Ways to make do instead of buy new

[Barbara Jay]

So many are on a craft supply diet that I thought a thread of ways to make do with what we have may be of interest.

Today I needed yellow ribbon and I didn't have any. So I colored white ribbon with my yellow Copic marker . It worked so well I think I will only buy white or black ribbon in the future.

Last week I wanted pink pearls so I colored white ones with my Copics.
Copics work to color buttons too.
What are your ideas to make do instead of buy new ?

[Miss Meowy]

My favorite trick is to use permanent markers and Copics on my rhinestones. Instead of buying all different colors and sizes, I get the self-adhesive kind in clear that have multiple sizes.

Then I use my Copics to color the rhinestones if I need a colored bit of bling. I can use my Sharpie Markers if I want a more opaque look, with less shine.

[MariLynn]

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but a way that I have made do so that I can spread my craft budget is to use my sewing machine. I use minimal adhesives and use the sewing machine for the rest. It is cheap, but looks expensive. It is easy but adds so much texture and interest to the cards.

[J-Bo]

Great tips ladies! I have often thought about trying to colour my pearls using my Copics but hadn't because I was unsure of how it would turn out...now I know I can do it...and rhinestone's too!

On a card I made the other night I really wanted a funky flower. I took my scalloped circle punch and punched out 3 pieces of cs. Crumpled the punched shape up over and over and over until it got really soft. Then I simply layered a button and some ribbon over it and it looked so fab! I will definately being doing this again and again!

[buggainok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Bo

Great tips ladies! I have often thought about trying to colour my pearls using my Copics but hadn't because I was unsure of how it would turn out...now I know I can do it...and rhinestone's too!

On a card I made the other night I really wanted a funky flower. I took my scalloped circle punch and punched out 3 pieces of cs. Crumpled the punched shape up over and over and over until it got really soft. Then I simply layered a button and some ribbon over it and it looked so fab! I will definately being doing this again and again!

I've seen that crumpled technique, and it does look really great. Here is another version of a flower from scallop punch where you cut between the scallops and then layer. Scroll down a bit to see it.

My Little Paper Addiction: Triangle Treat Box

[NancyK.]

I have taken to buying white or ivory ribbons and just using my copics to color them.

I use Spellbinders circle nestabilities to make buttons.

[Angelnorth]

I never throw out packaging without thinking about whether it has papercraft potential. Lots of clear packging is great for clear card bases (if it's big enough) or for die cutting "ghost" shapes. Corrugated card packaging can make interesting textural layers and is especially useful on masculine cards.

Buttons get snipped off any clothing that's going in the rag bag and if it's a pretty fabric (hubby has some nice shirts!) then I might well save some of that for use instead of patterned paper. Shirts that are very worn on collar and cuffs tend to have lots of useable fabric in the back and even the fronts. As I often stitch on cards I tend to attach fabric that way.

I'm another one who colours white or ivory ribbon or pearls with a Copic to tone with my project.

Soda cans can be die cut for metallic embellishments and if any of you girls buy tomato paste in tubes rather than cans (I know it's less common in the US but Italian grocery stores apparently carry it in tubes quite often) then the metal from the tube is fantastic stuff. It get a rich gold colour from the acid in the tomato paste and it embosses beautifully (couple of projects made with it attached here).

If you work in an office or know someone who does, be alert when any filing gets sorted in case any old and dog eared file folders get tossed. Rescue them out of the recycling - they make great kraft cardstock, just trim off the ragged edges.

I improvise on tools too - I use a map pin as a paper piercer and have a couple of plastic canvas shapes (square and circle) that I use as piercing templates for lines and circles. My stamp positioner is made of Lego bricks (positioning sheets - another use for that clear packaging plastic!).

I've been meaning to try twisting sewing thread to make a cord to see how close I can get to the baker's twine look. I quite often twist a plain cord so I just need to experiment with the best way to get the stripe.

I may think of more, I'll come back if I do!

[creatingisfun]

great ideas everyone.
my tip that I can think of is buying white flowers and just dying them with reinkers ;)

[buggainok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angelnorth

I never throw out packaging without thinking about whether it has papercraft potential. Lots of clear packging is great for clear card bases (if it's big enough) or for die cutting "ghost" shapes. Corrugated card packaging can make interesting textural layers and is especially useful on masculine cards.

Buttons get snipped off any clothing that's going in the rag bag and if it's a pretty fabric (hubby has some nice shirts!) then I might well save some of that for use instead of patterned paper. Shirts that are very worn on collar and cuffs tend to have lots of useable fabric in the back and even the fronts. As I often stitch on cards I tend to attach fabric that way.

I'm another one who colours white or ivory ribbon or pearls with a Copic to tone with my project.

Soda cans can be die cut for metallic embellishments and if any of you girls buy tomato paste in tubes rather than cans (I know it's less common in the US but Italian grocery stores apparently carry it in tubes quite often) then the metal from the tube is fantastic stuff. It get a rich gold colour from the acid in the tomato paste and it embosses beautifully (couple of projects made with it attached here).

If you work in an office or know someone who does, be alert when any filing gets sorted in case any old and dog eared file folders get tossed. Rescue them out of the recycling - they make great kraft cardstock, just trim off the ragged edges.

I improvise on tools too - I use a map pin as a paper piercer and have a couple of plastic canvas shapes (square and circle) that I use as piercing templates for lines and circles. My stamp positioner is made of Lego bricks (positioning sheets - another use for that clear packaging plastic!).

I've been meaning to try twisting sewing thread to make a cord to see how close I can get to the baker's twine look. I quite often twist a plain cord so I just need to experiment with the best way to get the stripe.

I may think of more, I'll come back if I do!

You are sure my kind of gal - frugal (not cheap) I want to say that your metallic embossed card and tin are absolutely beautiful! Tomato sauce, huh? I never would have guessed. Great work!

[buggainok]

I just remembered something I've done for envelopes. After Christmas, check out the Dollar Stores. They usually have boxes of standard size, all alike Christmas cards. Frequently they put them on sale for as little as 25 cents or 50 cents a box for 20 or so.

You can pitch the cards and use the envelopes.

[wendykins]

I save all the clear transparency things i can find...report cover like material. I use them for die-cuts or make 4x4 squares and make stamp-a-ma-jig images for each set as I need them. Stamp with stazon and keep them right in the clamshell

[snowcountry311]

Quote:

Originally Posted by creatingisfun

great ideas everyone.
my tip that I can think of is buying white flowers and just dying them with reinkers ;)

instead of reinkers-you can spray w/ glimmer mist/memory mist

[jovian7]

I use the chipboard from cereal boxes and the like. Perfect weight. I make my own flowers and color most of them with my Touch markers and also color ribbons and pearls with them. I havent' tried coloring stones yet, because I still have colored ones. I'm experimenting with making my own glimmer mists and I use art papers like smooth bristol rather than buy specialty white cardstock - the shipping makes it totally unreasonable to buy it. I can find bristol in the stationary section of my grocery store and all of my markers (Touch, Copic, Dick Blick, Design2) markers love it. I just cut it down to size.

I'm scavenging my old costume jewelery for bling.

I LOVE the embossed metal! Im going to have to look into that

[cat_woman]

I just made a whole whack of flowers out of scraps of cardstock yesterday. I think I make about a dozen flowers. I haven't coloured white ribbon yet with markers, but have used re-inker to die it. I bought white twine and use re-inker to die it to match my project. I make my own glimmer mist with metallic paints, pearlex powders, iridescent medium and re-inkers. I always keep the acetate from packaging. If its big enough, I use it for card bases. It also works great as a paint/ink pallet. There's so much stuff that can be used without spending a fortune on it.

[sillyfilly]

I too like to check the dollar stores for cards after Christmas. I keep the envelopes and give the cards to a local elementary school. I use cereal boxes and other boxes for chipboard. I also save my chipboard pieces that would be throwaway and use it instead of dimensionals. I too save packaging to reuse. Some of the Prima flowers come on packaging that is intended for re-use. I have colored the rhinestones with my Copics but I didn't really think the color is as crisp as the colored rhinestones. Never colored the pearls.

[JoyceL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

I've seen that crumpled technique, and it does look really great. Here is another version of a flower from scallop punch where you cut between the scallops and then layer. Scroll down a bit to see it.

My Little Paper Addiction: Triangle Treat Box

This definitely looks more 3D than the kind where a whole flower is punched.

[lylacfey]

I always say buy white or clear then color or dye it. Try reinkers too when coloring ribbon.

This might be a little long because I have a billion ideas:

I always try to find an alternative before I buy new.

I admit it I look up digital before buying the traditional stamp. I also carve my own stamps. I do this because it gives me a bigger budget to buy my favorite stamps that I have my heart set on.

I make my own custom brads by die cutting or punching cute shapes. I add a couple coats of Diamond Glaze. Instant brads.

I just learned how to make my own stencil paste: Passionately Artistic: Monday Rendezvous - Make Your Own Embossing Paste What was nice all my items were free or discounted. My DH works for a paint and drywall company. ;)

Pop Dots: Cut fun foam into strips. Then cut into size square you need for your project.
Use tacky glue to make them sticky.

Make your own glue dots. Use Aleene's Tack It Over Glue. Dab small dots on wax paper. Let Dry. Cover with another sheet of wax paper.

Die cutter's are a good frugal investment. Besides the obvious of making your own die cuts. You can make your own embossing folders, stencils, engrave, write, and some even needle pierce. Lots of homemade beautiful embellishments that cost pennies are are truly yours.

Make your own patterned paper by printing dingbats or digital elements, stamping, or painting on solid cardstock.

I covered a tiny few. I have a billion more. Anything specific just ask. I probably have a recipe.

[tynmicsmom]

What exactly are digital images? Where do you get them? and How do you use them? I have heard them being used so much now I thought I would ask

Thanks,
Bonnie

[Ldumont999]

;)I LOVE digi images. You can resize to use on any size card or larger for scrap booking. Go to freedigistmaps. They list new freebies every single day.

Other money savers (that look great) are flowers punched out of newspaper, glossy magaizne ads, etc. Magazine ads from fashion mags make wonderful multi colored flowers. It doesn't matter if you are punching clothing, skyscrapers or whatnot. You can't really see what the item is after you punch the flower - all you get is the great color!

I haven't seen anyone talk about kitchen items being repurposed. I've super thin sliced corks for texture, I've used the pop top portion of cans for a belt buckle on santa hershey bar wraps, and I've even pulled the wire top out of an old calendar to repurpose as flower stems & leaves on a card.

My husband has gotten to the point of not throwing scraps of any packing material, magazines or junk mail out without asking me, "Can you use this in your craft room?" LOL

[Barbara Jay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldumont999

;)

Other money savers (that look great) are flowers punched out of newspaper, glossy magazine ads, etc. Magazine ads from fashion mags make wonderful multi colored flowers. It doesn't matter if you are punching clothing, skyscrapers or whatnot. You can't really see what the item is after you punch the flower - all you get is the great color!

GREAT IDEA to use old magazines to punch flowers !!

[russnzella]

One thing that I have started doing is reusing store bought cards that people send me. Often the back of the card has a space that can be cut down for a small stamped image or the front will have a design that can be cut out and reused....and many cards have embellishments that can be pulled right off and used in another project. Anything I don't use gets put in the paper recycle pile.

[Angelnorth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldumont999

My husband has gotten to the point of not throwing scraps of any packing material, magazines or junk mail out without asking me, "Can you use this in your craft room?" LOL

That reminded me - security envelopes! You know when you get a bank statement or other piece of mail with confidential information. the inside of those envelopes is patterned to make them impossible to read through. It's usually a blue or grey print - useful for backgrounds, especially on masculine cards!

[Angelnorth]

Forgot to say, for those interested in the tomato paste tube metal, you need to look out for this kind of thing: Tomato Paste (no, I have no idea why amazon stocks tomato paste, they even have several different brands!). This is actually a much better way to buy the stuff than in cans if you only use it in small quantities as you just put the cap back on and keep it in the fridge until next time you need it. It will keep for months.

The metal is soft enough to cut with kitchen scissors and it will die cut no problem even with low profile dies like Nesties.

[Smudgeroonie]

Wow - where to start? Nothing gets thrown away in our house without someone saying "do you want this for your card-making?" - and usually I do!

I've made those scrumpled flowers before, but have used my Cuttlebug to cut scalloped circles from different papers - including magazine ones!

I love Card Candy - those little bags of card circles that look like brads without the legs - you can buy them in loads of scrumptious colours. Last time I was in the shop I was advised to buy white and colour them with my Copics - that way you can match them exactly to your card. Works brilliantly. Ok, each bag costs the same - but you don't need to buy so many different colours thus saving your pennies (or cents)!.

Instead of buying expensive brads have you tried making your own? Buy a bag of ordinary brass office brads. Holding the legs with tweezers, press them into a Versafine pad, then into embossing powder, and heat with a heat gun. Voila - super shiny coloured brads for a fraction of the cost.

Looking forward to reading loads more tips - great thread!

[purplepatch]

Terrific ideas everyone, thanks!

I like to keep glossy packaging or toppers from things I buy and cut out lots of different shapes with my punches. Position the punch over half of any letters and you can get some retro looking images.
When I punch out circular or square shapes from cardstock I try to line up the shapes evenly so I can use the piece with the holes later for a shadow box effect on a card. If the holes don't line up enough I just add a few more holes, randomly spaced, with smaller punches for a funky effect or use it as a template for sponging backgrounds with pastels.

Cheers,
Sharon

[JoBear2]

subbing 'cos there are some awesome ideas!

I am going to try colouring some gemstones with my Bic Mark-Its and see if it works (can't afford copics) so it will interesting to see if it does.

[Ldumont999]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angelnorth

That reminded me - security envelopes! You know when you get a bank statement or other piece of mail with confidential information. the inside of those envelopes is patterned to make them impossible to read through. It's usually a blue or grey print - useful for backgrounds, especially on masculine cards!

Wonderful idea! Would never have thought of this...

[dogzruleca]

[QUOTE=Smudgeroonie;17963341]Wow - where to start? Nothing gets thrown away in our house without someone saying "do you want this for your card-making?" - and usually I do!


I love Card Candy - those little bags of card circles that look like brads without the legs - you can buy them in loads of scrumptious colours. Last time I was in the shop I was advised to buy white and colour them with my Copics - that way you can match them exactly to your card. Works brilliantly. Ok, each bag costs the same - but you don't need to buy so many different colours thus saving your pennies (or cents)!.

Ok, I'll bite, what is card candy and where do you buy it? I've never heard of it before. :confused:

[EmuUpAGumTree]

awesome ideas and thread! really appreaciate it being a low budget crafter.

I like to make my own embellishments as much as I can, from what I already have or can get from thrift shops, like ribbon and lace and vintage buttons etc.

Always love ways to change it up with paint, ink, copics, dies, embossing and recycling etc

Youtube has awesome tutorials for embellishments, handmade flowers etc

Oh even even using scrap paper, for paper peicing, and such.

[SophieLaFontaine]

You can get by just using white paper too... just colour the borders of the matting paper before layering on the main panel.

This is also useful to remember if you find yourself card-making at a friend's house and forgot your coloured cardstock and only brought your white paper.

[Barbara Jay]

I saw a great video on Gina K's Stamp TV of making your own gold embossed paper for a bottom layer. She rubbed Versamark around the edge for about a 1/2" in. Then she sprinkled gold embossing powder on it and use her heat tool to melt it. When she put the layer on top of it no one would know she only embossed the rim on the bottom layer.

A person could use any color of embossing powder to do this technique.

[trimont]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

I just remembered something I've done for envelopes. After Christmas, check out the Dollar Stores. They usually have boxes of standard size, all alike Christmas cards. Frequently they put them on sale for as little as 25 cents or 50 cents a box for 20 or so.

You can pitch the cards and use the envelopes.

Instead of throwing away the boxed cards, I just learned a beautiful new way to use them. Here's a link for "enameled" cards:

USArtQuest

Also, the clear plastic packaging can also be cut with your dies to create inexpensive screens for using glimmer mists..

Thanks for starting this thread! I always learn so much here.

[trimont]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldumont999

;)I LOVE digi images. You can resize to use on any size card or larger for scrap booking. Go to freedigistmaps. They list new freebies every single day.

I love the idea of digis.. and have a question. If I want to color them (prismas & osm or copics) I've heard they have to be printed with a laser printer. Is that right? Will the image bleed if it's an ink jet?

I guess the easiest way to find out is just go do it.. but would also love to hear your thoughts...

[trimont]

Sorry for triple dipping this morning.. but this thread has got me thinking. I've been saving nylon mesh bags from produce knowing there's got to be something great I can do with it. I'm wondering what's the best way to adhere it without glue coming through the little holes.

And sort of along the lines of the tomato paste tube, I've been saving the foil pouches that many foods seems to be packaged in (raisins, etc.) and will experiment with embossing them.

[SophieLaFontaine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trimont

Sorry for triple dipping this morning.. but this thread has got me thinking. I've been saving nylon mesh bags from produce knowing there's got to be something great I can do with it. I'm wondering what's the best way to adhere it without glue coming through the little holes.

And sort of along the lines of the tomato paste tube, I've been saving the foil pouches that many foods seems to be packaged in (raisins, etc.) and will experiment with embossing them.

Can you attach the mesh to paper with bits of thread instead of glue?

[LorraineBK]

sub

[ccbooboo]

Isn't it fun to find ways to use items not intended for papercrafting?

I have saved the cord handles (rope like) off some shopping bags. I haven't used them yet but thought they might make some funky flowers or who knows what else.

My office got new chairs and the tags had a nice unprinted vellum and silky white strings that I saved. Yes, I looked like the office nut collecting them all.

I often save ribbons that come my way. If the ribbon is printed with a company logo, I always figure I can use the other side. Of course, you can't make a bow because then you would see the printing.

I'm always on the lookout for really cool printed papers. I recently got some fancy soaps and they were wrapped in gorgeous patterned papers. I will be using those on a card. I've also saved some papers from Mast Brothers Chocolate bars. Just check out their website here and you'll know what I am talking about. All of their chocolate bars are wrapped in really pretty designs.
MAST BROTHERS CHOCOLATE

[Ldumont999]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trimont

Sorry for triple dipping this morning.. but this thread has got me thinking. I've been saving nylon mesh bags from produce knowing there's got to be something great I can do with it. I'm wondering what's the best way to adhere it without glue coming through the little holes.

I've cut those bags into strips and run them as a border. You just need to make the piece longer than the card stock you are adhereing it to, then fold it over and tape underneath. This can obviously only be done if you are using a card stock layer over the actual card itself.

[homestead]

The tags on my teenagers clothes. Have you looked at those? Some of them are amazing. From my son I have a Chalc tag that looks like it could be something Tim Holtz made. I love it, haven't added it to a card yet but I will. My daughter got a shirt at Penneys and the tag said "live to be spoiled". I remember the Helix tag is nice and thick and fun too.

I hope this idea helps someone make some really cool teen cards.

[ScrappinLizzi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buggainok

I just remembered something I've done for envelopes. After Christmas, check out the Dollar Stores. They usually have boxes of standard size, all alike Christmas cards. Frequently they put them on sale for as little as 25 cents or 50 cents a box for 20 or so.

You can pitch the cards and use the envelopes.

Oh my goodness NO.. DONT PITCH the cards... You can use them.. Use them with your punches and paper cutter to make beautiful layered embellishments. I have friends and family save their old or used greeting cards for me and I dis-assemble them for making my card embellishments.. very good recycling idea actually...