to check it out since everyone seems to want you to make SBs for them....darn. Of course, if you just joined today, I think we'll give you a break....

i sent you a pm with a great list of websites that have scrappers for hire ! prices included!

That is a great idea. If you really want to be accurate can you incorporate time and cost of goods (save the receipt).

Hi and first off good luck with starting your scrapping business. I am new to sb.com as of today and have not uploaded anything to the gallery yet that you can see for examples. I have just started making albums for others this past year and when I make albums for people I usually charge by the album. The price I charge includes the cost of the album, 20 pages, lo protectors, and standard embellishments (ribbon, brads, eyelets, stickers, chalking etc.) Fancy embellishments like metals cost more so that cost is passed on to the customer. My standard pricing of 8x8 album runs from $75 to $110, 8x11 runs from $90 to $125 and a 12x12 album runs from $125 to $200. The price is controlled by the type of album my customers pick for their album. Additional and/or fancy embellishments and page los, album covers, digital photo printing enhancements or enlargements etc. are extra and price would be determined by receipts plus 10 to 15% profit margin depending on the difficulty and time needed to create the los. i show the potential customer samples of my work from simple los to extravagant works of art and they choose what they want from colours to style. Hope that helps you and good luck!

I have done this once. Charge by the hour and for your supplies. I found it hard to scrap for others but I had no attachment to them. It was a lady from church and it wasn't the way I scrapbook either. She had a party and and wanted cards in it and also people were to send their thoughts and memories from past years. It was very hard for me and it ended up costing quite a bit. She was happy with it so it turned out well. Hope I helped. Dana.

I had no idea people paid other people to do albums. I've made quite a few 8 X 8, etc for gifts and people love them but I didn't think people would actually pay!!! You learn something new every day!

For the past while, I have seriously been considering doing this also. For the past 6 years I have done volunteer work as the president of our disabled society - but am stepping down as of Sept. and hope to pursue my passion of scrapbooking. I considered being a consultant, then having an on-line scrapbook supply business but as I enjoy the actual scrapping the most, I think that making albums for others may be the answer for me. From asking around, there seems to be a lot of interest in this - but we'll soon find out if they are ACTUALLY willing to PAY!
I have been told $20 page for 12X12 and that includes the album or $15 per page if client buys the album. It seems like a lot of money to pay for an album when you consider that most have 20 pages but when you break it down - a lot of money is not being made, considering your time, etc. The cost of doing a page is not cheap even if doing a basic page assuming you include your costs for paper, cardstock, adhesives, basic embellies,etc.
So, despite the price, you would not be making much profit on an album.
I am wondering if pricing the items used plus an hourly rate may be the way to go. Maybe a set price can be used for basic embellies (brads, eyelets, etc.) then anything specific that was purchased could be added on?!
I don't know - just trying to figure out the best way to do this (for both me and the customer).
Obviously, either way, one would not get rich on this, but I basically just want to make enough to support my hobby. I am at home anyway and love to spend my time scrapping, so I may as well bring a smile to others while getting paid for it.
I just have to figure out a plan and the best way to go about this.
Any other suggestions for myself and others of us thinking about this?
THANKS!