Do you have artistic hands that can create amazing things from a piece of paper? From such a simple and basic material, you can do anything from beautiful 3D flowers to scrapbooks which will preserve the life story of your family for generations to come. But there is something more amazing. These materials you use to do your art can be quite expensive. The good news is there are always some little things you can do to save some money and go on doing your art. Here are the 5 ideas to help you save money on your paper crafts:

Do not toss, save: Have you ever considered that Christmas, birthdays and holidays are great opportunities for the paper crafter? The best item to save would be cards. You can create gift tags or even small gift boxes from these greeting cards which would be tossed otherwise. From now on, I am sure you will look at the gifts, whether it is for you or someone else, in a different way. You will be thinking if the wrapping papers has a potential to be used later and save it instead of throwing it away.

Keep an eye on Ebay: You can find anything, literally anything on Ebay. What you should be watching on Ebay are the "wannabe" crafters, their failure to stick it will become a boon to you as a hard core crafter. You have to keep an eye on these purging ex-crafters and you have to be ready to cash in on your good fortune as soon as one of them gets tired of storing supplies he will never use.

Watch out for the deals in disguise: Have you heard the old saying "Never judge a book by its cover".? Maybe you should not judge a book by its cover but it is a fact that the real value of a book or photo album is in the cover. Those covers can be pretty expensive! Here is an idea to cut $20: Buy an inexpensive album, throw away the insides pages and fill it with your own pages fitted into plastic sleeves. In this way you will spend maybe $10 instead of $30. You should always watch for ways to convert cheaper products into the ones you need.

Buy in bulk and swap: It is not a secret that buying in large quantities usually saves us money. Next time you go shopping and see something that will save you a lot of money if you buy in bulk, but you only need one of them, go ahead and buy the bulk quantity. Now all you need is a gathering with your crafty friends and swap these items, for the old barter time's sake!

Get the freebies: Why pay money for it when you can get it free? Patterns are usually the greatest expense for crafters. Or, if you are not buying patterns you are probably buying crafting magazines for fresh ideas. Have you tried going online and finding free patterns? The Internet is full of resources. Whether it is a free pattern or fresh ideas, you can find it on the Internet. Just join a forum with people sharing your passion.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Crafts