Let's face it . . .we are all trying to save a little money here and there, but in crafting we really just want it all! SO, I am going to have Thrifty Thursday in an attempt to help my fellow crafters save a buck!(So you can have extra money to go out and buy that stamp set you really want!)
One of my favorite ways to save money is to create my own embellishments using Dingbats! If you've never heard of Dingbats let me tell you what they are! A Dingbat is a font that has images in place of letters.
The first sample I'm going to show you is taking Dingbats and using them to create your own 3D embellishments. For this sample I'm using LM Holiday Toons Dingbats found here. You might find him creepy...But I adore this crazy clown Dingbat!

First thing your going to do (after downloading it and installing it) is print 4 to 6 images on one page (The number of times you print will depend on how many different colors of paper you will use to put him together). Then you will cut and paste a different colored cardstock over each image.

Then your going to send it back through the printer, so you will end up with this . . .

We are going to build a 3D element, and in order to do that you'll need to decide which layer will stand out the most. For example I want the clown's face to stand out more than his hair. I want his hair to be red, so I will foam tape all my elements to the red clown. He will be my base.

*Remember you'll be foam taping other elements on top of your base, so if you mess up ( . . . like say cut a finger off accidentally) it won't matter because it won't show*

Now Start to build him up by cutting out, piecing, and gluing the elements together. For example I put his face together and foam taped it to the red base. Then I did the same with the purple suit, and so and so on. until you get this . . .

I must make a note and say I LOVE this clown, my son walked by my studio and saw this card and said "This belongs on a halloween card"! Apparently not everyone thinks clowns are cute!
If all the cutting isn't your thing than with just 2-3 cuts you can get the same look by just coloring, and using the layered paper piecing technique. I used Mellow Dingbat to show you what that will look like.

You can see how cute adding the foam tape looks

But if that's still too much effort for you, that's okay just try coloring the Dingbats and using them like stickers! You can get this LMS Junk Food Dingbat here.

Give Dingbats a try and you'll see that they are a convenient and affordable way to create fun embellishments! Check out these fun sites for more Dingbats:
http://www.1001fonts.com/cute+dingbat-fonts.html
http://www.urbanfonts.com/free-dingbats.htm
http://www.fontspace.com/
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