1. Buy unmounted stamps instead of mounted stamps, or......buy foam mounted stamps, peel them off of the foam and make them into regular unmounted stamps.
2. Use fun foam for mounting unmounteds instead of the expensive stuff sold for this purpose.
3. You can even use old baby blocks or wooden spools for use with unmounted stamps (depending on their size). Look around the house, there are tons of things which will work well for temporarily mounting unmounted stamps until you can afford the nicer acrylic or wood blocks.
4. Join LOTS of image swaps. Its a good way to get more images for the time being until you can buy more stamps.
5. Never throw out even so much as a tiny scrap of cardstock. It can always be used with small paper punches or...it can be used to try out that new ep or rp or marker that you may have just bought to see how it works or how it looks on that color. Same goes with shrink plastic. You can use them with paper punches and shrink them down into the tiniest little embellishments.
6. Examine your existing stamps carefully. Many of them can be used as a different image by only inking up a smaller part of the stamp. For instance the seagulls from the nautical Stamps Happen images, or a single flower in a large floral image. You can use brush art markers to do this. You'd be surprised how many stamps you really have when you do this.
7. Pour out half of the embossing powders in your jars and put in tightly sealed bags. Then you can trade with other stampers for more colors that you don't have. Like 1 Tablespoon for 1 Tablespoon or something like that. Embossing powders last a LONG time and you probably won't run out of a color that soon if you trade a part of the jar with someone else.
8. Buy black, clear, and gold ep in bulk. It will cost you more now, but it will save you big bucks in the long run since they are used the most.
9. Always buy the reinker at the same time you buy the ink pad if you can. When the color gets weak, you will have more ink on hand and will not be tempted or forced into buying a whole new pad. Again, much cheaper in the long run.
10. Take your decorative edged scissors and cut along a clean, wax milk carton or a thick enough piece of plastic acetate. This way, you have a template to match every pair of scissors you own which you can use to trace decorative edges with.
11. Buy paint pads at the paint store or local hardware store instead of the stamp cleaning pads at rubber stamp stores. They are the exact same thing and much cheaper.
12. Speaking of paint stores, every time you are in one, grag a bunch of the free sample paint chips in different colors. They are great for use with small stamps and they work wonderfully through a paper crimper, too.13. And speaking of paper crimpers, don't buy corrogated paper. WAY too expensive. Make your own with a paper crimper. Looks just asgood.
14. Save every scrap of paper that you find that would look good layered on a card. Don't forget about those foils that are wrapped around chocolate candy either. Great on collage cards. Plus....your card will smell really yummy! And be on the lookout always for other good embellishments like ribbon, raffia, etc.
15. Save the orange plastic that comes on those little crates of tangerines and clementine oranges. You can brayer over it for a unique background.
16. Get free paper and cardstock from local printers. They often havescraps which they are just going to throw away.
17. Save the sentiments from store bought greeting cards that you would have thrown away. Cut around them with deco. scissors and mount them on your own cards. Also, cut out any large areas from the insides or backs of the cards which are not printed or written on. They are often made of a very nice linen cardstock. Even if it has *some* writing on it, you can use it for layering (only the edges are going to show when you are done).
18. If you are interested in stamping on shipping tags, buy them at an office supply store in bulk instead of the tiny little expensive packages sold in rubber stamp stores.
19. Share magazine subscriptions with other stamping friends. If you each subscribe to a different one, you can borrow each others every month and essentially get to see 2 (or more) for the price of one.
20. Plan once a month stamping sessions with your local stamping friends. Then bring lots of plain white cardstock and stamp images from each others stamps.
These are all I can think of right now, but I know there are moreideas...... Patty (queen of cheap - oops - I mean frugal)
These are all great ideas for budgeting for stamps. Some things I like to do:
1. Recycle old calendars, maps and junk mail into envelopes. Use stickers to write who it's to and from and then use them on the back of the envelope if there is a pretty picture on the front. They help to seal the envelope, too.
2. Recycle some of the cards you receive into bookmarks and magnets by laminating them and adding a ribbon through a punched hole in the bookmark and a piece of stick-on magnet for the backside of the magnet. Everyone likes to receive these, especially kids.
3. Recycle some of the images from cards you receive to make new cards.
4. Help a newbie learn how to stamp by sending some of your cards to them so they can see new techniques. (This won't save you money but it will save money spent on more paper, etc.)
5. Use left over wallpaper for card layers or envelopes. Ask at your local decorating shop for out-of-date wallpaper books if you don't have any left over wallpaper.
6. Shop at the hardware store for sandpaper (layering), foam tape (for mounting), weatherstriping (for mounting), window screen (layering), foam brushes (disposable ones for painting or spreading glue or stenciling), tree wrap ( interesting texture for cards), dry wall tape (mesh used as layering or can be brayered over and then removed or can be cut into shapes and applied for an accent, etc.) Everything there is usually a much bigger amount for a smaller dollar amount than if bought in a stamp store.
7. Shop at fabric stores for charms, ribbons, ribbon roses, buttons, other embellishments for cards. These are cheaper there than at the stamp store, too.
8. Trade stamped images with friends.
9. Buy new, clean, unfolded pizza boxes at the pizza place (I paid 25 cents for mine). Fold the box wrong side out so no printing shows on the outside of the box. Store your stamps inside. These store single layer of stamps and can be stamped on the outside of the box so you know what goes inside what box. They stack several high and aren't damaged.
Have fun. Gail in Yakima, WA
