Ways To Craft On A Budget.

So, a company in Utah released some new machines recently, and of couple of people that I started following during the pandemic because of the mask patterns they had, are influencers of their products.  And I'm sure thousands of people rushed to own the latest and greatest new machines on the market.  I don't promote that company or use their cutting machines.  I do own the first easy press and a Your Story machine.  That being said, you may be wondering, "what does this have to do with crafting on a budget?"  A lot!

Using what you have is crafting on a budget.  I have the Sizzix elcips 2. It has been around since 2014.  I bought a Silhouette Cameo 3 a few years ago when they were on sale and right before they released the Cameo 4.  I've used it a few times, but I mostly have it for a backup.  My eclips 2 will eventully die.  So I don't need a new cutting machine.  I did get swept up in the world of sublimation and bought a mug press, but not from the company in Utah.  Mine allows for 4 sizes of mugs.  I bought a printer for sublimating, because sublimation takes a special ink, but I recently sold it.  I'm planning on converting an older 6 channel, wide format printer over to handle my sublimation needs.  I bought it on ebay.  Basically what I'm trying to say is, you can create without the latest and greatest stuff out there.  It's very hard not to want those new machines when they show you some new techinque that it can perform.  But I have to ask myself, is that really something I want to do?  I remember when the foiling pens were released.  It looks so beautiful.  I found them on sale at Joann's for $40.  They retailed for $100.  Bought myself some foil.  It has to be the We Are Memory Keepers foil, can't use the stuff that goes on shirts.  I was sure I would find so many applications for it.  Turns out, you have to have single line fonts, or designs and getting the foil to lay on the project is a real challenge.  I ruined several sheets of the foil before I got an acceptable result.  This has caused me to not use the foil pen as much as I thought I would.  So, it's in my craftroom, along with the Your Story machine (that I still haven't used) and all my cardstock, vinyl and filament.  

So my mission for the next few months is to NOT purchase any additional crafting supplies, until I have used up what I have.  So any paper projects I might undertake, will have to be made out of my existing collection of cardstock and papers.  Any further 3D printing will need to be done with the filament I have, and any sewing needs to be done with fabics I've already purchased.  I have plenty of "stuff" to make beautiful things affordably!