Hello Ella readers. My name is Carol Strine and I’m a regular Ella blog reader, eBook purchaser and challenge participant. I have been reading, studying and playing along with Ella friends and contributors since the website’s inception. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share a few of my ideas and techniques with you.

Does the slumping economy have you down? Do you find yourself trying to find ways to pinch pennies like me? I’ve got the perfect frugal scrapbooking solution and you probably already have the tools and supplies to do them all. Dust off some of those old tools that you have pushed to the back of the drawers (or donated to your children’s craft drawers) and use them
to create updated accents and embellishments for your layouts and cards. I’m not claiming that any of these tips or ideas are ground-breakingly innovative or unique, but they are tried and true methods that I return to over and over again on my layouts and can still create updated, unique results each time.

Today, I’m going to share with you some ways to utilize good-old plastic templates that I bought when I started dabbling in scrapbooking many years ago. I began looking around in my children’s craft materials to retrieve some of my old templates (I had long since passed these on to the kids, because I didn’t use them anymore). While I was scouring their craft drawers, I also borrowed back a pair of my small scalloped scissors. I also decided to use my photo corner punch and paper crimper in today’s process. Do you have any old scrapbooking items that resemble these?

Inspired by a technique utilized by Lisa Dickinson right here on the Ella blog, I used the tag and star templates to trace and hand cut each of the tags that I used as a foundation for my photo and journaling. My good old desk stapler is another tool that I reach for over and over again and use it to attach anything from ribbon (as seen here), to tags, photos, paper strips,
photo mats, etc.

Circle templates and punches can be used to create a myriad of embellishments, photo shapes or patterned paper accents as well. Stacking or altering the cut paper circles can create unique or themed accents for your cards and layouts. On this next layout, I used my circle template and some smaller punched circle shapes to trace and cut. After cutting the
circles using those scalloped-shaped scissors, I ran them through my paper crimper and stacked them together to create fun, dimensional blooms. The flower stems are simply small strips of paper that were also run through the crimper. Crimping adds instant dimension and interest. I created further dimension by attaching my accents to the layout using dimensional foam.

I hope that I’ve inspired you to revisit your stash and see what old tools you have lurking in the darkness of your scrapping closet, cupboards or drawers just waiting to be used again. I’ll be back next week when I will be pulling out an assortment of punches and using them in various ways to assemble a few more layouts.

Winners of last weeks Boy giveaways are:

jeannett_mcgee
k.krew
joelsgirl