Don't Walk Past That Party Aisle

First off before I get into my post I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I have to go buy some more candy for the goblins tonight. Don't know how many I will have but there are more children now living in the apartment complex.

As the headline reads don't walk past that party aisle. You may be wondering why as a crafter you should go browsing in the party aisle. The reason being you can find inexpensive goodies to use in your crafting as well as inspiration. I will confess that I shop more in the party aisle at dollar stores than the larger one stop stores.

Today's project features a napkin for the background. Back in the late 80's Carol Duval did a segment on making note cards using napkins. The napkins were used alone but when I use napkins I usually add embellishments. Of course you can find more than cute napkins to use in the party aisle. ;-)

Enough jabbering on to showing you today's project.

This napkin has been in my stash for awhile. I love the vintage look of it. Only problem is until this week I couldn't come up with a way to use it. I kept discarding the ideas I had. I was looking through my binder of Just For Fun Stamps trying to find some inspiration and saw this Tea Party Dress stamp. Eureka that is perfect my muse whispered in my ear. Details are further down if you want to  use a napkin in one of your creations.

The Tea Party Dress is stamped on a light color subtle pattern of scrap paper. Alas I've never been able to get this paper to photograph correctly. No matter what I try it ends up looking white. Although the text in the napkin is black I decided to go with a dark brown ink. I used a color pencil on the collar and sash of the dress.

Liquid Pearls for the buttons finish the dress off. I was really wishing I had more colors of Liquid Pearls.

I printed my sentiment out on vellum using my laser printer and then used decofoil and my laminator to fuse the foil to the vellum. (I was kicking myself for not picking up the package of clear plastic which is designed to be used in a laser printer as I think it could also be foiled this way.)

For my foil frame I cut iCraft foam adhesive into strips and applied the foil to one of the sticky sides. No laminator needed. You can also use double sided tape but I find I get more of a shabby chic look with the double sided tape.

There you have it my rainy day project. 

How to apply a napkin to card stock:
The magic ingredient is plastic wrap in between your card stock and the napkin which you have separated so it is one ply. You will need that iron which is gathering dust and either copy paper or parchment paper to place on the ironing board and on top of your napkin sandwich. Cotton setting with no water and place iron on sandwich and pick it up and put down somewhere else. Keep moving iron that way and don't keep it long in any one area as you don't want to scorch your napkin. It only takes a few seconds in each area to melt the plastic fusing the napkin to your card stock. Pay particular attention to covering the corners. Don't try to iron the normal way or you will get a mess. Trust me I've messed up my napkin background more times than I care to remember. I'm not sure if a laminator will work or not so will have to get back to you later on that.

Have you used napkins or other party goods in your crafting? If you haven't used napkins do you think you would after reading my directions?

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Tag You Are It!

Do you remember playing tag? Usually I would end up being "it".  I seldom play "tag"  now but I do play with tags. It can be a  lot of fun creating your own tags which can used on card fronts or used on packages. Today I have some Halloween tags to share which will be tied on latex gloves filled with Halloween candy for family members.

 Embossing folder used as a stamp with VersaMark ink. Wicked Stamptangle Spider heat embossed with black powder and painted with water colors.The spider is suspended with white thread glued in the web.

 Wicked trees heat embossed with black and background air brushed with Spectrum Noir markers. Hanging bat small heat embossed and glaze pen used for eyes and fangs. Sentiment printed with a label maker. The wicked trees stamp is actually three panels but who said you have to use the whole stamp.

 Tattered screen background heat embossed. Dripping blood stamped with Stazon and colored with a Glaze pen. Bat wings colored with Radiant Neon Amplify on the wings and body colored with glaze pen. Then airbrushed with Spectrum Noir marker. Mummy stamped with Ranger Archival ink and eye colored with glaze pen. Beware is printed with a label maker.

Raised side of Paper Studio embossing folder inked and debossed. Then airbrushed with Spectrum Noir markers. Stamped sentiment heat embossed and words cut apart. Scardy cat colored with Radiant Neon Amplify. Whiskers and eyes colored with glaze pens.

And here are the gloves filled and ready to be put in a bag for family members to grab.

All stamps are Just For Fun stamps which the company has provided me with.

Do you celebrate Halloween? If you do are you ready?

Tag you are it! Now it is your turn to create a tag or two. It doesn't have to be a Halloween one. Feel free to post your creations on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/craftingfrugalway

Happy Halloween! Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Autumn Greetings

Hi is Autumn your favorite season? It is mine and I love the Just For Fun stamptangle stamps. It is difficult for me to pick my favorite stamp. I had a lot of fun using the Stamptangle Maple Leaf stamp.

 I had fun creating the background using my pan water colors. I activated the water colors with water and used a stencil brush to apply it to the card stock using a pouncing motion.

I realized my original ideas were not going to work and when I saw the  b butterfly trail stamp in my binder I had an aha moment.

I also realized that the Colorful Autumn Blessing sentiment was not going to work. So I masked all but the Greetings part. Then stamped that on wrapping tissue paper. I then colored the wrapping paper like I did the background so it would blend in better. Don't be afraid to only use part of a stamp.

After stamping I used blending chalk on the white card stock. Then I had fun coloring using Sakura Glaze pens. I then used a fabric leaf as my mat.

I love how this card turned out. It was fun to use the butterfly trail in a way that the stamp was not originally designed for.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Happy Birthday!

Do you ever have  a crafting day where nothing seems to go right? At least for me it seems to happen when I'm in a hurry. Opps! I forgot about a birthday and needed to make a card. I had previously played with making backgrounds using shaving cream and re-inkers and decided to use one of those for my card. Luckily I had made several backgrounds as the first one didn't stamp right. I'll use gesso over it and do something else. Second time it stamped fine but I thought I would hurry up the drying process with my heat gun on the foil adhesive and it bubbled making ugly stars when I applied the foil. Being the salvage queen I am all was not lost.

I love how my background turned out. I used Azure Stazon to stamp using Paper Studio stamps. For the cupcake I stamped it again on tissue paper and cut out just the cupcake liner part. I colored it with a color pencil after I adhered it with a dot runner. Which added the dots. The top of the cupcake I used Radiant Neon Amplify. You apply it and then use a heat gun and it puffs up. I used glaze pens to color the candle and flame. I happened to have in my stash star gems which I bought many years ago at a dollar store. Luckily I had sizes and colors which worked. You can see a little bit of the glitter pen I used to trace around the stamped stars.originally.

What have been some of your crafting disasters? Please share in the comment section.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Makeover Feedback Please

I love watching shows where makeovers are done. Sometimes the results are really stunning. I've not been too happy with the looks of my blog and decided it was time to do a makeover. I wish now I would have taken a before shot.

I decided I wanted a personal header so added my blog name to a picture of an altered playing card I created. In case you missed that post foil is embedding in gesso. Then colored with alcohol ink. A stamped sentiment and cut out printed images including the steampunk one which I modified completes it. The post where this altered playing card and another is featured can be found HERE.

I did a lot of deleting of stuff on the sidebars and went to one sidebar instead of two. Sometimes I think less is better. What do you think?

Please leave me some feedback in the comment section. I really would love to hear from you. Thank you!

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again! I'm off to create a birthday card. :-)

Fall Bucket List A Look Back At Previous Fall Posts With Leaves

Hi do you have a bucket list for Fall? I printed out a regular Fall bucket list with things like wearing a hoodie, going to a haunted house etc. One of the things on my list is to gather leaves. But what do you do after you gather the leaves? If leaves are not readily available what are some ideas for creating Fall cards?  Perhaps you would like a Fall card or even a piece of art to frame but don't know where to begin. Hang on tight as I turn on the time machine.

First off  is a card I made using paint and the vein side of gathered leaves to make  my background.

Details for this card can be found here. Thanksgiving Joys Card

I want to do the technique I used for the leaves on this card again. It is a shaving cream technique but instead of using re-inkers I used water colors on die cut leaves.

Details can be found here Happy Fall

I'm glad that we are traveling back in time because I forgot about how I stamped and heat embossed with gold and then painted the leaves with metallic water color. I love the result.

Detail can be found here Pilgrim Children Thanksgiving

The final card is using a leaf as a stamp. You should still be able to find leaves to do this.

Details can be found here Leaf Print Card

I hope I've given you some ideas for some Fall cards. Come back on the 24th for a new Fall card.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Colorful Autumn Greetings

Hi everyone! I've been busy doing projects for future posts on the Just For Fun blog. As well as playing. Alas not all my play has been successful but that is the way it goes. I heard a good quote today "Give yourself permission to fail and then move on."

One of the things I've been trying to do is to foil stamped images without having to stamp them and then scan and print them with my laser printer. I thought perhaps my embossing ink was bad so bought a new pad but that didn't work either. I'm starting to think that my heat gun gets too hot for the Sticky Embossing powder because no matter how quickly I heat the powder it is not all that sticky. Anyway I was going to try the Sticky embossing powder using black ink but the card stock really absorbed the ink which I've used on other card stock for embossing and was dry before I could even sprinkle the powder. Being the frugal person I am I went ahead and used my Stamptangle stamped Oak leaf. Here is my colorful Autumn card.

Believe it or not the leaf was actually stamped on the same color of card stock as the background. I have so much fun changing colors of things. :-)

Details of how I did this card are on the Just For Fun blog. Colorful Autumn post.  As well as a closeup of the leaf.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back to see what I might be up. I have some interesting ideas to try out. As well as have scheduled some fun Autumn and holiday projects.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!