Frugal Crafting

Do you enjoy crafts, but hesitate to buy craft supplies that seem so expensive? They're not always necessary. I have been browsing through some craft blogs and while most of them have great ideas, so many of them list materials that seem unnecesarily expensive. Jars, paint, posterboard, all kinds of paper punches and cutters, beads and so on. There's a better (frugal) way!

Here are a few substitutions:

For posterboard, try cardboard, pasteboard (from shoeboxes, tablet backs, shirt forms, etc.) cardstock if you already have it. Glue two sheets together if you need to.
For beads, check your jewelry for something ready to sacrifice, or your button box, Some buttons are beautiful and can be made to fit the situation. Learn how to make paper beads and you'll never have to buy them.
Mason jars - this is an easy one. Save any unique jars that you come across. Labels will peel or soak off and if the lid labels won't come off, you can paint over them.
For paint, first look around for what you might have. Small jars of leftover acrylic paint is great, but wall paint or even house paint, works too. Don't forget that nail polish is basically paint. If you just need a tiny bit, a bottle of cheap nail polish will save you money on small projects, and look at all those colors!
Special paper or foil for crafts: Check your gift wrap supply. And don't forget the alumimun foil, wax paper and freezer paper. Of course, it helps if you save odds and ends of foil or pretty paper throughout the year.

I keep a craft stash that includes odds and ends of ribbon and lace from old clothing, elastic from the same source, very inexpensive floral wire, odds and ends of paper, cloth and other materials. I have saved, at one time or another, a few empty food cans of various sizes, shoeboxes, facial tissue boxes and old plastic table cloths.

They all came in handy. For instance, I had a black plastic lid that just fit a small glass bowl that I wanted to use for refrigerator storage. The lid had the logo of something or other on it, and to make it more presentable, I cut a circle from an old tablecloth which had a pumpkin on it and glued it to the lid. It looked like it belonged there, honest!

Crafting doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. Paying a lot of money to make something kind of defeats the purpose, as far as I am concerned. Look around at what you already have and use it.