Cheap?

I am not a huge fan of shopping. I like to get in, get my stuff and get out. But I do like to find good deals on things, even if it means a little bit of work on my part. Especially if I can do something way cheaper than I can buy it from the store. I do however, love looking for new products. Art prints aren’t a huge selling point. You have to find the right person who wants the size that you have, and some want it framed, others want to do it themselves, there are a lot of factors, and the biggest one is, art is in the eye of the beholder. I have painted pictures that I love, I think are beautiful, and I get a few prints only to discover that maybe, I am the only one who loves it. On the flip side, I have painted practice pieces that I shared just for fun, and sold and continue to sell numerous prints of those, ones that I didn’t particularly like, or didn’t take time on because I was just practice.

But, when I put my art on different products, it becomes much more saleable. And I enjoy the search so that’s a plus as well. About a year ago I decided to try putting my art on fabric. I wasn’t sure how that would go, so I started with just a couple of prints, but the local fabric stores started to buy them, and amazingly enough, they started to sell them! The nice thing about fabric panels is that they are so versatile. They can be made into wall hangings, so, kind of like a framed picture. They can be made into quilts and blankets. I have done a couple quilts myself with my art panels (picture of my most recent one above, not quite finished). They can be made into throw pillows and used in so many other ways.

How does all this relate to Cheap? Well recently I decided to try making a couple of tutorials on making throw pillow covers with my fabric, and putting them on my YouTube channel. However, pillow forms are quite expensive, and even just pillow stuffing isn’t particularly cheap. So, I pondered on this for few days, and came up with an idea. I went to Wal-Mart and found a regular size pillow for $3.47. I decided to cut it in half and sew the 2 halves into 2 pillow forms. I wasn’t sure if it would work how I wanted, but I tried it anyway, and it worked great! I now have 2 pillow forms for just under $1.75 each. And the best part was, it didn’t take me more than about 10 minutes to do them both. It took longer to set up the camera and make the video. So, if you would like to see my video tutorial on making your own pillow forms, you can check it out on my YouTube channel: Stephanie Richey Art, or you can click here.

I love finding great deals, and I love finding ways to make cheap and inexpensive things work for my needs. I hope you watch the video. I am not a great public speaker, videographer, or video editor, but I enjoyed filming this video, and I hope you find it useful! While you’re there, check out some of my other tutorials, and subscribe to my channel if you enjoy the content. Hopefully in the very near future I will have the pillow cover’s videos posted. Where do you find great deals? What ordinary items do you turn into extraordinary beauty in your home?