Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

For those of you who have been following my blog, THANK YOU, I'm still here and as FRUGAL as ever. I'm just expanding my blog title to further reflect my "altered" muse. I'm still the same (sometimes goofy) FRUGAL SCRAPPER that I've always been and will continue to focus on FRUGAL papercrafting projects:)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Frugal Scrapper's Tips 'n Techniques #1

I'm sure you are aware by now that I LOVE to recycle items for use in my paper crafting. With this in mind, I have ended up with a huge amount of buttons from old shirts being discarded...the problem...they are ALL white!

Now I know I could just use the white buttons to decorate my pages, but since I also LOVE to alter items, I was thrilled to discover I could change the color of my buttons with alcohol inks, WHOO HOO!!!!!

On the button shown, I used a Tim Holtz alcohol ink applicator, added a few drops of "lettuce" alcohol ink to the felt and dabbed it on the button. Since the alcohol ink spreads so well, the button was covered with just a few dabs. I also dabbed the color around the sides of the button.

I then added a few drops of "stream" alcohol ink to the applicator, let it dry a bit and dabbed it over the button. By letting the ink dry on the applicator a bit first, I was able to get the spotted effect as shown.

It is best to add the light color first so that it holds its color better.

I also find myself using rhinestones on my projects and have wondered why the rhinestones are not readily available in colors...most that I find are clear...lucky for me, I have found that this technique also works on rhinestones. As shown, I added the same colors of alcohol ink to clear rhinestones and got similar results.

On the rhinestones, I did add the "stream" alcohol ink first, so you may notice when I added the "lettuce", the color appears a bit darker than it did on the button.

I really like the effect on both items. Since Alcohol inks are perfect for use on non-porous surfaces, this technique also works on brads, acrylic, glass, etc.

1 comment:

Andrea Venn said...

Hi I love your tips and tutorials and am a San Diego Scrapbooker as well. I thought you may be interested in an upcoming National Scrapbook Day event.
Check it out at my blog
www.andreavenn.typepad.com
Hope you can make it!