Craft Hack: DIY Homemade Confetti Mix

I recently signed up for the Simon Stamps Stamp Card Kit of the Month, wow that's a mouthful. I was browsing around looking at cards for inspiration, I really don't know anything about making cards. I do know my grand-babies are going to move to England at the end of April for four long years. So my ex husband paid for the subscription so we can stay in touch.

I found a card I might base a design around (here's the link) It uses acetate as a transparency. I believe they call them shaker style cards because you add in a confetti mix and then sew them up and the mix shakes inside the transparency.

I'm sure you have noticed many crafters link to the supplies they use underneath their cards instructions this lovely card was no exception. It used a confetti mix, well a tablespoon of iridescent heart confetti mix was $3.20 and that was one seller's price. I'm sure you can spend a lot more.

Wow, I know it won't break the bank for most people and I'm not saying it isn't worth it. The mix is very pretty but if you are on a tight budget having different kinds of confetti's can add up. Honestly a tablespoon isn't that much I imagine you could only make maybe one or two cards with it. Yikes!

I don't know what it's made of exactly but I have an idea and I found a way to make my own. I haven't checked YouTube this may not be something new or earth-shattering folks may be making their own already. I haven't seen any, but I haven't looked either but I do watch a lot of videos. Speaking of which I will be making a video in the next couple days about this hack. I just thought of it because it looks like it's made of something I had just bought for another project.

Go to your Dollar Tree store and get the colored plastic index dividers I bought 8 sheets for a buck. The pack had 1 each of yellow, orange, clear, green and 2 of red and blue. Some glitter (optional) or glitter glue and you'll need a hole/shape punch. I have 3 which I bought over 10 years ago and you can make your own DIY homemade confetti. You could make many, many tablespoons for sure. If you have different size punches well you have it made, it's a quick and cheap way to save money. You could always cut up a few little ones to toss in there.

You can use the clear divider for the transparency instead of an acetate sheet. I sure there is a way to get around the shiny, the Dollar Tree store also has glitter glue you might be able to make a few of them with that. If you have a Wink of Stella pen (which i don't lol) that might work too. Above are three samples so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about, they are a heart, a star and a sunburst I tried with the glitter glue to see if it worked.

Those are the only punches I have at the moment I getting ready to buy a bunch from eBay most of them are .76 and up. Although they take 3 - 4 weeks to arrive. But you can pick your own, if you can't wait Amazon has some too just check the dates. The glue seemed to do okay although after it dries tomorrow will be the real test. My star punch is a bit rough around the edges might be time for an update. Plus it's 4 AM.

So grab your punches or scissors some cheap index dividers and cut up all sorts of little confetti and save your money for something else. To make a tablespoon it couldn't take more than a minute or two with a punch and a little bit more if you had to cut it out by hand.

Another idea is if you have a stencil cutter which I just bought and was going to try out this weekend. (I went to the dollar store for the index dividers to use to make my own stencils) that's why the idea was on my mind. You could make the confetti mix with the stencil cutter if you didn't have any punches. Just print off a page full of assorted shapes and cut away. You could make shapes for any holiday, you could write out small words with them. And if all else fails and you don't have punches or a stencil cutter nearly everyone has a X-acto knife.

So there are three ways to make your own confetti. When I started the blog post I just had the one idea the other two came to me as I was typing this out. One thing you should know these little plastic pieces love to stick to you so be prepared. Have some sort of pointy device or tweezers to keep them off you. A dryer sheet might work I didn't think of that until after I cut them out.

Since I'm going to use the sheet for stencils first I'll cut up the confetti with the leftovers.

I hope this post has inspired you to give it a go, I would love to see what you made. I plan on making some cards using this method myself I'll keep on working on perfecting it. It's a quick fix for now but with some glitter and a little touch of this or that it could work. After that I will let you know how the stencil making went too. If you have an idea leave a comment!

Been Busy in the Craft Room

Well actually it's a craft chair I have some unfinished posts to write. I did take some pictures so I'm gathering everything I can to finish several posts. They are of course the list of the items I bought, "Are You Mad Over Mandelas" which is about my learning experience, they are harder than they look. I definitely need more practice. I've been focusing mostly on DIY stamps and stencils so I will write about some of the techniques I've been trying out with different materials.

Like making Styrofoam plates into stamps. Stencil making with big plastic water bottles and foam stencils. I managed to paint two acrylic paintings (if you can call it that) I really have no idea what I'm doing but I'm doing it anyway. I also did a cool trick tonight I found on Pinterest with watercolors and a white crayon.

I told you I have been busy and I'm learning a lot. I found this website http://alisaburke.blogspot.com she is very creative and offers classes if I can come up with $75.00 I would really love to take one. I know you can learn so much free on the Internet but sometimes it pays to take a paid class.

There are so many different crafts you can do that keeping focus can be difficult. So you have to plan and another thing you have to do is not get discouraged. I really want to make stencils but I don't have the money for the machines that make it so much easier. So its called leg work or elbow grease spending time cutting stencils, and learning DIY tricks instead to save money. Nothing wrong with that.

I also have a big day planned tomorrow. I go for an MRI of my noggin and to the back doctor for a follow up. I'm looking forward to that I broke four ribs right before Christmas and the X-ray should show they've healed up and I can sleep in by bed again! I've been sleeping in an electric recliner.

But what I really I'm excited about is I'll finally be in the big city where I can go to the Crafts 2000 store which is now Pat Catan's and the big Dollar Tree store and possibly JoAnn's. That might be pushing it I'll be with my son and ex-husband crafting is not their thing.

But I might be able to swing a trip to Lowe's which is. There are crafts you can make with building supplies for cheap. Squeezable silicone caulk for stencil making, rubber gaskets for mats to paint on. PVC pipe to make paint daubers and a few others that will come to me. 

My wonderful ex-husband bought me a new walker with a seat so I can sit down and rest if I need to awesome for shopping so it's making its debut tomorrow. It's a bit wider than my other one and a lot less noisy. I hope it's not to hard to walk with.

Here's my shopping list for tomorrow again I'm stuck in the middle of not having what I need to make what I want.

Dollar Tree
rubbing alcohol to make watercolor paints
spray bottles to put the paint in
foam bath blocks for attaching stencils too if I cant find those I'll use cardboard
I also plan to ask my friends and family to save their bottle tops to affix foam stamps on
cutting board going to try it first for a self healing mat until I can afford one
soap dish to make my own ink pads
big erasers to carve out stamps
Kool-Aid for making water colors - you can also use Rit Dye or Acrylic paint
binder clips for making daubers with make up sponges (there are 2 different ways)
fine point sharpie mine bit the dust. I found a hack to revive your sharpies but it was to late for this one

Pat Catan's
what I can't get at the Dollar Tree
peel and stick foam
foam brushes
water brush for water color painting

Of course many of those items you can get a Walmart online or Amazon of course but then you have to wait it would be nice if I can just buy it and bring it home the same day.

Well that's it for now it's 1:30 in the morning better get some shut eye.

Initial Trip to Dollar Tree and Amazon for Crafting Items

I mentioned in my first post that I had just enough crafting stuff from my leftover crafting days to not get much done. So I went shopping at the Dollar Tree and at Amazon for crafting supplies. Here's what I had to start with. This was my very first trip to the Dollar Tree wow what a place it is.

- 2 scalloped edge scissors I have another pair somewhere
- 3 punches a star, a heart and an 8 sided badge?
- 2 packs of colored pencils I bought for my granddaughter
- half used sketch pad
- 2 glue guns and a half a stick of glue
- 1 tile for mixing paint on
- few paint brushes left from ceramics
- 1 dachshund stamp
- a slightly rusty X-Acto knife
- some random sewing supplies

Here's what I bought to help get me started and fill in the gaps

Dollar Tree
- glue sticks for hot glue gun
- colored markers
- a sketch pad I wanted a water color one but could only find a regular sketch pad
- glue sticks
- craft foam for making stamps
- scissors so I didn't have to use my good sewing scissors still need better scissors for small areas
- poster tack to hold down items to trace
- glass picture frame for making hot glue stencils
- binder clips for holding down paper (but found neat tip for making paint daubers with them too)
- laminated name badges, I didn't pay attention they were laminated I wanted them for the plastic for stencil making. But I found a good use for them they are just the right size to wrap around a toilet paper roll then you add peel and stick foam cut outs for stamping. Will do a separate post for this with pictures later.

Amazon
- 18 acrylic paints
- 18 watercolor paints (love these)
- stamp carving set for rubber stamps or linoleum stamps
- gesso for priming paper or canvas
- tacky glue
- corner cutter for making your own art journal
- 12 x 12 stencil with dots
- mod podge I was going to get gel medium but I read you could use it for this. wavering I may send it back and trade for the gel medium. Although I found out you can make all this stuff yourself.
- non stick mat 2 pack for making hot glue gun stencils and to wipe paint off easily. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was. I thought it was thicker and almost sent it back to get a silicone mat instead it is see through and thicker. The non stick pad is tan and very light weight you can see through it for tracing. I haven't tried painting on it to see if it would wipe off, so I may still send it back or use the extra one to bake with. If I had to do it over again I would go with the silicone mat.

I went though my old supplies a bit more carefully, I'm unable to bend over for now so it's difficult to go through drawers. However still believe God for total healing!

I found another dog stamp this one is a bit whimsical. A couple pieces of felt which I'm might to use to make my own stamp pad. I've found two different set of instructions one is with felt another is with sponges. A few more tiles to mix paint on. A dried out stamp pad which I revived with the ink that came in the stamp carving set. And still way to much material I may have to resort to making potato sacks again.