Happy New Year Friends! I want to thank you so much for spending time with me over the past year. I have been taking a bit of time off over the past week and reflecting on how lucky I am to have such a wonderful community of arty and crafty friends to share with every day. I hope you have a safe and happy new year and I will see you tomorrow with a new tutorial! Till then here are some fun stats about the past year here at the Frugal Crafter’s Weblog! Happy Crafting!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 1,100,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 47 days for that many people to see it.
Hi friends! If you have been thinking of giving acrylic painting a try this is a great first painting. FYI This project will work well in oils or gouache too. 🙂
I will show you how to sketch on the design and paint it step by step and it won’t take very long, an advanced painter can complete it in about 30 minutes and a beginner can get ‘er done in under an hour, but don’t rush, relax and enjoy the process!
Free painting video tutorial!!!!
All of the supplies I used (except for the 1″ wide flat I picked up at the beginning) can be found in the December Smart Art Box, Last I checked they still had a few December boxes left if you want the exact kit I used. I have yet to be disappointed with a Smart Art box, they contain all the supplies you need to get started in a art form and a project instruction sheet if you don’t know where to begin. I have checked out other art subscription boxes in the past but this was the only one I thought offered a good value and ample supplies. When you subscribe to Smart Art you get a surprise box of artsy goodness delivered to your door each month, they have 1 month ($49.95) or 3 month ($134.95) subscriptions available and USA shipping is free. This tutorial is sponsored by Smart Art and I thank them for their support, but as always feel free to use the materials you have on hand.
Simply Simmons Oil and Acrylic Brush Wallet #12 & #20 round, 3/8″ flat *note if you are using short handle brushes use #6 and #12 rounds or something similar to give you the effect you want
Hi friends! I am a heavy glue gun user. I don’t always take care of my glue gun. It is always plugged in and ready to go at a moments notice when I create. With such heavy use I tend to burn through a gun every 2 years. The other day I decided to try something crazy…I cleaned it! It was really easy to do, I even made myself a new glue gun stand. I’ll show you how to do both in today’s tutorial!
There, a nice clean glue gun. Just make sure to use enough aluminum foil so you don’t burn yourself and use an oven mitt or silicone mat to protect your hands while cleaning (Don’t burn your hands off!) I think this is a great way to start the new crafty year off right! So, what are you doing to make crafting easier in the new year! Share in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
PS, if you have been waiting for a new painting tutorial I will have one up at 6pm ET tonight on my YouTube channel!
Howdy friends! Today we put away all of the Christmas decorations. It’s funny how spacious the house feels after that! We finally got some snow and the kids got to play in it. I was still feeling a bit run down so I decided to try the paper doll kit my sister gave me for Christmas
Hopefully the pic is OK, I am on the couch blogging from my cellphone but was having so much fun with this I had to share! All of these dolls take 4 pieces of paper. I am making notes in the book that came in the kit of the paper sizes so hopefully I can make these with my other origami papers. I was actually going to buy this kit for myself, I carried it around Barnes & Noble for an hour one day but put it back because I am frugal or whatever, and my sister snuck back in the store and bought it for me! 🙂 She is a keeper!
My girls are going to make some of these tomorrow. Maizy did a good job making one tonight, I love how she put a face on her doll:
We are going to laminate it tomorrow so it can be a sturdy bookmark. I think I will use mine to decorate cards. What would you use them for?
Please excuse any typos (phone typing problems lol) and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Looks like we are going to get some snow tonight! We had a 50 degree green Christmas yesterday but the weatherman says 1″-3″ of snow tonight and 4″-8″ on Tuesday. I am glad to have snow when the kids are on break because then we won’t have to go anywhere and they can play in it! Even if you are not getting snow where you live ay least you can make some paper snowflakes! I’ll show you how with inexpensive doilies from our sponsor Papermart!
I also want to let you know that Papermart is having an after Christmas clearance sale with 30% off selected items, just click on the after clearance banner on the Papermart website to see all the deals. The Candy Cane stripe and Christmas tree ribbon might have to come live at my house, it would look fantastic on kraft paper packages! They even have Disney and Simpsons Christmas wraps and stockings!
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season:) I have been feeling off all week (I know I’m sick when the smell of coffee turns my stomach and my energy is zapped!) but it’s probably my body telling me to rest and enjoy the holiday break with the family. Stay safe and healthy and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! I have been a bit wiped out the last 2 days but I think I feel my energy coming back! I wanted to get this post up early today in cast you don’t have a chimney and need a way for Santa to get in your home to deliver presents!
If your child is worried that there is no chimney to come down they can leave a magic key outside, only Santa has the magic to use it to open your door! The cute Santa stamp is from our sponsor ArtNeko. This video also contains a relaxing coloring tutorial, if you need a bit of relaxation today give it a look!
Remember to mention “the frugal crafter” anytime you order from ArtNeko to receive a 10% discount or free shipping over $50. I better get back to my holiday work, being sick yesterday put me behind! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! It was a cold rainy day up here in Maine (no white Christmas for us, I guess mother nature though the 5 months of snow we had last year was enough LOL!) and I have been tired and achy all darn day. I am on the couch with a hot cup of tea and a heating pad blogging trying to stave off any potential illness. It’s gonna be an early night for me I think:) I wanted to make sure I announced the winners of the Color It coloring book giveaway. The randomly chosen winners are:
Ann Roberts
Nancy (from California)
Valerie
In case there are more than 3 people with these names I have replied to the winners comments with my email addy, I like to email the winner directly but my email was not letting me, probably because I had the words “you won the giveaway” in the email and yahoo thought I was trying to send spam. Good grief. Some days everything is a struggle and today was one of those LOL! Thanks to all who entered, there were almost 700 entries, I think it is so cute that more people signed up for a chance to win inexpensive coloring books then other expensive art materials in the past. Just goes to show you we are all young at heart!
Today’s tip is a quick and frugal one, how to make a pretty bow from leftover wrapping paper!
I have been putting these on gifts left and right, I think they are so pretty and it is better than throwing those scraps away! Well, I am going to go to bed early tonight so I can have a productive day tomorrow (I still have one more Christmas gift to finish!) so thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
I just snapped a pic of my coffee table, yes, it is always cluttered (usually WAAAAAAYYYY worse LOL!)
But oh, the joy, I can kick back with a new book or maybe color a bit (BTW I am drawing 3 winners of Color It coloring books tomorrow so make sure you leave a comment on last Tuesday’s post for a chance to win!) I like to have a magazine to flip through when I have a cup of tea and the other day I received a book in the mail from one of my favorite stamping magazines, Rubber Stamp Madness. I decided to review it because I thought it was special. *Please note that this video is not sponsored, nor was I asked to review this by the publisher.
Video!
I am inspired to pull out my scene stamps after the holiday, I really miss the process of spending a long time on a piece of stamp art and this book brought it all back to me. If you are interested in the Stamping All Year Long book you can find it on the Rubber Stamp Madness website. They also have a list of stamp conventions on their site, I get asked a lot about stamp shows and they have a great list of them.
I had a lot of questions on YouTube about the glitter eye-shadow I was wearing, I got it at Dollar Tree, it comes in gold and silver, I bought both! It is Cruelty Free and by Wet ‘n Wild and it is my favorite thing right now, I just swiped it on with my finger over my normal shadow and I think it would look great on anyone! Also, you could probably craft with it:)
I will have several more tutorials leading up to Christmas including a Stamp School video so please check back if you are interested but in case you are too busy I wanted to make sure I wished you a safe and merry Christmas! Til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! Christmas is this Friday so tonight I am sharing a few last minute gifts you still have a chance to make:
Wrapped candy bars are great gifts for kids to give their classmates, a lovely scented candle is a nice hostess gift and who can resist a keepsake ornament commemorating a special occasion like puppy’s first Christmas? But I think the most exciting thing is being able to decoupage ink jet prints like I did to make coasters but you can use this technique to decoupage ink jet printouts on whatever you like! Watch the video to see how:
The images I used on these projects are from our sponsor GraphicStock. They are giving all of my viewers $50 off a year subscription to their site (Regular $99)So if you need high quality royalty free artwork for your craft projects or your art business check them out!
Supplies:
Digital images from Graphic stock, a computer and ink jet printer
White paper and cardstock
Red and green cardstock
Mod-Podge and paintbrush
Old credit card
paper towels
Rubbing alcohol
Clear spray paint
Ceramic tiles (Home Depot)
Acrylic Dog Bone Shape (Punch Place Plus)
String
Metal number and letter stamps, anvil, hammer and soft metal stamping blank
Black sharpie
Craft knife and ruler and cutting mat
Adhesive
Candy bars
Jar candle
All of the instructions for making these quick gifts are in the video above! Enjoy these quick projects and til next time happy crafting!
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