a little crafty

I've been feeling a little crafty lately.  I think my 4 year old is starting to rub off on me.  Or maybe my type-A-never-slow-down personality is still looking for a new hobby to fill the shopping void.  In any case, I've been on a mission this month to stock up on some new craft supplies.

I am a huge fan of Ashley Ann Campbell's blog "Under the Sycamore."  If you haven't checked it out before, I highly recommend it.  She does some really amazing craft projects.  A few weeks ago I read a DiY post on her blog about making bud vases out of bottles using Japanese masking tape.  I was intrigued. I decided I had to have some of this elusive tape.

So I splurged.  I shopped around online, and sadly realized that there were no good deals to be had.  I bit the bullet and paid $32 + $5.70 shipping for 12 rolls of this now very precious tape.

I hope it was worth it.

I never realized before how expensive all this crafty stuff can be.  In my pre-thrifty days, if I wanted to do a craft I would just head to Michael's and buy my supplies.  Okay, so what if my homemade cigar box purse cost me $95 in supplies?  I had fun making it, and that's all that mattered.  Or so I thought.

I don't want to be so consumed with saving money that I abandon the things that bring me joy.  But I do want to try to save where I can.  So I splurged on the tape, but I tried very hard to save everywhere else.  Each week when I get my newspapers, I make sure to clip the 40% off craft store coupons and slip them in my wallet.  That way if I am out and about and happen to pass a craft store, I can pop in and buy one of the items on my list for 40% off.  Sure it's not quite as convenient as simply going to the craft store and stocking up, but starting to realize that life is a work in progress and it doesn't have to happen all at once.  In addition, I started shopping around online for some alternative craft store options.  I found a great deal on ribbon remnants on ebay, and I found a huge bag of buttons on Amazon.com for only a few dollars (with free shipping!).   And I even started becoming more conscious of the things we throw away, saving instead of tossing those items that have craft potential.

And so this evening, when my crafty Princess wanted to do something new, I actually had something new to offer.  We spread out our new crafting treasures and got to work making our own Japanese tape bottles.