Wednesday 23 January 2013

Free Craft materials.

Crafting can be quite an expensive hobby. Papers, toppers, stamps, cards, inks, powders, tools.... the list goes on.
I find when I buy papers for instance that I like the look of a few designs then find it difficult to use the rest of a pack. My stash grows but I still need more:)
With the advent of digital papers we don't need so much stuff, but it can still be expensive to buy the disc and it often has quite a lot of stuff we won't use.
In all the stash I have today I couldn't quite find what I wanted, so I made my own by photographing things in the house. Firstly, I had some silk I had dyed in shades of lavender and turquoise, then some jacquard fabric. Several shots later and I had another idea. I had made a flower from silk ribbon. I thought it would make a lovely topper but it would make a card quite expensive to add it directly, so I photographed that too, then photographed it on the silk.

For simplicity I used Picassa to edit the photos, increasing the brightness and softening the focus. These are just one click operations so really easy. Cutting out one of the flowers and layering it over the one on the silk gave a nice effect and I could envisage a design forming.

The last picture shows the basic card which will have a greeting added. It's not quite there - I think the flower motif is too central top to bottom to work really well, but the process definitely works.
So there we have it - free background papers and toppers and it is completely unique.



What do you think? Do you do anything similar?

10 comments:

  1. One of my favorite things to do is to make art for practically free. Because I work with books and paper, this is fairly easy, considering how I haunt thrift stores and library sales!

    I spend much more on my tools than I do on my media.

    I love what you have done here. Absolutely lovely!

    Happy UBC!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Julie :)
      I love that it makes for much more individual work too :)

      Delete
  2. This is so true, Janice (crafting can be expensive). And a lot of times whatever it is I decide I"m going to try, doesn't "stick" so I've spent all this money & nothing to show for it. I love how the photo came out..And the colors!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You will find your niche :) Having tried a variety of things can suddenly help you create something really different.
      Thanks for dropping by :)

      Delete
  3. This is a great idea - sadly my photography skills do not match my crafting skills - but I will certainly give it it a go!! Great photos!
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are good enough a photographer for your cards so it should be no problem :) x

      Delete
  4. I agree crafting can be so expensive and do use alot of digital papers and images. Your idea is brilliant and your photography is fantastic, gorgeous card. x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great idea - there is something very fulfilling about creating something out of 'nothing'. I think its fab. Helen x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment :)