My husband gave me my Xyron 850 for Christmas. I love it! At the time they were having a special... when purchasing the 850, you got the 500 sticker maker, free. (We gave the 500 to our daughter who is also into scrapbooking.) Otherwise I would have gone with the 1200, I think. I am a teacher and have used it for making books and materials for class. I don't know if it's the teacher in me and years of experience with using every inch of laminating, but I don't have much waste at all. Since it has a hand crank, you have great control over the speed in which materials go through the machine. You can place items close together to prevent the waste you were referring to. If you want tiny punches as stickers or laminated, put a whole sheet of paper through the machine and then punch your punches. My husband was also hesitant when I showed him the machine for the first time but now he sees how many uses I have for it and is glad he made the purchase.

Most computer ink is acid free, the only problem with it is that it is dye based, meaning that the ink dyes the paper, so it can change slightly over time and is not always water or fade proof. As a whole those are the only drawbacks to computer ink, and it is basically safe for your scrapbooks unless you are planning on them getting wet or setting them in the sun for long periods of time. HTH. Love Penny

I'm not sure what the brand name is, but I got it a Sam's Club. It's a huge pack (about 700 sheets). It has almost every color you would need to scrapbook. On the package it says "Great for memory books and Scrapbooks." The only problem I have with it is that it's a little bigger than 8 1/2 x 11" so I have to trim it a little to fit my pages. It's a different consistency than regular construction paper- The reason I asked the question is that before I knew the importance of acid-free products, I tried using regular construction paper, and it faded and yellowed very fast! I wouldn't think these would since they are acid free. Does anyone know? I assume it is the acid that caused the reg. construction paper to fade.

If there is a Hobby Lobby or a Michael's around you, they sell acid-free foam core. Rebecca