Monday, March 5, 2012

Moneysaver Monday

Yes yes... I know, I promised something about brads this week, but I have happy news today. Grandma Bonnie is moving back home from the nursing home soon and so I spent the afternoon trying to help prepare her home for the big day. So, next week! Come back next Monday for brads! I promise, I will have more time to be prepared.

I do have a quick Moneysaver for you this week... This is the one that will solidly earn my place in the looney bin! Are you excited???

One product that I have always been intrigued by, but too cheap to buy is that fluffy flaky colorful stuff that you can add as an embellishment... There are a couple of different brands of it, but it is all very expensive. I wanted something like this to add "grass" to this cute Dustin Pike digi... So here was my cheaper alternative.





Do you like it? It's dried cilantro, which sells for about a dollar per metric ton. Well, not that cheap, but close. :) It's no secret, I struggle in the kitchen. All of my creativity and patience and talent, if you will, is with paper crafting. Cooking is just not my forté. I really hate to see my pretty spices go to waste... Hey, here is something that I can do with them! Alternatives to cilantro could be parsley, or Italian Seasoning also makes nice "grass." What a neat bonus, this card smells delicious!




I finished the card with a light dusting of finishing spray, to keep the cilantro firmly in place after I glued a little on and shook off the excess, just like glitter.

Did you know, you can also make your own colored "Flower Soft" stuff by coloring a piece of styrofoam with a permanent marker, and the grating it with a cheese grater? This is time consuming, and messy, but it works. I have tried this method in the past, but this alternative was much faster and I think it looks better too.

Hubby is on the phone with some nice men in white coats who are coming to see me and take me for a ride somewhere... I can't wait to see where we are going! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

3 comments:

Kathryn said...

Thank you for a great bedtime chuckle! I can just imagine the recipient of this card thinking, "where's the pizza?" I think it's a good idea, though, all kidding aside. No different, really, from using dried flowers!

Dixie Cochran said...

This was the best read I've had all day! I think your grass solution was very clever!

NanaConnie said...

My kind of money saving, Nancy! Love that tip. In exchange, I'll tell you that I dry flowers from my own yard (mostly volunteers from previous flower bed plantings), and crumble them to use on cards for that otherwise expensive, brand-name stuff. If they lose their color, I close them up in an ink pad for a day or two and they absorb color that stays. If you do that, you have to let them dry for a day on a paper towel before using them. But I do batches at a time so I always have a variety of colors.