When you enter contests and sweepstakes, there are three good reasons to keep track of your wins: you want to make sure that you actually receive all of your prizes, you need a quick and easy way to refer to your wins for tax purposes, and you'll want to be able to show off your prizes to friends and family, and use them to motivate yourself to keep entering sweepstakes.
A quick and easy way to achieve all of these goals is to track your prizes with a scrapbook of wins. Here's how to do it!
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Keeping a Scrapbook of Wins is Quick and Easy to Do
Here's How:
Purchase a Blank Scrapbook Album
Start out with a blank scrapbook album, which can be purchased in craft stores like Michael's, discount department stores like Kmart, or some large book stores like Borders.Rebecca Ludens, our Guide to Scrapbooking, has some good advice about choosing a scrapbook album. I'd recommend a 12 x 12 inch size to have enough room for all of your information. It's a good idea to buy a binder-style scrapbook album, because that lets you move pages around easily (you'll see why that's important later.)
Get Your Wins on Paper
Every time you receive a win notification by email, print it out. If you received notice of your prize by telephone, write all of the information down on a piece of paper. (For some tips on how to do this creatively, check out the Journaling and Lettering advice from the Scrapbooking Guide.) If you received notice by letter, you're all set, you already have the information on paper.Paste the Win Notification Into Your Scrapbook
Each time you receive notice of a win, create a brand new scrapbook page for it. Start by pasting the win notice onto the page, and write in important information like when the prize should arrive. Most sweepstakes will give an estimated date for arrival in the rules, such as 4 - 6 weeks after the sweepstakes ends.You may also want to highlight the ARV on the page, or write it where it's easy to see at tax time.
Organize the Wins by Arrival Date
It's a good idea to put the wins that haven't arrived yet at the front of the album, so that you'll notice if any wins don't come as expected. When the wins arrive, move them to the back of the scrapbook.Take a Picture of the Prize When it Arrives
When you get your prize, take a picture of it and put it in the scrapbook next to the win notice. You might also want to add other information, like a description of how you felt when you received it or a note of whether you've sent a thank-you note to the sponsor.Add Embellishments for Fun
If you'd like, you can finish off your scrapbooking page with stickers, drawings, cutouts, or additional pictures to make it more pretty and fun.
What You Need:
- Empty Scrapbook Album
- Blank Scrapbook Pages
- Colored Markers, Stickers, or Other Embellishments
