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Sunday, February 12, 2012

I love bargains and a little CANDY!

I joked to my mom yesterday that my bargain shopping paid for the upgrade to leather seats in my new car.   It's probably more true than a joke- I am a major bargain hunter and rarely pay full retail for anything.  I said this as we were entering a junky liquidation shop to poke around and satisfy my sense of curiosity since I hadn't been there before.  Mom assured me it was worthless, but I had to see for myself.  We were both pleasantly surprised to discover they'd gotten an entire shipment of cardmaking and scrapbooking supplies in that were selling for $1 each or 12 for $9.   I came home with a haul worth about $200 retail that I got for $9.54 with tax.


Here's what I got:
100 A2 scallop rectangles in confetti white
100 sheets of dark gray 6x9 cardstock (to be used for layering)
40 sheets of red 8.5 by 11 (sold in packs at big box craft stores)
40 sheets of burgundy 8.5 by 11
25 sheets of yellow 8.5 by 11 (sold individually at big box craft stores for 59 cents each)
25 sheets of brown textured 8.5 by 11
25 sheets of evergreen textured 12 by 12
25 sheets of cream textured 12 by 12
25 sheets of white and grey diamond print 12 by 12
25 sheets of brown 12 by 12
25 sheets of pale blue 12 by 12
1 roll of about 25 sheets of Karen Neuburger flower stickers (meant to be sold individually at an LSS)


The cards below use some of the stickers.  I made a dozen of these cards and used up four sheets of the stickers. The cards also make use of bargain cardstock from Tuesday Morning.  I figured that this set of 12 cards cost 60 cents to make, or 5 cents per card.  
I used a modification of a technique that OWH shared last year.  The technique was to stamp a branch, glue paper flowers to it, and emboss the whole thing.  Instead, I stamped a sentiment, used stickers all over the card front, embossed it, and layered it with coordinating cardstock.

I'm pointing out the bargains I found not to make you jealous, but to encourage you to use your resources well and not be discouraged if you've seen your crafty budget shrink in recent years.  With the advent of digi stamps and numerous websites offering freebies, there's almost an unlimited supply of images and sentiments available to anyone with a printer.  With careful shopping, you can find papers to compliment your projects.  If you have any friends who also enjoy paper crafting, you may be able to get them to split packages with you to lower your cost and offer more variety.

Now, for the CANDY!  I doubt I'll be able to finish off all these stickers, so I'll be happy to send a few sheets and some card front-sized coordinating colors of cardstock to one lucky reader who leaves a comment on this post with a tip for saving money while crafting.  Comments must be submitted by Wednesday at 3:00pm EST (noon for West Coast peeps).  US addresses, only, please. Followers will get two entries! 

Don't forget about the Mother's Day challenge for OWH.  Boxes with half Mother's Day/Mom and half general themes are due by March 20th.  See my sidebar for a blinkie with more info.

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

21 comments:

  1. WOWZERS!!! I am a bit jealous ;-) but very happy for you to have scored such a haul!! Thanks for sharing a bit of it with us!!

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    1. I'm sure there are good bargains waiting for you, Nancy. I'm happy to share!

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  2. Holy Shiitake mushrooms!!! Great haul for such a small dollar amount!! I've found checking around around on ebay or craigslist, I've been able to get all sorts of supplies for the fraction of the cost. That is how I got my Cuttlebug, a few dies & embossing folders. A lady was selling them (probably total value close to $200) and I got them for $70. Beautiful cards btw!

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    1. LOL at the "shitake mushrooms" comment- I've never heard that one! I agree that eBay can be great . I've never gotten anything off Craigslist, but I live in a fairly remote area, so there isn't usually much available nearby when I check. I bet it would be fabulous in more populated areas. Thanks for entering!

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  3. Kathryn, what an awesome haul!!!! I LOVE deals! Anytime my daughters and I get a really good deal shopping, we call each other and say, "I'm such a good little bargain shopper." We have an on line garage sale site in our area, We've gotten some good deals on stamps there.

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    1. Great tip on the garage sale site. Doesn't it feel good to be a bargain shopper?

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  4. I love your cards! I like how you were thinking outside the tutorial. LOL Now, for my tips-I shop the clearance rack. I try not to pay full price for anything--Use a coupon if it's not on sale! I have found lots of neat stuff at Tuesday Morning. I've heard that TJMaxx has some scrapbooking stuff. I checked out mine-and not so much. But I'll just check back another time since they are always getting new stuff in. Don't forget about the Dollar Tree and other dollar-type stores. Also, after Christmas clearance sales at your big box stores are great for stocking up for next year.

    Hmmm...I thought I was already a follower, but I wasn't! I am now, though! :)

    Thanks for the opportunity to win something. Those stickers are pretty and will be great for spring cards.

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    1. It sounds like we shop the same way. I love hitting the clearance at Jo-Ann and using my teacher discount on top of the low prices, especially on end-of-season deals. I wish we were neighbors so we could bargain hunt together. :)

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  5. Those cards are really pretty! I love the stickers, they make it look totally like patterned paper. My tip, well other than all the "where to shop" tips, I look for stuff around the house that I already have. Twine, washers and even split peas. I have been known to use busted zippers, belt loops from jeans and the cardboard from cereal boxes to make faux dimensional elements. The last one, since I'm really not trying to write a book, for printing colored digi's, make up a whole sheet in a Word doc, load to a thumb drive and get them printed at Staples. Put about 20-24 images on a sheet and that makes them a little over a penny an image. A lot less expensive than ink from my printer!

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    1. I would love to know more about split peas! I'm usually not creative about finding items around the house, but I did recently adopt my grandmother's lace collection and I hope to put it to good use on cards.

      The printing tip is also great! I'm just getting into digis and still prefer the real red rubber to everything else. ;)

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  6. What an awesome bargain!!! Thanks for giving us an opportunity for candy also. I like to go to my LSS and find the bargains also, sometimes they have the best bargains.

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    1. I so wish I had an LSS that was really local, not over an hour away! I visited one over the summer and was blown away by the selection! It's great that the LSS saves customers from paying shipping.

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  7. Wow! Beautiful! I would never have guessed the flowers were stickers. Love this set-

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  8. Great finds - and those cards are beautiful! I needed to be reminded of the emboss after the fact tip. TFS

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  9. Beautiful cards, Kathryn. I have a group of friends who get together and buy large amounts of envelopes and ATG tape to get the large quantity discounts then we just divide it up.

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  10. What a great find -- your cards are beautiful. I like how you embossed them after applying the stickers. I'll have to try that.

    I often go to thrift stores looking for item -- while living in Idaho I ran in the Salvation Army store -- low and behold -- there were several Stampin' Up stamp sets for sale -- most were 2.99 to 3.99 a set -- granted - they were older sets but they still stamp up just fine. Another place that I check out are rummage sales - I often find ribbons and things to use on my cards. I also use the inside of silver shiny packaging (I use my doggie chew bag but often your chip bags will have silvery insides) to use with my diamond plate embosser --

    Thanks for the opportunity to win some "candy" -- it is nice of you to share. :-)

    Sharon

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  11. Love the cards and I love to bargin hunt also. A friend and I go together on paper packs from Tuesday Morning, Big Lots, ect.and we splint them. We have sooo much fun looking for bargins. What one miss the other finds.

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  12. What and awesome find! Lve the cards. I've started doing what I call "scrap it" where after I've made cards I take the scraps even small ones and cover a card base like piecing a quilt.

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  13. Your cards are just beautiful!!

    My favorite bargain shopping is going to LSS yard sales! People are usually there just to get rid of scrapbooking stuff and give GREAT deals! My last trip brought me a box of about 40 ink pads (CTMH, SU, and others) for $3!!!

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  14. You did get an amazing selection of goodies! Right now my best bargain shopping is right in my own stash of supplies. I've accumulated so many bargins from the past and need to use them up. I still check thrift stores, Big Lots!, Marshalls and sometimes pick up a deal. I even found some stamp sets at a car swap meet that I attended with my hubby. I use coupons to buy my adhesive. Thanks for sharing a little of the wealth.

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  15. Wow! Kathryn, I love that you found such a wonderful find! You cards are beautiful. I love this technique.

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