Save money buying coloured flowers/card candi and twine

by Vee StJohn-Byles
(Scotland, UK)

I am a pensioner, so have to get pretty frugal to enable me to save up to afford the things I need like cutting dies and punches. Here are a few ideas you may not have tried:

Use your distress inks or other coloured inks to change the colour of basic white/cream or pale variety of doilies/flowers/string/cotton/card-candi/and use a dab of acrylic paint to change the colour of drawing pins, brads and other metal or non paper materials.

You can also change the colour of ribbons to exactly match your design schemes...same as with the string and card candi etc, this saves you £££s and $$$$s on all those colours and you can then match up your bits and pieces to your card.

To do this - dab the flowers or card candi into the ink or you can use a dauber or piece of sponge or use the blender tool.

Drag and roll the string across the pads of ink - drag or lie the ribbon across and lightly pat with your finger tip - and touch up the brads, flat back beads/drawing pins, tacks and whatever with a dab of acrylic paint in the colour you want or need with the tip of a paintbrush - use this method to change the colour of buttons you have too.

Christina says ...

Always a cheaper option to buy plain white and color things your self. And once you have colored the metal items you can the roll them in Versamark and dip them in clear embossing powder and heat. That way the color won't come off again as you add it to the card.