Saturday 1 February 2014

Crafting On A Budget

Crafting on a budget is the subject I challenged Jane from Onions and Paper to do , I have to be honest nothing is a challenge for Jane when it comes to crafting or cooking. Thanks Jane for writing this awe inspiring blog post for me !



Crafting needn’t be expensive! Look around the house and you’ll find all kinds of things that can be used. Scraps of ribbon and lace from gift boxes or old garments, odd buttons, sweet wrappers and even envelopes. In just a few minutes of hunting I found all these


A couple of Italian sweet wrappers that were too pretty to throw away, the ribbon from a gift box of smellies and the holder that a gift card had arrived in. My “useful bits” box was already well supplied with lace scraps, odd buttons and some purple corrugated cardboard from a box of chocolates. But what about the envelopes?


Well, if you cut envelopes open, you will often find pretty patterned papers on the inside. You can use them as background papers or cut them into shapes and even stamp on them!



Armed with these odds and ends, plus a little stamping and glue, I came up with these cards.









Some other ideas you could use:

Cut small “stained glass window” holes in black card and stick the coloured cellophane or foil wrappers from chocolates behind them.
Open out empty tomato purée tubes, wash them, flatten them (a rolling pin will do the trick) then use them for stamping or embossing.
Clear acetate box lids (I hate to harp on about chocolate again but chocolate boxes often have acetate lids) can be used in place of craft acetate for things like glass painting and  window cards, but you can’t usually heat emboss it.
Wrapping paper and glossy magazines often have images you can cut out and use, and cheap brown paper can make a good substitute for fashionable “Kraft” paper.
Paper doyleys are very popular in crafting. Buy them from a corner shop or a bargain store and they cost a tiny fraction of those in a craft store. You m

16 comments:

  1. Those cards look lovely Claire. It's nice to see you can mark something fab with a limited budget.I like the With Love card especially
    The Diary Of A Jewellery Lover

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  2. Fantastic! Proof that though crafting can be expensive - it needn't be - especially if you make he most of the free materials available to you :-)

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  3. What lovely cards. We are always crafting with our recycling.

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  4. Wonderful! This is the reason I never throw things away lol! x

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  5. Lovely cards and it's great to use something that might have otherwise been thrown in the bin x x

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  6. Looks good I am not so good at crafts but so want to do more .x

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  7. Wow, they do not look like made on a budget at all!
    Fantastic job!

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  8. I would never have guessed thats how they were made - excellent job!

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  9. Those cards are beautiful, you are very talented. I could never create anything like that!

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  10. We save all sorts for crafting - bits of ribbon and pretties that come on presents. Your cards look really lovely x

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  11. They look great. I always save stuff for crafts, all the little bits always come in handy

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  12. You are so clever - they look brilliant!

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  13. Oh thats just brilliant! WIll have to try making them

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