Yes I have done it until recently but my techniques are pretty simple and as you say thrifty. I use parts of pictures from magazines, calendars or anywhere and find the Red Shed has reasonably priced stickers etc. The eqivalent of $2 shops often have pads of coloured card and good ribbons. I sometimes get ideas from websites but rarely copy exactly. Today I have a cute magazine drawing of a horse and rider and plan to glue it onto the card then add a card frame of another colour, underneath which will be sellophane so it looks like a framed picture or window. When that is done I'll see what else needs to be added to make a nice birthday card for a horse mad granddaughter.
In Sydney I got into stamping and card making with stamps. Tried paper quilling but didnt get far with it. My mum does stamping and quilling combined with lovely results. All my stamping equipment is still in Australia.
Hmmm I have champagne tastes on a beer budget as they say. I got started by trying to understand the difference between Mod Podge (8 to 12 dollars for a little pottle of sticky stuff) and PVA glue (20 dollars for 4 litres of the stuff). I've found loads of short cuts on the web and whilst I don't mind paying an appropriate amount for something I need, I resent being charged so much more for e.g. double sided tape because it is in a papercraft-aimed packaging when you can buy stuff in Bunnings for a quarter of the price. We all dislike being ripped off don't we?
I'm not quite as crafty as a lot of you here, but I've found this year that making personalised cards with printed photos has gone down really well! I think with seeing less of long distance relatives, it's really nice to send them some family snaps for their birthday/ or for Christmas etc.
Good idea Karen. i have always made my own cards. Used to have a very good computer programme that was a real asset, as it allowed putting A4 sheets into quarters and would print the relevant faces upside down so that when folded, the card came together well. I could also put a "made by" by-line on the back. Alas with with the dubious "improvements" to windows, that programme no longer works and i haven't found a replacement that i like so it's back to good old fashioned "cut and paste"
Did you know, that what you thought I said, was not what I meant :S
Don't you hate it when you get one of those old time emails "you have a card awaiting you at "
www.xyzw.com
" and you know it's one of those cutesie computer generated laughing singing dancing electronic cards from someone you have not heard from for years!!
5 acres, Ferguson 35X and implements, Hanmay pto shredder, BMW Z3, Countax ride on mower, chooks, Dorper and Wiltshire sheep. Bosky wood burning central heating stove and radiators. Retro caravan. Growing our own food and preserving it. Small vineyard, crap wine.
This year the card excitement has been finding a way for a friend who is in the USA to send cards to her friends in NZ, now that we are on their list of 28 countries they no longer post to. Quite what we have in common with Takikistanand Belgium, I do not know, apart from maybe being unimportant to the USA.
We have found a way by sending a bundle to a kind relative in Japan, who will forward them to me, and I will send or pass them on to people in NZ.
Not only will it not make it, it will not be accepted at the Post Office there.
The reason given is covid, but the guy running the PO there was an appointee by the previous president, who has the objective of privatising post, because that is this guy's business. They could not do it directly, because it is protected by the constitution, but they removed all street mail boxes, (just in time for the election where many were wanting to post votes), reduced opening hours, reduced delivery days, reduced staff, and reduced the number of post offices, and in September stated they would no longer accept mail for 28 countries, NZ and Aus included.
If you set up a You Shop through NZ post you can get around it, by using a US address from which it is forwarded, but that costs more than postage would have.
My other half said he had heard something to do with USPS not flying outside USA anymore, but we have no trouble at all getting stuff via Fedex from the US. Comes down within 5-10 days. On the other hand, we didn't get last year's Christmas card from pen friends until 3 months later and they posted it in November. Birthday card was also 3 or 4 months late. I guess they never taught the Pony Express to swim!
Did you know, that what you thought I said, was not what I meant :S
