How to be crafty in a nasty economy

Ok. So the economy has been a real big pain in the butt to deal with when all I want is craft supplies to keep playing with and make me happy. Right now things are tough here- hubby is searching for a new job after not being able to cope with guns being in his face at work. He has a job interview tomorrow (yay!) which is his 2nd interview this week (the first one was for a contract-type job that couldn't gurentee a steady income). I'm crossing my fingers for him. He also is supposed to get a call from another place next week. 

So in light of the economic struggle, I have a few cool things to share with you that will help you save some cash-o-la! You might already do these, but I felt like sharing my findings.

1. eBay: ok, so I know sometimes eBay gets a bad rap, but I have found some awesome wonders. Now I only allocated myself $20.00 to spend, and I got all of the following for $8.32 ($17.07 after shipping costs), perfectly under my goal. I got: an adorable bunny with flowers wooden mounted stamp, baby giraffe wooden mounted stamp, 3 crocheted flowers (with an option to add more flowers for only $0.25 each additional flowers-I totally will take them up on this), a Sizzlits rounded tag die and a Sizzlit mini envelope die. Everything I bidded on, the bid was below $2 and the shipping was about $2 for each (except the crocheted flowers, which had free shipping!) Some might think that I didn't save much. But you would be surprised what this all costs if you tried to get it at a store like Micheal's. I know those Sizzlits are anywhere from $5 normal and up. If it wasn't for the shipping, I would be walking away with the biggest deal ever, so make sure you check the shipping on things- that's where they get you! You can find some great things if you search for them. Etsy.com is also great for homemade things, just watch out for people charging you a lot for their homemade items- and make sure it is homemade too. I love Etsy and have found some awesome stuff just like ebay, you just have to watch what you are doing. Below is the bunny stamp! :)
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3. Oriental trading Co.- So this ordering company/website/catalog, etc. has been known to me for a LONG time. My mother used to use them to make cheap priced crafts in Sunday school and for our Girl scout troop. But recently I found out that they now sell scrapbook/papercrafting supplies. Not all of it is top notch, but they do sell some cute stuff in bulk. They sell adhesive and tools as well! Watch for their specials online, where you can get great discounts on free shipping for certain orders over a certain price, or get free gifts with your orders. Check them out and save some cash. Who says you need expensive supplies to get your craft on? I hope to be making an order with them one of these days, once the hubby is back employed.
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5. Have a scrap stash- now I know most of you are like me and save everything. I save every bottle cap that are scattered around after house parties (my goal is to cover an entire tabletop with them, then put grout in between to make an awesome party table), ticket stubs, cool pictures from magazines, newspaper clippings (I do work at a newspaper after all) and basically every scrap known to man in my craft room. I save almost every tiny piece of paper. Those little scraps come in handy- That little line of paper you get after you punch the scallop punch by fiscars (If you have one you know what I mean) makes great thin boarders. Being a horder when it comes to craft supplies isn't a bad thing, it helps you create and save!
6. Reuse, reuse!- Sometimes you just gotta reuse things. I had a huge stash of cd jewel cases left over after I decided to take all my cd's apart and putting them in a huge binder. Well, now I use those jewel cases to store my clear stamps. They take up less room in my stamp drawer and I can put stamps of similar themes together easily. Other reusing things include our trash to treasure vast array of tables. 3 tables in apartment I got from our "free hallway" at our apartment. Here's the story: we live in an 8-story apartment, and people are well, lazy when they move out. They leave items they don't want to figure out how to fit in the elevators or get down 8 flights of stairs. They leave them over in the empty space across from the elevators. It has become the "free space" in the apartment complex. I got a new craft table and chair, a small end table to our spare bedroom part of that room, and a new dining room set table (with detachable leaf) and 4 chairs. Now I know our apartment is miss-matched and well, very college-student-esk, but there is more than just furniture out there thrown out by people. Someone across the street from us was throwing out boxes of books, which I took some home to alter. Great stuff out there people!
7. Digital scrapbook freebies- So basically every online/digital scrapbooking place has a freebie hidden somewhere. I know that they don't intend for people to be like me- only make digital scrapbook pages completely out of freebies. But I just don't have the heart to spend money on it just yet. I know many people LOVE them and make AWESOME scrapbooks of just digital stuff, but I still haven't seen things that I absolutely must have. Maybe its because I work on a computer all day at work and live in Photoshop at work that I don't feel the need to do it when I get home to make a digital scrapbook page. Or maybe its just because I don't have the heart to pay for a downloaded thing. I can't physically hold it, unless I print it out. Either way, I just can't bring myself to do it. So I came across this awesome freebie site. They basically put as much freebies offered around the blogosphere that they can find and show them to you here, so you can get them. Check it out at digifree and you will become a follower like I am! Just be careful, sometimes when you try to download too many of them at a time, it crashes your internet...been there, done that. Now I just recently found a digiscrapbook challenge over at godigitalscrapbooking, to try to be on their design team the "supreme team" by using their digiscrapbooking kits. So maybe this will change my views on digital scrapbook, maybe it won't. We'll find out. Wish me luck too.

Now people, go out there and save some money by being thrifty. I know that I have a REALLY hard time doing that, since I love to shop like any other woman I know out there, but when the time comes that you can't afford to spend frivolously, you got to think outside of the box. So what have you done from scraps or reusables? 

I don't have any crafty stuff to show today, but I hope to tomorrow night. I'm heading to bed soon, so I can get up early to take the hubby to his interview. 

Make sure you check out Fun-Frilled! It is another wonderful week over there. I love Fun-Frilled! It always cheers up my day to see fun new cards everyday. Yay! Make sure you tune in, since I know there is going to be some AWESOME blog candy coming around over at Fun-Frilled. Check it out!

Wow, I didn't realized I wrote so much. If you read this all, wow. You are awesome!

Cheers all and have fun out there!

-M

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