Hi it's Lindsey again bringing you some more thrifty thinking - there are no True Confessions this week (unless you count the secret stash of Cadburys Dairy Milk Chocolate in my scrapbooking room).

Three things I think you can use with gay abandon - PENS, PAINT and INK (oh, and CRAYONS, so that's four things). You can do so much with these and they go on forever. I have a Size 01 Micron pen which I bought many years ago in a sewing shop (I think it was the pen they recommended for drawing features on homemade dolls). It is my favourite as it is so fine for faux pen stitching on a layout and also for outlining letters or other details just so they stand out a bit more on the page. This pen has been used so much, practically all the printed lettering on the side of the thing has rubbed off.

That expert "sewing" around the page is quickly completed with a fine black pen.

The Tombow pens, of course, are very versatile as they have two "ends" - a pointy one for writing and a blunt one for inking up rubber stamps and such-like. I use them for watercolouring on my Magnolia stamps too either lifting colour directly off the nib with my watercolour brush or I scribble on an acrylic block (making a bit of a puddle if you dilute it with water) and dip the brush in that.

Echo Park. This & That. Charming. The paint is "Mint" and "Mango" and the ink was "Chocolate". I couldn't figure out why I kept popping off to the kitchen for snacks!!

Use paint and ink directly onto your layout or card - blob it on (with the "other end" of the paintbrush); swish it on with a dry brush; squish it on with a bit of sponge; blow it with a straw; scrape it on with the edge of an old credit card or a bit of cardboard; use them with stencils and masks; pop it on with some bubblewrap; stamp it on with rubber, acrylic or foam stamps; in fact use anything laying around the house. I nearly always ink around the edges of the papers. Paint chipboard any colour you like (and then stamp on top of that with some ink), add a bit of colour to some premade flowers or other embellishments. I often get my watercolour pencils and do a bit of extra colouring on a paper which isn't quite the exact colour I was needing. I've got yards of white lace which I've colour changed with Distress Inks giving a lovely shabby chic appearance.

Echo Park. Times and Seasons. So what have we got on here? I see white paint "bricks" stencilled on with a Crafters Workshop template; black inked musical notes stamped on and the edge of the page outlined with the fine black pen. All the photo mats are inked.

Finally, don't forget that, to get maximum value for money, you are going to need to store these correctly. Pens will have to be stored with the nib pointing down but, if you've got pens with two "nib ends", they will have to be stored flat. Ink pads are supposed to be stored upside down so that the ink is always at the top of the pad and available for use. Paint? Well make sure that the lid is replaced promptly and don't leave them where your grandchildren can reach them unless you like the adrenalin rush and the palpitations which accompany seeing chubby cheeks and new clothes smudged with paint.

Thanks for popping by.