Happy New Year!

Hi everyone can you believe that 2015 is almost over. Where did the year go? A new year is on its' way a year of surprises, discoveries, and hopefully personal growth. Every year I make Crafting goals. I don't make resolutions as for me that is setting me up for failure instead I make goals and they don't even have to be big ones. It is easier to meet a goal of lose ten pounds then to make a resolution to lose weight.  So how did I do on my goals. My craft room although maybe not neater especially my work space is more organized.. I did make it on a Design Team. Yeah! And I've definitely been trying new techniques and products. I didn't make much of a dent in my stash but I did use some stuff that I've had for ten years or longer so that is progress.

Using Just For Fun Celebration and their Happy New Year frame I made this card to wish you a virtual Happy New Year!

 For the base I crumpled white tissue wrapping paper and used Mod Podge to adhere it as my Outdoor Mod Podge is really thick and wouldn't buckle the scrape card stock like regular glue.

I took a Silhouette Store frame cutting file and filled in the center with black alas I did not have the cutting lines thick enough so they did not print out dark enough on my laser printer for the foil. So I had to use a gel pen to edge in gold.

The sentiment frame was stamped and heat embossed with some Hero Arts gold embossing powder I've had for years. When I went to the big city years ago I bought it in bulk as the small town I lived in didn't have much in the way of stamps or embossing powders.

The Celebration stamp actually has confetti but it was too large to fit in the frame with all the details of the stamps so I stamped heat embossed and after applying both clear and gold Dimensional Magic cut the glasses out.

That is all for this year see you in 2016. Wishing you a Happy Frugal Crafting New Year with lots of crafting fun!

I Wish You Joy

Hi everyone I hope if you celebrate Christmas that you have a wonderful Christmas. I'm not ready for Christmas to be over so I want to share with you my last Christmas card for the year. I love the Just For Fun Stamptangle Joy Ornament stamp. I can see where this one is going to be around for awhile. Plus this stamp can be used even when it is not Christmas as the Joy in the circle can be stamped and cut out to be used.

Supplies used:
Metallic Poster Board from Hobby Lobby
Retired Sizzix Embossing Folder
Just For Fun Balsam Pine Stamp
 Just For Fun Stamptangle Joy Ornament Stamp
Stazon Cactus Ink
Gold embossing powder
Brusho Colour Crystals

I wish you Joy in the New Year also wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Last Minute Photo Gift

Hi everyone the clock is ticking away and Christmas will be here before we know it. Alas I have not gotten a single cookie baked so I'm going to have to find my snow shoes and walk to the store tomorrow for what I need. However, I just finished my last gift.

I was going to do a picture of the two dogs alone but realized the picture I had in mind is on my phone and I didn't feel like going through a million photos to find it. The person this is for has a birthday in February so I can do a photo canvas of them then. In fact now that I've done this I'll be playing with doing photo collages on canvas.

If you are looking for a quick gift which is personal then this is the project for you. As long as you are not faint of heart. I have tried this technique of printing on tissue wrapping paper with both my inkjet printer and my laser printer. I use the rear tray for printing with my ink jet printer. To print on tissue paper you will spray with a positional adhesive on a piece of copy paper. Follow the directions for drying time to use as positional. Position tissue wrapping paper on the copy paper and trim if need be. Then print like you normally do. Once printed pull the tissue paper off the copy paper. Cut slightly larger than your canvas board.

I then sprayed my canvas board with spray adhesive and placed my tissue paper on top.If you are worried about messing up at this point then you can wait awhile for the adhesive to become positional. I smoothed the print down with my hands from the center out. (Something I learned to do when hanging wallpaper in another lifetime. ;-) )I used a glue stick on the edges and the back  and then wrapped the extra around to the back. Then I took a marker and colored the edge. Because this was printed on my inkjet printer I didn't seal it. I haven't really found any sealer which plays nicely with inkjet prints.

This took me less than a half hour to do but don't tell my friend. ;-)

The canvas boards can be found at craft stores like Michaels and are relatively inexpensive compared to stretched canvas.

Presents to be wrapped are calling me. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Poinsettia Wreath

Hi everyone can you believe it is only five days until Christmas. I hope you have been getting done all the things you want. My shopping is pretty much done just a few stocking stuffers to buy.


 Although I've pretty much spent the last week and a half helping my roommate to move I did find time for some crafting.  The painted wooden piece I had on my front door would knock on the door every time the wind would blow when someone opened the front door to the apartment complex no matter what I tried to muffle it. Since I have dogs who would bark at the knocking it was not a good thing. I ended up bending a wire hanger into a wreath and cutting out with my Cameo poinsettias to use.

Sorry I don't know who designed the poinsettia cutting file but I think it was a freebie on the Silhouette Plus Forum. Anyway after my machine cut the petals out of white cardstock I painted them with Extreme Glitter Acrylic paint. I then cut out the stamens and painted those with gold glitter glue.

I wrapped my hanger with adhesive tape like what athletics use and then air brushed it green. The flowers were then adhered with 3D dots after I curled the petals downward a little bit.

I like how I can still look out the peep hole yet have something pretty on my front door.

I have a post scheduled to run the day after Christmas, In the meantime  I'll be trying to get some crafting done in between baking cookies and making candy.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

It's A Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone can you believe that it is getting closer to holiday time and the end of the year. Where did this year go.

Today I have two winter projects to share with you. One is a card and the other piece once I get a frame will be a holiday decoration. Both projects utilize experimentation which fulfills one of my crafting goals to try new things. As well as to marry stamping with mixed media.

Here is my first. Now to make a dash to thrift stores to find a frame.  Which will determine what size mat I'll be mounting it on. Another goal was to use what I have on hand. The base for this is from a box which has been cluttering up my play area.

For this piece besides the cardboard I used gesso, paint, alcohol markers, ink and color pencils along with of course Just For Fun rubber stamps and my die cutting machine. Of course being the glitter queen I had to use glitter. Images were colored with pencils that seem to mostly gather dust. Oh and let's not forget that inexpensive tissue wrapping paper. I seem to be using it a lot lately. I love the effect I got with the tissue paper airbrushed with a marker and adhered over the painted cardboard. 

This card I used Canson Acrylic XL paper so that it wouldn't buckle. Once again the wrapping paper, alcohol markers, and ink was used. Along with the Just For Fun Rubber stamps. I could have skipped the wrapping paper but I changed the direction I was going after it was glued down. I also used Texture Paste which is probably no longer being made as I haven't seen it anywhere. I've only had it for over twenty years. This piece has the addition of Golden Light Molding Paste. My first time playing with it. I also used my go to medium when I want shimmer by using Liquidtex Iridescent Medium.  I used DecoArt One Step Crackle and I must say I'm really impressed with the results. It was an impulse purchase which is not always the frugal way to shop but it was on sale. ;-) I also used pan water colors with a water brush to do the coloring for the snowman.

Details are on the Just For Fun Rubber Stamp Blog. The Winter Wonderland Post.

Stamps used are:

• Sleigh Ride
• Classic Snowman
• Pine Forest

I would love to see your projects marrying mixed media with stamping. Feel free to post at https://www.facebook.com/craftingfrugalway

Are you ready for the holidays? What projects are you working on?

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Another Stamptangle Stocking Card

Hi everyone I was busy addressing envelopes and realized I had forgotten to make cards for some people. I don't know whether they would have missed the handmade cards if I sent a store bought card but I hate to disappoint people. I'm loving the Just For Fun Stamptangle Stocking stamp so much that I just had to make another card with it. Of course I also had to experiment to see if I could foil over Liquitex Light Molding Paste. Here is my card.

Background panel, stocking, and Merry Christmas all come from scrap card stock. I don't think I have even put a dent in card stock left over from print and cuts.

I used my air brush with Dollar Tree metallic markers. The gold flowed nicely on my scrap but when I went to spray over the blue it speckled. That is all right because I like the speckled look.

I stenciled the stars on with the molding paste. When it was dry I brushed the transfer adhesive over them. The molding paste seemed to absorb the adhesive so in places I didn't get good coverage but that is all right as I think the stars have more character than if they were completely covered. I decided to give the stars a little more dimension by tracing around using an extra fine point Sharpie. The black was dried out :-( so I used a dark blue.

The stocking was stamped with Ranger Archival ink. I will try to do a video soon of the technique I used to color the stocking as well as the Merry Christmas. I will tell you I dusted off the oil pastels and used them. The oil pastels on the Merry Christmas ended up paler than I had anticipated so I'll probably dust some chalk over them to make them pop more.

O.K I still have not begun to decorate my apartment or make new decorations so as soon as i get this card ready to mail I'm off to do that.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Stamptangle Stocking Card

Hi everyone I really haven't fallen off the edge of the world. I've been busily trying to get my obligations for the design team out of the way for the year and now have projects finished and posts scheduled so I can play more on my own things.

I have a special friend who has in many ways been my mentor and encouraging me in my card making journey. She has answered questions I've had and given me advice. When I was really bummed out once again not making it on a design team she told me it was their loss. I think she was doing just as much a happy dance as I was when I was picked for the Just For Fun team. I wanted to make her a special card. I just finished it this weekend.

I started by mod podging white tissue wrapping on a scrap of card stock. The mod podge being so thick doesn't warp the card stock like regular glue would. Then I used a few different colors of acrylic paint including Peridot green which is a metallic paint.  When it was dry I edged  with gold ink.

The scallop panel is a Silhouette store frame cutting file I've been playing with. I converted it to a print and cut and made the scallop lines thicker so they would print darker and accept the foil.  I love knowing I can now turn cutting files into print and cut and print them with my laser printer and then foiling.

Merry Christmas is cut with my cutting machine and then heat embossed with holographic powder. It always amazes me how tiny I can cut things. The sentiment is a half inch tall.

I took out my gelli plate which would have been gathering dust if it was not in an air tight container. I borrowed some deli paper from my roommate's stash. (Hopefully Costco will have it in stock next time I go.) I love how the stocking turned out heat embossed. I didn't want to glue it down and take a chance on it wrinkling so it is adhered to the panel with a jewel brad.

There you have it a special card for a special lady. I hope she will like it. I'm off to find a cutting file for making decorations.

I hope you are having fun being crafty during the holiday season. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!