Frugal Crafty Card Making, Squeezing Money Out of Your Budget

The best way to start pinching pennies out of your budget is to start small, and what better way than to find what doesn't seem to cost that much money and what won't be missed, and to remove it?

Today I finally took all the cards I've saved over the past few years and recycled them. No, I didn't put them in the paper bin under my desk... these were cards I'd saved because they were either so beautiful, so cute, so catchy, and so memorable that I couldn't possibly throw them away. I'm not a pack rat, I'm crafty. This is one of the few things I'd saved, and I've always been a big believer in making your own cards.

First of all, cards are expensive. You can spend from $2 to $6 on just one card these days, and although that doesn't seem so bad on one day, $4 for a friend who you rarely talk to, or grandma who doesn't have email, or to go along with that package you're sending. But those days add up, and if you count all the cards you bought in a year, is it $50? $100? $200?

Second, could all the cards you receive - take Christmas for example - take a chunk out of this part of your budget if you recycled them? No question, the answer is yes. And the solution is simple.

1. Take a big box or filing system that you're not using and begin to label sections; Birthday, Anniversary/Wedding, Baby shower/welcome, Friendship, and so on.

2. Start saving the cards you receive, and go buy a pack of colored card stock and some crafting glue. You can buy packs of design stock as well, green borders, flakes of color ingrained, etc.

3. Then cut the cards in half and glue the cover to a new piece of matching colored or white cardstock.

Some tips during the design phase:

• Cut down the cardstock so you have a small border around the original card. Make sure the fold is on the left or top side of the cardstock depending on the layout of the card.
• Use the original card as a guide for cutting a straight line.
• Don't use too much glue on thinner cards, Elmer's "No wrinkle" double ended glue stick is my favorite.
• Write who the card came from on a sticky note so you don't recycle to the wrong person!
• Remember to write down what was inside the card if you liked it, and get a fatter marker to write the card text with, then you sign and personalize the card with a thinner pen.
• You can do this with postcards from your travels, and photographs of your own. If you do use your own photos, print them on photo paper and glue them as you do with recycled cards, even sign the photo!
• Look for "scrapbooking" kits in the craft section of your favorite all-in-one store to add a little extra flare to your cards!

Then file your cards in the box and start reusing! For fun, have a check sheet for all the money you've saved!