August is all about Free (or next to nothing) crafting

 Tips and Ideas for Free Crafting

Paper Flowers

So here we are the month of school holidays, holidays in general and household funds stretched for most people so I thought I would look at crafting on a budget. I have already looked at using your scraps and making the most of crafts you already have in the cupboard, so August is going to be all about some free or very cheap crafting projects that you can make yourself and maybe entertain the children with. 

During August I will also share some tips on where I buy some of my bargains and how to make the most of Ebay.

Summer is traditionally a slow crafting time as everyone gets out to enjoy the fresh air and events taking place across the country, but this means it is also a great time to pick up bargains and start collecting free items for future use.

Freebie Items I like to save into my craft stash include:

Cereal boxes - The thickness of the cardboard seems just right for mini album covers etc. 

Toilet rolls inners- One of my  project will use these some make sure you save some ready to craft along.

Envelopes - I get a lot of envelopes with brochures and catalogues and always put them aside, either to recycle as money collecting envelopes (I am treasurer for my local WI) or if I have a surplus I can use them to make envelope albums or files. 

Pretty wrapping paper if it comes my way in large enough pieces I will fold it neatly and add to my recycling stash.

Old books either with pretty illustrations or old print can be re-used on many projects. This will be the first free items we use for :

Project No 1
Flowers for your paper projects 

Today I have 2 types of flowers for you 

Both using freely available items that cost you nothing extra as you will have them around the house.

No 1 

Toilet Tissue or Kitchen Towel flower

You can make all sorts of embellishments/flowers from toilet tissue. Check out my post on 

Dee's Craft Den: New Use for Toilet Tissue:

Todays flower is a simple flower to add to cards or gift boxes.

Take 2 sheets of toilet tissue and spray with water add another 2 pieces, and spray and another 2 pieces and spray 

You will now have 3 thicknesses together

You can pop these into an embossing folder and then die cut them for flowers or simply place onto your cutting pad add your flower die and cut 

If you emboss them first, when you die cut some of the embossed pattern will be flattened, but you will still have some small pattern to your petals. You could die-cut first and then emboss and this gives you a much more defined pattern. As I wanted this as a fairly flat flower I did not emboss it. I used my SIZZIX BIGZ Daisy die which has 4 section per flower 

After cutting I waited until the petals are dry and then put them together with some wet glue and a little glitter glue in the centre.

Tissue Flower on Embossed Tissue background 

Flower No 2

For this I have used pages from a Book. This happened to be an old music book, which make lovely backgrounds for vintage and shabby chic projects. 

For these flowers I have used a die and stamp set by Heartfelt Creations

The stamps have been stamped out using Adirondack Eggplant ink pad 

For speed I cut 2 pages into 4, roughly, and just stamped the top of each section and then cut them out. The underneath die cuts, with no ink on,  I have coloured to match using my blending sponge

The petals were then shaped with my mat and ball tool and 2 or 3 sections put together 

The top stamped flowers are clean images 

While the blended petals give a different look 

I have added one of the large flower to the base of a bookmark to brighten the finish

 So both of these flowers had a zero cost for the materials to make the actual flower, and both are readily available in most homes.

If you do not have dies you can cut the flowers by hand : check out YouTube and Pinterest for techniques.

Back soon with more makes 

Happy Crafting 

Dee