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Join in the fun. DIY and save. Learning what you CAN do for yourself (as opposed to buy) can be a real economic lifesaver.

When we relocated to central Mexico for several years in a brief flirt with retirement, there were many things I was accustomed to that simply weren’t available. For example, I wasn't able to buy canned roasted red peppers which I love to use in cooking.

When I learned how to make them myself, I thought "Wow, is that all there is to it?!"

That started me on a fascinating quest to learn how to do things for myself. I've ground my own flour and peanut butter, grown herbs and "exotic" (in the sense that many people wouldn't think to try growing them) produce like strawberries, potatoes and asparagus.

Being crafty, I started making my own greeting and calling cards and giving them as presents. No more store bought gifts for me.

I sewed presents, painted them and decoupaged them. When decorative items were damaged, I figured out how to repair them seamlessly rather than discard them.

Meanwhile, in the blink of an eye (or so it seemed), we lost half our retirement portfolio in the dot.com market collapse. It was devastating. My heart truly goes out to all the people today who are dealing with similar financial reverses.

My DH and I came up with the idea of a crafting website using all the DIY skills I had acquired. Still we teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for four harrowing years until The Artful Crafter was well-established.

DIY-ing is very empowering. Whether you use it to save money in difficult times or actually make a career of it as I did, I highly recommend Doing It Yourself.

Eileen

What’s New on The Artful Crafter this Month

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, grandmoms and great grandmoms out there. This issue’s for you and I wish you a very special Mother’s Day.

Mini-Mannequin Jewelry Holder: Make a one-of-a-kind jewelry holder shaped like a dress mannequin.

Photoshop How-to: When I found that my lovely Spring Eye Candy photo was missing a piece, I Photoshop-ed it. Here’s how.

Pipe Cleaner Photo Flower: Here’s a sweet Mother’s Day gift the kids can make with a little help from you.

Mom U Rock Paperweight: Here’s another Mother’s Day Gift the kids can make with very little help from you.

Coffee Filter Roses: Do you know you can make beautiful artificial roses from paper coffee filters? Let Cassie Chappell of Mommy Makes Roses show you how, as she did me.

Looks like Playing with Polymer Clay to Me

Watch this YouTube video and tell me if it doesn’t make you think of polymer clay art.

Is Robin Hassett talented or what? If you’re a polymer clay artist who would like to make some extra money, you might try this edible art. The hard part, as Robin points out, is that you have to accept that people will actually consume your wonderful creations. Oh no!!!

Reader Letter of the Month: Point – Counterpoint with Jean

Jean: In the newsletter I received today I tried to access 2 of the articles and all I received was a blank page.... Help!

Jean

Eileen:

Hi Jean,

Thank you for writing. Unfortunately that's something that occurs in some Internet browsers. They actually mess up the code! There doesn't seem to be anything we can do to prevent it.

That's why we put the little message at the top of each newsletter which says ...

If you are having trouble reading this newsletter or if links don't work, click here.

This link will take you to the archived version of the newsletter where no browser gremlins can play. LOL!

Sincerely,

Eileen

Jean:

Well duh! Don't know where my brain was. Thanks for taking the time to respond and for such a great newsletter!

Eileen:

You're entirely welcome. Perhaps we should put that notice in boldface rather than tiny print.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the newsletter :-D

Eileen

Please notice that we have made the tiny notice larger thanks to the heads up from reader Jean.

Join the Artful Crafter Community

The Artful Crafter uses Google Friend Connect to power our site's community. If you're interested in crafting, join the crafters' community at The Artful Crafter. Connect with others who share your love of things hand made.

We now have 90 members in our crafters’ community. Please come join us and help us break the 100 mark!