Frugal Challenge

Frugal Challenge

Frugal Challenge 3

Hi Guys!

I don’t have a freebie for you today I’m afraid, I’ve been struggling for inspiration just lately so I thought I’d set myself a new frugal challenge.

I’m one for saving all manner of packaging and wrappings but I invariably end up just storing it rather than getting round to using it, not today! I dug out some decorative cellophane that came wrapped around some fresh flowers and made myself sit down and actually do something with it.

Frugal3a

I cut a window in my card with a circle die and taped a panel of the cellophane that wasn’t too creased behind it, I die cut another piece of black card and covered all of the taped areas inside the card to keep it nice and neat.

I hand cut several of the different sized flowers from the remaining cellophane and layered them in stacks of three, I popped a brad into the middles to hold them together then I scrunched them up to give them some dimension. I cut some of the leaves from the cellophane and stuck them behind the flowers and adhered them to the edge of the window in my card.

I cut a banner from black and white card using Banners 1 and cut my sentiment in white using this font, I glued all of these pieces together then added a flower button and some thread to the banner before popping it onto my card with 3d foam pads.

Frugal3b

Frugal Challenge, Project Ideas

Frugal Challenge 2 – Memo Board Card

Hello There!

It’s Frugal Challenge Time again and the item I’ve saved from going into the bin this time is some packaging material, it’s thin but dense and a bit spongy.

packaging

I often think about using this stuff as padding on a card but hadn’t come up with the right idea until now so, although my frugal item won’t be visible on my finished card, it will be a vital part of it. My idea was to make a Memo Board Card, basically scaling down a memo board using paper instead of fabric and attaching to the front of a card to add a personal message to the recipient.

memo board card

I cut my packaging material a tad smaller than a square of thin chipboard then covered with some gingham style paper to give it a fabric-y feel. I chose some ribbon that had a twill/webbing type quality to it which happily also has a stitched edge to give it an extra home spun feel and lay it across the panel, this was also attached to the back. I added some large brads to each ribbon intersection and closed them in tight to accentuate the padding then attached the whole panel to my card front. The last step was to add my message so I tucked Happy Birthday behind one of the ribbons and cut out the recipients name on my digital cutting machine and attached to some of the ribbons with little mini pegs.

So, no freebies for you today but I hope you enjoyed this idea, catcha next time :)

Frugal Challenge

Frugal Challenge #1

Hi Guys!

So what’s a frugal challenge? I hear you ask, Well, I am going to set little cost effective challenges for myself from time to time and I promise to document them no matter how successful they are ;). One of the ideas is to use things in my crafting that might otherwise get thrown away such as packaging or using household items that we don’t typically think of as a crafting item in a project. Of course I welcome you to join in so if you have made a frugal discovery I would love to hear about it or see your project. Ok, so Easter has just finished and I am always left with a lovely Easter Egg box which I can never bear to throw away but also never get round to using, this year is different, I am making myself use it!

Here’s my box, It’s got some lovely swirly black details on the outside and the most glorious oh-so-bright pink patterned lining:

easter egg box

I saw this shape on the side of the box and thought it would make a great base for my sentiment:

easter egg box 2

I cut out the front 2 decorated sections and set aside, I turned the rest of the box inside out to use the colourful lining pattern. I alternated the directions of the pink stripes in each layer to help them stand out and not merge into each other and edged in black card. I die cut the piece shown above with a nestability and topped with another die cut circle of the pink side and added my sentiment which I cut in my Silhouette. I dug out some matching hot pink satin ribbon and added to my top panel before sticking down to my card then attached some pink gems to some of the black swirls to tie it all together.

bon voyage

I’m really pleased with how my card turned out as most of the materials were from the Easter Egg box itself, I needed to add very little from my stash and to think it might have ended up in the bin.