Frugal Friday Tip by Elizabeth

Design Team Member Elizabeth submitted this Frugal Friday Tip.  She said:


I’m sure I’m not the only one of us who has lots of leftover snippets of design paper, cardstock, ribbon and trims tucked away in boxes and drawers, considered too lovely to throw away but too small to use on most projects. These little tree decorations are the perfect way of using up even the smallest snippet.

I just made them up as I went along. The only tools used are circle and label punches. The basis of three were some pretty die-cut shapes I already had tucked away but the base of the top one is just made from punched circles of packaging materials covered in circles of patterned paper, including one cut from the leftovers after poinsettias have been cut out of it. I just backed it on to another co-ordinating circle of paper. Even the gold ribbon bow was saved from the packaging of a 2010 Christmas gift. The backs have a little bit of decoration too so they look good from any direction.

They don't take much of anything ... a little bit of ribbon, twine and some interesting trim, a few flowers, glitter, brads, gems, card candy, peel-offs, various adhesives and a hot glue gun and they can be made in super quick time ... ready to go on the tree or hung on a wall. I’ve even taken the idea a step forward and made one for my little granddaughter, Shari-Ann, to hang in her newly decorated bedroom ... it’s pink, of course.

It’s a little bigger than the others allowing me to add her initials. I made the concertina flowers some time ago, just practicing, and I’m happy to have found a use for them at last.

The floral paper on the back is from a Prima paper stack, Romantique. I hope these have given you some inspiration to pull out your leftover bits and pieces to create these pretty little decorations.

Now it's your turn to go use those leftover snippets  - send a picture along with a description to Scrappinpsycho@live.com and we will post it here.


Do you have a frugal idea to share? Send your tip along with a picture to Scrappinpsycho@live.com . You could be featured as a future Frugal Friday Tip. 

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$ by Sarah

This project was made for another challenge:
The theme was 'Patchwork' but it works for 'Grid' too...
and it is VERY Scrap Our Stash!

It's a 8" X 9 1/4" X 1 1/2" Chocolate Box I altered.
I *HAD* to save this one...
-the liner and sides are covered in textured brown paper, beautiful!
-a shiny gold cover, gorgeous!
-AND it holds closed magnetically, stays shut to if the contents aren't too heavy!
Such a waste to just toss!


The paper for my 'patchwork/grid' is also a rescue from the 'trash':
It's all from the main page insert from a paper kit.
Now ask yourself how many of these you have sitting around?
or you've tossed out in the past? Bet you won't now! :O)

I love using these on projects... they can be chopped up for Cards, ATCs, Art Journals and are poi-fect for Twinchies and Inchies. You've got perfect miniatures of several entire 12X12 pages, PLUS they all co-ordinate!


The set of 'paper' I used here is from Fancy Pants.
I even used the title for the kit on the Box.
Inked all the edges to get a spooky-grungy look...
If you don't have a 'perfect' cutter this helps cover that when you 'match' them up like this. Trust me... I uh... Ink edges a lot if you catch my drift and I blame it all on my cutter! *wink*


Bling strip is MaryEngelbreit from Studio 18.
Back ground paper is Textured Mulberry Paper from Memory Stor.
All inks are Stampin' Up!
Now it's ready to be filled with some Tasty Halloween Goodies!

Now it's your turn to take the September GRID Challenge. See all the details HERE Be sure to scroll down the page - Scrap Our Stash posts something new everyday.

$$Frugal Friday Tip by Christy$$

Design Team Member Christy submitted this Frugal Friday Tip.  She said:

I buy and use cheap luggage. I learned the hard way, that regardless of cost and claimed durability, luggage takes an extreme beating when you fly as frequently as we do.  Often, given the beating it gets, expensive luggage has about the same life span as a cheap Walmart suitcase. To top it off, if the airline breaks it, they will either give you the cost of a cheap bag or cheap bag itself as a replacement. It's just not worth spending big money on luggage. Thanks to the airlines, a duffel bag style suitcase I have broke recently (the wheels came off and it was beyond repair). I realized I could do a little recycling. Armed with a sturdy pair of scissors, I cut the bag apart. 

Not pictured is the one wheel I saved.I think it would be cool to use it with paint or ink. I'll roll it all over a paper for a grungy effect. I cut out several zippers which I can pull apart to use as trim or make into flowers. There were some cool metal tags and zipper pulls with the word "embark" on them which I can use in the future for travel layouts. I also cut off part of the handle figuring that these can also be used as an interesting trim. If you don't have a broken suitcase, consider going through old clothes in search of items to salvage. I have a pair of jeans that are not worth patching. I plan to use some of the pockets, the zipper, the label and the material itself to make my own embellishments.

Lately, I have been coveting Maya Road's zipper trim. I have seen some neat flowers made from it and have wanted to make my own. Zipper trims just aren't readily available where I live and quite honestly, I'd like to avoid having to buy them since my scrappy budget is very limited. I considered buying regular zippers from the fabric store. I can get them for around $2 or less. It's a good option if you want a specific colour or don't have any salvageable items. However, I decided to use my salvaged zippers to experiment with before I bought any.

You will need thread (I recommend using a colour that matches the zipper) and felt. As shown above in the photo, I used only one side of the zipper. I simply separated it, cut it apart and saved the pull to use an embellishment on another project. I cut the felt into a small circle. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle and if there is any excess, you can trim it away when you are finished. I started by sewing one end of the zipper to the center of the felt circle.

Then I just slowly wound it around, stitching it in place as I went. It resulted in a small rose style flower. As mentioned before, I trimmed away any excess felt from the circle that showed at the edges.

 I like having the felt as a base for the flower. I think it makes it easier to adhere it to your page later on. Maya Road also has some zipper flower tutorials on their blog. They will give you ideas on how you can change the look of your flower.

 Happy Salvaging everyone!

Now it's your turn.  Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share - just send your tip along with a picture (if possible) to scrappinpsycho@live.com .  Your tip could be posted as a future Frugal Friday Tip. 

Be sure to scroll down - Scrap Our Stash posts something new everyday.

Frugal Friday Tip: Tin Can Recycling by Christy

Last November, I got a Sizzix Texture Boutique. While I love what I can do with it, I really have not used it to its fullest potential. When I saw a recent tutorial about using soda cans and punches, I had the idea to dust off the texture Boutique and embossing folders to see what I could come up with. The results were quite wonderful!

Materials: Embossing machine and folders

               soda cans, rinsed out

               old scissors

               a Bic Mark it or other permanent marker

              optional: a child (My son likes to use my embossing machine. So I cut the soda cans while he worked         

                 the machine.  My son thinks this is great fun.)

You will need to carefully cut a slit into the can. Then remove the top and bottom. You are left with a curled piece of aluminum. Then it's just a matter of placing this into an embossing folder and putting it through the machine. I would just advise caution since the can is a little sharp after you cut it.

We experimented with a variety of designs. Some look better than others. You can use some punches to create your own shapes or use the permanent marker to draw a design of your choice.Then use old scissors to cut it out. The marker also comes in handy to draw an inked look to the edges of your cut shape. 

I found glue dots to be the best way to adhere the shapes to my page. It's also very easy to punch holes  for brads with your paper piercing tool. You could also conceivably choose to hand stitch on your metal embellishment. I plan to dust off my alcohol inks to see how well they would look on my newly embossed designs.

Sassy Lil Sketches 3-14-11 design
Cream Acrylic paint
MME paper
Maya road Chipboard motif inked in Colorbox black ink
Paper Trunk Carson, black alphas
Black paint stamped with a round lid
DMC floss

All in all...a wonderful and inexpensive way to make your own page embellishments and recycle.

Do you have a frugal tip to share?  Send the tip along with a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  You could be featured as our next Frugal Friday Tip.  

Be sure to scroll down the page - Scrap Our Stash posts something new everyday.



$$Frugal Friday Tip by Tracy

Here is the photo of the tip that should be opened and a photo of it opened

Design Team Member Tracy submitted this Frugal Friday Tip. She said:

I use and love Mono tombo multi use adhesive but can't always get it. So when my Walmart had Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky glue on clearance/sale for 50 cents I picked up several bottles. I then thought that the real reason that I loved the Mono tombo is because of the tip options. I then opened the large tip side and filled the empty mono bottle with the Aleene's glue.


Now I have the same quality of glue, dries clear as well, sticks alot faster and I still have that small tip to be able to use to glue down diecuts that are super tiny.

Do you have a frugal tip to share. Just send your tip along with a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com. You could be a future Frugal Friday Tip.


Be sure to scroll down the page - Scrap Our Stash posts something new everyday.

$$Frugal Friday Tip - by Mary Pat

 Hi Everyone,
It's me, Mary Pat, and I am here today with a Frugal Friday Tip.  Hooray!!!!  Well I like to use every drop of paper and embellie that I buy.  I save it all, and I end up using all of it too!  When I have just odds and ends I end up making card sets with it to give as hostess gifts or just because gifts.  Well, I had just used up the last drop of my Imaginisce Birthday Bash line and was making some cards with all the scraps when it dawned on me.  You know the colored backing that the embellishments come on?  Well Imaginisce also prints their pattern on it.  Here is a terrible picture of what I am talking about.

Well, I need a red cardstock to punch some scalloped circles for my base.  I was just about to throw this away when I thought--hey let's use this for my base. So I took the backing and punched it with my punch and got this.

You can see in the above circle the pattern that is on the cardstock.  So I used this as my base and made this card set from my leftover rub ons and these fun scalloped circles.

So always remember to look around and see what things you can use to save a bit of $$$.  You never know what you will find. 

Hope you can use my tip someday.

Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share?  Or an example of a project you completed using one of the Frugal Friday Tips? 

Just email a picture (if possible) and your tip to scrappinpsycho@live.com .  Your tip could be featured as a future Frugal Friday Tip. 

Be sure to scroll down - Scrap Our Stash posts something new everyday.

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Design Team Member Karen, submitted this layout for the Pagerize This Challenge #5.  She also pointed out these frugal tips:

the music paper is a flea market find - a music book that I have used on various LOs and only cost 1 euro

the butterfly is from a pair of earrings-£2 a pair and each
earring had 9 butterflies.

Do you have a frugal tip to share.  Just send it along with a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  Your tip could be featured as a future Frugal Friday Tip.

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

February Guest Design Team Member Linda submitted this cleaver Frugal Friday Tip.  Using a package from Fancy Pants that contained buttons she created an attractive container for candy.   

Original Container without buttons



I used the original liner to create my own liner.



This is the re-purposed container ready to give as a treat.



If you use this or any of our other Frugal Friday Tips to complete a project - we'd love if you would share it with us.  Just send a picture and description to Scrappinpsycho@live.com and we'll post it to the blog. 

Do You have a frugal tip to share?  Send it along with pictures to scrappinpsycho@live.com .  You could be featured as an upcoming Frugal Friday Tip.

$$$ FRUGAL FRIDAY $$$

To celebrate Scrap Our Stash's Birthday I am reposting some of our original Frugal Friday Tips.  This one was submitted by Design Team Member Joni last December. 

She said, when she has a layout in which she is going to use a 12x12 piece of paper as a "frame" and then have another piece of large paper behind it. She "cuts out" the back of the "frame" paper, so she has a nice "chunk" of the "frame" paper left to use later. This also helps reduce the bulk in her album.

Front of layout

Back of Layout
If you have an example of your use of this frugal tip or a frugal tip you would like to share - email it to scrappinpsycho@live.com . Come back for Frugal Friday - every Friday and let us help you stretch your scrapbook $.

Best of $$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Faux Chipboard Letters by Kathy

My tip is to use chipboard letters as patterns instead of using the actual chipboard. This allows you to never run out of those pesky E's or any other letter. I have posted 2 examples.

In Indian boy - I cut the letters for INDIAN by placing the letters on the front of the paper and traced them with my Zig Writer. Then when I cut them out - I cut them just a little outside the lines leaving a small border.

On the Goofy layout - I traced the letters backward on the red paper from the back. Then I cut them on the line. Then I inked around the edges for emphasis.

To make the letters appear to be chipboard - I used the little foam adhesive (pop-dots) as my adhesive. Even up close and in real life - they totally look like they are chipboard.

This is a great way to match your letters to your layout too - no more having to find chipboard letters that "work" or having to paint, ink or cover them to match your layout. And best of all - you will always have the letters you need!

If you use this tip - please send a picture and brief description of your layout to: scrappinpsycho@live.com and I'll post it here.

Also, if you have a Frugal Tip you'd like to share - please send a picture and description to the above address and it may be posted as a future Frugal Friday Tip.

Don't forget to get your November Challenge in - entries must be received by 6 PM November 30th. Who knows - maybe you will be our next Guest Design Team member. See all the details below in November Challenge.
We're looking forward to hearing from YOU!

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Design Team Member Christy submitted this Frugal Friday Tip on how to stamp with found items. 

Stamping is something I would like to do more of. However, being on a limited budget means I can only add to my stamp collection slowly. I also like recycling, so I am always on the lookout for items that I can re-use. I buy glue sticks for my son in bulk. After he used up the last one, I realized that part of the packaging would be perfect for a background stamp. It had a black stand to which all of the sticks were attached.

I used a little red paint, and stamped directly onto the paper. I love the effect it produced. Ink could also easily have been used with it. I splattered some red paint on the page as well. I also was able to use some leftovers on this page. I had some chipboard circles left over from a minibook project and some thin strips of papers from my DCWV green stack and Stampin up paper pack. For added effect, I used pens on these for a simple accent, though it's a little hard to see in the photo. The simple pen borders give new life to old scraps.

The colors I chose were based on the Tortuga rum cake sign. These are sold here in Nassau. I was recently in a challenge about scrapping local foods. I had never thought about that before. I realized it could be very important. Places change, even if we don't move around a lot. My Dad still lives in the town where I grew up, but a lot of the favorite places we ate are out of business. On the flip side, it could just be nice to record a restaurant and see it recorded in our albums as a family tradition years later.  Especially if it's a place you and your family frequent. Anyhow, I am on a mission to scrapbook local treats and foods that we eat while living here. I just need to get DH on board so we can go eat some conch down at the fish fry. Local foods and family recipes have become one of my many projects to complete. They may take a little time, but I do also hope to scrap some of my grandmother's recipes.


I hope you'll use this frugal tip and share it with us here at Scrap Our Stash.  Just email a picture of your project along with a description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share.  Send it along with a picture and description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  You could be featured in an upcoming Frugal Friday Tips.

Also, don't miss our October Challenge or the Pagerize This Challenge going on right now.  See all the details in the posts below. 

$$Frugal Friday Tips$$ - Happy Accidents! by Joni

This tip/lesson sponsored by Design Team Member Joni (Momma) Parker, and her 7 year old son, Joseph.


Ever do something UNINTENTIONALLY on your layout and then it ends up being really cool???  I do that all the time.....I call them HAPPY ACCIDENTS.  With this mindset, I've freed up myself to "let" something happen and if I don't like it...well, that's part of the creative process...but sometimes that little bit of "freedom" allows something great to happen.


Ok, so I don't have my own example to share...but I thought about this lesson tonight as my son Joseph was finishing his "REPTILES" layout.

He had the Patterned Paper, photos, the stitching and the TITLE already on the layout.  He wanted to fill that space between the top photo and the stitched swirl (yes he did that by himself).  So, he found a piece of chipboard and painted it green.  But as he was painting, he got a little paint on the layout.  So he added even more paint to his layout.  Then he got some paint on his REPTILE letters (they are Textured, important later).


He got upset and tried to wipe the paint off the letter (it was the P, I think)....then he said "Hey, when I wipe off the paint it looks like reptiles scales"......  YEP!!!  Happy Accident...and he went on to paint and wipe off his entire title. 

What kind of mishap experience have you had? We'd love to see the Happy Accidents you've had - and how you saved it from being an accident - How much more frugal can you be - then to rescue a page from destruction.  Submit a picture of your sample along with a description to scrappinpsycho@live.com .  All submissions will be posted here.
Do you have a frugal tip to share?  Submit it as mentioned above - you could be featured as a future Scrap Our Stash Frugal Friday Tip!

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

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. 

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Design Team member Amy submitted this Frugal Friday tip. She said, "For this layout i wanted to use multiple paper strips behind my photo. Well, i had a problem. I didn't want to cut into all of my 12x12 sheets, but i really wanted to use strips. So instead i used the bottom portion of the paper that usually has the company name, etc. In this case, Echo Park paper, has a sample of the other side of the paper on the strip. Sweet! Problem solved! I used the strips, that i would normally throw away, and used them on my page!

Added my photo and stickers.

Finished product! Added some textural elements, like gems, stickles, and floss."

If you use this - or any other Frugal Friday Tip on a project - please share it with us - we'd love to post it here. Just send a picture and a description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.

Do you have a frugal tip to share? Send your tip along with supporting pictures to scrappinpsycho@live.com - you could be featured on an upcoming Frugal Friday Tip!

And don't miss the Frugal Friday Challenge that is going on until the end of the month. See Frugal Friday Challenge for all the details.

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Guest Design Team Member Chisty submitted this Frugal Friday Tip. 

Recently, I did a swap on Club Ck in which the goal was to exchange "baddies"...also known as products in less than mint condition. I received several rub-ons. I have a love/hate relationship with rub-ons. They don't always go on as you would like them to. Sometimes spots are missing or just look less than perfect. In this case, parts of the rub-on were missing right from the rub-on sheet.

                                        You can see the parts missing from the word friend.

I hate trashing anything, so, I pulled out a new and favorite stash item to fix them...Stickles.

The first step is to place the rub-on on your page in the desired location.

If parts of the rub-on are missing or broken, use a marker in a color as close as you can match, and fill in the missing parts. Just do your best.

                                    Notice how the black marker is not a direct match to the rub-on.

Next, apply stickles over the rub-on. The stickles hide any mismatched colors, pen strokes, or unevenness (if you are like me and can't perfectly match the font or shape of the rub-on).

In this case, I used diamond stickles. Coordinated color stickles or even perfect pearls would hide any imperfections and allow you to easily use a broken or imperfect rub-on."

If you complete a project using this - or any of our other frugal tips - please send a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  We would love to share it.

Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share.  Email your tip, along with a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com.  Your tip could be featured in an up-coming Frugal Friday Tip.

$$Frugal Friday Tip$$

Hello, It's me Tere . Today,  I have a little tutorial for decorative envelopes.  I love making my own embellishments for 3 reasons:
1. The original ones, tend to be a little bit  expensive,  
2.  It makes me happy :) and
3. My husband thinks he has a very frugal wife! :)

Let me show you a picture of the final product.

Supplies:

- Packaging paper. 

- Eyelets

- Crop-a-dile or any eyelet setter

- Buttons

- Thread

- Small circle punch or other shape ( I used a heart)

- Needle and thread 

1. Cut a rectangular piece of paper (the size depends on how big you want your envelope to be). Using a journaling block shape, one of those very popular ones; trace a decorative edge on one of the ends,  then fold the paper to form the envelope.

2. Punch 2 circles , or in my case, hearts. With the Crop-a-Dile. Punch one hole on the center of the decorative edge you just cut, and one on the other end of the envelope, and one on each of the circles.

3. Cut a 9" piece of thread.  We'll work on the decorative edge first. Place the thread on the punched hole, then your circle (heart), then the eyelet and set it in place. Do the same on the other end, this time with no thread.

Glue the envelop closed and tie the thread around the circles.  Easy right? Here is the first envelope:

4. For the next envelope, We are going to use scalloped decorative scissors,   If you don't have them, you can use a small circle to trace the scallops all around.

5. Repeat step #3, but this time you can use buttons instead of eyelets.

6. For the last envelope, repeat step #4. But now, using a paper punch, punch circles on each of the scallops. Repeat Step #3.  This is my favorite envelope!!!

You can use cardstock to make them too, I  justhappened to have some of this packaging paper.

OK... hope you like them... see you soon!!!  

If you use Tere's frugal tip - please send a picture to scrappinpsycho@live.com  We would love to post it on the blog.

Do you have a frugal tip to share?  Email it to the above address.  You could be featured as a future Frugal Friday Tip.