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!