Home Décor & Accents: Wall Hangings

Buying supplies from art supply retail stores can be quite expensive because i know as i am an avid scrap-booker and love creating homemade crafts. Originality can still be expressed while economizing on tools and supplies, and I’ve made up a list on how this can be done.

A: That huge magazine stack that’s been collecting under your bed can be used in many ways. Something I love to do is to use scissors to snip out various sized and colored letters and put them together to form words or sentences. For a nifty, retro feel, use a magazine, including the cover, article titles and advertisements, as a source for letters and words in different sizes, fonts and colors.

For incorporating into collages, scrapbooks, or any other visual project using cute pictures and graphic designs you can also look through old magazines. The pages from fashion spreads as the wallpaper for my scrapbooks, which I like. These universally possess strong themes, with hardly any (or no) writing. The nice thing about it is that if the image has any writing on it you don’t want you can always put a decoration over it or another picture.

A really good idea when scrap-booking is to use Search Engines to find graphics. For example, when I started my daughter’s scrapbook, I searched Google images for terms like "baby girl", "it’s a girl", and etc. By doing a little searching and looking around I was able to find materials to use and saved a lot.

To get the terms related to the project you are doing, Search for different search engines images tool. You will discover a lot of information that applies to your projects and you can print it out. I’d suggest you only use these graphics for personal purposes though, since some may have copyrights on them. This should not be an issue at all if they are employed only for your own personal crafts.

If you don’t have a printer, you can print them out at your local library or school if you attend for a couple cents a sheet. It’s still much cheaper than buying stickers and designs from art supply stores.

Most people do not know that you can make your own glue instead of buying it from the store. While working on your project, decide how much glue is necessary and mix flour and water in equal measures. Mix it up until it turns into a pasty substance.

You should use the glue immediately after you finish making it because if you leave it out, it will become moldy. This item is very well suited for paper projects; remember to leave it out to dry completely after use.

For a nice touch, add glitter to your glue and use it as paint for decorating items in your scrapbook.

There are a lot of cool crafts out there which call for some type of modeling clay. You can make things in your kitchen with what you already have on hand instead of buying it at the grocery store. You just need to use a cup of water, a couple of tablespoons of cream of tarter, one tablespoon of oil, and half a cup of salt. Saute the combined ingredients in a large pan for a few minutes. Until you plan to use it, let it cool in the airtight container in the refrigerator. Make sure the container is air tight or the clay will dry up!

5. Supplies are all around you, all you have to do is look around! With scissors and markers, a pizza box can be cut up to make a big wall collage, dry pasta can be painted and glued on as a decoration paper plates can be masks.

Using your imagination as well as eyes and look around your house, when you are crafting. The options you get will be infinite.

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