More upcycled cards

 Just a quick update on some cards I have made from upcycling other items.

I hope that people don't mind that I upcycle some of the cards I get!

I often mix them up using bits from other cards, calendar etc as well as my own stash and give them a new lease ready to be gifted to a new recipient.

Happy crafting

Kyla

last lot of Christmas cards!

 So not had too much time to craft recently (pay the bills job, illness you know how it is) but I did have a final push on my last lot of recycling of Christmas cards and tags.

I made another 7 cards using different elements, stamps and some additional glitter (can a card ever have TOO much glitter?!)

 So that is just over 20 cards made ready for December.  I won't make any more but it just means that when I am panic making presents later in the year that I know that I have some cards already made!

Happy crafting

kyla

More Christmas Cards upcycling

 In an effort to upcycle whilst still clearing out my stash (and scraps box) I have made some more Christmas cards from this years cards.

I have used the rounding punch, gems, glitter, gloss and patterned papers to alter them and make more new cards out of them.  In many cases I have cut out just a small part of the original design and used that as a feature.

Slowly but surely I am hoping that I will have enough cards made ready by the end of February as that takes some of the stress away in November when I am often panic making presents for the family!!

Happy crafting 

Kyla

The C bomb!

I thought I would make a few cards, Christmas cards!!!  I know, I dropped the C bomb!

These are 'cheats' cards because they are using old cards and I have either cut out certain parts, added some glitter or glaze and matted and layered them.

Recycling at its best!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Valentines snippets

Hello peeps, just a quick update to show you one of the latest cards I have made.

I love this stamp (I borrowed it off one of the Coven members) and thought it would make an ideal Valentines card!

The flower on the bottom right is actually a large paper hydrangea (it was about 8 inches wide!) that I bought at a garden centre in the sales a couple of years ago and cut each set of flowers off.  I ended up with 2 chinese takeaway containers full of blooms - bargain!

The patterned paper is an offcut from my scraps box but I think it all ties in nicely.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Frugal crafting 'Lusty' style

A different sort of crafting this week.  Our bedroom was decorated a couple of weeks ago and under all the throws was this ottoman (its been covered in throws at the end of our bed for 11 years-I forgot it was pink and gold, the original colours)!!

Now, there is no way this was going to go with my green and grey room with yellow accents (odd colour combo but it does work...nice and relaxing) but it has usefully stored our bedding for years and as a Lloyd Loom it is really well made.

There was no choice but to decorate it.  I bought nothing new and only used fabric and paint I had handing around.  I stripped the pink covering fabric off and a couple bowlfuls of pink sandy looking stuff fell out everywhere!!  

It took a few moments for me to realise that this must have been the original foam in the lid and as 'Lusty' Lloyd Loom (what a great name!) is from the 1940's and it had turned to dust! 

 So I had to sweep it all out, have several sneezing fits before I could start painting.  So brush in hand and left over white satin paint I set about painting it-a word to the wise, I had NO idea what a nause this would be!! Seriously it took FOREVER to paint it.  If I knew just HOW much of a pain it was I would have bought spray paint, whilst it would have cost money it would have saved me a day's labour and the neighbours may not have had to put up with my language as I tried to paint it in the front garden!

 

Finally it was painted and I needed to create a level of protection on the lid.  I didn't want to spend any money so my mum (thanks mum) suggest an old towel-but we had one better an old blanket of my husbands which was past its best so we cut it up and stapled a couple of layers to the lid of the ottoman.

I finished it off with some leftover fabric I had (I seem to have a LOT of spare fabric!!) and some upholstery tacks voila: 

A nice new, not dusty but totally serviceable and free ottoman.

Frugal crafting at its best!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Who'd have thought it...and its free!

 Well, this is the cardboard box from the chemist...you know, the one I mentioned in the WOYWW posting (or as Donna put it in the comments..."from the clap clinic!").  Now, I didn't need it....I don't want you to think that!!  BUT when I was in BOOTS I noticed that there was a pile of lovely thick cardboard boxes which screamed "cute storage"...and I like to think of myself as resourceful (and to be honest I would rather spend my money on craft stash rather than storage)...I couldn't resist!

I gesso'd the box (to remove the dodgy STD labels!!) and added some texture paste through a stencil, I then used a variety of acrylic paints and wiped them back to produce different layers of colour.

There you go, a nice sturdy box ready for holding some crafty stash (I am thinking of using it for my charcoal pencils as they make my case a bit messy)....all for free!!

If you have any free storage tips, I'd love to know.

Happy crafting

Kyla