Chocolate Collapso and Canny Crafting

Hello lovelies,

I hope you enjoyed the Easter break and that your teeth are still intact after the possible chocolate overload! Oddly for me, whilst I have lots of the stuff in the house I've only indulged in a couple of tiny choccies.  How strange!  That said.....the man and I decided to have some of our eggs this evening after tea..... erm.... we happened upon this awful scene.

Note to self.  The window sill above the heater is probably not
the best place to store chocolate comestibles.  

Anyway.... moving on.  

As you will know I love papercrafting.  What I don't like is the potential expense of it and am always on the look out for cheap, everyday items which I can utilise on my layouts in some way.  I really do admire the incredible beautiful work of the uber-scrappers out there but it never ceases to amaze me how much stash some of them use on one page.  I've checked out the cost of some of the embellishments used on a single layout and it makes my eyes boggle, particularly as most scrapbooking pages are put into albums and hidden from view.  These costly masterpieces should be hung on walls for everyone to see! 

As usual, I'm digressing!   

If you take a look in the DIY section of your local "Emporium of Poundness" (!), there are usually some goodies which, with a little thinking outside of the box, can be utilised in your crafty endeavours!

This is what I picked up this week ....

A "Techno Mat" (don't you think thats a hilarious moniker for something so humble?!).    Basically this is a width of rubberised material which prevents rugs from slipping around beneath your feet.

You can see that there's a fair amount of it to play with! 

This is very pliable and soft, almost rubbery.  

I cut  a piece from it to see what I could do to it! 

 It takes ink quite well and would look good under photographs as a mat. 

I then flipped it over and stamped the ink on to some cardstock!

And then moved it slightly and sprayed some Perfect Pearls over it - I quite like that effect!

So - some interesting backgrounds and matting to be had from that product alone. 

Next up, a coil of 'gutter guard'. This is a lot stiffer but can be easily cut to whatever size you like with normal scissors.  There is 3 metres of this stuff on the roll! 

 I covered it with acrylic paint, then stamped over it with a clear embossing pad.

I then gave it a covering with some embossing powder, and gently heated it with a heat gun.  Take care with this bit as of course too much heat in one place and the plastic will just melt into a heap.  I used some tweezers to hold the mesh whilst I heated it. 

I chose a verdigris embossing powder on this bit which turned out quite nicely.

You can also cut into stylised shapes - I cut out a heart and embossed it in copper

.

And then added a few teeny paper flowers which cost £1 per pack from The Works.

Any decent clear glue will stick this to your layouts, or maybe you could add a couple

of stitches here and there - or how about a staple or two for a  more 

industrial look?  

I've mentioned my "flexible chopping mats" in a previous post.  These have been absolutely invaluable.  I paid a pound for two, however I've now seen them in Home Bargains for 79p for a pack of two mats.   I use them all the time.  They're great for protecting surfaces, for inking up and using like the more expensive craft mats, (which I've seen online for £15.99 each),  for spraying on, I've used acrylic paints on them and they clean up beautifully using a couple of baby wipes and some kitchen paper. 

How about you?  Do you have any favourite bargaintastic crafting buys to share? I'd love to hear about them .

See you soon!