Crafting For Fun All The While Saving Money

Good afternoon long lost friends!

We'll I've been pretty neglectful of this blog! I've just got plain and simple lazy! But, I'm back now! Can't wait to tell you all about my trip across the world just this past November! Plus, all the hard work going into it to make it an affordable trip!

So, I love crafting! I admit it! It's not the most glamorous and exciting hobby but it's a great creative outlet for me! I've starting painting with Winton for fun as well! Posts on that later!

Crafting can be super expensive if you let it! For instance, licensed fabric with your favourite characters on them can cost about $15 per yard, as opposed to getting other fabrics on clearance for $2-3 a yard. It's weird here in Canada, some places charge by the yard or metre. Confuses the crap out of me all the time! Being a deal hunter, I like to keep my eye out when shopping for things I can use in my crafting that's on sale or clearance. It's a great way to customize and add a personal touch to gifts. It's also very rewarding to see someone enjoy your gift that you made them and you can't simply go buy it in stores.

I love reusing items that outlived their purpose! Like my old jeans... They got all shredded at the bottom from so much wear and tear that I turned it into a chew toy for Eros! I was surprised how much he loved this toy because it was much more durable that the Dollarama tug ropes I was buying him. It also had a nice weight to it, unlike most dog toys I find at the dollar store which are more friendly for smaller dogs. He's a big guy so he needs bigger toys that aren't so easily destroyed.

For Max's 2nd birthday, he was all into dinosaurs! Dinosaur everything! I saw this post on pinterest one day for a dino tail and thought it was so cool! Unfortunately, like most cool things there isn't any instructions on how to make what you see, or they charge you for the pattern. Luckily for Max, I'm getting better at eyeing out something online and making it myself. The result is what you see below. The waist band was a little large but I figured he'd be able to grow into it if I use a big enough velcro strip. The best part was that I bought this fleece on clearance at Fabricland and had a ton of it left. This really just cost me time and pennies!

I also figured he'd like to play with an actual dinosaur so I made one out of a pattern I found on pinterest. Other than the body, the rest was made of scrap material. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Felt Cards! I found the pattern online and they look simple enough but beware of cutting the patterns! It seriously takes patience! They are great for kids learning their numbers! One of the best parts about felt cards is that you can easily wash them. I put them on a large carabiner to keep them all in one place.

Funny enough, with my trip around the world via one small carry-on, the one major space eating thing I bring home is super cheap felt from Vietnam! I found a craft store and I went nuts and bought like 20 large sheets to bring home. I was a big kid in a candy store, it was so awesome and I wish we had craft stores as cheap as they did. And the quality is great!

 With my new found wealth of felt, I promised a friend to make her baby the alphabet! Wish me luck! It's going to be a super long process! With any left over felt, I figure since I have spare time now I can make one for my future kids as well! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this post and consider taking up crafting as well! With Dollarama around it's pretty cheap to play around with canvasses and paint or grab a wooden box and make a bird house. Especially, if you have kids it's a great way to spend time with them that's not in front of a screen.


Eros and Pookie