Help!

So I'm starting to take this blogging/crafting thing more seriously these days. BUT supplies can be so expensive! Like Copic markers range up to $300 for a full set (even if I bought them from a craft store with a 40% coupon, it would still be more than I'd like to pay for them)?! It's either buy my son's big boy bed, groceries for the next month or pay for our heating bill for the next two months...versus purchasing a set of markers. BUT I WANT THEM! And Copic Markers are just on the beginning of my wish list - Dear Santa: I'd like Copic Markers, Tim Holtz distress inks, daubers, stamps of all kinds, a clip-it-up, and stuff to fill my clip-it-up, and glimmer mists, and and and....

and the list can go on and on and on! So what are ways I can get my supplies for free or cheap? Now that I'm a crazy couponer I'm always looking for more ways to score free stuff right?!

To be honest the supplies I have were purchased on clearance or were found in the dollar bin at the craft store. So most of them are no-name brands. I also really enjoy using recycled items. I save EVERYTHING and try to use it creatively. Here's how frugal I am: I use the cellophane packaging that product comes in, I have a cup in the kitchen to collect bread wrappers, bottle caps, and any other little thing I can turn into something special, and I still use the same markers I had as a kid (amazingly....20 years later...they still have ink!). I've never let the amount of income I have determine how I craft...I always find a way around. I've always thought how unfair it is that artists have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to express their gifts. No wonder they're starving! Haha :)

So what do you do? Enter into every Candy giveaway and Challenge out there (and if you do, how do you find time for all that)? How do you get your supplies?

Dream Valley Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Well as you know I was accepted to be on the Dream Valley Challenges Design Team. This is a first for me. Not only have I never entered into a challenge before but I've never been on a DT. I was a little intimidated. Good thing the first challenge was "anything goes". So I created some art for my ALMOST finished craft room (I'll be posting about that next week). I had an old wooden artist's pallet that I picked up at a random store a few years ago. I stepped out of my box and did some whimsical altered art (also a first for me). I flipped through my old art books for some inspiration and found this lovely Goya print:

It made me laugh! And anything that makes me laugh is right up my alley. Plus I had some scrap K&Company papers that I've been itching to use! Here's what I came up with:

The clock parts are older than I am! They were my dad's who used to make clocks for a hobby long before I was born. The ribbon is actually paper ribbon. I wanted to tie in the blue from the umbrella's.

Here's some close ups:

Goya has a much deeper meaning behind this portrait (side note: were all artists back then crazy in the head?), but I think the cat in the background to the left was saying "what the....a bird on a leash?!" (another side note: I had a cat named Panther who I walked on a leash. And I took her to parks)

When I found this quote it reminded me of how God takes care of me. He might not always be able to protect me from the storms, but He's there to walk through them with me.

Feel like you're up for the challenge? Visit Dream Valley Challenges and enter in your creativity. Here's what you could win!

1st Prize £10 voucher for Lili of the Valley

2nd prize is Fashionista and Dude Simply Sassy set

and 3rd prize is wee Windswept Simply Sassy

Blessings,

Woman

I'm entering this into the following challenges this week:

DYSU: Anything goes

Paper romance: Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew: Fantasy

Crafty Purple Frog: A Touch of Magic

Paper Cutz: Spring

The Corrosive Challenge: Distressed

The Cheerful Stamp Pad: Anything but a Card

Alphabet Challenge: Q is for Quotes

Woo Hoo!

I have been selected to be a part of my very first Craft Challenge. My blog friend Melly has created her first challenge blog called Dream Valley Challenges and selected little 'ol me to be a part of the design team. I'm honored to play along with the other DT's! And a little intimidated. After checking out their blogs and seeing all their creative giftings, I know I am going to be challenged and inspired to the fullest. Our first challenge is this Sunday so stay tuned!!!

Blessings,

Woman

Moss

Photo Source

I remember when I was a kid my parents went through a phase of attempting to kill the moss patches which lay beneath the pine trees. Because of the amount of shade and fallen pine needles, it was too wet and dark for grass to grow. We tried everything from moss killer to laying fresh sod and high quality grass down to make it look "pretty". When we drove from our sunny little side of the mountains back to Bellingham last weekend, I realized how much I really missed the green! And as I got out of the car and looked down at the ground I saw bright green colored moss. Moss that I missed. What I once tried to kill, I now missed. This reflection of my childhood and moss-missing has been popping up in my head ever since I got back to Bellingham. After my nightly blog reading tonight God gently reminded me of something. See being away from my husband I started to miss all those little things that sometimes we wives can take for granted. Like a simple call to say hi and to ask how our day is going, a gentle kiss on the cheek as he comes home from working all day, rough housing with your son after a "plain" ol' dinner you just prepared, and your husband scarfing that boring food down as if it was the best thing you'd ever made him before. These little things are what I miss about my husband right now. When I finally put two and two together I realized that, just like the moss story from when I was a child, I had been killing my husband's "moss" - the little things my husband does for me - with the, "I wish you'd do more....for me" thoughts and sometimes vocal requests. And I can be like that with my God as well. My challenge has always been to be content with the NOW. I always want more than what I have. And this has been my challenge for many years. I blame this on being an only child. ;) But God's always graciously there to put me back in my place when I'm out of line. So my challenge to you is to find what's the moss you're killing in your life right now? And what can you do to appreciate it more?

What to do with free Pringles from Rite-Aid!

So this week is a huge stock up week on snacky Super Bowl goodies at Rite-Aid. I picked up 20 stacks of free Pringles at Rite-Aid today. As I was getting more organizational ideas for my craft room, I came across this post and I can't wait to put my empty Pringles containers to good use. On so many levels oh my GOSH I can't wait!

Blessings,

Woman