| There are so many wonderful, unique hand crafted items out there. Here are some examples of really interesting and exciting things to create from many different materials: Knitwear is my dear friend Laurie's passion. She has a love and an amazing talent to go along with it. I am awed by her abilities and the beautiful things she creates from what looks to me to be a pile of messy yarn. Next we have some spectacular examples of what you can do with simple paper. Yes, that's right. Paper. Not always thought of as a real art form, but as you can see, paper is a versatile and amazing media from which you can make almost anything. And, since there is no way I can show an example of every possible craft out there, I end with a beautiful beaded necklace. So why am I showing you these beautiful, unique pieces and what does it have to do with being truly frugal? Glad you asked. You know my goal-debt free in '15. (Which now seems highly unlikely with the 15 and a half thousand dollar bill we received in the mail a couple weeks ago-but I digress...) And my determination to create on a very limited budget. This has gone along quite well, until I ran out of everything all at the same time. So what to do about this? I did a couple of things: I organized my work room, so I know everything I have. How much I have, what I don't have, what I need to buy now, what can wait, what I never need to buy again, and what I can sell/trade/dump. Then I made a list of everything I do actually need. Since I'm making art journals currently, I need adhesives, tape, paper, and unfortunately, markers. Mine are all at least 15 years old and even after the how to re-use dried out markers I found on-line there was just no saving them. Then I was fortunate enough to get a house cleaning job that paid well, and worked my butt off. It killed my arms-took several days to bring them back to minimum function-but the money was so worth it! Armed with my detailed list, I marched down to Hobby Lobby. They had very little on my list, surprisingly. They did have some 12 x 12 paper packs, normally $20 for half price. I did buy two. Off to Micheal's. I walked in the door, with my BFF and shopping partner Laurie, and the clouds parted, the sun shown down from heaven and angels sang. There in the center aisle was a huge display of 12 x 12 scrapbook papers-both prints and card stock-all on sale for $5.00 each! Yes, my lovelies, that's 5 bucks each for 180 sheets of patterned papers, cardstock in variegated colors (buy the blue pack, it's all different shades of blue), and the 40 sheet designer packs, the small 6 x 6 printed packs were $3.00 each. The double sided tape was buy one, get 2 free. The artist papers (sketch, watercolor, drawing, etc.) were all buy one, get two free. The clays, jewelry making materials, tools, storage boxes and containers, paints, brushes, gel mediums, gesso, floral making materials, colored pencils, charcoals, acrylics, oils, watercolors, sketch books, easels, miniature making materials, everything you can imagine-all half price or buy one get two free! And best of all... The MARKERS were half price!!!! Can you believe this? Of course you can't. This absolutely never happens! So what did I do with my windfall of money from house cleaning? I cleaned up, that's what I did! I bought 4 12 x 12's of variegated card stock, 8 12 x 12 packs of printed papers, 5 6 x 6 specialty packs, water color brushes, acrylic brushes, a large sketch book, a large water color pad, a huge mixed media book, Spectrum Noir Core Essentials markers, Artist Loft Dual Tip Markers, a huge set of gel pens, a collection of colored pencils, double sided tape-which I'm now out of already!, a different brand of matte finish sealer (thought I'd give it a try for half price), six 12 x 12 clear plastic storage containers, and 7 cardboard photo storage boxes. Oh, and a book. I think I can honestly say I've never been so focused on exactly what I needed rather than what I wanted. I had a list, knew what I was making and what was required and went for it. Of course, I had no idea Micheal's was having a huge sale that day. That was just divine intervention. And that I was able to purchase all that stuff for way cheap was pretty astonishing too. (I think there was an additional percentage off my entire purchase at the end there, too. Not sure what it was though.) I am thrilled with my new stuff, have been using it like crazy and will be going back to the store today to buy more adhesive and plain cream card stock. I have used it all up! Being truly frugal also means spending money on the things you need, for the best prices you can find. My Micheal's trip was just that. I bought what I needed, at the best prices I could ever find, with money I had put away for that purpose. I spent nothing from the budget, I spent money allocated for that purpose. And because I was able to find card stock and patterned papers for $5 when they are normally $20 bucks each, I was able to stock up on lots of commonly used essentials. Now, I have to get back to work making altered art to sell at the Art Fair. But first I have to run to town and pick up more adhesive... | | | |