Frugal Friday/Tutorial - Joni

So, one of my favorite things to do lately is "wrap" bakers twine or embroidery floss around a part of my layout (around the photo or a section of patterened paper).


Now, I know that bakers twine or embroidery floss isn't really "that" expensive..but this concept evolved because I decided I needed the twine after I had already adhered my paper. So this is a tutorial combined with a Frugal Friday!!


So usually you would just wrap the twine around and around and around, right... so let's say you're wrapping a 6 inch photo (like this one)...

I always wrap so there are 3 strands on the top... so 6 inches x 3 wraps = 18 inches, plus it's also wrapped on the back...so double that and you get 36 inches. So 1 yard of twine just to wrap this photo.


So, let's move on to my idea...

So here's my layout already adhered... and I decided I needed a "wrap of twine" around the bottom red patterned paper, but I don't want to rip up my layout....

So... I lift the left edge - (let's call it End A) of the paper poke a hole under the paper..

Then I feed my twine (aqua colored) through my hole and scotch tape it onto the backside (so there is no knots)...

Then I wrap the twine to the other end (right end - End B) of the patterned paper, poke hole at that end and feed it through to the back... (Yes, I'm using a needle)

Now here is where the trick comes in... on the back side, instead of wrapping all the way back to the first side (left end - A) again, I just poke another hole in the the same side I just came down on (End B) and go back up there...scotch tape the back side to hold it firm & prevent tearing. (this eliminates the wasted twine on the back side)...

Wrap twine back to left end (end A), poke hole, feed to back of paper, poke another hole & come back up (scotch tape)...again eliminating the wasted wrap on the backside.


So this is what the backside of my paper looks like:

And the front side:

So the paper was about 10 inches long... and I used 10 inches x3 on the top... 30 inches and maybe 2 inches on the back. so 32 inches. If I had wrapped it all the way around front, back, front, back..I'd have used about 60 inches of twine....
I also attached a button just by poking two holes and feeding twine from the backside through hole 1, then the button and back through the second hole. -- Scotch tape again to avoid knots...
here is that additional look on the backside:

And here is the button/wrap from the front:

Then I also added a few more pieces of patterned paper to the lower edge and this is my completed layout:

And a closeup of the finished layout:

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Instead of having a new Frugal Friday Tip this week - I thought it would be fun to have a Frugal Friday Challenge. The challenge is to use one of the Frugal Friday Tips linked here.  Just email a picture of your project along with a description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  Each FF Challenge project will be posted here and a winner will be chosen from the entries.  The Frugal Friday Challenge ends at midnight on September 30, 2010.  The winner will be offered a position on the November Guest Design Team. 

Do you have a frugal tip you would like to share?  Send an email along with a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  Your tip could be featured in a future Frugal Friday Tip. 

Frugal Friday Challenge by Irit

Reader Irit submitted her Layout "Our Dance for the Frugal Friday Tip Challenge.

She used Danielle's tip of using packaging from scrapbook supplies as embelishments on your layout.

Irit used Prima packaging on her layout. She painted it and stamped on it to better match her page colors.

Now it's your turn to take the Frugal Friday Tip Challenge. Check out all the details in the Frugal Friday Tip Challenge below.