Thrifty Art Thursday!

So I've been asked a couple of times how I manage to find the time for art, and it's made me think about how I do what I do. I try to do something creative most days, or if I don't have the time or the headspace, I prep for creative stuff, or scrounge stuff to art with, because I don't exactly have a huge budget, timewise or financially, for art. So I thought I'd start trying to share some of what I do to make my life work, and call it Thrifty Art Thursday!

First, just let me throw some reality in here and show you what my daughter is doing while I write this post. This is "potato soup" She is getting wet, and muddy, and after I post this I will have to strip her down and wash her. My house needs to be vaccumed, and I have tons of stuff I need to do. I just art anyway. For me, it's like showering, just something you have to do.

Rule #1 of Mel's Creativity: when the kids are happy making a mess, let them so you can make a mess too.

Without further ado, my first Thrifty Art Thursday is about....Books!

Old books the kids ripped up, books at thrift stores, books at garage sales, even books libraries give away are all awesome sources of paper and crafting supplies:

Today I want to show how I turn a couple of pages from an old kids book into notecards just ready to customize for a swap or a special crafting friend. I've tried a lot of different ways to make notecard envelopes, and I think this looks nice and is pretty easy.